Author: Nalbandian Eduard

Azeris may go to European Court against Armenia – human rights experts

Ekho, Baku
2 Dec 04

Text of R. Orucov and N. Aliyev report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho
on 2 December headlined “It is possible to demand compensation from
Armenia” and subheaded “The European Court of Human Rights recently
set a precedent for this”

The European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] has made an interesting
decision on the case of Ilascu and others against Moldova and Russia
(No. 48787/99). Ilascu and his friends from the Popular Front of
Moldova were held captive by Dniester separatists. Later, he was
recognized as a political prisoner, released under foreign pressure,
left the country and became a Romanian senator. The suit was accepted
although Moldova had disavowed responsibility for the violation of the
European Convention on Human Rights [and Fundamental Freedoms] in the
“Dniester Republic of Moldova”, while Russia had nothing to do with
Dniester territorially.

“The matter is that the Russian army, which was deployed in the region
and acted on the side of the separatists, had been involved in the
arrest of Ilascu. It means Russia was responsible,” the director of
the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, Eldar Zeynalov, said.

The European Court issued a resolution to pay Ilascu 180,000 euroes
and other plaintiffs 120,000 euroes each.

“I think a precedent has already been set, which could be used against
Armenia and Russia in the Karabakh issue. One just needs to have a new
court ruling or prove that the chances to go to Armenian or Russian
courts are exhausted. The most relevant occasion for this are the
recent captives and missing persons (in this case, this is a
continuing violation),” Zeynalov noted.

It is clear that besides former captives, Azerbaijani refugees from
Armenia and internally displaced persons from the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan can also file similar lawsuits against Armenia and
Russia, because they were all victims of the aggression by these two
neighbouring states.

The deputy head of the working group of the Azerbaijani state
commission for prisoners of war, [hostages and the missing], Eldar
Samadov, told Ekho that “a good precedent” has been set,
indeed. Around 1,360 citizens who have been in Armenian captivity as a
result of the aggression by Armenia are living in Azerbaijan today, he
said.

“I think not only former POWs, but also all citizens who have in any
way suffered from Armenia’s invasive policy can file suits with the
European Court. Some have lost their relatives, others houses,
property and land plots,” Samadov said.

The renowned international lawyer, Erkin Qadirov, told Ekho that
besides the Ilascu case, the ECHR also examined the case of a Cypriot
citizen of Greek origin, (Luilidu?). “She used to live in Northern
Cyprus. Once she decided to go to the land she earlier owned, but was
denied entry on the border. After that, she filed a suit with the ECHR
against Turkey and won the case. Although Northern Cyprus doesn’t
officially belong to Turkey, it is controlled by the [Turkish]
army. Lawyers have been saying for quite a long time that Azerbaijani
nationals could file a number of suits with the ECHR against
Armenia. The problem is how to formulate these demands. One of the
refugees should make at least an attempt to go to the occupied lands
and get stopped there. In other words, th ere should be a story for
the case.”

“Under the current circumstances and especially against the background
of all recent diplomatic efforts, it would be more realistic and
useful for Azerbaijan to file an inter-governmental suit with the ECHR
against Armenia,” Qadirov said. “Inter-governmental suits also have
precedents. Their advantage is that unlike individual suits, they can
be abstract rather than specific. Azerbaijan can even bring an
inter-governmental suit against Armenia and accuse it of violating the
rights of its own nationals by compelling them to do their military
service in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. These are different
mechanism and Azerbaijan just needs to try them.”

Incidentally, the media recently circulated reports that a group of
Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons filed a suit
with the ECHR against Armenia, demanding that it pay compensation for
the damage inflicted. Thus, we can have another court precedent in our
favour in case of success.

ACYO GENERAL ASSEMBLY VOTES TO SUPPORT YOUTH IN ENGLAND, AND CONDEMN GENOCIDE
IN SUDAN

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA, December 1 (Noyan Tapan). The 56th annual General
Assembly of the Armenian Church Youth Organization (ACYO) held on
Thanksgiving weekend was a smashing success, the Press Office of the
Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America
reported. His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the
Western Diocese, presided over the gathering of more than 90 delegates
from parishes throughout California and Arizona.

The ACYO Central Council lead the General Assembly through topics
ranging from reports of last year’s activities to the formation of the
first ACYO chapter in Europe and the current Genocide being committed
in the Darfur Region of the Sudan. Uniquely inspiring was the
unanimous vote to accept a resolution condemning the aforementioned
Genocide and calling on the nations of the world to do the same.

His Eminence made time to meet individually with each delegation of
the 20 chapters, to give them the opportunity to discuss their
feelings regarding the Church.

“The presence of the youth in the life of the church reflects the
continuity and the stronger presence of Christ’s Church. I was
overjoyed to see the youth engaged and committed to the mission of the
Church. Their fervor during the 56th General Assembly was inspiring,
and a true expression of the power our youth can have when they are
united in Christ’s name”, exclaimed Archbishop Hovnan Derderian.

Saturday was the election of a new Central council. This council
pledged to continue the previous Council’s initiatives, which include
the strengthening the existing ACYO chapters, establishing new
chapters in the growing Mission parishes throughout the Western
Diocese, and working to make the ACYO a relevant and effective
organization in the life of Armenian Youth. In addition, they will
continue to promote the missions of the ACYO: the Christian Youth
Mission to Armenia, the Brighter Future for Armenia scholarship
program, and the Armenian Alliance for Aid.

A festive banquet took place Saturday night with the attendance of
over 300 youth.

Mark Thatcher’s questioning about coup plot postponed until February

AP Worldstream
Nov 26, 2004

ELLIOTT SYLVESTER — A magistrate on Friday postponed a court
appearance by Sir Mark Thatcher to give his lawyers time to try to
appeal a high court judgment requiring him to answer questions from
Equatorial Guinea about an alleged failed coup attempt.

Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,
had been ordered by a high court on Wednesday to appear in magistrate’s
court Friday to answer the questions under oath posed by Equatorial
Guinea.

Magistrate Helen Alman postponed the appearance until Feb. 18 to give
Thatcher’s lawyers time to appeal the high court ruling.

“We are currently drafting our appeal to address various errors in
the judgment and contend strongly that we have a good prospect for
success,” said Peter Hodes, an attorney for Thatcher.

The postponement of the questioning about the coup came one day after
another magistrate postponed the start of Thatcher’s trial in a South
African court on charges he helped finance a foiled coup attempt in
oil-rich Equatorial Guinea until April 8 for further investigation.

Magistrate Awie Kotze granted the delay at the request of
prosecutors. He also extended Thatcher’s bail conditions, which require
that he remain in the Cape Town area and report daily to police.

Thatcher, who has lived in South Africa since 1995, was arrested at
his suburban Cape Town home on August 25 and charged with violating
this country’s anti-mercenary laws.

He also faces charges in Equatorial Guinea, where 19 other defendants
are already on trial in connection with an alleged plot earlier this
year to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled
Africa’s third-largest oil producer for the past 25 years. Officials
there have said they will seek Thatcher’s extradition from South
Africa.

Equatorial Guinea alleges Thatcher and other, mainly British,
financiers worked with the tiny country’s opposition figures, scores
of African mercenaries and six Armenian pilots in a takeover attempt
foiled in March. Thatcher maintains he played no part in the alleged
conspiracy.

Simon Mann, a former British special forces commander accused of
masterminding the plot, was arrested and convicted with 67 accused
accomplices in Zimbabwe on weapons and other minor charges. Three
others later pleaded guilty to violating South Africa’s Foreign
Military Assistance Act as part of a plea bargain under which
they agreed to give evidence in court against other alleged coup
participants.

ARF MEMBER ARGUES IN FAVOR BOYCOTTING PACE SESSION

ArmenPress
Nov 25 2004

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS: A senior member of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation/Dashnaktsutyun party, questioned today the
wisdom of placing a report on Nagorno Karabagh conflict on the agenda
of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe session, saying
that organization does not have a voting mechanism that would allow
it to enter the conflict regulation process as an unbiased body,
“as each of the conflicting sides would be looking to enlist the
support of delegates from 15-20 countries.”

Levon Mkrtchian of the ARF claimed that that simplified approach to
the conflict regulation places the entire responsibility of its future
fate on a European organization. Mkrtchian praised the wisdom of both
nations for “being reasonable to end the bloody war and replace it
with a ten-year long truce.”

Mkrtchian argued that the Armenian delegation should boycott the PACE
that is expected to discuss the report next year. “There is the OSCE
Minsk group who has been tackling the issue for years and I do not
see any reason behind taking the conflict to PACE,” Mkrtchian said,
adding, however, that these were his own personal viewpoints.

He went on to say that the report prepared by a former PACE rapporteur,
Terry Davis and taken up by his successor David Atkinson, has revealed
that both men do not master the problem on a professional level.

Eight members of Azeri pressure group detained over anti-Armenian protest

ANS TV, Baku
24 Nov 04

Excerpt from report by Azerbaijani TV station ANS on 24 November

[Presenter] The 58th Rose-Roth seminar of the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly is to open in Baku tomorrow [25 November].

To recap, Armenian MPs who are due to attend the seminar are expected
to arrive in Baku tonight. The Karabakh Liberation Organization [KLO]
has started protest actions against this. KLO members are holding
their action at Heydar Aliyev international airport at the moment.

[Correspondent over video of KLO members holding black balloons with
anti-Armenian posters attached to them] KLO activists have started
untraditional protest actions against the expected visit of Armenian
MPs to Baku within the framework of the 58th Rose-Roth seminar of
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. In [Baku’s] Samad Vurgun Garden,
KLO members released into the air black balloons with posters.

[KLO Deputy Chairman Firudin Mammadov] All patriots of Azerbaijan
express their serious protest against the visit of Armenian MPs
to Baku and we insist that the government satisfy the Azerbaijani
people’s demand. Down with the people inviting Armenian MPs who have
occupied Karabakh and legally recognized it.

[Video shows people chanting this slogan and also “Karabakh or death”]

[Correspondent] Baku police tried to seize the protesters’ posters
tied up to the balloons and partially succeeded in doing so. However,
the protesters managed to release into the air the posters attached to
the black balloons also saying – Karabakh or death; Down with those
bringing Armenians to Baku; NATO, don’t support aggressor Armenia;
Aggressor Armenia should be banished from international bodies.

[Passage omitted: reported details]

Ceyhun Asgarov, Emil Babaxanov, ANS.

[Presenter] After the protest action in Samad Vurgun Garden, eight
KLO members were detained and taken to police station No 22.

The intriguing `stone’
By Shukor Rahman

New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Nov 22, 2004

THE new Islamic Museum in Penang is now exhibiting a replica of the
Batu Bersurat or Terengganu Stone, which is the earliest known record
of Malay words in the Arabic script. SHUKOR RAHMAN writes.

A REPLICA of the famous Batu Bersurat or Terengganu Stone has finally
come to Penang. It is occupying pride of place in the lobby of the
new Islamic Museum at the Syed Alatas Mansion in Lebuh Armenian.

The real stone, a 90cm squared off chunk of grey gneissic granite
bearing Arabic inscriptions, is a tangible piece from Malaysia’s past,
and was discovered in Ulu Terengganu almost 120 years ago.

It is the earliest known record of Malay words in the Arabic script
and its secrets, dating over 600 years, still intrigue scholars.

Only experts can read the inscriptions, part of which have been
eroded by time. The flowing Arabic script carries the edicts of a
ruler whose identity is lost, perhaps forever.

Who was the enlightened sultan who published his laws in stone and
left to posterity proof of his devotion to the cause of Islam? The
patient scribe who toiled by the banks of the Sungai Tersat centuries
ago, chiselling imperishably on rock, would most likely have been an
unsung craftsman.

There are hardly any clues to help you pry its secrets. Perhaps the
best you can do is to travel through time to 14th-century Terengganu.

The place is near Kuala Brang, where three rivers meet.

Historians and scholars believe this was once a state capital.

The people of Kuala Brang probably did not know then that among their
contemporaries were Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. The great Khan, who
was lord of Tartary, had his court at Cambaluc, present-day Beijing.

Terengganu of the 14th century must have had a thriving Muslim
community that had accepted Islam as the official religion almost a
century before the Malacca Sultanate was established.

The Terengganu Stone is indeed proof as the opening sentence of the
inscription is an injunction to the ruling chiefs (Mandalikas) to
“expound and uphold the faith”.

The traditional route of Islam to Peninsular Malaysia is generally
believed to be from Arabia to India and Sumatra but there is evidence
that Islam reached China in the 8th century AD and spread to Cham,
Cambodia and Pattani.

For a new religion to be declared as the state religion, there must
be widespread acceptance by the local communities within the state.

We have to allow for at least three generations to pass from the
time the first converts embraced the new faith. If the date of the
Terengganu inscription is 1303 AD, then the evangelising traders
must have been on the east coast at least 100 years earlier, roughly
1200 AD.

This puts the advent of Islam in Peninsular Malaysia 200 years earlier
than the conversion of Parameswara, who founded the Malacca Sultanate
and took the name Sultan Iskandar Shah, and more than 70 years before
Marco Polo stopped at Perlak, Sumatra, and noted the existence of a
Muslim community there.

As for the Terengganu Stone, what is its origins? Unfortunately,
the top part, which could have been onethird of the whole, had broken
off when it was found.

It is nearly 1.2 metres wide at the top and tapers like a wedge. After
it was inscribed, it was most likely planted on the ground, probably
on the river bank near Kuala Brang. It was found 32km upriver from
Kuala Terengganu in 1887.

Annual monsoon floods that year had eroded part of the river bank. When
the waters receded, the mud-encrusted stone was deposited not far
from the village mosque.

Somebody carried it to the mosque where it served as a foot-rest for
worshippers until a prospector from Riau called at the mosque.

It was well past noon when Syed Hussin Ghulam Al-Bukhari, who was
in the district seeking precious minerals, went to the mosque for
prayers. As he was taking his ablutions, his fingers ran gingerly over
the surface of the unusual foot-rest and he felt the indentations,
with a regular and repetitive pattern.

He then asked his assistant Engku Pengiran Anum to scrub away some
of the mud concealing the lettering.

Realising he had made an exciting discovery, he asked the penghulu
and mosque bilal to carry the stone to his boat.

He then presented the stone to the Terengganu ruler, Sultan Zainal
Abidin III. But it was only several years later before the inscriptions
could be deciphered by scholars.

There is something strikingly familiar in the underlying message
of the Terengganu Stone – belief in God, respect the laws and be of
good behaviour and morality. It was a timeless code of conduct for
a medieval community, and which is today enshrined in the Rukunegara.

El Pais, Espana
November 16, 2004

Una exposicion reune la obra fotografica del cineasta Don Askarian

ISRAEL PUNZANO

Barcelona

Imagenes llenas de lirismo. La exposicion Una mirada particular reune
en la sede barcelonesa del Circulo de Lectores (Travessera de Gracia,
45-47) una treintena de fotografias realizadas por el director de
cine armenio Don Askarian. La exposicion, una de las actividades
paralelas de Festival de Cine Independiente de Barcelona, se podra
ver hasta el proximo viernes. Desnudos femeninos inspirados en la
poesia erotica de la Edad Media, paisajes melancolicos y apartes en
los rodajes de sus peliculas son algunos motivos recurrentes en el
imaginario fotografico del cineasta. “Empece con la fotografia antes
de hacerme director de cine. Mi padre conquisto Berlin con el
Ejercito Rojo y trajo un monton de camaras fotograficas alemanas”,
explico ayer Askarian en la presentacion de Una mirada particular. Y
anadio: “Si la comparamos con el cine, la fotografia es una
disciplina mas cercana. Una actividad solitaria y tranquila. Mi
fotografo favorito es Henri Cartier-Bresson”.

El director repaso su biografia para ilustrar una concepcion del cine
alejada de frivolidades y de corses comerciales. “Naci en 1949 en
Stepnakert, capital de la provincia autonoma de Nagorni-Karabaj, que
por entonces pertenecia a Azerbaiyan. Por tanto, creci bajo el
dominio de la Union Sovietica. Aquel era un ambiente muy provinciano
y opresivo. La historia de la URSS era pura propaganda, algo
ridiculo”.

Harto de tanta manipulacion, Askarian aposto por peliculas
comprometidas que recuperaran la memoria historica de su pais. Entre
estos ejercicios destaca el filme Komitas, su obra maestra. “Komitas
era un compositor que padecio el genocidio perpetrado en 1915 por los
turcos contra los armenios. La matanza se inicio con la liquidacion
de la elite intelectual. Los masacraron a casi todos. Komitas logro
salvarse y acabo en un hospital parisiense con graves secuelas
mentales. Cuando le dieron el alta en 1922, no quiso salir de la
clinica y permanecio alli hasta su muerte, acaecida en 1937. Su
historia es la del pueblo armenio. Por eso dedique la pelicula a los
dos millones de victimas de este genocidio”, afirmo el cineasta,
quien puede hablar del exilio en primera persona. “En 1975 me
metieron en la carcel. Me habia declarado insumiso. Me pase dos anos
en prision. Luego emigre a Berlin occidental”, recordo.

De aquella experiencia nacio el compromiso de su filmografia. El
director anuncio que en la actualidad trabaja en dos proyectos: un
documental y una pelicula titulada San Lazaro. “En esta pelicula
planteo de nuevo las mismas preguntas de siempre: Que es identidad?,
que significa el exilio?”.

Official Azerbaijan struggles to come to terms with shadow inflation
by Simon Ostrovsky

Agence France Presse — English
November 14, 2004 Sunday 3:42 AM GMT

BAKU Nov 14 — He wasn’t sure at first, but about a month ago
a shopkeeper in a district on the outskirts of the Azeri capital
noticed that the loaves of bread he stocks were getting smaller.

“You see? It weighs 240 grams (8.4 ounces),” said Elshin, who preferred
not to give his last name. “They’re making the bread smaller so that
they don’t have to sell it at a higher price,” he said as he placed
the bread on an electronic scale.

Like a whole range of consumer products, the round, flat bread, a
staple in Azerbaijan, is feeling inflationary pressure unacknowledged
by the Azeri government but obvious to ordinary people for more than
a month.

For years the bread’s price has stood at 500 manat (10 cents), but a
month ago a standard loaf weighed more than twice as much as it does
now for the same price, Elshin said.

“Only in Azerbaijan could they have come up with this.”

Consumer prices have gone up in the past month by as much as 40 percent
on everything from butter to taxi fares, but the government seems loath
to admit it and official statistics are not registering the change.

At the same time public sector wages and pensions have remained
stagnant, putting many products out of reach for the poor.

Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, where Azerbaijan and its rival
Armenia waged war in the early 1990s, are an especially vulnerable
group hardest hit by the rising prices.

“I can’t afford to buy the most basic things anymore,” said 80-year-old
Jafar Shirinogly, since 1993 a refugee from the Agdam region, which
is currently under Armenian control.

Shirinogly said high oil prices, which have been a boon for
oil-producer Azerbaijan, have not led to an increase in his 20-dollar
monthly pension. “The oil is not for us, our rulers are too corrupt.”

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, told AFP the growth in prices
was natural and there was little that could be done to stop it.

“This is all not a very good phenomenon, neither the government nor
the president are satisfied with this situation, but let’s not make
this out to be a tragedy,” he said.

While prices have risen noticeably over the past month, opposition
parties said it was the government’s sudden decision to raise fuel
prices by as much as threefold earlier this month that really triggered
the crunch on other consumer goods.

“The government should create a stable social net for the population
before taking these steps,” said Gulamguseyn Aliyev, deputy chairman
of the People’s Front party in Azerbaijan’s parliament.

On Wednesday, police disbanded a protest against higher fuel prices
staged by the party near city hall in Baku, arresting 16. The
protesters were released the same day.

Economists agree in part with the People’s Front — Azerbaijan
recently caved in to the demands of the International Monetary Fund
to get its domestic fuel prices in line with world market value —
but an unusually high level of corruption in the Azeri economy is
also to blame for the inflation, they say.

The government claims inflation has remained static at a rate of six
percent, but Nazim Imanov, an independent economist in Baku, said
high levels of corruption have led to a real inflation rate that is
closer to 10 percent.

“No large transaction in Azerbaijan goes through without a bribe
being paid to an official, so when officials start asking for more,
overall prices go up,” he said.

Corruption effects the prices in subtler ways, too, according to
Imanov.

“Officials inflate costs for state-funded projects so that they can
stick the remainder in their pocket — they are essentially increasing
money inflow, which also leads to inflation,” he said.

“This is especially true for a country that is getting oil windfalls.”

A recent study by Transparency International, the global corruption
watchdog, gave Azerbaijan one of its lowest overall “clean” scores,
ranking it 140th on a list of 146 countries.

But big business and the government are willing to turn a blind eye
to the corruption and the inflation that comes with it if it means
there can be stability, said Rena Safaraliyeva, executive director
of Transparency International in Azerbaijan.

“This is unacceptable if we want to develop the economy outside of
the oil sector,” Safaraliyeva said.

Economists say inflation in healthy doses is good for the economy,
because it makes local products cheaper to buy with foreign currency,
which encourages exports.

But according to Imanov, prices are growing in dollar values as well,
erasing any gain a depreciating manat could have given domestic
producers interested in export.

“The dollar and the manat are both so widely used here that they are
interchangeable, so when prices grow in manat, they grow in dollars
too, this is a very rare phenomenon,” he said.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 12, 2004, Friday

TAJIKISTAN AND ARMENIA DON’T PAY THEIR FULL SHARES FOR MAINTAINING
RUSSIAN BORDER GUARDS

The press service of the State Auditing Chamber circulated a
communique of the Chamber’s meeting last Friday, dedicated to
revision of results of using the federal property and federal budget
appropriations to upkeep the border groups in Tajikistan and Armenia.
(…)

The audit done by the Auditing Chamber has displayed that “issues
related to financing of border units by the states in which they are
deployed still persist.” Over January-June 2004, Tajikistan has
failed to transfer 263,730,000 rubles and Armenia – 3,186,000 rubles
to maintain the Russian border guards.

At the session it was decided to submit a statement into the Russian
Finance Ministry and the Russian Border Service of the FSB, as well
as an information letter into the government.

Source: Kommersant, November 10, 2004, p. 14

Armenians, Azeris continue clashes over joint conferences

The Messenger, Georgia
Nov 12 2004

According to the Azeri newspaper Zerkalo.Baku, the European Union,
Council of Europe and State Duma of the Russian Federation all made
the offer to hold meetings of the heads of the parliaments of the
South Caucasus countries. According to the Speaker of Mili Mejlisa of
Azerbaijan Murtuz Aleskerov, Azerbaijan is not against this initiative.

According to the paper, one meeting of the speakers of the parliament
of the South Caucasus countries was held recently in Versailles
Palace near Paris by the initiative the chair of senate of France
Christian Ponsole. As Aleskerov said, participants of the meeting were
informed about the cases of destruction of some Azeri cultural-historic
monuments as the result of aggression from Armenia. “Talk regarding
the regional cooperation can take place only after the release of
Azeri lands, the return refugees and forced immigrants to their native
land. Armenian-Azeri, Nagorno-Karabakh, and also Georgian conflicts
are the main obstacles for the development of the Caucasus region,”
said Aleskerov.

According to the speaker, the Armenian side did not present
any important ideas regarding the issues which were discussed,
particularly, regarding the Karabakh conflict, and only noted that they
support the settlement of this problem in a peaceful way. “The Azeri
delegation once again stated that the problem must be settled within
the framework of the international rights and territorial integrity of
the country, and we will not step back from our standpoint,” he said.

As for the participation of an Armenian delegation in the forthcoming
conference to be held in Baku in the end of November, “Rose-Road” of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the NATO, Alekserov noted that their
participation “does not present much importance for us, though we
are not against their arrival.”

Meanwhile, reports surfaced that the Armenian side intends to take
part in the conference “Rose Road” being organized by the Parliamentary
Assembly of NATO in Baku. Earlier this year, authorities of Azerbaijan
did not allow an Armenian delegation to attend the training exercises
NATO Best Effort 2004. Proceeding from this fact, the training was
cancelled.

As head of the commission in the defense issues, national security and
internal affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia Mger Shakhgeldian
stated that besides himself MPs Alekasn Karapetian and Artur Petrosian
will be a part of the Armenian delegation. Shakhgeldian noted that
the Armenian side has already informed organizers of the conference
regarding its decision.

As for visas, the Armenian MPs will receive them upon arrival in
Baku. The conference Rose Road is planned to be held on November 26-28,
despite the fact that some local Azerbaijan parties and organizations
have held demonstrations against the Armenians’ arrival.