Author: Badalian Vardan

news.az, Azerbaijan
June 3 2011

Azerbaijani MP holds series of meetings in Israel
Fri 03 June 2011 03:59 GMT | 6:59 Local Time

Ganira Pashayeva met with Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament
Rusudan Kervalishvili.

Azeri MP, member of the gender equality standing committee of Milli
Majlis Ganira Pashayeva met with Vice Speaker of the Georgian
Parliament Rusudan Kervalishvili, Minister of Women`s Empowerment and
the Family of Cameroon Marie Therese Abena Ondoa, Minister of Women,
Children and Youth Affair of Ethiopia Zenebu Taddesse and a member of
Bulgarian parliament Meglena Plugtschieva Alexandrova as a part of her
attendance an international women`s leaders conference in Haifa,
Israel.

In the meetings, Pashayeva spoke about crimes, terrorist acts and
genocides against Azerbaijanis committed by Armenia. She noted over a
million of Azerbaijanis live as refugees and IDPs as a result of
Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

Azeri MP underlined Armenia frequently violates cease-fire regime. She
stressed the fact killing of 9-year-old Azeri kid Fariz Badalov by
Armenian sniper.

Pashayeva handed over to the representatives materials featuring
Azerbaijani realities.

AzerTAj

Montreal Gazette, QC, Canada
June 3 2011

Muslim Azerbaijan, Israel’s unlikely ally

Agence France-Presse June 3, 2011

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Men swathed in embroidered shawls rock back and
forth reverentially as they murmur morning prayers in Hebrew at a
smart modern synagogue built for them by the state in the heart of
Muslim Baku.

Despite Azerbaijan’s majority Shiite population, the government has
funded the construction of two new synagogues in Baku in recent years,
and maintains warm relations with Israel which have angered its
Islamic neighbour Iran.

Near the entrance to the synagogue is a photograph of the ex-Soviet
state’s powerful leader, Ilham Aliyev. According to the leader of
Baku’s Ashkenazi Jewish community, Gennady Zelmanovich, “there have
never been signs of anti-semitism in Azerbaijan.”

Some analysts suggest however that the lack of overt prejudice is
partly because the country’s Jewish population is so small as to be
virtually invisible.

Tens of thousands of Azerbaijani Jews emigrated to Israel after
independence in 1991 and only around 30,000 remain in a country which
emerged as one of the most secular in the Muslim world after decades
of Soviet rule.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan’s relationship with Israel is a pragmatic one,
based on the export of oil and the import of weapons and military
technology. Trade turnover between the two countries last year
amounted to $1.8 billion.

“Each country finds it easy to identify with the other’s geo-political
difficulties and both rank Iran as an existential security threat,”
said a diplomatic cable from the U.S. embassy in Baku published by
WikiLeaks.

The country needs Israeli weapons to help build up its military amid
its continuing conflict with Armenia over the region of Nagorny
Karabakh.

President Aliyev has vowed to win back control over Karabakh – by
force if necessary – from the ethnic Armenian separatists who seized
it during a war in the 1990s that killed an estimated 30,000 people.

Baku has bought hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of battlefield
hardware, military communications technology and unmanned drones,
according to Israeli media.

“Israel’s world-class defence industry with its relaxed attitude about
its customer base is a perfect match for Azerbaijan’s substantial
defence needs that are left largely unmet by the United States, Europe
and Russia,” the leaked U.S. embassy cable said.

Azerbaijan does not have an embassy in Israel because it does not want
to offend its Muslim partners in the Organization of the Islamic
Conference, analysts suggest, although Israel does have an embassy in
Baku and was one of the first to recognize the country’s independence.

“Israel is in need of friendly relations with Muslim countries,” said
Elhan Shainoglu, director of the Baku-based Atlas political research
centre, adding that the Jewish state also backs Azerbaijan over the
emotive issue of Nagorny Karabakh.

“Unlike in Europe, there has been no suppression of Jews in
Azerbaijan’s history, while Israel has always supported Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity,” the analyst said.

Islamic activists however complain that while the authorities fund the
construction of synagogues, they have closed several mosques, arrested
suspected Islamists and prohibited the wearing of the hijab in schools
as part of attempts to stamp out religious extremism.

Muslim campaigners also want the Israeli embassy in Baku to be shut
down in an act of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

“We have always said that the regime in Israel is not only against
Muslims but against all of humanity,” said Akif Geydarli of the banned
Islamic Party.

“Azerbaijan’s friendship with such a country is unacceptable.”

Armenia also accuses Azerbaijan of intolerance because the country’s
large ethnic Armenian population fled when hostilities in Karabakh
began in the early 1990s amid bloody outbreaks of inter-ethnic
violence.

Festive Parade of Haykazuns in the Republican Square

16:17, 3 June, 2011

YEREVAN, JUNE 3, ARMENPRESS:

The parade of haykazuns (Hayk’s descent) of “Poqr Mher” educational
establishment marched today in the Republican Square on the 10th
anniversary of the establishment and on the 20th anniversary of the
Republic. RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received the participants
and congratulated the students on the 10th anniversary of their
educational establishment.

The “Poqr Mher” educational establishment, which was founded by the RA
Government, is specialized in the military science and
military-patriotic spheres. The educational establishment awarded
Tigran Sargsyan the title of a haykazun for the investment in its
development.

Diana Davtyan, representative of “Poqr Mher”, told reporters that the
haykazuns marched today to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, Yerablur to
pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims and the
freedom fighters, who died in Artsakh war. They also marched to
Komitas Pantheon and put a wreath on the graves of the prominent
figures, buried there.

>From the Republican Square the haykazuns marched to the Victory Park
and met veterans of the Great Patriotic War. The final feast will be
held in the evening at “Hrazdan” stadium.

Over 180 haykazuns study at “Poqr Mher” educational establishment and
the number, according to Diana Davtyan, increases year by year.

Armenians informs The New York Times editors of situation in Nagorny Karabakh

arminfo
Friday, June 3, 17:01

A message is spread by Facebook social network, which informs about an
anti- Armenian article published in New York Times on May 31. The
article is named “Frozen Conflict Between Azerbaijan and Armenia
Begins to Boil” and aims to present Azerbaijanis as victims, confirms
Azerbaijani moral right to restart war against NK and “restore
Azerbaijani territorial completeness”.

The initiators offer Facebook users to send many messages to NY Times
editorial and tell them truth about NK issue and Azerbaijan.

The message says that Ellen Barry’s recent article caused great
frustration to readers. Mrs. Barry’s biased approach in the article
makes one think that the article was written under the influence of
the Azerbaijani propaganda.

“This article is mostly dedicated to the description of undesirable
consequences for Azerbaijan that were caused as a result of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But the author is silent about the fact
that it was Azerbaijan first to launch an aggressive war against
Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as to organize the bombing of some border
areas of Armenia itself. Moreover, both international and Soviet law
did allow Nagorno- Karabakh to achieve its independence. The
fundamental human rights of Karabakh Armenian population had been
violated for decades, and the culmination of violations was the ethnic
cleansings of late 1980s.

There are also detailed sad stories of Azerbaijani refugees, but the
author is tacit about Azerbaijan’s brutal policy towards its own
population. Azerbaijan, unlike Armenia, views its refugees only as a
tool of its policy. For many years refugees in Azerbaijan were not
allowed to leave their tent camps as if they were kept in
concentration camps.

Mrs. Barry repeats the official position of Azerbaijan and insists
that the current framework of the OSCE Minsk Group negotiations have
exhausted itself. But she is silent about the fact that the main
barrier of progress in the negotiations is Azerbaijan’s destructive
approach of failing the negotiation (incidentally she talks as if the
international community is negotiating with Armenia (yet, the
negotiations are between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the
participation of Nagorno-Karabakh, and mediated by the OSCE Minsk
Group Co-Chairs)). The point is that Azerbaijan has been poisoning its
own population with Armenophobia and revanchism for about two decades,
and now the government doesn’t know what to answer to the people of
Azerbaijan, when the OSCE Minsk Group mediators insist that the status
of Karabakh should be decided through a legally binding free
expression of will of its people. Moreover, calls for a new aggression
are repeatedly cited in the article, and the author treats those calls
quite normally.

However, the OSCE Minsk Group mediators in their statements clearly
point out that the resumption of war is unacceptable for the
international community, that the settlement of the conflict should be
based on a comprehensive application of the three basic principles:
the prohibition of threat or use of force, self- determination and
territorial integrity. Mediators also stress that all conflicting
parties should prepare their people for peace and not for war. In
fact, the citations of aggression used by the author in fact endorse
the fact that the international mediators’ calls for peace are
directed at Azerbaijan. Any use of force is clearly prohibited in
international law, and this time the international community is
determined to prevent the repetition of such actions by Azerbaijan.

But from the New York Times’ article from May 31 one gets the
impression that it is natural that Azerbaijan is preparing for war, as
if it is a party that has been treated unjustly.

Mr. Keller, I sincerely hope that your editorial would be more careful
in printing such biased articles in the future. Azerbaijan spends
millions of dollars for its PR campaign abroad. And I hope the New
York Times’ esteemed reputation can not be marred by the
petrol-dollars from the Caspian Sea,” ” the author of the message
writes.

The New York Times is the third popular publications in the USA (after
The Wall Street Journal & USA Today).

Storm at Rocky Coast Aivazovsky’s canvas was returned to National
Gallery of Armenia

June 3, 2011 – 16:13 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On June 3, Storm at Rocky Coast Ivan Aivazovsky’s
canvas was returned to the National Gallery of Armenia. 21 years ago,
the canvas was stolen from the Armenian Society of Cultural
Communications. On February 26, 2001 it was put out for auction in
Moscow.

Russian senator Hovhannes Ohanyan, whose collection lists over 200
works by Armenian, Russian and foreign artists donated the canvas to
the Gallery. `I’m happy the canvas returned to its owner. It must have
been predetermined for me to buy out the picture and return it to
Armenia. From the very first second I saw it, I decided to return the
canvass to the Gallery,’ the Senator said during donation ceremony.

At the auction, the canvas was offered for 24 million rubles.

Armenian Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosyan and Russian cultural
officials attended the ceremony.

Russia may help Armenia counterpoise Azeri satellite threat

June 3, 2011 – 15:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The director of Armenian National Academy of
Sciences’ Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory stated that Azerbaijani
satellite will be able to obtain Armenia-related information through
satellite photographs.

`The Observatory doesn’t possess equipment capable to counterbalance
the Azeri satellite,’ Hayk Harutyunyan told a news conference in
Yerevan.

As he noted, such issues must be resolved at governmental level only.
However, Mr. Harutyunyan said, Armenia’s strategic partner, Russia can
aid Armenia to that end.

On May 27, Azerbaijan signed the main agreement with Orbital Sciences
Corporation, the leading manufacturer of space technology products in
the USA, on production of Azerbaijan 1st ever telecommunication
satellite.

CULTURE
La Russie a rendu à l’Arménie une `uvre d’Aïvazovski
le tableau avait disparu du musée d’Arménie pour se retrouver à Moscou

Un tableau d’Hovhannés Aïvazovski « Tempête sur les côtes rocheuses »
disparu des musées arméniens, découvert lors d’une vente à la galerie
« Kelios » de Moscou fut restitué à l’Arménie. Vendredi 3 juin se
déroula la remise officielle de l’`uvre d’Aïvazovski à la Galerie
nationale d’Arménie à Erévan. Le tableau fut placé dans la salle «
Hovhannés Aïvazovski ».

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 5 juin 2011,
Krikor [email protected]

Trend News Agency, Baku, Azerbaijan
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
June 3, 2011 Friday

BRIEF: Azerbaijani FM, OSCE Minsk Group co-chair mull Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

BYLINE: S.Agayeva, Trend News Agency, Baku, Azerbaijan

June 03–JUNE 3 / , Azerbaijan, Baku — Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov discussed settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group,
Robert Bradtke, the ministry reported.

The meeting was held in the framework of Mammadyarov’s visit to the
United States.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group — Russia, France, and the U.S. —
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

United Press International UPI
June 3 2011

‘Dr. Death’ Jack Kevorkian dies

ROYAL OAK, Mich., June 3

Jack Kevorkian, 83, the Michigan doctor whose advocacy for assisted
suicide created havoc for medical ethicists and law agencies, died
Friday, his lawyer said.

Mayer Morganroth said Kevorkian died at Beaumont Hospital in Royal
Oak, Mich., where he was hospitalized for about two weeks with kidney
and heart problems, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Morganroth said it appears Kevorkian suffered a pulmonary thrombosis
when a blood clot in his leg dislodged and settled in his heart. The
attorney said he and Kevorkian’s niece were with the pathologist when
he died.

“It was peaceful. He didn’t feel a thing,” Morganroth said, adding
that no artificial means were used to keep Kevorkian alive.

Hospital staff said Kevorkian’s passing was “a tremendous loss and I
agree with them,” Morganroth said. “He did so much.”

Morganroth said he doubted whether anyone would assume Kevorkian’s
role in assisted suicide, the Free Press said

“Who else would take those kind of risks?” the attorney asked.

Morganroth said there are no plans for a memorial.

Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced
to 10-25 years in prison but was released in 2007. Last year, he was
the subject of “You Don’t Know Jack,” an award-winning HBO movie
starring Al Pacino.

He was born Youran Kevorkian on May 26, 1928, in Pontiac, Mich., the
son of Louis and Satana Kevorkian, who settled in the Detroit area
after fleeing Armenia.

Called a hero by some and a serial killer by others, Kevorkian became
known around the world as “Dr. Death” for his self-styled crusade for
assisted suicide.

In June 1990 he thrust himself onto the public stage by declaring his
first assisted suicide in suburban Detroit. He helped a 54-year-old
Oregon woman die in the back of his Volkswagen van with his so-called
“suicide machine.” Alzheimer’s patient Janet Adkins pressed a button
that sent potassium chloride into her veins, stopping her heart.

In the next eight years, Kevorkian attended the deaths of more than
120 people in Michigan, including people from several other states and
Canada who traveled to Detroit to die. In most cases Kevorkian
provided the means for suicide. Others, due to physical impairments,
were euthanized. Aiding him at the scenes were longtime friend Janet
Good or, after she died of cancer, psychiatrist Dr. Georges Reding.

Bodies were dropped off at hospital emergency rooms, left in motel
rooms or homes where the deaths occurred, or found in vehicles parked
outside Detroit-area morgues. Families of the deceased supported
Kevorkian. Nearly every death prompted a police investigation.

Outraged by his behavior but stumped by legal loopholes, the state of
Michigan enacted separate laws banning assisted suicide in 1993 and
1998. In addition, the Michigan Supreme Court declared assisted
suicide a violation of common law.

In November 1998 Kevorkian was convicted of resisting arrest in a May
scuffle with police during a body drop-off. He was fined and placed on
two years probation.

Eighteen days after the conviction, the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes”
broadcast a videotape Kevorkian gave the network to force a legal
showdown over the right-to-die issue. Kevorkian had defiantly
administered a lethal injection to a 52-year-old man and videotaped
the session in September, less than three weeks after the state’s
second assisted suicide ban took effect.

The video triggered another Kevorkian arrest, this time for murder,
assisting in a suicide and delivery of a controlled substance.

On numerous occasions Kevorkian openly challenged police, prosecutors
and lawmakers, often calling them “Nazis” and “Gestapo.” He also
blasted religious authorities who criticized him and medical groups
that opposed his position, especially the American Medical
Association.

Kevorkian never married and once said in an interview his life was a
failure. He said: “If I had married, I’d have kids — kids and family
are everything.”

AZERBAIJAN REQUIRES INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS ON ACTIVITIES OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS TO BE BUILT IN ARMENIA

Trend Daily News
June 1, 2011 Wednesday 7:13 PM GMT +4

The environmental impact of new nuclear power plant (NPP), of which
construction is planned in Armenia, should be assessed by experts of
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the results of the
assessment should be submitted to neighboring countries, the director
of the Radiation Problems Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy
of Sciences (ANAS) Adil Garibov told Trend.

He said the Institute has already appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers
with a proposal for conducting impact assessments. And the Azerbaijani
government has already submitted this proposal to the IAEA.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are members of the Convention on Environmental
Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention),
said Garibov.

“Azerbaijan, as a member state of the Convention, requires a report
on the environmental assessment that would enable the country to
express its attitude towards it. We have also raised questions about
how the plant will operate in emergency conditions. We want to know
how the plant will operate not only in normal, but also in emergency
situations. We should also be informed about what might happen during
the operation of the plant in an emergency condition,” said Garibov.

The environmental assessment should be conducted by the IAEA experts
upon Armenia’s order, said the director of the Institute.

“Using nuclear energy is the sovereign right of Armenia. However,
Azerbaijan wants to obtain the necessary international documents. It
should be assessment documents and documents that would give a
guarantee on the operation capacity of the reactor. This guarantee
must be given on the basis of experts’ conclusions,” said Garibov.

Armenia plans to build new nuclear power plant, which will be more
powerful than Metsamor NPP. It is assumed that the project will cost
$1 billion.