Nagorny Karabakh: 10 Years and Counting
The Moscow Times
Tuesday, May 18, 2004. Page 11.
SAATLI, Azerbaijan — Tergul Husseinova used to live in a little wooden
house with geraniums in the window boxes and chickens scratching in
the yard. She had two cows and 35 sheep, and her family of five lived
a simple, happy life, she told me.
But all that changed 10 years ago. Armenian troops stormed the
village where she lived, and she was forced to leave. She piled
all her belongings onto a horse and cart and headed east to Saatli,
where she still lives today in a hut made of mud and straw.
Last week saw the 10th anniversary of the cease-fire that was signed
between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It marked the end of a bitter war
over the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh, and the start of
talks to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
But no one has been celebrating. The war may have ended, but tension
between the once-friendly neighbors is worse than ever. Earlier this
year, an Azeri officer on a NATO training exercise in Hungary hacked
to death an Armenian officer with an ax. He said the Armenian had
been taunting him about Karabakh.
Neither side benefits from the current situation. Armenia is all but
cut off from the rest of the world. Two of its borders are closed —
with Azerbaijan, to the east, and Turkey, Azerbaijan’s long-time ally,
to the west. The economy is in dire straits, and over the last 10
years more than 1 million people have left the country in search of
a better life abroad.
Azerbaijan, meanwhile, has been saddled with the biggest refugee
population per capita of any country in the world. Some of the Azeris
who were forced out of Karabakh and the six surrounding districts now
under Armenian control are living with relatives. Others have moved
to Russia.
But the majority, like Tergul and her family, still live in makeshift
accommodation — railway carriages, half-finished buildings with no
heat or light, or corrugated iron shacks. The government has built
a few more permanent houses for the refugees. But relocating all of
them would mean accepting that Azerbaijan lost the war and will never
see the return of its lands — something no one here would allow.
On the anniversary last week, the Azeri president, Ilham Aliyev,
traveled to a military base just a few kilometers from the Armenian
border and warned that his army was ready to go back to war. But few
have taken him seriously.
Tergul says she just wants to go back home before she dies. But peace
talks are going nowhere and, in all likelihood, she and thousands of
others like her will never see their homes again.
Chloe Arnold is a freelance journalist based in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Arabs should also turn their fury at their own
International Herald Tribune
Massoud A. Derhally IHT Monday, May 17, 2004
AMMAN, Jordan To the majority of Arabs, the United States is a country
of double standards, and its leadership expounds the arrogance
and belligerence of an imperialist power. Thus the abuses at Abu
Ghraib prison will be etched forever in Arabs’ minds: If only the
American people knew what their country did abroad, many Arabs think,
if only Americans understood the anguish brought on by Washington’s
self-serving foreign policies, then they would understand why so much
Arab hate is directed toward them.
Unfortunately, most Arabs end the argument here. Yes, the repulsive
prison pictures vindicate some Arab grievances. But if there is a
lesson to be learned, it is that Arabs should be equally enraged by
the deficiency of human rights in their own countries.
Countless acts of violence have taken place in the Arab world that
dwarf the abuse of Abu Ghraib. There are wretched human rights
violations every day in the Middle East, yet they somehow aren’t met
with the same indignation and high standards of accountability Arabs
hold America to.
Why is that? The United States is a beacon of democracy, freedom
and transparency. It is the very absence of these fundamental values
that underscore the impotence of the Arab people. Arabs need to ask
themselves why it is that so many places have experienced their own
form of renaissance – be it Latin America, South Africa or Asia –
and why they haven’t.
That is the lesson to be learned from this fiasco in Iraq. If
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld can exhibit some humility,
so can our leaders in admitting their mistakes – and so can we,
in our struggle to define ourselves in this century.
It is true that America’s unrelenting support of Israel, now anchored
more than ever after President George W. Bush’s unconditional
endorsement of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral disengagement
plan, provides ammunition to hate. But invoking the Israel card for
most Arab governments has, by and large, meant giving the stamp of
approval to crackdowns, the denial of civil liberties and the creation
of systems that instill fear and paranoia.
In this sense, Arab anger at America is a culmination of the
frustrations in their own lives: the inability of people to vent their
anger openly at their own governments, the failure to rise up against
injustices committed in their own backyards, and the absence of checks
and balances that in democracies ensure that those in authority are
held accountable.
Democracy, some say, is not viable or applicable for Arabs. Arabs need
to be ruled by an iron fist, the argument goes, and the culture of
the Arab world doesn’t allow for the expression of different opinions
or the coexistence of different ideologies. Such statements expound
the very stupidity that lead to the massacre of Muslims in Bosnia and
Kosovo, of Jews in World War II, and of Armenians by Turks after World
War I. It is this line of reasoning that has fostered an environment
that nurtures zealotry – a defeatist mentality that perpetuates the
subservient role Arabs have become accustomed to.
If there were a single transparent and democratic system in place today
in the Arab world, those calling for reforms would be hailed and not
arrested. Women would be empowered. Were pictures of torture, abuse
and humiliation of prisoners to come out, then perhaps the region would
escape this twilight zone and experience its own renaissance. So when
Arabs look at those pictures of Iraqis being humiliated, they should
also take a look in the mirror – they may not like what they see.
Massoud A. Derhally is a freelance journalist and a former
correspondent for Agence France-Presse.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Major Russian armed forces exercises to be held in June
Pravda.RU:Russia
18:13 2004-05-17
The Russian Armed Forces will hold major exercises in June 2004,
acting Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told President Vladimir Putin.
“In June, permanent alert units will be redeployed from one Russian
region to some other by Defense Ministry transport planes civilian
Il-62 and Il-86 aircraft,” Mr. Ivanov said at president’s Monday
meeting with cabinet members.
In addition, exercises within the framework of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan) will be held in the Central Asian strategic sector
from August to September, the acting defense minister noted.
“The central role will be given to the Russian permanent alert units
and our airbase in Kant [Kyrgyzstan],” Mr. Ivanov said.
“This will be a mobile redeployment of airborne and task force units,”
he added.
“The Russian Navy is planning major independent and international
campaigns in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea in
August-September,” Mr. Ivanov said.
© RIAN

USA CITIZEN KILLED
A1 Plus | 13:56:37 | 18-05-2004 | Social |
At 10:00 PM yesterday a corpse was found near “Zigzag” shop in
Sayat-Nova Street. Under the preliminary information by Police,
the killed man is a USA citizen, Joshua Heglantz.
There were violence signs on the corpse. Policemen informed the dead
man was brutally beaten then was stabbed into resulting in death.

CAUCASUS STABILITY PACT SIGNED
A1 Plus | 14:38:37 | 18-05-2004 | Official |
Armenian Parliament Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan, Georgian Parliament
Chair Nino Burdzhanadze, and Azerbaijani Mili Mejilis Chair Murtaz
Aleskerov met in Strasburg. PACE Chair Peter Schieder partook in the
meeting, too.
During the meeting Caucasus Stability Pact protected by CE main
political powers was made, Parliamentary Assembly of South Caucasus
states was set up.
It was stated that the regional conflicts must be settled through
political dialogues. The issues on intensification of regional
cooperation and European integration were discussed.
An agreement was reached at to jointly work out the Caucasus Stability
Pact and to activate contacts at parliamentary level.

Armenian police confirm US citizen murdered in capital
Mediamax news agency, Yerevan
18 May 04
The Armenian police have confirmed that the corpse of a US citizen
was discovered with stab wounds in central Yerevan on 17 May, Mediamax
news agency reported on the 18th.
The Yerevan prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into
the case.
The body was found in a courtyard at 24, Sayat-Nova Avenue.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian, Azeri, Georgian speakers agree to work on stability pact
Mediamax news agency
18 May 04
Yerevan, 18 May: The chairmen of the Armenian, Azerbaijani and
Georgian parliaments have reached an agreement on joint work on a
draft stability pact for the Caucasus.
This agreement was reached in Strasbourg on 17 May at a meeting between
Armenian Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan and his Azerbaijani and Georgian
counterparts, Murtuz Alasgarov and Nino Burjanadze respectively,
Mediamax today learnt from the Armenian National Assembly press
service. PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe]
President Peter Schieder attended the meeting as well.
The meeting announced that the main political forces represented in
the Council of Europe supported the idea of signing a stability pact
for the South Caucasus.
The meeting also discussed the prospects for establishing a South
Caucasus Parliamentary Assembly.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US embassy employee reportedly killed in Armenian capital
Mediamax news agency
18 May 04
Yerevan, 18 May: The US embassy in Yerevan is not commenting on reports
of the murder of a US citizen in the Armenian capital in the evening
of 17 May.
“No comment,” the US embassy press service told a Mediamax
correspondent today.
Several Armenian media, in particular Aravot and Aykakan Zhamanak
newspapers, reported today that the US embassy employee had been
killed in Yerevan in the evening of 17 May.
According to the newspapers, the corpse was discovered with stab
wounds in the backyard of a building in central Yerevan.

Armenian president not to attend NATO’s Istanbul summit – foreign minister
Noyan Tapan news agency
17 May 04
Yerevan, 17 May: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s decision not
to participate in the NATO summit in Istanbul is based on the current
state of the Armenian-Turkish relations, and is in no way connected
with the NATO-organized event. [Foreign Minister Vardan] Oskanyan
issued this statement on 17 May while commenting on the president’s
decision not to attend the NATO’s June summit.
We have not recorded any moves in the opening of the borders and
therefore, Armenia has no diplomatic relations with Turkey, the
minister said, adding that President Kocharyan simply does not consider
it comfortable to attend the event in this country irrespective of
an organization arranging it. “There are no problems with NATO,”
Vardan Oskanyan said.
The minister believes that relations between Armenia and NATO are
at the highest level: “At present, we do not give in to our two
neighbours.” As for Armenian-Turkish relations, Oskanyan said that
Armenia was ready to normalize relations and not only on the issue
of opening borders, but also “to establishing diplomatic relations”.

Courts not independent yet – Armenian justice minister
Noyan Tapan news agency
17 May 04
Yerevan, 17 May: “It is early yet to speak about the complete
independence of the Armenian courts,” Armenian Justice Minister David
Arutyunyan told journalists on 14 May. The key aim of the judicial
reforms in Armenia, the minister said, is to set up an independent
legal system, which depends on many circumstances and personalities,
and steps in this direction are already being taken.
[Passage omitted: some minor aspects]
Asked whether the political situation in Armenia has an influence
on the legal process, the justice minister said that the political
situation affected independent courts.