Author: Navasardian Karapet

Armenians staging military exercises in occupied Azeri district – agency

Azerbaijani news agency APA
18 Aug 06

Baku, 18 August: The Armenian armed forces have started large-scale
military exercises in the occupied Agdam District. The enemy is using
heavy artillery and armoured hardware in the military exercises,
the Karabakh bureau of APA reports.

It is not known when the exercises will end. The military exercises
of the Armenian armed forces can be observed from villages close to
the contact line.

ARA HOVSEPYAN ASSIGNED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF "MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE ACCOUNT – ARMENIA" FOUNDATION

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Aug. 17, 2006

YEREVAN, August 17 /ARKA/. Ara Hovsepyan was assigned Executive
Director of Millennium Challenge Account – Armenia Foundation, Deputy
Minister of Finance and Economy David Avetisyan told journalists today.

He said that Hovsepyan’s nomination was approved at a sitting of the
Millennium Challenge Account administrative board.

Avetisyan reported that 48 nominations were put forward for this post;
however, more than half of them did not meet the official requirements.

"Ara Hovsepyan is really a strong contender and fitted most for this
post," Avetisyan said.

In his turn, Hovsepyan expressed gratitude for the trust in him,
and pointed out that he realizes the whole responsibility that this
post imposes on him.

"The program of the Millennium Challenge Account Corporation in Armenia
is a unique opportunity to improve the infrastructure in the Armenian
regions," he said.

Ara Hovsepyan holds a Master’s Degree of the Oxford University and the
American University of Armenia. He worked as a representative of the
British Ministry of Development in Armenia, and also at the Department
of International Organizations of the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

On March 27, 2006, Armenian Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan
Khachatryan and Executive Director of the American Millennium Challenge
Account Corporation John Danilovich signed an agreement in Washington,
DC.

According to the agreement, the corporation will give Armenia
$235.65mln loan for five years for implementation of projects on
restoration of irrigation systems and regional roads.

The Millennium Challenge Account Corporation was founded at the
beginning of 2004 under the U.S. State Department program, aimed at
developing economy and poverty reduction in the world.

POET GEVORG GILANTS’ BILINGUAL COLLECTION PUBLISHED IN MOSCOW

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Aug 15 2006

MOSCOW, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On the initiative
of the "Mitk" Armenian Youth Union of Moscow and with the assistance
of the "Russian-Armenian Concord" Moscow regional organization,
the presentation of the "Fly, My Beast" collection of poems of poet
Gevorg Gilants, graduating student of the Higher Literature Courses
of the Literature Institute after M.Gorky, took place on August 11
at the Brusov House-Museum (museum of "silver century").

As they stated at the editorial office of the "Yerkramas" (country)
newspaper of Armenians of Russia, Svetlana Vasilenko, the Board
Chairwoman of the Union of Russian Poets, and prose-writer, scenario
writer Armen Zurabov made speeches at the presentation. Gilants’
book puts side by side not only Armenian and Russian lines, it’s
a bilingual book, a book of poems and translations, standing side
by side. Gilants is an emphasized Armenian poet, traditions of the
Armenian culture and innovation characters of this poetry, everything
is indissolubly connected with Armenia. The following is written in
the postface to the collection: "Armenian poet Gilants does not sing
of Armenia. He has another nature of gift. He is ill of Armenia, he
suffers from it, he lives with it every minute. He strives to show
and shows it to Armenians, especially to those who does not know the
Armenian language, and says: "this is our riches, this is our poverty."

RAILA AND WAMBUI FACE QUIZ ON ARTURS
Story By Bernard Namunane

The Daily Nation, Kenya
Aug. 15, 2006

MP Raila Odinga, political activist Mary Wambui and her daughter
Winnie Wangui plus businessman Kamlesh Pattni are on a list of high
profile witnesses who are to be interviewed afresh over the security
scandal involving the Armenian Artur brothers.

Also listed for questioning are the entire top brass of the country’s
security system, including intelligence chief Michael Gichangi, Chief
of General Staff Jeremiah Kianga and Police Commissioner Hussein Ali.

They are to be quizzed by a Parliamentary committee over the activities
of the so-called brothers – condemned as major international criminals
– and in particular the way they breached security at Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport which led to them being deported.

And the committee is hoping to ensure all the witnesses give their
evidence in public – unlike previous witnesses who were heard in
private after Parliament’s Business Committee blocked the committee’s
pleas for public hearings.

A co-chairman of the joint committee, MP Ramadhan Kajembe, accused
Justice minister Martha Karua of blocking its bid for public hearings,
"on one or two spurious grounds".

They would wait for Parliament to resume before asking the House to
allow hearings in public, he said,

And the other co-chairman, MP Paul Muite, commented: "We want the
public to hear what is being said so that when anybody skips a
question, the jury will be in the public court."

The list of new witnesses includes big names not called by the Kiruki
Commission of Inquiry which wound up its public hearings on Friday
last week.

The Parliamentary committee released a list of 34 fresh names,
as it revealed its members would travel to Abu Dhabi in the United
Arab Emirates to interview the brothers, Mr Artur Margaryan and Mr
Artur Sargsyan.

The brothers were deported to Dubai, the commercial centre of the UAE,
but the Kenyan embassy, where the hearings are likely to be held,
is at Abu Dhabi the emirates’ capital.

The committee said it had become crucial for the key people in the
debacle to be questioned following what they said was the failure of
the commission chaired by former police commissioner Shedrach Kiruki
to call crucial witnesses.

The committee said the activities of the two Armenians touched on the
centre of the country’s security and that the truth must be unravelled.

"This has become even more critical given that the the Presidential
Commission of Inquiry elected not to invoke the power to compel
attendance of witnesses conferred on it by the Commissions of Inquiries
Act, Cap 102 of the laws of Kenya," they said in a statement read by
Mr Kajembe.

"There is a compelling need to have an inquiry that for once gets to
the bottom of the matters being investigated," he added.

Public hearings

The commission brought down the curtain on its public hearings
without summoning key people who had been linked to the entry, stay
and deportation of the two Armenians.

The only key person to go before the commission was Internal Security
minister John Michuki. Even then, he only spent 15 minutes on the
witness stand.

Yesterday, the joint committee, comprising two committees – one on
Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs chaired by Mr Muite and
the other on Security, Administration and Local Authorities headed
by Mr Kajembe – vowed to summon all key witnesses in the affair.

Said Mr Muite, MP for Kabete: "This committee, in fact, intends to
use its powers as provided for in the National Assembly (Powers and
Privileges) Act to compel witnesses to come and testify."

So far, they said, the committee had questioned 32 witnesses in private
after their attempts to be exempted from Parliament’s Standing Orders
and hold the hearings in public were blocked by the House Business
Committee. "We have more additional witnesses whom we intend to call,"
he said.

The names on the list have been separated according to the roles they
are alleged to have played in the Arturs affair.

Quizzed about general security issues regarding the brothers will be
Mr Odinga, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, minister Michuki, Police Commissioner
Ali, National Security Intelligence Services boss Michael Gichangi
and Special Adviser to the President Stanley Murage.

Others in that category include Civil Service head Francis Muthaura,
Chief of General Staff General Jeremiah Kianga, State House Comptroller
Hyslop Ipu, suspended CID director Joseph Kamau, Nairobi police
boss King’ori Mwangi, and the city’s criminal investigations officer
Isaiah Osugo.

The Armenians themselves, Mr Margaryan and Mr Sargsyan, are placed
in this group.

Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka were the first to blow the whistle on the
presence of the Artur brothers in the country when they claimed the
two were mercenaries hired to carry out political assassinations.

But Mr Margaryan countered the claim with allegations that they had
lent Sh108 million to Mr Odinga and had hosted Mr Musyoka in Dubai.

Those to be questioned in relation to the arrest and subsequent
deportation of the two Armenians are Immigration minister Gideon
Konchellah, suspended Kenya Airports Authority deputy managing director
Naomi Cidi, suspended Immigration officer James Gitonga, the director
of police operations at Vigilance House, Mr David Kimaiyo, and two
employees of Akarim agencies, a Mr Khanyari and Ms Tsalwa.

