Author: Nalbandian Eduard

South Ossetia’s independence will be recognized by 2007 – President Kokoity
20:44

RIA Novosti, Russia
June 1 2005

MOSCOW, June 1 (RIA Novosti) – South Ossetia, a self-proclaimed
republic in Georgia, will certainly have its independence recognized,
de facto and de jure, by 2007, South Ossetian president Eduard Kokoity
said at a press conference in Moscow today.

“Political experts in the West are yielding to recognize, both
de facto and legally, Kosovo, South Ossetia and Nagorny Karabakh
[Armenian-populated area in Azerbaijan]. Current developments in
South Ossetia show we have a genuine republic taken shape, and real
statehood,” he said.

The president does not rule out South Ossetia joining the Russian
Federation after recognition. It may do so through a merger with
North Ossetia, an autonomy in Russia, which borders on South Ossetia.

“International organizations are in dire opposition to that prospect,
and pressuring South Ossetia, to an extent, by saying its recognition
can come under consideration but not in the context of possible
unification with Russia,” said President Kokoity.

The heads of four unrecognized republics, Abkhazia in Georgia, South
Ossetia, Transdniestria in Moldova, and Nagorny Karabakh, intend
to meet in conference within the month. “This conference will be of
extreme importance to the republics. We want to coordinate action,
and help each other to bolster our statehood. Democrats are putting
it differently saying they want to help each other gain freedom.”

Kokoity does not think it necessary for South Ossetia, Abkhazia,
Transdniestria and Nagorny Karabakh to arrange joint military
exercises. “They may be held, but we don’t think we need them very
much as saber-rattling will take us nowhere.”

The unrecognized republics have said on many occasions that they
are willing to come to each other’s rescue in need, “but we prefer
political dialogue.”

The president arrived in Moscow to discuss “integration prospects and
settle the problems of Russian nationals in South Ossetia,” he said.

People who became Russian citizens within a few preceding years make
a majority of the South Ossetian population. “They are encountering
particular problems, with which I try to solve.”

The president’s current visit to Moscow does not envisage contacts with
Russian leader. “We are tackling economic matters now,” Kokoity said.

Baku Today
June 1 2005

Azeri Government’s Approach on the Nagorno Karabakh Conflict Settlement
Conflict settlement concept elaborated

Deputy Foreign Minister and the President’s special envoy on the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict Araz Azimov has elaborated on the Azerbaijani
government’s concept on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.

Azimov told a news conference on Monday that the concept, based
on international legal norms and the recommendations indicated in
the last resolution on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict passed by the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, envisions liberating
occupied lands, repatriating refugees, establishing relations between
the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities and normalizing ties between
the two countries.

Azerbaijan considers Armenians living in Nagorno Karabakh its citizens
and believes that the conflict cannot be settled only by freeing the
occupied lands, he said.

“We consider the liberation of lands a beginning of this process,”
said Azimov, noting that areas should be cleared from landmines
and communication links restored in the future. He added that these
activities will be impossible without the support of the international
community.

ARMENIA AND RUSSIA SHOULD LEARN TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION MUTUAL INTERESTS

YEREVAN, June 1. /ARKA/. National interests of Armenia and Russia
coincide, as stated the Head of the presidential department for
inter-regional and cultural ties with foreign countries Modest
Kolerov. According to him, “we should not agitate each other or
tease with general phrases”. He also advised not to talk to each
other haggling “like us or we will do something else”. According
to Kolerov, “we cannot do without each other”. “When they say that
Armenia cannot do without Russia, I think that the truth is that
Russia cannot do without having relations with Armenia”, he said.
Kolerov noted that if the relations between Armenia and Russia are
based on general interests, then “let political powers have political
haggling”. According to Kolerov, the goal of the state is to give
adequate reply to demand of citizens, “to alleviate their lives, help
to work and study”. Meantime, he stated that probably everybody is
tired of “thunderous statements and terminological investigations”.
He thinks that “one should at least learn to take into account
mutual interests, interests of citizens of two states, learn not
to allow the third or forth powers speculate the relations between
the countries”. “These are our relations, and I see no problems if
some politician calls Armenia or the relations between the countries
somehow – it’s their personal business”, he said. A.H. -0–.

Georgian foreign minister says bases deal does not need parliamentary approval

Interfax news agency, Moscow
30 May 05

Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili has told a news
conference in Moscow that the Russian base agreements do not need to
be endorsed by the Georgian parliament. She thought that about a third
of the current 2,900-strong personnel at the bases would remain in
Georgia and added that they would be allowed to own the flats where
they live free of charge. She also noted that Georgia did not want
to host any foreign military bases on its territory and did not want
to see Russian troops currently stationed in Georgia to be moved to
elsewhere in the Caucasus. The following is an excerpt from a report
by Russian news agency Interfax

Moscow, 30 May: Agreements on the pullout of Russian military bases
from Georgia do not need the endorsement of the Georgian parliament,
Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili told a news conference
in Moscow on 30 May.

Zourabichvili said that a joint Russian-Georgian statement signed in
Moscow “was a political one and there is no need for its ratification
by the Georgian parliament, but a special technical agreement will
be concluded for Russia which will be then submitted for ratification
by the Russian State Duma”.

Zourabichvili said that from the time of the signing of these
agreements the Russian military bases have received the status of
being in pullout mode from Georgia.

[Passage omitted]

Zourabichvili said that according to an assessment by the Georgian
side, nearly one third of the personnel of the Russian military bases
will remain in Georgia. They will receive free of charge the flats,
where they currently live, as private property. She said that a total
of about 2,900 people serve at Russian military bases in Georgia.

Asked whether Georgia is planning to deploy military bases from other
countries on its territory, the minister said that “instructors and
military personnel from other countries, including Russia, will be
present in Georgia at a joint antiterrorist centre, but military
bases are another issue”.

“We have repeatedly said that Georgia does not wish to have any
military bases from foreign states on its territory…[ellipsis as
published], you have to trust us that we are not planning to deploy
other military bases,” she said.

Zourabichvili said that Georgia did not welcome any reinforcement
of foreign military bases on the territory of the Transcaucasus. “We
cannot allow or ban the pullout of part of these bases [in Georgia]
to Russia’s other military bases, for example, those in Armenia. But
we have made every possible effort to ensure that the main part of the
Russian military bases are withdrawn to Russia,” Zourabichvili said.

She said that “we have no desire for foreign military bases to be
present in Georgia, and neither do we want the military bases of
other states to be reinforced elsewhere in the Caucasus”.

Globe and Mail, Canada
May 30 2005

Canadian scholar to join team searching for Noah’s Ark

Monday, May 30, 2005 Page A9

Canadian Press

MONCTON, N.B. — A New Brunswick biblical scholar will join a team of
evangelical Christians this summer as they scale a Turkish mountain
in search of Noah’s Ark.

David Graves, the only Canadian on the team, will join a dangerous
and frigid expedition up Mount Ararat, where the ark is said to have
landed after the great flood.

Even if the ark was left on the mountain, which sits in eastern
Turkey near Armenia and Iran, Mr. Graves, 48, is not sure it would
have survived the ravages of time.

But the trip isn’t so much about proving whether the biblical tale of
the ark is true as it is about conducting a scientific investigation.

“It’s much more about adventure and raw research,” Mr. Graves said.

“It’s not a holy pilgrimage.”

Mr. Graves, an adjunct religious studies instructor at Atlantic
Baptist University, will travel to New Hampshire in the next week to
learn how to use ground-penetrating radar on the expedition.

He is also undergoing rigorous training to make sure he can handle
the 5,100-metre climb in the thin mountain air, and must raise $10,000
to pay for the equipment needed to climb to Ararat’s ice cap.

Mr. Graves will go to Turkey for two or three weeks with members
of Archeological Imaging Research Consortium, or ArcImaging, an
evangelical Christian group dedicated to finding the ark.

Mr. Graves was invited to join after meeting the group’s founder,
Rex Geissler, while on a religious-archeological expedition last year
in Egypt.

“What stood out was his organization and computer skills, and his
ability to put together plans,” Mr. Geissler said in a telephone
interview from Colorado.

“He exhibited a real sense of excitement about the project as well,
and that’s one thing that attracts me to people — when they’re
excited about being a part of it and helping out with it.”

Mr. Graves will use his radar training to map slices of everything
underneath the ice, straight down to the contours of the mountain’s
skin of volcanic rock.

The team will then look for any large anomalies under the ice and
return next year to excavate them.

Shards of wood are not significant enough to be considered a find,
Mr. Geissler said.

“Alleged eyewitnesses have said they saw portion of entire ark or barge
sticking out of the ice cap, so we’re looking for the whole shebang,”
he said.

In the Bible’s Book of Genesis, God tells Noah to preserve life
on Earth by gathering male and female pairs of all animals on the
planet. God then unleashed 40 days and 40 nights of rain, flooding
the Earth.

According to the Bible, when the water subsided, the ark landed in
the Mount Ararat region.

The group’s 18-member team is now waiting for the Turkish government
to okay their research visas.

Mr. Graves said that isn’t an easy step, but it is something that
the research consortium has done before, in 2001, when it obtained
the first permit issued for research on Ararat’s ice cap since 1990.

HARTAVAN VILLAGE OF ARAGATSOTN MARZ SUPPLIED WITH DRINKING WATER

YEREVAN, MAY 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The opening of the drinking water pipe
took place in the village of Hartavan (Aragatsotn marz) on May 27. The
celebrated singer Charles Aznavour was present at the opening
ceremony. The reconstruction of the water pipe was carried out by the
Social Investments Fund of Armenia together with the charity “Aznavour
to Armenia” within the framework of the World Bank (WB) second credit
program worth a total of 20 mln USD. Previously Hartavan village was
supplied with drinking water from a spring built near Kuchak village
in 1960. The accident-prone reservoir of the village was
reconstructed, as well as a water-collecting station was built with
funds of of the program. To recap, within the framework of the
program, 224 programs of community importance were completed, while
another 86 programs are being implemented. According to WB Yerevan
Office Director Roger Robinson, the discussion of a third program is
envisaged.

A1plus

| 18:46:18 | 26-05-2005 | Politics |

WAITING FOR COURT OFFICERS

“A1+” TV Company will be evicted from the building where it has been working
for 15 years. Today the RA Court of Cassations introduced no changes to the
decision by the RA Economic Court, according to which the suit of the
National Academy of Sciences demanding eviction of `A1+’ was upheld.

To remind, the President of `A1+’ was informed about the decision by the
Court of Cassations today at 10.00 a.m.. He was handed a letter stating that
exactly in an hour, at 11.00 a.m. the counter-claim brought by `A1+’ Meltex
LTD on the decision of the Economic Court will be heard.

Today, in the absence of any representative of `A1+’ the Court of Cassations
rendered a decision that was quite predictable.

To remind, `A1+’ company has been occupying the territory for 15 years and
have fulfilled all the obligations provided by the agreement. `At heart I am
even glad. Glad because I was not mistaken in my opinion about the
immorality of our authorities, our juridical system and justice. I only wish
to say that life is a long and twisting path…’, Mesrop Movsesyan said.

Armenpress

250,000 ARMENIANS EAGER TO DANCE CIRCLE DANCE

YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS; Some 250,000 Armenians have said they are
eager to dance around Mount Aragats on May 28. A steering committee handling
the event that will be recorded in the Guinness Book of Records, said
officials on the ground are ordered to set up special tents, movable
toilets, to specify the lists of people wishing to dance around the mountain
and see also to all other preparations
. Many Armenians from other countries are coming to Armenia to join the
dance. The chain of people will stretch for around 170 km and through 106
rural settlements. The dance will be filmed by cameramen from four
helicopters.
The 15-minute long dance will start at 3.00 pm with simple moves-to take
a step forth and then a step back. The participants in the round dance will
arrive at the mountainous stage on May 28, early in the morning. They will
form the circle an hour before the dance begins. And at 3 o’clock in the
afternoon sharp the first 15-minute Unity Round Dance around Mount Aragats
will commence to symbolize the unity of the nation.

Armenia constructive towards Turkey says European Parliament chair

Arminfo
24 May 05

YEREVAN

To enter the European Union, Turkey must meet a number of requirements
that include opening borders with Armenia and recognizing the genocide
of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, the president of the European
Parliament, Josep Borrel, told the speaker of the Armenian parliament,
Artur Bagdasaryan, at a meeting in Brussels.

The president of the European Parliament said that, unlike Ankara,
Armenia has displayed a constructive approach to the issue of
normalizing relations with Turkey. Josep Borrel said that the South
Caucasus region is in the centre of attention of the European
Parliament. He said that the European Parliament always concentrates
its attention on problems pertaining to the South Caucasus republics
because EU countries wish to maintain relations with stable and
predictable states. He also noted that the European Parliament is
ready to help establish a South Caucasus parliamentary assembly which,
by Josep Borrel’s definition, will facilitate the resolution of
regional problems.

At the request of the president of the European Parliament, Artur
Bagdasaryan filled him in on the process of democratic reforms being
conducted in Armenia. Artur Bagdasaryan invited Josep Borrel to pay an
official visit to Armenia. The invitation was accepted.

ARMED FORCES OF ARMENIA KEEP ON BREACHING THE CEASEFIRE
2005-05-21 11:41

Azerbaijan News Service
May 21 2005

Armed forces of Armenia in occupied Daqliq Qarabaq territory of
Azerbaijan continued shooting at the positions of Azerbaijani army.
At midnight on May 20 settlements and arable areas in Aghdam, Tartar
and Fizuli regions were subject to shooting. The opposite side was put
down an answering fire. There is no report of human loss or casualties.