Tensions with Armenia figure in Azeri president’s visit to Turkey
BY BURAK AKINCI
AP ANKARA
April 12, 2004
A long-standing feud between two former Soviet republics over a
disputed enclave was expected to loom large in talks during a visit to
Turkey by Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, starting Tuesday.
Azerbaijan and Turkey are neighbours with a shared Muslim and
linguistic heritage, and Aliyev was expected during his three-day stay
to urge Turkey not to reopen its border with Armenia.
Turkey closed this border in 1993 to help Azerbaijan’s negotiating
position in talks with its neighbour Armenia over the enclave of
Nagorny-Karabakh, situated within Azerbaijan’s borders but largely
populated by Armenians.
Azerbaijan now fears Turkey will reopen the border in order to please
the the European Union, which Turkey wants to join.
The feud sparked war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the early 1990s
when Nagorny-Karabakh seceded from Azeribaijan at the time of the
Soviet Union’s collapse, and the two Soviet Caucasian republics became
independent.
The war caused claimed more than 20,000 lives and made refugees of
nearly a million people.
After a ceasefire in 1994, Nagorny-Karabakh came under de facto
Armenian control.
Turkey recognises Armenia but has no diplomatic relations with it,
against a historic background of long-standing mutual bitterness.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in order to strengthen
Azerbaijan’s hand against Armenia.
But Aliyev, fearing Turkey will reopen it to please the EU, appealed
to Turkey last month, saying: “It’s no secret that the European Union
and other influential countries are pressuring Turkey to reopen its
border with Armenia.
“If that happened, the Nagorny-Karabakh conflict would never be
resolved.”
Several European countries have been calling for years for
normalisation between Turkey and Armenia.
Aliyev is worried about an EU meeting next December to decide whether
membership negotiations with Turkey should begin.
He warned in an interview with a Turkish newspaper that traditionally
warm relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan could deteriorate if the
frontier is reopened.
But he seems confident it will not happen. Azerbaijan holds a strong
card because Turkey is set to play a key role in Azerbaijan’s offshore
oil from the Caspian Sea.
A pipeline, operational from 2005, will ship up to one million barrels
of oil a day from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, on the Caspian Sea,
through Georgia and Turkey to a tanker terminal at the Turkish
Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
The Turkish government led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
adopted a diferent foreign policy from its predecessors, favouring new
openings towards neighbours.
But Nagorny Karabakh is not the only issue poisoning relations with
Turkey’s neighbour Armenia.
Turkey and Armenia remain at loggerheads over what Armenia says was
the genocide of hundreds of thousands of its people by Turks during
World War I.
Armenia says the killing and deportation by the Ottoman Empire between
1915 and 1917 claimed 1.5 million Armenian lives.
Turkey denies genocide, and says only between 250,000 and 500,000 died
as a result of the effects of civil war.

Noyan Tapan Highlights #14(516)
12 April 2004
What and whom the Armenian Police protects
By Haroutiun Khachatrian
The opposition parties’ April 9 rally was expected to become the most
prominent event of the last week in Armenia. However, it may well turn out
that the unexpected clashes at the April 5th meeting of Artashes Geghamian
with his supporters will get more attention.
In short, a group of persons started to throw eggs toward Geghamian during
his more than an hour-long speech. The journalists tried to catch those
people by their photo and video cameras, a natural decision, especially
given the fact that egg-throwing, a new ‘element’ in the political processes
of Armenia, was believed to be organized by pro-Kocharian forces to provoke
disorder at opposition meetings. The reporters were attacked by the same (or
maybe other, but linked to them) people. At least four cameras were broken,
including that of the state-owned Public TV. Several reporters, including a
woman, Anna Israelian of Aravot daily, were beaten. Kentron independent TV
was the only one to have managed to save its tape showing several of those
attacked (you can see them on this page).
What is the most alarming is the apparent protection of these assailants by
police. As many witnessed, the police was obviously aware about the presence
of these men (presumably the bodyguards of some business tycoons close to
Kocharian) on the spot. Moreover, police would not interfere even after
those suffered attack applied to them.
There are other facts showing that the Armenian police is not willing to
protect freedom of information. Noyan Tapan has its own experience on that
matter. On October 30, 2000 the tapes of our and other TV companies were
bluntly taken by unknown people, when the cameramen shoot the scene of
arrest of Arkady Vardanian, a Moscow businessman trying then to organize a
popular movement aimed to topple Kocharian. Police officers standing nearby
refused to intervene. One more factor to prove the above mentioned is that
five days of protests (including those of international agencies such as
OSCE) passed before the police initiated a criminal case for “hooliganism”
abou the April 5th events. Meanwhile, one can remain many cases when our
law-enforcing agencies were much quicker in discovering and prosecuting the
people (including innocent ones) if there was a political motivation for
that.
To conclude, the Armenian media community is not strong and united enough to
force the authorities to discover those, responsible for that humiliating
events. So I am not optimistic concerning the prospects of this criminal
investigation.

Kresty Inmates Receive Easter Eggs, Loaves
By Irina Titova
STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, April 13, 2004 SPTimes
More than 4,000 inmates of Kresty, one of the St. Petersburg’s oldest
and most notorious prisons, received painted Easter eggs and loaves of
Orthodox Easter bread, or kulich, on Sunday.
“The chance to attend an Easter service here, in Kresty, gives great
relief to my soul,” said Alexander, 20, one of about 70 Kresty inmates
allowed to attend the holiday service in the prison’s Alexander Nevsky
Church.
Millions of Orthodox believers celebrated Easter on Sunday. Although
the church uses the Julian calendar which usually means religious
festivals are celebrated at a different time to those in the West,
this year the western and Orthodox Easter coincided.
Thousands across Russia went to midnight masses, painted eggs, and
bought or baked themselves kuliches, made from sweet dough with
raisins.
During the last decade religion, which underwent a revival after the
end of the Soviet Union, has come to prisons. Many of their churches
have reopened and new churches have been built in some.
“I know it’s hard for you to be here,” said Father Alexander, who led
the service at Kresty. “But on this holy day of Easter you should
repent and think of how to improve yourselves and lead a good life.”
The other prisoners, who for security had to stay in their cells,
looked out from their tiny cell windows as Father Alexander passed
along the long corridors performing the traditional Orthodox Easter
procession of the cross, and giving them blessed eggs and bread.
“Christ has risen!” the priest said. “Truly, he has risen!” prisoners
responded, in accordance with Easter customs.
About 4,700 painted eggs and 1,075 kuliches were donated to the prison
by the city’s Armenian community, which traditionally helps the
prison.
Father Alexander said that for many of the prisoners an opportunity to
attend an Easter service or just to receive blessed Easter food, was a
real joy.
“It shows them that they are not outcasts and not damned,” he
said. “It’s very important for them to realize that someone cares
about them.”
Yury, an inmate, said he had almost never been to church before he was
jailed, but had since come to regularly attend services in Kresty.
Kresty prisoners are able to attend weekly services in groups limited
to no more than 20 people because of security fears.
Since the number of believers is much greater than those that can be
accommodated inside the prison church, prisoners have to wait their
turn, sometimes for several weeks, said Alexei Gerasimov, a senior
Kresty officer
Father Alexander said the work of a priest in prisons is rather hard.
“It is hard morally because in prisons a priest deals with spiritually
broken people, who are often depressed or skeptical about many things
and don’t want or can’t repent,” he said.
However, he chose the posting himself after once trying to serve in a
women’s prison, and then feeling immense sympathy for inmates, he
said.
Working in Kresty for the last five years he had seen many examples
how the church can help prisoners to improve their lives, he added.
“They get out of their depression, quit smoking, cursing and plans for
revenge.” he said. “And after their release they resume normal lives,
get happily married and have children.”
Kresty, located in the center of St. Petersburg beside the Neva river
was built in 1893 as a prison for solitary confinement. For a long
time it was the biggest prison of its kind in Europe.
Its name means crosses and refers to its design in which two large
buildings are built in the form of a cross.
For many years, Kresty was a symbol of political repression. Prominent
historical figures, including Leon Trotsky and Anna Akhmatova’s son
Lev Gumilyov, were among its inmates.
Today Kresty serves mostly as a detention center where prisoners await
trial, often for years. Built to hold about 1,500 people, Kresty holds
at least four times as many inmates.

Worldwide Faith News
Date Mon, 12 Apr 2004 14:04:31 -0700
All Africa Conference of Churches
Information and Communication Desk
P. O. Box 14205
00800 Westlands
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254 – 020 – 4441483 / 4441338/9
Fax: 254 – 020 – 4443241, 4445835
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
High Ranking Leader Of A Global Church Organisation Arrives In
Nairobi.
NAIROBI, April 12, 2004 – The Moderator of the Geneva based World
Council of Churches (WCC) His Holiness Aram I arrives in Nairobi
tomorrow (Tuesday April 13) to effectively place Africa on the global
agenda.
As a moderator who chairs WCC Central Committee the highest WCC policy
making organ after WCC General Assembly, his official visits attract
global attention which includes the attention of some 400 million
Christians world-wide who form the congregational membership of WCC
global network of member churches.
He is the most prominent leader of the Church outside the Roman
Catholic Church.
WCC is the world’s broadest and most inclusive ecumenical (fellowship
of churches) organisation. It enjoys a membership of 320 churches from
virtually all Christian traditions in 120 countries in all
continents. The Roman Catholic Church works cooperatively with WCC
although it is not a member Church.
Asked of his vision for Africa as he planned this visit, he stated:-
Africa is becoming an important region for many reasons. The
ecumenical movement must take Africa very seriously. Africa cannot
remain on the periphery of the international community. Its problems
are our problems. Its dreams are our dreams. Its struggle is our
struggle. The ecumenical movement is called to participation in all
processes and actions that are aimed at establishing lasting peace in
Africa.
His Holiness Aram I comes to strengthen the Church in Africa in its
own work of healing the wounds of the continent noted Rev Dr H. Mvume
Dandala, the General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of
Churches (AACC) adding that while the church plays leading roles in
the endeavours of the people of Africa, it needs unity in its thrust.
Upon his arrival at noon, His Holiness Aram 1 will address a press
conference at 2.30 p.m. Tuesday February 13, 2004 at the lounge of
Ufungamano House before he addresses a public lecture at the same
venue at 3.00 p.m.
On the following day Wednesday April 14 at 8.0 a.m., he will conduct a
ceremony in which he will bless Africa. The ceremony will be at the
AACC Chapel on Waiyaki Way, Westlands.
A wrap-up press conference is planned for Thursday 15th April at 2.330
p.m. at the Grand Regency Hotel.
He travels to Rwanda on Friday April 16, 2004. Having experienced the
impact of Armenian genocide known as the genocide of the 20th Century
(as Rwanda triggered the genocide of the 21st Century) His Holiness
Aram I makes key contribution of memory of genocide.
His Holiness Aram I, a PhD in Theology holder, is an author of a dozen
books, his recent book being a collection of essays entitled: The
Challenge to be a Church in a Challenging World.
He was elected Catholicos of the See of Gilicia of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, Oriental Orthodox, Antelias, Lebanon in 1995.
He visits Africa at the invitation of the AACC and the National
Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), for Kenya and National Council of
Churches of Rwanda, for Rwanda visit.
For further information, contact:
Mitch Odero
HEAD OF
COMMUNICATION AND ADVOCACY PROGRAMME

The ethos of Islam
By MORDECHAI NISAN
Jerusalem Post
Apr. 12, 2004 22:46
In 1992, the socialist government in Madrid promoted legislation that
recognized Islam’s ancient tradition in the country, considering
Spanish identity harmoniously interwoven with the Koranic religion.
But the Muslim interpretation of Islam in Spain, beginning with
conquest in 711 and ending in 1492, had a more militant twist. Scholar
M. Amir Ali commented that Spain had actually been liberated by Muslim
forces and its tyrants removed. Reflecting on March 11, as Muslim
terrorism killed 200 and wounded1,400 in Madrid, one wonders whether
one day this event will also not be commemorated as a liberating
moment.
Central to the attitude in the West concerning Islam is the fear to
define global terrorism as Muslim terrorism. US President George
W. Bush’s reticence, a combination of caution and error, has been
representative of all Western leaders.
Islam’s conceptual lexicon and emotional code are radically different
from that conventionally understood and practiced in the West. Yasser
Arafat and Ahmed Yassin, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Hassan
Nasrallah, and Osama bin Laden, register as dramatic personae who
relentlessly link religion with war against Jews and Christians,
devoid of any remorse or shame.
The mind-set of Islam was etched into theological axioms with the
appearance of the Koran in the seventh century. This book is its
explicit and enduring guide.
The Koran is, among other things, a war tract calling upon “the
believers”- there are only Muslim believers – “to fight for the cause
of Allah”(4:74-76). This is a war for truth; God is One and Muhammad
his true prophet and messenger. The infidels must be punished
(16:126-8) for their haughtiness and stubbornness in rejecting
Muhammad (6:158), and will burn in the fire of Hell (4:55).
The Muslims must fight the infidels, primarily Jews and Christians,
with “the sword of Muhammad.” The religion of Muhammad will triumph
because the Muslims love death, accepting any individual sacrifice,
while the enemy loves life.
At Qadisiyya in 637, Arabs seeking paradise defeated Persians longing
for the earth below.
Yet more than the Muslim shahid (martyr) is willing to die, the Muslim
mujahid (fighter) has a passion to kill. This is his religious mission
and life’s purpose. There is no reason to pity the infidel or feel
culpable for his demise. The Koran commands the believer not to trust
or befriend the humiliated dhimmis, those Jewish and Christian
scriptuaries, who must suffer timorously the heavenly sanctioned rule
of Islam.
Islam’s supersessionary religious doctrine catalyzed relentless
destruction, oppression, and abuse of Christians in eastern
lands. While there were moments of laxity and civility in applying the
robust strictures of domination, Islam did not recoil from razing
churches in ancient Damascus and slaughtering Christians in
Mesopotamia, inflicting atrocities in Aleppo and exterminating
Armenians in their homeland.
Arab colonization of the Middle East and the Islamization of its
peoples were acts of conquest and conversions that define the region
until today.
The 14th-century Muslim theologian Ibn Taimiyya explained the root of
this sweeping campaign. “Infidels,” he wrote, “forfeit their persons
and their belongings which they do not use in Allah’s service to the
faithful believers who serve Allah and unto whom Allah restitutes what
is theirs; thus is restoredto a man [Muslim] the inheritance of which
he was deprived, even if he had never before gained possession.”
THE MUSLIM dehumanization of non-Muslims profoundly colors the
problematic relationship wherever the two sides meet.
People who innocently take a train in Madrid, a plane in Washington, a
bus in Jerusalem, or go to the theater in Moscow, can be wantonly
murdered with no Muslim afterthought.
The Koranic precept “to slay them [infidels] wherever you find them”
(2:191) is the religious gunpowder filling mosque sermons in Mecca,
Cairo, and Gaza. The believers call upon Allah to help the warriors
of Islam in Kashmir and Chechnya, Palestine and Kosovo.
The believer is fortified by the belief that any martyrdom operation
against haughty Jews and misguided Christians pleases Allah. It is
that act which brings honor to the martyr’s family.
This religious delirium, with the Muslim’s mental universe pining for
the heavenly whorehouse of 72 virgins awaiting him in paradise, cannot
be apprised through conventional categories of Western humanism.
The Muslim mosque, for prayer in Bradford, Rennes, and Granada,
potentially transforms faith into a closed herd mentality, and
spirituality into formulae for ineluctable conquest.
The socio-religious processes of demographic growth and conversion,
with more than 15 million Muslims inhabiting Western Europe today,
constitute alternative and non-violent modes for the Islamic
proliferation in Europe. In two generations, half of Holland will be
Muslim and a third of Denmark; more than a tenth of France already is.
During the history of Muslim takeover of the Christian lands in the
ancient Middle East – which is now being repeated in the Christian
lands ofEurope – public space was to be cleansed of infidel
presumption, if not presence.
This is a process whose signs are emerging in Western countries, as
police protect shoppers and travelers, as strategic targets are
endangered. Muslims and their sites are free of menace.
IT FOLLOWS, then, that mourning in Madrid and panic in Paris
constitute a thoroughly proper state of affairs. The infidel “domain
of war,” to use an Islamic legalism for non-Muslim lands, must
inevitably fall to Islam.
Sheikh Jamal Shakir, in a mosque harangue in Amman on March 5, said:
“O God destroy your enemies, the Jews and Crusader enemies of Islam.”
While Israel has fought tenaciously against Islamic terrorism, Europe
has adopted escapist routes: blaming Israel and its war with the
Palestinians as responsible for Muslim terror, and bowing submissively
as dhimmis must to Muslim violence, threats, and ultimatums. Witness
appropriate European cowardice and venality, with the rise of
anti-Semitism and the shameful Spanish election results.
Exhausted by two 20th-century continental wars and the long Cold War,
now confronting a multifaceted Islamic War, Europe is deluded and
divided.
That the Muslims take their religion seriously and literally appears
beyond the grasp of European comprehension. The Americans understand
better, and Israel smack in the eye of the storm hits back without
remorse or shame.
The writer teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His latest
book is Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and
Self-Expression.

Pravda Ru
It”s time for George Soros to visit Armenia and arrange one more revolution?
04/12/2004 18:16
For a week the opposition in Armenia have been conducting demonstrations and
requesting President Robert Kacharyan to resign.
