Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

AZERBAIJAN CONDUCTS POLICY OF STATE INHABITATION IN OCCUPIED ARMENIAN TERRITORIES

Azg/arm
9 Dec 04

Oskanian-Mamediarov Argument Breeds New Meeting on December 9

The next meeting of RA and Azeri foreign ministers is envisaged to
take place within the framework of the sitting of the Euro-Atlantic
Partnership countries â~@~Y foreign ministers in Brussels, on December
9. Metin Mirza, press secretary of Azerbaijanâ~@~Ys Foreign Ministry,
informed Interfax news agency. Elmar Mamediarov and Vartan Oskanian
agreed to continue the negotiations over Nagorno Karabakh settlement
in the format of “the Prague meetings” in the course of December 5
meeting, Mirza said.

Elmar Mamediarov said in his speech during the meeting in Sofia
that four stages of the negotiations held between the Azeri and the
Armenian Foreign Ministers through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk
group co-chairs inspire with some hope.

“We discussed the key issues during the Prague meetings, including
the issue of returning the Azeri occupied territories, the
issue of restoring the transport and other kind of communication,
reestablishment of natural interstate relations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan, the stage-by-stage settlement of the political issues
concerning the conflict,” Mediamax cited Mamediarov as saying.

According to Mamediarov, Azerbaijan is willing to improve the relations
with Armenia, but “that canâ~@~Yt be achieved in the so-called reality
caused by the armed aggression,” and our neighbor should give up the
illusion that the time plays into his hands”. “At present, we donâ~@~Yt
trust Armenia at all. If we see that Armenia is ready to withdraw its
forces from Azeri occupied territories, the trust may be restored,”
Mamediarov said.

“Armenia should take urgent and effective measures to stop all
the illegal actions in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan,”
he said. “Azerbaijan canâ~@~Yt agree with the statements on ethnic
inequality between the Armenians and Azeris made by the high-rank
Armenian officials. We are sure that the Azeris and Azeri citizens
of Armenian origin can peacefully live next to each other in Nagorno
Karabakh region of my country. The biggest challenge we face in
this region is not the ethnic hatred between the two nations but the
ideas of the past about the territorial demands to the neighbors and
the difference in our wish to become a component part of Europe,”
Mamediarov said.

Azeri foreign minister said putting forward the issue of illegal
inhabitation in the occupied territories at the UN, the official Baku
didnâ~@~Yt try to change the mediation format of Nagorno Karabakh
conflict.

RA foreign minister dedicated the greater part of his speech to NKR,
in Sofia, on December 7. Vartan Oskanian reminded that Azerbaijan
responded with armed aggression to demands of the Armenians to live
a free life and to get self-determination. In particular, Oskanian
cited an extract from the report of CE parliamentarians made in 1992.

“Villages were totally destroyed, peaceful residents were killed,
children were raped after the latest attack of the Azerbaijanis. Taking
into account the decisive superiority of Azerbaijanâ~@~Ys armed
forces over the human resources, the arms and equipment, the level
of providing fuel and food, the frequency of the air flights, rocket
fires and air bombing, one can suppose that few weeks are left before
the fall of Karabakh, if not less. It is obvious that genocide and
expulsion are likely to follow these actions,” RA foreign minister
cited.

Oskanian repeated that no state policy of inhabiting NKR is
conducted. He emphasized that Azerbaijan is conducting state policy
of inhabiting the Armenian occupied territories, i.e. in Shahumian,
Getashen, as well as in Martakert. The UN paid attention to these
actions and instructed Azerbaijan to take measures to give alternative
settlements to the Armenians whose property was illegally taken.

“The existence of 100 of thousands refugees is a result of the military
actions unfolded by Azerbaijan. Unlike my colleague, I will say that
there are refugees from both sides. Besides half of a million Azeri
refugees, there are almost as many Armenian refugees fled both from the
capital of Azerbaijan and from the very territories of the conflict,”
Oskanian said.

Besides, Colin Powell, US State Secretary, stated in his speech at OSCE
meeting in Sofia that there was little progress in the improvement of
the situation in Nagorno Karabakh as well as the separatist areas of
Moldova and Georgia. “The frozen conflicts remain frozen even after
15 years from the end of a frozen war”, Powell said.

By Tatoul Hakobian

–Boundary_(ID_KpS1EUzg5Q8vdCyWdQiVFA)–

ARMENIAN FM ADDRESSED OSCE SESSION

PanArmenian News
Dec 8 2004

08.12.2004 17:44

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A group of deputies of the European Parliament,
who visited Nagorno Karabakh in 1992, made the following statement:
“Taking into consideration Azerbaijan’s advantage of man-power
and military equipment one can suppose that Karabakh will give up
in a few weeks… It is obvious that the defeat will be followed by
genocide and deportation”. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
brought in this extract from the Europarliamentarians’ statement when
addressing the 12-th OSCE session, and added: “Let not my words but
the words of the group of deputies of the European parliament serve
as a basis for you”. About half a million of Armenianrefugees from
Azerbaijan are still waiting for the settlement of the conflict, he
noted. V. Oskanian also reminded of Azerbaijan’s policy towards the
occupied Armenian territories of NKR, where Azeris are moving in the
houses belonging to Armenians due to state programs carried out by the
Azeri leadership. Touching upon V. Oskanian’s speech we would like to
remind of some extracts from the US Senate resolution from May 1,1991,
which says in part: “Taking into account the fact that the USSR and
the government of the Azerbaijani Republic are continuing attacks at
the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan;
the Soviet and Azeri armed forces are destroying Armenian villages
and deporting the inhabitants from Nagorno Karabakh and territories
bordering with it we 1.condemn the attacks at innocent people in
Karabakh, and in the territories bordering with it 2.condemn the
military operations and firing upon the civilians at the eastern and
southern borders of Armenia.

–Boundary_(ID_yAGDn67l4MEnZpnu/IbtKQ)–

Christian Post, CA
Dec 7 2004

Gunmen Attack Armenian, Chaldean Churches in Iraq

Gunmen attacked two churches in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul
Tuesday in the latest violence against Iraq’s minority Christian
community

Pic: Workers remove a damaged gate at an Armenian church after gunmen
attacked two churches in the latest violence directed against one of
Iraq ‘s several religious and ethnic groups, witnesses said in the
tense northern Iraqi city of Mosul December 7, 2004. (Photo: REUTERS
/ Namir Noor-Eldeen)

Gunmen attacked two churches in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul
Tuesday in the latest violence against Iraq’s minority Christian
community, witnesses said. Members of the churches, one Armenian, the
other Chaldean, said gunmen burst in, forced people to leave and set
off explosions inside the buildings, damaging them but hurting no
one.

“Gunmen entered the church at about 4:30 pm (1330 GMT),” said Father
Raghid Aziz Kara at the Chaldean church. “They gathered those present
in one room and planted explosive charges in different parts of the
building,”

Aziz told AFP, “We were then taken outside and the armed men set off
the devices. We heard three blasts.”

At that same moment, gunmen attacked the Armenian Church, forcing out
a security guard and two other people inside the building. The guard
told AFP that he had heard two explosions.

The attacks are the latest in a string of increasing violence
directed at Iraq’s Christian minority that has led to the destruction
of places of worship and the building exodus of its 800,000 or so
members.

In a recent report by the Religion News Service, the agency reported
that an estimated one of every 10 Iraqi Christians has fled the
country, most of them to neighboring Syria.

“After decades of living in relative harmony with the country’s
Muslim majority, Iraq’s Christian minority says it is under threat as
never before,” RNS reported.

Sister Beninia Hermes Shoukwana, a Christian nun and headmistress of
a public school in Baghdad, told RNS that she was unable to hide her
distress over the fate of her country and fellow Christians, most of
them Chaldeans.

“For years Christians and Muslims lived like brothers and sisters,”
Shoukwana told RNS.

“Today the extremists are trying to separate us.”

Last month, masked men detonated a bomb near an Orthodox Church in
southern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 34. In October,
five Baghdad churches were attacked, causing damage but no
casualties. In August, similar attacks killed at least 10 and wounded
nearly 50 Iraqi Christians.

The attacks follow an outbreak of insurgent violence across Iraq as
the country nears its first democratic elections, slated for January.

VAHAN HOVHANNISIAN: TURKISH AUTHORITIES IMPLEMENT PROGRAM OF DISGUISING THEIR
REAL RELATIONS WITH ARMENIANS

YEREVAN, December 7 (Noyan Tapan). The Turkish authorities have a
certain actions program meant to disguise their real relations with
Armenia and the Armenian people. Vahan Hovhannisian, Vice Chairman of
the RA NA and member of the ARF faction, stated this at the December 7
press conference when answering the question about the statements made
by Turkey’s Prime Minister at the opening of the museum of the Armenian
Saint Saviour hospital in Istanbul. Acording to the NA Vice Chairman,
some measures implemented within the framework of this program may even
seem to be pro-Armenian to various individuals and political forces.

ARMENTEL TO APPLY NEW TARIFFS FOR INTRACITY CALLS SINCE JAN 1, 2005

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6. ARMINFO. Since January 1, 2005 ArmenTel company
will introduce new tariffs for intracity calls.

ARMINFO was informed in the press office of the company, Armentel
now offers two payment options. According to the first option, the
monthly license fee remains the same: 900 drams for natural persons and
3,240 drams for legal entities. This option also keeps the 360 minutes
monthly free of charge limit of telephone calls. For telephone calls
that total from 361 to 2,251 minutes monthly, the fee is 4 drams per
minute. When telephone calls total more than 2,251 minutes monthly,
the fee becomes 8 drams per minute.

According to the second option, the prepayment amount is set 6,000
drams for private persons and 8,700 drams for legal entities. This
option doesn’t have free-of-charge limit. Instead, the company offers
8 drams per minute fee for telephone calls exceeding 2,251 minutes
total monthly.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +3741. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +3741. .562543
Email: [email protected]:

PRESS RELEASE
1 December 2004

Conference on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the European Cultural
Convention to be held in Vrotslav (Poland) on December 9-11

On December 1st, the bureau of the ministerial envoys of the Council of
Europe nominated the Permanent Representative of Armenia, Ambassador
Christian Ter-Stepanyan, for presidency of the group of rapporteurs of the
Committee of Ministers of the CE on education, culture, sport, youth and
ecology issues. He will present the Committee of Ministers at the
Conference on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of European Cultural
Convention, to be held in Vrotslav, Poland, December 9-11.

Ministers of Culture and Education of the European Cultural Convention
member-states will participate at the Vrotslav conference as well as
representatives from a number of international organizations.

Mr. Sergo Eritsyan, Minister of Education will head the Armenian delegation
at the conference.

A “Vrotslav Declaration” will be approved at the Conference. It will outline
the plan for further cultural cooperation within Europe, as well as for
within the frame of the CE.

AllAfrica.com
Dec 1 2004

Equatorial Guinea: Mercenary Trial Was Unfair, Legal Observers Say

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

December 1, 2004
Dakar

Specialists in international law and human rights who observed the
recent trial of alleged coup plotters and mercenaries in Equatorial
Guinea said on Wednesday that it had been conducted unfairly and in
breach of international conventions.

Lengthy prison sentences were handed down by a court in the capital
Malabo last Friday against 20 people, 11 of them foreigners.

All were convicted of plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema by helping to prepare an abortive invasion of the oil-rich
West African nation by South African mercenaries .

Marise Castro, who observed the proceedings for Amnesty
International, told IRIN by telephone from London that “it was not in
our view a fair trial.”

Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the London-based International Bar
Association which also sent an observer to the hearings, said “the
trial fell short of international fair trial standards.”

Five South Africans and six Armenians were found guilty of
involvement in the failed coup against President Teodoro Obiang
Nguema and were sentenced to between 14 and 34 years in jail. Two
Equatorial Guineans who appeared in court received lighter sentences.

Castro said the 15 foreign nationals arrested on 8 March in the
capital Malabo – one of whom died in custody nine days later – had
been held “day and night since their arrest in handcuffs and (ankle)
shackles that weren’t even removed to go to the toilet.”

“That in itself is torture,” the Amnesty observer said.

Castro added that the prisoners had been deprived of adequate
medicine and food during their eight months in detention and had not
been allowed proper access to their families,

Ellis said the court’s refusal to take into consideration allegations
of torture by the defendants and their lawyers was “a fundamental
breach of internarional law.”

Former South African soldier Nick du Toit, the alleged leader of the
group and the sole defendant to have initially confessed to a role in
a conspiracy, said his confession had been obtained by torture. The
defendants said they had signed statements under duress.

“But the court just ignored that,” Ellis said. “That is inconsistent
with international law. A court must record such an allegation and
order an investigation if necessary.”

Castro quoted one of the defence lawyers as saying “the defendants
still had marks on their bodies.”

Two of the defendants said in court that German national, Gerhardt
Merz, also arrested in March, had died in front of them as a result
of torture in Black Beach prison. The authorities said he died of
cerebral malaria.

Ellis said the government of Equatorial Guinea also violated
international law by failing to notify defendants of the charges
during the pre-trial period and then denying them access to legal
counsel until three days before the trial began last August.

Both the IBA and Amnesty International criticized the court’s failure
to provide professional interpretors and translations of statements
both during the investigation and during the hearings. These were
conducted in Spanish, the official language of Equatorial Guinea.

The small country of 500,00 people consists of Bioko, a mountainous
volcanic island formally known as Fernando Poo, and a nearby block of
jungle-covered territory on the African continent. It was ruled by
Spain until independence in 1968.

Castro said some of the defendants’ claims of torture “were not even
translated into Spanish by the interpretor, who was biased. ” She
noted that he was the Attorney General’s official interpretor.

The Amnesty observer also noted that one of the South African
defendants in court spoke only Portuguese. The court was not aware of
this and had not provided an interpretor, she added. A Russian
interpretor was provided for the Armenian defendants. A delegation
from Yerevan is currently in Equatorial Guinea discussing their fate.

Castro and Ellis both lamented that the prosecution had failed to
present any evidence to substantiate the charges, bar the defendants’
own statements.

“Weapons produced by the prosecution were shown as examples of the
type of guns they intended to buy in Zimbabwe,” Castro said.

She said no warrants had been issued for the arrest of the accused
and their statements had been taken by the attorney general, not by
investigating magistrate as prescribed by the country’s own legal
system.

The IBA stressed the fact that the court had broken Equatorial
Guinea’s own judicial rules by deciding two weeks ago to also place
on trial nine exiled opposition leaders in absentia alongside the
original defendants.

It was unclear whether any of these individuals who were tried in
their absence had been informed of the charges against them and
whether any effort had been made to bring them before the court,
Ellis said.

Severo Moto, the Spanish-based leader of a government-in-exile, was
sentenced to 63 years in jail at the trial. It was the third time
that a court in Equatorial Guinea had convicted him of political
offences and imposed a prison sentence on Moto in his absence

The accused were found guilty of preparing the way for an abortive
mercenary invasion last March by a planeload of mercenaries who were
intercepted in Zimbabwe on their way to Malabo.

The plane, carrying 67 mainly South African mercenaries, was
prevented from reaching Equatorial Guinea after it was detained
during a stopover in Harare to pick up weapons.

Although many of the defendants in the trial in Malabo were sentenced
to long prison terms, the court ignored prosecution calls for the
death sentence to be imposed against du Toit, the alleged leader of a
mercenary group already placed inside in the country, and Moto, the
exiled opposition leader who would allegedly have become president
had the coup succeeded.

Obiang, the present head of state, has been widely accused of
corruption and human rights abuse. He has ruled Equatorial Guinea
since he deposed and killed his uncle, Macias Nguema, in a 1979 coup,
accumulating considerable personal wealth from oil revenues which
have poured in over the past decade.

Equatorial Guinea now produces 350,000 barrels per day of oil and has
become Africa’s third-biggest oil producer after Nigeria and Angola.

The state prosecutor alleged during the trial that plot to overthrow
Obiang and install Moto in his place, had received support and
finance from prominent individuals in South Africa, Britain and
Spain, including Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime
minister Margaret Thatcher.

Time to turn words into actions
Editorial

Yerkir/arm
November 26, 2004

Anonymous letters about a phenomenon, snitching on colleagues,
internal `investigation’ These techniques of the 30’s of the pasty
century appear to be actual today.

Recently, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s Nikol Aghbalian
Youth Organization organized a seminar on the issues of corruption in
universities. When it is about condemning corruption, everyone
including professors, students and rectors, join in. Everyone supports
the fight against it, but as it comes to actual steps against the
phenomenon, different process starts.

A student that signed the memo against corruption during the seminar
withdraws his say and condemns not the corruption but those fighting
against it. A rector investigates those who participated in the survey
that recognized his university as corrupted, trying to clean up the
name of his institution. A professor makes students write a collective
letter condemning the students who ` disgraced the reputation of their
university.’

Certainly these people have names and surnames, but it is not our goal
to give names. However, if they continue to use the repressive methods
for `keeping the honor’ of their institution, we will have to
publicize them. We will keep a close eye on this process and will
address the fight against that vicious phenomenon. Universities are
not private companies and are meant just to prepare professionals for
the country.

Armenian premier names new deputy energy minister

Noyan Tapan news agency
30 Nov 04

YEREVAN

By the decision of Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan, Grachya
Musayelyan has been appointed Armenia’s deputy energy minister, the
press service of the Armenian government has told Noyan Tapan news
agency.

[Passage omitted: Grachya Musayelyan’s biography]

Premier hopes for “changes in region” as Iran-Armenia gas pipeline launched

Mediamax news agency
30 Nov 04

YEREVAN

Armenian Minister of Energy Armen Movsisyan has described as “historic
event” the beginning of the construction of the Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline, Mediamax’s special correspondent reports from Syunik Region.

Speaking at the ceremony of the beginning of the gas pipeline
construction, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan said that
this project was possible due to “big political and economic
efforts”. The Armenian prime minister said that the construction of
the gas pipeline will give the opportunity to create new working
places in Syunik Region “which is Armenia’s and Nagornyy Karabakh’s
rear”.

Andranik Markaryan also said that “the gas pipeline will not only have
economic importance for Armenia and Iran but will also become a base
for certain changes in the region”.

The Iranian ambassador to Armenia, Ali Reza Haqiqian, said that the
construction of the gas pipeline will allow improving the economic
situation in Armenia and will contribute to the stabilization of the
situation in the whole region, Mediamax’s special correspondent
reports from Syunik Region.