Author: Badalian Vardan

TREND News Agency, Azerbaijan
June 5 2007

Armenia Should Understand Statements of Heads of International
Organizations: Department Chief of Azerbaijan’s Presidential
Administration

Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Ilhamgizi, E.Huseynov / The Head of
the Foreign Relations Department of the Executive Apparat of
Azerbaijan President, Novruz Mammadov, informed Trend on 5 July that
the statement of the Head of the OSCE Parliamentary, Goran Lenmarker,
that the agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is ready to be signed
is based on common process of peaceful negotiations.

He stressed that the heads of the international organizations follow
the process of the peaceful negotiations between Azerbaijan and
Armenia and speeches of the Presidents and Co-chairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group. Their statements deal with not one meeting, but whole
process of peaceful negotiations. `The separate statements during the
negotiations were that the sides are near to sign an agreement.
Despite that the recent meetings of the Presidents yielded no
results, the international organizations believe that next time an
agreement will be signed between the sides,’ Mammadov said.

The Department Chief said that the position of Azerbaijan in the
negotiations is clear – the conflict should be resolved gradually
within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan by providing high
status to Nagorno-Karabakh. According to Mammadov, the international
community is satisfied with this position.

`The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis,
stressed that the lands of Azerbaijan have been occupied and Armenian
armed forces should release them. The report of Goran Lenmarker also
highlights the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh territory of Azerbaijan
and seven regions surrounding it. The President of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, Rene Van Der Linden, also states
this fact. Now the international community accepts this fact. All
these are means of pressure on Armenia. Armenia should understand
it,’ Mammadov said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries appeared in
1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenia
has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including the
Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. Since
1992 to the present time, these territories have been under Armenian
occupation. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire
agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are holding
peaceful negotiations.

HANS-PETER FURRER’S STATEMENTS CAUSE DISCONTENT IN AZERBAIJAN

armradio.am
03.07.2007 15:23

The speech of the former Director General of Political Questions of the
Council of Europe Hans-Peter Furrer caused discontent in Azerabijan.

APA European Bureau reports that touching upon the topic of conflicts,
Mr. Furrer noted that Russia is held responsible for the South
Ossetia and Abkhazia conflicts, while in case of Nagorno Karabakh
"Armenia started the war to release the Armenians living on the
mentioned territories."

Furrer declared that exhale of local Azerbaijani population served
the same purpose.

The director of Baku school Ilgar Mammadov objecting to these opinions
told Mr. Furrer it would be better to gather thorough information
before speaking of the causes of the conflict.

TWO TURKS ARRESTED IN SWITZERLAND FOR DENYING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

armradio.am
02.07.2007 15:33

Two Turks were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of breaking Swiss
anti-racism laws for denying that the killing of Armenians in the
early 20th century was genocide.

The two were arrested at a conference in the Zurich suburb of
Winterthur, where posters were hung up and leaflets distributed
rejecting that the killing was genocide. One of the Turks organized
the event and the other was shouting slogans before a crowd.

Switzerland’s anti-racism legislation, which previously applied to
Holocaust denial, was used earlier this year to prosecute a Turkish
politician for denying at a gathering in 2005 that the Turks committed
genocide in the World War I-era killings, the Turkish Daily News
reports.

Last week, a Swiss cantonal court upheld the conviction against Dogu
Perincek, the leader of the Workers’ Party (Ä°P), as well as an order
for him to pay a fine of 3,000 Swiss francs ($2,450).

Police in the canton of Zurich identified the two arrested individuals
as a 57-year-old resident of Germany and a 51-year-old Swiss resident.

–Boundary_(ID_rLOQL8r0KhW72SaQ3d+6Wg)- –

RA Constitutional Court to continue hearings on claim of deputy
candidate from 36th single-mandate district

arminfo
2007-06-29 11:00:00

RA CC will continue hearings on the claim of a deputy candidate from
the 36th single-mandate district Mushegh Saghatelyan.

To recall, the hearings on the claim of M. Saghatelyan, who required to
cancel the results of voting in the 36th district and call reelection ,
started on June 25.

During the hearings, representative of the claimer Gevork Minasyan said
that according to the decision of the district election committee from
May 17, 2007, a non-party Mkhitar Varagyan, who
gathered over 14,000 votes, was announced a winner at the election, the
second place was taken by representative of the "Prosperous Armenia"
party Mushegh Petrosyan, who gathered over 13,000 votes, the third
place was taken by a non-party Mushegh Saghatelyan, having gathered a
bit more than 7,000 votes. As the claimer’s representative said, the
true number of inaccuracies during the
voting is not 131, as indicated in the final Protocol of the 36th
election committee, but 9 632, i.e. more than the difference in the
votes among the candidates, that is a good reason to cancel
the voting results and call a reelection. However, during the hearings,
the claimer’s representatives could not give a distinct answer to the
question of CC Head Gagik Haroutyunyan: "What these digits are
confirmed by, where have they been taken from". Having heard the
defendant’s party, RA Constitutional Court announced a three-day
interval to study the final protocols of the voting in 26 of 59 polling
stations of the 36th single-mandate district in RA Shirak region.

AZG Armenian Daily #123, 30/06/2007

Nagorno-Karabakh

NKR MFA EXPRESSED CONCERN OVER SETTING FIRES IN BORDERLINE AREAS BY
AZERI SIDE

On June 27 the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered a note to
Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, expressing concern over numerous cases of fires
from Azerbaijani side across the line of contact between the armed
forces of NKR and Azerbaijan.

Taking into account the detrimental impact on republic’s economy and
environment, as well as threat to human health and security, caused by
fires in summer of 2006, the NKR MFA urged the Office of the Personal
Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office to conduct a crisis
monitoring of the borderline area.

The NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed hope that timely
interference by the Office of Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office will allow to avoid the repetition of the summer
2006 situation, which in particular, Azeri authorities used for
propaganda and which became an additional factor to destabilizing the
peace process, the NKR MFA Press Office reports.

By Nana Petrosian

ARMENIAN LAWMAKERS PASS BILL THAT WOULD LIMIT FOREIGN NEWS BROADCASTS

AP Worldstream
Published: Jun 29, 2007

Armenian lawmakers gave preliminary backing to a bill Friday that could
restrict the retransmission of foreign news broadcasts, legislation
critics said was designed to target Armenian-language programs of
Radio Free Europe.

Parliament voted 79-16 to pass the amendments, introduced by the
government this week, to the country’s main broadcasting law.

The amendments would require the foreign-funded news broadcasters
to pay around US$200 (A150) every time shows are re-broadcast by the
country’s primary radio and television company.

U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is the only foreign news
organization whose programs are re-broadcast on Armenian state radio _
up to five times a day in some cases.

Radio Liberty’s FM broadcasts would not be affected.

The amendments would not affect foreign broadcasters, such as
Deutsche Welle or British Broadcasting Corp., that broadcast on the
FM frequency. Neither have Armenian language service, but do broadcast
in Russian.

Karine Kalantarian, a correspondent for the RFE/RL’s Armenian-language
service, said the service would not comment on the pending legislation.

Opposition lawmakers accused the government of deliberately targeting
Radio Liberty, and warned of increasing pressure on independent
media outlets.

Armenia’s government is known to be unhappy with the Radio Liberty,
though no officials have ever publicly criticized the broadcaster.

Armenia State Radio and Television is the primary source of news for
many residents of the poor, South Caucasus nation.

RFE/RL is a private, nonprofit corporation that receives funding from
the U.S. government. It has broadcast in 28 languages to 20 countries,
including Iran and Iraq since 1998, and Afghanistan from 2002.

CYPRUS JUSTICE MINISTRY DELEGATION VISITS ARMENIA

armradio.am
29.06.2007 14:44

The delegation of the Ministry of Justice of Cyprus headed by Minister
Sophoclis Sophocleous arrived in Armenia on a three-day visit today.

Assistant to RA Minister of Justice Lana Mshetsyan told ArmInfo that
the visit of the Cypriot delegation is targeted at working out the
provisions of the international agreement on legal assistance between
the two countries.

The agreement will be signed during RA Justice Minister Gevorg
Danielyan’s visit to Cyprus at the end of the year. The Cyprus
delegation will have working meetings with representatives of RA
Ministry of Justice, Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan and will lay
a wreath of flowers at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims.

EUROPEAN COURT FINES ARMENIA FOR ‘UNFAIR’ TRIAL
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 29 2007

The European Court of Human Rights has declared illegal and unfair
the imprisonment of an Armenian soldier who had been tortured into
confessing to a mysterious 1998 murder of a fellow army conscript.

Misha Harutiunian, now 27, was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to ten
years in prison in 2001 by an Armenian court despite proving that
his confession was extracted under severe duress. He was released on
parole in late 2002.

Harutiunian appealed to the European Court in November 2003 after
his repeated demands for acquittal were dismissed by Armenian courts.

In its second-ever ruling on an Armenia-related case announced late
Thursday, the Strasbourg-based tribunal met most of his demands. It
emphasized the fact that military police officers who interrogated
Harutiunian and two other soldiers were subsequently fired and
prosecuted for torture.

"The European Court of Human Rights noted that the applicant and the
two witnesses had been coerced into making confessions and that that
fact been confirmed by the domestic courts when the police officers
concerned were convicted of ill-treatment," it said in a statement.

The statement added that the use of such "evidence" rendered the
trial unfair as it violated a key article of the European Convention
on Human Rights.

The court ordered the Armenian state to pay the young man, who now
resides in Moscow, 4,000 euros ($5,200) in "non-pecuniary" damages.

Harutiunian’s lawyer, Hayk Alumian, told RFE/RL that he will use the
verdict to again seek his client’s full acquittal by an Armenian
court and as much as $100,000 worth of financial compensation for
"physical damage" suffered by Harutiunian.

Harutiunian and the two other soldiers were arrested several months
after another soldier serving in their military unit deployed on the
border with Azerbaijan was found dead in June 1998. He was initially
believed to have been shot by an Azerbaijani sniper. However, military
police investigators subsequently abandoned this theory and blamed
the murder on Harutiunian.

According to Alumian, the two soldiers gave incriminating testimony
against his client after being brutally tortured by investigators.

"Can you imagine that they had their hand nails squeezed by pliers?"

he told RFE/RL.

Alumian claimed that the same form of torture was then used against
Harutiunian, forcing the latter to incriminate himself. "Misha
Harutiunian had no lawyer at the time," the attorney said. "When I
took over the case a month later, all of his ten fingers were black.

They were not only squeezed by pliers. When you read what was done
to him you will be shocked."

The European Court ruling is a further blow to the credibility
and moral authority of Armenia’s military prosecutors, who are
still reeling from the de facto acquittal by an appeals court last
December of three other soldiers jailed on similar murder charges. The
case against the now demobilized soldiers was likewise based on a
"confession" made but subsequently retracted by one of them. The
young man, Razmik Sargsian, insists that it was extracted by force.

AZERBAIJANI AMBASSADOR:I AM RIGHT IN VISITING KARABAKH (VIDEO)

TREND News Agency, Azerbaijan
June 29 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend A.Ismaylova / "I am right in visiting
Nagorno-Karabakh," said the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia, Polad
Bulbuloglu, who headed the Azerbaijani delegation visiting the occupied
Azerbaijani lands on 28 June together with Armenian intellectuals.

According to Bulbuloglu, somebody had to do it. The diplomat said
that he is going to continue his activity in this regard.

The Ambassador did not exclude the possibility to realize humanitarian
projects together with the Armenians in the occupied Azerbaijani lands,
as well as the restoration of mosques in Shusha.

ELDENIZ NURIYEV SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS IN JAIL WITH PARRICIDE CHARGE

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 29 2007

Verdict on Eldeniz Nuriyev, who was accused of parricide, has been
brought in the Azerbaijani court for serious crimes. Eldeniz Nuriyev
was sentenced to 12 years in jail under court decision chaired by
Judge Mammadbagir Zeynalov, APA reports.

Eldeniz Nuriyev lost in the territory of Fuzili and was captured by
Armenian Armed Forces on January 16 this year. He was arrested after
law enforcement bodies made investigations about him. He is charged
with article 247(parricide) of Criminal Code.