Narc-Kenya activist and businesswoman Mary Wambui leads the group
of witnesses to be interviewed over the fracas at Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport (JKIA) and the way the brothers were given
airport security passes.

Others in this group are Kenya Airports Authority boss George Muhoho,
a Mr Keter who is protocol officer at the JKIA VIP lounge, and police
officers at the airport during the fracas.

The committee has also lined up Ms Wambui’s daughter Winnie Wangui
for questioning. Ms Wangui and Mr Aloise Omita and Julius Maina are
listed as business partners of the two Armenians as directors of a
company called Kensington Holdings Limited.

In addition to the company’s secretary, other business associates to
face the joint committee are named as Mr Kamlesh Pattni, Mr Baktash
Akasha and the Joho brothers.

R. HAMBARTSUMIAN: RESTORATION OF SEVRES TREATY PROVISIONS SHOULD BE ONE OF ARMENIAN NATION’S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS

Noyan Tapan
Aug 10 2006

YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The August 10 conference at the RA
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was dedicated to the issue of
returning the territories which were to belong to Armenia by the
Sevres Treaty. At the meeting called "Conference of the Armenian
National Intellectuals", it was decided to declare August 10 as
International Day of Armenian Homeland Possession (Hayrenatirutyun),
as it was exactly 86 years ago that the Sevres Treaty was signed
on that day. Historian Rafael Hambartsumian, the event’s organizer,
Chairman of the organization "National Unity Vow" and the National
Council of the Armenians of Nakhichevan, stated that "regaining the
occupied Armenian territories is an inalienable right of the Armenian
people." He also called on all the unions, parties and other bodies
of Armenia and the Diaspora "to adopt the appropriate documents,
officially joining this decision of the intellectuals.

The historian assured that announcing the Armenian nation as "Homeland
possessing" will unify everybody with the aim of solving this problem,
"because restoration of the Sevres Treaty points should be one of the
greatest achievements of our nation." To recap, by the decision of
the powers that signed the Sevres Treaty in 1920 (Armenia, Britain,
France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Czechoslovakia and Turkey), the American President Woodrow Wilson
on November 22 1920 presented to these states the border line (90
thousand sq.km) of the territories to be given by Turkey to Armenia,
after which Armenia’s territory would make about 162 thousand sq.km.

Representatives of various unions of compatriots, NGOs, cultural,
scientific and creative unions, parties and higher educational
institutions participated in the event.

REFUGEES’ CONDITION GROWING DESPERATE
By Shashank Bengali and Leila Fadel
McClatchy Cairo Bureau

San Jose Mercury News, USA
Aug. 10, 2006

Food, Money, Shelter Critically Scarce

BEIRUT, Lebanon – The living victims of the war in Lebanon — those who
have fled the war zones in the south and in Beirut’s southern suburbs,
and those who have stayed — are facing a humanitarian crisis that
is stretching this country to the breaking point.

More than 700,000 people who have left their homes are now confined
to schools, mosques, public parks or the crowded apartments of friends
and strangers generous enough to offer them shelter.

Bathrooms and kitchens are in short supply in the temporary shelters
set up in Beirut and other cities. Hygiene is suspect. Many children
are developing scabies and other infections, aid workers say.

Many of the thousands squatting in homes are running out of money,
and aid agencies are struggling to find them to deliver mattresses
and blankets.

In the south, the few thousand who remain live under siege. The roads
out of their villages either have been bombed by Israeli forces or
are too dangerous to travel because of battles raging nearby. They
can’t leave, and humanitarian aid can’t reach them.

Water and food are running out in many villages. Relief groups struggle
to operate amid battles and a road network that’s been destroyed by
Israeli airstrikes.

Aid convoys won’t travel without clearance from the Israeli military,
which is slow in coming, if it comes at all. Much of the 500 to 1,000
tons of aid that the United Nations could deliver each day in Lebanon
doesn’t go anywhere.

Asked about the dimensions of the problem, Khaled Mansour of the U.N.

humanitarian operation sounded slightly exasperated: "Major, dire,
horrific — I don’t know."

Tales of struggle, gathered recently throughout the country, provide
a measure of the developing catastrophe and a way of viewing the mass
disaster through the plight of its victims.

On a narrow street in Bourj Hammoud, a mostly Armenian neighborhood
in north Beirut, Jameelee Abbas Zahr, 56, returned to a building that
still bears scars from the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.

She went to the Bourj Hammoud stadium on a recent afternoon after
hearing that people were handing out food. But she found no help there.

"We haven’t gotten even 1,000 Lebanese pounds," she said, a sum equal
to about 75 cents. "No one is helping us."

She, her three daughters and their families fled their homes in
the southern suburbs of Beirut 20 days ago after Israeli warplanes
leveled blocks of buildings. Now they live in a distant relative’s
small apartment.

Eighteen people live in three rooms. The mattresses are lined up wall
to wall each night and then folded up in the morning. They struggle
to eat.

The last of their supplies — some cucumbers, bread, five tomatoes,
sugar and half a bottle of oil — is piled in one room. They do their
laundry in plastic tubs.

The only thing Zahr took from her home was a black-and-white
television, now regularly tuned to the Hezbollah channel, Al-Manar.

But at least they have a place to stay.

"We have it better than others," said Fatma Roumani, one of Zahr’s
daughters.

For three weeks, Mariam Mahmoud al-Hajj, 39, has lived with her
husband and their nine children in the shade of two trees in a Beirut
park. About 800 other people are camping out nearby.

They sleep in the heat and wake in the heat, and the days run
together. They wash in the sinks of the dirty bathrooms set up
for them.

Each morning, Hajj wakes up, washes her children’s clothes by hand
and dries them in a tree. They lost their apartment and everything
they owned in Israeli air raids on the southern suburbs.

Meals are provided by aid groups. It’s almost always bread and cheese.

Six-year-old Amal Assem, Hajj’s youngest daughter, doesn’t have
lice, but the children nearby do. It’s only a matter of time, her
mother said.

They have nowhere else to go.

"We wake up and each day is worse than the last," Hajj said. "I don’t
even have the energy to move from this place to that place."

She pointed to a spot less than a foot away.

In the southern village of Shaqra, Hoda Wizani’s family spent the
first 18 days of the war huddled in a basement.

They survived, she said, only because Hezbollah fighters from the
village dropped in every day to bring them food and information.

Now Wizani lives with 38 relatives in a concrete schoolhouse in the
port town of Sidon, where a Lebanese charity runs a refugee center.

Meals are provided, and there are games for children. Some evenings,
the family steps outside for a walk to feel the sea breeze.

Life is peaceful, Wizani said, but everyone misses Shaqra. It was
no secret that Hezbollah operated there, and they have read in the
newspapers about Israeli attacks on the village.

Shashank Bengali reported from Shaqra, Lebanon; Leila Fadel reported
from Beirut.

ARMENIA CONFIRMS EURO-ATLANTIC PRIORITIES

Regnum, Russia
Aug. 8, 2006

"Full Integration into European structures and institutions is
Armenia’s main foreign policy objective. Armenia also intends to
intensify practical and political co-operation with NATO in order
to draw closer to the Alliance," say Armenia’s Commitments under the
Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO, a document published on
the official site of the Defense Ministry of the Republic of Armenia.

The document says that "Armenia wishes to promote regional security and
stability in the Caucasus and is determined to work constructively to
develop and improve relations with its neighbors. Armenia will work
towards a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
is fully supportive of the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group in this
regard. Armenia seeks normalization of relations with Turkey and is
determined to pursue constructive dialogue, including direct talks
with Turkey, towards this end."

"Armenia is determined to strengthen its capabilities to combat
terrorism and organized crime. Armenia also intends to enhance its
capabilities to manage the consequences caused by terrorist acts
and organized crime. Building on existing co-operation with NATO in
this area, Armenia is ready to become more actively involved in the
implementation of relevant programs and activities and in particular
the Partnership Action Plan against Terrorism, including exchange of
relevant intelligence. Armenia intends to take further legislative
and practical measures to combat organized crime." "Armenia intends to
develop and strengthen democratic control and civilian oversight of its
armed forces. Armenia also intends to promote civilian participation
in development of defense and security policy," says the document.

ARMENIAN EX-PREMIER: "NO DOCUMENT ON GIVING UP TERRITORIES WILL BE SIGNED"

Regnum, Russia
Aug. 8, 2006

"No document envisaging giving in five territories – the security
belt around Nagorno Karabakh – to the Azerbaijani side will be signed
between Yerevan and Baku. Otherwise, we shall put ourselves into a more
complicated position without settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,"
leader of Armenia’s National Democratic Union, former prime minister
Vazgen Manukyan has told a REGNUM correspondent.

According to him, it will be a gross mistake to sign such a document:
"Besides, the Nagorno Karabakh leadership will oppose such idea."

At the same time, Vazgen Manukyan notes that until it is fixed that
Nagorno Karabakh will never be a part of Azerbaijan, it is senseless
to speak about the territories, security and other issues. "The
deadlock we have today will last until it becomes clear to everyone
that Karabakh cannot be a part of Azerbaijan. There is no example in
the international practice that an independent republic that obtained
independence through military actions joined the same state under
any document," Manukyan concludes.

RATE OF BIRTH GREW COMPARED WITH 2005

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
07 Aug 2006

The NKR National Statistics Service reports, 1203 children were born
in the first half of 2006, compared with 1169 in the first half of
2005. Hence, the natural growth of the population totaled 454 and
increased by 12.7 percent, compared with the first half of 2005. This
year 398 marriages were registered, compared with 354 in the first
half of 2005. The rate of divorce remained 64.

By official records, 534 people arrived in NKR in the first half of
2006 (internal migration excluded) and 643 people left NKR. GRAIN CROP
YIELD DECLINED. The NKR National Statistics Service reports that as
of July 31, 52763 ha of grain was harvested, which is 94.5 percent of
the total area under crop (55814.4 ha). 62.06 thousand tons of wheat
was threshed, the average yield totaled 11.8 metric centners per
hectare, including the region of Askeran 12313.4 ha, 14.24 thousand
tons, 13.7 metric centners, Hadrut 7897 ha, 9.33 thousand tons,
11.8 metric centners, Martakert 8043.6 ha, 11.47 thousand tons, 14.3
metric centners, Martuni 13101 ha, 17.99 thousand tons, 13.7 metric
centners, Shushi 830 ha, 356.9 tons, 4.3 metric centners, Shahumyan
78 ha, 23.4 thousand tons and 3 metric centners, Kashatagh 10500 ha,
8.64 thousand tons, 8.2 tons.

The yield of grain crops declined by 14.6 percent or 2 metric centners
compared with the average yield as of August 1, 2005 (13.8 metric
centners).

AA.

AZERI DEFENSE MINISTER RECEIVED FRENCH AMBASSADOR AND MILITARY ATTACHE

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Aug. 7, 2006

Source: Trend
Author: J.Shahverdiyev

On August 7, the defense minister of Azerbaijan, colonel-general
Safar Abiyev received the French ambassador to Azerbaijan Bernar de
Shafo and the military attache, colonel- lieutenant Mark Babyu who
completes his mission in Azerbaijan, Trend reports with reference to
the press-service of the ministry.

Babyu presented information about the works done in the person
of military attache and expressed his gratitude for creation
of a favorable condition. He voiced his confidence form the
future development of the military cooperation between France and
Azerbaijan. Abiyev noted that France assumes a great importance
for Azerbaijan. "France is the co-chair country of OSCE Minsk Group
involved in the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We believe
that France will make its contribution to the fair solution of the
conflict," the minister added.

The minister presented information about the creation of the Armenian
state in South Caucasus and historical reasons of Armenian-Azerbaijan
conflict. According to Abiyev, Azerbaijan is ready to continue the
cooperation with France in the military sphere.

The French diplomat noted that France and its president support the
rapidly settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.