Azg Armenian Daily
Aug 31 2004
VERDICT OF THE ARMENIAN PILOTS ARRESTED IN EQUATORIAL GUINEA TO BE
BROUGHT ON SEPTEMBER 1
OSKANIAN AND MAMEDIAROV MEET IN PRAGUE
STEPANAKERT ELECTED ITS NEW MAYOR
AZERBAIJAN TO BECOME THE MAIN LINK IN THE ISRAELI-IRANIAN
CONFRONTATION
TRACES OF RUSSIAN PLANE’S CRUSH LEAD TO BAKU
PRE-SEPTEMBER DISCUSSIONS
FLAG AND ANTHEM OF YEREVAN TO BE READY BY EREBUNI-YEREVAN
CELEBRATIONS
HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II RECEIVES FOREIGN MINISTER OF DENMARK
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VERDICT OF THE ARMENIAN PILOTS ARRESTED IN EQUATORIAL GUINEA TO BE
BROUGHT ON SEPTEMBER 1
Hamlet Gasparian, Press Speaker of RA Foreign Ministry, informed
Regnum agency that the court investigation of the case of the six
Armenian pilots arrested in Equatorial Guinea is still on. “It is
expected that on August 31 the court will have a break, while on
September 1 it will bring in the verdict of the case,” Gasparian
said. Earlier, the lawyer of the Armenian pilots asked the court to
shorten the case in the part of his defendants and release them from
the prison. It’s worth mentioning that in the March of 2004 dozens of
people, including foreigners, were arrested in the Equatorial Guinea,
charged with the attempt of revolution. Diudot, citizen of the
Southern Africa, head of the group, accepting his guilt partly, also
said that the rest of the arrested had no idea of the revolution.
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OSKANIAN AND MAMEDIAROV MEET IN PRAGUE
On August 30 the fourth meeting of RA and Azeri Foreign Ministers,
dedicated to the settlement of Nagorno Karabagh conflict, took place
in Prague. RA Foreign Ministry’s Press and Information Agency
informed that Steven Mann, Yuri Merzliakov, Henry Jackolin, OSCE
Minsk Group Co-Chairs, as well as Andrzej Kasprzyk, representative of
OSCE Chairman, were present at the meeting.
The meeting had no special agenda. RA and Azeri Foreign Ministers
discussed different aspects for the conflict’s settlement, as well as
various issues concerning the settlement prospects.
By the way, RA Foreign Ministry refuted the information spread by
Turkish Anatolu agency recently. It said that the meeting of the
Azeri, Turkish and Armenian Foreign Ministers is envisaged in New
York on September 17. Regnum reporter was told at the ministry that
Oskanian will leave for New York to hold speech at UN Chief Assembly
in late September.
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STEPANAKERT ELECTED ITS NEW MAYOR
The Prime Minister of Nagorno Karabakh Anushava Danielian introduced
the new mayor of Stepanakert, capital of Karabakh, Eduard Akhabekian
to municipality staff. Speaking of the August elections of the
institutions of local governing the PM defined them as diacritic. He
also drew newly appointed mayor’s attention to of municipal, house
building and other issues that Stepanakert faces.
Considering the city economy of Stepanakert unsatisfying, PM
Danielian expressed his hope that the mayor will be realistic and
full of responsibility in his approaches to the existing problems. He
noted that the government is ready to support any program aimed to
better conditions in the town but at the same will be send new
challenges to the mayor.
By Kim Gabrielian from Stepanakert
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AZERBAIJAN TO BECOME THE MAIN LINK IN THE ISRAELI-IRANIAN
CONFRONTATION
Cooling in Baku-Tehran Relations After Khatami’s Visit
“Abasali Hasanov, Azeri ambassador to Iran was called by the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Iran last week. He was handed a precautionary
letter for the Azeri government. Tehran condemns Azerbaijan for
creating favorable conditions for the Israeli Mosad inside Iran and
thus intervenes in the home policy of the country”, Baku’s Zerkalo
August 28 issue quotes the Arabian Al Jazeera.
The note of the Iranian Foreign Ministry to Baku also reads that
Mosad is buying territories in Azerbaijan along the border of Iran.
According to Al Jazeera, that cites the words of a Turkish high-rank
military official, Mosad is engaged in electronic reconnaissance of
Iran. The same method is also practiced in the south of Azerbaijan,
the Turkish official said.
“Azerbaijan becomes the key link in Israeli-Iranian confrontation.
After the Iranian president Khatami’s visit to Azerbaijan, it was
rumored that the two presidents had secret discussions. Iran claimed
that Azerbaijan has to put an end to the activities of the Israeli
secret services operating in its territory. The Azeri president Ilham
Aliyev declared shortly after the meeting that he will never allow
Azerbaijan’s territory to be used against Iran”, Zerkalo informs.
That was the Israeli mass media that informed about Khatami-Aliyev
secret talks, writes Baku Eni Musavat newspaper. “Iran demanded
Azerbaijan to close Mosad intelligence center at the Iran border and
to immediately evict the Jewish spies”, writes Eni Musavat.
According to Israeli Debka website, Aliyev was surprised by Khatami’s
information and said that the Iranian president should have checked
the information before taking a decision.
By Tatoul Hakobian
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TRACES OF RUSSIAN PLANE’S CRUSH LEAD TO BAKU
Amnat Nagaeva and Satsista Jebirkhanova, friends, that were among the
passengers of “Tu-134” and “Tu-154” planes crushed in the Russian sky
on August 24. The Izvestia, Russian reliable newspaper, carried out
an investigation and found out that the girls could have been
terrorists controlled from Baku and not from Chechnya.
As a result of the crush, a supposed terrorist act, all the
passengers and the crew of the planes, amounting to 90 people, were
killed.
The Izvestia doesn’t name a definite extremist organization based in
Baku that could take up the order of the terrorist act. It is known
that Azerbaijan is frequently spoken about in the international
scandals connected with terrorism. Thus, it was proved that the
terrorist acts aimed to explode the U.S. Embassies based in Kenya and
Tanzania were controlled from Baku. Over 200 people were killed and
about 5000 people were wounded then.
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PRE-SEPTEMBER DISCUSSIONS
“We want our state chalk, our state blackboard and state mastic,
otherwise, we can’t exist,” Narine Hovhannisian, director of Yerevan
school # 20, said this during the working meeting on August 30. The
officials of the republic’s educational sphere call up working
meetings with the directors of the capital’s school for already
several years. The meetings are aimed to settle the problems of the
previous year. Mrs. Hovhannisian touched upon the phenomenon of
gathering money for the school’s needs. She offered to use the spare
territories of the schools for rent and accumulate the money earned
in this way for the urgent needs of the schools. The heads didn’t
object this offer, but they insisted that the schools should publish
the data about the used territories and the sums gathered as a
result. “A regulation should be elaborated for the territories to be
given for rent. Today, there are cases when the school territories
are used as bakeries and taxi garages,” said Yervand Zakarian
Yerevan’s Mayor. Omik Vatian, Head of RA Mayor’s Office’s Department
of Education, spoke of the results of the examinations done in the
schools. Compared with the previous year the schoolchildren studied
better by 3,5%. Mr. Vatian said that the represented data are
encouraging but they don’t always reflect the reality. “We found out
during our checking by the end of the academic year that it’s a usual
fact for the capital’s schools to change the marks of the children
and improve their results artificially,” he said.
He was also concerned about the way Armenian is taught in the school,
stating the teachers train their pupils for the entrance exams only
during the classes of the Armenian language. “The teachers justify
their approach by saying that they are training the pupils for the
entrance exams, but they forget that the schools are meant to educate
the schoolchildren in various fields and not to train them for the
entrance exams,” he underscored.
By Tamar Minasian
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FLAG AND ANTHEM OF YEREVAN TO BE READY BY EREBUNI-YEREVAN
CELEBRATIONS
The Erebuni-Yerevan annual celebration was the main reason of Arman
Sahakian’s, deputy mayor of Yerevan, meeting with journalists. The
flag and the anthem of Yerevan should be ready by October 13, the
opening of Erebuni-Yerevan celebrations. The mayor of Yerevan is
heading a commission formed to undertake the preparations. The flag
and the anthem will be presented to public discussions, as it’s not
the officials’ prerogative to choose them, said the deputy mayor. In
the coming two months the Yerevanners will have the chance to be
convinced of truthfulness of these words. Till now any decision of
such importance was taken without considering vox populi.
There is already a huge amount of anthems and flags presented for the
competition.
The daily programs of the celebration is not fully arranged,
preparation works are in process. The amount of money to be spent on
celebrations is not certain so far but the allocated money is 70
million AMD. Many guest, including from sister towns, are invited to
the celebrations.
By Karine Danielian
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HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II RECEIVES FOREIGN MINISTER OF DENMARK
On August 27, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians, received Per Stig Moeller, Foreign
Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, in the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin. Mr. Moeller was accompanied by Vladimir Karmirshalian,
Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Denmark.
Welcoming Mr. Moeller to the spiritual and administrative
headquarters of the Armenian Church, His Holiness reflected on the
mission of the Church as well as the close historic ties which exist
between the two countries and peoples. His Holiness also spoke of the
positive relations that have been established in recent years in the
ecclesiastical sphere between the Churches of Denmark and Armenia.
During the meeting, the Catholicos and the Foreign Minister also
discussed the Nagorno Karabagh issue, and the desire of all parties
to see it resolved through peaceful means. His Holiness informed Mr.
Moeller that he has met a number of times with the spiritual head of
Azerbaijan, and confirmed that religious leaders have a very
important role in the resolution of the conflict, by publicly
advocating that disagreements must be solved through mutual
understanding and reciprocal dialogue.
Finally, the Pontiff of All Armenians touched upon the concerns of
Armenians living in Denmark, and their desire to become active,
contributing members of Danish society.
At the conclusion of the meeting, His Holiness extended his gratitude
to the state authorities of the Kingdom of Denmark and to the Danish
people, for the assistance and help they have provided to Armenians,
most notably following the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 and the
devastating earthquake in Northern Armenia of 1988.
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin Information Services
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PUTIN ACCEPTS KHAJIMBA, ABKHAZIAN PRIME MINISTER
On August 30 news agencies informed that Vladimir Putin, RF
President, who is in Sochi, met with Raul Khajimba, Prime Minister of
the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia. This meeting is interesting
for the fact that the head of Russia meets with the prime minister of
an unrecognized state (Abkhazian President Ardzinba is seriously ill
and the prime minister is the acting president for several years
already). The presidents of Abkhazia, Nagorno Karabagh, South Ossetia
and Transdnestria, shaped in the post-Soviet area, have visited
Moscow frequently and met with the counselors or the officials of RF
Foreign Ministry.
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