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08/12/2004
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1) Azeris Seek US Involvement in Karabagh, Pledge Further Security
Cooperation
2) Legendary Olympic Champion Azarian to Lead Armenia in Opening Ceremonies
3) Armenian Writers’ Union Fund Established
4) Armenian-Russian War Games To Take Place in Yerevan
5) Georgia, South Ossetia Row Erupts Into Violence
1) Azeris Seek US Involvement in Karabagh, Pledge Further Security
Cooperation
BAKU (Reuters)–Azerbaijan asked the United States on Thursday to support its
bid to regain control over Karabagh, an Armenian-populated enclave which broke
away after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who pledged to build ties with
the Caucasus ally, did not offer any help beyond supporting international
mediation which has yet to reconcile Azerbaijan with its ex-Soviet neighbor
Armenia.
Thousands of people were killed in fighting in Karabagh before a truce was
struck in 1994. Karabagh Armenians now control the enclave and a swathe of
Azeri territory around it.
Azerbaijan, upset by a lack of progress in mediation efforts by the Minsk
Group
of 11 states, led by France, the United States, and Russia, has urged the
European Union and other Western powers to get involved directly.
“What we want from the United States as our ally and partner is for it to
support Azerbaijan in this conflict and demand that Armenia immediately
withdraws its occupation forces,” Defense Minister Safar Abiyev told a joint
news conference with Rumsfeld.
At the start of his visit, Rumsfeld said Washington was committed to
developing
ties with Azerbaijan–an oil-rich country which should start pumping oil to
the
West through a pipeline across Georgia and Turkey next year.
“I agree completely that the security relationship between our two countries
continues to grow and strengthen,” Rumsfeld said during a meeting with
President Ilham Aliyev.
AVOIDS RESPONSE
But he avoided responding to Abiyev’s call.
“As you know the United States supports the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan,” he told the news conference, adding that Washington was involved
in the Minsk group.
Ties between the United States and Azerbaijan, which is seeking to develop
ties
with NATO in contrast with its pro-Russian arch-foe Armenia, strengthened
after
Baku backed the US intervention in Afghanistan by sending 30 troops. “Our
relations are growing, and I am sure that in the future we will continue to be
mutual friends and allies,” Azeri President Ilham Aliyev told reporters.
Azerbaijan became the only predominantly Muslim state to send troops to
support
the US-led military engagement in Iraq. Around 150 Azeri troops are
deployed in
Iraq.
Russian media reported last month that Azerbaijan was considering sending an
extra 250 troops to Iraq. Azeri officials denied such plans and Rumsfeld said
the issue was not raised during his visit.
“We did not discuss the possibility of expansion of Azeri troops in
Afghanistan
or Iraq,” he said.
Rumsfeld told Aliyev his country was an important partner in the fight against
terrorism.
“We value that relationship and the cooperation that your country has
demonstrated at the very outset of the global war on terrorism.”
US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld thanked Aliyev on Thursday for his
country’s support in the war on terrorism.
2) Legendary Olympic Champion Azarian to Lead Armenia in Opening Ceremonies
ATHENS–Olympic champion Albert Azarian, will carry the banner of the Armenian
delegation at the August 13 opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Azarian,
known as the “king of the rings,” was the 1954 and 1958 World Champion, 1955
European Champion, and 1956 and 1960 Olympic Champion. According to the
Chairman of the Armenian Olympic Committee Ishkhan Zakarian, Armenia will be
represented by 18 athletes in 9 sports in the Olympic Games, including
competitions in weight-lifting, wrestling, and boxing. President Robert
Kocharian will also be with the delegation leaving for Athens to provide moral
support to the Armenian team. The US boxing team includes Vanes Martirosyan
from Glendale, CA. Born in Armenia, Martirosyan moved to the US when he was
four and started boxing at age 7. Ranked 14th in his weight class in January
2004, Martirosyan persevered and succeeded in making the team.
3) Armenian Writers’ Union Fund Established
ANTELIAS–Initiated by His Holiness Catholicos Aram I, and through the efforts
of the chairman of the Armenian Writers’ Union Levon Ananian, a fund has been
established in Antelias for the Writers’ Union under the auspices of the
Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia.
His Holiness had made an appeal for such a fund during a conference of
Armenian
writers in the Middle East, held on March 26-28. The meeting, attended by 40
writers from Lebanon and Syria, provided the opportunity to raise the
issue, as
well as begin the initial fundraising. His Holiness also issued a circular
requesting all the prelacies and executive councils of the Holy See of Cilicia
to take part in the effort.
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia appeals to all Armenians to participate
in the fund, and help Armenia’s writers and intellectuals preserve our history
and culture.
Donations can be made to:
FRANSBANK SAL, Antelias Branch, Lebanon
ARMENIAN CATHOLICOSATE OF CILICIA
003 035 22 21 532027.87
FSABLBBX
4) Armenian-Russian War Games To Take Place in Yerevan
YEREVAN (Armenpress)–The annual war games between Russia and Armenia are set
to take place in Yerevan, August 24-27, announced Armenian Defense Ministry
spokesman Seyran Shahsuvarian. Russia’s 102nd base will take part in the
exercise.
5) Georgia, South Ossetia Row Erupts Into Violence
TBILISI (Reuters/AFP)–An artillery bombardment has left three Georgian
soldiers dead and other people hurt as villages in South Ossetia came under
fire on Thursday in a violent escalation of Georgia’s dispute with its
breakaway province.
“It’s obvious that the South Ossetian leadership and some other forces are
trying to involve us in a military conflict,” Georgia’s parliamentary speaker
Nino Burdzhanadze said.
“Our soldiers were defending their positions and peaceful residents. We are
going to do our best to keep the peace and to escape war,” Burdzhanadze told
journalists.
Georgia says South Ossetia must submit to rule from Tbilisi, but after a
separatist war in 1992, local leaders reject any overtures from the central
government, preferring to look to Moscow for support for their de facto
independence.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has already overthrown one local
strongman since winning a landslide election victory in January, but he faces
far stiffer resistance in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, another separatist
region.
Russia, Georgia, and the self-proclaimed South Ossetian administration run a
joint peacekeeping force in South Ossetia, but mounting rhetoric and easy
access to guns had fuelled fears that violence might shatter the fragile
peace.
“All night Georgian villages and Georgian peacekeepers’ positions have been
under massive artillery fire, coming from various types of guns,” Aleko
Kiknadze, the Georgian peacekeepers’ commander, told Reuters early on
Thursday.
“Three are dead from our side,” Georgia’s Deputy Security Minister Gigi
Ugulava
said.
HOSPITAL BOMBARDED
But a spokeswoman for the unrecognized South Ossetian government said the
Georgians had opened fire first, bombarding a hospital in the capital
Tskhinvali.
“They’ve been shooting at us all night…It’s the start of the war,” Irina
Gagloyeva told Reuters.
A member of a local non-governmental organization told Reuters by telephone
that some people at the hospital had been wounded, but there was no word on
any
deaths.
Russian television showed the blackened tail-fin of a mortar bomb lying
under a
smashed apartment window and doctors comforting children in the dilapidated
hospital.
“We have new-born babies here. We all went down into the basement. I’ve never
seen and heard anything so terrible in my life,” Dr. Tinatin Zakharova told
the
state TV station Rossiya.
South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity, dressed in camouflage fatigues, also
appeared on Rossiya, calling for emergency talks–a suggestion immediately
backed by Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
Col. Nikolai Baranov, spokesman for Russian peacekeepers in the disputed
region, said the force had done all it could to stop the fighting.
“Our headquarters held talks with the South Ossetian and Georgian leadership
and managed to stop the shooting for a time during the night, but it soon
restarted with even greater intensity,” he told Russian state television.
Russian peacekeepers said they had plotted the firing position of the guns
which had bombarded South Ossetian villages, Interfax news agency reported.
South Ossetia’s defense chief Ibragim Gassiyev told Interfax that Georgian
forces had destroyed the South Ossetian village of Andisi, wounding two
people.
He also said Georgian armor was moving to the border with South Ossetia.
President Saakashvili is warning against “ethnic cleansing” in the region.
“We
must not allow for ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population or a
humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
Saakashvili says his government faces three major challenges at present: to
ensure the safety of the civilian population in South Ossetia, to halt
smuggling and other economic crime, and to prevent the conflict in Ossetia
from
expanding.
“We must not permit outside forces to create a scenario that would drag
Georgia
into a large-scale military conflict,” he said.
He did not specify which outside forces he meant.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loshinin has also sounded an alarm over
the latest developments in the region.
“The situation is worsening by the hour and could spin out of control at any
moment,” he said.
Russia has proposed an emergency meeting of a tripartite
Georgian-Ossetian-Russian commission charged with resolving the dispute.
Prime minister Zurab Zhvania said Europe and the US must help resolve the
escalating military conflict between his former Soviet republic and
pro-Russian
forces in separatist South Ossetia.
“We are asking the international community to use its influence to help launch
high-level negotiations,” Zhvania told reporters. He said Georgia still wants
to engage in direct negotiations with the separatists in the presence of
Russian representatives, as all sides work to figure out a way to end a flare
of fighting in the volatile Caucasus.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress