Author: Boshkezenian Garik

Iranian president meets Armenian nationalist party leaders
Noyan Tapan news agency
9 Sep 04
Yerevan, 9 September: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who is
paying an official visit to Armenia, met representatives of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD] in the
reception hall of the National Security Service on 9 September. These
are representatives of the party bureau, Grant Markaryan and Armen
Rustamyan, and the chairman of the ARFD faction in parliament,
Levon Lazarian.
Having welcomed the visit of the Iranian president to Armenia,
Markaryan stressed the importance of the visit for the development of
Armenian-Iranian relations and regional policy. Noting the significance
of the agreements and practical programmes signed during the visit,
Markaryan expressed his confidence that the visit would mark a new
stage in the history of centuries-old Armenian-Iranian friendship. He
expressed his hope that the agreements would help expand relations
between the states in the political, economic and cultural spheres.
The information service of the ARFD Supreme Council told Noyan Tapan
that Khatami noted the importance of the role that Armenia and the
Armenian people have been playing in the region and in the dialogue
of civilisations for thousands of years.
Speaking about the ARFD, which is an all-Armenian body, the Iranian
president also stressed its role in uniting the Armenian people living
all over the world, and its role in processes intended to strengthen
national conciliation.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Sept 6 2004
TRIPARTITE MEETING OF FOREIGN MINISTERS DUE IN NEW YORK
[September 06, 2004, 15:26:08]
Ministers of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Armenia are
to meet in the course of forthcoming gathering of the United Nations
General Assembly in New York, due on 21 September.
As stated, the parties will focus issues of settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karbakh conflict, the role of Turkey in
the mentioned question, other problems.
Head of the foreign policy department of Azerbaijan will also have
meetings with foreign ministers of other countries.

Equa-Guinea legal team in Armenia to probe links to coup plot
Agence France Presse — English
September 4, 2004 Saturday 12:58 PM GMT
MALABO Sept 4 — A legal team from Equatorial Guinea is in Armenia
to probe links between a local air transport company and an alleged
plot to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, an official said here
Saturday.
The focus of the Equato-Guinean investigators’ visit to the central
Asian country was a contract between Armenia’s Tiger Air and a German
company whose representative in Malabo, Gerhard Eugen Merz, was among
15 foreigners arrested in Equatorial Guinea in March and accused of
plotting a coup, the legal official said.
Merz died days after his arrest, officially from cerebral malaria,
but with rights groups saying he was tortured to death.
Among those arrested were the six Armenian air crew of an Antonov
cargo plane. All six have denied involvement in the alleged coup bid,
and told a court in Malabo that they had come to Equatorial Guinea to
work under contract to Merz’s company, which had leased their plane
and services.
The Antonov and its Armenian crew arrived in Equatorial Guinea in
January this year.
Between then and the discovery of the alleged coup plot in March they
made only one flight, on behalf of a company owned by South African
businessman Nick du Toit, who faces the death penalty for allegedly
leading the coup bid.

Armenian, Azerbaijani presidents to meet in Astana
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 1, 2004 Wednesday
YEREVAN, September 1 — Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and
Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev are likely to meet again at a
CIS summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan told television on Wednesday
that the fourth meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart in Prague was
“the most important of all the previous ones” during which the sides
“took one more important step forward”.
“The purpose of these contacts is to lay the foundation for further
negotiations and meetings both between the ministers and presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Oskanyan said.
He said the meeting in Prague was “on the whole positive”.
“If the sides continue in the same mode, eventually they will lay
the foundation for positive results in the future,” the minister said.

ARMENIA THIS WEEK
Monday, August 30, 2004
ARMENIANS ON TRIAL FOR AFRICAN “COUP ATTEMPT”
Six Armenian nationals working on contract in West Africa appear to have
been caught up in an attempted coup. Pilot Ashot Karapetian, co-pilot Samvel
Darbinian, aeronautical engineer Ashot Simonian, navigator Samvel
Matchkalian, flight engineer Razmik Khachatrian and technician Suren
Muradian flew an Antonov-12, a Soviet-made cargo plane for Armenia-based
Tiga Air company. The six were arrested last March in Equatorial Guinea,
along with their client Gerhard Eugen Merz of Germany (who had since died in
prison), several South Africans and Guineans.

Ambassador Sergei Manaserian and other officials are currently in Equatorial
Guinea for the trial, and had visited the aviators twice before. They met
with local leaders to request that the Armenians be released and that their
detention conditions be improved in the meantime. The Armenians did not
report being ill-treated in custody and have been able to telephone their
relatives in Yerevan on at least one occasion.

The Armenians have pled “not guilty” to charges of coup plotting, which
according to the governments of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea
as well as confessions of would-be participants, involved dozens of South
African and Angolan mercenaries led by British ex-Special Forces soldier
Simon Mann, and was allegedly financed by Mark Thatcher, son of the former
British Prime Minister. They are said to have sought to overthrow President
Teodoro Obiang Nguema and install his Spain-based opponent in this oil-rich
country.

According to Armenian pilots and their lawyer, they arrived in Equatorial
Guinea last January to fly freight between that country and two other
African nations, and until last week were unaware on what charges they were
held. Local prosecutors, however, have alleged that the Armenians were to
fly in mercenaries for the would be coup and demanded they be sentenced to
at least 26 years in prison.

Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamlet Gasparian described the
accusations as “nonsensical, absurd.. and groundless.” According to
Gasparian, South African suspects in the case have denied that the Armenians
were involved in coup preparations. A release of some of the alleged
mercenaries following a separate, but related trial in Zimbabwe, may augur
well for the Armenians. But Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian argued against
a rush to optimism. The verdict is expected on September 1. (Sources: RFE/RL
Arm. Report 3-10, 23, 31, 7-13, 8-23, 26; Arminfo 3-18, 23, 5-21, 6-21,
7-16; 8-24, 30; ArmeniaNow 3-26; AFP 8-24, 26, 27)
SOUTH OSSETIA CEASE-FIRE HOLDS FOLLOWING GEORGIAN PULL-OUT
Georgia pulled out most of the forces it introduced in South Ossetia earlier
this summer, heeding calls by the United States to de-militarize the region
and resume peace talks. Some of the Georgian forces involved were trained by
the U.S. The province lies in proximity to the Russia-Georgia gas pipeline
and highway, both of key economic significance to Armenia. Armenian
officials have expressed concern over recent fighting in the area, which
Armenian observers see as setting a potentially negative precedent for the
Karabakh peace process.

The new cease-fire took hold last week, as President Mikhail Saakashvili
sacked his Armed Forces’ chief of staff, whom other Georgian officials
accused of failing to achieve military objectives and losing at least 16
Georgian soldiers in the process. The Ossetian side reported at least
several police and civilians killed, mostly from Georgian shelling of the
regional center of Tskhinvali. Saakashvili says he is committed to a
peaceful settlement. Georgia is now seeking to replace Russian peacekeepers
in the region with a Western force. (Sources: Arm. This Week 7-12; New York
Times 8-5; RFE/RL Newsline 8-23, 25, 27; Civil.ge 8-26, 27)
NO MEDALS, AS ARMENIA TEAM RETURNS FROM ATHENS
Armenia’s 18-person team won no medals, as the 2004 Summer Olympics in
Greece concluded over the weekend. Diaspora Armenians fared better winning
at least one gold, one silver and several bronze medals.

Armen Ghazaryan placed fourth in weightlifting, shy of a medal by only about
a pound of his own weight, and Norair Bakhtamyan also placed fourth in
shooting. Four wrestlers, two weightlifters and one boxer from the Armenia
team finished in the top ten of their respective competitions. Armenia won
one gold and one silver medal in 1996 and one bronze in the 2000 Olympics.

Baku-born Karina Aznavourian won a team fencing gold for Russia, her second
in as many Olympics. Three Gyumri natives, Ara Abrahamian, Artiom Kiureghian
and Mkhitar Manukian, won silver and bronze medals in wrestling for Sweden,
Greece and Kazakhstan, respectively. Another wrestler, Masis-born Armen
Nazarian secured a bronze medal for Bulgaria. (Sources: ;
Arm. This Week 8-16)

Note to readers: Due to the Labor Day holiday, the next issue of Armenia
This Week will appear on September 13. Visit
to read Armenia This Week issues
since 1997.

