Author: Hunanian Jack

Violence against ethnic Azerbaijanis in Georgia

AzerNews
3 June 04

The Azerbaijani public has been seriously concerned over the reports
on the increasing tension in Georgia since May 30. Georgia witnessed
similar tension, which caused confrontation between the peoples of
the two countries, during the power of Georgian nationalist Ziya
Gamsakhurdiya. At that time, 500,000 Azerbaijanis living

in Georgia were driven out of their native homes. Today, on the
instructions of the Georgian leadership, the houses of peaceful people
are being searched under the cover of “fighting smuggling”. They are
being humiliated and threatened. Let’s look at official data.

The Georgian National Security Council announced that the customs
station “Red Bridge” located on Georgia’s border with Azerbaijan, would
be temporarily closed as part of an anti-contraband program. Commenting
on the measure, the chairman of the Georgian parliament’s committee
on defense and security Givi Targamadze said there have been numerous
cases of smuggling of large quantities of goods through the mentioned
customs checkpoint. Georgia’s Deputy Minister for State Security Georgi
Ugulava said the Politsala and Garajalar settlements located in the
Kvemo-Kartli region bordering on Azerbaijan have been unsupervised for
a long time and that even Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs had
not been able to set up a regional division there. Early on Sunday
morning, some 200 ‘finance police’ and Georgian MIA anti-contraband
division troops conducted an operation in a number of villages
located in the Kvemo-Kartli region. Four of those residents accused
of smuggling goods were reportedly injured as a result of ensuing
armed resistance. According to the Georgian Interior Ministry, ten
sub-machine weapons, several grenades and hand-guns, narcotics,
gold and large quantities of other items were confiscated during
the operation. Not political The Azerbaijani embassy in Tbilisi has
released a statement regarding recent media reports on the closure of
the Georgian-Azerbaijani border and on the suffering of several people
during the armed confrontation between this country’s law-enforcement
bodies and residents of Ponichala and Garajalar villages. The Foreign
Ministry told AssA-Irada that the statement reads that the reports are
groundless as relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia are based on
firm friendship and strategic cooperation. “Not a single force can
shadow the century-long bilateral neighboring and friendly ties,”
the statement stresses. The statement also says that during the
meetings held with the Georgian officials the Azerbaijani side was
informed that the special operations conducted in the country were not
political as they were directed at fighting smuggling and regulating
law and order at customs points.

Broken promises There have been serious concerns that Mikhail
Saakashvili, who calls Azerbaijanis “inferior people”, would try to
deport the entire population of “disobedient Borchali”. However,
before the election in his country, Saakashvili expressed the
readiness of new Georgian politicians to develop relations with the
new generation of politicians in Azerbaijan, notably, President Ilham
Aliyev. Saakashvili maintained that the rights of Azerbaijanis were
not protected during Georgian President Shevardnadze’s presidency
and vowed to resolve all the problems of Azerbaijanis. Before the
election, Saakashvili said he acts as a guarantor of Azerbaijanis’
rights. He said that the key goal of the Georgian government is to
act as a guarantor of not only the rights of Azerbaijanis but also
their prosperity. However, a different situation can be observed
after the election in Georgia, which illustrates the fact that the
newly-elected Georgian President has not kept his promises, to say the
least. Saakashvili handed most of the land in the Borchali settlement
to Georgian tenants, while only a small portion of the land in the
settlement was distributed among Azerbaijani residents. Georgia’s
new leadership is thus infringing upon the rights of Azerbaijanis,
including the right to own property. Saakashvili’s policy has caused
serious concerns for Azerbaijanis living in Georgia, as they are now
living in suspense. They are worried not about losing their jobs,
but of being arrested or persecuted. Despite diplomatic maneuvering
by Baku and Tbilisi, the problems of Azerbaijanis living in Georgia
remain unresolved. As is evident from the last parliamentary election
in Georgia, half a million Azerbaijanis living in this country are
treated as inferior people. â^À^ÃœDon’t believe the promises of
leaders before elections and during war,â^À^Ý said one of the
old thinkers.

Authorities denounced Zumrud Gurbanli, the leader of “Geyrat” movement
of Azerbaijanis living in Georgia, has expressed his indignation
with the arrests of Azerbaijanis in Georgia. Georgian news media
has published different positions and viewpoints on the recent
developments, based on what happened around the customs checkpoint.
The Garajalar and Politsala villages are located 5-10 kilometers
away from Tbilisi and about 60 kilometers away from the “Red Bridge”
customs station. It remains to be seen why the suspected contraband of
goods was not prevented somewhere between the customs station and the
villages. There could be no objection to the operations on detaining
individuals engaged in smuggling but such activities should not be
conducted with such a lack of professionalism. Even if there were
reports concerning smuggling of goods, such a humiliation of the
entire population of the village in question is unacceptable. Many
buses travel through the Red Bridge and they are inspected, first of
all, by the frontier guards, customs officers and other government
bodies. We should also keep in mind that it is possible to detain
illegally smuggled goods anywhere along the mentioned 60 kilometers. I
therefore disagree with those who say that they came into the village
specifically to confiscate smuggled goods and believe this is a lie. It
remains to be seen why the Georgian customs officers inspected and
released the bus, as it is impossible to even transport a regular bag
across the border without an inspection from state bodies. Two or three
months ago Governor Kvemo Cartley said he considers it necessary to
conduct the anti-contraband measures in the Politsala settlement. This
proves that the raid was a planned measure. But the way it was done
was unacceptable. At 2.a.m. some 200 people wearing masks broke into
the settlement and started shooting randomly. This is unprofessional to
say the least. What adds fuel to the fire is that the law-enforcement
bodies instead of talking with certain citizens went ahead with the
action thus humiliating innocent and peaceful residents. During the
raid none of the village’s administrators were informed of the measure
coming up in the early hours the next day, and this represents a mere
provocation. Another issue that raises concerns is that criminal cases
were started against some 100 Azerbaijanis at the terminal in Georgia,
they were subsequently arrested and their property confiscated. Most of
those apprehended had nothing to do with the incident that occurred
on the Red Bridge. “I think that this provocation can seriously
hurt the Georgian-Azerbaijani relations”, Gurbanli said. Only three
Azerbaijanis are represented in the Georgian parliament, but Armenians,
who are fewer in number, enjoy greater representation.

Armenian TV ridicules Azeri report of protest rallies in Karabakh

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
24 May 04

[Presenter] The Azerbaijani press has set a new record of hypocrisy
due to its irresponsibility and by misleading its compatriots and the
international community. According to the Azerbaijani Ekho newspaper,
the Artsakh [Karabakh] Armenians have raised the Azerbaijani flag
at a rally as a sign of their desire to be part of Azerbaijan. This
news was received with laugh in Artsakh and Armenia, and they wished
the Azerbaijanis saw this in their dreams.

[Correspondent over video of Azeri newspapers, archive footage of
Karabakh] According to the Azerbaijani press, rallies have been
staged in Stepanakert [Xankandi] since mid-April during which the
Karabakh Armenians raised the Azerbaijani flag and expressed their
desire to return to Azerbaijan. One cannot read without laughing
these lines in the Azerbaijani newspaper which say that the Armenians
are attracted to Azerbaijan’s prosperity and the Artsakh Armenians
are seriously concerned about a possible resumption of hostilities,
which, according to the Baku source, must be completed by a blitzkrieg.

The Karabakh Foreign Ministry has said that there is no need to
comment on this nonsense. A Regnum correspondent in Stepanakert noted
that there is political stability in Stepanakert and that the second
Armenian capital is living its usual peaceful life.

The Azerbaijani newspaper’s report is pure fuss which intends to
refresh the Karabakh subject by means of internal forces and the
international community. Soon after this report, the Azerbaijanis
published another article which noted that Azerbaijan should beat
Armenia at any cost in the information war. Apparently, Baku is using
unclear and unfair struggle methods even in the information war. There
is no Azerbaijani flag in Stepanakert and there will never be. But
they are joking in Artsakh that finally one day the Armenian flag
will be waving in the Azerbaijani capital.

Araz River Is Being Polluted By Wastes Funneled From Armenia, Experts Say

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
May 21 2004

Officials from the hygiene and epidemiological center in Azerbaijan’s
autonomous republic of Nakhchivan say the country’s second longest
river, Araz, is being heavily contaminated by wastes funneled from
Armenia, ANS reported on Thursday.

The officials say a recent examining of the river has indicated
that the level of its contamination in Nakhchivan’s Sadarak, Julfa
and Ordubad districts has become from eight to ten times as more
than the annual limit. The situation with the contamination is more
disastrous in Sadarak District. Experts of the center have called
upon international organizations to examine the case and urge the
Armenian side to stop polluting the river.

The main polluter of the river is considered Armenia s Metsamor nuclear
plant, which experts believe is also a source of a potential danger
for the whole region in view of Armenia s being a seismically active
country. A powerful earthquake that jolted Armenia in December of
1988 put end to the lives of tens of thousands of people.

GOVERNMENTS OF US AND ARMENIA SIGN SECOND AMENDMENT TO LOA ON
NARCOTICS CONTROL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

ArmenPress
May 20 2004

YEREVAN, MAY 20, ARMENPRESS: U.S. Ambassador John Ordway and Prosecutor
General of Armenia Aghvan Hovsepyan signed on May 19 Amendment Two to
the existing Letter of Agreement (LOA) between the U.S. and Armenia
on Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement. The LOA is the framework for
the provision of INL (the Department of State’s Bureau of International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs) assistance to Armenia. Amendment
Two covers the provision of an additional $2,158,000 in INL assistance,
which includes technical assistance and training contracted through
U.S. government agencies, and equipment procured by the Department
of State. Immediate funding for programs under Amendment Two totals
$1,466,000, with future funding for the programs contingent upon
congressional authorization and approval by the Assistant Secretary
of State for INL. Specifically, the programs to be implanted under
this amendment are:

-Curriculum Development at Law Enforcement Training Academies:
to continue the modernization of the training academies and the
incorporation of new curricula and training methodologies in law
enforcement training programs.

-Regional Computer Network Project: to improve the capacity of Armenian
law enforcement agencies for investigations, sharing information
and accessing international data by providing computer hardware and
software, with related equipment, as well as payment of one year of
connection to the Internet, for law enforcement offices throughout
Armenia, including 52 regional police precincts.

-Trafficking in Persons Project: to prevent and suppress trafficking
in persons through activities focused on prevention of incidents,
prosecution of perpetrators and the protection of victims.

-Forensic Lab Development Project: to continue the development of a
modern forensic laboratory in Armenia.

Under Amendment One to the LOA, INL assistance supported several
programs to build the capacity of Armenia’s law enforcement agencies
to combat trafficking in persons, and procured computer equipment for
three law enforcement training facilities. Amendment One was signed
in April 2003.

PRESS RELEASE
The National Citizens’ Initiative
75 Yerznkian Street
Yerevan 375033, Armenia
Tel: (+374 – 1) 27.16.00, 27.00.03
Fax: (+374 – 1) 52.48.46
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

May 20, 2004

National Citizens’ Initiative Examines “Army and Society”

Yerevan – The National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) convened today a
policy discussion on “Army and Society” to address the challenges
which the Armenian public faces in the military sphere and to
search for optimal solutions to the problems in army-society
interrelations. Public alienation, draft evasion, issues of law
and justice in the armed forces, and the roles of political forces,
civil society, and the intelligentsia in strengthening the army were
in the focus of the day’s deliberations.

Raffi Hovannisian, founder of NCI and the Armenian Center for National
and International Studies (ACNIS), greeted the capacity audience with
opening remarks. “We trust that today’s multidisciplinary discussion
will help define contemporary army-related challenges, ascertain the
level of military-society relations, and offer effective solutions,
all with the expectation of holding a broader conference together
with the Defense Ministry in the near future,” Hovannisian said.

