Author: Frangulian Shushan

FRIED: US WILL DISCUSS ALL ITS FURTHER STEPS ON IRAN WITH AZERBAIJAN
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 14 2006
The US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Daniel Fried on a visit in Baku held a press conference today (APA).
The Assistant Secretary of State said that the delegation he led had
talks with Azerbaijani officials, NGO and opposition representatives
in the two-day visit in Baku.
Reminding that he met with President Ilham Aliyev, Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov, Economic Development Minister Heydar Babayev, the
diplomat said that the discussions focused on the Garabagh conflict,
development of democracy as well as regional issues. Mr.Fried also said
Iran’s nuclear programme was also discussed in the talks and added the
US will discuss all its further steps concerning Iran with Azerbaijan.
Calling the negotiations in Rambouillet to be unsuccessful, the
American diplomat thinks Azerbaijani displaced persons should be sent
to their native homes as soon as possible and added that the outbreak
of war will result in calamity for all.
Mr.Fried also expressed satisfaction of the successfful development
of military cooperation between US and Azerbaijan and said the
delegation includes a military expert too. Fried also reported that
he will leave for Tbilisi, Yerevan and Ankara after that. Though the
American diplomat said the Nagorno Garabagh issue will be discussed
in Yerevan, he did not publicize the details.
Refereeing to the upcoming re-elections in Azerbaijan, the diplomat
said a powerful state must have a powerful opposition at the same time,
the US wants to see a powerful Azerbaijan namely for this reason.
Commenting on US attack plans on Iran, Fried said, “We do not consider
the possibility of this issue, we want the world community make Iran
refrain from its nuclear programme.”
Fried also commented on Kocharyan’s statement that Armenia will
recognize the independence of Nagorno Garabagh if the negotiating
process yields no results. Fried said that the problem cannot be
solved by such statements.

GEORGIAN TEAM JOINS ABKHAZ RAILWAY STUDY
By M. Alkhazashvili
The Messenger, Georgia
Oct 18 2005
On eve of talks, Russian official warns Tbilisi not to connect railway
to return of refugees
After a two-month delay, Georgian railway specialists left for Sokhumi
on Monday, October 17, to take part in a study of the technical state
of the Georgian-Russian railway that transects separatist Abkhazia.
Russia and Armenia regard that the reopening of the railway – which
has been defunct since 1992 – has practically decided. At the same
time it is becoming increasingly obvious the railway will be put into
operation on conditions dictated by Russia.
Minister of Transport of Russia Igor Levitin will visit Georgia by the
end of October. He has expressed hopes that the Georgian side will not
present an ultimatum to him demanding that in parallel to the railway’s
reopening, Georgian refugees be allowed to return to the region.
In fact, however, Levitin’s words amount to an ultimatum in themselves,
one that the Georgian side is likely to comply with and afterwards
shyly request that progress must be made in terms of returning the
refugees.
On step forward is that now Georgians are participating in the study
of the remaining railway infrastructure. As opposed to when the study
began, in August, this time the Sokhumi separatist regime agreed
to allow the participation of Georgian specialists in the survey,
three of whom are refugees from Abkhazia.
The initial part of the study featured only Russian and Abkhaz
workers. Now, with their Georgian colleagues, they will attempt to
determine the cost of restoring the Psou-Enguri part of the Trans
Caucasian Railway.
Considering the interests of Russia and Armenia in the restoration of
the railway, it will not be a problem to find the necessary monetary
resources. During Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli’s visit
to Yerevan, an agreement was reached on the conduction of trilateral
negotiations (Russia, Georgia, Armenia) on the Abkhaz railway issue.
Artur Baghdasarian, chairman of Armenian National Assembly, also
stated that the issue of the Abkhaz railway would be raised at the
upcoming meeting of the presidents of the four Caucasian countries;
Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
However, according to the Secretary of National Security of Armenia
Serj Sarkisian, the issue has already been decided and the Georgian
side has agreed to reopen the Abkhaz part of the railway. He added
that Russia is already conducting the restoration-rehabilitation
works on the railway. “After this, God willing, the railway will
start functioning,” he stated, as quoted by the newspaper Akhali Taoba.
The Georgian government had several times before agreed to opening the
railway, though on the condition that Georgian refugees be returned
to Abkhazia in a “safe and dignified” manner.
But Russia, and naturally, the separatist authorities in Sokhumi,
would never consent to these terms. On the eve of his visit to Georgia,
Russia’s transport minister issued a warning that local authorities
“not say a word about the refugees.”
“During the meeting in Tbilisi I ask my Georgian colleagues not
to directly connect the issue of the return of the refugees to the
restoration of the railway. Otherwise the opening of the railway may
be postponed for a long period,” Levitin stated, as quoted by the
newspaper Rezonansi.
As of yet, the only Georgian government official to speak about
the local authorities’ position on this issue has been Deputy State
Minister of the Conflict Resolution Gia Volski. As he stated, Levitin
will be happy with his visit in Tbilisi. “We do not connect the return
of the refugees with the issue of the railway reconstruction, but
we do insist that progress is necessary in this issue,” Volski said,
as quoted by the newspaper Rezonansi.
But even if the Georgian government does not connect the railway
opening to the refugees’ return and if they trust Moscow once again,
it must demand on certain other conditions. Expert on conflict issues
Paata Davitaia laid out these terms as follows:
– A Georgian customs checkpoint must be opened at the Psou River (on
the border of Abkhazia and the Russian Federation); – The railway
should be protected either by Georgian or joint military forces,
because having a foreign state’s armed forces protect a railway in
a sovereign country is unacceptable; – The stretch of the railway
running through Abkhazia should be managed by the Georgian and not
the Russian Railway Department; – Sums received from goods transit
on the Abkhazia stretch must go the Georgian state budget.
If these demands are not satisfied, the opening of the railway will
amount to the concession of Abkhazia to Russia. If the government does
so, it will be interpreted by society as a betrayal of its interests.

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 14 2005
AMERICAN ARMENIAN SCIENTIST NERSES KRIKORIAN CONFERRED TITLE OF
HONORABLE DOCTOR OF RA NAS
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. Nerses Krikorian, well-known
American Armenian specialist of nuclear chemistry, was conferred a
title of an honorable doctor of RA National Academy of Sciences
(NAS). As Noyan Tapan was informed by RA NAS Press Service,
N.Krikorian’s great contribution to prevention of proliferation of
nuclear weapons was highlighted at the October 11 solemn sitting at
the academy.
Scientist’s main activity was connected with the Los Alamosi national
laboratory where he was engaged in obtaining of superpure uranium.
His scientific elaborations were successfully used during cosmic
flights to the planet of Mars. N.Krikorian has been actively engaged
in public activity over the past years.
Some programs on the line of the International Scientific and
Technical Center are implemented in Armenia with Nerses Krikorian’s
immediate participation. He received the highest prize of Los Alamosi
national laboratory, is the author of 6 scientific licences
registered by the Atomic Energy Commission of US State Department.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RA PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARIAN TO VISIT BRUSSELS ON OCTOBER 19-22
AZG Armenian Daily #185
14/10/2005
RA President Robert Kocharian received the ambassadors of EU member
countries to Armenia and the delegation of European Commission. The
press office of RA President informed that the visit of Kocharian to
Brussels and European structures is slated for the next week. Robert
Kocharian will discuss prospects for cooperation, particularly,
issues of elaborating individual program within the framework of
European neighborhood policy.
Kocharian stated that the policy of European neighborhood will bring
Armenia-EU relations to the new qualitative level.

TKACHOV: NO XENOPHOBIA IN KRASNODAR REGION’
By Ara Martirosian
AZG Armenian Daily #184
13/10/2005
Answering questions of Armenian journalists whether the region
struggles against racial intolerance, Aleksander Tkachov, governor of
Krasnodar region of Russia, said that there is no xenophobia in the
region and “the rumors are too exaggerated”. He said that there are
more than 300.000 Armenians in the region who are engaged in business
and other spheres. “The Armenians live in the best places: Sochi Anapa,
Gelenjik. There can be no question of xenophobia”, he concluded.

Congressional Record: October 7, 2005 (Extensions)
>From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

AZERBAIJAN
HON. TED POE
of texas
in the house of representatives
Friday, October 7, 2005
Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, Azerbaijan is an important strategic ally for
the United States. The Country is located in a region that can produce
and transport energy products to the West. As well as provide military
and intelligence capabilities to the United States.
Azerbaijan is an emerging major non-OPEC oil producer and transit
country (i.e, Baku-Ceyhan pipeline), which will supply 1.6 million
barrels a day after being operational December 2005. This will
stabilize the other energy producing countries (oil and gas) in the
region and their ability to get their product to the marketplace
without the dependency of Russia or Iran.
Azerbaijan is a front line positioned state for military and
intelligence access to Iran. This will act as a stabilizing effect for
the region and fight off the aggressive position of Iran. It will also
work against terrorist activities spread by fundamental terrorist who
have the support of Iran.
Azerbaijan is the first Muslim state to provide troops to the U.S.
backed coalitions in Iraq., Afghanistan and Kosovo. To date, they are
the only Shiite Muslim state to provide troops.
Azerbaijan is in the vanguard of the emerging democracies from the
former Soviet Union. Azerbaijan has parliamentary elections scheduled
November 6, 2005, and is moving forward with international support to
assure free and fair elections. Azerbaijan has allowed opposition
parties the right to organize, protest, and access public television.
Azerbaijan maintains excellent relations with the State of Israel,
both, diplomatically and economically including providing crude oil.
Azerbaijan is a strong strategic partner with the United States and
is cooperating in United States activities regarding Caspian regional
security overseeing Iran (e.g., Caspian Guards program, radar system,
fly-over rights and re-fueling capacity).
Azerbaijan is a strategic asset given its presence as a strong United
States-Israel ally next to Iran. Azerbaijan welcomes trade with Israel
and stronger ties between the two countries.
Iran has threatened Azerbaijan due to cooperation with Israel and the
United States Iran continues to inform Azerbaijan that their strong
relations with the United States and Israel will not be beneficial, as
Iran is their neighbor.
The Iran military enters Azerbaijan airspace weekly and Iran has made
claims on Azerbaijan’s offshore oil and gas exploration.
Iran has attempted to spread Madrassas schools in Azerbaijan and
Azerbaijan has resisted.
Iran pressures Azerbaijan to abolish visas between the two countries,
which would lead to less control and more Iranians infiltration into
Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is resisting this effort.
Occupied Azerbaijan (NK Region) is on the Iranian border, where
alleged terrorist camps, narcotic trafficking and weapons trading goes
on. Since Armenia has occupied this region of Azerbaijan, almost 16
percent of the total country, this activity has existed with the
support of Iran. Azerbaijan is defenseless in trying to stop this
activity, as long as Armenia occupies this region.

THE NEW COCAINE: SYSTEM OF A DOWN AND THE DANGERS OF IRONY
By Zac Pennington
The Portland Mercury, OR
Oct 6 2005
System of a Down
Rose Garden
1 Center Court
If you keep your tongue firmly lodged in cheek most of the time,
you’re eventually going to slip up and bite it. That’s one of the
primary dangers in this seemingly eternal age of irony: phrases, music,
clothing, and other affects adopted in fits of ironic appreciation
have the damnedest way of creeping out of their holes and into your
subconscious-and soon enough that joke you made a few years ago about
having an ironic coke party turns into 15-minute bathroom queues at
every bar in the city for the next five years.
It’s a slippery slope-in spite of all the defenses that we so carefully
compound around our lives, the viral strain of ironic appreciation
seems to have an uncanny capacity to work its way through our otherwise
closed doors of perception. And that’s the only viable explanation
for just how it came to be that a major-label metal band immerged from
the darkest corners of late-’90s radio rock to become every indierock
fan’s favorite guilty pleasure: System of a Down are the new cocaine.
For most of us, a tentative relationship with System of a Down began
with the 1998 release of their self-titled debut-a record comfortably
marketed alongside the era’s reprehensible rap-rock phenomenon.
Despite a campaign aggressively marketing the LA band’s Armenian
descent, most reasonable people saw little to distinguish System from
the hordes of goateed douchebags ruling the airwaves at the time.
>>From the very beginning, however, there was the faint call from
otherwise rational folks (and a few heshers) instantly able to
separate System from the radio rock’s most dreadful scourge in recent
memory-an assemblage of System apologists who’s fruitless refrain was
echoed time and time again: “Dude, I know that Nu-metal is totally
unforgivable-but System seems pretty cool to me. I mean they’re
Armenian, for godssake!” Needless to say, it fell largely on deaf ears.
And then something very funny (and I do mean funny) happened: In
2001, System of a Down released a record called Toxicity. Toxicity’s
near-universal commercial embrace led to a great deal of forced
exposure inflicted upon a lot of previously deaf ears. With the help
of mega-singles (by metal standards, at least) like “Chop Suey!,”
“Toxicity,” and “Aerials,” it was difficult to avoid vocalist Serj
Tankian’s incredibly ridiculous, politically tongue-twisted, angry
leprechaun rants for the better part of two years. And you know what?
Shit was kind of awesome-you know, in a gut-busting, hyper-dramatic,
semi-retarded kind of way-enough to make you want to stop when it
popped up on the airwaves. Every single time.
It must have been about a year ago when I read somewhere that
System’s double album-in-progress (later split into current mega-album
Mesmerize and soon-to-be-released Hypnotize) had primary influences
of indie-friendly touchstones like Kraftwerk, the Zombies, and
the Beach Boys. At the time, it sounded like just another piece of
amusing mythology to tag onto my favorite band to get all post-modern
about. And then, like everybody else, I actually heard Mesmerize-an
incredibly ridiculous, politically tongue-twisted, gut-busting,
hyper-dramatic, semi-retarded, and legitimately brilliant record of
Zappa (or maybe Patton) level sonic complexity.
At first I tried to laugh it off-I mean, it is kind of funny-but
before long I had to face the fact that I sincerely (and still somewhat
inexplicably) love System of a Down. And I know I’m not alone.

AZERI, ARMENIAN FMS TO MEET IN DECEMBER
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Oct 6 2005
Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers are due to hold talks for
the next time on the sidelines of a meeting of the OSCE council of
foreign ministers in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana December 5-6
to discuss ways of peacefully settling the Upper Garabagh conflict,
officials said.
Deputy foreign minister and the President’s special envoy on the
Upper Garabagh conflict Araz Azimov said the two ministers are
expected to hold a private meeting as part of the event. Co-chairs
of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group are due to visit the region prior
to the ministers’ meeting, Azimov said. “The issue was discussed at
a recent OSCE meeting. A final decision was not made in this respect,
but the co-chairs’ visit is expected on the eve of the parliamentary
elections”, the deputy foreign minister said.
Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanian told a press conference on
Thursday that the conflicting sides – Azerbaijan and Armenia – should
step up progress achieved in the conflict settlement. “A very suitable
moment has come about from the standpoint of resolving the Garabagh
conflict”, he said. “There are positive processes and achievements
and we should use them in order to continue the negotiating process
and deepen the accomplishments after the parliament elections in
Azerbaijan.”

AZERI MINISTER BLAMES ARMENIANS FOR FLOOD IN WESTERN DISTRICT
ANS TV, Azerbaijan
Oct 4 2005
[Presenter] Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Huseyn Bagirov
has explained why 150 ha of arable land and over 20 houses have been
flooded in the villages of Zangisali and Mahrizli in Agdam District.
Armenians are using the water reservoir in the Armenian-occupied
village of Saricali precisely for this purpose.
[Bagirov] According to information available to us, this is rain
water. I do not believe that it collected naturally because if this was
the case, it would have also collected earlier and these streams would
have existed earlier. The Armenians have fortifications, and the troops
of the occupying army are not far from there. We suppose that this
is an artificial lake and that was the intention, which they achieved.

ONE OF THE LEADERS OF THE WORLD COMING
A1+
| 12:41:46 | 05-10-2005 | Official |
October 6-8 on Robert Kocharyan’s invitation the President of
Latvia Mrs.
Vaira Vike-Freyberga will arrive in Armenia on official duty together
with her husband Imants Freyberga.
The delegation of the Latvian President includes the Ministers of
Economy, Transport and Communication, and Culture, as well as other
officials and about 50 businessmen.
The main aim of the visit is to stimulate the development of the
links between the countries and to mention the primary directions of
economic cooperation. The heads of the countries will discuss the
cooperation between EU and Armenia, issues about regional problems
and will exchange ideas about urgent international problems.