Author: Toneyan Mark

AZERBAIJANI MEDIA SUFFERS BLOW

A1+
[05:35 pm] 07 October, 2006

Leading editor says he is being intimidated into silence. By Elshad
Guliev and Shahin Rzayev in Baku The founder and editor-in-chief of
the two most popular newspapers in Azerbaijan, Einulla Fatullayev,
says he is closing the two publications and abandoning journalism,
after he was given a suspended jail sentence by a Baku court.

On October 3, readers of the weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the daily
Gundelik Azerbaijan read the last combined issue of the papers in
which the editors bid farewell to their readers and said they were
shutting down because of pressure from the government.

On September 26, a district court in Baku gave Fatullayev a suspended
two-year jail sentence and a fine of 5,000 manats (5,650 US dollars)
and Realny Azerbaijan was fined twice that amount. Both were found
guilty of having "insulted the honour and dignity" of the interior
minister, Ramil Usubov. An article had alleged that Usubov must have
known about the mysterious criminal gang, headed by Haji Mamedov,
operating within the interior ministry for more than ten years –
and that therefore the minister was protecting them.

Both the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the
Council of Europe have long demanded that the Azerbaijani authorities
abolish articles 147 and 148 of the criminal code, which make a
journalist criminally responsible for defamation. However, changes
have not yet been made and journalists can still be put in prison
for their articles.

Azerbaijan has earned a low rating from international organisations
for the quality and freedom of its media recently. On October 4,
opposition journalist Sakit Zakhidov was given a three-year jail
sentence for alleged drug possession in a case which critics say was
politically motivated. This year another editor, Baheddin Haziev,
was abducted and beaten up, and other journalists have complained of
intimidation and physical violence.

The authorities made no official comment on Fatullayev’s sentence,
letting it speak for itself.

But it followed a sustained campaign against the editor over the past
year. He had been fined several times, condemned in the government
media, detained at Baku airport and was also beaten up by an unknown
assailant in the centre of Baku.

Last year, Elmar Husseinov, the former colleague of Fatullayev
and editor of Monitor magazine, was murdered in mysterious
circumstances. Fatullayev, a Monitor journalist, founded Realny
Azerbaijan shortly afterwards.

Immediately after the verdict, Fatullayev himself told IWPR, "Now I
have two ways out. I can either renounce Azerbaijani citizenship and
leave the country, because I have understood that after the murder of
Elmar Husseinov, they have chosen the policy of terror against us. Or
I can go to jail and be killed. Those are the alternatives for me."

In the last few days, Fatullayev has not been contactable by
telephone and it was reported in the newspapers that he had fled
to the USA. However, Mamed Suleimanov, a colleague of Fatullayev,
said that he was still in Azerbaijan and had personally helped edit
the last edition of the newspaper, but "he is simply very tired and
therefore decided to switch off all his telephones".

Realny Azerbaijan had become the best-read political publication
in Azerbaijan in a very short space of time, with a circulation of
30,000 copies. Its daily partner had a circulation of 11,000.

Ganimat Zakhidov, editor of the opposition newspaper Azadlyq,
was critical of Fatullayev’s decision. "These newspapers were
high-circulation and they did not experience financial problems," he
wrote. "They say the reason for their closure was pressure from the
government. But if a journalist buckles under pressure and decides
to retreat I have a bad opinion of that."

Eldar Namazov, a former government official who is also a regular
author in Realny Azerbaijan, said the two papers had been the "vanguard
of the fight against human rights abuses, falsification of elections
and other illegal actions. That is why these two papers came under
such great pressure. I hope that the closure will only be temporary."

Another well-known Azerbaijani commentator Arif Yunus said the demise
of the titles was a result of a fight between two factions inside
government.

He said the newspapers were supported by one group, which included
National Security Minister Eldar Makhmudov and Emergencies Minister
Kamaladdin Heidarov – an allegation Fatullayev denied, although
his articles never criticised them. Opposing them was a group led
by interior minister and veteran presidential chief of staff Ramiz
Mekhtiev.

"I am of course against the criminal persecution of journalists
for their articles, but I think they should not have got so deeply
involved. Einulla Fatullayev and his newspapers had simply become
a pawn in the intra-clan power struggles and fell victim to them,"
said Yunus.

Pro-government political analyst Mubariz Akhmedoglu agreed that the
titles had been used by members of the elite to publish compromising
allegations about their competitors.

He said there were two possibilities, "Either one group turned out to
be stronger than the other and demanded the closure of this channel of
compromising allegations, or there was a truce between the two groups
and the group that was behind the newspapers voluntarily decided to
close them as a guarantee of the truce being observed."

Akhmedoglu also speculated that Fatullayev might have plans to lay
the groundwork for an Azerbaijani "coloured revolution" as in Georgia
and Ukraine.

"Maybe the leaders of these newspapers want to attract attention to
themselves and soon come up with a big new project," he said. "I think
Fatullayev may want to take on the role in the future of Georgia’s
Rustavi-2 or Ukraine’s Fifth Channel [which played key roles in the
revolutions in their respective countries]."

Aflatun Amashov, chairman of the Press Council of Azerbaijan, said the
news of the closures had been unexpected and he saw no reason for it,
"By law a newspaper can only be shut down by a decision of a court
and there was no question of this in the case of these newspapers. We
will watch closely how events develop."

Elshad Guliev is a freelance journalist in Baku.

Shahin Rzayev is IWPR’s Azerbaijan Country Director.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting Caucasus Reporting Service
No. 360 04-Oct-06

Storytellers head for the road

Hexham Courant, United Kingdom
Oct 6 2006

IT’S the traditional season to curl up next to the fireside and listen
to a good yarn, and the North Pennines Storytelling Festival is booked
to arrive right on cue.

The 15th annual celebration of the myths and legends of this colourful
part of the UK lasts the whole of next weekend, from Friday, October
13 to Sunday, October 15.

The stories are being told at several venues, and visitors can take
circular bus tours enlivened by guides and musicians, as they are
carried to storytelling destinations.

For Tynedale locations, Hexham railway station is the place to start,
and the route ends just over the Cumbrian border at Alston.

The Tynedale part of the festival programme starts at 6pm on Friday
evening, with tales at Whitfield Church in the Allen Valley.

The village is famed for its field sports and associations with the
Earl of Derwentwater and the Jacobites, and Malcolm Green – a member
of the North-East based A Bit Crack storytelling trio – promises to
breathe new life into old sagas helped by local school children.

On Saturday, the storybus leaves for an all-day trip from Hexham
station calling at Stanhope in Weardale, the Station Yard Hub in
Alston, and Allendale library, with musician Mike Bettison and a
local guide aboard.

At the library in Allendale, expect an abundance of short stories
from Michael Harvey and Chris Bostock, with a tea-time spread of
Northumbrian fayre included in the ticket price.

On Sunday, make tracks after lunch to the Garden Station at Langley to
join Malcolm Green, Michael Harvey and a small cast of giant puppets
for stories, followed by teatime refreshments.

Other storytellers taking part in the festival include Pascale Konyn,
Pat Renton, Nick Hennesey and Vergine Gulbenkian from Turkish Armenia.

Tickets can be bought on the door for most events, but weekend
tickets and bus reservations can be bought in advance by calling
01229 861355. Check the website www.npenninestorytelling. org.uk for
the latest information.

OSCE BROKERS NEW ROUND OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH TALKS

The New Anatolian
Oct 5 2006

Envoys from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) on Tuesday brokered a new round of talks between
foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Yuri Merzlyakov, a Russian diplomat who co-chairs the so-called Minsk
group of the OSCE dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said
the two nations’ foreign ministers were to meet Friday in Moscow. He
said a time and venue for a meeting of presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan remain to be negotiated.

The foreign ministers’ meeting would restart bilateral talks which
have been interrupted recently due to the lack of progress.

OSCE envoys held talks in Armenia Tuesday a day after visiting
Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region in Azerbaijan that has been under the
control of Armenian and ethnic-Armenian Karabakh forces since a 1994
cease-fire ended a separatist war. The region’s final status has
not been worked out, and years of talks under the auspices of OSCE
mediators have brought little visible result.

SYMPHONY’S MUSICAL RISE IN FORTUNE HAS NOT TRANSLATED INTO FINANCIAL SUCCESS
Brian Whitwham, Record Staff

The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)
October 5, 2006 Thursday
Final Edition

>From hockey rinks to world stage

For more than 60 years, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s life in
the community has been like an evening with an orchestra.

There have been moments that were bright, periods that were dark and
times that people wondered what would happen next.

The orchestra that played its first concert at a Kitchener hockey
rink has since toured internationally.

It has gone from three concerts a year in the 1940s to more than 90
performances each season.

But its financial performance has yo-yoed and, at times, the 52-piece
orchestra’s problems have sparked public feuds — two high-profile
conductors left amid controversy — within the symphony.

Now it’s asking for a $2.5-million lifeline by the end of October and,
once again, no one knows what will happen next.

THE OVERTURE

The orchestra was formed in 1945 after the director of the Philharmonic
Choir decided a symphony should accompany the choir at its April
concert. The show was a success, drawing more than 2,000 people to
a rink near Queen and Charles streets in Kitchener.

The orchestra followed it with a sold-out concert that October.

Into the late 1960s, the symphony was a volunteer organization with
about 85 players. They generally performed four Sunday afternoon
concerts each year at the Lyric Theatre.

The person credited with taking the orchestra to the next level
is Raffi Armenian, who took over in 1971 as artistic director and
immediately changed the symphony.

He started with a series of auditions, which cut the orchestra in
half. The remaining musicians became paid members. Within a few years,
Armenian launched an extended evening concert series that kicked off
with famed Russian cellist Vladimir Orloff as the headliner.

By 1980, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony was playing 50 concerts a
year. Armenian stayed at the helm for 22 years and helped the orchestra
reach several milestones, including its first international tour,
to Spain, in 1984.

Statistics in the early 1990s showed that, based on ticket sales, the
symphony had the highest market penetration of any orchestra in Canada.

THE CRESCENDO

The early 1990s was a period of financial instability for the orchestra
as it struggled to build its reputation and handle a growing debt load.

Armenian played his final concert in 1993 and was replaced by Chosei
Komatsu, an internationally-renowned conductor, who was expected to
take the symphony to the next level.

Upon accepting the job, Komatsu, a native of Japan, said, "I think
this is a job every conductor of my generation in North America —
even the world — would want."

But the symphony lost more than $100,000 in 1994. It posted a small
surplus of about $27,600 in 1995 but it was holding an accumulated
deficit of nearly $690,000.

Komatsu’s term was supposed to last until 2001 but the
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s board ended it in 1998 amid an
organizational restructuring.

The move was caused in part by a dispute between Komatsu and managing
director Mark Jamison, who resigned in November 1998.

Komatsu later issued a statement slamming the board for putting a
"gag order" on him. But his dispute with the symphony was nothing
compared to the war that erupted around his successor.

Martin Fischer-Dieskau assumed the position of conductor in 2001,
with a resume that boasted leadership of 50 major orchestras. A
native of Germany, Fischer-Dieskau also spent time as the assistant
conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and said he was the kind
of conductor who wanted to stay out of the musicians’ way.

The board fired him on November 27, 2003. Within days, a citizens’
group was lobbying for his reinstatement. Fischer-Dieskau returned
to Canada in December to convince the board to reverse the decision.

In-fighting got so bad that the symphony’s entire board of directors
resigned in February 2004. Board chair Karen Wilkinson said the move
had to be made to "mend the rift among association members . . . and
be in the true, long-term interest of the symphony."

Fischer-Dieskau also hit the symphony with a $1.5-million lawsuit.

The suit was settled with an exchange of apologies in January 2005.

The symphony and the conductor went their separate ways.

THE FINAL CURTAIN?

Before the Fischer-Dieskau affair, things had been looking up. The
symphony had reached a surplus of $33,183 in 2003, which it put toward
its debt.

Over four years, that debt had been reduced from $735,000 to less
than half, about $350,000.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony also managed a $57,000 surplus in
2004, even though the controversy with its former conductor had
cost $244,000.

Since then, ticket sales have dropped and some fundraising campaigns
haven’t reached their goals.

The Ontario Arts Council cut its grant to the symphony by about
$70,000 in 2005.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony said its deficit has ballooned to
$1.2 million and if it doesn’t reach its goal by the end of October,
the organization will declare bankruptcy.

ARMENIANS VIOLATED CEASEFIRE 32 TIMES IN JULY-SEPTEMBER

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 3 2006

Armenian Armed Forces violated ceasefire 32 times in the third quarter
of the year and totally 192 times during nine months of the year.

According to monitoring results by Defense Ministry Azerbaijan Armed
Forces lost 13 soldiers in July-September. The army lost 46 servicemen
and one civilian and 15 were wounded in the nine months of the year.

Armenian Armed Forces fired at Azerbaijan’s positions 10 times in
January, 14 in February, 50 in March, 65 in April, 10 in May, 11
in June, eight in July, 19 in August and eight in September. The
ceasefire was recorded most in April and least in September.

The most fired territories are Gazakh, Tarter, Aghdam and Fuzuli
regions. According to the results of the monitoring one was killed
in mine explosion, four in fire, one for act out of regulation,
seven for careless use of gun, two of drowning, 10 in car accident,
four in suicide, two in snow-slip, two of disease, one for strike
by lightning and 12 by the enemy. Seven of the killed servicemen are
officers, three ensigns and one sergeant. The rest are soldiers.

Twenty of them killed outside the battlefield. Azerbaijan Armed Forces
lost 11 servicemen in January, two in February, five in March, six
in April, three in May, five in June, seven in July, five in August
and two in September. Three of them served in Border Troops, one in
Interior Troops, one in State Special Defense Service and the rest
in Defense Ministry’s military units. Nine of the wounded servicemen
were fired by the enemy, two for careless use of gun, two in mine
explosion and two in car accident.

FINNISH FM CHAIRING AT EU ASSURES ‘WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY’ IS STILL OPEN

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Oct 2 2006

The Finnish Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, who leads the European
Union’s ‘trio’, stated in Yerevan on 2 October that the EU supports
the efforts taken by the OSCE

Minsk Group regarding the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and stated that ‘the window of
opportunity’ for the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
is still open, Trend reports citing Mediamax.

Addressing a news conference in Yerevan, Tuomioja announced that
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, who will begin touring the region
on October, visited Helsinki last week and informed the EU on the
situation and informed the EU Chairmanship on the situation of the
negotiation process.

"The window of opportunity for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict
is still open and we ask both parties to take this opportunity,"
Tuomioja stated.

VANDALISM GOING ON

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 2 2006

According to the DE FACTO Information-Analytics Agency’s information,
St. Minas’s Church built in 1650 has been completely destroyed in the
village of Kushchi of the Dashkesan region controlled by Azerbaijan.

The process of the Armenian churches’ destruction in the regions
controlled by Azerbaijan is going on. DE FACTO Information-Analytics
Agency again applies to all humanitarian structures and clergymen of
all confessions to terminate the barbarian destruction of the Armenian
churches and cemeteries in Azerbaijan.

ARMENIANS: EU WRONG ON TURKEY
By Andrew Borowiec

Washington Times, DC
Oct 1 2006

NICOSIA, Cyprus — The Armenian quest for Turkey’s admission that
it massacred ethnic Armenians nearly a century ago has suffered
a setback with an EU decision to drop the historic "guilt clause"
as a requirement for EU membership.

The European Parliament’s action last week was merely consultative,
but nonetheless was seen as a considerable blow to Armenian hopes.

A member of the Armenian diaspora in Cyprus said the community would
never give up its struggle to obtain international recognition of
"genocide" applying to the World War I deaths of more than 1 million
Turkish Armenians, starved, shot or bayoneted during a forced
"resettlement" march across the desert to Syria.

Some Armenians feel that the dropping of the proposed precondition
paragraph by the EU parliamentarians was influenced by governments
pushing for Muslim Turkey’s EU membership.

Canada’s reference to the Armenian "genocide" and the French plan
to penalize those who deny it caused a crisis earlier this year in
relations between the two countries and Turkey.

The issue appeared to have been shelved after Turkey threatened
"irreparable damage," particularly in its relations with France,
Turkey’s major economic partner but also home to an influential
Armenian diaspora of more than 200,000.

Turkey has systematically rejected efforts to blame it for the
massacres perpetrated by the collapsing Ottoman regime that preceded
modern Turkey.

Ankara’s official version is that some 300,000 Armenians died in
1915-17 because of war, disease, famine and ethnic conflict rather
than as a result of any policy of ethnic extermination.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described efforts to add the
admission of Turkish guilt into official membership requirements as
a violation of EU rules.

"We do not ask for privileges from the EU, but putting forward new
criteria is unacceptable to us," Mr. Erdogan said recently.

Ottoman Turkey, at war with Russia during World War I, accused its
Armenian community of pro-Russian sympathies and of acting as the
enemy’s "fifth column."

The international campaign for admission of Turkey’s guilt is
spearheaded by the Armenian diaspora of some 2 million rather than
by the former Soviet republic of Armenia with a population of more
than 3 million.

HOPES OF SEEING DECISIVE PROGRESS IN NK HAVE BEEN DASHED – OSCE CHAIRMAN-IN-OFFICE
Author: A.Mammadova

TREND, Azerbaijan
Sept 28 2006

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De
Gucht, called today for political leaders to show vision and take
responsibility to help solve "frozen conflicts" that threaten to
erupt a new at any time, Trend reports quoting the statement of OSCE.

The Minister also told a session of the OSCE Permanent Council attended
by the King of the Belgians, Albert II, that the Organization needed
to restore confidence in the 56-nation body as an effective instrument
for peace and stability throughout Europe.

"The ‘frozen conflicts’ remind us that peace is never permanent; it is
something to which attention must be paid each and every day," said the
Chairman-in-Office. He said Belgium – which chairs the OSCE this year –
had tried to help solve the unresolved conflicts on OSCE territory.

"It must be admitted, unfortunately, that it has done so without
much in the way of results – at least so far," Minister De Gucht
said. "In some respects, the hopes of seeing decisive progress in
Nagorno-Karabakh have been dashed. Tension in the South Caucasus
remains high – worryingly so. Negotiations on the Transdniestria
issue have stalled," the Minister emphasized.

The Chairman-in-Office said the outlines for solving the conflicts were
well known and elements for settling them were already on the table.

The key was political will.

Gucht emphasized that it needs to restore confidence in the OSCE
through co-operation, preventive diplomacy, economic development,
respect for human rights and the promotion of democratic institutions.

AZG Armenian Daily #186, 30/09/2006

Armenian Genocide

DRAFT LAW CONCERNING `DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’ FRENCH SENATE
AGENDA

The draft Law that envisages punishment "for denial of the Armenian
genocide" will be discussed in France, the Turkish Public TV and
"Zaman" newspaper report. In particular, the draft law will be
discussed within the October 12 agenda of the French Senate. The
voting for the draft law will be held on the same day.

According to "Zaman," the draft law is most likely to be adopted. It’s
worth mentioning that the draft law envisages 5 years of imprisonment
and EUR 450 thousand of penalty for those who denied the Armenian
genocide. The draft law was discussed at the French Senate in May,
this year, on the last minute it was excluded from the voting.

By the way, "Zaman" also dwells on the current visit of French
president Jacques Chirac to Armenia, when stating about the
abovementioned draft law. The newspaper emphasized French President
will lay a wreath on the memorial of the victims of the Armenian
Genocide in Tsitsernakaberd.

By Hakob Chakrian