According to the opposition, the last Presidential elections in Armenia were
accompanied with many violations of law, and therefore cannot be considered
legitimate. Obviously, Armenian opposition was influenced by Georgian
“revolution of roses” (allegedly organized by George Soros and caused
President Eduard Shevarnadze to resign). The opposition in the two countries
used similar grounds for calling the Head of state to resign: non-legitimacy
of elections (Parliamentary elections in Georgia and presidential elections
in Armenia).
Armenian opposition became proactive after the Constitution Court rejected
the legal suit on recognizing the results of the Presidential elections not
valid. When rejecting the suit, Armenian Constitution Court offered to
conduct a referendum on the vote of confidence to the President, and make
some amendments to Armenian Election Code. Later Chairman of the
Constitution Court Garik Arutyunya said that the Court’s offer to conduct
the referendum had become outdated.
Opposition deputies in the Parliament (bloc “Justice” and party “National
Unity”) failed to add the issue of referendum on the Parliament session
agenda. As the result, these two opposition fraction have been boycotting
the Parliament sessions since February 3.
Armenian President Robert Kocheryan looks calm. “Change of the authority in
Georgia inspired our opposition”, said the President in a TV interview on
April 8. “Their logic is simple: Georgians succeeded in overthrowing their
President, why don’t we try? But authorities in Armenia and in Georgia have
different degrees of strength”. The statement demonstrates that Armenian
President has no doubts about his ability to hold the power in the country.
Armenian President has the reasons to feel confident: the three parties of
the ruling coalition are supporting him.
Robert Kocharyan has been the President since 1998, and demonstrated many
times his ability
to hold power under any conditions. He inherited this toughness from his
experience of the leader of unrecognized Republic of Nagorny Karabakh in the
beginning of 1990s.
He was able to hold power after the sensational murder of Prime Minister
Vazgen Sarkisyan and Parliament Speaker Karen Demirchyan (his son is
currently one of the opposition leaders) in the fall of 1999. The opponents
of Robert Kocharyan said that some “President’s people” are behind this
assassination. Kocharyan win the conflict with the group of Army officers
willing to play active role in the country politics.
Meanwhile, his former Georgian counterpart – President Eduard Shevarnadze –
was even more experienced politician. However, in “Shevarnadze’s case” the
so called “outside factor” – interference of the USA – played a big role.
Can Washington interfere in the events in Armenia?
The USA has big and powerful Armenian community, and this community has much
interest to the events in the motherland. Unlike the two other republics of
the Caucasus region, Armenia is still less influenced by the USA. Armenian
diaspora in the USA can be a convenient tool for Washington to influence
Armenia.
On the other hand, Washington may have no reasons to interfere. For the
period of his being in power, Robert Kocharyan gave no cause to be suspected
in anti-American outlook (neither in anti-Russian). The USA could support
some politician being more pro-Western, to reduce Russia’s influence on
Armenia. However, opposition leaders Artashes Gegamyan and Stepan Demirchyan
are pro-Russian. They are definitely interested in obtaining support from
the West, but only in this momentary situation.
Speaking of the “outside factor”, here are the words Head of Armenian
Sociological Association, Director of National Institute of Law Philosophy,
“In the small countries like Armenia, the change of power is never caused
solely by domestic factors, even if we speak of elections stipulated by
law”. Therefore, it is time to think which countries could be interested in
the opposition uprising in Armenia.
Vasily Bubnov

RULING COALITION PARTIES NOT TO TAKE PART IN A REGULAR SESSION OF ARMENIAN
PARLIAMENT
2004-04-12 20:28
YEREVAN, April 12 (RIA Novosti’s Gamlet Matevosyan) – The
parliamentary factions of the ruling coalition parties – the
Republican Party of Armenia,the Orinatz Yerkir (Land of Laws) party
and the Dashnaktsutyun party – will nottake part in the session of a
regular three-day session of the National Assemblyof Armenia on April
12-14, 2004.
The joint statement of the ruling coalition parties received by RIA
Novosti says that this decision was taken in order to preclude the
“artificial whipping-up of passions”.
Since April 9 the opposition has been holding in Yerevan
non-sanctioned rallies and has stated its intention to continue mass
protest actions until president Robert Kocharyan resigns.
The opposition announced that if on April 12 the ruling coalition
failed to meet the demands on holding a referendum on vote of
confidence in the president, a meeting would be organized on the same
day after which its participants would head to Marshall Bagramyan
avenue where the presidential residence and the republic’s parliament
are located.
