Author: Emil Lazarian

ANKARA CONDUCTS UNOFFICIAL DIPLOMACY WITH YEREVAN
By Suleyman Kurt, Ankara
Zaman Online, Turkey
Aug. 31, 2006
Talks between Ankara and Yerevan, which began last April when Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a ‘historic letter’ to
Armenian President Robert Kocharian, continue.
The Armenian side sent an unofficial document to Ankara last
month reiterating its proposals. While Ankara is examining the
document, diplomatic sources speaking to Zaman said that the Yerevan
administration restated its position in its unofficial response.
The Armenian administration does not agree with Turkey regarding
the establishment of an independent committee of historians to
investigate the so-called genocide allegations. “We should first
establish diplomatic relations,” they said.
Armenian and Turkish diplomats met in Vienna three times last year
following the correspondence between Prime Minister Erdogan and
Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
According to Ankara, no progress has yet been made in the talks. In
order for the start of diplomatic relations, “a document should be
signed by both parties concluding that some problems between the two
countries, including the border dispute, have been resolved”.
However, the parties failed to reach such an agreement in any of
the meetings in Vienna. In the letter that Erdogan sent to Kocharian
before April 24 last year, he said “A group of historians and experts
should investigate the incidents that happened in 1915.” Kocharian
replied by saying, “We should first establish diplomatic relations.
Then, an inter-governmental commission can discuss the events.”
Ankara did not send a response to this letter at that time.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PUTIN WISHES HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KOCHARYAN
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Aug. 31, 2006
YEREVAN, August 31. /Novosti-Armenia/. President of the Russian
Federation Vladimir Putin congratulated President of Armenia Robert
Kocharyan on his birthday. Today Kocharyan is 52 years of age.
“It is gratifying that many-sided Russian-Armenian cooperation
progressively develops, based on traditional filling of mutual respect
and friendship, liaising our people.We highly appreciate your personal
contribution to strengthening of allied strategic partnership between
Russia and Armenia”, the congratulation says.
Putin also expressed gratefulness to Kocharyan for his efforts “aimed
at further deepening of mutually beneficial relations both in bilateral
format and within the scope of the Commonwealth of Independent States,
Collective Security Treaty Organization.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEXT COURT HEARING ON AZERBAIJANI ARMY OFFICER RAMIL SAFAROV TO START IN HUNGARY
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug. 31, 2006
On September 1 and 5 this year, Hungarian court will hold court
hearings on prison officers’ claim against Ramil Safarov, Azerbaijani
army officer, who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering
Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Markarian in Hungary.
Officer of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Hungary Parviz Guluzadeh told
the APA the embassy officers will also attend the trial.
While being held in Hungarian prison in 2004, jailers wanted telephone
card from Ramil. But Ramil could not understand Hungarian which led
an incident between them. Eight police officers tied his hands and
used force. Though lawyers for the Azerbaijani lieutenant appealed to
court related to this matter, the court dismissed the appeal saying
there was no evidence. Then the opposite side claimed that Ramil
resisted officials.
Clara Fisher, new Hungarian lawyer for Ramil defends him on this case.
Another Hungarian lawyer Koch Machar will defend Ramil in the trial
in the Court of Appeal.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GUKASYAN: “THE RE-START OF HOSTILITIES IN NAGORNO KARABAKH IS NOT RULED OUT”
Today, Azerbaijan
Aug. 31, 2006
“I do not rule out the re-start of hostilities in Nagorno Garabagh.
But I think Azerbaijan will not take this step which might lead to
its annihilation,” said Arkadi Gukasyan, head of the separatist regime
functioning in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
The separatist leader said Karabakh people have got used to Baku
threats, APA reports.
“They want to threaten us by the increases in their defense expenditure
by the account of oil revenues. However, this policy will not turn
out efficient,” Gukasyan said.
The separatist leader stressed that if Azerbaijan starts war, the
consequences will be sad for it. However, he does not think military
way is the real solution of the problem.
“Power states do not want unstable situation in the region because
of the oil projects on which they spent great amount of funds. The
Azerbaijani people do not want war either. I think it is abnormal to
think of a new war. The experience showed that the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict cannot be solved by military way,” he underlined.
URL:

ARMENIAN ARTURS LINKED TO NARCOTICS AND CRIME ACROSS BORDERS
Standard, Kenya
Aug. 31, 2006
Those familiar with the Kiruki report say the commission raised the
possibility that the Artur brothers were dealing in narcotics.
They said the conclusion was that they were trans-national criminals
who took advantage of the weakness in the country’s administrative
systems.
Other findings were that their unauthorised actions were permitted and
facilitated by official reluctance or inability to require compliance
with the law.
The commission was reportedly satisfied that Mr Arthur Margaryan was
an impostor travelling on a fake passport.
Illegal business
Those acquainted with the report said the document, which is about
100 pages, alleges that Mr Artur Sargarsyan was an Armenian national
who relocated to the United Arab Emirates.
The sources said the commission established that Sargarsyan was out
to set up an outlet in Kenya for his illegal business.
The sources say the commission failed to authoritatively identity the
Armenians. The identification was not ascertained because documents
found on them were forgeries.
During the inquiry, it was proved that a photograph on Artur
Margaryan’s Kenyan passport, bearing the name Sarkissyan Artak,
was different from the name on his airport pass, Artur N N, and also
different from the one on the forged police certificate of appointment,
where he is called A M Joennes.
No bank accounts
His fake brother, Sargarsyan, held a Kenyan passport with the name
Sarkissyan Arman, and went by the name Arman Sarkissyan on the
airport pass.
His original Armenian passport belonged to Artur Sargarsyan, but
he also had another passport with similar numbers under the name
Arthur Gervorkyan.
The commission was said to have also found it difficult to establish
the nature of the Arturs business, but was satisfied that they were
engaged in illegal activities.
The Kiruki team was said to have been concerned that the Arturs
operated no bank accounts, their companies had no known offices,
their PIN numbers were forgeries and the names on their passports
were different from those on their registered companies.
The report was said to have established that two Tanzanians, Mr
Nobert Ntwenya and Mr Lucas Makena, were escorted into Tanzania and
not deported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN FMS MAY MEET IN SEPTEMBER IN PARIS OR LONDON – AZERI FM
Author: A.Ismaylova
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Aug. 31, 2006
The information about the meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign
ministers in Slovenia doesn’t correspond to reality, Azerbaijani
foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov told ion August 31, Trend reports.
It was a meeting related to the program “European good neighbourliness
policy” and the meeting was attended noy only by the foreign minister
of the two countries, Mammadyarov underlined.
Speaking about the upcoming meeting with Armenian foreign minister
Vardan Oskanyan, Mammadyarov stressed that today he held a relevant
telephone conversation with the French co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group
Bernar Fase. “He offered to hold the meeting on September 12-13 in
Paris or September 14-15 in London. I expressed my consent to this
meeting. At the moment, their format is being discussed. Ant several
days later, we will contact them and specify the date and place of
the meeting,” Mammadyarov underlined.
Speaking about the reports of the personal representative of OSCE
chairman Andzey Kasprzyk on the fires in Azerbaijan’s occupied
territories, the minister stressed that this document once again
confirms that the fact of fires exit and the separatists cannot afford
to extinguish them.
“OSCE offers that the international organizations are engaged in
extinguishing the fires. It doesn’t satisfy us. I wrote letters to
then international organizations and offered to make joint efforts
to prevent them and rehabilitate the land,” the minister emphasized.
The arrival of the international experts in the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh is being discussed in level of co-chairs and chairman
of OSCE and UNO.
“These fires are very big damage and we are ready to co-operate with
Armenian sides to prevent them,” Mammadyarov stressed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LEBANESE ARMENIANS OPPOSE TURKISH TROOPS IN UN FORCE
Agence France Presse — English
August 31, 2006 Thursday 6:58 PM GMT
Several hundred Lebanese Armenians protested Thursday outside the
United Nations headquarters against the planned participation by
Turkish troops in a UN peacekeeping force.
They urged UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in a letter to “hear the
voice of Armenians who are an active force in Lebanon” and bar the
soldiers from joining the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
(UNIFIL).
On Monday, Turkish authorities said they would contribute to a
reinforced UNIFIL mission aimed at underpinning a truce in south
Lebanon between Israeli forces and Shiite Hezbollah guerrillas.
The Armenians waved banners which read: “Turkish atrocities in Lebanon
disqualify them for peacekeeping missions.”
The slogans referred to the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman
empire in 1915-1917 and the concurrent Ottoman occupation of Lebanon.
Lebanon hosts the largest community of Armenians in the Arab world.
They form a political force and are actively engaged in a campaign
for international recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Rally organisers also distributed an open letter to the Turkish
government.
“Countries that contribute to the peacekeeping force must be neutral,
this is not the case of Turkey which has signed a security and military
cooperation accord with Israel,” it read.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERI ARMY CAN FREE OCCUPIED LANDS – DEFENSE MINISTER
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
August 31, 2006 Thursday 2:26 PM MSK
The Azeri army is strong and can cope with any tasks facing it, Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev said answering a question about the chances of
Turkey giving assistance should hostilities with Armenia resume.
“If a war [with Armenia] breaks out, the Azeri army won’t need the
assistance of the Turkish Armed Forces,” he said.
Azerbaijan is building up its capacities in procuring the necessary
arms and hardware for its army, he said.
“Azerbaijan will continue to boost its might for as long as Azeri
lands remain occupied,” Abiyev said.
Azeri media reports that EU Commissioner for External Relations
Benita Ferrero-Waldner sharply criticized Georgia and Azerbaijan for
growing defense spending at an international conference in Slovenia
last week. She said that spiraling defense spending in a region
requiring higher spending on education, health and small business is
poor policy- making.
Baku lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts
during in an armed conflict with Armenia in the early 1990s.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SPOKESMAN OF ARMENIAN PRESIDENT REFUTES RUMORS ABOUT CONFLICT BETWEEN PRESIDENT AND DEFENSE MINISTER
Yerevan, August 30. ArmInfo. The spokesman of Armenian President
Robert Kocharyan Viktor Soghomonyan refutes the rumors about conflict
between Kocharyan and Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan.
He says that there is no conflict between the Republican Party and
Prospering Armenia party. There are some contradictions between them
but this is normal as otherwise they would be one party.
Soghomonyan refutes the reports that during their last meeting in
Sochi Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kocharyan discussed the
candidacy of Serzh Sargsyan as future president of Armenia.

ARMENIAN LEADER REMAINS LOYAL TO COALITION AGREEMENTS – SPOKESMAN
Mediamax news agency
30 Aug 06
Yerevan, 30 August: Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is against a
complete switch to the proportional representation system (election
on the party list), the Armenian president’s press secretary, Viktor
Sogomonyan, said in Yerevan today.
Addressing a briefing in Yerevan, Sogomonyan said that the
president remains loyal to his agreements with the ruling
coalition. Under them, 90 parliamentarians will be elected under the
proportional representation list and the remaining 41MPs under the
first-past-the-post system, Mediamax reports.
“The Armenian president considers that it is wrong for parliamentarians
to lose “direct contact” with their voters which will inevitably happen
after a complete switch to the proportional representation system,”
Sogomonyan said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress