Month: October 2005

AZERI MINISTER BLAMES ARMENIANS FOR FLOOD IN WESTERN DISTRICT

ANS TV, Azerbaijan
Oct 4 2005

[Presenter] Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Huseyn Bagirov
has explained why 150 ha of arable land and over 20 houses have been
flooded in the villages of Zangisali and Mahrizli in Agdam District.

Armenians are using the water reservoir in the Armenian-occupied
village of Saricali precisely for this purpose.

[Bagirov] According to information available to us, this is rain
water. I do not believe that it collected naturally because if this was
the case, it would have also collected earlier and these streams would
have existed earlier. The Armenians have fortifications, and the troops
of the occupying army are not far from there. We suppose that this
is an artificial lake and that was the intention, which they achieved.

THE GREEK DM TO VISIT ARMENIA

Source: “Regnum”, October 3, 2005
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
October 5, 2005, Wednesday

the Greek delegation headed by the Defense Minister Spilios
Spiliotolus will visit Armenia on October 4. This statement was made
by Colonel Seyran Shakhsuvaryan, press secretary of the Armenian
defense minister. The visit plans meetings with President Robert
Kochyaryan of Armenia, Prime Minister Andrannik Margaryan, Defense
Minister Serge Sarkisyan.

INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK DEVEDJIAN: “TURKEY HAS GIVEN NO EVIDENCE OF DEMOCRACY”
Interviewed by Charles Jaigu

Le Figaro, France (Translated from French)
Oct 4 2005

[Jaigu] You have regained your seat as deputy on the eve of the
start of the negotiations with Turkey. Are you still demanding their
suspension?

[Devedjian] I want this because Turkey is not a democratic state. I
do not see why Erdogan’s Turkey should be exempted from what we
demanded from Salazar’s Portugal, the colonels’ Greece, and very
recently Croatia. [European Commission Vice-President] Guenter
Vergeugen’s 2004 report states that torture is no longer practised
“systematically”. How reassuring! I would add that the island of
Cyprus is now part of European territory and that the Turkish Army
occupies part of that territory. This is the first time in its history
that the EU has negotiated with an occupying army! Those who cite
[former French President] General de Gaulle really should realize
how scandalous this is.

[Jaigu] Is Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan not right to
criticize the opponents of Turkey’s candidacy for their adherence to a
“Christian club”?

[Devedjian] Europe is not a Christian club: it is a democrats’ club.

Mr Erdogan is in the worst position to accuse us Europeans of forming
a religious club. We must remember that he leads a country that
has driven out almost all Christians and Jews. By opposing northern
Cyprus’s EU membership, he denied many Muslims living there accession
to the Union.

[Jaigu] Is it not rather late to call for France to veto the start
of negotiations?

[Devedjian] Turkey has pledged to become a democratic country! But it
has given no evidence of it. On the contrary, it has promulgated a new
criminal code that destroys press freedom, it refuses to recognize
Cyprus, it still uses torture, and it refuses to countenance a
recognition of the Armenian genocide, which shows that it is unable
to come to terms with its past.

[Jaigu] Nicolas Sarkozy himself has chosen “not to exaggerate”
his disagreements with the president over the Turkish question. He
has pointed out that the French people will without fail vote in a
referendum once the negotiations are over.

[Devedjian] There has already been a first referendum, 29 May, which
amply demonstrated that the French public oppose Turkey’s accession
and the EU’s indefinite enlargement. At the same time, we cannot say
that we were wrong to “keep Turkey waiting” for 14 years, while at
the same time proposing to continue doing so for a further 15 years.

Our government can well use its veto rights, as Austria is considering
doing. I would point out that [Prime Minister] Dominique de Villepin
said on 2 August that it was impossible to envisage starting
negotiations until Turkey had recognized Cyprus. I would be pleased
with that stance, if it were to be maintained. But it seems to me
that the prime minister has abandoned it.

[Jaigu] What is your reply to Jean-Louis Debre, who said on Sunday
[2 October] that “if we do not honour political loyalty, we are living
in a republic that I do not like”?

[Devedjian] I am not a member of the government, so I am entirely free
to speak. My mandate has just been renewed by voters who often convey
to me their criticisms of the government for not taking account of
the referendum and allowing European enlargement by Turkey to take
place. I would also point out that Jean-Louis Debre, speaker of the
National Assembly, accused then Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin
of pursuing a “self-seeking” policy. Neither I nor my friends have
gone as far when speaking about a prime minister. In any case, a
distinction must be drawn between substantive criticisms, which are
constructive, and personal attacks, which are to be deplored.

[Jaigu] Nevertheless since last week we have seen a desire to calm
the climate on Nicolas Sarkozy’s part.

[Devedjian] I think that it is part of his role as party leader to
rally the coalition forces together while clearing the way ahead. But
he clearly has a responsibility to government solidarity, which also
explains his desire to calm the situation.

[Jaigu] According to a TNS-Sofres opinion poll conducted for Le
Figaro Magazine , Nicolas Sarkozy has been overtaken by Dominique de
Villepin in terms of popularity. The UMP chairman has apparently lost
some points, particularly among left-wing voters.

[Devedjian] Dominique de Villepin’s anti-US posture in 2003 greatly
pleased the left. But I would point out that if Dominique de Villepin
wants to compete in the second round of the presidential election he
first needs to be elected in the first round, and by the right.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LATVIAN LEADER BACKS AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

Turan news agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 3 2005

Baku, 3 October: “Latvia’s position on the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict coincides with that of the European Union. We support
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” Latvian President Vaira
Vike-Freiberga told a news conference following her talks with
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev today.

She said that it is worrying when territorial integrity of sovereign
states is violated. At the same time, she spoke for a peaceful solution
to the conflict on the basis of mutual compromises.

In turn, Aliyev said that the conflict should be solved within the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Nagornyy Karabakh can be
granted autonomy similar to these existing in Europe.

Vike-Freiberga welcomed Azerbaijan’s aspiration to close cooperation
with the European Union.

DIVA IS DEAD-SET: DIAMANDA GALAS
by ALISON BARCLAY

Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)
October 5, 2005 Wednesday

Defixiones: Friday, 8pm.

Songs of Exile: Monday, 8pm. Where: Hamer Hall.

Tickets: $19-$65.

Bookings: 1300 136 166.

SHE was born 50 years ago and hasn’t died yet. If Diamanda Galas can
wrest her ancestral gods of Olympus to her desires, she never will.

“We Greeks don’t really believe in life after death. We believe
in death after death,” the Greek-American musician says with
blood-curdling emphasis.

“We are absolutely mortified by death — ooh, bad word. Terrified
by death.”

Terrified? This from the woman who sings of the worst types of death
and has spent the past 20 years becoming an expert on it?

But Galas is sharp on her subject. For the brother and friends she
lost to AIDS, she wrote Plague Mass.

Last in Melbourne in 2001 with La Serpenta Canta, she returns this
weekend with Songs of Exile and Defixiones: Orders from the Dead.

The latter is an operatic mass for those who died in the Armenian,
Assyrian and Pontic Greek genocides from 1914-23.

Most of these she has recorded, but the question about whether her
work will survive her, whether she may achieve immortality via CD,
brings a sigh of profound longing.

“One would love to think such things, but it isn’t true,” she says.

“Greeks certainly feel we should live forever — and what is wrong
with that? I really do not appreciate this sentence of mortality. I
take issue with the gods about that!”

Styled for a concert, Galas is the nightmare life-in-death, with
sootened eyes and talons that recall that oddly comforting rumour
about fingernails continuing to grow after the ghost has left the body.

But on the phone from Italy, where she toured before coming here,
she is energetic, funny and friendly.

Unlike the Greek Americans she complains are “invisible” — and silent
about past atrocities committed against them — Galas has a big mouth.

She loves Greek Australians because they do, too.

“There is no comparison. When I have spoken to Greeks in Australia,
wow, there are so many genocide scholars in Australia.

“And I’m telling you, there is no comparison between the consciousness
of the Australian Greeks and the American Greeks. It is a completely
different world.

“A lot of the Greeks don’t even want to discuss it in Greece, and
they don’t want to be Greek. They want to be French!

“They say ‘Oh, let’s be friends with the Turks’. And I say shut the
f— up!”

She wonders if her outspokenness cost her a gig at the Athens Olympics
last year.

“I was going to sing, but they chose Bjork instead,” she says.

“She is a lovely singer, but what she has to do with Greece is beyond
me. Instead of a Greek singer they chose an Icelandic singer because
they don’t want to be Greek. They want to be European.”

THAT genocides are allowed to keep happening has much to do with
nations protecting trade, Galas says.

Mass death “is an insignificant problem, economically speaking,
if it gets in the way of larger interests”.

Hurricane Katrina is a case in point. “Here we have in our own country
a disaster in which the individuals must take action because the
government completely ignores it,” she says.

“If anyone had any doubt about what was going on in Iraq, they now
know for sure. If Bush is treating his own people like this, imagine
what he is doing in Iraq.”

In speaking, as in singing, Galas barely pauses for breath, a legacy of
her training in bel canto technique, for which another Greek American,
Maria Callas, was famous.

Of Callas, Galas says: “I adore her beyond words. She was such a
magnificent musician.”

But it’s the Welsh tigress Shirley Bassey who makes her roar with
admiration: “She has a monstrous great voice. I am just astounded at
how great she is.”
From: Baghdasarian

KOCHARIAN WELCOMES IDEA OF CREATING REGIONAL CENTER OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT BODIES

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 5 2005

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN. Completely established local
self-government bodies are important factors of stability of the
state. RA President Robert Kocharian stated about this receiving
Giovanni Di Stasi, the President of the Congress of Local and Regional
Authorities of Council of Europe, on October 5.

The President of the republic welcame the practical relations
established between the Congress of the Council of Europe and the
Government of Armenia.

According to Robert Kocharian, the decentralization is the main
direction of the regional policy what, first of all, means development
of local self-government. According to the President, that course
found its expressionin the draft constitutional reforms as well.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA President’s Press Office, the
interlocutors exchanged opinions concerning the regional cooperation.

The Congress President of the Council of Europe arose idea of
creating a regional center of local self-government bodies, what,
according to him, will support establishment of economic, social,
cultural cooperation among them.

Welcoming that idea, the President of the republic said that Armenia
has always been for the regional cooperation and is of the opinion
that the cooperation will help creation of an atmosphere of mutual
confidence among parties and support an easier settlement of regional
problems.

RAFFI HOVHANNISIAN CONTINUES POLITICAL CONSULTATIONS AND STARTS MEETINGS IN ARMENIAN REGIONS

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 5 2005

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Raffi Hovhannisian,
founder and head of the Armenian Center for National and International
Studies, Chairman of the “Zharangutiun” (“Heritage”) party, starts a
series of meetings with representatives of public and his supporters
in different regions of the country on the coming Sunday. Raffi
Hovhannisian informed representatives of mass media about it at the
reception in honor of the 11th anniversary of foundation of the
Center. It’s supposed that during these meetings he will explain
party’s negative position on draft constitutional amendments put to
the referendum. Other issues worrying the Armenian society will be
also discussed during the numerous scheduled meetings.

R.Hovhannisian also confirmed that he continues political consultations
on the issue of cooperation with both representatives of opposition
and civil society and the representatives of Armenian power who
realize the seriousness of the situation formed in the country and
the necessity in radical changes.

Raffi Hovhannisian considers that the most important task at the
current stage is to hold the referendum exactly in correspondence
with the international obligations assumed by Armenia. He especially
emphasized that all the stages of the process should be democratic
and transparent, starting from the moment of agitation up to the
calculation of votes, which should guarantee the trust of the society
in the referendum results.

OSKANIAN AND LENMARKER DISCUSS PROSPECTS OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 5 2005

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN. Goran Lenmarker, Special
Representative of the Chairman of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
on Nagorno Karabakh issue, arrived in Yerevan for the purpose of
participating in the seminar of NATO Parliamentary Assembly. On October
5, Goran Lenmarker was received by RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian.

According to RA Foreign Ministry’s Press and Information Department,
Goran Lenmarker presented the results of the OSCE PA annual session
held in July in Washington, during which the report of the OSCE PA
Chairman’s Special Representative was heard. The Minister positively
estimated the report noting that it gave the realistic picture of
the process of Nagorno Karabakh conflict’s peaceful settlement. Then
V.Oskanian and G.Lenmarker exchanged thoughts about the current state
and prospects of Nagorno Karabakh settlement.

Touching upon Armenia’s participation within the framework of the
European Neighborhood policy, the sides held the same opinion that the
elaboration of an Action Plan will open a new page in the Armenia-EU
relations.

RA Foreign Minister and OSCE PA Chairman’s Special Representative
touched upon the current state and prospects of Armenian-Turkish
relations at a bilateral level, as well as in the light of the
negotiations on Turkey’s membership to the EU.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN AZERBAIJAN

Eurasianet Organization
Oct 5 2005

1828 Russia and Persia conclude Turkmanchay Treaty, dividing
Azerbaijan.

Present-day Azerbaijan becomes part of the Russian empire.

1840s First oil wells drilled near Baku.

1918-20 Azerbaijan enjoys short-lived independence, gained as a result
of collapse of Russian empire, before re-conquest by the Red Army.

1922 Azerbaijan is part of Trans-Caucasian Soviet Federative Republic
within Soviet Union.

1936 Azerbaijan established as separate union republic of the Soviet
Union.

1967 Heidar Aliyev becomes head of Azerbaijani KGB.

1969 Aliyev named head of Azerbaijani Communist Party.

1982 Aliyev becomes full member of Soviet Politburo.

1987 Heidar Aliyev leaves Politburo.

1988 Inter-ethnic strife hits Nagorno-Karabakh region. Ethnic
Azerbaijanis begin to leave Karabakh and Armenia and ethnic Armenians
leave Azerbaijan. Violence in Azerbaijani city of Sumgait leaves at
least two dozen ethnic Armenians and six Azerbaijanis dead.

1990 Inter-ethnic tension in Karabakh escalates. Trouble also occurs in
Nakhichevan exclave, as local residents agitate for more open border.

Soviet and Iranian authorities ultimately agree to ease border-crossing
restrictions. Inter-ethnic violence in Baku leaves at least 100 dead
and prompts intervention by Soviet troops.

Ayes Mutallibov named Azeri Communist Party leader. Communist Party
retains power in parliamentary elections, but opposition Popular
Front also gains representation.

1991 Azerbaijan regains independence after failed coup attempt
against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sparks the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Mutallibov becomes Azerbaijani president. Heidar Aliyev
assumes leadership of Nakhichevan exclave.

Armenian leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh declares the region an
independent republic. Warfare between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces
breaks out.

1992 More than 600 Azerbaijanis are killed as they flee an Armenian
attack on Karabakh town of Khojaly. Ethnic Armenian forces establish
land corridor linking Karabakh with Armenia proper.

Mutallibov forced to resign. Abulfaz Elchibey, leader of Popular Front,
becomes president.

1993 Armenian forces occupy Azerbaijani territory surrounding Karabakh.

Political instability rocks Baku. An uprising led by an army commander,
Col. Surat Huseinov, prompts Elchibey to invite Aliyev to return to
Baku. Elchibey subsequently steps down, and Aliyev assumes leadership
of the country. His rule is later ratified in a referendum.

1994 Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh sign a ceasefire accord.

Ethnic Armenians remain in control of Karabakh and a swathe of
Azerbaijani territory around it. Aliyev acts to consolidate his
authority, cracking down on Popular Front. Later he declares a state
of emergency following what he characterizes as a coup attempt.

Azerbaijan signs what it calls the “deal of the century” with a
consortium of international oil companies, led by British Petroleum,
for the exploration and exploitation of three offshore oil fields.

1995 Karabakh functions as de facto independent republic, holding
legislative elections. Robert Kocharian becomes Karabakh leader. The
Aliyev-led New Azerbaijan Party wins controlling share of seats
in parliamentary elections. Voters approve a new constitution in
a referendum.

1997 Kocharian becomes prime minister of Armenia proper. Aliyev and
his Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrossian agree to OSCE proposal
for step-by-step Karabakh solution. Fierce domestic opposition to
peace plan in Armenia forces Ter-Petrossian to resign. Kocharian
becomes president of Armenia.

1998 Opposition activists complain that president election, won
easily by Aliyev, is marked by fraud. International monitors note
irregularities.

2001 Azerbaijan becomes full member of Council of Europe, despite
criticism about the country’s human rights record. US-brokered talks
on Nagorno-Karabakh, held between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents
in Key West, Florida, reportedly produce tentative deal to settle
the conflict. However, the deal, if it existed, ends up falling apart.

Following the September 11 terrorist tragedy, the United States lifts
sanctions against Azerbaijan imposed over Karabakh conflict.

Azerbaijan becomes ally in anti-terrorism campaign.

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey reach agreement on oil and gas pipelines
linking Caspian fields with Turkey.

2002 Construction work starts on multi-billion-dollar pipeline to
carry Caspian oil from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia. The Pipeline
is known as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC).

2003 Aliyev appoints his son, Ilham, as prime minister. In April,
Heidar Aliyev collapses while making speech. He is rarely seen in
public after that. Ilham wins a landslide election as president
in October.

Opposition leaders, complaining about vote-rigging, mount a protest.

Authorities crack down hard against opposition. Authorities announce
in December that 80-year-old Heidar Aliyev has died.

2005 Journalist Elmar Huseinov, an outspoken government critic, is
killed in Baku in March. Opposition supporters believe killing was
politically motivated. Police use force to break up an opposition rally
in Baku in May. The same month, authorities and diplomats celebrate the
formal opening of the BTC pipeline. Azerbaijan and Armenia renew search
for Karabakh peace settlement under the so-called Prague Process.

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I LEADS BRANCH OF CHURCH

The Toronto Star
October 5, 2005 Wednesday

His Holiness Aram I, of the Armenian Holy Apostolic Church, is the
Catholicos of the See of Cilicia, which is based in Lebanon. Aram I
arrived in Toronto Friday for a six-day visit.

The See of Cilicia was established in Lebanon after the Armenian
genocide in the early 20th Century. For historical and political
reasons, this branch developed into an independent institution
operating separately from the Armenian-based church, whose
administrative and spiritual headquarters has always been the Mother
See of Holy Etchmiadzin in Armenia. His Holiness Karekin II, whose
title is Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, leads
that church. Both have operations worldwide – generally linked to
the diaspora of one See or the other. The Canadian diocese for the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin is in Montreal. A story published last
Thursday did not explain the divide. As a result, the role of Aram
I was unclear. Clarification