Earlier the opposition lodged a complaint with the Constitutional
Court of Armenia demanding to recognize the results of last year’s
presidential elections which resulted in the victory of Kocharyan
invalid.
The Court dismissed a complaint and suggested that a referendum on the
vote of confidence in the president should be held. However, later the
Court chairman Gagik Arutyunyan declared that this proposal had lost
its urgency.

ARMENIA MARKS 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF GENOCIDE
2004-04-12 18:44
YEREVAN, 12 April (RIA Novosti correspondent Gamlet Matevosyan)
-Armenia will hold measures from may 2004 to May 2005 dedicated to the
90th anniversary of the genocide of Armenians conducted by the Ottoman
Empire.
RIA Novosti learned in the Armenian government’s PR and press
department that a program of events had been discussed by a state
commission chaired by Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan.
In line with the program, from April 20 to 23 2005, Yerevan will host
an international academic conference on the genocide.
International conferences will also be held in Russia, the USA, Europe
and the Middle East.
Armenia’s foreign ministry has instructed its embassies in various
countries to work out and present their lists of functions to
commemorate the 90th anniversary by the end of May.
Work will also be conducted to identify whether of nor international
organizations acknowledge that the genocide took place and whether or
not countries are prepared to recognize and condemn this crime at the
state level.
The Armenian government is planning to take measures to raise the
international community’s awareness of the Armenians’ genocide, in
particular, by distributing books and leaflets about it.
Many countries have acknowledged the 1915 genocide of the Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire. Uruguay was the first in 1965, while Russia,
France, Argentina, Greece, Italy and Switzerland have also officially
done so.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
04/12/2004
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Vote of Confidence 'Recommendation' Not Mandatory Stresses Constitutional Court 2) Pro-Government Majority Boycotts Parliament Sessions 3) Opposition Rally Continues into Monday 4) Iraqi Gunmen Batter US Supply Lines 1) Vote of Confidence 'Recommendation' Not Mandatory Stresses Constitutional Court YEREVAN (Armenpress)--Armenia's Constitutional Court again clarified its April 15, 2003 decision recommending a vote of confidence in the president, in an effort to end attempts to exploit the decision in "pursuit of political goals," stemming from "unawareness of constitutional justice," it said in a statement. Issued on Monday, the statement stresses that the Constitutional Court upheld the country's Central Electoral Commission decision on the results of presidential elections, and that the decision is final and binding; it also spelled-out the nature and rationale of its suggestion for a vote of confidence. "When regulating a national conflict, the Constitutional Court must not only provide a concrete legal solution, but must also outline (keeping in mind the country's legal and democratic development) realistic legal means for regulating social and political issues. The Constitutional Court stressed in its decision that since possible confrontation could greatly endanger the country, the conflict must be overcome democratically. One of the suggested methods was to hold a [presidential] referendum of confidence, which supposes direct utilization of democratic potentials. The proposal was underlined as a non-compulsory proposal, bearing no legal consequences." The statement also emphasizes that that it made no decision on the constitutionality of the Law on Referendums, allowing the National Assembly (NA) to pursue the issue, taking into consideration the NA's commitments before the Council of Europe that call for reforms of election laws. "More than 110 Constitutional Courts currently operate throughout world, and their decisions, without exception, include both mandatory decisions and non-compulsory recommendations. Thus, the Constitutional Court of Armenia requests that its decision be viewed only from a legal point and attempts to make it a subject of political speculation be halted," concludes the statement. 2) Pro-Government Majority Boycotts Parliament Sessions YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--A regular session of Armenia's parliament was disrupted on Monday after the majority of deputies representing the ruling government coalition refused to attend. A brief statement by the Republican Party (HHK), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), and the Orinats Yerkir Party said the move is aimed at "avoiding artificial tensions." Deputy parliament speaker and ARF leader Vahan Hovannisian, stated that the coalition partners want to stave off possible clashes between their supporters and the opposition crowd. Some leaders of the parliament's opposition minority, which has been boycotting its sessions since February, were quick to criticize the boycott. Victor Dallakian of the Artarutyun (Justice) bloc accused the majority of "dodging responsibility" for the increasingly tense situation. But Artashes Geghamian, the leader of the National Unity Party, welcomed it, saying that the ruling coalition defied Kocharian. 3) Opposition Rally Continues into Monday YEREVAN (Reuters, Yerkir)--Up to 5,000 opposition protestors marched through the Armenian capital of Yerevan on Monday to demand the resignation of the nation's president. The protestors are calling for President Robert Kocharian to either step down, or for a nationwide confidence vote to take place on the Kocharian administration. Speaking at the rally National Democratic Union leader Vazgen Manukian, said that neither the removal of the existing president or a new president will resolve problems, and suggested a plan be developed to draw the population out their situation. Victor Dallakian, in turn, said it is not Robert Kocharian they oppose, rather his administration. Riot troops sealed off the presidential offices and the nation's parliament building. Two deputies affiliated with the Artarutyun (Justice) bloc, Tatul Manaserian and Vartan Khachatrian, were briefly detained on Monday as they campaigned in the city's northern and southern districts, urging local residents to attend the opposition rally due in the afternoon. Over the weekend, prosecutors said that two armed men were detained on Friday for allegedly planning to carry out a "terrorist act" on behalf of an opposition lawmaker. The statement claimed that the opposition paid the two men to shoot at and "terrorize" its own supporters during a street protest. State-run Armenian Public Television aired late on Monday the footage of an interrogation of the two men who claimed to have been paid by Artarutyun lawmaker Smbat Ayvazian to fire gunshots and "spread panic" during the first opposition rally held in Yerevan on Friday. According to the Armenian Police Service, 31 residents of Yerevan have been sentenced to between two and six days in prison while 28 others fined for attending the unsanctioned anti-Kocharian demonstrations in the capital. The police had no information on detained residents of other Armenian regions. Also on Sunday, the authorities made a second arrest in their separate criminal investigation into the opposition campaign for regime change. Aramazad Zakarian, a senior member of the Hanrapetutyun party affiliated with Artarutyun, was held as he tried to enter Freedom Square. 4) Iraqi Gunmen Batter US Supply Lines FALLUJAH (AP)--Under pressure from the US military, a Shiite Muslim cleric withdrew his militiamen Monday from police stations and government buildings in three key southern cities after taking control from coalition forces last week. Elsewhere, there were daring rebel attacks on US supply convoys Monday, when the military also reported two American soldiers and seven employees of a US contractor had been missing for at least two days after an ambush in the Sunni Triangle region west of Baghdad. China reported Monday that seven of its citizens were taken hostage. Three Czech journalists also were missing. An Iraqi official said 12 foreign hostages had been released Monday without giving any details. The top US military spokesman, meanwhile, said about 70 Americans and 700 insurgents had been killed this month, the bloodiest since the fall of Baghdad a year ago. In Najaf, a lawyer representing cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said police were back on the streets and in their stations for the first time since the al-Mahdi Army militia took control last week. Witnesses and police in Karbala and Kufa said the militiamen had pulled back there as well. "Al-Sayed al-Sadr issued instructions for his followers to leave the sites of police and the government," said lawyer Murtada al-Janabi, one of al-Sadr's representatives in negotiations with Iraqi Shiite political parties on ending the US standoff. One of the US demands in the talks was the return of police and government control in all three cities al-Sadr's militia took over--Najaf, Kufa, and Karbala. The Americans, who are not taking part in the talks, also demanded the dissolution in the al-Mahdi Army. The military said it had the cities of Kut, Nasiriyah, and Hillah under control. Sanchez said he did not know where al-Sadr was, but he was last known to be in Najaf. "The mission of US forces is to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr. That is our mission," Sanchez said. A tenuous cease-fire was holding in Fallujah, but more US forces maneuvered into place around the city, and commanders said they were not yet ready to negotiate with the insurgents. The military has been trying to regain control of supply routes after several convoys were ambushed and at least 10 truck drivers kidnapped. Nine were released, but an American--Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss.--remained a captive. On Monday, a convoy of flatbed trucks carrying M113 armored personnel carriers was attacked and burned on a road in Latifiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Witnesses said three people were killed. A supply truck was also ambushed and set ablaze Monday on the road from Baghdad's airport. Looters moved in to carry away goods from the truck as Iraqi police looked on without intervening. An attack on a convoy Sunday killed a Romanian working for a security company, Romania's ambassador to Iraq said. Two German security guards were killed on a highway last week, prompting Germany to urge all of its citizens to leave Iraq on Monday. Securing roads has now become a top priority for the military, US Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Monday. "Over the past 24 hours we have put significant amount of combat power on both areas of operation to open up those lines of communication so we can not only resupply our forces in Fallujah, Ramadi and our forces down south, but also make those roads safe for travel," Kimmit said. "They're at a condition that we would call amber; it is certainly not green yet," he said. Three US Marines were killed Sunday in Anbar province, the area that includes Fallujah, the military said Monday without giving further details. An attack on an Army patrol in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, killed a soldier from the 1st Armored Division and injured four others on Sunday. Kimmitt on Monday released the first full casualty statistics since widespread fighting erupted on April 4. "The coalition casualties since April 1 run about 70 personnel. ... The casualty figures we have received from the enemy are somewhere about 10 times that amount, what we've inflicted on the enemy," he told a Baghdad press conference. About 600 Iraqi dead, mostly civilians, were recorded by the main hospital and four clinics in Fallujah, hospital director Rafie al-Issawi told The Associated Press. In all, about 880 Iraqis have been killed, according to an AP count, based on statements by Iraqi hospital officials, US military statements and Iraqi police. President Bush prepared Americans for the possibility of more US casualties. "It was a tough week last week and my prayers and thoughts are with those who pay the ultimate price for our security," Bush said. Marines on Sunday investigated a bomb-making factory first uncovered three days earlier. Along with five suicide belts found in the initial raid, they uncovered US military uniforms--suggesting suicide bombers may try to get close to American forces, Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said. Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq, acknowledged that a battalion of the Iraqi army refused to fight in Fallujah--a sign of Iraqi discontent with the siege. Asked about the battalion's refusal on NBC's "Meet The Press," Sanchez said, "This one specific instance did in fact uncover some significant challenges in some of the Iraqi security force structures ... We know that it's going to take us a while to stand up reliable forces that can accept responsibility." Some 900 members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps are with three battalions of Marines. US forces on Sunday examined a captured insurgent cache of suicide belts--raising concerns of a deadly new tactic in the city's fighting. Bush held out hope for the Fallujah talks, saying the United States was "open to suggestions" on reducing the violence. Meanwhile, a rash of kidnappings continued. Seven Chinese civilians were abducted by insurgents in central Iraq Sunday evening, China's government said. A Czech television reporter, cameraman and radio reporter were also missing and believed kidnapped, their employers said. In the last week, militants have kidnapped more than 30 civilians from at least 12 countries. Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, a Sunni Muslim, who is also the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said up to 12 foreigners taken hostage had been released, but he did not identify the nationalities of the hostages or where they were. Still unknown was the fate of Hamill, whose captors threatened to kill him unless the Marines withdrew from Fallujah. Other insurgents promised to release three Japanese by Sunday, but the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad said Monday they had not been freed. In the south, members of the Iraqi Governing Council have reportedly held talks with followers of al-Sadr. One factor that has held off US action to uproot al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia was the presence of up to 1.5 million Shiite pilgrims in Karbala for Sunday's al-Arbaeen ceremonies, one of the holiest days of the Shiite religious calendar. Most pilgrims had left the city by Monday morning. US commanders are demanding that control of Iraqi police and US-led coalition forces in the cities be restored and that insurgents in Fallujah lay down their arms and hand over Iraqis who killed and mutilated four American civilians on March 31. Despite the truce in Fallujah, guerrillas overnight made sporadic attacks, said Byrne. Marines killed two insurgents setting up a machine gun near a patrol and others were fired on by gunmen hiding in a school, he said. The bodies of 11 Iraqis were seen brought to a makeshift clinic in a city mosque Sunday. Most of the Iraqis killed in Fallujah in fighting that started April 5 were women, children and elderly, said al-Issawi, the Fallujah hospital director. Byrne cast doubt on the numbers and said he was confident troops in his 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment had not killed any civilians. "Just because (the Iraqis) say it's so, doesn't meant it's so," he said. Fallujah residents took advantage of the lull in fighting to bury their dead in two soccer fields. One of the fields, seen by an AP reporter had rows of freshly dug graves, some marked on headstones as children or with the names of women. A gravedigger at the site said that more than 300 people were buried there. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2004 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets. From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Russia, Saint-Petersburg
Date: 2004.04.12 17:59
Rosbalt News Agency
With Majority Parties Staying Away, Armenia Parliament May Go Dark for 3
Days
EREVAN, April 12. The parties of Armenia’s ruling coalition decided Monday
to forgo attendance in parliament for the next three days. In a statement
from the three parties–Republican, Dashnaktsutyun and Orinats Yerkir–they
said they would desist from parliamentary work for three days, April 12-14,
so as not to artificially enflame political tensions.
The ruling coalition holds a large majority of the seats in parliament,
which the opposition has been boycotting.