A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY THE ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
122 C Street, N.W., Suite 350, Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 393-3434 FAX
(202) 638-4904
E-Mail [email protected] WEB
Armenian Assembly of America
Research and Information Office
FACT SHEET
August 24, 2004
AZERBAIJANI GOVERNMENT’S WAR RHETORIC
In the years since the outbreak of the Karabakh conflict in the 1980s, the
Azerbaijani government and entities sponsored by it have hurled a litany of
threats, hate-mongering, complaints, accusations and abuse at the Armenians
of Karabakh, Armenia and Armenians around the world. Such rhetoric continued
unabated despite the establishment of a cease-fire in Karabakh in May 1994
and the ongoing peace process, and has intensified in recent years.
Egregious examples of this rhetoric follow:
· President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly told his nation that
Azerbaijan could launch a new war in Karabakh: “At any moment we must be
able to liberate our territories by military means. To achieve this we have
everything.” Aliyev predicts that Azerbaijan will soon become an
economically strong state, while its military “superiority” will increase
further. “Under these circumstances we cannot react positively to those
calling us to compromise.” (Source: Zerkalo 7/23/04) Azerbaijan has been
increasing its military spending to more than $217 million (Source: IISS
Military Balance) and buying more tanks, artillery and aircraft (Source: UN
Directory of Conventional Arms). Aliyev warned that unless Armenians
capitulate “we will all smash the heads of the Armenians.” (Source: Turan
via BBC Monitoring 10/27/00)
· The Azerbaijani Defense Minister Gen. Safar Abiyev says that
occasional violations of the 1994 cease-fire are “natural” since Azerbaijan
is still “at war.” (Source: Sarg via BBC Monitoring 8/14/03) Abiyev makes
claims on Armenia’s territory: “Armenia must always remember that what
Azerbaijan accepted yesterday will not be accepted today and tomorrow.
Azerbaijan will not want to have a separated state – meaning Nakhichevan,
cut from the mainland Azerbaijan. This issue will be raised tomorrow.”
(Source: Ekho 5/16/03). Asked if the Azeri army is ready “to go to Yerevan,”
Abiyev answers: “We can go even farther.” (Source: ANS via BBC Monitoring
3/22/02) Abiyev claims that “The Armenian state was created on the occupied
Azeri lands with the area of 29,000 square kilometers.” (Source: ANS.az
12/7/01)
· The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Ramiz Melikov: “In
the next 25-30 years there will be no Armenian state in the South Caucasus.
This nation has been a nuisance for its neighbors and has no right to live
in this region. Present-day Armenia was built on historical Azerbaijani
lands. I believe that in 25 to 30 years these territories will once again
come under Azerbaijan’s jurisdiction.” (Source: Zerkalo 8/4/04) Following
the brutal murder of an Armenian student of NATO English language courses in
Hungary last February, Melikov qualified the confessed murderer Ramil
Safarov as a “talented and disciplined officer.” Melikov added that, “as an
Azeri, I understand and support Safarov’s actions.” Melikov did not exclude
similar attacks on Armenians in the future. (Source: Regnum 2/25/04)
· Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to the Council of Europe Agshin Mekhtiyev
warned of more attacks on individual Armenians, adding that he “would not
advise Armenians to sleep easy in their beds.” (Source: Zerkalo 2/24/04)
Parliament member and former Heydar Aliyev bodyguard Siyavush Novruzov told
Terry Davis, envoy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
that “similar incidents” could occur in PACE as well, unless the Karabakh
conflict is settled in Baku’s favor. (Source: Ekho 2/27/04) Azerbaijan’s
Human Rights Ombudsman Elmira Suleimanova said that Safarov should serve as
“an example for Azerbaijani youth.” (Source: Zerkalo 2/28/04)
· The Azerbaijani Ministry of National Security (MNS) has publicly
and, according to media reports, clandestinely sponsored rhetoric and
activities directed against Karabakh peace efforts. In 2004, this successor
to the Soviet-era KGB held a public competition for the “best” films and
books targeting Armenians, with Minister Namik Abbasov giving financial
awards of up to $2,000 to the winners. (Source: Azertag.com 3/26/04) Azeri
officials have condemned Track II peace-building contacts with Armenians,
and groups linked to MNS have attacked Azeri peace activists. (Sources: ANS
via BBC Monitoring 11/3/01, 4/16/02; 525ci Gazet 5/11/02; Zerkalo via BBC
Monitoring 4/30/03; IWPR Caucasus Report 5/1/03)
· Heydar Aliyev’s National Security Advisor Vafa Gulizade demanded
that “Armenians should be driven out of Azerbaijan forever.” Unless
Azerbaijan fights and drives all Armenians out, Gulizade believes that
“Armenians would [eventually] buy up real estate in Baku… They will try to
take Azerbaijan into their hands in this way.” (Source: Azadlyq via BBC
Monitoring 10/10/01) “The entire Armenian population of Nagornyy Karabakh
should be moved from there…This problem will not be resolved as long as
Armenians are in Nagornyy Karabakh.” (Source: Yeni Azerbaycan via BBC
Monitoring 11/14/01) “If they want autonomy on our land, let us have
autonomy in Zangazur and Goyca [southern and eastern Armenia] which will
enable Azerbaijan to reach Turkey by land.” (Source: ANS via BBC Monitoring
4/6/02)
· The Azerbaijani Parliament member from ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party
Asia Manafova: “Our people must repay the debt it owes to [the late
President] Heydar Aliyev and free Karabakh from Armenian occupiers. To
achieve this goal we are ready… undertake acts of suicide bombing.”
Manafova called on other Parliament members to also become suicide bombers.
(Source: Regnum.ru 12/15/03) The pro-government Azerbaijan News Service
(ANS) has been the most active Azeri TV channel opposing any contacts with
Armenians and arguing for war, suggesting, among other things, to recruit
suicide bombers from among thousands of orphaned and homeless children in
Azerbaijan. (Source: ANS via BBC Monitoring 10/13/02).
As one of the leading mediators in the Karabakh peace process and Co-Chair
of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as a nation with deep bilateral ties with
both Armenia and Azerbaijan, the United States needs to be much more active
in securing an end to such irresponsible and bellicose high-level
Azerbaijani statements. Clearly these officials envision another military
offensive against NKR and Armenia, ethnic cleansing and in the case of Col.
Melikov, Armenia’s demise and genocide against its population. Silence in
the face of such threats only emboldens the would-be aggressors.

Azeri, Belarus defence ministers discuss cooperation, Karabakh in Minsk
ANS TV, Baku
29 Aug 04
The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagornyy Karabakh conflict has been discussed
at a meeting between Azerbaijani Defence Minister Safar Abiyev and his
Belarus counterpart Leanid Maltsaw in Minsk. During the meeting, Safar
Abiyev said that Azerbaijan did not want war but it was provoked into
starting war.
The Belarus defence minister said that his country backed a solution
to the conflict that is in line with UN principles and international
legal norms.
Bilateral military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Belarus was also
discussed within the framework of the two-day visit.

ArmenPress
Aug 27 2004
PRIME MINISTER HAILED OPENING OF ALL ARMENIAN EDUCATION SUMMIT
YEREVAN, AUGUST 27, ARMENPRESS: Armenian prime minister Andranik
Margarian has addressed a greeting message to the participants of All
Armenian Education Summit which says in particular,
“Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, respectable participants of All
Armenian Education Summit, guests, on behalf of Armenian government
and personally on my behalf I welcome the opening of this summit.
I am exceptionally happy that steps have been taken recently to
organize All Armenian cultural, scientific-educational, business and
other forums which aim to unite our potential and to contribute to
prosperity of our country and strengthening of Armenia-Diaspora ties.
In this regard I attach great importance to this summit and voice my
belief that educational reforms in our country will be thoroughly
analyzed and valued, interested discussions will be held on
preservation of Armenian identity, giving a stimulus to educational
cultural life in Diaspora and so on.
I wish a fruitful work to the summit.”

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Aug 25 2004
ARMENIA DEBATES ETHNIC RIGHTS
Cool reception from Armenia’s tiny minority communities to a draft
law designed to help them.
By Zhanna Alexanian in Yerevan
A proposed new law intended to protect the rights of minorities in
Armenia has met with a lukewarm response from members of the
country’s
small ethnic communities even before a first draft is on the table.
When the team of experts designing the law complete their
deliberations, which have been going on for two months, the document
will be
sent for review at the Council of Europe and then submitted to
parliament.
Armenia is, in contrast to its south Caucasian neighbours Georgia and
Azerbaijan, virtually a mono-ethnic republic in which just 2.2 per
cent of the population is not Armenian. However, it is the first
country in the region to work on a law on its ethnic minorities.
“I think that passing a law on national minorities may set a positive
example for other countries of the region,” said Stepan Safarian, an
expert at the Armenian Centre for National and International Studies
and a member of the team drafting the law. “It will be important for
Armenia in terms of harmonising relations between the majority and
the minorities.”
This is not the first attempt to pass such a law. An earlier document
was rejected by the minority communities themselves. After that, in
January this year, the government formed a new Department for
National
Minorities and Religion which started drafting a new bill.
“We weren’t obliged to do this, but there was a recommendation,”
Hranush Kharatian, head of the minorities department, told IWPR. “The
framework convention on national minorities which Armenia signed up
to
[in 1997] recommends adopting a law in which their rights are
defined.”
Armenia’s constitution does not specifically refer to the rights of
minorities and they are barely mentioned in laws on education and
language. The new law will set out their legal rights in terms of
religious practice, education and language and will specifically
outlaw
discrimination against them.
“On the whole, legislation in Armenia is liberal towards national
minorities,” said Kharatian. “But if we have an appropriate law, they
will know their rights better. At the end of the day adopting this
law
signifies the state’s attitude towards its minorities.
“It’s true that the constitution forbids discrimination of any kind,
but banning discrimination or violence gives minorities a passive
right, whereas this law will above all give them active rights.”
There are more than 20 ethnic minorities in Armenia, chiefly
Assyrians, Yezidis, Kurds, Greeks, Jews, Russians and others. In the
last
Soviet census of 1989, minorities formed 6.7 per cent of the
population.
But the number has fallen drastically since then, in part because of
the mass flight of Armenia’s Azerbaijani population and in part
because of emigration.
The team of experts debating the new law includes government figures
and scholars. They have studied similar laws from around 20 other
countries, and have paid particular attention to the laws of Hungary
and
Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro).
However many minority leaders are cool towards the whole project.
“I am not in favour of passing this law, but as the discussion
concerns us I am participating in it,” said Irina Gasparian, who
represents
the Assyrian community. Around 6,000 Assyrians were living in Armenia
in 1989, but there are only about 3,400 here now.
Charkaze Mstoyan, chairman of the Kurdistan Committee, is strongly
against the law as a matter of principle, because he feels that the
act
of defining a separate identity for minorities is a form of
discrimination in itself.
“Passing a law like this is a form of national persecution and
infringes our rights,” he said. “If I am a citizen of the Republic of
Armenia, why should I have this label pinned on me?”
“There is a taboo on everything Kurdish here,” continued Mstoyan. “If
the president of the country were to declare just once that Kurds or
other peoples have lived together with us for centuries, if we were
to be mentioned officially, I assure you that the atmosphere in
Armenia would change.”
He said that the Kurds and the Yezidis, a Kurdish-speaking but
non-Muslim group, were leaving Armenia because of social problems, in
particular the poor educational system.
“School buildings are falling down, it’s impossible to hold lessons
there. The state has just forgotten about us,” he said.
Another problem for Kurds is bullying when they are conscripted into
the army, leading the Kurdish leader to ask aloud, “Will there be a
point in the law which stops a member of a minority group being
persecuted in the army?… I don’t think so. For members of our
community,
army service is a tragedy for the whole family. And another thing:
will there be a point in the law which allocates university places
for
Kurdish children?”
Hranush Aratian argued that the law was needed to protect minorities
against discrimination from organisations like the nationalist Union
of Armenian Aryans. This group is calling on ethnic minorities to
leave Armenia, and has called on the Jewish community in Armenia to
put
pressure on the Israeli government to change its position on the
Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Hersch Burstein, chairman of the Mordechai Navi society which
represent’s Armenia’s Jewish community of just 300 people, declined
to
answer IWPR’s questions, saying only that he was not taking part in
discussions on the draft law because he was not sufficiently informed
about
it.
Shavarsh Khachatrian, a specialist in international law and the chief
expert in the drafting group, argued that passing the new bill was
chiefly in the interests of the ethnic minorities themselves.
“They ought to explain why they reject the need to pass a law like
this,” said Khachatrian. “National minorities are a section of
society
which always get used when tensions are rising, either between states
or in anti-government movements. The problems that create the most
tension have to do with inter-ethnic relations, and that is why many
countries have adopted laws like this one.”
“We do not have minorities with separatist demands,” said
Khachatrian. “Historically, our state has not been intolerant towards
minorities. I think we have all we need to pass a normal law.
“How this law is used is another matter. That is connected with the
way our country is developing. It has retreated from democratic
values
and is moving towards authoritarianism.”
Zhanna Alexanian is a reporter with in Yerevan

San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Aug 25 2004
Arrest is praised by U.S. authorities
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
TIJUANA – A man suspected of running a people-smuggling operation
along the California border was arrested yesterday by Mexican federal
agents in Mexicali.

Agustín Chan Montoya was “one of the most sought-after people
smugglers” in the area for U.S and Mexican authorities, said Abraham
Sarabia, spokesman for the Mexican attorney general’s office in
Tijuana.
Mexican federal authorities said Chan also had been smuggling
non-Mexicans. Authorities were exploring a connection between him and
a group of eight Iranians and Armenians detained in Mexicali last
week after a tip from U.S. authorities.
U.S. authorities praised the arrest of Chan, who is in his mid-30s.
Smuggling organizations of the type Chan is accused of operating are
believed to move thousands of people illegally into the United States
each year.
“It’s a very significant arrest in the eyes of U.S. law enforcement
authorities,” said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. “This is certainly someone who has been on our
radar screen.”
This was Chan’s second arrest in 20 months. He was captured in
January 2003 on an arrest warrant in Mexicali after a coordinated
investigation between U.S. and Mexican authorities, but he was
released from prison. It wasn’t clear if a judge had dismissed the
case or if Chan served a short sentence.
Immigrants caught in the Imperial Valley by U.S. Border Patrol agents
this year identified Chan through photos as the smuggler who had
arranged their trip, according to the latest Mexican arrest warrant.
The migrants, who were from various parts of Mexico, had used an
inflatable raft to cross a canal from Mexicali into the United
States. Their statements were taken by an official with the Mexican
attorney general’s office, which used them to build another case
against Chan.
The migrants said Chan “treated them in a violent and aggressive
manner and said that if they were captured to not implicate him or
his associates or else they would make their families suffer,”
according to the arrest warrant.
Mack wouldn’t say whether Chan’s arrest was a development from last
week’s detentions in Mexicali. Two of the detainees, U.S. citizens of
Iranian and Armenian descent who were presumed to be involved in a
smuggling operation, were deported to the United States.
Chan’s arrest “is part of the continuing cooperative effort between
U.S. and Mexican law enforcement on both sides of the border to
investigate smuggling activities in Mexicali,” Mack said. “It
definitely will be continuing.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
Aug 19 2004
SERGEI LAVROV SAYS RUSSIA SUPPORTS TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF
AZERBAIJAN
MOSCOW, AUGUST 19, ARMENPRESS: Russia supports territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said
after negotiations with Azeri foreign minister Elmar Mamediarov
yesterday. Meanwhile, he said that Moscow “is ready to assist
Karabakh conflict resolution both as OSCE Minsk Group co-chair and on
a national level.”
“Moscow is strongly interested in resolution of the conflict based
on existing agreements. However, it can be resolved only by
conflicting sides, around the table of negotiations,” Lavrov said.
“We can’t decide for the sides if they do not have agreement
themselves,” Russian FM said. He praised resumption of negotiations
since the end of last year and voiced his expectation that talks will
continue.