Author: Emil Lazarian

ARRESTED RUSSIAN DENIES SPYING FOR AZERBAIJAN
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug 5 2006
A Russian man who was arrested in Armenia late last year for allegedly
spying for Azerbaijan protested his innocence and claimed to have been
“brutally” mistreated in custody as he went on trial on Tuesday.
Rustem Valiakhmetov, 48, is accused of systematically collecting
Armenian “state secrets” and passing them on to Azerbaijani
intelligence. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) and state
prosecutors have so far declined to detail the charges leveled against
him, promising to substantiate them during the trial.
News of the mysterious espionage case was first announced by the
NSS about two weeks ago, at least eight months after Valiakhmetov’s
arrest, which the Armenian successor to the Soviet KGB says was made
on December 28.
However, Valiakhmetov claimed during the opening court hearing that he
was detained on November 21. It also emerged that the retired Russian
army officer had served in the Armenian army during the 1992-1994
war with Azerbaijan. He is understood to have regularly traveled to
Armenia from Moscow, his place of permanent residence, in recent years.
“Armenia is my second motherland,” Valiakhmetov told a court of first
instance in Gavar, the administrative center of the northeastern
Gegharkunik region. “I spilled blood for it and fought well.”
“What [the law-enforcement authorities] now say really hurts me,”
he said, adding that he hopes to prove that the accusations are
unfounded during further court proceedings.
The defendant spoke after the presiding judge, Aghvan Petrosian,
agreed to adjourn the trial until September 18 in order to enable him
to hire a defense lawyer. The two trial prosecutors are expected to
read out their indictment during that session. They on Tuesday refused
to disclose details of the case until then, telling RFE/RL only that
Valiakhmetov confessed to the charges shortly after his arrested but
subsequently retracted the testimony.
Valiakhmetov claimed that the confession was extracted under duress,
saying that his body still bears traces of torture. “I was tortured
horribly and brutally,” he said. “I will definitely describe during
the trial how they extracted testimony from me.”
An ethnic Tatar, Valiakhmetov is not the first person accused of
spying for Azerbaijan and standing trial in Armenia. In June last
year, a Russian-born Armenian citizen, Andrey Maziev, was convicted
of high treason and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Maziev pleaded
guilty to the charges, unlike four other ethnic Russians who were
given lengthy jail sentences on similar charges in January 2004.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AT THE UN, MICRO-STATES SIMMER UNDER THE ASSEMBLY’S SURFACE, WHILE INCOMING COUNCIL PRESIDENT DODGES MOST QUESTIONS
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
Inner City Press, NY
Aug 6 2006
UNITED NATIONS, September 5 — Nagorno Karabakh, one of the world
most frozen and forgotten conflicts, surfaced at the UN on Tuesday,
if only for ten minutes. The General Assembly was scheduled to vote
on a resolution concerning fires in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan. The diplomats assembled, or began to assemble, at 4 p.m..
At 4:15 it was announced that in light of ongoing negotiations,
the meeting was cancelled, perhaps to reconvene Wednesday at 11:30.
Sources close to the negotiations told Inner City Press that the
rub is paragraph 4 of the draft resolution, which requests that
the Secretary-General report to the UN General Assembly on the
conflict. Armenia wants the matter to remain before the Minsk Group
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has
presided over the problem for more than a decade. Leading the OSCE’s
Minsk Group are Russia, France and the United States, members of the
veto-wielding Permanent Five on the UN Security Council, nations which
Azerbaijan claims have ignored its sovereignty as well as blocking
Security Council action, as for example Russia has on Chechnya.
Of the fires, Azerbaijan has characterized them as Armenian arson,
and has asked for international pressure to allow it to reach the
disputed territories where the fires have been.
