Month: June 2005

Azeri president hopes for progress in Karabakh talks
ANS TV, Baku
28 Jun 05
[Presenter] We are pinning hopes on the Karabakh talks, President
Ilham Aliyev has said in an interview with CNN-Turk television.
Aliyev stressed that Armenians had no way out.
[Aliyev speaking to a CNN-Turk correspondent in Azeri] We have hopes.
We may talk about any progress when we agree on something. But we
have hopes because processes going on in the world are not in favour
of Armenians. The political landscape is changing in the region.
Azerbaijan, as part of the Euro-Atlantic area, maintains very close
ties with the EU and the USA.
Armenia is pursuing a different policy. Armenia’s allies are different.
Armenia cannot compete with us in terms of economic potential. It is
not possible. Today, our budget is four times larger than theirs. I
have set the government the goal that our budget should be 10 times
larger than the Armenian. And we will achieve this.
Their aggressive policies are already being condemned by international
organizations. The Council of Europe has adopted a resolution saying
that Armenia has committed aggression against Azerbaijan and is
pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing. I mean, they have no other
way out.
[Turkish correspondent] Do you mean that the developments in this
struggle are in favour of Azerbaijan and there will be results?
[Aliyev] That’s right. So, we have to strengthen our positions. Our
alliance with Turkey and other regional countries is very
important to us. For instance, today we are working on the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway [project]. Georgia, Turkey
and Azerbaijan are turning into powers in the region – into very
important powers.
So, I have no doubts that we will resolve this issue [Karabakh
problem]. I just want us to do this without any bloodshed, peacefully.

Turkish envoy to Azerbaijan notes importance of peace in region
ANS TV, Baku
27 Jun 05
What is important to us is the establishment of peace in the region,
the Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan, Turan Morali, said while
commenting on the redeployment of Russian military hardware from
Georgia to Armenia.
Speaking on the “Point of View” programme on ANS TV, Morali said that
something like this should be done “without disturbing others, i.e.
between Armenia and Russia”.
He also said that the idea of opening a road from Xankandi
[Stepanakert] in Nagornyy Karabakh to Turkey through Susa, Lacin,
Armenia and Naxcivan was “a good project”.
No further processing is planned.

Armenian president, South Korean envoy discuss expanding economic ties
Yerkir website
28 Jun 05
Yerevan, 28 June: The newly-appointed South Korean ambassador to
Armenia, Kim Jae-sup, (resident in Moscow) presented his credentials
to Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today.
Kocharyan congratulated the South Korean ambassador on his
appointment, adding that this would open a new stage in the progress
of Armenian-Korean relations, the presidential press office reported.
The president said that trade between the two countries doubled last
year. However, this figure is not relevant as against the existing
opportunities and therefore, it is necessary to take steps to make
full use of the existing potential.
Stressing the importance of bilateral relations in the economic sphere,
the Korean ambassador said that he intended to do his best for the
expansion of Armenian-Korean relations.

Russian base withdrawal held up by refusal of Georgian transit papers
RTR Russia TV, Moscow
28 Jun 05
[Presenter] More than 1,300 Russian servicemen and specialists in the
Group of Russian Armed Forces in Transcaucasus have still not received
the documents required to be in Georgia and to enter and exit the
country. The local authorities are refusing to issue the visas under
a variety of pretexts. The headquarters of the group of forces is
calling the situation critical, saying it threatens to disrupt the
whole process of withdrawing the bases from Batumi and Akhalkalaki.
[Deputy commander of the Group of Russian Armed Forces in Transcaucasus
Col Vladimir Kuparadze, captioned in Tbilisi] At the moment we cannot
get a single specialist serviceman in to prepare equipment for the
withdrawal. Six specialists from the Gyumri military base [in Armenia]
should have come in on 21 June and have still not received their
visas and cannot come in and prepare the equipment.
This has to be resolved so that the agreements reached by the leaders
of Russia and Georgia can be implemented in good time and on schedule.

Azerbaijan, Armenia Agree on Two More Principles
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
June 28 2005
Two pivotal issues were agreed upon during the Paris meeting of
Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers, Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov has said. He did not elaborate, saying that the sides
had agreed to keep these issues confidential.
Mammadyarov said that despite progress in talks, the sides have not
agreed upon certain issues yet. “We will certainly discuss these
issues in the future and outline what steps should be taken to
achieve goals.”
Mammadyarov said the talks are underway based on the principles
outlined during the Warsaw meeting of the two countries’ presidents
and the foreign ministers are trying to arrive at a consensus. “After
consensus is reached on all principles, their gist will be reflected
on paper,” he said.
The minister went on to say that he held an informal meeting with his
Armenian counterpart Vardan Oskanian in Brussels last week during an
international event dedicated to the future developments in Iraq. The
parties discussed the most efficient directions to continue the
negotiations and complete the peace process soon, he said.
Commenting on Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov’s statement that
peace talks may yield results in August, Mammadyarov said it is
difficult to cite the exact timing.
“Frankly, I don’t expect the talks to yield results till the end of
August, when Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents will meet in Kazan.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Protest action in Tsalka
The Messenger, Georgia
June 28 2005
On Sunday the population of the Tsalka district (Kvemo-Kartli region
in the east of Georgia) protested against the presence of the Georgian
Interior Ministry’s special forces and demanded their withdrawal,
Black Sea Press reports.
The local population protesting see the presence of the law enforcement
bodies as a way to increase tension between the ethnic Armenians and
Georgians. The region is populated predominantly by ethnic Armenians.
“They are irritated by our not speaking Georgian and that we are
Armenians,” one of the participants of the action said.
“We were born here; our ancestors have lived here for over 180 years.
Why does the police aggravate the situation?” said Majority Deputy
in Parliament from the Tsalka district Aik Mentonyan.
On June 27 MPs addressed the issue at the bureau session. According
to MP Elene Tevdoradze she plans to visit the region together with
Ombudsman Sozar Subari.
Special forces were first introduced in Tsalka this spring, after
several conflicts among the local population.
The situation grew especially aggravated when one of the ethnic
Armenians were wounded on June 25.

Kars, Akhalkalaki open trade links
The Messenger, Georgia
June 28 2005
Two of the poorest regions in Georgia and Turkey hope to create jobs
and stimulate economic growth through cooperation By Burcu Gültekin
and Mikael Hertoft*
Turkish and Georgian businessmen and political figures are considering
ways to improve economic relations in the border regions of the
two countries.
With this in mind, businessmen met in early June in Kars to collaborate
on opening the border between Karzakhi and Cildir/Aktas in an effort to
increase the importance of two remote regions in Georgia and Turkey –
Akhalkalaki and Kars.
The issue has been on the agenda of the Turkish and Georgian
governments for several years, and was addressed at the last
Turkish-Georgian Joint Economic Commission.
During the two-day visit a delegation from Samtskhe-Javakheti met
with Mayor of Kars Naif Alibeyoglu, President of the Kars Chamber of
Commerce and Industry Ali Guvensoy and private Turkish businessmen.
The issues of attracting new sources of income, increasing the
amount of workplaces based on cross-border trade, joint investment
and marketing projects, and development of regional tourism were
discussed at the meetings.
It is hoped that through this cross-border cooperation, economic
growth will be stimulated in both regions.
While Kars has suffered in recent years owing to the loss of its
status as a border town after direct land communications between
Turkey and Armenia were severed in 1993, Akhalkalaki today suffers
from its remoteness and very poor infrastructure, and is one of the
poorest regions in Georgia.
The opening of the Karzakhi-Cildir/Aktas border crossing will
place Akhalkalaki at one-hour distance from Kars and should lead to
increased cross-border trade, although for this to happen the road
between Akhalkalaki and the Georgian border town of Karzakhi must
first be rehabilitated.
Local actors on both sides of the border are placing great hope in the
Millennium Challenge Georgia project to renovate the road connection
between the Turkish border and Tbilisi via Akhalkalaki.
Samtskhe-Javakheti region and Eastern Anatolia can be as integrated
as Adjara and the Turkish Black Sea region, they believe, adding that
the Karzakhi border crossing will, as Sarpi did, open a transit trade
route to Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The members of the Samtskhe-Javakheti delegation and their Turkish
counterparts expressed strong support for the Georgian and Turkish
governments in their efforts to open the border post and improve
infrastructure.
The businessmen and political representatives from Kars and
Samtskhe-Javakheti agreed to meet again in Akhalkalaki in the nearest
future to discuss further cooperation.
* Dr. Burcu Gültekin is Europe Coordinator for the Turkish-Armenian
Business Development Council (TABDC); Mikael Hertoft is Program
Manager in Javakheti for the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
–Boundary_(ID_iik7/KEFajj9NX3Lwddx5g)–

Ara Tadevosian: Armenia edges closer to NATO
Providence Journal , RI
June 28 2005
YEREVAN, Armenia – ARMENIA’S defense minister, Sarah Sarkisian,
and the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiztion,
Jalap de Hoop Schaffer, have come to an agreement that many see as
proof of a strategic shift by Armenia toward the West.
At a meeting in Brussels this month, Sarkisian presented de Hoop
Schaffer with a so-called Individual Partnership Action Plan
from Armenia, as well as a letter from Armenian President Robert
Kocharian. Such action plans submitted to NATO detail the political
and military steps that a country will take to deepen its relations
with the alliance; they’re considered the first step toward applying
for membership.
The event marked a breakthrough in relations between Armenia and
NATO, which were once quite frosty. Since gaining independence from
the former Soviet Union, in 1991, Armenia has been a close military
ally of Russia’s. Moscow still maintains a large military base in
Yuri, Armenia.
But a slight cooling of relations with Russia — coupled with overtures
from the West and indications that neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan
might soon also seek NATO membership — have changed the strategic
picture in the region.
Earlier this year, Armenian Defense Minister Sarkisian clearly
signaled his country’s growing orientation toward the West. “After
we set ourselves the goal of joining the European family,” he said,
“we must have close relations with NATO and be responsible for
guaranteeing security in Europe.”
In fact, Armenia and NATO have been developing closer relations for
several years. In 2003, Armenia played host to NATO military exercises,
and in 2004 it sent peacekeeping troops to join the international
presence in Kosovo.
Moscow has made clear that it still considers Armenia a vital ally.
It recently began moving military equipment out of its bases in
Georgia to its large facility in northern Armenia.
But, in a sign of how the political atmosphere is changing in
Armenia, the leading official in the opposition Republic Party, Suren
Sureniants, criticized the move. He said that it “only reinforced the
prevailing opinion in the West that Armenia is Russia’s forward post
in the Caucasus.” Sureniants also said that “the Armenian political
elite ought to raise the issue of the withdrawal of Russian bases
from the territory of our country.”
Still, many Armenians remain deeply suspicious of NATO. Some continue
to regard Russia as a more reliable ally. Others are troubled that
Turkey, longtime enemy of Armenia, is a key NATO member.
“If NATO needs us so badly,” said Yeravan resident Misak Alexanian,
“why doesn’t it force Turkey to open its border with Armenia?”
Armenian President Kocharian refused to attend a NATO summit in
Istanbul last year, because of Turkey’s refusal to begin diplomatic
relations with Armenia and to open their shared border.
Yet Armenians have welcomed NATO’s position on Azerbaijan. Last
September, the alliance canceled a planned military exercise there
after Azerbaijan refused to let Armenian officers participate in
the maneuvers.
For now, Armenia finds itself in two worlds: It remains a key member
of the Russian-led Collective Security Pact of the Commonwealth
of Independent States even as it develops a growing relationship
with NATO.
Ronald D. Asmus, a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall
Fund of the United States and a senior adjunct fellow at the Council
on Foreign Relations, in Washington, says that Armenia “needs to
try to pursue a dual-track strategy, where it expands its outreach
to this region and tries to deepen its cooperation with Moscow in
parallel. It is clearly in our, as well as Armenia’s, interest that
we succeed in doing so.”
Armenia will also have to bring its armed forces under civilian
control — not an easy task in a country where the military is a
major political force.
The country now has two years to implement its Individual Partnership
Action Plan for entry into NATO. After that, it will be up to Armenia’s
next president — due to be elected in 2008 — to decide whether to
pursue formal NATO membership.
Ara Tadevosian is a journalist in Armenia who writes for The Institute
for War & Peace Reporting, a London-based nonprofit organization that
trains journalists in regions of conflict ().

UN discussions on Garabagh conflict ‘will depend on peace talks’
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
June 28 2005
Baku, June 27, AssA-Irada — Azerbaijan is still to ascertain whether
or not the a draft resolution on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper Garabagh
conflict will be put on discussion at the UN General Assembly in
August, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said.
Mammadyarov said the discussions will depend on the process of peace
talks. “If we achieve progress in talks, the situation will certainly
change. In this case, we will re-work the document,” he said.
Azerbaijan achieved putting the issue of illegal settlement of
Armenians in the occupied regions of Azerbaijan on the UN General
Assembly agenda in 2004. The discussions were followed by a visit of
the OSCE fact-finding mission to Upper Garabagh.*

Ten Commandments marker to stay in Phoenix
By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
Arizona Daily Star, AZ
June 28 2005
PHOENIX – A 6-foot-tall monument of the Ten Commandments will remain
in a public park across from the Arizona state Capitol.
The decision Monday by Tim Nelson, chief legal adviser to Gov. Janet
Napolitano, followed a ruling earlier in the day by the U.S. Supreme
Court allowing a virtually identical monument to remain on the grounds
of the state Capitol in Texas.
The high court said in a 5-4 ruling that such monuments are simply
“acknowledgements of the role played by the Ten Commandments in our
nation’s heritage.” Taking that side were William Rehnquist, Antonin
Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer.
“Our situation is very analogous to the case in Texas,” said Nelson.
“The monument here does not constitute the establishment of a religion
by the state.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona mounted a challenge
two years ago, trying to force removal of the monument in Phoenix.
Eleanor Eisenberg, the group’s director, said she has not yet studied
Monday’s high court ruling but that it appears to undermine the
ACLU’s quest.
That ruling actually was one of two issued Monday by the court on
the Ten Commandments and the separation of church and state.
In a separate 5-4 decision, the court said Ten Commandments displays in
two Kentucky courthouses had to go because they promoted a religious
message. On that side were Justices David Souter, John Paul Stevens,
Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Breyer.
But the justices – who have a frieze of Moses holding the Commandments
on the wall of their own courtroom – said these questions need to be
decided case by case.
Souter, who wrote the majority decision in the Kentucky case, said
the First Amendment “mandates government neutrality between religion
and religion, and between religion and non-religion.” He said the
Kentucky displays fell on the side of the line where government was
advancing religion.
By contrast, Chief Justice Rehnquist, who wrote the majority decision
in the Texas case, said the display there – and in Arizona – is
different. The court also noted the Texas display is one of 21
historical markers and 17 monuments.
“Texas has treated her Capitol grounds monuments as representing the
several strands in the state’s political and legal history,” Rehnquist
wrote. “The inclusion of the Ten Commandments monument in this group
has a dual significance, partaking of both religion and government.”
That’s exactly the situation in Phoenix, where the monument, located
in Wesley Bolin Park, stands with various others. These include one
to Armenians who the display says were martyred in Turkey early in
the last century, and another to Jewish war veterans.
Stevens, in his dissent in the Texas case, said his colleagues are
ignoring both the wording on the monuments and how they ended up
placed at various state capitols.
He said the first Commandment, larger than the others, says “I AM the
LORD thy God” in letters larger than the rest on the Texas monument.
The same language and typefaces exist on the Arizona monument.
“It commands present worship of Him and no other deity,” Stevens
wrote. “It directs us to be guided by His teaching in the current
and future conduct of all of our affairs.”
Stevens also noted that all the monuments were produced by the
Fraternal Order of Eagles in conjunction with Cecil B. DeMille,
who at the time was producing his movie “The Ten Commandments.”
The two rulings drew mixed reaction from the Center for Arizona Policy,
which had filed its own brief in January urging the high court to
let the Phoenix monument remain.
Peter Gentala, the organization’s legal counsel, said he was pleased
with that ruling. But Gentala said the Kentucky decision continues
the situation where courts will have to divine whether such displays
are designed to promote religion rather than simply acknowledge the
Ten Commandments as a part of national heritage.
Gentala’s legal brief was supported by a spectrum of politicians,
including Democrat Napolitano, Republican Secretary of State Jan
Brewer and 38 of Arizona’s 90 legislators.
Monday’s rulings were the court’s first major statement on the Ten
Commandments since 1980, when the justices barred their display in
public schools.
Legal experts said the rulings will bring additional litigation as
displays are challenged by both sides case by case.
Thousands of Ten Commandment displays around the nation will be
validated if their primary purpose is to honor the nation’s legal,
rather than religious, traditions, legal experts said. Location also
will be considered, with wide-open lots more acceptable than schools.
“What the rulings say is when a government overtly endorses a
particular religious viewpoint of tradition, it’s unconstitutional,”
said Marci Hamilton, a church-state expert at Cardozo School of Law.
“Displays are OK if you don’t have an in-your-face declaration that
the government stands behind Christian tradition.”