Voluntary Students in National Clothes “One Nation One Culture” Fest

ArmenPress
Aug 12 2004

VOLUNTARY STUDENTS IN NATIONAL CLOTHES TO ADVOCATE “ONE NATION ONE
CULTURE” FESTIVAL

YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS: Starting today, Yerevan dwellers
may encounter symbols of “One Nation, One Culture” festival, Nares
and Nareks, who will walk in crowded parts of the city and inform
about the upcoming festival creating ‘an atmosphere of festivities”
in the city. Nares and Nareks, who total about 150, are voluntary
students in national clothes who distribute leaflets among the public
or talk about the activities of the festival in Yerevan and marzes.
They symbolize Armenia-Diaspora relations as Narek is the name of an
Armenian boy living in Armenia and Nare is an Armenian girl living in
Diaspora. Their clothes have been designed by Robert Sahakiants.

Azerbaijan calls U.S. strategic partner

Interfax
Aug 10 2004

Azerbaijan calls U.S. strategic partner

Baku. (Interfax) – Azerbaijan considers the United States a strategic
partner, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Monday.

During a meeting with a U.S. Senate delegation led by Senate
President Pro Tempore Ted Stevens, Aliyev expressed satisfaction with
the pace of development of Azerbaijani-U.S. political, economic, and
military cooperation and said energy projects in Azerbaijan in which
the United States is involved were of global significance.

Aliyev called for stronger cooperation between the two countries with
hopes that Americans may become better informed about the situation
in Azerbaijan, including the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over
Nagorno- Karabakh, an Armenian-speaking enclave in Azerbaijan that
Armenia has occupied along with surrounding Azerbaijani districts for
several years.

Diamond Production in Armenia Drops

RusData Dialine – BizEkon News
August 10, 2004 Tuesday

Diamond Production in Armenia Drops

Diamond production in Armenia over the first six months of
2004dropped by 17% and totaled USD 120.3 million, Armenian Trade
andEconomic Development Minister Karen Chshmarityan said at a
newsconference.

BODY:
Diamond production in Armenia over the first six months of 2004
dropped by 17% and totaled USD 120.3 million, Armenian Trade and
Economic Development Minister Karen Chshmarityan said at a news
conference.

Despite the drop in production in financial terms, nevertheless,
physical volume of diamond processing (in carats) has gone up, he
said. The minister explained this by the state of the world’s market,
where small stones were in demand in the first half of the year.
Accordingly, by increasing jobs, the country’s diamond processing
companies processed more stones in carats but for less cost, the
minister said.

He said that within the framework of intergovernmental agreements,
this year 70,000 carats of unprocessed diamonds out of the overall
quota of 400,000 carats for 2004 were imported from Russia.

To boost Russian diamond imports, Armenia suggested that Russia lifts
restrictions on re-export of diamonds, which are in place under an
intergovernmental agreement. Armenia proposed that 15% of re-export
be permitted, and the minister hopes that the issue will be resolved.

Iraqi Christians will not leave it

ARABICNEWS.Com

Iraqi Christians will not leave it
Iraq, Politics, 8/9/2004

The Iraqi churches in Baghdad witnessed a notable decrease in the number of
worshippers who took part in yesterday’s mass, the first Sunday after the
simultaneous attacks which targeted 6 churches in Baghdad and Musil in which
10 persons were killed and more than other 40 were injured.

Seats at ” Virgin Mary” Church were almost empty except for very few number
of worshippers who attended the mass. Under the shock of the attacks of last
Sunday, Iraqi Christians prayed for peace and lit candles.

The audience were also few in the Armenian church where remains of a car
destroyed in last Sunday’s aggressions are there.

Rev Antoine Atamian who chaired the mass in the church where number of
audience receded to one third said that the Christians should not leave Iraq
despite the recent attacks against them. He said:” we have paid in blood the
price for our love to Iraq.” He added ” We are not concerned over physical
death, we are scared of the death of the principles of love and amity and
sympathy which all constitute the spirit of Iraq.”

In the Syriac- Catholic Church in Baghdad, workers gathered to repair
damages inflected by the attack which targeted it. The mass which was held
in a nearby hall was attended by 70 persons out of 1,000 believers used to
attend it. Priest Raphael Qatteimi said:” They want to kill people in the
churches, eventually this will affect our members.”

ACCSS Against Establishment of Presidential Cultural Council

CENTER OF CULTURE SUPPORT AND STRATEGY AGAINST ESTABLISHMENT OF
COUNCIL ON CULTURAL ISSUES AT RA PRESIDENT

YEREVAN, August 9 (Noyan Tapan). “The Council on Cultural Issues
established by the July 16 decree of RA President Robert Kocharian
will deepen the crisis of the Armenian cultural life still more,
distorting and destroying national cultural values, mental faculties.”
Such a statement was made by Armen Hovhannisian, Armen Atanian and
Simon Kamsarakian, Co-Chairmen of the Armenian Center of Culture
Support and Strategy (ACCSS), during the August 6 press conference.

According to A. Atanian, on November 22 of last year the Armenian
Center of Culture Support and Strategy applied to the RA President
with a suggestion on the establishment of the Commission on Issues of
Security and Development of Culture of Armenia. The Co-Chairmen of the
Center met with the RA President in April. The President promised to
answer whether the center will be established or not within three
weeks after the detailed acquaintance with the suggestion.

“18 weeks passed, but we haven’t received an answer yet, of course, if
we don’t consider the July 16 decree as a reply,” A. Atanian
mentioned. According to the organizers of the press conference, “if
the executors and legislators have caused damage to the sphere of
culture, science and education to great extent up to now, now the same
will be made by the RA presidential machinery.”

Nevertheless, the Co-Chairmen of the Center are going to turn to the
RA President with a request to meet in September with the purpose of
the discussion of the problems raised by them.

Tennis / Hewitt crushes Robredo to book final berth vs. Agassi or

Haaretz
Sun., August 08, 2004 Av 21, 5764

Tennis / Hewitt crushes Robredo to book final berth vs. Agassi or Roddick
By News Agencies

Lleyton Hewitt crushed Tommy Robredo 6-3 6-2 yesterday to set up a
Cincinnati Masters Series final against Andy Roddick or Andre Agassi.
The Australian former world number one, sacrificing the chance of an Olympic
medal to help revive his career, reached his first final for six months with
a 53-minute victory over unseeded Spaniard Robredo.

Hewitt’s play was full of his trademark counter-hitting and fierce refusal
to give up any cause, but more unusually it also featured unusually potent
serving. He has still dropped serve only once in the tournament.

Hewitt, who beat Gustavo Kuerten, Tim Henman, and Marat Safin on the way to
the last four, made the first break in the seventh game by winning a
forehand to forehand exchange. He then served out for the first set in the
most crushing manner, finishing it with a perfectly delayed forehand
top-spin lob winner.

Hewitt made the killer break in the fifth game of the second set,
relentlessly harrying and probing from the baseline and provoking Robredo
into an over-ambitious faded drive on break point.

The mistake punctured Robredo’s morale. Hewitt capitalized ruthlessly,
winning 12 of the next 13 rallies and the match to move within one victory
of his first title since triumphing indoors in Rotterdam in February.

Americans Roddick, the defending champion and number two seed, and Agassi,
seeded 11th, played in the second semifinal last night after press time.

On Friday night, Agassi outlasted 2002 champion Carlos Moya 7-6 (14-12), 6-3
to blast into his first semi-final in five months.

Meanwhile, Israeli double pair Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram downed the
second seed pair of Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 on
Friday but failed to keep up the momentum, losing 7-6, 6-3 to Max Mirnyi of
Belarussia and Sargis Sargsian of Armenia yesterday.

The Caspian Pipeline: Will the $3.6 Billion Be REALLY Worth It?

The Caspian Pipeline: Will the $3.6 Billion Be REALLY Worth It?

Raymond James’ Energy “Stat of the Week”
February 17, 2004

EQUITY RESEARCH

Industry Brief

By Wayne Andrews

Independence from foreign oil is a perennially favorite topic for our
politicians. It is also, as we have often stated, a totally
unrealistic goal, as impractical in theory as it is elusive in
practice. As Washington gradually comes to realize that imports must
continue to represent an ever-rising percentage of America’s oil
demand, it turns its attention to an idea that is only slightly more
feasible – reducing reliance on oil from OPEC, and especially its
Middle Eastern members. For strategic reasons, this concept has broad
bipartisan support. As U.S. security policy overlaps more and more
with energy policy, the objective is simple: increase oil supply from
non-OPEC countries as much as possible. Russia, West Africa and South
America are all considered key areas for this, but no part of the
world is arguably regarded as more vital than the Caspian Sea region.

Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the Caucasus is where
the 19th century `Great Game’ for territory was played by the British
and Russian empires. Today, the main competitors are the U.S. and
Russia, and the game is not about land, but rather who will develop
the reserves, build the pipelines, and obtain the oil from this
emerging export area. Politically, the stakes may be high, but from a
pure energy supply standpoint, the region is only a minnow in the vast
ocean of Middle Eastern oil. For all the attention and money that
Moscow and Washington are lavishing on their client states in the
region, the oil they will get does not seem to be, in and of itself, a
worthwhile return on their investment. How much oil are we talking
about? Even under an optimistic scenario, not much at all.

Two weeks ago, the final financing terms were approved for a $3.6
billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, the core of a massive project
designed to bring oil from offshore Caspian fields to Turkey, from
where it will be re-exported to the international market. Reflecting
the staunch support of the U.S. government, the 1,100- mile pipeline
obtained favorable terms from the World Bank and other major
lenders. While we see no inherent problem in the construction of the
pipeline itself, everyone should be clear that the amount of oil in
question is so modest, as to be almost immaterial for the market.

Here’s the situation. There are three major fields in the Caspian:
Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli, dubbed ACG. All three combined currently
produce less than 150,000 barrels per day, about half as much as
Ecuador or Syria, and five times less than Qatar, the smallest OPEC
producer. Certainly, given the modest level of foreign investment in
the area so far, there are tangible long-term growth prospects. As ACG
is being developed by a British Petroleum-led consortium, production
is expected to ramp up to one million barrels per day (bpd) by 2008,
in three phases. The consortium’s extremely ambitious goal is to reach
350,000 bpd in 2005 (when the pipeline is to be commissioned), 700,000
in 2006, and the one million mark in 2008. This is depicted as the
`optimistic’ scenario in the adjacent chart.

Let’s suppose for the moment that production does increase seven-fold
over the next four years. In percentage terms, that would certainly be
quite impressive – an annual growth rate of over 60%. In absolute
terms, however, the growth only represents an extra 850,000 bpd. To
put this in context, we project that global oil demand in 2004 will
average 80.5 million bpd. Even assuming a very conservative 1.2%
annual demand growth for the next four years, 2008 demand would reach
84.4 million bpd, 3.9 million higher than currently. This means that
the much-vaunted Caspian projects will provide less than 22% of the
world’s incremental oil demand over this time period. Or, to put it in
a different way, the Caspian projects will satisfy a little over 1% of
global demand in 2008, as shown in the chart on the prior page. We
have to wonder – is this 1% worth all the media attention and
political fuss over the Caspian pipeline?

There are serious obstacles to Caspian oil development. Even under
the project sponsors’ highly optimistic scenario, therefore, the
Caspian will not come even remotely close to replacing the West’s
dependence on Persian Gulf oil. And, is it realistic to expect
production to ramp up as rapidly as the sponsors believe? We think
not. In fact, there are several significant obstacles that may serve
to slow down development of the Caspian fields over the intermediate
term. While it is difficult to quantify their impact, it seems clear
to us that their overall influence will be negative.

– Endemic corruption

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline will run through three countries:
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. In the two former Soviet republics,
corruption has reached enormous proportions after 1991. Just how bad
is it? – Very bad. The leading global anti-corruption organization,
Transparency International, ranks both Georgia and Azerbaijan 124th on
its country list, with 133rd being the worst possible ranking. Even
Turkey is ranked 77th, in the bottom half. Despite the institutional
safeguards insisted upon by the multilateral lenders who provided
project finance for the pipeline, it is probable that at least some of
the funds will not be spent according to western `best practices.’
This has the potential to materially slow the pace of construction.

– Political instability

The governments of Georgia and Azerbaijan have undergone dramatic
changes in recent months. In Georgia, President Shevardnadze left
office after massive street protests demanding his resignation. The
new administration faces extensive challenges, including a
nearbankrupt government and separatist movements defying his
authority. In Azerbaijan, the death of authoritarian leader Heydar
Aliyev led to violence, with opposition parties protesting his son’s
succession to the presidency. Although none of this directly impacted
the petroleum industry, it clearly creates a volatile climate that may
discourage foreign investment, which is essential for production to
grow. It also means that political attention will be diverted from
economic development, at least for the short term, as new leaders
consolidate their power.

– Threat of violence

Once the pipeline is built, it will face the potential threat of
terrorist attacks from Kurdish separatists in Turkey. On top of that,
the simmering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has not been
permanently resolved. While there is a durable cease-fire in place, it
is important to recall that this conflict had escalated into nearly
full-scale war in the early 1990s. Other ethnic tensions in the
Caucasus may lead to strikes on the pipeline and other oil
infrastructure. Just as the ongoing insurgency is slowing down the
reconstruction of Iraq’s oil industry, the same may happen in the
Caspian region, albeit to a lesser extent.

The above factors, along with the obvious problems of operating in
remote terrain under tough conditions, could easily halve the
project’s output growth rate from the 60% envisioned by the
sponsors. In addition, the highly sour nature of Caspian crude
represents another technical challenge. Under this `mid-range
scenario,’ the Caspian would satisfy only about 0.5% of global oil
demand by 2008.

Conclusion

Developing Caspian oil reserves is important for creating a market
economy and relieving poverty in Georgia and Azerbaijan. From a local
standpoint, therefore, it is a worthwhile project. From a political
standpoint, it may help build the `East-West Corridor’ through the
Caucasus – a central goal of U.S. policy after the Cold War – which
would limit the sphere of influence of Russia and Iran, the region’s
leading powers.

As far as oil supply is concerned, though, the Caspian will not free
the U.S. from its dependence on OPEC. Even under the optimistic
scenario discussed above – which itself is a very big `if’ – the
Caspian will satisfy only 1% of global demand by 2008, compared to
35-45% for OPEC. While oil projects in nearby Kazakhstan and other
Central Asian countries may be more fruitful in the long run, they do
not enjoy the worldwide attention or the capital inflows that are
being lavished on the Caspian area. In short, the Caspian’s output
potential is simply too low to be of any real significance for the oil
market, so there is every reason to believe that OPEC will be at least
as firmly in control of the market in 2008 as it is today.

Contacts:
Wayne Andrews, (713) 789-3551
[email protected]
Pavel Molchanov, Research Associate (713) 278-5270

The Raymond James Financial Center
880 Carillon Parkway
St. Petersburg, FL 33716

Institutional clients may call for additional information:
Research 800-237-5643 – Trading 800-237-8426

The views expressed in this report accurately reflect the personal views
of the analyst(s) covering the subject securities. No part of said
person’s compensation was, is, or will be directly or indirectly related
to the specific recommendations or views contained in this research report.

Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making
their investment decision.

BAKU: Elections in Nagorno Karabakh May Harm the Negotiations

Baku Today
Aug 6 2004

Elections in Nagorno Karabakh May Harm the Negotiations

Baku Today 06/08/2004 18:07

Illegal elections to be held in Nagorno Karabakh may lead for
complication of the negotiations on Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict,
Azeri Foreign Affairs Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, told journalists
on Thursday.

`In one hand Armenian side expresses its wish for peaceful settlement
of the conflict and in other hand runs provocative actions,’ said
Mammadyarov, Turan reported on Friday. `But in present it’s quite
important to continue the negotiations.’

On August 3, Abdelouahed Belkeziz, Secretary General of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) sent letter to the
Azerbaijani FM expressing his deep concern on the upcoming elections
for local authorities in Nagorno Karabakh on August 8.

And on August 4, Walter Schwimmer, Secretary General of the Council
of Europe, regretted that local self-government elections would again
be held in Nagorno Karabakh.

Water Mgmt Agency Issues 420 Permissions for use of Water

AGENCY FOR MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION OF WATER RESOURCES OF ARMENIA
ISSUES 420 PERMISSIONS FOR USE OF WATER

YEREVAN, AUGUST 3, ARMINFO. By present, the Agency for Management and
Preservation of Water Resources of Armenia issued 420 permissions for
use of water, Representative of the Agency Vladimir Narimanyan made
this statement today in the course of a three-day seminar “Management
of water resources, designing of water reservoirs and permissions for
use of water” with support of the Academy of Educational Development
(AED) and USAID.

He said that due to the permissions provided, 85% of water users were
brought to the legal field. He said that the permission is to meet the
strategic demands of water resources management, such as the National
Program of Water Quality Standards. In particular, the permission
contains the necessary personal data on a consumer, the place of
export and use of water, characteristics of the type of water use
(irrigation etc..), the necessary quantity of water. The process of
provision lasts some 4 months. Within this period of time, the Agency
considers the applications of consumers, monitors and sums up the
results, only then, it makes negative or positive decisions. It should
be noted that provision of permissions for use of water is one of the
most important provisions of the Water Code of Armenia.

BAKU: paper predicts Soros, US-inspired power change early next year

Azeri paper predicts Soros-, US-inspired power change by early next year

Zerkalo, Baku
31 Jul 04

An article in Azerbaijani paper Zerkalo has predicted that a plan
aimed at a change of power in Azerbaijan could be launched late this
or early next year. The plan by so-called mondialists – US
billionaire George Soros and his foundation, Russia, France and
Armenia – would be aimed at breaking up “the geostrategically and
geoeconomically important union between Azerbaijan and Georgia, making
not Armenia this time around, but Azerbaijan, face isolation” and
creating a domestic political crisis in Azerbaijan which would lead to
a ” very painful transfer of power” and the new leadership being
forced to sign “a Karabakh capitulation treaty”. The article examined
the influence of George Soros and his foundation, focusing on the
recent events in Georgia and Uzbekistan. The following is the text of
a Musfiq Xaqq report by Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo on 31 July
entitled “Azerbaijan in ‘Borcali’ sights, or Last Chinese warning”
with the quote underneath “Millionaires spend money, whereas
billionaires make history – George Soros”; subheadings inserted
editorially:

When on 16 May 2003 the mass media reported that US Secretary of State
Colin Powell’s visit to Georgia had been postponed to a later date,
only a few people paid any attention to this. But when in late August
of the same year Georgia came under the serious threat of default –
inability to pay off foreign debts – and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) stopped giving money to Tbilisi, political observers became
alert in anticipation of important political events, especially as the
IMF representative had set forth strict conditions for the
continuation of their cooperation with Georgia.

Story of one coup

When the IMF familiarized itself with the results supplied by its
mission which worked in Tbilisi from 24 June to 7 July [2003], it
pointed out that unless Tbilisi met the requirements for the
restructurization of its obligations before the Paris club, the new
IMF mission would arrive in Tbilisi only in December (!) 2003. Among
the IMF requirements were the adoption of amendments to the tax code
and the raising of the electricity tariffs, which in the run-up to the
parliamentary elections left Shevardnadze faced with a very difficult
and in every regard disadvantageous choice: losing international
economic and political support or losing the votes of the
electorate. The elections, in turn, promised to be difficult because
as early as in early 2003, Shevardnadze gave his consent to the
so-called “Baker principle”. The point is that a method [of staffing
the electoral commissions] was elaborated before the November [2003]
parliamentary elections, when former US Secretary of State James Baker
arrived in Tbilisi to act as a mediator between Shevardnadze and the
opposition. According to the system, which both sides approved, five
members of the Central Electoral Commission and the chairperson of the
commission (the latter – with Parliament’s approval) would be
appointed by the president, and nine members would be appointed by the
opposition. And in the very first big interview after his resignation,
which was published on 27 November 2003 by the British newspaper Daily
Telegraph, Shevardnadze admitted that he could not believe to the last
moment that Washington would make him share Milosevic’s fate: “I was
one of the biggest supporters of the US policy,” he said. “When they
needed my support on Iraq I gave it,” he recalled. But, despite this,
Washington organized the toppling of Shevardnadze, and he said that
“What happened here, I cannot explain.”

The former president suspects that US ambassador in Tbilisi Richard
Miles directly supported the Georgian opposition, in other words, this
was most likely done under sanction from the White
House. Incidentally, Miles won himself laurels as a gravedigger of the
regimes: he was the US ambassador to Azerbaijan when Abulfaz Elcibay
resigned from his post, in Yugoslavia – during the bombings on the eve
of Slobodan Milosevic’s ouster, and in Bulgaria when successor to the
throne Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha won the parliamentary elections and
became the head of government as a result. Also, Shevardnadze is
certain that, along with political assistance, the USA provided
financial support too to the opposition. Long before his resignation,
in the summer of 2003, the former president accused foreign
organizations of supporting his opponents. It was precisely back then
when reports appeared in the Georgian press on the allocation by the
Soros’s Fund [Open Society – Georgia Foundation] of 500,000 US dollars
to the radical oppositionist organization Kmara (English:
Enough). Shevardnadze did not talk about Soros directly, but after the
threats to ban the activities of the international funds in Georgia,
Soros was reported to have spoken to the president on the phone and
promised not to intervene in domestic political processes.

Soros did not keep his promise. The popular Canadian newspaper Globe
and Mail published a detailed article on what the majority of the
observers and Georgians knew about anyway – the famous financier’s
support for the oppositionists. “There were several instances in
which Mr Soros gave the anti-Shevardnadze movement a considerable
nudge” the paper begins cautiously. “He also funded a popular
opposition television station that was crucial in mobilizing support
for this week’s ‘velvet revolution’, and he reportedly gave financial
support to a youth group that led the street protests.” According to
the paper, before the toppling of Shevardnadze, the methods of staging
mass protests in Yugoslavia which led to Milosevic’s resignation were
taught in Tbilisi. As early as in February [2003], funds from Soros’s
Open Society Institute sent a Tbilisi activist named Giga Bokeria to
Serbia to meet members of the Otpor [Resistance] movement and learn
the right way to stage street demonstrations. Then, in the summer,
Soros’s foundation paid for a return trip to Georgia by Otpor
activists, who ran three-day courses for students, teaching some 1,000
Kmara activists how to stage a peaceful revolution.

According to Globe and Mail, the incumbent Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili has a warm personal relationship with Mr Soros that dates
back to late 2000, when he studied at a law school in New York. In
particular, in 2002 Saakashvili was granted an award from his Open
Society Foundation, which the billionaire personally handed to
him. These conclusions are corroborated by Georgian politicians as
well. In an interview with the Obozrevatel newspaper, Georgian Labour
Party leader Shalva Natelashvili called the change of power a “palace
coup” and added: “Effectively, George Soros is the president of
Georgia, whereas M. Saakashvili and [Prime Minister] Zurab Zhvania are
his governors. Soros’s foundation nominated nine ministers of the
Georgian government, and all of them were appointed. When they
accomplish their mission, they will have to hand over the key posts in
the government, economic and political levers of power, ports and
railways to Soros. These are the ministers of the economy, culture,
security, justice, education and so on. We do not even pay salaries to
our government ministers, Soros does (! – Musfiq Xaqq). M. Saakashvili
and his team-mates sold themselves out.” Natelashvili claims that one
has to undergo three months of training in the USA and work at the
Soros Foundation to be appointed to the new Georgian government. The
mastermind behind the campaign against Ajaria was also the famous
billionaire. Natelashvili claims that he decided to take over the
seaport of Batumi.

Baku probing action

It is quite understandable that Eduard Shevardnadze was sincerely
surprised with the decisive role of US representatives in his
resignation. We all are used to the fact that, for many decades, the
Republicans and Democrats, replacing each other, have been carrying
out a foreign policy which was essentially the same.

And it does not occur to the minds of many people that, having found
itself the only superpower in the early 21st century, the USA is
beginning to resolve its internal dilemma: the dominance of the
Anglo-Saxon policy or the triumph of mondialists [Russian:
mondialisty] (see “Cruel elections in the USA”, Zerkalo, 24 July
2004). Incidentally, precisely this struggle has first clearly
manifested itself in Azerbaijan and, when it ended with the defeat of
the mondialists in the person of the same Soros, reverberated in
Georgia. Let us trace the important events from April through to June
of last year.

On 18 April, at the meeting with the chairman of the US NATO Committee
and author of the Project for Transitional Democracies, Bruce Jackson,
President Heydar Aliyev noted that ever since Azerbaijan had joined
the Partnership for Peace [NATO] programme, Azerbaijan had done
everything that was necessary to join NATO without stirring much fuss,
was interested in this and had made its choice. Bruce Jackson, in
turn, noted the need for Azerbaijan’s further integration into the
Euroatlantic structures and said that the issue of Azerbaijan’s and
Georgia’s accession to NATO could be discussed as early as in
2006-2007.

On 21 April, Heydar Aliyev became ill. On 14 May it emerged that NATO
Secretary General George Robertson would take part in the opening of
the Virtual Silk Road project and meet the Speaker of the Milli Maclis
and the prime minister during his visit to Baku on 15-16 May.

On 17 May it emerged that financier George Soros, founder of the
worldwide network of the Open Society Institutes, would visit
Azerbaijan on 28-29 May. The financier, whose opinion was to be
reckoned with in international financial and political circles (!),
had been noticed for having made a number of strong speeches against
the lack of transparency in the activities of multinational oil
corporations of late.

On 22 May it was said that the building of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline was “closely related” to the problem of the rights of
thousands of people who resided along the route of the pipeline. This
was said in a report by the international human rights organization
Amnesty International, which was sent to Turan news agency. On 23 May,
the mass media reported that President of the British Petroleum (BP)
group Lord John Brown would pay a working visit to Baku, Tbilisi and
Istanbul from 25 to 30 May. The purpose of the visit was to get
familiarized with the progress in the implementation of such major
projects as Azari-Cirag-Gunasli [oil fields], the construction of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, the development of the Sah Daniz gas
condensate field and the construction of the South Caucasian gas
pipeline. On 24 May, Zerkalo published an article, entitled “George
Soros is coming to us”, to mark the arrival of the famous financier
Soros. In particular, the article read: “US billionaire and founder of
the worldwide Open Society Institute George Soros has never been only
a patron of the arts and a good Samaritan. By investing his money in
the development of the civil institutions in 50 countries of the third
world, he controls economic processes and guides them in what he
thinks (!) is the right direction. Now George Soros has decided to
come here to Baku to set about checking how efficiently we are
spending the income from Caspian oil.”

On 26 May, President Heydar Aliyev met BP head John Brown. The
projects that were implemented by that company in Azerbaijan were
discussed at the meeting.

On 29 May, the president of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani
Republic, Natiq Aliyev, told journalists that from 2005, Azerbaijan
could start making up to half a billion dollars profit annually as a
result of the implementation of its major energy projects. “Later on,
this number may increase to 1bn US d ollars per annum, so a major
influx of hard currency should be expected in the country,” he said.

Replying to journalists’ question about US foreign policy at a news
conference in Baku, G. Soros said: “The coming into being of an open
society occurs through freedom and democracy. Whether it is possible
to help establish freedom and democracy in a country by carrying out
military operations is a different and very complex issue. I think
that the USA has already encountered a few serious problems in Iraq.”
He also said that he was against President Bush’s doctrine of
“pre-emptive” strikes: “I have my own Soros doctrine (!?).” Answering
the question about the absence of his investments in the Azerbaijani
economy, G. Soros said that usually (!) he does not do business in
countries where his foundations exist. “After a market economy is
created in these countries, I start making investments there, which is
not a simple issue,” he said.

On 4 June, President Heydar Aliyev signed the law “On approval and
enactment of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.” It was
obvious that the law was enacted after its approval by the USA and
OSCE. Literally right before that, when concluding a meeting, the head
of state publicized the results of an opinion poll on the presidential
candidates in Azerbaijan, which was conducted two months (!) earlier
by the US International Republican Institute (IRA [as published; IRI])
together with representatives of the US special social centre [as
published]. The results of the poll proved to be dispiriting for the
opposition. Sixty-four per cent of voters were willing to vote for
Heydar Aliyev, 7 per cent – for [Musavat Party leader] Isa Qambar, 4
per cent – for [People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party leader] Ali
Karimli, 3 per cent – for [Azerbaycan Milli Istiqlal Party leader]
Etibar Mammadov, 3 per cent – for [Democratic Party of Azerbaijan
leader] Rasul Quliyev and 3 per cent – for [former President] Ayaz
Mutalibov.

The aforementioned facts confirm the same thing. The mondialists, in
the person of the very same Soros, were ready at least from late 2002
to change the situation in the important geostrategic and geopolitical
corridor, the Caucasus. And the fact that already in early 2003 Baker
forced Shevardnadze to adopt his “principle” of staffing the Central
Electoral Commission, whereas Aliyev chose an opportune moment and
managed to parry the “mondialist attack” by stating his readiness to
join NATO, has largely predetermined the subsequent
developments. Incidentally, precisely Baker was the co-author of
Shevardnadze’s coming to power in the past. A phrase by the ouster
Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia is interesting in this regard.

“One might say,” he said in one of his interviews, “that the military
coup in Georgia was carried out from across the ocean with personal
participation of Baker and with the blessing of Bush [Sr].” Attentive
readers might accuse us of a discrepancy, because this means that even
Bush Sr and his Secretary of State Baker were against the current
foreign policy of Bush Jr.

And so it is!

As early as on 9 September 2002, Cengiz Candar wrote in his article
“Iraq and hawks – Turkey’s ‘friends'” ([Turkish] Yeni Safak
newspaper): “Plans to attack Iraq to overthrow Saddam Husayn not only
caused acute discord among the USA and its allies on the one hand and
the rest of the world on the other. This discord has manifested itself
in yet more acute form in the USA itself, especially among the
Republican elite. There is even a sharp disagreement between the teams
of Bush Sr and Bush Jr (! – Musfiq Xaqq). Bush Sr’s Secretary of State
James Baker, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, and one of the
former secretaries of state Lawrence Eagleburger set out against the
policy of the new ‘hawks’ Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza
Rice. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell’s attitude towards the
‘hawks’ is quite icy. It seems that when the mondialists saw after 15
October [2003, date of the presidential election in Azerbaijan] the
helplessness of the Azerbaijani opposition and acquiescence of the
neoconservatives from the Bush Jr administration to what was going on,
they carried out a strike in Tbilisi, forcing Shevardnadze to resign.
Let us remind our readers that the so-called “rose revolution” started
with the demand for an accurate tabulation of the votes that were cast
during the [2 November Georgian] parliamentary elections and ended
with the resignation of the president (!). Presumably, the mondialists
needed a totally controllable outpost in the Caucasus in the form of
Georgia.

Why?

In contrast to the neoconservatives, the mondialists emphasize in
their foreign policy not crude military force or oil interests, but
precisely the creation of so-called “democratic institutions” –
parties, nongovernmental organizations, media sources, and so on – of
clearly pro-American orientation. Then they rely on these and rule
from behind the scenes. The fact that many opposition parties, from
nationalist to liberal, do not differ much in their assessment of
international events, readily criticizing Russia and Iran but tacitly
contemplating US policy of double standards in the world, including in
Azerbaijan, is a proof of this. But then Heydar Aliyev had kept them
sidelined for too long, and the opposition started to express its
displeasure with this. This, in turn, stands to bring the mondialists
under the threat of losing the internal political lever without which
they would be unable to implement their behind-the-scenes policy. On
the other hand, the policy of “war and oil” of Bush Jr triggered a
strongly negative reaction of the mondialists not only in the USA, but
across the globe. Let us digress and examine

The Uzbek example

After the terrorist acts in Tashkent in March-early April of this
year, General David Barno, head of the Combined Forces
Command-Afghanistan, arrived in Uzbekistan and discussed the issues of
Uzbek assistance in the fight against international
terrorism. Analysing this visit, analysts noted that the Uzbekistan
played quite an important role in Pentagon operations in the north of
Afghanistan, and therefore the military base which was located in
immediate proximity to the Uzbek-Afghan border was very important for
the Americans. At the same time, US assistance to Tashkent increased
10 times and reached 90m US dollars a year. However, the observers
noted that some (!) awkwardness does exist in US-Uzbek relations, and
the reason for that is the increasing frequency of the reports on
violations of human rights in Uzbekistan. The US Department of State
is to reach a decision in the next few days on assistance to
Uzbekistan – whether it should be continued or Tashkent should be
denied help on the grounds of systematic violations of human rights in
Uzbekistan. And if help is denied, the future of the US military base
in Uzbekistan will come under question.

Just one week later, George Soros announced that the Uzbek had closed
down (!) the Open Society Institute which he founded and which was the
only (!) major private donor in that country.

The Uzbek justice minister said, however, that the institute could not
function any further and accused it of discrediting (!) the policy of
the government of the republic. Soros said that his staffers were
harassed many times and urged the US government to review its
attitudes toward the Uzbek authorities. His urge was heard three
months later. On 14 July, it was announced that Washington had deemed
the human rights situation in Uzbekistan “very bad”. And according to
the decision that was made just recently, Tashkent will get 18m US
dollars in this year alone.

This decision was made by US Secretary of State Colin Powell (!) after
he analysed the country’s democratic development and the human rights
situation there. Many commentators think that Washington’s attempt to
link financial aid to Tashkent with the human rights situation in
Uzbekistan could push Uzbekistan towards closer cooperation with
Russia. It becomes clear that when the “hawks” in the person of the
same Rumsfeld lost their influence, the “dove” Powell became the
trendsetter in the US foreign policy. Taking into account close ties
between the “doves” and the mondialists, as well as the fact that,
owing to the elections, Bush does not care much for his former
“allies” in Baku and Tashkent, it becomes clear why the mondialists
want to fully control Georgia. But let us finish with Uzbekistan
first.

Many foreign mass media stress that the Uzbek regime no longer suits
(!) the Americans. The point is that under the rule of [Uzbek
President Islam] Karimov, it is impossible (!) to consolidate the
exclusivity (!) of the American presence in Uzbekistan. On the other
hand, the USA is interested in building up its presence in the region
which is rich in strategic resources.

As a result, it was presumably decided in Washington to get rid of
Karimov using the successful experience of the “rose revolution” in
Georgia (!) and elements of the “Kosovo scenario”, which envisages the
establishment of control over territories by instigating “governable
conflicts” (!) in Uzbek regions (first and foremost, in the Fergana
[Fargona] valley) and deployment of the peacekeeping troops. The logic
of the developments leads to the only logical conclusion: the
mondialists are making make preparations to establish total control
over the Caucasus.

In this undertaking, Georgia is the crucial bridgehead to them,
Azerbaijan – the crucial element, and Armenia – the only country which
is Russia’s ally. It was not surprising that in April we all witnessed
a surge in the activity of the Armenian opposition. Let us note
briefly that by late April, [Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan had
lost support not only of all the main parties, but even of those very
“ultra-patriots” and “ultra-radicals” whom he used to remove [former
President] Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Yet another significant event was
Kocharyan’s speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe in late June. Many witnesses called R. Kocharyan’s speech a
demonstration of political insolence. And replying to the question by
the Irish deputy, Paschal Mooney, about the deplorable situation in
the Armenian mass media, Kocharyan said that everything is perfectly
all right in this sector in Armenia and accused Mooney of being
uninformed. He said that the conflicts in Armenia between the
authorities and the opposition were none of the Parliamentary
Assembly’s business (!). Kocharyan’s departure from the policy of
compliments and the insolence of his statements from the tribune of
the Parliamentary Assembly testify to the fact that the president of
Armenia, sensing the changes, has finally and unambiguously sided with
Russia. Let us also note that Europe responded immediately. “Nagornyy
Karabakh is a constituent part of the Republic of Azerbaijan” the
newly elected secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis,
said at the session of the Political Affairs Committee.

Azerbaijan’s trump card, or Why don’t they like Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan?

On 21 July, addressing the personnel of a military unit of the Xudat
border detachment on the Azerbaijani-Russian border, Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev said: “In a few years, Azerbaijan will turn
into an economically strong state, and its military superiority (!)
will be even greater. Under these conditions (!) we cannot have a
positive attitude toward some urgings, and in particular, with respect
to compromises.” However, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov said during his visit to the USA at Colin Powell’s
invitation that until those who have become internally displaced
persons return to their homes, society will have a particularly acute
approach to the settlement of the conflict, and resolving the problem
will be unrealistic (!). It is understandable that the Azerbaijani
president is counting on the revenues from pumping our oil through the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. But let us remind our readers that
precisely this pipeline route was not considered worthwhile for quite
a long time. It was thought that it would be simply impossible to
build it, especially over a short period of time: the construction
work was to start in April 2003, be completed in the fourth quarter of
2004, and first export was to begin in the second quarter of 2005.

Along with external forces, the domestic political circles of
Azerbaijan which were not interested in implementing this project also
created obstacles. Nonetheless, it was precisely after George Bush’s
coming to power that Heydar Aliyev managed to launch the construction
work and lay the foundations of the geostrategic and geoeconomical
union with Georgia. This, however, very much worries not only Armenia,
but also many influential circles in the USA, as well as France and
Russia. These countries, using Armenians as a means of sabotage and
pretending to be “peacekeepers”, have been and are implementing a
policy of double standards towards Azerbaijan. Their attempts to
achieve the settlement of the contract at the expense of Azerbaijan’s
interests are universally known. To crush Baku’s resistance, it is
very important to make Azerbaijan lose the opportunity it deems
important to export its oil precisely via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline and precisely at a required moment.

By way of a reminder, as early as in January 2000, R. Kocharyan
threatened in an interview to the oil bulletin of the US company
Interpol that he would blow up (!) Azerbaijan’s oil pipelines. And
what do we see now? Georgia is suspending construction work on the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline to double-check how it meets
environmental requirements. At the same time, beginning from late last
year, reports and articles with negative assessments of the “oil
policy” of the Bush administration have flooded the international and
local mass media. The scandal continues around the Halliburton oil
company, which was headed by US Vice-President Richard Cheney before
he came to the White House. Halliburton is accused of securing
lucrative oil contracts in post-war Iraq by cutting corners and unfair
competition, solely due to lobbying by the vice-president. Analysts
note that a large-scale “mopping-up” operation has started in the
international oil business, one of the results of which might be a
fall in the overall potential of oil lobbying – the very one on which
great hopes have been and are pinned in Azerbaijan.

In what way?

In the light of the aforementioned facts, the attitude of the
opposition mass media and political parties towards the Georgian
leadership and their policy towards the ethnic Azeris who live in
Borcali [Borchalo in Georgian; administrative unit – uyezd – in
Tsarist Russia since 1880, included parts of what currently is
Bolnisi, Dmanisi, Marneuli, Tetri-Tsqaro, and Tsalka districts of
Georgia] is also interesting. It is surprising, to say the least, that
these mass media and parties take no interest in the ethnic origin of
the Georgian leaders and in the methods which the
Saakashvili-Zhvania-[Chairwoman of Parliament Nino] Burjanadze used to
come to power. However, these very same mass media and parties readily
discuss the leadership of Azerbaijan from precisely this point of
view. This is why we cannot appreciate enough the effort by political
analyst Rasim Agayev, who shed light on precisely this aspect for the
Azerbaijani readership in his article “‘Velvet revolution’ or Armenian
coup?” (Ekho, 3 July 2004). Let us ask ourselves a question: if the
interests of the mondialists – Soros, Russia, France and Armenia –
were to coincide in one particular area, and if one of the main
aspects on which these interests do coincide is the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, what will they do?

That’s right! Using the half-ethnic-Armenian leadership of Georgia,
they will strike on Borcali and by doing so, will achieve two
important goal as a minimum:

1. They will break up the geostrategically and geoeconomically
important union between Azerbaijan and Georgia, making not Armenia
this time around, but Azerbaijan face isolation.

2. By creating a domestic political crisis in Azerbaijan and causing a
very painful transfer of power, they will paralyse Azerbaijan and
force the new “leadership” into signing a Karabakh capitulation
treaty.

We are certain that preparations are under way at full speed for the
implementation of this plan. For example, commenting in late March of
this year on the situation in Georgia and results of the parliamentary
elections, one of the leaders of the Qeyrat [movement of ethnic Azeris
in Georgia] and former deputy of the Georgian Parliament Zumrud
Qurbanli said: “The latest elections show that the Azeri factor in
Georgia is on the verge of disappearing from the political arena. For
example, the population of such large districts as Gardabani, Dmanisi
and Bolnisi, where ethnic Azeris reside, are not represented in the
new Parliament by a single deputy. As a result, we are getting a very
pessimistic picture. The interests of more than half a million ethnic
Azeris will be represented by only three (!) people. Naturally, this
is not enough, so talking about a quality protection of the rights of
the Azeris is out of the question.”

Over recent months, the arrests of prominent residents of Borcali have
become increasingly frequent; to boot, the Georgian special-purpose
units are acting in a defiantly insolent manner towards the local
population, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and terror. The
migration of Borcali residents to Azerbaijan is on the rise. Sensible
Georgians have been calling for normal relations with ethnic Azeris
for a long time, because precisely their economic undertakings and
cooperation with Azerbaijan were bringing Georgia important economic
advantages. But after the mondialists “presented” hundreds of millions
of dollars to Saakashvili, the need for this was eliminated, and now
the Borcali residents are openly accused of having a pro-Russian
orientation because of their economic interests. This, in turn, leads
to yet greater alienation between the “democratic” Georgians and
“pro-Moscow” Azeris. It is interesting that the same mondialists, who
sponsor many “oppositionist leaders” in the form of numerous
international funds, present huge sums of money to Armenia too,
although they know perfectly well that Armenia is occupying our
lands. As to us, we are sent invoices for lack of democracy and human
rights here and for the excessive extent of corruption, whereas the
violation of the rights of Azerbaijan as a state are looked at with
indifference.

When?

Two days this year are very important for Azerbaijan: 2 November and
17 December. The presidential elections in the USA have always been a
hugely important event worldwide. But in the light of the
aforementioned facts, the 2 November elections gain paramount
importance. If Kerry wins, the plan for a change of power through
using the Borcali “card” will become very likely to be carried
out. But even if Bush wins, the threat of this will remain very real
because the “doves” from his team are also mondialists. On 17
December, Ankara will hear the EU verdict as to whether it will or
will not be part of the united Europe.

Presumably, Brussels will not hand down a final verdict and, to keep
Ankara in suspense, will postpone the issue of the specific date of
Turkey’s accession to the EU to a later date. As a result, the [Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and his government will gravitate more
towards the normalization of relations with the EU, will be more
inclined to normalize relations with Yerevan, and accordingly will
finally desist from supporting Azerbaijan in the Karabakh
conflict. If, that is, the Turkish army does not have its say, which
for now seems unlikely.

As you remember, the export of the first oil is scheduled for the
second quarter of 2005. It follows that political cataclysms, such as
a change of power, should, under this plan, be realized within the
next 10 months. It is also quite important that the next parliamentary
elections are scheduled for late next year.

Usually all changes of power in Azerbaijan followed similar scenarios:
first a mass influx of refugees would take place, then groups within
the authorities would reach separate agreements with the opposition,
then they would get a blessing from foreign centres of power and
paralyse the authorities, and then the opposition would receive
material aid and political assistance and dramatically intensify its
efforts. The country would then lose its territories and be pushed a
few decades back. And what about the authorities? Usually, by the time
they have realized the actual level of threat, it has already been too
late to change anything. The 1992 events were a visual example of
this. On the other hand, time is required to play the card of the
refugees from Borcali.

Taking this into account, we assume that the plan might be launched by
the late winter-early spring of 2005.

Can this catastrophic scenario be avoided by Azerbaijan? We think that
it is not too late yet, and that untangling the snarl of the problems
is worth trying. But we should not lose a minute! We might suggest
concrete ideas, but since our paper is read by our enemies as well, we
decided not to.

For now, however, our pseudo-oppositionists have been invited to
Boston by the mondialist Democrats, Soros is publishing a book
entitled “The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of
American Power”, in which he, praising Saakashvili, criticizes Ilham
Aliyev, and the Soros’s foundation in Azerbaijan, together with the US
humanitarian organization Catholic Relief Services, and awards
international certificates to the opponents (!) to building the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

[Signed] Musfiq Xaqq