Author: Antonian Lara

THE 11TH PROGRESS REPORT

Turkish Daily News
November 8, 2008 Saturday

I recall how dull the progress reports of 2000 and 2001 were, due
to the then coalition government’s failure to deliver on European
Union harmonization. The reports had no substance and signalled
retreat rather than progress. This year’s report reminds me of those
reports. It is a fact that the government did nothing noteworthy in
EU works in the last four years. Rather it found so many different
excuses to not go for it. The report contains rambling suggestions
like "hurry-up in reforms" and points at deficiencies that have been
repeated time and again throughout the years. It seems that the
report this time has been kept short in order not to keep talking
about negatives.

Loss of interest at max

On the EU side, a tactic of exaggeration is used, like the past
four progress reports. Even the most ordinary work is included in
the report. The best example is Turkey’s successes in world-famous
foreign policy stories that happen only in dreams, with the exception
of President Abdullah Gul’s visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan. The
report praises the positive diplomacy Turkey follows, as though it
was a major acquis chapter. Another point of appraisal becomes the
"working market economy." Although nothing much has changed in recent
years Turkey has been declared a market economy. Frankly there must
have been nothing better to state.

As a matter of fact, both parties suffer from a lack of interest in
Turkey’s EU prospects. The Turkish government has been making excuses
about the EU bid since 2005. When I wrote this before nobody seemed
to care, yet now this unwillingness is being universally admitted. The
EU side shows no sensitivity though. Even the most passionate friends
of Turkey in the bloc cannot offer anything solid but the same old
preaching and incentives. No one is interested to prop up the process.

The EU is preoccupied by the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty,
the Georgian crisis that broke out in early August and now, the global
financial crisis. Turkey’s accession to the union is not a priority
compared to these problems. In this state of mind, we will welcome
2009. There are two EU term presidencies in the upcoming term. First,
well-intentioned yet inexperienced Czech Republic and then Sweden will
take the helm. If the impact of the global financial crisis and the
ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland continue to be
the problems, already-weakened Turkey-EU relations may take a turn for
the worse in late 2009. There are no chapters remaining to be opened,
except "Information Society and Media" and "Free Movement of Capital".

In this foggy picture, the only ray of hope is that settlement talks
in Cyprus may lead to possible overtures for a permanent solution in
2009. The negotiation of eight chapters, which have been suspended
due to the Cyprus deadlock, may be resumed.

It is difficult to say that government and decision-makers in general,
have understood the value of the EU membership process in this global
financial crisis environment. For instance Rifat Hisarciklioglu,
chairman of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges,
or TOBB, while talking about the financial crisis did not include the
EU among the anchors Turkey needs to save itself. As we move into a
period where everyone is trying to save themselves and as the local
elections in March 2009 are approaching, it is very doubtful that
the EU accession bid will be remembered.

First the global economic crisis, then the Kurdish issue and Ergenekon
case, now the debates over the regime, fomented by the Constitutional
Court’s announcement of the decision in the closure case against the
governing Justice and Development Party. EU-related works may not be,
or will never be, on the agenda, at least for a long time. And this
is hardly an exaggeration..

SARGSYAN LEAVES MOSCOW FOR FRANCE

Interfax News Agencys
Russia & CIS General Newswire
November 3, 2008 Monday 2:49 PM MSK
Russia

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan having completed his visit to Moscow
is leaving for France, the presidential press service told Interfax.

"The delegation led by the Armenian president is leaving Moscow for
France on Monday for a two-day working visit. In Paris Sargsyan is
scheduled to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Prime Minister
Francois Fillon and Senate President Gerard Larcher," the press
service said.

In Paris he will also meet famous singer Charles Aznavour.

Last week Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandian told the press
that after Moscow Sargsyan would visit France and "naturally discuss
the settlement of the conflict in Karabakh."

Sargsyan discussed the settlement in Nagorno Karabakh at trilateral
talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev last Sunday in Meindorf outside Moscow.

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY CONGRATULATES OBAMA-BIDEN VICTORY

armradio.am
05.11.2008 11:07

"Change" – it has been the driving theme of the 2008 Presidential
election with both candidates promising to change how things are done
in Washington.

Across the board on issues important to Armenian-Americans and their
friends, Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Joseph Biden Jr. (D-DE)
in their rhetoric and their records represented positive change,
bringing the United States back in line with the historic principles
that made our country great and the Armenian Assembly of America
(Assembly) congratulates them on a hard fought election victory.

Several key issues to the Armenian-American community include reversing
the Anti-Evans Doctrine, ending attempts to isolate Armenia, ending
genocide denial, ensuring the promotion and protection of human rights
consistently around the world, and a peaceful and just resolution
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. While Senator John McCain was an
early supporter of self-determination and fundamental freedoms for
the people of Nagorno Karabakh, in recent years he sided with Turkey
and Azerbaijan to oppose reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide and
turned a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s human rights record.

"By all accounts this was an historic election which provides
a tremendous opportunity for all Americans," stated Assembly
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. "The new Administration will have
a far-reaching impact over the next four years. The Assembly looks
forward to the immediate revocation of the Anti-Evans Doctrine, and in
its place ensure that all U.S. diplomatic and foreign policy personnel
are made fully aware of the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide
and are allowed to speak the truth freely," continued Bryan Ardouny.

The Anti-Evans Doctrine was formulated by the Bush Administration
to remove Ambassador John M. Evans after he acknowledged the
Armenian Genocide in 2005. Ambassador Evans’ statement, however, was
consistent with former President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 affirmation of
the Armenian Genocide, as well as George W. Bush’s acknowledgement
by reference to the International Center for Transitional Justice
analysis on the Armenian Genocide. In 2007, the Armenian Assembly
bestowed upon Ambassador Evans the distinguished Henry Morgenthau
Award for Meritorious Public Service. The award, established in 1996,
recognizes those individuals who exemplify the courage embodied by
Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to
the Ottoman Empire during the time of the Genocide. Morgenthau was
the first American to alert the world of the Armenian Genocide and
later established the Near East Relief Society to help provide relief
assistance for the survivors.

Ambassador Evans’ remarks were also consistent with President George
W. Bush’s campaign promise, U.S. policy and legal precedents. However,
the Bush Administration removed Evans for his public acknowledgement
of the Armenian Genocide and disallowed State Department officials
from accurately reflecting U.S. policy. Ambassador Evans is currently
working on a much anticipated book regarding his experience.

The Obama-Biden ticket has consistently demonstrated a rejection
of the Bush Administration’s fundamentally flawed policy on this
critical human rights issue. Specifically, during their tenure in the
U.S. Senate and with respect to the removal of U.S. Ambassador John
M. Evans, and the subsequent nominations that ensued, both Senator
Obama and Senator Biden have pressed for affirmation of the Genocide.

Last week Senator Obama stated "Joe Biden and I believe that the
Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a
point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an
overwhelming body of historical evidence." Senator Biden as Chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee not only cosponsored S.Res. 106,
the Armenian Genocide resolution, but also spearheaded legislation,
S.Res. 65, honoring the legacy of Hrant Dink and calling for the repeal
of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which punishes discussion
of the Armenian Genocide. Senator Biden has a career long commitment
of integrity on Armenian issues.

Over the course of the U.S. Presidential race, Turks and Azeris
panicked over the prospect of the election. A senior foreign
official issued a warning to both campaigns that the U.S.-Turkey
partnership would end if they supported affirmation of the Armenian
Genocide. Turkey has bluffed before and other countries have called
Turkey’s bluff. Given Senator Obama’s and Senator Biden’s strong
record with respect to affirmation of the Armenian Genocide Given,
Turkey should heed calls to come to terms with its genocidal legacy.

The Assembly also expressed the expectation that the Bush "Anti-Evans
Doctrine," which penalized the mere acknowledgment of the Armenian
Genocide by U.S. diplomats will be summarily revoked. In a separate
letter to the Bush Administration, the Assembly specifically requested
that the Bush Administration revoke this fundamentally flawed policy
prior to the inauguration of the next President, and called on the
Administration to instead embrace former President Ronald Reagan’s
policy of Genocide affirmation. This Administration, as Reagan’s did,
can avoid the annual exercise of congressional consideration of a
genocide resolution by simply using their constitutional powers to
reaffirm U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

THE FORMULA OF FRAGILE BALANCE
Vardan Grigoryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
04 Nov 08
Armenia

The Moscow Declaration is a transitional document

The November 2 Declaration signed by the Armenian, Azeri and Russian
Presidents is not only the exact and realistic picture of the new
situation in the South Caucasus but also the mirror reflecting the
regional and global potentials of the superpowers competing with one
another around the region.

In our opinion The Russian diplomacy, the principal stimulus for this
declaration resulting from the recent months’ negotiations, meetings
and discussions, has arrived at the following preliminary conclusions:

a) at the current stage, it is desirable but not possible to achieve
a final settlement in the Karabakh peace process;

b) however, in case of leaving the process to the Co-Chairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group, Moscow may be deprived of the real tactical advantages
gained after the recent regional developments;

c) therefore, it is necessary to maintain the format of the OSCE
Minsk Group, at least for the time being, but at the same time,
gradually assume the role of "the first fiddle";

d) Russia considers that the decisive condition for assuming the
above-mentioned role consists in becoming the guarantor of the
political settlement of the Karabakh conflict and thus robbing the
West of its peacekeeping functions.

In the given context of global and regional developments and the
strategic and tactical priorities deriving thereof, the Moscow
Declaration is, all in all, conceivable. But certainly, it is a
transitional document both for the direct parties to the Karabakh
conflict and all the mediators.

This significantly supports the Armenian party’s arguments on the
impossibility of the military solution to the Karabakh conflict,
because in the very first clause of the Declaration, the three
countries declare that they will "contribute to the amelioration of
the situation in the South Caucasus and ensure the establishment of
an atmosphere of stability and security in the region by way of the
political settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict…"

Continuing the same idea, the Declaration also establishes that
the settlement should be "based on the norms and principles of
international law and the decisions and documents adopted within
their frameworks".

It is noteworthy that the signatories to the Moscow Declaration
"Reiterate the importance of continuing the intermediary efforts of
the OSCE Minsk Group, taking into consideration their meeting with
the parties organized in Madrid on November 29, 2007." This means
that the Russian President D. Medvedev’s recent initiative is not
an attempt of replacing the OSCE Minsk Group, but just a method of
raising Russia’s role in its frameworks.

The latter fact is strictly important considering the fact that
after the recent Russian-Georgian armed conflict some diplomats and
political analysts believed that the official Moscow and Washington
were unlikely to sit around the same table as Co-Chairing countries
of the OSCE Minsk Group. Whereas on November 1, just a day before the
meeting of the Armenian, Azeri and Russian leaders, American Co-Chair
of the Minsk Group Matthew Bryza was in Moscow, and he was taking part
not only in the meeting of the Armenian, Russian and Azeri Foreign
Ministers and the Co-Chairs, but also in the negotiation with Russian
State Secretary Grigory Karassin.

The third clause of the Declaration which says that "the peaceful
settlement should be achieved by adhering to all its aspects and the
legally binding international guarantees" is strictly important and
definitely advantageous to the Armenian party because it is actually
substantiates the package settlement of the Karabakh conflict. In case
of the accurate implementation of such resolution, the possibilities of
any disagreements between the parties over the contents and procedures
of holding the "delayed referendum" may be ruled out.

The fourth clause, which substantiates the necessity of proceeding
with the negotiation process, reiterates the well-known and
somewhat commonplace obligation imposed on Armenia and Azerbaijan,
so we find the fifth clause to be more interesting as it touches
upon the necessity of "promoting the strengthening of the tools of
confidence in the context of the efforts towards the settlement of the
conflict". Let’s confess that similar ideas were also expressed in the
negotiations organized by the mediator countries and their Presidents,
as well as in the communiqués adopted and the oral statements made.

However, we should bear in mind that we are dealing with the first
document "adopted on the level of the Armenian and Azeri Presidents"
after 1994 (as mentioned by the Yuri Merzlyakov, the Russian Co-Chair
of the OSCE Minsk Group). That means that the Russian side may, in
the near future, translate its words into deeds and propose various
initiatives towards opening a dialogue between the two countries and
their societies.

The trilateral declaration adopted on November 2 opens new "starting
opportunities" for Moscow which continues its efforts towards
strengthening its political-military presence in the region by
way of speeding up the Karabakh settlement process. Furthermore,
the activeness of Moscow has clear-cut "time-limits" because the
prospects of the victory of the Democrats in the United States and
the shift of Government expected on January 20 gives the Russian side
"freedom of hands".

–Boundary_(ID_OlbewfeozkMNSLHOiJVdm w)–

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT LEAVES FOR FRANCE

ARMENPRESS
Nov 3, 2008

MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS: Delegation headed by the Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan is leaving today from Moscow to France
where he is expected to meet with the President of France Nicolas
Sarkozy, Prime Minister Francois Fiouyon and Chairman of the Senate
Gerar Larchen.

In Paris President Sargsyan will also meet with world famous Armenian
singer Charles Aznavour.

FOREIGN PARTNERS RESPOND TO CRACKDOWN ON BJNI

A1+
[08:05 pm] 03 November, 2008

Foreign partners of SIL Concern have responded to the latest scandal
over the Sukiasian-owned businesses, in particular the crackdown on
Bjni Company.

"I cannot believe that the authorities deny any political motives
behind the crackdown on this successful company of mineral waters. The
loss of this national brand will directly inflict great losses on
Armenia’s shaky economy. Imagine the French government closes Evian
or Perrier or the U.S. government closes Coca Cola or Pepsi," says
President of Harwal Group Harut Ohanessian.

"Reasonable people will condemn the regime’s steps which obviously
intend to dissolve the successful business of their political
opponents to deprive them of their property. Unfortunately, this
valuable national resource is destroyed for political reasons, he says.

Remind that the SIL Concern issued a statement according to which
an Armenian business group owned by a fugitive opposition-linked
businessman Khacahtur Sukiasyan claimed to be heading for financial
ruin because of what it described as a "political vendetta" waged
by the government. The SIL Concern group, which comprises a major
commercial bank and a dozen other companies (Bjni, Pares Armenia,
Pizza de Roma, Sports Time, Yerevan’s Mill and Nor Shin), fell foul
of the authorities after its main owner, parliament deputy Khachatur
Sukiasian, publicly welcomed former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s
September 2007 return to active politics. The companies have sustained
great losses.

Another Sukiasian-owned company, the exclusive distributor of Phillip
Morris cigarettes in Armenia, went out of business earlier this year,
saying that customs officials are refusing to process its imports on
government orders. According to SIL, Phillip Morris now sells its
cigarettes in the Armenian market through another firm allegedly
controlled by President Serzh Sarkisian’s influential son-in-law.

Three of those companies were inspected by tax authorities and charged
with evading millions of dollars in taxes late last year. Two of
them, a pizza restaurant chain and a printing house, saw their chief
executives arrested on corresponding charges. In a written statement,
SIL accused the authorities of seeking to "destroy" the companies
owned by Sukiasian and his extended family. "With this approach, the
current authorities have proved one thing: that those entrepreneurs
who will dare not to follow their rules of the game will be strictly
and arbitrarily punished," the statement said.

ARMENIAN AMERICANS BACK REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN FROM TEXAS WHO OPPOSED PRESIDENT BUSH ON GENOCIDE BILL

armradio.am
03.11.2008 10:36

Despite a personal phone call from President Bush in October of 2007
urging him to participate in Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide,
Congressman Michael McCaul politely refused. In fact, days later
he would vote, as a member of the powerful House Foreign Affairs
Committee, to pass the Armenian Genocide resolution (H.Res.106). The
Armenian National Committee – Political Action Committee (ANC-PAC)
has endorsed Congressman McCaul’s reelection campaign.

Congressman McCaul, a conservative Lone Star State Republican,
is now locked in a close race against Democratic lawyer Larry Joe
Doherty. According to Congressional Quarterly Politics, the latest
polls in the race show that McCaul is only narrowly ahead of Doherty,
despite the fact that President Bush carried his congressional district
with 61 percent of the vote in 2004.

"We are pleased that a number of ANC-PAC supporters are providing
financial support and assistance on the ground for Congressman McCaul
in Texas’ 10th District," remarked an ANC-PAC spokesperson. "The
Armenian American community in and around Austin understands that
Congressman McCaul is a principled leader on human rights issues
and look forward to voting for him on November 4th," added the
spokesperson.

According to a report required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act
(FARA), a lobbying company hired by a foreign government, the Republic
of Turkey, has consistently sought to urge the Congressman to deny
the Armenian Genocide. Led by the former House Democratic Leader
Dick Gephardt, the DLA Piper lobbying firm has repeatedly sought
to encourage McCaul to ignore the murder of 1.5 million Armenian
Christians by the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

Impressively, Congressman McCaul has rejected all efforts by Turkish
lobbying firms to deny the reality of the Armenian Genocide. FARA
was enacted in 1938 and is a disclosure statute that requires
persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or
quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their
relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities,
receipts and disbursements in support of those activities.

Congressman McCaul is currently serving his second term representing
Texas’ 10th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The 10th
Congressional District in the Lone Star State stretches across 8
counties from Austin to the Houston suburbs, and includes Austin,
Bastrop, Burleson, Harris, Lee, Travis, Washington and Waller
Counties. Prior to coming to Congress, Michael McCaul served as Chief
of Terrorism and National Security in the U.S. Attorney’s office in
Texas, and led the Joint Terrorism Task Force charged with detecting,
deterring and preventing terrorist activity. Congressman McCaul also
served as Texas Deputy Attorney General under current U.S. Senator
John Cornyn, and served as a federal prosecutor in the Department of
Justice’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C.

LOS ANGELES BASED ONESIDEZERO GUITARIST, LEVON SULTANIAN, HAS COMMENTED ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S RECOMMENDATION

Altsounds.com
unds.com/news/89997-onesidezero-guitarist-comments -on-resistance-to-recognize-armenian-genocide.html
Oct 31 2008
UK

Los Angeles based Onesidezero guitarist, Levon Sultanian, has
commented on the Bush administration’s recommendation to Congress to
reject legislation that would declare the World War I-era killings
of hundreds of thousands of Armenians as genocide.

"Genocide still exists. We saw it in Rwanda (1994) and we see it in
Darfur today. The only thing worse is when a mass killing of a nation
is NOT RECOGNIZED as a GENOCIDE, like the Armenian Genocide," says
Sultanian. "The Bush Administration is worried that the passing of the
Armenian Resolution and recognizing the mass killings in 1915 of 1.5
million Armenians will badly damage the American-Turkish relations
and U.S. interests in the Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan). How
distorted is our government’s priorities? Are financial stakes more
important than recognizing and acknowledging injustice against
humanity? The Armenian Genocide happened; it is a reality in the
history of mankind. Honest Turks like Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Peace Prize
winner, acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and had the balls to ask
that all Turks accept this dark historic reality."

AFTER AZERBAIJAN’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: THE LOOK AHEAD (PART ONE)
By Vladimir Socor

The Jamestown Foundation
Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Azerbaijan’s reelected president Ilham Aliyev was inaugurated on
October 24 for a second five-year term (, October 24,
25). As had been expected, voters gave Aliyev a strong mandate for
continuing his policies.

International observers noted clear improvements in the electoral
process and practice on this occasion, compared with previous electoral
cycles (see EDM, September 23, October 20).

If it were situated in a less dangerous neighborhood, Azerbaijan
would undoubtedly be firmly set on the road to success as a rapidly
modernizing Muslim society. Political ingredients of success–internal
stability and security, statesmanship at the top, a secular path of
development, and external orientation toward the West as matters of
national consensus–were already in place before the country’s oil
revenues started flowing in. With its oil-driven economic growth
averaging a world-record of 30 percent annually in the last three
years, some 700,000 jobs created, a rapidly growing oil fund open
to international auditing, vast reserves of gas just barely tapped,
a key location on intercontinental transit routes, and new investment
priorities in non-oil sectors planned for Aliyev’s second presidential
term (, October 13, 25), Azerbaijan is rapidly moving from
inherited structural poverty to modernization, while contributing to
the West’s energy security. The basis is also now in place for more
effective institution-building during the second presidential term.

Azerbaijan`s prospects for further advances, however, look suddenly
fragile in the wake of Russia’s aggressive resurgence and invasion of
Georgia, the consequences of which are casting shadows on Azerbaijan
at the start of Aliyev’s second presidential term. That invasion
exposed a vacuum of Western power and political presence in the
South Caucasus generally. Few international observers had noticed and
warned against that developing vacuum, and those who did were scarcely
heeded. The United States essentially disengaged itself strategically
from the region after 2005, with medium-level officials and rhetorical
flourishes substituting for high-level strategic policy. The European
Union never engaged seriously with Azerbaijan, nor could Brussels
have done so in the absence of EU common policies on Caspian energy
and the South Caucasus conflicts.

However neglected, Western energy security policy remains a common
agenda with Azerbaijan and Georgia, its prospects linked to these
countries` national independence and security. Azerbaijan`s potential
as a producer of gas– the commodity more critical than any other to
Euro-Atlantic energy security–is materializing slowly, however. The
reasons behind this include the paralysis of the Nabucco pipeline
project; lagging development of the Shah-Deniz offshore gas field
(in turn delaying capacity expansion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum
pipeline); and Turkey’s ambitions to take a portion of Azerbaijani
gas for possible resale at a profit to itself, instead of providing
transit service for that Azerbaijani gas via Turkey to Europe.

Exploiting this situation, Russia is offering to buy the entire volume
of gas available for export from Azerbaijan at European netback
prices. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the Gazprom monopoly
have both made that attractive proposal to Baku. The government there,
as well as the BP and Statoil companies, may soon find themselves
facing the choice of either selling their gas export volumes to
Gazprom or delaying a production ramp-up at Shah-Deniz while waiting
for a non-Russian outlet to become available.

Azerbaijan`s EU and U.S. partners must therefore try seriously to
kick-start Nabucco and work politically with Turkey to remove its
obstacles to the transit of Azerbaijani gas.

Meanwhile, portraying Azerbaijan as capable of supplying Nabucco’s
first phase by itself is unconvincing to investors (in view of
Azerbaijan`s other, already existing commitments), and it exposes
Azerbaijan to Russian pressures, instead of sharing that burden among
several potential supplier countries. For its part, Azerbaijan is
actively engaged in political bridge-building with Turkmenistan,
encouraged by Baku’s Western partners. But only the formation
of a Western consortium, with an attractive commercial offer to
Turkmenistan, could open access to that country’s gas supplies for
the planned trans-Caspian pipeline that would connect with Nabucco
through the Baku-Erzurum link.

Continuing internal debates within the EU reflect an incipient
understanding that Brussels needs to subsidize pipeline projects for
supply diversification. At present, however, the EU has only limited
tools available and even fewer resources earmarked for this. Unless
it moves quickly, EU policy will miss an opportunity yet again to
take full advantage of Azerbaijan’s potential as a gas producer and
transit country.

Baku feels surprised and puzzled by the idea of replacing Georgia
with Armenia as a transit route for Nabucco gas. Under this option,
gas earmarked for Nabucco would be pumped from Azerbaijan to Turkey
through a pipeline to be built via Armenia, instead of Georgia. This
suggestion has recently emerged in the context of a possible package
deal in the Karabakh conflict.

The position of Azerbaijan’s government, however–as summed up in
Brussels by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Araz Azimov–is that it
would make no sense to bypass the already existing Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum
pipeline, the designated conduit for Caspian gas via Georgia and
Turkey to Europe (EUobserver, October 8).

AZERBAIJANI, ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS TO GET TOGETHER IN MOSCOW BEFORE PRESIDENTS MEET

Trend News Agency
Oct 29 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 October/ TrendNews, corr N. Abdullayeva/ Foreign
Ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia Elmar Mammadyarov, Edward
Nalbandyan and Sergey Lavrov will meet in Moscow on 31 October,
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists.

Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers also plan to hold
consultations with the co-chairmen of OSCE Minsk Group on 1 November,
Mammadyarov said.

The results of the meeting will be reported to the Presidents who
will meet on 2 November in Moscow, Mammadyarov added.

In response to question about possible changes in the format of talks
on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mammadyarov said "there is no need to
change format of talks".

OSCE Minsk Group is engaged in the solution of Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict under chairmanship of the United States, Russia and France.