Author: Karabekian Emil

PACE FACT-FINDING MISSION TO DEPART FOR NAKHICHEVAN TO INVESTIGATE KHACHKAR DEMOLITION

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.04.2006 21:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education
has confirmed the decision to send a fact-finding mission led by
rapporteur on cultural heritage Edward O’Hara to Nakhichevan late May
to investigate the site where Armenian khachkars were destructed. The
PACE Committee requested the leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan
for full support to the mission activities, reported Mediamax.

COMMUNITY CHEST
John Holden

New Statesman, UK
April 12 2006

The Back Half

Arts funding – John Holden on the unusual charitable foundation that
has made Britain a better place.

The UK arm of the Portugal-based Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Without the Gulbenkian, as
it is usually known, Britain would be a poorer place. The foundation
has led the way in transforming many fields: the arts, social welfare,
education and Anglo-Portuguese relations. The list of organisations
that it has supported includes the Samaritans, Shelter, Voluntary
Service Overseas, the Runnymede Trust and Snape Maltings.

It has backed social entrepreneurs since before the phrase was
invented, lending assistance to figures such as Lord Young of
Dartington and Chad Varah, as well as the energetic community that
transformed Coin Street on the South Bank in London in the 1980s
and 1990s.

Like most charitable bodies, the Gulbenkian has not always avoided
controversy. In the 1980s, its oppositional stance in the face of
government retrenchment over funding for the arts earned it as many
critics as admirers. More recently, it was widely mocked in the press
for lending its support to a campaign to ban smacking. However, for
an organisation that has sought to play a pioneering role in bringing
about social change, the criticism it has attracted has been small.

The foundation’s money came from the legacy of Calouste Sarkis
Gulbenkian, an Armenian and naturalised British citizen who was also
one of the 20th century’s boldest art collectors. He was known as
“Mr Five Per Cent”, because the source of his immense wealth was a
stake of that amount in the income of the Iraq Petroleum Company –
although the foundation wisely diversified into a broad portfolio of
assets early in its history.

Equally early on, the Gulbenkian adop-ted an approach that has
become the model for arts funding and social enterprise. A team of
experts is assembled, including on-the-ground practitioners as well
as members of the great and the good. They investigate an issue, draw
up a policy and publish a report which, very often, has an influence
far beyond its immediate purpose. This method was applied at first
to small-scale matters: in 1959, for example, when a committee led
by Brigadier E T Williams addressed the question of what to do about
“The needs of youth in Stevenage”, its conclusion was that, rather
than build a new youth club, it would be better to appoint a youth
officer. (“Blokes are more important than bricks,” as the report
rightly said.) Shortly afterwards, the 1959 Bridges report, Help for
the Arts, changed the face of the cultural industry in Brit- ain,
making it less metropolitan and less mandarin, and making space for
the flowering that would distinguish the 1960s.

Other ground-breaking reports followed, addressing everything from
community work to local broadcasting. Some, such as Ken Robinson’s The
Arts in Schools (1982) and John Myerscough’s The Economic Importance
of the Arts in Britain (1988), are still required reading.

It is impressive how often an organisation of the Gulbenkian’s meagre
size has managed to prod politicians and bureaucrats into action on
matters that now seem obvious. In 1992, it sent an anti-bullying pack
to every school in the country, raising the profile of an issue that
politicians had largely ignored.

While the foundation has led developments in many fields, its role
has also been shaped by the political and social contexts of the day.

In the immediate postwar years, the Gulbenkian did much to assist
official policy in building up support for the arts and social
welfare. In the 1960s, it cham-pioned experimentation in the arts and
community self-help in social life. During the economic and political
upheavals of the 1970s, it became more critical of governments;
this turned to outrage in the face of the Thatcher government’s
determination to shrink the responsibilities of the state. As the then
director of the Gulbenkian, Peter Brinson, put it: “The relative calm
of the past 25 years is over and huge changes are certain.”

Those changes affected every area of the foundation’s concern. For
example, it had spent the previous two decades helping to build up
contemporary dance in the UK, but between 1980 and 1982, a quarter
of small-scale dance companies went out of business. Thatcherism
also ended the unwritten concordat between charitable bodies and
governments – that foundations such as the Gulbenkian would do the
initial risk-taking, and then the public sector would take over when
innovation had proved successful.

Naturally, not everything the foundation has tried has worked. It
expended a great deal of effort and energy during the 1970s in an
unsuccessful attempt to create a national centre for community work.

The Community Challenge conference in Liverpool in 1981, organised
by a youthful Charles Clarke, was hijacked by hard leftists who
questioned the Gulbenkian’s right to organise the event at all.

Today the Gulbenkian is probably best known for the annual £100,000
Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries and for the Atlantic Waves
festival, which has brought Portuguese culture to the attention of
the British public. Many relationships started in the 1950s have
survived to this day – the Tate being one of the most important (the
Gulbenkian is funding the current Tate Triennial show, “New British
Art”, just as it funded the seminal “54/64” show in 1964).

As the 50th anniversary approaches, the Gulbenkian can pride itself on
its history of supporting innovation in culture, education and social
welfare. It has done this as much by adapting itself to circumstances
as by challenging the status quo. In seeking to help others while
weathering the storms of the past half-century, it has fashioned for
itself a role resembling one of the first projects that it funded in
the 1950s: the self-righting lifeboat.

604170032

–Boundary_(ID_Z27fUGFwEpBiaoHghfwm4w)- –

SAFAROV KILLING SLEEPING MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE TO BAKU

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.04.2006 00:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Not only Adil Ismaylov, but also Hungarian lawyers
are guilty for bad defense of Ramil Safarov. His defense was also very
badly organized at the state level,” stated Chair of the Karabakh
Liberation Organization (KLO) Akif Nagi. In his words, Hungarian
Prosecutor Veronica Kish was “influenced by Armenian authorities
and Diaspora. She openly supports them and cites facts that are not
confirmed anywhere.

Besides, it does not matter, whether the Armenian was asleep or no,”
Nagi said.

At the same time Nagi does not consider the events in the Budapest
court a failure of the Azeri party. “I would call it irresponsibility
of Hungarian judicial authorities. Besides, let Armenians not be happy
prematurely. There is still time and we still believe the court will
pass a just decision,” the KLO leader said.

To remind, during the court hearing on March 4 the prosecutor demanded
life sentence for Safarov without the right for amnesty during the
initial 30 years. The prosecutor stated the crime was committed with
special cruelty and threats the national security of Hungary.

He also emphasized Safarov was responsible at the moment of
committing the crime. In her turn Hungarian lawyer Gabriella Kaspar,
who represents interests of the Armenian party, added the murder of
Gurgen Margaryan should be considered a genocide, as it is committed
on the national ground.

FRENCH AMB AT OSCE MINSK GROUP HOLDING TALKS IN BAKU
Author: S.Agayeva

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
April 10 2006

French Ambassador Bernard Fassie, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair,
is holding consultations in Baku on the peaceable resolution of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, French embassy in
Baku told Trend. The diplomat arrived in Azerbaijan on Monday morning.

During the visit the diplomat plans to meet with the senior leadership
of Azerbaijan. He is also scheduled to hold a news conference at
French embassy.

The French diplomat will leave Baku for Yerevan, the embassy said.

NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC REAFFIRMS ITS POSITION TO SETTLE KARABAKH CONFLICT EXCLUSIVELY BY PEACEFUL MEANS

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 10 2006

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “The cases
of violation of cease-fire regime on the contact-line of Nagorno
Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces have become frequent recently,
which has also become possible in consequence of lack of a proper
estimation to the bellicose statements vioced at the highest levels
in Azerbaijan,” this is mentioned in the April 7 statement of the NKR
Foreign Ministry provided to Noyan Tapan by the NKR Foreign Ministry
Information-Analytical Department. As the NKR Foreign Ministry
emphasizes, the incidents that led to the increase of the number of
victims on the contact-line deepen the mutual lack of confidence and
can lead to growth of tenseness in the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict
zone threatening the stability of the whole region. In this connection
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic reaffirms its position to settle the
conflict exclusively by peaceful means and expresses its readiness
to fulfil the termless commitments of the sides in the direction
of strengthening the cease-fire regime stipulated by 1995 February
6 agreement signed by heads of NKR, RA and AR defence department
heads. The NKR Foreign Ministry calls on another two sides, the
Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia, who have signed
under the above-mentioned agreement, to join the NKR’s initiative and
expresses the hope that with joint efforts and with the mediation of
OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, as well as other international mediators
and interested sides it will be possible to reaffirm loyalty to the
above-mentioned agreement and to fulfil the mechanisms on localization
of the incidents on the armed forces contact-line stipulated by the
agreement. The Nagorno Karabakh Republic reaffirms its position with
respect to the fact that in addition to the unreserved preservation of
the cease-fire regime, the preconditions of the peaceful settlement
are the peaceful process with the participation of the sides of the
conflict, formation of means of confidence, as well as strengthening
of democracy and respect of human rights.

AZERIS DECLINES PROPOSAL OF ARMENIAN SIDE TO SUBSTITUTE RADIO
MONITORING BY VISUAL OBSERVATION OF CONTACT LINE

YEREVAN, APRIL 7, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Within the framework
of the mandate of Andrej Kasprczik, the Personal Representative of the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office, radio monitoring of the contact line took
place near the village of Barkaber, in the Ijevan-Ghazakh part of the
Armenian-Azeri border, on April 6. At the place of holding the
monitoring, connection was established with the OSCE representatives
who are in the territory of Azerbaijan, headed by Andrej Kasprczik,
shots were fired by the Azerbaijani side during the observation, what
was fixed by the participants of the monitoring. Summing up results of
the monitoring, for increasing productivity of the actions, the
Armenian side proposed the OSCE representatives to substitute in
future the radio monitoring by visual observation of the contact line,
with direct participation of the commanders of bordering military
units, governors, communities representatives, but the Azerbaijani
side declined the proposal. As Colonel Seyran Shahsuvarian, the RA
Defence Minister’s Press Secretary informed Noyan Tapan, on the same
day, the radio monitoring was preceded by the OSCE representatives’,
Tavush Governor Armen Ghularian’s and military units commanders’
briefing at the Governor’s Office. A.Ghularian expressed anxiety on
the occasion of the fact that firings of the Ijevan-Noyemberian road
by the Azerbaijani side became friquent during the recent period.

ARMENIAN-IRANIAN RELATIONS ONE OF PRIORITIES OF ARMENIA’S FOREIGN POLICY

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 6 2006

Yerevan, April 6. /ARKA/. Armenian-Iranian relations are one of the
priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy, RA Deputy Foreign Minister
Gegham Gharibjanyan told reporters.

“At present, we have good-neighborly relations with only two of
our four neighbors in the region, Iran and Georgia,” he said in his
welcoming address at the opening of the scientific conference “Iran:
look from Armenia”.

In this context, Gharibjanyan emphasized the importance of further
development of bilateral relations.

He also expressed hope that the bilateral trade, economic and cultural
relations will soon reach the level of political relations.

The conference participants discussed issues and prospects of
cultural, political and economic cooperation between Armenia and
Iran. The conference was organized by the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic)
University and the Iranian Embassy in Armenia.

NEW AMBASSADOR

A1+
[05:41 pm] 05 April, 2006

RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan received the new Ambassador
extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Denmark to Armenia
Uffe Anderson Balslev.

The latter handed his credentials to the Minister.

During the conversation after the ceremony the Minister congratulated
the Ambassador on his appointment and wished him success in his
activity.

Expressing their content with the present stage of the Armenian-Danish
relations they mentioned that there is still much to be done in order
to enhance cooperation between the countries.

At the request of the guest Vardan Oskanyan represented the present
stage of the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

DUBAI’S MOTEXHA 2006 TEXTILE SHOW GETS UNDER WAY

Asia Pulse
Apr 06, 2006

DUBAI, April 6 Asia Pulse – MOTEXHA 2006, the region’s largest trade
show for garments, textiles, leather and fashion accessories, is under
way in Dubai with over 250 exhibitors from 30 countries taking part.

Opening the event on Monday, Dubai’s Department of Information Director
General Sheikh Hasher bin Maktoum Al Maktoum said: “Motexha has grown
over the years and especially in the past year the show has grown by
30 per cent. This is demonstrative of Motexha’s strength in offering
exhibitors the right platform to source prospective clients in the
lucrative Gulf market. Many of last years exhibitors have also returned
to the show and are back to do more business with the Middle East.”

Motexha provides the ideal platform for international manufacturers
to do business and cost effectively sell to professional buyers,
re-exporters, retail traders and textile merchants from across the
Middle East.

The region’s fashion and textile industry is estimated to be worth
US$11.4 billion.

Dubai is one of the largest and strongest markets for textile, garments
and leather goods in the Middle East region. According to the Dubai
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the year 2004 saw the value of
the exports reach Dhs625 million (US$170 million), while in 2005,
trading of textile, clothing and footwear reached to Dhs1.9 billion.

Thirty per cent of visitors to Motexha came from the GCC and Levant
countries.

Motexha has also seen a marked increase from trade visitor attendance
from CIS countries, East Africa and the Indian Sub-continent.

Motexha is officially supported the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and by
Texmas, the 300 member strong textile merchants group and promoters
of the Dhs 220 million Dubai Textile City.

Country pavilions from China, Indonesia, Turkey, Italy, Germany,
Armenia, Portugal, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, the UAE, Lebanon,
Thailand, Cyprus, Pakistan and India are present at the show.

Government supported groups from the Aegean Exporters Association,
Turkey; Republic of Cyprus Trade Centre; APICCAPS, Portugal; Department
of Export Promotions of Government of Thailand; National Agency for
Export Development, Indonesia; Textile and Fashion Federation of
Singapore are participating at the show.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
04/05/2006
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://WWW.ASBAREZ. COM

1) Draft Law on Dual Citizenship Presented in Parliament
2) Czech Parliament Hosts International Conference on Armenian Genocide
3) Azerbaijan’s Threatening Statements Will Not Bring Positive Results
4) Bomb Blast in Turkish Party Office Leaves Two Injured
5) French Court Rescinds Permission to Build Genocide Monument in Lyon
6) New EU Envoy Discusses Karabagh on First Trip to Armenia
7) EU Will Not Support Alternative Railroad Bypassing Armenia

1) Draft Law on Dual Citizenship Presented in Parliament

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) made public on Wednesday the basic
principles of its draft law on dual citizenship, which would grant Armenians
the right to hold dual citizenship.
ARF member Armen Rustmanian said the law would was designed to consolidate
Armenians worldwide for resolution of pan-national issues, to create a new
opportunity for the country to become stronger, and to defend the rights of
all
Armenian citizens abroad.
“The dual citizenship for Armenians stems from the unique situation the
Armenians have found themselves after the Genocide,” Mkrtchian said.
Levon Mkrtchian, leader of the ARF faction in Parliament, said the party
employed a team of experts, including Constitutional Court Chairman Gagik
Harutiunian, to draft the law, which he said incorporates lessons learned from
other nations that permit dual citizenship.
Mkrtchian said they worked to set clear definitions about suffrage, mandatory
military service, and other controversial issues.
The legal framework envisages, among other things, that citizens willing to
take part in elections held in Armenia will only be able to cast their ballots
inside the country. It would also ban the opening of polling stations in
Armenian diplomatic missions.
The proposed principles do not specify conditions for granting diaspora
Armenians the right to vote and be elected to a public office in Armenia.
ARF’s
senior partner in the governing coalition, the Republican Party (HHK) of Prime
Minister Andranik Markarian, believes that ethnic Armenian citizens of other
nations can be granted that right only if they live in Armenia, have served in
its armed forces, and pay taxes.
Mkrtchian and Rustamian added that their legal “concept” will serve as the
basis for ARF’s draft law on dual citizenship that they say will be put into
circulation this autumn.
Introduction of dual citizenship was made possible by one of the
constitutional amendments that were enacted after a referendum last November.
ARF and other Armenian parties believe that a legal ban on dual citizenship,
imposed under former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, was unjustified given the
existence of the worldwide Armenian diaspora.

2) Czech Parliament Hosts International Conference on Armenian Genocide

–Parliament members announce intentions to draft resolution to recognize the
Genocide

YEREVAN (Yerkir/RFE/RL)–A one-day conference on the Armenian genocide was
held at the Czech Senate on Tuesday sponsored by former Czech President Vaclav
Havel and organized by the Armenian Club and Senate member Jaromir Stetina.
Stetina said the Czech parliament members were drafting a resolution on
recognition of the Armenian genocide. He said Czech lawmakers wanted to follow
the example of neighboring Slovakia that recognized officially the Armenian
genocide 18 months ago.
Professor Vahakn Dadrian of the Zorian Institute was the keynote speaker at
the conference and gave a report on the documents kept in the Turkish
archives.

The conference was also attended by Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman
Kirakosian, European Armenian Federation Chairperson Hilda Choboian, German
scholar Tessa Hoffman and Turkish human rights activist Yeldag Uzcan, who
resides in Germany after being harassed in Turkey.
German academic Dr. Tessa Hofmann set the tone.
“We have to be very aware that if a country is not pushed forward as Germany
was after the Second World War by the victorious allies nothing really
happens,” she said. Dr. Hofmann also brought up the question about Turkey’s
entry into the European Union. “My conviction is that Turkey first of all has
to give freedom of speech, research, and opinion to deal with its past.”
Hofmann said that the taboo on speaking about the Armenian massacres in
Turkey
was acting like a cancer in the country, spreading more taboos and acting like
a brake on the development of civil society.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosian readily agreed with that,
although he added that he saw cause for optimism in the changing face of
Turkish society.
“We will have in fact in 10 years, in 15 years, a more modern Turkey and we
hope that this Turkey will recognize what happened in the past,” Kirakosian
said.
But in the meantime, he said, the past lingered on in Turkey’s refusal to
open
diplomatic relations with Armenia and its blockade of the Turkish-Armenian
border:
“The Armenian-Turkish border is remaining as the last Iron Curtain,”
Kirakosian said. “The walls fell down after the fall of the Soviet Union and
communism but still we have closed border and we have a closed border with a
country who is willing to become a member of free Europe. It’s not a normal
thing.”
Yeldag Ozcan, a Turkish writer on minority rights in Turkey, said she
welcomed
the pressure from the EU for Turkey to cast light on the dark corners of its
past. More people were now beginning to discuss the Armenian issue and other
taboos. But, she said, Turkey needed to go much further.
“I think there cannot be a dialogue [with the Armenians] without an apology.”
Ozcan said. “We cannot start a dialogue as if nothing has happened. First we
have to admit that we and our ancestors are the guilty side, we have to accept
there was a crime. We have to apologize and then we can start a dialogue.”
Like all the speakers, Hofmann agreed with that, but went a stage further,
recalling that the Armenian genocide of 1915-16 played a major role in
persuading the international community to act against crimes against
humanity.
“Without the Genocide, there would not be a UN Convention and, further on,
there would not be a permanent tribunal of the United Nations,” Hofmann said.
“You can say that 100 years of time and reaction is a slow speed but, on the
other hand, there was a reaction and we can only hope that the punishment of
genocide will lead to prevention.”

3) Azerbaijan’s Threatening Statements Will Not Bring Positive Results

(Regnum)–Azerbaijan’s increasingly aggressive war rhetoric is not helping the
Karabagh conflict settlement process, said Yuri Merzlyakov, the Russian
Co-chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
Minsk Group.
“Military solution of Nagorno Karabagh problem will be a catastrophe,” said
Merzlyakov, adding that all interested parties have to make every effort to
prevent the conflict’s transition to the military stage. “Pressure from the
Azerbaijani side will not bring positive consequences,” stressed
Merzlyakov. He
said it is necessary to strive for peace, as the possibilities of reaching a
peaceful settlement have not yet been exhausted.
Merzlyakov said that there is still time to settle the Karabagh conflict
before the end of the year 2006.
Merzlyakov also said that the mediators will arrange for another meeting
between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“The fact is that the schedules do not coincide, and it is difficult for
us to
agree on a certain place and date of the meeting. On April 7, the Armenian
Foreign Minister will be in Moscow while Azerbaijani Minister will be visiting
Washington,” said Merzlyakov, adding that the planned visit of OSCE Minsk
Group
to region will take place in May, after which they will discuss a meeting of
the ministers.

4) Bomb Blast in Turkish Party Office Leaves Two Injured

ISTANBUL (AP)–A bomb blast at an Istanbul branch of the party of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has injured at least two people.
The explosion shattered windows up to the third floor at the Justice and
Development Party’s office in Istanbul’s low-income Esenyurt district, on the
European side of the city. It comes at the end of a week of unrest, attacks,
and rioting that have left 15 dead, including four in Istanbul.
A Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for an Istanbul bombing on
Friday, and has singled out the prime minister and his party as targets.
Also on Wednesday, suspected Kurdish rebels ambushed and killed three Turkish
soldiers, and are believed to have set the land mines that killed two
others. A
policeman wounded in a gun attack by suspected rebels also died in hospital,
bringing the death toll for security forces in the day to six.
The injured in Wednesday’s Istanbul blast included the local head of the
Justice and Development Party’s youth section, party press officer Osman Bekar
said.
“A bomb exploded in our building; two of our people are injured,” Bekar said.
“There is considerable damage.”
Istanbul party leader Mehmet Muezzinoglu called the Istanbul bombing “an
abhorrent attack,” saying “those who want to harm the environment of calm and
security will not get away with it.”
Television footage showed shattered windows and glass scattered across the
street. A man with a bandage around his head was being escorted into an
ambulance, and paramilitary police cordoned off the building.
A firebomb was thrown at the Turkish consulate in Paris early Wednesday
morning and a Turkish diplomat said Kurdish rebels were suspected of carrying
out the attack.
The firebomb thrown at the consulate’s front door caused no injuries or
damage, said Derya Tutumel, a Turkish Embassy press officer.
Widespread rioting that began in the Kurdish-populated southeast of Turkey
after funerals for four Kurdish guerrillas has also brought violence to
Istanbul in the past week. One person was killed in a bomb attack claimed by a
Kurdish group, and three others were killed after masked men threw gasoline
bombs at a packed city bus.
The Istanbul bombing Friday killed one and injured more than 10 others. The
group that claimed responsibility for the bombing promised more attacks and
threatened to carry out operations against the ruling Justice and Development
Party.
“The time has come for operations against the fascist party’s buildings and
workers,” the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons said in a release posted Sunday on
their website.

5) French Court Rescinds Permission to Build Genocide Monument in Lyon

A Court in the French city of Lyon revoked its previously granted
authorization
to construct a monument to victims of the Armenian genocide.
The City Council of Lyon is questioning the legality of constructing the
monument. The monument, which was to be built in Lyon’s city center, also
elicited complaints from people living near the proposed construction site.
The mayor of Lyon, Gerard Collomb announced in 2003 that Lyon would build an
Armenian memorial and construction began recently. Several Turkish groups
protested against the monument last month, clashing with local French youth.
Police said they had to use tear gas and water cannons to separate the two
groups.

6) New EU Envoy Discusses Karabagh on First Trip to Armenia

YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Armenpress)–The European Union demonstrated its increased
attention to resolving the Karabagh conflict on Wednesday when its newly
appointed special representative to the South Caucasus singled out the issue
during his first official visit to Armenia.
Peter Semneby said after talks with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian that he
believes this year is still “particularly auspicious” for resolving the
conflict. “Indeed, there is a window of opportunity which we need to take
advantage of,” he told reporters.
Semneby, who arrived from Baku for a three-day visit to Yerevan, said the
existing status quo hurts both conflicting parties and the region as a whole.
According to him, neither of the sides should be trying to gain time, as no
one
will benefit from it.
He said delaying the resolution process will hinder Armenia’s economic
development and could result in a military resolution of the conflict.
Semneby said that the EU is not pleased with recent threats made by the Azeri
side about a military solution to the Karabagh conflict.
During the meeting, Semneby also said that his mandate will differ from the
mandate of the former representative Heike Talvitie. He said that the EU
intends to play a greater role in international efforts to broker a compromise
settlement.
Still, the envoy made it clear that the EU believes the peace process should
continue to be spearheaded by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, which is co-chaired by France, Russia, and the
United States. “The Minsk Group is functioning very well,” he said.
“The peace process is alive,” Oskanian said for his part. “We believe that
there are still possibilities for continuing and making additional progress in
the process.”
According to Oskanian, a lot now depends on the results of his Azeri
counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov’s visit to Washington later this week. Mamedyarov
is scheduled to meet the Minsk Group’s US co-chair, Steven Mann, and other
American officials. Oskanian, who met those officials last week, will visit
Moscow at around the same time.
“If they register a convergence of views, there will probably be a visit to
the region by the co-chairs, which may be followed by a meeting of the
[Armenian and Azerbaijani] foreign ministers,” said Oskanian. “But all of this
depends on the results of the upcoming Mamedyarov-Mann meeting.”
Oskanian and Semneby also discussed issues relating to regional cooperation,
Armenia-EU relations, and the development of Armenia’s Neighborhood Policy
Action plan with the EU.

7) EU Will Not Support Alternative Railroad Bypassing Armenia

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–EU Special Representative to the South Caucasus, Peter
Semneby, said during his maiden visit to Armenia that the European Union will
show neither financial nor political support for Turkish-Azeri-Georgian plans
to build an alternative railway from Kars, Turkey to Akhalkalaki and
Tbilisi in
Georgia.
This decision was confirmed by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner on
foreign relations and New Neighborhood Policy.
The new railway would bypass Armenia, further isolating it in the region. The
proposed railway is also opposed because there already exists a railroad
connecting the three cities, which passes through Gyumri in Armenia.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said the EU maintains that
restoration of the existing railroad from Kars to Gyumri is more reasonable
than spending money on construction of a new railroad.

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