Nagorno-Karabakh, per WFP
At a July 13, 2006 briefing on the BTC pipeline, Inner City Press
asked the Ambassador of Azerbaijan Yashar Aliyev about the pipeline’s
avoidance of Armenia. We cannot deal with them until they stop
occupying our territory, Ambassador Aliyev said. “You mean Nagorno
– Karabakh?” Not only that, Amb. Aliyev answered. That’s only four
percent. Few people know this, but Armenia has occupied twenty percent
of our territory.
Both Amenia’s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and UN Ambassador
Armen Martirosian have said publicly in the past month that if
Azerbaijan continues pushing the issue before the United Nations,
the existing peace talks will stop. Armenian sources privately speak
more darkly of an alliance of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova,
collectively intent on involving the UN in reigning in their breakaway
regions including South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdniestria
— examples of what some call the micro-states. Armenia is concerned
that in the UN as opposed to OSCE, Azerbaijan might be able to rally
Islamic nations to its side.
It is not only to predominantly Muslim nations that the Azeri’s are
reaching out. The nation’s foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov met
recently with this Swedish counterpart Jan Eliasson, the outgoing
president of the General Assembly.
Following Tuesday’s General Assembly postponement, Inner City Press
asked Mr. Eliasson if, in light of his involvement in reaching the
1994 cease-fire, he thinks the GA might have more luck solving the
Nagorno-Karabakh than the OSCE has.
“I hope so,” he said. “I’m in favor of an active General Assembly.” He
recounted his shuttle diplomacy to Baku in the early 90s. And then
he was gone.
Elsewhere in the UN at Tuesday, the income president of the Security
Council, Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis held a press conference
on the Council’s plan of work for September. Inner City Press asked
when the Council will get the long-awaited briefing on violations
of the arms embargo on Somalia. Amb. Vassilakis responded about a
meeting on September 25, at Kenya’s request, on the idea of the IGAD
force in Somalia. Inner City Press asked what has happened with the
resolution on the Lord’s Resistance Army of which the UK has spoken so
much. It will be up to them to introduce the motion,” Amb. Vassilakis
replied. He did not reply on the issue of the outstanding International
Criminal Court indictments against LRA leaders including Joseph Kony
and Vincent Otti.
Inner City Press asked why, on Ivory Coast, the long-delayed report
by the Secretary-General’s expert on the prevention of genocide has
not been released. In this response, Amb.
Vassilakis grew animated, saying that one has to choose between justice
and peace. This implies that the finished report identifies alleged
perpetrators, as pertains to genocide, but is being withheld either
to facilitate peace, which has not come, or as negotiating leverage
over some of the perpetrators. To be continued, throughout the month.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU: PARLIAMENT WARNS TURKEY OVER LACK OF REFORM
AKI, Italy
Aug 5 2006
Strasbourg, 5 Sept. (AKI) – A European Parliament committee has warned
Turkey that its continuing refusal to allow Greek Cypriot ships and
planes to enter its ports and airspace could stall its membership
negotiations with the European Union. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday,
Dutch Conservative MEP Camil Eurlings said the influential foreign
affairs committee endorsed the findings of his draft report criticising
Turkey for its failure to implement key reforms demanded by the EU,
especially in recognising EU member, Cyprus. “We have seen a clear
slowdown and that is regrettable,” Eurlings said.
“Stagnation means regression,” Eurlings continued. Eurlings’
report notes “persistent shortcomings,,” in areas such as freedom of
expression, religious and minority rights, the role of the military,
policing, women’s rights, trade union rights and cultural rights. The
report urges Turkey to “reinvigorate” the reform process.
Eurlings’ report is also critical of Ankara’s refusal to fully
implement a protocol extending its customs union with the EU to the
10 countries that joined the bloc in 2004, including Cyprus. This
prevents Cypriot planes and ships entering Turkish air and sea ports.
“Lack of progress in this regard will have serious implications
for the negotiation process and could even bring it to a halt,”
the report cautioned.
The report also levelled criticism at the Turkish government’s refusal
to recognise the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during and
after World War I. It recommends making such recognition a prerequisite
for Turkey’s membership of the EU.
Eurlings said he hoped his report would galvanise Ankara and “act as
a signal and an incentive to reintroduce the vigorous speed of reform
is had shown in the year before accession negotiations started.” The
report will be debated by the full 732-member parliament in late
September.
After protracted negotiations, Turkey began accession talks with the
EU last October. The talks do not lead automatically to membership,
which in any event is not expected before 2015.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

JOURNALISM STUDENTS ELIGIBLE FOR FELLOWSHIP
International Journalist’s Network
Aug 5 2006
Students at work editing their projects.
A master’s program in journalism in Armenia is accepting applications
for registration, fellowships and financial assistance until
September 10.
Organizers will select 10 to 12 participants for the two-year
program. The course is scheduled to begin September 15.
Tuition for the Yerevan State University, Armenia School of Journalism
program is AMD300,000 (about US$760). However, partial tuition waivers
and help finding financial assistance are available.
Applicants must have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, a commitment
to journalism, excellent knowledge of a foreign language and basic
computer literacy. While organizers say that future programs will
be open internationally, Armenians are only eligible to apply to the
September 2006, to May 2008 program. Journalists and experts from the
United States, Western Europe and the Caucasus will lead the program.
The program is funded by the U.S. Agency for International
Development. The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) will
provide the faculty for the program, in cooperation with Louisiana
State University and Kent State University. Graduates will receive
a master’s degree and the possibility for an internship at a media
outlet abroad.
Applications must be submitted to: Dean’s Office, Journalism
Department, Yerevan State University, 1 Alex Manukyan str., 7th
building, 4th floor; Yerevan, Armenia.
For more information, contact Aram Lazarian at [email protected].
r.aspx?P=Article&ID=305469&LID=1
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CE WON’T PROBE INTO ARMENIAN ARSONS IN AZERI LANDS
Today, Azerbaijan
Aug 5 2006
The Council of Europe is not credible to investigate the arsons
Armenians committed in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan.
As APA reports, the CE is unlikely to probe into the fact due to
complexity of the process, lack of specialists on this sphere and
some technical problems.
“It is a fact that the CE has no concrete official stance on the issue
as it has no technical and material potential to find and analyze
these facts. The CE stated its stand on the basis of the judgment of
the reliable organizations as the OSCE.
The OSCE mission visited the arsons-scene in summer. But, the mission
concluded that the happenings are not arsons but natural fires.
Unfortunately, the CE can neither confirm nor reject the facts.
Simply, the CE relies on the facts found by the OSCE. The OSCE has
more potential to investigate the issue.”
URL:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HALO TRUST CONTINUES MINE CLEARANCE IN OCCUPIED AZERBAIJANI LANDS DESPITE OFFICIAL BAKU’S PROTEST
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug 5 2006
The Halo Trust Mine Clearance Organisation registered in Britain is
still functioning in Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani lands despite the
Azerbaijani government’s protest.
Nazim Ismayilov, director of the Azerbaijan National Agency of Mine
Action (ANAMA) told the APA exclusively.
“The Halo Trust continues illegal de-mining in the occupied Azerbaijani
lands. We protested against it to international organizations, donors
and the British government. I made remarks to the organization’s
president in an event in Switzerland not long ago.
They called their mine clearance humanitarian actions,” the ANAMA
director underlined.
Mr.Ismayilov also said the Halo Trust presents Azerbaijani province
of Nagorno Garabagh as an independent state. Great majority of its
de-mining teams working in Nagorno Garabagh are former militants
and reconnoiters.
“The Netherlands supports this organization’s illegal actions most
of all. They are involved in other illegal activities under the name
of humanitarian mission,” Ismayilov underlined.
The ANAMA director stressed there is a mine-risk in the 60mn sq.
meters of area administered by the Azerbaijani government.
“We are planning to clear these areas by the end of 2008. The results
of the monitoring of international organizations, Halo Trust show
that there is mine problem in 4 percent or some 500mn sq. meters of
area in the occupied territories,” he said.
According to the ANAMA’s prediction there exist 50-100 thousand
mines in the occupied Azerbaijani lands which can take 12 years
to clear.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BILL TO HELP ARMENIAN HEIRS REGAIN BANK ASSETS
By E.J. Schultz — Bee Capitol Bureau
Sacramento Bee, USA
Aug 5 2006
Governor to decide on longer filing time for genocide lawsuits.
Lawyers seeking to recover millions of dollars in bank deposits
for Armenian genocide victims got some help last week from state
legislators.
A class-action lawsuit filed against two German banks seeks the
return of cash, bonds, gold jewelry and other assets that lawyers
believe are owed to an estimated 2,000 heirs of genocide victims,
including some possibly living in the San Joaquin Valley, home of
thousands of Armenian Americans.
Senate Bill 1524 by Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno, and Sen. Jackie
Speier, D-Hillsborough — both of Armenian descent — would extend
the statute of limitations for such claims until 2016.
The bill passed the Legislature last week and is on its way to
the governor’s desk. Gov. Schwarzenegger supports it, according to
his office.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this year on behalf of several Armenians
living in Southern California. Lawyers have argued that the plaintiffs
are free to sue under current law, but attorneys for the defendants
have replied that the statute of limitations prohibits the action,
said Vartkes Yeghiayan, a Los Angeles-area attorney representing
the Armenians.
If the bill were to become law, it “would certainly fortify our
position,” Yeghiayan said.
Representatives of Deutsche Bank A.G. and Dresdner Bank A.G., the
two banks sued, could not be reached for comment.
The bill has already cleared the Legislature once this year. But it
was tied to another bill that would have allowed Mexican American
victims of a 1930s deportation campaign to seek damages for being
forcibly sent back to Mexico. The repatriation was sometimes violent,
as immigrants were taken across the border on trucks, buses and trains,
according to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund,
which backed the bill.
Schwarzenegger recently vetoed the Mexican deportation bill, arguing
that it would have allowed “private litigation of potentially thousands
of claims against the state, local governments and private citizens.”
The governor did not act on the Armenian bill, allowing lawmakers to
pull it back and remove the hook to the Mexican bill. Sen. Joe Dunn,
D-Santa Ana, who led the effort to link the two bills, criticized
Republicans for supporting the Armenian bill but rejecting the
Mexican legislation.
“I have been consistently concerned about the hypocrisy that has shown
up on the Senate floor from my Republican colleagues on these two
bills,” said Dunn, who supports the Armenian bill. “The unfortunate
continuing injustice here is that the handful of surviving victims of
the illegal deportation of the 1930s still do not have an opportunity
for their day in court.”
Poochigian said the bills never should have been linked because
“they are completely different issues.” The Armenian bill, he said,
deals with breaches of contract by private entities, rather than
claims against the state of California.
The Armenian genocide refers to the period between 1915 and 1923, when
Armenians were driven from their homeland in the Ottoman Empire by
means of torture, starvation and murder. The Armenian community says
that 1.5 million people died. Turkey, to this day, doesn’t recognize
the killings as genocide.
The effort to recover bank deposits comes on the heels of a successful
drive to secure millions of dollars in unpaid insurance claims owed to
genocide victims. New York Life Insurance Co. and heirs of about 2,400
policyholders agreed on a $20 million settlement in 2004, followed
by a $17 million settlement between French life insurance company AXA
and about 5,000 people and charities, according to published reports.
The deals were made possible as a result of Poochigian-authored
legislation that extended the statute of limitations for insurance
claims until 2010. The current bill allows genocide victims or heirs
living in the state to go beyond insurance policies and seek bank
deposit claims until 2016.
“It rights a terrible wrong dating back to the beginning of the last
century,” Speier said.