During the first session Lieutenant Colonel Sedrak Sedrakian, chief
of the Defense Ministry’s legal department, delivered a paper on “The
Armenian Armed Forces Today: Achievements, Challenges, and Relevant
Legislation.” The armed forces’ strong legislative foundations
are accompanied both by reinforcement of legal requirements and by
expansion of rights and privileges, he maintained. “The legislative
field for the armed forces already is established in Armenia and has
a dynamic character, hence enabling development and adoption of a
comprehensive legislative
conception.”

Colonel Vardan Avetisian, chief of the Defense Ministry’s educational
department, addressed “The Principles of Legality and Justice: A
Look at Interpersonal Relations among Soldiers and Officers.” “The
restrictions and stringent enforcement mechanisms currently being
applied in the army are aimed at fostering high military readiness
and every individual’s personal responsibility toward his military
service. “The public cannot treat the army as a stepchild, because
justice and legality are just as important in the service as in
society,” Avetisian said.

Avetik Ishkhanian, chairman of the Armenian Helsinki Committee,
concluded the session with a paper on “Civil Society-Armed Forces
Relations” based on his own investigations. “Crimes committed in the
army, violations of soldiers’ rights, and other breaches presently are
considered a taboo. The homicides and other crimes we occasionally hear
about result mainly from demands outside of regulations,” asserted
the human rights advocate, opining that the army should be fully
apoliticized and gradually transform into a professional system.

Reflecting on audience questions that sparked particular interest,
the speakers noted the measures required to rule out the custom of
“dedovshchina” widely inherited from the Soviet period, to prevent
provenance- triggered confrontations among soldiers, to continue
exercise of postponed enlistment entitlements for those in higher
academic courses, to regulate specific manifestations of various sects,
and to enhance the patriotic education of the youth.

The second session was completely devoted to exchanges of views and
policy recommendations among the public figures and policy specialists
in attendance. Noteworthy were contributions by General Arkadiy
Ter-Tadevosian, chairman of the Armenian Defense-Sport Association;
Colonel Gegham Haroutiunian, political council member of the Republic
party; Tamar Gevorgian of the United Labor Party; Vahagn Gevorgian,
expert of the Commission on Defense, National Security, and Internal
Affairs of the Armenian parliament; law professor Hrair Tovmasian;
Hrant Khachatrian of the Constitutional Law Union; former minister
of state Hrach Hakobian; Vardan Khachatrian, theology professor
at Yerevan State University; Hovhannes Hovhannisian of the Liberal
Progressive Party; Davit Petrosian of the Noyan Tapan News agency;
academician Rafael Ghazarian of the Armenian Intellectuals’ Forum;
Petros Makeyan of the Democratic Fatherland party; Greta Mirzoyan of
the “Soldier’s Mother” NGO; former defense minister Vazgen Manukian;
and many others. The majority of interventions concentrated on ensuring
the rule of law in the army, achieving higher levels of military
efficacy in the armed forces, pursuing the imperative of patriotic
upbringing, and realizing the public’s potential to these ends.

ACNIS analyst Hovsep Khurshudian closed the seminar with summary
remarks. “It is evident that today’s deliberations have given one
further opportunity for relevant high-ranking officials and public
representatives together to refocus on the army’s problems and its
relations with society, and once more to be convinced that these
issues need deeper examination.”

The National Citizens’ Initiative is a public non-profit association
founded in 2001 by former foreign minister Raffi K. Hovannisian,
his colleagues, and fellow citizens with the purpose of realizing
the rule of law and overall improvements in the state of the state,
society, and public institutions. The National Citizens’ Initiative
is guided by a Coordinating Council, which includes individual
citizens and representatives of various public, scientific,
and educational establishments. Five commissions on Law and State
Administration, Socioeconomic Issues, Foreign Policy, Spiritual and
Cultural Challenges, and the Youth constitute the vehicles for the
Initiative’s work and outreach.

For further information, please call (3741) 27-16-00 or 27-00-03;
fax (3741) 52-48-46; e-mail [email protected]; or visit

Turkish FM: Turkey Is Knocking On EU’s Door

Anadolu Agency
May 19 2004

BRUSSELS – Turkey was knocking on the door of the European Union (EU),
Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said
early on Wednesday.

Gul, who is in Belgian capital Brussels to attend the meeting of
Turkey-EU Association Council, told reporters that he informed his
interlocutors about recent reform wave in Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Gul said that he also told his interlocutors
that Turkey had adjusted with Copenhagen political criteria at
great extent.

Gul stated that Turkey was preparing those reform packages for its
own sake not for the EU.

Turkish Foreign Minister Gul recalled that he had earlier told his
interlocutors during the former Association Council meetings that
Turkey would not knock on EU`s door before it met the political
criteria.

Gul noted that he had earlier said that “he could not say that Turkey
met the political criteria if he was to write a report on Turkey.“

Also, he had earlier noted that “Turkey would not knock on EU`s door,
being aware of its shortcomings but it would knock on EU`s door when
it met all the criteria“, Gul stated.

Gul said that he told his interlocutors during this Association
Council meeting that “Turkey was knocking on EU`s door.“

Turkey had still some problems stemming from implementation of the
reforms, Gul pointed out.

Gul noted that all those problems would be overcome and said, “we
won`t stop launching new initiatives saying we have fulfilled most
of criteria we have to do.“

He and his interlocutors also took up Cyprus issue during their
meetings, Gul stated.

Gul recalled the approach that “Cyprus is not a political criteria
for Turkey`s EU accession but is a political fact.“

“Our Cyprus policy has created sympathy and has been supported. This
will definitely be reflected on the progress report to be prepared
by the EU Commission,“ Gul said.

He explained Turkey`s Cyprus policies during his meetings and noted
that economic embargo on Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
should be lifted without losing any time, Gul said.

Gul, who went to Belgium on Tuesday morning, held separate meetings
with EU Commissioner for enlargement Guenter Verheugen, EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
the same day.

Aliyev and Gul exchanged views about Armenia-Upper Karabakh and Cyprus
issues during their meeting. Gul thanked Aliyev for Azerbaijan`s
support to Turkish theses during the senior officials meeting of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Gul and Aliyev also took up starting flights between Azerbaijan and
Cyprus and lifting embargo imposed on TRNC.

Foreign Minister Gul will leave Belgium on Wednesday and go to
Russian capital Moscow to hold meetings on Middle East peace process
and Cyprus.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 18 2004

WORKING VISIT OF AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV TO THE KINGDOM OF
BELGIUM
SPEECH OF MR. ROMANO PRODI, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
[May 18, 2004, 22:35:51]

First, I would like to tell that this was the first visit of
President Ilham Aliyev to Brussels, to the European Union and I am
rather pleased with this meeting. I would like with great pleasure to
say that today we discussed common goals and common affairs. We had
frank discussions. It was first connected to the “Neighborhood
policy” program. As you know, after long discussions, the European
Union has included three South Caucasian countries to its
“Neighborhood policy” program. And this means deep, increasing
cooperation strategy. It is evident this is an economic-political
cooperation. These are long distant negotiations to come up to our
institutions, political values, respect for rights and common
political strategy.

Thus, Azerbaijan’s acceptance to the membership of friends is very
pleased. I can say this was only the starting meeting. From now on, a
new phase of these relations begins. This also means that we support
the steps Azerbaijan makes for admission to the World Trade
Organization. Henceforth, working shoulder-by shoulder, we shall
develop of cooperation in the field of foreign trade. WE shall
cooperate in the power field.

In the second half of our meeting, we deeply analyzed and discussed
the Nagorny Karabakh problem. We are concerned that it is for more
than ten years the problems delays and has not been settled in peace
way. There is no peace for over ten years. It is obvious that we do
not want to interfere with the affairs of the Minsk Group. But we
persuadably insist and exert pressure that this Group gained certain
result. Expressing my desire and will, I stated that we are at
disposal of both countries. We stand ready to render any assistance
to the Minsk Group in settlement of the problem. It is because that
if we call friends, then, all the countries in this camp should be
real friends. There should not be problems harming the friendship.
There must be economic and political cooperation. Thank you.

Putin confident of intensive econ cooperation with Armenia
By Veronika Romanenkova

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday

OGARYOVO, May 14 – Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was
confident that the Russian-Armenian top-level talks on Friday would
contribute to more intensive development of bilateral economic
interaction.

“Not only I am hoping, I’m confident that your working visit today
will help our interaction and intensify our relations,” Putin said
at a meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.

The head of the Russian state noted that his meetings with Kocharyan
were regular. “We are meeting for the fifth time in the recent past,
to discuss bilateral ties and coordinate activities on the post-Soviet
territory and international arena,” Putin said.

He added that he was very glad to see Robert Kocharyan.

Putin welcomed the Armenian president on the threshold of his
Novo-Ogaryovo residence. The leaders then retreated for talks in a
conference hall. Taking part in the negotiations for Russia were
Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov and presidential adviser
Sergei Prikhodko.

Protest march to Garabagh ends on frontline

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
May 13 2004

On Saturday, about two hundred members of the Garabagh Liberation
Organization (GLO) organized a protest march to the Garabagh region on
the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijan’s
historic city, Shusha.

According to a correspondent of the AssA-Irada news agency who
also joined the protest, the marchers reached the contact line of
the Azerbaijani and Armenian military troops in Tazakand village of
Aghdam District. However, local police and military didn’t allow the
protesters to pass to the occupied lands. After GLO chairman Akif Naghi
said that the march was successful, the protesters returned to Baku.

Underlining that all political parties in the country, except the
ruling New Azerbaijan Party, have expressed their attitudes towards
the protest action, the GLO chairman said that representatives from
the foreign embassies in Baku did not observe the march. No incidents
were reported during the protest action which attracted one hundred
more people in the regions.

Protest in Moscow The Movement for Azerbaijan (MA) organized a picket
outside the Armenian embassy in Moscow to protest the occupation
of Shusha. Chairman of the MA Ilgar Gasimov told journalists
that during the 2-hour action about 50 protesters demanded
that the Armenian aggressors withdraw from the occupied lands of
Azerbaijan. The picketers also protested against the destruction of
Azerbaijani cultural and historical monuments in Shusha and against the
international organizations’ double standard approach to the issue. A
petition was forwarded to the Armenian embassy. The MA plans to hold
another picket on May 28, Independence Day, to protest against the
Armenian aggression. Azerbaijanis living in Moscow held the first ever
sanctioned protest action outside the Armenian embassy on February 27,
2004 on the occasion of the Khojaly massacre.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
May 12 2004

Special Report: Karabakh: Missing in Action – Alive or Dead?

Ten years after the Nagorny Karabakh ceasefire agreement, hundreds of
Armenians and Azerbaijanis are still missing, presumed dead.

By Karine Ohanian in Stepanakert and Zarema Velikhanova in Baku (CRS
No. 233, 12-May-04)

On December 9, 1994, a meeting took place on the Karabakh ceasefire
line and an unusual transaction was made.

Two young captive soldiers – Azerbaijani Rauf Budagov and Karabakh
Armenian Levon Babayan, both aged 23 – were exchanged for one another
and allowed to go home.

The two men shook hands, each finding the other’s – like his own –
chafed rough by the cold and coated in dirt. Both trembled with
emotion.

“I’ve become a different person, quite different,” said Levon. “I
don’t sleep a wink all night,” said Rauf. “And even now I don’t
believe I’m going home. It’s like being born a second time, like
coming back to life from my coffin. Basically, you’ve given me back
your life and I’ve given you yours.”

Levon replied, “And what a life, 100 years long…. I wouldn’t wish
what I’ve been through on my enemies.” Then each man moved on and
returned home.

Sadly, the return from the dead of these two men, seven months after
the Nagorny Karabakh ceasefire agreement of May 12 1994, was a rare
happy ending in what is one of the most ignored and tragic aspects of
the unresolved conflict.

As the tenth anniversary of the truce is observed, thousands of
people are still reported missing and their fate remains a mystery.

Most independent observers believe that all those still missing are
in fact dead. But many relatives refuse to give up hope – and they
will be encouraged by occasional cases where captives are traded for
money through Georgia.

>>From the very beginning of the Karabakh dispute in 1988, both sides
took hostages.

At the beginning of 1993, a year into the full-blown war, Azerbaijan
and Nagorny Karabakh – the latter still unrecognised as a state –
formed government commissions to deal with prisoners of war and
hostages. Armenia later set up its own commission.

As the fighting raged, the Azerbaijan and Karabakh Armenian sides
kept up a constant dialogue and continued to exchange prisoners.

“There were several corridors along the front-line, where meetings,
negotiations and exchanges took place,” said Albert Voskanian, deputy
head of the Karabakh commission from 1993 to 1997. “It all helped us
to work realistically and fruitfully. Several hundred people from
both sides were sought out and exchanged.”

The formal end of hostilities with the 1994 ceasefire, which sealed a
de facto victory for the Armenians, resulted in a sharp decrease in
captive numbers, but the fate of thousands remained uncertain.

In 1997, the Azerbaijanis stopped working directly with the Karabakh
commission. After that, the Karabakh Armenians engaged with Baku
mainly through the Red Cross.

Since 1995, an International Working Group – led by Bernhard Clasen
of Germany, Russia’s Svetlana Gannushkina and Paata Zakareishvili of
Georgia – has worked with all sides, going back and forth to visit
sites where prisoners might be detained.

The Azerbaijani State Commission says 4,959 Azerbaijanis are still
missing in action from the Karabakh conflict, a figure that includes
71 children, 320 women and 358 elderly people. Furthermore, the
Azerbaijanis say they have information that 783 people, again
including civilians as well as combatants, were taken captive by the
Armenians and have not been released.

On the Armenian side, the Karabakh State Commission lists around 600
people as missing, 400 of them civilians.

The vast majority of these missing people have not been heard of for
more than a decade, and it is presumed they are dead, buried in
graves whose location is known only to a few people or to no one at
all.

But every year, a few soldiers still go missing across the front
line, generally in places where the trenches of the two opposing
militaries run closest to one another. Some of the men may simply
have got lost and blundered into enemy lines, others may have got
caught on reconnaissance missions, and others still may have been
trying to desert.

Each side alleges that the other is hiding captives – and each
strongly denies this charge.

The Azerbaijani commission says it does not trust the Armenians. In a
statement to IWPR, it said that between 1993 and 1999, the Armenian
side consistently said it was holding no more than 50 or 60 captives,
yet from 1992 to 2000 the far higher figure of 1,086 Azerbaijanis was
freed.

“There is information about a few possible burial sites of
Azerbaijani soldiers after certain battles,” Viktor Kocharian, head
of the Karabakh commission, told IWPR. “From time to time we hand
over remains which are discovered in the searches we carry out. But
the figure of 5,000 is ridiculous! It should be obvious that it’s
simply impossible to secretly hold this number of prisoners of war or
even human remains within Karabakh.”

It has mainly fallen to a partnership of non-government organisations
on either side, together with the International Working Group, to
investigate the allegations that captives are still being detained.

“To debunk myths, we’ve had to climb into quarries in Azerbaijan and
check out information we’d received that hundreds of Armenian
prisoners were working there,” Svetlana Gannushkina told IWPR. “We
didn’t find a single Armenian.” To investigate similar allegations
about the other side, the Helsinki Initiative 92 group organised a
trip by a group of Azerbaijan women to Karabakh last August. Carrying
a list of 50 soldiers missing in action, the women were allowed to
visit Karabakh’s two prisons, one in Shusha (which the Armenians call
Shushi) and one in Stepanakert (which the Azerbaijanis call
Khankendi) – and found no one.

The three international investigators point out that for purely
practical reasons, it is difficult and expensive to keep prisoners
over a long period and hide them from prying eyes.

This is not enough to satisfy all the relatives. After the trip to
Karabakh, one Azerbaijani mother, Tamara Eyubova, told IWPR, “We are
not entirely certain that there are no Azerbaijani prisoners in
Karabakh. We were shown one prison and one detention centre, but
where’s the guarantee that they are not being held in other prisons?”
Vera Grigorian, an Armenian mother whose son is missing in action,
told IWPR, “We have definite information that there are Armenian
prisoners of war and hostages in Azerbaijan. We receive various kinds
of information through different channels about this or that person.
Former prisoners come to us and identify one and the same person with
whom they shared their captivity.”

The most explosive allegation made by both sides is that prisoners
are being traded for money via their common neighbour Georgia.

Arzu Abdullayeva, a well-known human rights activist who is head of
Azerbaijan’s Helsinki Committee, spent a long time in the early
Nineties investigating this trade, particularly at the market in
Sadakhlo in Georgia. In 1994, Abdullayeva personally paid 1,000
dollars that she had been awarded with the Olof Palme peace prize,
allowing Azerbaijani father Fikret Mamedov to buy back his son. She
said the decision to pay the ransom was made because it was feared
that the criminals said to be holding the boy would kill him before
normal channels could be made to work.

“People are bought for cash,” said Donara Mnatsakanian, whose son
Nelson went missing in 1996, two years after the ceasefire. “Today no
one makes a secret of that. But I won’t name any names because the
problem still exists and unfortunately money is just about the only
way of freeing hostages.”

Donara said that her son was found through the efforts of relatives
in Kiev and acquaintances in Azerbaijan. Nelson had grown so
desperate in captivity that he tried to commit suicide by jumping out
of a window – but he survived. He was finally freed for a cash
payment in Georgia four years after he went missing, and after an
initial attempt to free him in Tashkent had failed.

Donara refused to answer IWPR’s questions as to who was the
intermediary, what sum was paid and how Nelson was finally freed,
because she didn’t want to wreck the chances of a similar transaction
helping someone else.

“It’s easier to come out with fine slogans about how people mustn’t
be bought and sold – until your own son is over there,” said another
Karabakh mother, Vera Grigorian. “The thing is that money,
unfortunately, is the last thread that connects relatives on either
side of the border.”

One desperate Azerbaijani, Hamlet Badalov, has gone to great lengths
to secure the release of his son Vugar, who he is convinced is still
alive after vanishing in 1993. Badalov paid over some money in return
for some news about his son, and then bought a fax machine and waited
all night for the promised information.

But as Russian investigator Gannushkina reports, “Eventually a fax
came through with a Moscow address and the surname of a man
supposedly holding Vugar. I checked – that address in Moscow is the
Stanislavsky Theatre, and no one by that name works there.”

The experts believe Badalov is the victim of a cruel hoax.

All the relatives of the missing agree that what they want more than
anything else is certainty. Not knowing what happened to their loved
ones, they say, is worse than knowing for sure that someone is dead.

“We want real help in the search for our relatives,” said mother
Svetlana Martirosian. “We want to know for sure whether a person has
or hasn’t died. We need just one thing – true information.”

Sadly, ten years after the Karabakh ceasefire, hundreds of families
are still waiting to find out the truth.

Karine Ohanian is a freelance journalist based in Stepanakert,
Nagorny Karabakh. Zarema Velikhanova is a freelance journalist based
in Baku.

Editor’s Note: This article is a unique collaboration by two
journalists from the opposing sides in the Karabakh conflict. The
terminology used to refer to aspects of the conflict was chosen in
London in an attempt to achieve neutrality. It may not necessarily
reflect the original wording.