Author: Chakrian Hovsep

AZERI LEADER NOT RECEIVED WELL AT NATO SUMMIT IN ISTANBUL – PAPER
Azadliq, Baku
29 Jun 04,
headlined “Ilham Aliyev receives cold reception in Turkey” and
subheaded “Saakashvili overshadows him again”
A NATO summit began in Istanbul yesterday (28 June) but the heads of
state and government arrived on 26 June. A “NATO at a turning point”
conference was held on that day and those who attended the summit took
part in it as well.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his counterparts came to
Istanbul on 26 June. However, the way he was welcomed and the attitude
to him during NATO meetings was different. Unfortunately, in a
negative sense. It was clear at the Istanbul summit that unlike
democratic governments, authoritarian regimes, especially the ones led
by weak leaders, are treated with disrespect.
Ilham Aliyev was greeted at the airport by the Turkish transport
minister, whereas the president of neighbouring Georgia, Mikheil
Saakashvili, was met by the Turkish deputy prime minister and foreign
minister, Abdullah Gul.
Moreover, during the summit it was plain to see that US President
George Bush and other influential heads of government treated
Saakashvili better than Aliyev.

Armenian foreign minister arrives in Turkey for NATO summit
Anatolia news agency, Ankara
28 Jun 04

Istanbul: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has arrived in
Istanbul to attend the NATO summit being hosted by Turkey.
The visiting foreign minister was received at Ataturk Airport by
Turkish Foreign Ministry officials. Ali Coskun, minister of industry
and trade, saw the visiting minister off when the latter left the
airport in an official vehicle.

COMPUTERS FOR SCHOOLS
Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
June 25 2003
The French charity organization “Shen” implements a number of programs
both in Armenia and Artsakh. The main program in Artsakh is providing
village schools with computers. In the framework of this program about
50 computers were provided to village schools of the republic. The
program provides for 400 computers. Each school will have at least 2
computers. The program has been implemented in Askeran and Shoushi
regions. The representative of the Artsakh branch of the organization
Karen Aramian said that the 12 computers received recently will be
distributed to the schools in Martouni regions. About 200 computers
are accumulated in Switzerland to be delivered to Artsakh. The members
of the organizations permanently control the use of the
computers. Despite the shortage of financial means visits to village
schools are often organized and the members of the staff of the
organization aid specialists, solve problems connected with
repairs. Similar visits were organized to Nakhijevanik, Khramort,
Khachen, Khachmach and other villages. The next will be the region of
Shoushi. “We want to prepare our specialist in every school. In this
way it will be possible to use computers to the point and give
necessary knowledge to the children of the regions. In the second
stage of the program, of course, if we have enough means, the Internet
will also be provided. Children living and studying in the villages
must not be cut from the world,” said Karen Aramian. AGRICULTURAL
PROGRAMS. “Shen” also implements agricultural programs. Especially
wide-scale programs have been launched in Armenia. Within the
framework of the program in Artsakh, village Khanabad the program
“Ecologically Pure Gardens” is implemented. These days the members of
the branch of the organization will visit Khanabad to see the work
done. In this reference Karen Aramian mentioned that they want to
follow the agricultural programs implemented in Armenia. Near the
village Argina in Armenia the organization planted 20 hectares of
apricot garden in spring of 2002. Every year the territory of the
garden is expanded through cleaning the desert from stones and
irrigating. The garden will later become a good source of income for
the population of Argina. A sun dryer was also built in the village
where the harvest of the garden will be treated. The dryer complex and
the garden will supply the population of the village. K. Aramina said
that for the implementation of the agricultural program they need
specialists of ecology. Soon the Artsakh branch of the organization
will have its Internet site.
LAURA GRIGORIAN.
25-06-2004

Providence Journal , RI
June 25 2004
Radio operators plan disaster drill
The Providence Radio Association will hold its annual emergency
communications exercise this weekend at Bevertail State Park in
Jamestown.
Amateur radio operators will set up three shortwave radio stations
that are powered by solar or wind sources and will operate their
communications system continuously from Saturday afternoon through
Sunday afternoon.
“This is a practice exercise,” said Frank DePetrillo, association
president. “We’ve done this as far back as the ’38 hurricane.” He
said amateur radio operators have helped transmit messages during
other storms and during the earthquake in Armenia in 1988, “when we
handled hundreds of health and welfare messages in the aftermath,”
DePetrillo said.
The event is sponsored by the national American Radio Relay League.

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
June 24, 2003
MEETING AT RA PARLIAMENT
On June 19 speaker of the RA National Assembly Artur Baghdassarian
met with the delegation of the NKR parliament headed by Oleg
Yessayan. During the meeting the preliminary findings of the Armenian
Conference of Parliamentarian Friendship were discussed. It was
mentioned that further effective activity of the conference is very
important. The significance of the participation of the NKR
delegation in the conference now and in the future was emphasized.
The participants of the meeting discussed questions of cooperation
between the two parliaments.
AA

armenianow.com
25 June 2004
Guilty?: Opposition leader sentenced to 18 months
By Vahan Ishkhanyan ArmeniaNow reporter
A court in the Armavir Region has sentenced political leader Lavrenti
Kirakosyan to 18 months in prison on drug charges. Human rights activists
and political opposition leaders say Kirakosyan, regional head of the
National Democratic Union, was framed by police who planted drugs in his
home during a search, and that his arrest was for political reasons.
In reaching its decision, the court relied on testimony of five policemen,
while disregarding the testimony of two civilian search witnesses whose
testimony implied that police placed marijuana in Kirakosyan’s home.
As previously reported in ArmeniaNow, Kirakosyan was arrested April 10,
during a political protest. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail for failure
to obey a police order. Two hours before he was to be released, police were
sent to search his home, on suspicion that he was holding weapons for
acquaintances who were suspected of a crime.
His lawyer confers with Kirakosyan in court
No weapons were found. A second search was ordered, after which police
produced 59 grams of marijuana they said was found atop a water heater in
Kirakosyan’s home.
Policeman Mnatsakan Mnatsakanyan testified that he found the marijuana.
“We finished the search. When we were going to leave the building he (deputy
head of the police department) told me to check the water heater, because I
am tall,” Mnatsakanyan said. “I heard someone had tried, but was too short
to reach it.”
(Witnesses of the search say the first policeman who checked the water
heater is in fact appreciably taller that Mnatsakanyan.)
Police contradicted their own testimony. For instance, some of them said
after searching the water heater for the first time they searched the whole
house, roof and yard and in the end again searched the water heater and only
after that they found marijuana. Another policeman said they had searched
the water heater two times without intervals.
Search witness Misha Shmavonyan said a plastic vase was found in the same
location as the drugs and that the vase was covered in dust, while the
package holding the marijuana was clean – a suggestion that the drugs had
been placed there moments earlier.
(Police dogs were used in the search, but did not detect the drugs.)
A policeman took photographs of the search, but testified that the film has
been damaged and no photos are available.
Shmavonyan and another search witness, Gevorg Gevorgyan, say they were
forced by police to sign statements verifying the search. Shmavonyan also
testified that police had come to his home to try to persuade him to not
appear as a witness at the trial.
A urine sample was taken from Kirakosyan during his detention and traces of
marijuana was found in his blood. However, prior to the specimen being
taken, Kirakosyan had become ill after eating food prepared in the jail and
claims that the drug was cooked into the food he was given. A doctor treated
Kirakosyan.
The court refused Kirakosyan’s attorney Vardan Zurnachyan’s motion to call
the doctor as a witness.
Residents from Kirakosyan’s village of Karakert, filled the court for his
trial. Some among the 600 residents wrote letters praising Kriakosyan’s
civil service. One said he is a man who others call even for settling
marital disputes.
“He always helps people and struggles for justice,” wrote villager Lavrenti
Safaryan. “I will tell you a story that happened two days before he was sent
to prison. I was in Ikarus (a type of bus). There is a sick woman in the
village, she is helpless. She was suffering from complication of her arm.
Lavrenti helped her to get into the Ikarus, took her to hospital, made
doctors treat her and brought her back. He paid for her bus ticket and told
the driver, ‘next time don’t take money from this woman’.”
The court was filled with supporters from Karakert
For his part, Kirakosyan stated he has been subjected to political
persecutions for several years. In 1996 he was sentenced to six months of
imprisonment on charges, he claims, that were also fabricated, and again
following his protest of presidential elections.
Kirakosyan testified that during detention Deputy Head of Police of Armavir,
Edik Lazarian, told him that if he would promise to stop his political
activities, he would be released.
Kirakosyan said the head of the police department was asking him questions
about his political party activities and specifically wanted to know the
plans of opposition leaders Aram Sargsyan and Stepan Demirchyan. Kirakosyan
says he told police: “I am not a spy”.
Prior to the trial’s conclusion, leader of the National Democratic Union
Vazgen Manukyan held a press conference and stated that Kirakosyan is a
political prisoner and holding him violates Council of Europe mandates
regarding human rights.
“This is political matter,” Manukyan said. “They can fabricate a drug or a
murder case, however, the essence remains the same. If this case and Edgar
Arakelyan’s case (a demonstrator also convicted to 18 months for
hooliganism) are stomached, then in the future any political cases will be
turned into criminal ones.”
On the evening before the final court session Head of Police Department of
Baghramyan Region (where Kirakosyan had been held) Spartak Nahapetyan died
in a car accident.
Before making his final statement Kirakosyan asked participants of the trial
and those present in the courtroom to rise and have a minute of silence in
memory of the Head of Police Department.
Then Kirakosyan said his case is an ordered hearing and real criminals are
policemen who had fabricated the charges.
“This trial is an exceptional demonstration of dictatorship,” Kirakosyan
told the court. “However, it is well known that sooner or later all
dictatorships collapse.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian defence chief meets diaspora leader from USA
Arminfo
25 Jun 04
YEREVAN
The secretary of the security council under the Armenian president and
defence minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, today met the chairman of the board
of directors of the Armenian Assembly of America, Anthony Barsamyan,
and the regional director of the assembly, Arpi Vardanyan.
The press secretary of the Armenian defence minister, Col Seyran
Shakhsuvaryan, has told Arminfo news agency that during the meeting,
they touched upon the current level of US-Armenian relations and
prospects for their development. The sides also discussed the
domestic political situation in Armenia and the expansion of ties
between Armenia and the state of Kansas.

The Economist
June 26, 2004
U.S. Edition
A strategic friendship cools; Turkey and Israel
Relations between Israel and Turkey
The two old allies are getting on each other’s nerves. Why?
WHEN Tayyip Erdogan, a former Islamist, swept to power alone in 2002
to become Turkey’s prime minister, Israelis were worried that
relations with their closest friend in the region might cool. True,
Mr Erdogan had publicly disavowed his Islamist past and insisted he
would still look to America, Europe and Israel for friendship. But
the Israelis wanted proof.
They are not getting it. On the contrary, a year ago Mr Erdogan
snubbed a request by Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister, to visit
Turkey. Neither Mr Erdogan nor his foreign minister, Abdullah Gul,
have been to Israel. Officials on both sides say the “special
relationship” is secure. A pact signed in 1996 still lets Israeli
fighter pilots train in Turkish airspace, to the irritation of many
Arabs. Trade still booms.
But the bad blood is still being stirred. This week Silvan Shalom,
Israel’s foreign minister, said that Israel could not “restrain
itself” for much longer in the face of Mr Erdogan’s scratchy remarks,
which were harming the very fabric of the two countries’
relationship. Mr Erdogan has accused Israel of “state terrorism”
against the Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Last month he asked an
Israeli minister to explain the difference between “terrorists who
kill Israeli civilians and Israel’s killing of civilians too”.
Similar bluntness earlier this month annoyed a group of Jewish
Americans whom he met in the United States.
So why the change? Mr Erdogan’s proclaimed distaste for Mr Sharon’s
policies is probably genuine. It is certainly shared by many millions
of Turks who have been watching television pictures of Israeli tanks
demolishing Palestinian houses. Besides, he has to appease
conservatives in his ruling Justice and Development party. They are
disgruntled by his failure, among other unIslamist things, to lift
the ban on the wearing of headscarves by women in government offices
and schools.
Some, however, say that the most compelling reason for Mr Erdogan’s
new tone of hostility is his belief that Israel has been encouraging
Iraq’s Kurds to form their own independent state that would not only
become Israel’s new ally in the region but might also rekindle
separatism among Turkey’s own restive Kurds. Such fears have grown
since the New Yorker magazine said that Israeli agents now train
Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq. Israel denies it.
Mr Erdogan knows he must tread warily. If he annoys Israel or the
Jewish-American lobby too much, it will be harder for Congress to
spike resolutions calling for recognition of the massacres of
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in the first world war as genocide.

Associated Press Worldstream
June 22, 2004 Tuesday
Protesters break in to a NATO forum attended by Armenian defense
officials
BAKU, Azerbaijan
Several protesters broke into a NATO forum on Tuesday attended by
Armenian defense officials, and called on Azerbaijan to stop
negotiations with Armenia, highlighting tensions over
Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory disputed by both countries.
Several activists of the Organization of Karabakh’s Freedom pushed
through police cordons, broke glass doors and stormed into a
conference hall in Baku’s Europe hotel which hosted the forum. The
conference of 21 NATO member states and partners was being held ahead
of NATO’s “Cooperative Best Effort-2004” to be held in Azerbaijan.
Two Armenian officers were among those attending the conference.
Outside the hotel, about 30 protesters held banners “NATO without
Armenians” and “Shame on those who negotiate with Armenians!” More
protesters were cordoned off by police.
Protesters and hotel security guards suffered minor injuries in the
incident in the hotel and the meeting resumed in several minutes.
Eight people were detained by police.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are at odds over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
which Armenian forces seized from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. A
1994 cease-fire has largely held, but no final settlement has been
reached. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan are NATO members, but both
former Soviet republics participate in NATO’s Partnership for Peace
program.

GERMANY TO PROVIDE FRESH LOANS TO ARMENIA
ArmenPress
June 22 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 22, ARMENPRESS: Armenian prime minister Andranik
Margarian who has left today for Germany on a three-day working visit
to participate in German-Armenian Economic Cooperation Conference is
expected to discuss with German minister for economic cooperation
and development Heidemarie Witschorek-Zoll, who is also the German
co-chairman of inter-governmental commission for cooperation, a range
of issues pertaining to German-Armenian economic cooperation.
An agreement on release of a package of German credits to Armenia
in the next 3-4 years is supposed to be sealed in 2005. Armenian
finance and economy minister Vartan Khachatrian said today before
flying to Berlin that after the end of the visit an agreement will
be signed in Yerevan on the release of 7.5 millions German loan for
the support to building of hydro-power plants, 1.5 million of which
will be allocated as a grant.
Khachatrian also said that a German KwF bank plans to release a 30
million euros loan to Armenian for upgrading the privatized Yerevan
power plant.