There are no firm estimates on how much money and assets could be
recovered, but “all indications are it’s enormous,” said lead attorney
Mark Geragos.
Geragos — an Armenian American whose family name is Geragosian —
has emotional ties to the case. His grandparents fled the genocide and
settled in Fresno, where they ran a grocery store on Belmont Street,
he said.
The Los Angeles attorney has handled a number of high-profile cases
and his client list has included the likes of Michael Jackson, Scott
Petersen and, most recently, Barry Bonds’ trainer.
But the Armenian case, Geragos said, has the “greatest personal
significance of any of the cases I’ve ever been associated with.”
At a glance ~U A class-action lawsuit filed against two German banks
seeks the return of assets that lawyers believe are owed to heirs of
Armenian genocide victims.
~U Senate Bill 1524 would extend the statute of limitations for such
claims until 2016.
~U The bill passed the Legislature last week and is on its way to
the governor’s desk.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BAKU: ARMENIA OF DISTORTING ESSENCE OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
September 5, 2006 Tuesday 2:16 PM MSK
Novruz Mamedov, foreign policy advisor of the Azerbaijani
president, has accused Vardan Oskanian, Armenian foreign minister,
of intentionally distorting the essence of the talks on settling the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
He told Interfax that Oskanian’s latest announcement that there is
a concrete document on the negotiating table based on the right to
self- determination of the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh
“is untrue and constitutes another provocation of the Armenian side.”
“What document can he be talking about, if the talks are not producing
any results? Evidently this is a specific feature of Armenian leaders
to refer to nonexistent documents and announce false information in
an attempt to mislead the public,” Mamedov said.
“The continuing process of Karabakh settlement does provide for the
self-determination of the population in Nagorno Karabakh, that is both
the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities and only in the framework
of Azerbaijan. However, for some reason Armenian leaders constantly
omit this circumstance,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Russia to play the Netherlands in the women´s quarter-finals
By Wolfgang Philipps
Waterpolo-World.com
09/04/2006
Despite two one-goal-decisions in today´s matches of the 2006 European
Women´s Championships in Belgrade, Serbia the medal round matches
will be as expected at the beginning of the day. Hungary and Italy
ensured the first places in the Preliminary Round matches and will
advance to the semi-finals to be held on Thursday directly. In the
cross-over games of the quarter-finals Spain is facing Greece, while
Russia is playing the Netherlands. Germany is facing home team Serbia
in the match for the seventh place.
FOTO: (Wolfgang Philipps) The Dutch (here Biurakn Hakhverdian) will
face Russia in the medal round.
European Women´s Championships in Belgrade, Serbia
Schedule day 4
Wednesday, 6 September 2006
15:00 Serbia vs. Germany ­ game for seventh place
16:30 Spain vs. Greece ­ quarter-final 1
18:00 Netherlands vs. Russia – quarter-final 2
–Boundary_(ID_iXFO+Pnjqd7U2MVXDSs9Lg)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EUROPEAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE HEAD ARRIVING IN ARMENIA SEPTEMBER 7
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.09.2006 16:57 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Newly appointed President of the European
Olympic Committee (EOC) Patrick Hickey will visit Armenia September
7-9. According to Liaison Officer of the Information Department of the
National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Armenia, USSR master of sports on
gymnastics Natella Ovsapyan, the EOC President is invited to arrive
in Yerevan by Chair of the NOC of Armenia Gagik Tsarukyan. Hickey
is scheduled to meet with President Robert Kocharian, as well as NOC
leaders, members of the Executive Committee, chairs of various sport
federations, well-known representatives of the Armenian sport world.
“The visit aims at familiarization with the Olympic movement of Armenia
and the tasks of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Armenia,”
she underscored.
“This is the first official visit of Patrick Hickey as the EOC
President,” N. Ovsapyan said, adding that he is member of the
International Olympic Committee and Chair of the Olympic Committee
of Ireland, reports Novosti-Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress