Author: Emil Lazarian

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
July 7 2006

Fire Fight Over Karabakh

Armenians and Azerbaijanis accuse each other of deliberately starting
blazes on disputed land, while others blame the heat of a dry summer.

By Rufat Abbasov in Baku, Karine Ohanian in Stepanakert and Karine
Asatrian in Strasbourg (CRS No. 347, 6-July-06)

A series of wildfires raging on lands around Nagorny Karabakh have
sparked a new war of words in the unresolved territorial dispute
between Azerbaijanis and Armenians.

The Azerbaijani authorities accused the Armenians of deliberately
starting fires in areas to the east of Karabakh which, although they
are not part of the disputed territory itself, have been under the
de facto control of Armenian forces since the ceasefire of 1994.

No one lives in these territories, but the lands are cultivated by
Armenian farmers from Karabakh.

Azerbaijan’s environment ministry says more than 132 square kilometres
of land has been burned, causing damage estimated at around five
million US dollars. Azerbaijani environmentalists have named six
villages in the Aghdam region east of Karabakh which they say have
been razed to the ground.

The Armenian authorities in Karabakh have rejected these charges,
saying that the fires have either occurred naturally as a result of
drought conditions, or have been started by negligent local people –
or caused by gunfire from the Azerbaijani side of the ceasefire line.

Igbal Agazade, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament who visited
the ceasefire line that divides the two sides, said the fires were
"nothing other than mass arson".

He told IWPR, "This is not a whim of nature, but a continuation of
the Armenians’ policy of destroying all evidence that Karabakh is
indigenous Azerbaijani land. If that wasn’t the case, the fires would
also be happening on lands controlled by the Azerbaijanis where the
climatic conditions are identical.

"The Armenians are doing this deliberately to destroy our graveyards
and historical monuments. The historic Nargiz-Tepe monument, which
is more than 2,000 years old, has already been wiped off the face of
the earth. This is ecological terrorism."

These allegations are denied by the authorities in Nagorny Karabakh,
a republic that is unrecognised by the international community.

"At this time of year, fires in the wheatfields are nothing out of
the ordinary for Nagorny Karabakh, and they occur for very different
reasons," Vahram Baghdasarian, Karabakh’s agriculture minister,
told IWPR. "But this year, the number and extent of the fires in the
wheatfields in zones bordering Azerbaijan has increased somewhat as
a consequence of shooting from the Azerbaijani side, using tracer
bullets which can start a fire instantly."

David Mikaelian, press spokesman for the government in Stepanakert
(which the Azerbaijanis call Khankendi), added, "In this season when
the temperature rises to 40 degrees and more, it is natural that
there are fires in the fields – it does not mean they were started
deliberately. But we do have information that Azerbaijani soldiers
are responsible for arson in these areas."

Mikaelian said the local fire service had been deployed to extinguish
the fires. The emergency services department in Stepanakert said that
it had recorded 128 fires this season, and that the fire service had
been sent out to deal with all of them. Spokesman Armen Narimanian
said more than 1,000 hectares of uncultivated land and 165 hectares
of harvested land had been burned.

Masis Mailian, deputy foreign minister of the unrecognised republic,
told IWPR that it had been hard for the fire services to put out the
blazes because shots fired by the Azerbaijanis created fears for the
safety of the firemen.

The Karabakh authorities released a statement on July 3, saying that
Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, who has acted as the main international
monitor of the ceasefire line for the last nine years, in his capacity
as representative of the chairman of the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, had just conducted a monitoring mission in
the Aghdam area and had seen no evidence that population centres had
been burned – as alleged by the Azerbaijanis – but had seen traces
of a fire that began on the Azerbaijani side of the ceasefire line.

In complete contradiction to this, an Azerbaijani defence ministry
spokesman said the OSCE ambassador had "literally with his own eyes"
witnessed proof of deliberate arson by the Armenians.

Ambassador Kasprzyk could not be contacted by IWPR for clarification.

Matthew Bryza, United States deputy assistant Secretary of State
and chief negotiator on the Karabakh conflict, told the day.az news
agency in Azerbaijan that he was "worried" by the reports and had seen
satellite photographs on which "the boundaries of the fires… are
so distinct that it looks as though someone had thought in advance
how to start them and how far the fires should spread".

Bryza said he was reserving judgement until Ambassador Kasprzyk made
his report.

On June 27, the Azerbaijani delegation at the Council of Europe
in Strasbourg issued a statement accusing the Armenians of "mass
arson on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as a result of which
thousands of hectares of territory were destroyed, doing great damage
to the environment. The flames also spread onto territory under the
control of Azerbaijan. Fauna, buildings and cultural monuments on
these territories were completely destroyed".

In response, Heghine Naghdalian, a delegate from Armenia, said,
"The Azerbaijanis don’t understand that fires do not recognise
administrative boundaries.

"The Azerbaijanis speak about deliberate fires in the territories
adjoining Nagorny Karabakh without understanding that the Karabakhis
cannot set fire to those fields and woods which they use for their
own needs."

Naghdalian claimed the matter was being raised to distract attention
from an issue that Armenia has raised at the Council of Europe –
the alleged destruction of the medieval Armenian cemetery of Djugha
in Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani parliamentary deputy Malahat Hasanova gave another version
of events to IWPR, saying that the Armenians were carrying out a
"scorched earth policy" as they understood that they would soon be
abandoning these territories and wanted to leave behind dead and
burned lands.

However, not everyone is inclined to see a political subtext to the
fires. Many farmers questioned by IWPR said fires were a perennial
problem in the region.

"One carelessly-dropped cigarette, and a fire starts immediately," said
Larisa Danielian who lives in the village of Shahbulakh in Karabakh.

Leonid Soghomonian, who lives in the village of Berdashen in the
Martuni district, reported "the burning of a large amount of weeds
standing more than two metres high weeds on the border, which block
visibility between Karabakhi and Azerbaijani soldiers".

Soghomonian said that the weeds were burned by soldiers on both sides
to give them a better view of their adversaries, and that many such
fires had been started over the past few years.

"But when a fire like this starts up, it’s impossible to stop it –
the grass is very dry, and it spreads very quickly. And as our crops
are directly next to the border, many of the owners of cultivated
land have suffered badly from the fires and lost 10 or 15 hectares
of their harvest."

Rufat Abbasov is a journalist and IWPR contributor in Baku. Karine
Ohanian is a freelance journalist working in Nagorny Karabakh. Karine
Asatrian is a correspondent for A1+ television.

Today, Azerbaijan
July 7 2006

Sabina Freizer: "The MG statement means in practice that there is no
longer any internationally facilited negotiations format for the
resolution of the NK conflict"

07 July 2006 [02:02] – Today.Az

"In the statement of OSCE Minsk Group in reality it is meant that
there is not any more international level talks format for settlement
of Nagorno Garabagh conflict," said Sabina Freizer, Director of the
Caucasus project of the International Crisis Group (ICG).

"ICG has prepared two reports last year in connection with the NK
problem and gave many recommendations.

The first is "Nagorno Karabakh: Viewing the Conflict from the Ground
aimed to describe the current situation in NK and the districts
around it, and how IDPs from occupied lands are living in
Azerbaijan".

The second report is "Nagorno Karabakh: A Plan for Peace focussed on
the negotiations process". This report also included a long list of
recommendations to the Azerbaijani and Armenian governments, to the
de facto NK authorities, and to international organizations,"
Director of the Caucasus project of the International Crisis Group
(ICG) Sabina Freizer has told APA in her exclusive interview.

According to her, the peace plan that they recommended in their
second report was very close to what was on the table in the OSCE
Minsk-Group facilitated talks: "As we can see from the statement made
by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs at the OSCE Permanent Council in
Vienna on 22 June, 2006, which describes the principles that were
under discussion."

Stating the current situation with reagard to the conflict more
critic, Sabina Freizer said that Azerbaijan and Armenia was more
close to peace in the summer of 2005 than today: "Today I assess the
situation as being very critical. I believe that the Azerbaijani and
Armenian sides were much closer to an agreement in summer 2005 than
they are today. There was much optimism until the Rambouillet meeting
that there would be a peace agreement this year, that Armenian backed
troops would begin withdrawal, and Azerbaijani IDPs would begin to
return home during the second half of 2006 or in early 2007. This
optimism has disappeared. Instead the co-chairs have stated that they
are going to suspend their work."

Stating an attitude to the opinion of co-chairs’ that
responcibility for the settlement of the conflict lays on
Presidents Sabina Freizer stated that the most important text to
consider is the statement made by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs at
the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on 22 June, 2006: "This
statement provides a coherent and unified approach to the resolution
of the conflict. It is perhaps the most open and critical statement
the OSCE Minsk Group has ever made. It is also the first time since
the start of the Minsk Group facilitated negotiations in 1994 that
the co-chairs have said that they see no point in continuing their
work. I am very surprised that few in Azerbaijan or in Armenia are
commenting on this point. The Minsk Group statement means in practice
that there is no longer any internationally facilited negotiations
format for the resolution of the NK conflict.

What does this mean? Will the two sides manage to negotiate on their
own without any third party mediation? Will another mediator appear?
If the United States, Russia and France are giving up, what other
international forces have the influence and authority to play a
negotiator role? I don’t believe that any new mediators will appear.
Rather we are entering a very dangerous phase where there will be no
peaceful negotiations between the sides. Again since 1994 this is the
first time that we are in such a situation."

According to Sabina Freizer, during the past week the Ministries of
Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and Armenia have issued highly critical
statements to each other: "I think that these clearly show the points
of disagreement in the negotiations process. The Armenian side is
insisting that the principles included a reference to the Lachin
corridor, and to the right to self determination of the people of NK
of their own status through a referendum. The Azerbaijani side is
stating that the principles included liberalisation of the occupied
territories, demilitarization of the conflict zone, and the return of
all Azerbaijani IDPs. Yet these are precisely the points that the two
sides continue to disagree on — and why they were unable to sign a
set of principles in Rambouillet and Bucharest.

The modalities of withdrawal from Lachin and Kelbajar and the
modalities of a popular vote on the status of NK were not agreed upon
by the sides. This is why the co-chairs recommended that they be
addressed later — in seperate working groups. But in the meantime
they suggested that a peacebuilding process start with the withdrawal
of Armenia backed troops of five districts — to be followed by
withdrawal from the other two — and return of IDPs to their homes."

Calling this tragic eelement Sabina Freizer stated that in 2006 there
was a chance for withdrawal to begin and return to start. All issues
might not be resolved but a peace process would begin. Now there is
no peace process. There is not even a negotiations process. Instead
the Azerbaijani side is increasingly refering to the military option.
If Azerbaijan decides to take offensive action against NK and
Armenia, how many more years will it be before this conflict is
resolved? How many more displaced persons and casualties will there
be? How definite is it that Azerbaijan will get a better deal using
the military option than what is on the table today?

The issue of the referendum on the status of Nagorno Karabakh is
clearly one of the most sensitive points in the package that was
being discussed. As the co-chairs state: for a withdrawal of Armenian
backed forces from the occupied territories to begin, the sides would
have to agree on the principle that a referendum will determine final
status. But the precise modalities of this referendum would be
discussed in further negotiations. Thus the key issue of debate
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani side of who would participate in
the referendum, where and when it would be held, would be decided
upon later. The co-chairs add that the referendum could only occur
"after suitable pre-conditions for such a vote have been achieved"
which I consider to mean, after the return of displaced Azerbaijanis
to NK. The international community is unlikely to use any other
pressure mechanisms to encourage Armenia to withdraw from the
occupied territories.

URL:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian memorial on Greenway gets go-ahead
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | July 7, 2006

Boston Globe, MA
July 7 2006

Despite opposition from Mayor Thomas M. Menino and community leaders,
the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is paving the way for an Armenian
genocide memorial park on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

At its meeting late last week, the Turnpike board authorized chairman
Matthew J. Amorello to negotiate with a nonprofit group from the
Massachusetts Armenian community to place its proposed park, sculpture,
fountain, and inscriptions on land near Christopher Columbus Park.

But the 4-0 vote came only after one member of the board insisted the
motion be amended to require that any agreement come back before the
board again later.

A fifth board member, Thomas Trimarco, recently appointed by Governor
Mitt Romney, abstained.

Most proponents for Greenway locations — like a YMCA facility in the
North End or a history museum nearby — went through months or years
of public review and comment, but the Armenian park hasn’t undergone
the same process.

Boston Memorials
A look at other notable memorials in and around the Hub.

The Turnpike Authority has promoted the $4 million project at the
request of the Legislature, but even the Mayor’s Central Artery
Completion Task Force — an advisory group that has guided design of
the Greenway — has yet to be briefed on the proposal.

The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, a private nonprofit
group set up to fund and oversee the Greenway, has supported a
moratorium of at least five years on proposals for memorials on the
corridor of parks that is being created atop the old Central Artery.

"We don’t have any memorials or monuments or statues in the North End
or Chinatown," said Nancy Caruso, a North End activist and member of
the mayor’s task force who opposes locating the Armenian memorial on
the Greenway.

Although the Armenian park has been praised for its innovative design,
Menino and others have worried that the Greenway could become a magnet
for ethnic-related memorials. He said he would work with the group
to find another location.

Meanwhile, a legislative proposal that died in committee last week
would have considerably increased the voice that the conservancy’s
10-member board has over changes and additions to the Greenway once
it is finished.

The proposal, in an amendment to the budget submitted by Senator
Dianne Wilkerson, a Boston Democrat, was vigorously opposed by
community activists and neighbors of the Greenway.

"We felt that it was not appropriate to give a private nonprofit
organization a veto of future uses along the Greenway," said Rob
Tuchmann, a lawyer at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and
cochairman of the mayor’s task force . "We were very concerned the
public would have the opportunity to review and consider any changes."

The Turnpike Authority, as manager of the Big Dig, now effectively has
control over what goes where on the Greenway. The authority is supposed
to make decisions in collaboration with community groups and the city.

Conservancy board chairman Peter Meade said this week that the
legislation was not intended to give the conservancy veto power over
what is put on the Greenway.

"I didn’t think it was a lot of power," he said. "The intent was to
give us a seat at the table along with many other people."

Several objections have been raised concerning the way the conservancy
operates as it begins to exercise control over public space on the
Greenway — including disclosure of the conservancy’s sources of
money .

"I believe you are a government agency, bound by open-meeting and
public-records laws," Shirley Kressel, a community activist, told
conservancy officials at a recent Task Force meeting.

Nancy Brennan, executive director of the conservancy, said the board
is trying to be "as transparent as possible," but, "It’s an unfortunate
consequence of fund-raising that donors want their privacy."

The issue of public accountability has also come up repeatedly.
"It’s a secret society," said Chris Fincham, a resident of Harbor
Towers. "I’ve always worried about how it was set up."

Said Meade: "People worry about others’ using the conservancy for
their own ends, and that’s a healthy fear. We’ll figure all that out."

Herald Sun (Australia)
July 6, 2006 Thursday
SECOND Edition

Bomber lives among us now
by Mark Buttler and Anthony Dowsley

A MAN convicted of a terrorist bombing in Melbourne 20 years ago can
never be deported for his crime.

Levon Demirian was a key figure in the 1986 bombing of the Turkish
consulate in South Yarra, in which his accomplice died.

Demirian’s Australian citizenship allowed him to avoid banishment to
his native Lebanon when his prison sentence ended. He is living in
Sydney.

Leaders of Australia’s Turkish community have voiced disgust that
Demirian, who was jailed in 1986, was not sent home.

His accomplice, Hapog Levonian, died when 6kg of explosives detonated
in a car park beneath the consulate building in Toorak Rd, South
Yarra.

Police believe many more would have died if the bomb, detonated at
night, had gone off during the day, as intended.

The consulate bombing was not the first time Demirian had come to the
attention of investigators.

In 1980 he was questioned over the assassination of Turkish
consul-general Sarik Artyak and his bodyguard in Sydney. They died in
a hail of machinegun bullets fired by the pillion passenger of a
motorcycle.

Demirian, 54, was originally sentenced to a minimum of 25 years’ jail
for Levonian’s murder, but that was later quashed.

The appeal court found a conspiracy charge proved and reduced his
sentence to 10 years after pointing out that Demirian, who migrated
to Australia in the 1970s, could be deported upon release.

The appeal judges said the crime’s seriousness was compounded by
Demirian’s abuse of the sanctuary offered him by Australia.

At one time, Demirian was rated the highest security risk in the
prison system.

Levonian and Demirian were allegedly motivated by the genocide of
Armenians in 1915.

Interviewed in Sydney, Demirian said the bombing was a long time ago
and he wanted it left in the past.

Denouncing terrorism, he said: "Something happened that I was
convicted of and I’m forgetting about it. I don’t want to bring that
up again."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan and Armenia Were Closer to Peace In Summer 2005

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.07.2006 13:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Last year the International Crisis Group organized
two reports on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The first report titled
"Nagorno Karabakh.

New glance at conflict" tells about the current situation in Nagorno
Karabakh and surrounding territories as well as the living conditions
of forced migrants living in Azerbaijan. The second one titled "Nagorno
Karabakh. A plan for peace" is mostly dedicated to the negotiation
process. It contains some recommendations to the governments of
Armenia, Azerbaijan, de facto NKR government and international
organizations," ICG Caucasus project director Sabine Freizer stated.

In her words, the plan of peaceful settlement stated in the second
report was close to the contents of the plan negotiated with the
mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group. "As it can be seen from the
statement made by the Co-chairs on June 22 in Vienna at the sitting
of the OSCE Permanent Council it maintains the principles being
negotiated," Freizer said.

Rating the situation as critical, Ms. Freizer said that in summer 2005
Azerbaijan and Armenia were much closer for achieving peace in the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict. "Before the Rambouillet meeting there was a
bigger hope for peace, start of withdrawal of the Armenian forces from
the seized territories and return of the Azeri displaced persons to
their homes in mid 2006 or early 2007. Now this hope is vague while
the mediators announced of their intention to stop activities for
some period," she said, reported Azeri-Press.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AUTHORITIES IN SYUNIK SAY DROUGHT CAUSES 4 BILLION DAMAGES

Armenpress

KAPAN, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS: Authorities in Armenian provinces
claim multi-billion damages (in Armenian drams) sustained to their
agricultures by a long string of very hot and dry days in late June
and early July.

Thus authorities in the southern province of Syunik have calculated
that the volume of damages in their province is over 4 billion
Armenian Drams. They say wheat was destroyed on 22,000 hectares out
of 27,000 hectares of land under that crop. The most affected areas
are in Sisian region where they say nearly 90 percent of wheat was
destroyed, in Goris region 60 percent of wheat and in Kapan and Meghri
almost half of it were destroyed.

Though the province saw several days of heavy rains but they could
hardly improve the situation concerning wheat planting, though they
are very good for vegetables. A team of experts from the agriculture
ministry will travel to the province to calculate the amount of
damages on the ground.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SECOND LARGEST DEPUTY GROUP LIKELY TO JOIN REPUBLICANS

Armenpress

YEREVAN, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS: The People’s Deputy group that has 17
non-partisan members and now is the second largest group of lawmakers
after the Republican party’s faction, said today it will join soon
one of the major political parties.

Karen Karapetian, the head of the People’s Deputy group, said it may be
the Republican party of prime minister Andranik Margarian. Speaking to
Armenpress, Karen Karapetian explained that the members of the group
want to be within the parliament majority after the 2007 elections,
but fear they are not able to attain it all alone.

Karapetian said they need to seek ideological commonalities with one
of the parties and contest the parliament seats on its ticket. He
said members of the group will discuss this issue in a hope to come
to a joint decision.

Karapetian then reaffirmed his decision to reject an offer to be
nominated for the post of deputy parliament speaker that remains vacant
after Tigran Torosian, who held it, was elected parliament chairman.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PM MEETS WITH AAA LEADERS

Arka News Agency, Armenia
July 7 2006

YEREVAN, July 7. /ARKA/. RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan held a
meeting with Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly of America
(AAA) Bryan Arduni and AAA Regional Director Arpi Vardanyan.

During the meeting Arduni informed the RA Prime Minister of the
AAA’s current activities aimed at the development of pro-Armenian
initiatives in the USA.

The sides also discussed issues of Armenian-American relations,
particularly the implementation of the "Millennium Challenges -Armenia"
program, as well as a number of regional programs. P.T.

-0–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Arka News Agency, Armenia
July 7 2006

AMBASSADOR OF BULGARIA IN ARMENIA POINTS OUT NECESSITY OF
STRENGTHENING AND DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN TWO
COUNTRIES

YEREVAN, July 7. /ARKA/. During a meeting with the RA Minister of
Culture and Youth Affairs Hasmik Poghosyan the Ambassador of Bulgaria
in Armenia Stefan Dimitrov pointed out necessity of strengthening
and developing spiritual relations between the two countries, the Ra
Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs reports.

In confirmation Dimitov presented Poghosyan the first copy of the
unique Armenian-Bulgarian and Bulgarian-Armenian practice dictionary
consisting of about 50 thsd words, as well as a supplement of
geographical names. The author of the dictionary is a Bulgarian
linguist of Armenian origin Margarita Terzyan.

In her turn Poghosyan emphasized that development of relationship
between Armenia and Bulgaria is predestined by the historically
developed friendship.

She said best manifestation of establishment of language relations
between the two nations may become, particularly translation of
"pearls of the Armenian literature" into Bulgarian and training of
translators of Armenian and Bulgarian languages.

Poghosyan emphasized that dialogue between cultures, as well as
between businessmen is preferable to be direct without mediators.

During the meeting sides pointed out preferable priorities of
the cultural cooperation between the two countries emphasizing
importance of maintaining cultural originality and individuality
during integration in common cultural processes. S.P.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia’s HyeFilm to restore archives with da Vinci technology

Broadcast Engineering Online Exclusive
July 7, 2006

The newly privatized Armenian film studio HyeFilm is using da
Vinci’s Resolve digital mastering suite and Revival color image
restoration systems for digitizing and restoring the country’s vast
film archives. Using original negatives stored for decades in the
Soviet state film library in Moscow, HyeFilm will repair, enhance
and preserve Armenian film archives dating back to 1924.

The Resolve and Revival systems at HyeFilm are connected to a
common storage area network (SAN), enabling users to access the same
materials without having multiple copies between systems. HyeFilm
will use Revival to restore films using its tools for removing
dirt, dust, scratches and flicker, while also providing image
stabilization. Once the restoration processes are complete, the film
files are instantly accessible by Resolve for final color grading and
image enhancement. The Resolve system will also provide the required
deliverables such as SD and HD video for television broadcast, as well
as scanner files for film output for cinema release or archive storage.

Revival is a complete motion picture image restoration system
designed to handle everything from heavy-duty restoration to digital
remastering. The system offers deFlicker, as well as the removal
of dust, stain, blotch, dirt, grain and noise removal. An automatic
mode analyzes and processes images, while Revival’s interactive mode
enables manual restoration of individual sequences, allowing operators
to achieve the highest quality result at optimized speed.

For more information, visit

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress