Author: Dabaghian Diana

AZERBAIJAN INCLUDES ITS ITEM IN OSCE PA DRAFT RESOLUTION ON NAGORNO
KARABAKH
WASHINGTON, JUNE 30. ARMINFO. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly calls
on the member-states of the OSCE Minsk Conference to step up their
efforts to achieve the peaceful resolution of the conflict, and
invites their national delegations to the Assembly to report annually
to the Assembly on the action of their Governments in this respect,
says the supplementary item on Nagorno Karabakh conflict by Azeri
representative Sattar Safarov.
A source at OSCE PA reports the sponsor of the item as urging Armenia
and Azerbaijan to comply with the resolutions 822 (1993), 853 (1993),
874 (1993) and 884 (1993) of the United Nations Security Council,
as well as other decisions of the international organizations with
regard to the conflict, in particular by refraining from any armed
hostilities and by withdrawing military forces from all occupied
territories of Azerbaijan.
Safarov calls on the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to speed up their
efforts for the conclusion of a political agreement on the cessation
of the armed conflict, the implementation of which will eliminate
major consequences of the conflict for all parties and establish
conditions for safe return of refugees and internally displaced
persons to their native lands. He also calls upon all OSCE member
states to contribute efficiently to the soonest peaceful settlement
of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
Besides Safarov calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to make use of the
OSCE Minsk Process and to put forward to each other, via the Minsk
Group, their constructive proposals for the peaceful settlement of
the conflict in accordance with the universally recognized norms and
principles of international law,
Safarov fully supports the activity of the Special Representative
of the OSCE PA Chairman on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and invites
him to submit to the Assembly an objective and comprehensive report
on the conflict as soon as possible,
He urges Armenia to stop the continuation of the settlement of
civilian population in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan,
which can impede the peaceful solution of the conflict and urges the
international community not to remain indifferent to the deplorable
living conditions of the refugees and IDPs and continue rendering
humanitarian assistance to them,
Finally Safarov appeals to the international organizations, parliaments
and governments of the world countries to enhance their efforts
in order to facilitate the conclusion of a just peace agreement
between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the norms and principles
of international law and to continue monitoring on a regular basis
the peaceful resolution of this conflict and decides to revert to
considering this issue at its 2006 Annual Session.
The draft resolution will be discussed during the OSCE PA session in
Washington July 1-6.

Commission to approve framework for Turkey talks
Euractiv, Belgium
June 29 2005
In Short:
The scheduled 29 June Commission approval of a negotiating framework
for Turkey will be the latest act in Ankara’s quest for EU membership
talks. However, upcoming elections in Germany may make this less
than certain.
Background:
Turkey’s decades-old quest for membership of the EU turns into the
finishing straight when on 29 June the Commission reveals its draft
road map for accession talks with Ankara. The document will set out
the principles, procedures and issues for the planned negotiations.
Issues:
The negotiating framework will have to be approved by all 25 EU
member states in order for talks to start on schedule on 3 October.
Following discussions at member state level, the national governments
are not likely to meet on the issue before September. Analysts point
out that the same month is likely to see elections in Germany. The
widely predicted election victory there of the conservative Christian
Democrats might muddy the waters since it would mean the replacement
at the country’s helm of the pro-Turkey Chancellor Schröder with the
CDU’s Angela Merkel, who believes that Ankara should not join the
Union as a full member.
Failure by the 25 member states to approve the road map may mean that
the 3 October date will have to be pushed back.
According to EU sources, the terms laid down in the Commission’s road
map for Turkey will be markedly tougher than those that applied to
the ten new member states that joined in 2004. In general, Turkey –
and also Croatia – will be expected to not only promise reforms but
also to implement them during the negotiations, which are expected
to last way over a decade.
The negotiating framework will also call on Ankara to “normalise”
its relations with all EU member states, including continued efforts
to reach a settlement in Cyprus, and to maintain good neighbourly
ties with neighbouring Armenia, Greece and the Kurds.
Positions:
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is firm in his stance
that Ankara will not renegotiate anything over its EU membership bid.
“If you impose new things on countries from one day to the next,
especially at a time when negotiations are about to start, that would
not be right. We are used to honest politics, that’s what we expect
and want,” he said.
In Erdogan’s opinion, “If they [the EU’s leaders] intend to preserve
the EU as a Christian union, they should say so. This would, of course,
mean the rejection of their current Constitution. We are here because
we see the EU as a union of common political values. If Turkey doesn’t
join, the EU will become an ineffective Christian group,” he said.
In a recent interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica, Commission
Vice President Franco Frattini said that “It would be a wrong choice
to break commitments. Then we’ll be sending a message the EU doesn’t
want the Islamic world. We’ve been calling on Turkey for years to
continue its reforms. […] Depriving Turkey of the opportunity to
start negotiations with the EU as scheduled is a mistake that we
should avoid,” said Frattini.
“We have to suspend enlargement at least until the institutions have
been modernised,” French Interior Minister and presidential hopeful
Nicolas Sarkozy has said. “Europe cannot enlarge indefinitely.”
“Sweden wants the start of membership talks with Turkey on 3 October
in accordance with the 17 December decision of EU leaders,” said the
speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Björn von Sydow.
In an article published by the German daily Bild, Polish President
Aleksandr Kwasniewski has said that it would be an “extremely narrow
policy” for the EU to close its doors on Turkey. “What will we say to
Ukraine, the Balkan countries and Turkey? How can we persuade these
countries to move ahead towards democracy and a free market economy?”
he queried in the article.
“We have to halt the negotiations with Turkey,” argued former
Commissioner Frits Bolkestein in the Belgian weekly Humo.
European Socialist Party President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has told the
Austrian daily Der Standard that, with Turkey, “membership talks are
set to start on 3 October, and the date cannot be changed, but the
accession will surely be shifted to a later date […] A generation
has to pass. That is, 20 or 25 years need to pass, so by 2025 or 2030”.
According to Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, there will be no
delay in the opening of his country’s accession talks.
Latest & next steps:
On 29 June 2005, the Commission is scheduled to approve the negotiating
framework for Turkey By the end of September, the framework must be
approved by all 25 member states On 3 October 2005, accession talks
are scheduled to be opened with Ankara
–Boundary_(ID_bWEiW8+7EcjQxMwMJLLftw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSKANYAN TO VISIT THE FAMILY OF HARIRI
A1plus
| 16:11:14 | 29-06-2005 | Official |
Today the RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan will leave for Lebanon
to take part in the events of the 50th anniversary of the Beirut
Haykazyan University. He is invited there as the main speaker.
During the 3-day visit Minister Oskanyan will meet the high officials
of the Republic of Lebanon and will visit the grave of the recently
murdered ex Prime Minister of the country Rafik Hariri.
The Minister will also visit the Kilikia Catholicos Aram I, the
professors of the Haykazyan University, as well as the representatives
of the Armenian community in Lebanon.
The RA Foreign Minister will render a lection in the Haykazyan
University.

GOOD ELECTORAL CODE NOT NEEDED FOR FAIR ELECTIONS?
A1plus
| 13:17:56 | 27-06-2005 | Social |
According to the readers of the “A1+” internet site, the most necessary
condition for free and fair elections is the national control. This
is the opinion of the 41.5% of the voters. And only 30.2% of the
readers see the necessity of the will of the authorities.
14.3% of the voters finds the presence of the organized and united
opposition necessary, and the Proper Electoral Code can contribute
to the organization of fair elections according to the 14.0% of
the voters.
258 people took part in the poll.
The internet site “A1+” continues the polls on the Constitutional
theme. The question of this week’s poll is “Who should appoint the
Prime Minister? “. We call everyone to actively take part in the poll.

Turkish Press
June 27 2005
Orange Handkerchiefs are in Pockets Already
Ferai Tinc
Source: Hurriyet via BYEGM, 27 June 2005
Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on her meeting with Azerbaijani
politician Isa Gamber. A summary of her column is as follows:
“I recently met with Azerbaijani opposition leader Isa Gamber
in Istanbul. He was in Istanbul to participate in the meeting on
Democratization and Security in the Wider Middle East, organized by
the ARI movement last week. Gamber has been carrying the mantle of
Azerbaijan’s opposition leader for the longest time in Azerbaijan. He
believes the general elections set for this November are very important
for democratization in his country. It seems Azerbaijan will be
the next stop of the velvet revolutions. They have already put
orange handkerchiefs in their pockets. However, I didn’t talk about
these issues with Gamber. We discussed mostly Turkish-Azerbaijani
relations. ‘Turkey shouldn’t shrink from dealing with the Armenian
issue,’ he said. ‘If it’s going to take steps about this issue, it
should talk with the Azerbaijani government.’ Maybe Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan will talk about this issue with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev during his visit this week to Baku, but
Gamber means that Turkey shouldn’t discuss the border gate problem
with Armenia separate from the Nagorno-Karabagh issue. He asked,
‘Would establishing good relations with the Armenian government save
Turkey from the pressure of the “genocide” claims?’ Then he answered
himself. ‘It’s a mistake to think that if concessions are made, the
Armenian government would soften its stance. When Turkey opened its
airspace, what changed? Genocide allegations are still the backbone of
Armenian state policy. It won’t stop these allegations. If Turkey is
going to open its borders, it should firstly talk to the Azerbaijani
government and tell it the reasons for doing this and the sums to be
earned in return.” Because the Azerbaijani government, 20% of whose
land is under Armenian occupation, should know what Turkey’s change
of policy will bring.
I wanted to know if Turkey’s relations with Armenia would always
be like this. He replied, ‘We believe that relations with Armenia
should be improved. When we come to power, we will try to do this,
but problems in Caucasia should also be solved. Democracy should
come not only to Azerbaijan, but also to Armenia.’ So many things
have slowed down in Turkish-Azerbaijani relations, compared to 15
years ago. There’s nothing concrete except mutual interest in the
Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. Now nobody is taking creative steps to develop
the humanitarian or cultural aspects of relations. Gamber said,
‘We should discuss such subjects as the Armenian or Cyprus issue with
Turkey and draw up plans together.’ It’s our responsibility to start
with Azerbaijan to develop a common basis of action covering Georgia
and Armenia.”

ARMED BANDIT KILLS POLCEMAN IN VAYK, ARMENIA
YEREVAN, JUNE 24. ARMINFO. An armed bandit robbed a shop, killed a
policeman and escaped in Vayk, Vayots Dzor region, Armenia.
The press service of Armenia’s police reports that the bandit was in
mask and had a gun. He first broke into a shop and firing into the
ceiling took 50,000 AMD, cigarettes and sweets. But when coming out of
the shop he came across police sergeant Vahe Dovlatyan and fired at
him. Dovlatyan was killed on the spot.
The criminal is being hunted.

Pan Armenian News
NEXT SITTING OF PACE COMMITTEE ON KARABAKH SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 12 IN
PARIS
24.06.2005 03:01
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The first sitting of the PACE Committee on Nagorno
Karabakh was held in Strasbourg June 23. As member of the Azeri
parliamentary delegation Asim Mollazade stated, various organizational
issues were discussed and terms of the next meeting were fixed during the
sitting, Trend new agency reported. `The next sitting of the PACE Committee
on Nagorno Karabakh is scheduled for September 12 in Paris. It was agreed
that the representatives of the states serving on the OSCE Minsk Group will
take part in the sitting’, Mollazade informed.

ARF ARTSAKH CENTRAL COMMITTEE DEMANDS THAT HIGH-RANKING OFFICIALS
HAVING BEATEN MP CANDIDATE BE DISMISSED
STEPENAKERT, JUNE 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The ARF Dashnaktsutiun Artsakh
Central Committee demanded that NKR President dismiss the high-ranking
officials having beaten Pavel Manukian. In the June 22 press release
the the ARF Dashnaktsutiun Artsakh Central Committee also applies to
the President, military prosecutor and state bodies of the Republic of
Armenia with a demand about unbiassed investigation. To recap,
yesterday well-known freedom-fighter Pavel Manukian, ARFD member
nominated by the ARF Movement-88 bloc’s proportional list in the June
19 parliamentary elections, was taken to Stepanakert military
hospital. Manukian was beaten and had injuries dangerous for his
life. Regaining consciousness, the latter declared that he was beaten
in the building of NKR Ministry of Defence, in the Minister’s
cabinet. “He was confidently emphasizing that the first blows were
struck to him by NKR Defence Minister Seyran Ohanian and Deputy
Minister Samvel Karapetian and after he fell down the other generals
who were in the cabinet continued beating him by their feet.” Late in
the evening Grisha Hayrapetian, representative of the ARFD Artsakh
Central Committee, and Vitaly Balasanian, Chairman of ARF
Dashnaktsutiun – Movement-88 pre-election bloc, met with NKR President
Arkadi Ghukasian. The President of the republic declared to the party
representatives that the incident will be investigated by
law-enforcement bodies and those guilty will be punished in an order
fixed by the law. But, according to the report of ARFD Artsakh Central
Committee, the day after the incident some sources spread information
that Pavel Manukian, allegedly, declared to the investigators that he
got the traumas when falling down from a tree. Meanwhile, according to
information provided by Manukian’s wife, Marina Manukian, no
investigation measures were taken with Pavel Manukian’s participation,
even no forensic expertise was conducted. Pavel Manukian continues to
insist that he was beaten in the Defence Minister’s cabinet. The ARFD
Artsakh Central Committee demanded that Pavel Manukian be moved to a
hospital not subordinate to NKR Defence Ministry but the hospital’s
management refused them motivating this by the fact that the patient
not only mustn’t be moved within at least 4 days, but even sitting or
moving is contraindicated to him. Meanwhile, Stepanakert military
hospital is remaining under a strict control. By the order of Samvel
Gevorgian, head of NKR Defence Army’s Medical Service, a group of
journalists wasn’t allowed to see Pavel Manukian at hospital in the
afternoon of June 22.

2005 PROGRAM OF ACTION OF IT PROMOTION COUNCIL APPROVED IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, June 22. /ARKA/. The RA Council for IT Promotion has held a
meeting inn Yerevan. The meeting was chaired by Council Chairman, RA
Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan. The meeting discussed and generally
approved the Council’s program of action for 2005. Under the program,
as well as simultaneously with preparations for the Tunis IT Summit,
the Council will continue its activities in 2005. The Councils
functions are to reveal and remove obstacles to IT development in
Armenia, promote IT application in various economic sectors, draft
stable legislation, raise public awareness of the IT potential.
The meeting also discussed the execution of instructions issued at the
Council’s previous meeting, a draft of the Council’s activities for
2005, Armenian-English electronic translation system developed by the
ISMA Ltd and other issues. P.T. -0–

Pan Armenian News
PRIMARY MATTER – STATUS OF NAGORNO KARABAKH
21.06.2005 09:30
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `In the negotiation process, each side has the right to
talk about any subject. But when one side introduces or talks about a topic,
any topic, that doesn’t mean that the topic is automatically on the agenda,
nor that there is any, even preliminary agreement on that topic’, RA Foreign
Ministry’s Spokesman Hamlet Gasparian told when commenting on the
information spread by the Azeri press that the issue of unblocking the roads
was discussed by the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs in Paris. In his words,
Armenia’s position on these matters is very clear. The primary matter is the
status of Nagorno Karabakh, and until there is clarity and agreement on that
matter, it is premature to speak about any other issue’, IA Regnum reported.