Author: Vardapetian Ophelia

OSCE envoy arrives in Azerbaijan for Karabakh talks

ANS Radio, Baku
26 Nov 04

[Presenter] The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly rapporteur on Nagornyy
Karabakh, Goran Lennmarker, has arrived in Baku. He will meet Chairman
of the Milli Maclis [parliament] Murtuz Alasgarov, members of the
Azerbaijani delegation in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and other
officials.

The Nagornyy Karabakh problem and ways for resolving the conflict
will be discussed at the meetings.

[Goran Lennmarker, speaking in English with Azeri voice-over] I will
certainly listen to the arguments of the foreign minister and members
of parliament in particular. I shall have talks with the Milli Maclis
leadership. Prior to this visit, I also paid a visit to Armenia. We
shall conduct negotiations to find a solution to the problem. It is
possible to find a mutually acceptable solution to the problem.

PRESS RELEASE
Shahumyan-Getashen Patriotic Benevelont Association
Address: Yerevan, Armenia, Koriun Street 19/a
Contact: Eduard Balayan
Tel: (374-1) 560154
E-mail: [email protected]
23 November, 2004

Meeting with UN Resident Coordinator

Mr. Eduard Balayan, President of the Shahumyan-Getashen Benevolent
Association, met with United Nations Resident Coordinator in Armenia,
Ms. Lise Grande.

At the meeting, on November 19, Mr. Balayan, whose organization
represents the tens of thousands of Armenians who were forcibly
removed from the Shahumyan and Getashen regions of Northern Karabakh,
explained the problems and challenges facing these refugees. He
spoke specifically about the continuing uncertainty of their status
given Azerbaijan’s continuing delaying tactics in trying to achieve
a resolution of the conflict.

Mr. Balayan asked that the concerns of the refugees be transmitted
to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Ruud Lubbers who was
in Yerevan for a brief visit.

Energy supplies to Tbilisi suspended

RosBusinessConsulting Database
November 23, 2004 Tuesday 6:04 am, EST

Energy supplies to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi have been
suspended after an accident at the Alaverdy power transmission
lines. As the Tbilisi electrical energy distributing company TELASI
reported, currently Armenian experts are working to resume energy
supplies. About 100 megawatts per day are transported from Armenia
to Georgia via the Alaverdy power transmission lines. 100 megawatts
more are transported from Russia. The Russian energy grid, RAO UES,
owns 75 percent in TELASI.

Azeri officer on trial in Hungary changes testimony

ANS TV, Baku
23 Nov 04

[Presenter] The trial in the case of Ramil Safarov, an officer of
the Azerbaijani armed forces, who is charged with killing Armenian
officer Gurgen Markaryan [on a NATO course] in Hungary on 19 February
[2004], opened in the Budapest city court today. The case is being
examined under the chairmanship of judge (?Vorkushe Anrash). It
has been reported that [Azerbaijani] lawyer Adil Ismayilov and his
Hungarian counterpart Peter Zalay jointly defend Safarov.

We are now over to Budapest. The ANS correspondent in Hungary, Parviz
Sultanov, who is on the line [from Budapest], will give us the latest
details. Hello, Parviz. Here you are.

[Correspondent, by phone] Hello, Leyla. The trial in the case of Ramil
Safarov is under way at the moment. During the trial, Safarov was asked
if he wanted to change his former testimony. Safarov said that because
of his language problems the previous testimony had not given true
facts and that he wanted to change his testimony. He made very fresh
revelations. The court took this into account. Then the Hungarian judge
read Safarov’s previous testimony and pointed to differences there.

Let us recall that Safarov’s main compliant was that he did not know
Russian well and spoke broken English. He formerly testified in these
languages. He read his new testimony today and asked the court to
take into account the facts presented there.

The trial is currently under way. It is not expected to be
postponed. That’s it.

[Presenter] Thanks, Parviz.

Kocharian not to Assert ‘Genocide Condition’

Zaman, Turkey
Nov 20 2004

Armenian President Robert Kocharian wants Turkey to end it’s isolation
of Armenia and open the border gates, which have been closed for 11
years. He did not see the Armenian genocide claims as a provision to
start bilateral negotiations.

In an interview with Die Welt, Kocharian said, “Turkey’s application
of blockade towards Armenia; this is called harassment.”

Turkey’s recognition of a so-called genocide is not a condition
to begin normalizing relations. Determining that “genocide”, which
allegedly took place in 1915, was a significant issue for Armenians,
Kocharian continued, “However this will never be a condition to
develop bilateral negotiations”. If Ankara recognizes this reality,
it will be another step toward a normalization of relations.

Kocharian, who is currently in Germany, disclosed in a seminar titled,
“The EU and CIS: Key of the New Economic Cooperation”, that the
opportunity had appeared for a reconciliation between Turkish and
Armenian relations. Turkey closed it’s border gates with Armenia in
1993 because of the Nagarno Karabagh conflict between Azerbaijan and
Armenia and the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

Although Turkey wants to normalize its relations with Armenia,
relations cannot be reconstructed yet because Armenia has made no
attempts toward solving its dispute with Azerbaijan. Armenia also
does not recognize the 1921 Kars Agreement, which determined the
Armenian-Turkish border.

AssaIrada, Azerbaijan
Nov 15 2004

Armenian delegate attends energy conference in Baku

An international conference dedicated to energy cooperation among the
Caspian basin countries was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel of Baku
on Saturday on the initiative of the European Union.
Issues related to prospects for energy cooperation among regional
countries were discussed at the event attended by delegations from
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia,
Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, as well as by Armenian
Energy Ministry’s department head Levan Vardanian.
Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov said in the conference that the
Armenian representative’s participation in the event is not a sign
for Azerbaijan’s cooperation with official Yerevan.
Vardanian told journalists that he came to Baku without any
difficulties. He thanked the Azerbaijani side for highly organizing
the conference as well.
Despite the fact that the Azerbaijani government has concealed the
Armenian representative’s planned participation in the conference,
his arrival in Baku has sparked strong protests by local public and
political organizations.
The Garabagh Liberation Organization held a picket outside the Hyatt
Regency Hotel on Saturday in a protest against the Armenian
delegate’s visit. The opposition Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front party
of Azerbaijan, in turn, issued a statement protesting the position of
the government, which has offered facilities for Vardanian’s
participation in the conference and concealed the fact from the
public.
In the statement the party urges the government to express a decisive
attitude towards the issues related to Azerbaijan’s national
interests and take urgent steps to banish the Armenian delegate from
Baku.
During the 2-day visit, Vardanian will also participate in a
conference on cooperation in the area of transport to be held on
Sunday.*

Dutch Police Detain 38 P.K.K. Terrorists In Their Country
Anadolu Agency: 11/13/2004

Anadolu Agency
Nov 13 2004

AMSTERDAM – Dutch police detained 38 members of the terrorist
organization PKK in their country on Friday.

The Dutch Prosecutor’s Office said that Dutch police found a training
camp of the terrorist organization near Eindhoven in their operation,
and detained 38 terrorists in their operations against the training
camp and several houses in Eindhoven, The Hague, Rotterdam and
Capellaan den Ijssel.

The Office stated that police seized many documents, weapons and
equipment in their operation.

Twenty of the detainees were preparing to stage terrorist attacks in
Turkey, the Office noted.

The Dutch Prosecutor’s Office said that four people, including one
woman who were learned out to be members of the terrorist
organization PKK, were captured at Schiphol Airport two weeks ago,
adding that at least one of these detainees were about to go abroad
after completing training at Liempde camp.

According to seized documents, the detained members of the terrorist
organization would have gone to Armenia after they completed their
training in the Netherlands in order to get special war training, and
then stage armed attacks in Turkey.

Azeri NGOs call for release of would-be Karabakh guerrillas

Assa-Irada, Baku
9 Nov 04

8 November: Non-governmental organizations continue supporting 21
young men who are facing trial on charges of attempting to form an
illegal armed group. The national NGO forum today appealed to the
Grave Crimes Court in connection with this issue.

It is understandable that the defendants have chosen arms and a
guerilla war as the only way to liberate their homes and the graves
of their ancestors from the Armenian occupation, the appeal reads. It
will be impossible to prevent any attempts to liberate the occupied
territories militarily, unless Armenia ends its aggression and the
Nagornyy Karabakh problem is resolved fairly, the appeal reads. This
should be of a serious concern for the OSCE Minsk Group and its
co-chairs who have pledged to help eliminate the ramifications of
the occupation and who have achieved no result in this so far, the
appeal reads.

The national NGO forum said the above mentioned reasons had urged the
young people to violate Azerbaijan’s laws. It asked the Grave Crimes
Court to take these reasons into consideration.

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Nov. 4, 2004

Russia Proposes South Caucasus Joint Venture to Restore Railway

Russia proposed the setting up of a joint railway venture with the
South Caucasus states in order to unite efforts in restoring a railway
connection in the region.

`The development of transport links will speed up the settlement of
political problems. The Presidents of the South Caucasus countries
think that the restoration of the railway will encourage the resumption
of talks [over conflict resolution], which were suspended long ago,’
the press office of the Russian Transport Ministry quotes Transport
Minister Igor Levitin as saying.

Levitin visited Tbilisi on November 1 and held talks over the rail link
via Abkhazia with the Georgian leadership.

At a news briefing in Moscow on November 3, the Russian Transport
Minister said that he has offered a proposal to set up a joint
Russian-Georgian-Armenian-Azerbaijani company, which will restore
traffic on the Trans-Caucasus Railway that ceased functioning after the
conflicts in Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 90s.

Meanwhile, the chief of the state-run Russian Railway Company Genadi
Fadeev, who visited Armenian on November 3, signed an agreement with
his Armenian counterpart over the setting up of a joint venture in an
attempt to unite efforts to restore the railway communication in the
region, RFE/RL reported.

“The countries’ presidents, transportation authorities and business
representatives have expressed support for this project, which will
revitalize transport links between our countries,” the Russian
English-language daily Moscow Times quoted Igor Levitin as saying at a
news briefing on November 3.

The railway, which stretched more than 2,300 kilometers during Soviet
times, connected Black Sea ports with central Russia, operated
passenger services and handled more than 15 million tons of transit
cargo per year, according to the Moscow Times.

Levitin also said that he has reached an agreement with the Georgian
authorities over setting up a joint group which will work over the
issue of restoring the railway via Abkhazia.

Azeri authorities to bargain over jailed opposition leaders’ release – politician

Turan news agency
26 Oct 04

Baku, 26 October: The sentencing of seven opposition leaders was one
of the main issues discussed at the meeting of the Our Azerbaijan
bloc today. At a news conference after the meeting, the chairman
of the bloc [and Musavat party chairman], Isa Qambar, said that
the sentence was not “unexpected”. In his opinion, the authorities
will “bargain” with international organizations over the opposition
leaders’ release. According to Qambar, the bloc has a programme to
secure their release.

Assessing the first year of [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev’s
presidency, he said that the social and economic situation of the
Azerbaijani people had significantly worsened and the level of
corruption surged over the past year. There is no progress in the
Karabakh issue and the political system of the country is in an
“appalling” state, Qambar said.

The Musavat leader touched on the [forthcoming presidential] elections
in Ukraine. He pointed to cooperation between the Our Azerbaijan
and Our Ukraine blocs. He said Our Azerbaijan was interested in the
victory of Viktor Yushchenko.