Author: Emil Lazarian

INTERNATIONAL MEDIATORS URGE ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN TO STRIKE DEAL ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH

AP Worldstream
May 24, 2006

International mediators Wednesday urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to
reach a compromise over the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

Envoys from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s
so-called Minsk Group of mediators, which include France, Russia and
the United States, held talks Wednesday with Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliev.

A statement said that the mediators, due to hold talks with Armenian
President Robert Kocharian on Thursday, had staged the diplomatic
mission “because of the need to promote a peaceful settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

The statement added that “now is the time for the sides to reach
agreement on the basic principles of a settlement.”

Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan, but populated mostly by ethnic
Armenians, who have run it since an uneasy 1994 cease-fire ended
six years of full-scale war in which 30,000 people were killed and
1 million made refugees.

Sporadic border clashes continue to claim victims, while peace talks
have stalled.

Aliev and Kocharian in February failed to reach agreement after
two days of talks in France on how to end the conflict. Since then,
violence has risen sharply, and the two countries’ presidents have
traded increasingly bellicose statements.

The lack of final resolution over the enclave’s status has long tied
up investment in the strategic, oil-rich Caucasus region.

REPRESENTATIVE MARKEY LEADS CONGRESSIONAL OPPOSITION TO WHITE HOUSE RECALL OF US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
25.05.2006 11:49

Over 60 Members of Congress, led by Representative Ed Markey, sent a
letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking for clarification
on reports of US Ambassador to Armenian John Evans’ recall over his
forthright remarks about the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America.

The letter was sent on the eve of a May 23rd White House announcement
nominating Richard Hoagland to serve as the new Ambassador to
Armenia. Ambassador Evans will be relieved of his duties as soon as
Hoagland’s Senate confirmation process is completed.

The Administration has recalled Ambassador Evans over his February 2005
statements at Armenian American community functions, during which he
properly characterized the Armenian Genocide as ‘genocide.’ Following
his statements, Ambassador Evans was apparently forced to issue a
statement clarifying that his references to the Armenian Genocide were
his personal views and did not represent a change in US policy. He
subsequently issued a correction to this statement, replacing a
reference to the genocide with the word “tragedy.” The American
Foreign Service Association, which had planned to honor Ambassador
Evans with the “Christian A. Herter Award,” recognizing creative
thinking and intellectual courage within the Foreign Service,
reportedly rescinded the award following pressure from the State
Department a few days before Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan traveled to Washington, DC to meet with President Bush.

“Ambassador Evans has been recalled for doing nothing more than
honoring the forsaken pledge of his president,” said ANCA Executive
Director Aram Hamparian. “We want to thank Congressman Markey and
his 59 colleagues for calling for a clarification and rejecting the
Armenian Genocide ‘gag-rule’ imposed by the Turkish government and,
sadly, enforced by our own State Department.”

The 60 Members of Congress expressed special concern about the
destructive precedent of recalling a US diplomat for speaking
truthfully on matters of historical record. They wrote that, “we must
not allow the perception to linger that he is being required to vacate
his position early for accurately labeling the cataclysmic events
of 1915 as genocide.” The Representatives, noting President Ronald
Reagan’s references to the Armenian Genocide, reminded Secretary Rice
that Ambassador Evans “did nothing more than succinctly repeat the
conclusions enunciated by those before him.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

22 FREIGHT CARS WITH MILITARY EQUIPMENT HEADING FOR ARMENIA

Lragir.am
25 May 06

Last night a train loaded with Russian military equipment set out from
Batumi for Gyumri. The Georgian Ministry of Defense reported to Trend
that the train consists of 22 freight cars loaded with 54 units of
heavy military equipment, including 24 armored cars, 22 trucks and
28 pieces of heavy artillery. This is the equipment of the Russian
military installation of Batumi, which is being transported to the
Russian military base in Gyumri.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS LEFT BAKU FULL OF HOPE AND EXPECTATIONS FOR PROGRESS
Tatul Hakobyan

“Radiolur”
25.05.2006 13:32

Last evening the statement of the mediators on Karabakh conflict
resolution was read at the Russian Embassy in Baku. According to the
statement, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the senior diplomats
from US, Russia and France left Baku full of hope and expectations
for progress. Today the international mediators held talks with RA
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan. Later they will be received also
by President Robert Kocharyan. Before departing the mediators will
issue a joint statement for the press.

In their statement issued in Baku yesterday the mediators underlined
that ” the time has come for both parties of the conflict to agree
upon the major principles of settlement.”

“The two countries should prepare their societies not for war but for
peace,” the statement says. The document notes that “the disputes in
Baku were constructive.”

Minsk Group Co-Chairs Steven Mann, Yuri Merzlyakov and Bernard Fassier,
as well as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigori Karasin, US Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried and Director on Political
Issue of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Stanislas de Laboulaye
had a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev and Foreign
Minister Elmar Mamedyarov.

Issues related to the important aspects of future settlement were
discussed during the talks. Reference was made to the opportunities
for the meeting of Armenian and Azeri Presidents in the future. On
behalf of their countries and the international community, the
mediators assured that the conflict can be resolved solely in a
peaceful way. According to preliminary information, the recurrent
meeting of Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place June
5 in Bucharest.

The Co-Chairs and the senior diplomats characterized this joint
mission of theirs as an extraordinary event. The joint statement
issued in Baku says that this visit should be conceived as a proof
of the seriousness the mediators take the resolution of the Karabakh
conflict and especially of the conviction that the parties are in a
stage when a mutually beneficial agreement is achievable.

Yesterday, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov criticized
the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

“The statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on development of
new suggestions on resolution of the Karabakh conflict do not provide
grounds for optimism. With such statements the Co-Chairs are solely
willing to raise the importance of their activity in the public eye,”
Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister noted.

“No doubt, the Co-Chairs should justify their activity, therefore,
they periodically voice statements on new ideas,” Azimov said.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER BLAMES EX-SPEAKER FOR HIDING TRUTH ABOUT RESIGNATION

Mediamax news agency
22 May 06

Yerevan, 22 May: The leader of the Orinats Yerkir Party, Artur
Bagdasaryan, who resigned from the post of the parliamentary speaker
today, and the leader of the National Unity Party, Artashes Gegamyan,
traded mutual accusations at the National Assembly session today.

Artashes Gegamyan in particular said that “the Armenian president and
the defence minister managed to pull down the Orinats Yerkir Party
within several days”.

“Artur Bagdasaryan is speaking about the atmosphere of fear reigning
in Armenia. Most likely, this atmosphere of fear is hindering him
to tell the whole truth that precisely Robert Kocharyan and Serzh
Sarkisyan forced him to resign from the post of speaker,” the leader
of the National Unity Party said.

In reply, Artur Bagdasaryan said that if the National Unity Party
had not left the opposition camp after the first round of the 2003
presidential elections, “a different political situation would have
emerged in the country”. Artur Bagdasaryan said that Artashes Gegamyan
had thus implemented “Serzh Sarkisyan’s order”.

The politicians’ quarrel lasted for quite a while after which they
decided to continue their dispute on the air of one of the Armenian
TV channels.

[Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian 1733 gmt 22 May 06 quoted Serzh Sarkisyan
as saying that he was “absolutely uninterested in the quarrel between
Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan and the leader of the opposition National
Unity Party”.]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERI OFFICIALS, OSCE MEDIATORS DISCUSS CURRENT STAGE OF KARABAKH TALKS

ANS TV, Baku
24 May 06

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs had a meeting at the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry today. During the meeting, they discussed the current stage
of the talks on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and prospects for its
settlement. Details of the meeting have not been disclosed. After
their meetings in Baku, foreign diplomats will visit Armenia.

[Video showed Minsk Group co-chairs and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Grigoriy Karasin, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, French Foreign Ministry political
director Stanislas de Laboulaye]

[At 0954 gmt on 24 May, Turan news agency quoted Karasin as saying
that the talks were “useful”, while others declined to comment.]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERI LEADER, RUSSIAN, US, FRENCH OFFICIALS DISCUSS KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

Azartac news agency, Baku
24 May 06

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has met Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Grigoriy Karasin, US Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried and French Foreign Ministry’s
Ambassador at Large Pierre Morel to discuss the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Azerbaijani state news
agency Azartac reported on 24 May.

The meeting was also attended by the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group and the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office
on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Andrzej Kasprzyk, Azartac said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SECOND FLIGHT RECORDER RECOVERED FROM PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED 113

Pravda, Russia
May 24 2006

The flight data recorder was lifted by a diving apparatus from a depth
of about 1,640 feet (500 meters) after it was separated from a thick
layer of silt, Transport Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Kryshtanovskaya
said, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency.

The so-called “black box” was discovered within 16 meters (50 feet)
from the spot where workers found the plane’s cockpit voice recorder
Monday.

Russian TV channels showed footage of a yellow, remote-controlled
apparatus lifting the red recorder from the sea surface, the AP
reports.

Investigators hope the two recorders will help answer why the Armavia
Airbus A-320 plane plunged into the sea on May 3 amid heavy rain and
poor visibility. The flight had been en route to the southern Russian
sea resort Sochi from the Armenian capital, Yerevan. All passengers
and crew members on board were killed.

Prosecutors almost immediately dismissed the possibility that
terrorists had brought the plane down, and officials point to rough
weather or pilot error as the likely cause. Armavia officials have
suggested, however, that air traffic controllers were at least partly
to blame.

Top Armenian aviation officials will travel to Moscow Thursday for the
deciphering of the black boxes, a process that could also take place
in Paris with the involvement of Airbus, Armenia’s civil aviation
authority spokesman Gayane Davtian said.

Meanwhile, the victims’ relatives will receive compensation of
US$20,000 (~@15,550) each, the insurance company liable for the
payouts said Wednesday.

KOCHARIAN EXPRESSES GRATITUDE FOR ACTIONS TAKEN AFTER AIRBUS A320 CRASH

Interfax, Russia
May 24 2006

MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) – Armenian President Robert Kocharian has
expressed gratitude for the actions taken by Russia after the crash
of the Armavia Airbus A320 near Sochi in a telephone conversation
with President Vladimir Putin.

“The Armenian president expressed gratitude for Russia’s efficient
and full-scale involvement in the rescue operation after the crash and
congratulated the president for the successful completion of efforts
to recover the flight recorders,” the Kremlin said, adding that the
conversation was initiated by Kocharian.

Putin “expressed hope that the recovering of the black boxes, which
became possible as a result of the unique skills of experts, will
allow to uncover all the details of the crash,” the Kremlin said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE OFFICIAL WELCOMES ABKHAZ RAILWAY DEAL

Civil Georgia, Georgia
May 24 2006

Speaking at the OSCE Economic Forum, which concluded in Prague on
May 24, Special Envoy of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Pierre Chevalier
welcomed plans for a railroad project via breakaway Abkhazia, which
will connect Russia and Armenia via Georgia.

In early May the Georgian, Abkhaz, Russian, and Armenian sides signed
a protocol on establishing a consortium – the Black Sea Railways –
which will rehabilitate the Abkhaz railway.

“Everything must be done to entice parties to a conflict to find
complementary ways to overcome their differences… One possible
contribution in this respect is to lay emphasis on the economic and
social interests they have in common,” Pierre Chevalier said.

He also noted that projects proposed after an OSCE Needs
Assessment Study in breakaway South Ossetia included transportation
infrastructure. A donors’ conference will be held in Brussels on
14 June.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress