Author: Khoyetsian Rose

AZERBAIJAN EXPECTS US TO ASSIST TO FAIR SOLUTION TO KARABAKH CONFLICT – MP

news.az
April 8 2010
Azerbaijan

Ali Ahmadov Azerbaijan’s ruling party representative expects US to
assist to fair solution to Karabakh conflict.

The main expectation of Baku from Washington is demonstration
of unbiased approach to solving the Karabakh problem, said deputy
chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan party Ali Ahmadov.

"The greatest of our expectations from the United States is
demonstration of a fair position in the Karabakh conflict resolution,
provision of significant support (to its settlement), and persuasion
of Azerbaijani people that America is not only a herald of justice,
but also a supporter of this", A. Ahmadov told journalists Thursday.

According to him, the failure to appoint the US Ambassador to
Azerbaijan for a long time is purely technical issue that does not
affect the development of comprehensive relations between Baku and
Washington like the US side assures.

Ahmadov also expressed hope that Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey
during the upcoming talks with US. President Barack Obama will inform
him about general approach of Ankara and Baku to the resolution of
the Karabakh problem.

"Turkey and its current authorities demonstrate quite a sensitive
approach to the problem of Azerbaijan related to Nagorno Karabakh. In
this regard, the Turkish authorities openly spoke with the relevant
statements, and to this day they have shown and proved that they stand
behind their statements. I hope that it will be like that from now on
", said the representative of the ruling party of Azerbaijan.

FIELD OF AUDIT SERVICES PAID AMD4.375MLN TO STATE BUDGET DURING FIRST QUARTER OF 2010

PanARMENIAN.Net –
April 7, 2010 – 19:30 AMT 14:30 GMT

The Armenian Ministry of Finance issued nine licenses for
implementation of audit activity during the first quarter of 2010.

During the same period, one license was suspended and one was restored.

Besides, persons implementing audit were fined at the amount of AMD
605thous. from January to March 2010, as well as state fees at the
amount of 4.375mln were paid as provided by the law, out of which
4.25mln were paid by audit companies and 125,000 – by private auditors.

33 audit organizations and nine private auditors are licensed in
Armenia as of April 1, 2010.

FORMER PRESIDENT OF BELGIAN SENATE: "THE EUROPEAN UNION ATTACHES NOT SO MUCH IMPORTANCE TO THE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT TODAY" – EXCLUSIVE

APA
April 7 2010
Azerbaijan

"The European Union must leave the OSCE Minsk Group behind and
demonstrate its positions on the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh
conflict"

Brussels. Fuad Gulubeyli – APA. "I am a professor of political
sciences at the Paris University at the same time and reading
lectures about the South Caucasian countries. I am taking great
interest in Azerbaijan because it is one of the main actors in the
geopolitical processes in the South Caucasus. I am working to make
my students of a special study of the Caucasus", former President
of the Belgian Senate and Independent Senator Anne-Marie Lizin told
APA European bureau in Brussels. She reminded about her activity
as the Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. "While
taking the office in this organization you must address the election
issues of the member countries you like it or not. I was monitoring
the presidential elections in Armenia n 2008 while working for the
OSCE. I was in the observation mission during the Georgian elections,
in the OSCE mission during the Georgian-Russian war and just therefore
I know these countries and processes there well. I could see different
aspects between those three countries and understood that how important
country is Azerbaijan for us".

Anne-Marie Lizin said in fact few Europeans thought about their
dependence on the energy resources. "It is great mistake that they
don’t know Azerbaijan closely today. Experts of some leading oil and
gas companies really know this country, but most of the Europeans
don’t have an idea about this region located between the two seas.

Most of the talks are about the conflicts in the South Caucasus and
I also express my ideas about this issue. I think that we have to
note first of all the Russia’s role while speaking about the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. But the European Union must also play its role in
the peaceful solution to the conflict. I consider that EU must be
more active and leave the OSCE Minsk Group behind and demonstrate
its position discussing the problem with Russia to achieve serious
progress".

Anne-Marie Lizin said The European Union was attaching not so much
importance to this conflict today. "We are indirectly playing any
role in the process of solution to this conflict today, but it
is seen clearly that this role is not in favor of Azerbaijan when
we are specking about Turkey. For example, when we demand Turkey
to normalize relations with Armenia, it has negative impact on
Azerbaijan’s position. But other question is that UN Security Council
passed resolutions in favor of Azerbaijan and this issue should be
discussed with Russia at first. I consider that the possibility of
the solution of this dossier should be just in this level".

Pratik Kanjilal
March 26, 2010

First Published: 22:51 IST(26/3/2010)
Last Updated: 22:57 IST(26/3/2010)

Yet another colonial hangover

Life on Kolkata’s Park Street will not be the same after the
devastating fire in Stephen Court. The hub of social life and
entertainment almost since the city was founded, the street has
recently been trying to recover from its decline during Marxist
rule. Now, its regeneration could falter. Kolkata is an old-style city
with a sense of public decency. The tragedy will be mourned for years
to come and going out for a bit of fun on the street where so many
people died needlessly could feel unnatural.

People are also mourning the destruction of a landmark of the colonial
skyline. Interestingly, though Stephen Court was a Raj period
building, it was not built by a colonial. In fact, much of the
remarkable heritage architecture of the Presidency towns is of Asian
provenance. The English mainly built government institutions to rule
from, educational institutions to generate manpower and barracks for
the military which kept them in power. They built an astonishing
number of barracks. In fact, one of Kolkata’s satellite towns is
called Barrackpore. Ironically, that’s where the 1857 rising started,
precipitated by the court martial of the turbulent sepoy Mangal
Pandey.

Stephen Court was built by the Isfahani Armenian Arathoon Stephen
(1861-1927), who arrived in Kolkata dirt-poor and became a real estate
baron. His impoverished refugee origin may be an exaggeration, since
his family was perhaps already in India when Pandey was turning up the
heat. But he was certainly a merchant prince committed to
institution-building. His most remarkable property was a Chowringhee
boarding house he took over from a Mrs Monk and turned into the iconic
Grand Hotel. When business declined in 1938 following Kolkata’s great
cholera epidemic, it was bought on the cheap by a certain Mohinder
Singh Oberoi. The Oberoi Grand was a lucky buy, minting money during
the war years when thousands of Allied soldiers were billeted there
and partied with single-minded determination as they waited to be
shipped out to fight the Japanese. It became the seed of the
transnational Oberoi chain of hotels.

The British did not exclusively build the colonial skyline, as we
imagine.

Mercantile Asians, notably the Armenians, also invested in building
modern India. Armenians were trading with the Malabar coast from the
8th century and the seed of the British Empire, the Mughal firman
allowing the East India Company to set up shop in Bengal, was brokered
by an Armenian named Khoja Sarhad. By the time of Stephen, about
30,000 Armenians were settled in India. And when Armenia was under
Soviet rule, this nation persecuted throughout history valued India as
a safe haven for its church.

In 2003, the Calcutta High Court ruled that the Company functionary
Job Charnock could not be identified as the founder of Kolkata. The
evidence against him included mention of the town in Abul Fazl’s
Ain-i-Akbari and the popular medieval text Manasa Mangal. But the
court neglected the most damning evidence: the oldest Christian
gravestone in India, in Kolkata’s Armenian Church. It is that of an
Armenian woman named `Rezabibi, wife of the late charitable Sookias,
who departed from this world to life eternal’ in 1630. At the time,
Charnock was a suckling babe in London. So much for the British
creating modern India!

Pratik Kanjilal is publisher of The Little Magazine.
n [email protected]
The views expressed by the author are personal.

WILL THE U.S. STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY IN AZERBAIJAN?
by Ali Karimli

The Washington Post
April 2, 2010 Friday

Many Americans may know my country, Azerbaijan, for its oil wealth or
for its conflict with Armenia over the territory of Nagorno Karabakh.

A March 5 article in The Post portrayed a nation whose ruling family
appears to own $75 million worth of luxury villas in Dubai. Few of
us in Azerbaijan were surprised by a report that President Ilham
Aliyev’s family apparently invests assets abroad. What else should
be expected from a leader who inherited power from his father through
fraudulent elections?

Aliyev’s brutal crackdown on the opposition and independent media began
with his election in October 2003. Thousands of Azeris protesting
the transfer of power — more succession than an election — were
arrested and beaten. As opposition supporters languished in jail,
then-deputy U.S. Secretary of State Richard Armitage phoned Aliyev
to congratulate him on his "landslide" victory. Democratic voices of
protest were stifled by the blows of police batons. Western powers were
eager to work with a new leader they viewed as young and progressive.

Nearly two years later, on the eve of the 2005 parliamentary elections,
Azeri democrats inspired by the support Western nations had given
to the Rose and Orange democratic revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine
decided to again challenge Aliyev’s authoritarian regime.

Events unfortunately played out along now-familiar lines: The
government falsified election results; opposition protests were
crushed; yet Washington praised the work of Azerbaijan’s Constitutional
Court, which had just approved false election results.

Aliyev apparently interpreted the international community’s silence
as carte blanche to turn a country with long-standing democratic
traditions into a fiefdom. The government evicted major opposition
parties from their centrally located headquarters. Independent media
also felt the wrath. One outspoken editor of an opposition magazine
was fatally shot in March 2005; several others received harsh prison
sentences on trumped-up charges.

There was a time when Azerbaijan’s future looked promising. In the
1980s, Azerbaijan was at the forefront of the democratic movements
that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1992, we held our
first democratic elections. Abulfaz Elchibey, leader of the Popular
Front, won 59 percent of the vote. Elchibey viewed himself as a
political heir to the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
in 1918. Azerbaijan was the first nation in the Muslim world to
establish a parliamentary democracy that granted universal suffrage,
preceding many Western countries.

But these days, the only vote that counts is that of Ilham Aliyev.

After "winning" his second presidential term last year, in an election
with no viable opposition alternative, Aliyev and his rubber-stamp
parliament conspired to change the constitution, through a referendum,
to lift term limits on the presidency.

The next parliamentary elections are to be held in November. The
democratic opposition is once again preparing to challenge the regime.

While there are no indications that the government’s behavior will
differ from that of years past, we have decided to participate in
the election process because we recognize that this is our chance to
fight for our ideals.

Our platform is simple: We intend to establish a functional democracy
in our country. Azerbaijan has a resourceful populace, and we can
and must decrease our nation’s dependence on oil. We must break the
economic monopolies controlled by corrupt officials. Our goal is
to establish a free, market-based economy. We want Azerbaijan to
integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community of nations, ending its
status as a satellite of autocratic Russia.

As we continue our struggle for freedom, it is vital that the United
States pursue appropriate action with regard to the largest nation
in the South Caucasus. Bilateral relations have long been based on
cooperation on energy, security and democratic development. Sadly,
many Azeris see U.S. policy as driven by energy interests and the
global war against terrorism. To us, it seems that democracy gets
short shrift. We hope the Obama administration will make clear to
Azerbaijan’s leader that democratic reforms and human rights are a
priority in U.S.-Azeri relations.

American policymakers should have learned from countries in the Middle
East and other areas that authoritarian, corrupt regimes do not make
reliable allies. Nor is their "stability" based on the consent of
the governed. The democratic opposition in Azerbaijan does not seek
intervention or financial assistance from the United States. What we
need is the moral support of an America that stands by its own values.

Ali Karimli is chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan and
co-founder of Azadlig (Freedom) Political Bloc of Opposition Parties.

TURKISH COUNCIL OF MINISTER DECIDES TO RETURN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.04.2010 12:30 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s Council of Ministers has decided to send
ambassador Namik Tan back to the U.S. It was also decided that Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will take part in the Nuclear Security Summit
in Washington while attendance of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
is still in doubt.

According to Hurriyet, Turkey’s rejection to participate in the summit
and return ambassador to the U.S. will give a trump card to Armenia.

The newspaper also says that Secretary Clinton assured Turkey that
the Armenian Genocide resolution will not be put on the House floor
and President Obama will not use the term Genocide in his April 24
address to the Armenian community.

Turkish Prime Minister is still considering his visit to Washington.

"If I decide not to go, I will send Mr. Tan," Erdogan said.

EX-KARABAKH LEADER WARNS OF ANOTHER WAR
Sargis Harutyunyan

le/1998091.html
30.03.2010

Samvel Babayan, a former military leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, warned
on Tuesday of a growing threat of another Armenian-Azerbaijani war
which he said may break out "at any moment."

"Things are moving towards the war path because Azerbaijan has the
impudence to demand everything and refuse to give up anything," Babayan
told a news conference. "This suggests that it is pushing for war."

"The situation is really dangerous. The war can start at any moment,"
he said.

Babayan, who led Karabakh Armenian forces during much of their
successful 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan, claimed that the only factor
that has prevented renewed fighting so far is what he called a lack
of Azerbaijani self-confidence.

"Azerbaijan realizes that if it restarts the war and fails on the
battlefield, it will lose not just 13-20 percent of its territory but
maybe 50 percent and that no mediator will be able to stop that,"
he said. "Mindful of that, it realizes that it should prepare for
the battle very well."

The remarks contrasted with a statement made by Armenia’s Karabakh-born
Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian last week. Ohanian, who was also a
wartime Karabakh military commander, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service
that another war with Azerbaijan is unlikely at this juncture.

He earlier dismissed continuing Azerbaijani threats to take back
Karabakh and Azerbaijani territories surrounding it by force.

Babayan, who has been based in Yerevan since 2005, again predicted
that the Karabakh peace process will remain deadlocked in the years
ahead. He also said the international mediators’ recently modified
plan to end the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute favors Azerbaijan and
will therefore be rejected by Armenia.

"As far as I know, [President] Serzh Sarkisian will not opt for such
mutual concessions," said Babayan. He claimed that the mediators’
existing proposals are very similar to their 1997 peace plan that
called for Armenian withdrawal from occupied Azerbaijani districts
and indefinitely delayed agreement on Karabakh’s status.

Then Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian was forced by his key
ministers and the Karabakh Armenian leadership to resign after
advocating that plan.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TRADE SHOW TOUTS ARMENIA

Glendale News Press
10/03/29/business/gnp-travel032910.txt
March 29 2010
CA

Having succeeded in boosting numbers from Europe, the former Soviet
republic is trying to attract more tourists from the U.S.

By Michael J. Arvizu Published: Last Updated Sunday, March 28, 2010
10:10 PM PDT

A performance at Yerevan’s Opera House. Coffee at a cafe on Abovyan
Street or around Opera Square. On a clear day, climb the Cascade
steps for the best view of Mount Ararat. For a night out, there’s
live jazz music at the Stop Club on Moskovian Street.

A trip to Armenia’s capital could yield an array of options for a
traveler’s itinerary, a plan that government officials there are
promoting to more potential tourists.

The Armenian Travel Development Agency, based in Yerevan, the
Glendale-based Armenian American Chamber of Commerce, and Consulate
General of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles represented Armenia
in its first-ever appearance at the annual Los Angeles Times Travel &
Adventure show last month.

Armenia’s appearance at the trade show was a good start toward making
people aware of what the former Soviet republic has to offer in terms
of history and culture, said Zaven Kazazian, president of the Armenian
American Chamber of Commerce Greater Los Angeles Chapter.

"We’ve done a good job in Europe as far as attracting tourists," said
Kazazian. But the tourist market from the United States has been rather
weak compared to other countries, such as Russia and Georgia, he added.

The trade show is part of Armenia’s strategy to attract more tourists
and to create a new U.S. market for tourism. Most tourists to Armenia
are part of the diaspora, and are there to visit family, friends or
the homeland, Kazazian said.

About one-third of all Armenians actually live in Armenia, said Vice
Consul Sahak Sargsyan.

"Our main intention in having this show is to attract non-Armenians,"
said Kazazian.

Armenia’s journey to the travel show began when Kazazian and
Armenian American Chamber of Commerce President Nick Hacopian
attended a previous travel show and noticed that Armenia was not
being represented.

"It’s a wonderful destination," said Kazazian.

"With that in mind, Nick and I met with the consul general’s office
and the vice consul was very kind to join our group, and we formed
a committee. We started putting together the entire expo booth."

Comprised of two booths, Armenia’s exhibit drew "overwhelming" numbers,
said Hacopian. Each booth featured pictures, fliers and brochures
detailing every nuance of the country, from places of worship and
places to eat, to excursions within Armenia like Nagorno Karabakh,
a Christian worship place dating from the fourth century BC, to
contemporary spots like the Malkhas jazz club on Pushkin Street.

Although the location of the exhibition helped to draw a large number
of people, Hacopian said, it was also about the sheer interest show
goers had about Armenia in general.

A state show was also produced, where native dancers and musicians
performed. Educational sessions were also held on the country and
what it offered.

"That created a general interest and an attraction for more people
to come to the booth," said Kazazian.

There were generally two types of people who visited Armenia’s booth:
those who knew a lot about the country, and those who knew very little
about it, or even its location, he added.

"We did this to highlight that Armenia is a country that you should
include in your travels, whether it’s a destination or is part of a
whole tour," said Sargsyan.

"We also want to encourage a number of tour operators to include
Armenia as part of their ongoing tours to the region."

Photo: From left, Armenian American Chamber of Commerce Central
Board President Nick Hacopian, Consulate General of the Republic of
Armenia in Los Angeles Sahak Sargsyan and Armenian American Chamber of
Commerce, Greater Los Angeles Chapter President Zaven Kazazian at the
Chamber’s office in Glendale on Thursday. The AACC will participate
in its first-ever Los Angeles Times Travel and Adventure Show. (Raul
Roa/News-Press)

Public Television of Armenia
March 25 2010

Armenian leader denies reports on "arrangements" in Karabakh talks

[Presenter-read report] Both Armenian-Turkish [normalization] process
and an option of mutual concessions in the Karabakh issue will not be
secret, and the last word will be reserved for our people, [Armenian]
President [Serzh] Sargsyan has said in Syria’s city of Aleppo. The
president said conversations on some secret arrangements and
concessions are a tale, which has been repeating for long years
already

[Sargsyan speaking at an outdoor meeting] We are not ready for
unilateral concessions on the Karabakh issue. We say "yes", this issue
is a painful issue, this issue has deep roots, this issue may demand
long time for settlement, but this issue can be solved exclusively on
the basis of mutual concessions and of course in a peaceful way. If we
see mutual concessions which Azerbaijanis suggest, when there are such
suggestions, dear compatriots, – when we are suggested an option of
the settlement – we will never keep this option in secret. And we will
publicize this option by all means, like [we did with]
Armenian-Turkish relations. If our people considers this solution
acceptable, then we will approve it, if not – then not. All the rest –
conversations that as if there are some secrete arrangements, [that]
there are already options of decisions, [that] they [the Armenian
authorities] have already given this and got that – all these are
tales. All these [reports] have been going on for long years already
and we cannot engage into an auction on the Karabakh issue, because
Karabakh is invaluable for all of us.

The Russian Oil and Gas Report (Russia)
March 26, 2010 Friday

AZERBAIJAN-TURKEY QUARREL PLACES NABUCCO PROJECT AT RISK

Turkey and Azerbaijan have suspended talks on natural gas supplies
from Azerbaijan to Europe. Reuters notes that these negotiations, on
which the Nabucco pipeline’s fate depends, have been suspended on
account of Turkey’s efforts to normalize relations with Armenia.

"Our talks with Azerbaijan have been on hold for four to six weeks,
and the main problem is political," said Turkish Energy Minister Taner
Yildiz. He also noted that it remains unclear whether Azerbaijan has
accepted Turkey’s offer to charge less than market rates for gas
transit to Europe. Neither have the negotiators made any decisions
regarding second-phase development at the Shah Deniz gas field,
scheduled for 2014-16.

The differences between Turkey and Azerbaijan work to Russia’s
advantage, since they undermine the Nabucco project’s positions in the
Caspian region. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan said in October
2009 that Turkey had led the gas talks into a dead end; he also
threatened to sell his country’s gas to Russia and Iran. Azerbaijan
may also join the project working on the gas pipeline from
Turkmenistan, via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, to China – whose economy
needs more and more energy resources.

In October 2009, Gazprom signed a contract to buy up to 500 billion
cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan in 2010. In late December, the
State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) announced that
this export figure would be doubled. The Gazprom -SOCAR contracts
don’t set an upper limit for gas exports from Azerbaijan to Russia.
Gazprom said in January 2010 that it intends to buy as much gas as
Azerbaijan wants to sell.

Gazprom also wants to buy gas from the Shah Deniz offshore field, with
reserves estimated at 1.3 trillion cubic meters. The European Union is
interested in the same field as a resource base for Nabucco.

The Nabucco project, competing with the Russia-backed South Stream gas
pipeline, is managed by a consortium of European companies including
OMV (Austria), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria), Botas (Turkey), RWE (Germany),
MOL (Hungary), and Transgaz (Romania). In contrast to South Stream,
Nabucco will bypass Russia.

Nabucco is intended to be an extension of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas
pipeline. From there, it will run via Turkey to the Balkan states and
then to Austria. Nabucco is scheduled to start operating in 2014. Yet
it still remains unclear where the gas to fill this pipeline will come
from.

Source: Lenta.ru, March 23, 2010; RBC.ru, March 23, 2010

Translated by InterContact