Author: Hambardsumian Paul

PACE to consider report on ‘political prisoners’ in June

Baku, June 1, AssA-Irada

A report by rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan Malcolm
Bruce has been included in the agenda of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) June session.

Member of the Azerbaijani delegation at PACE, MP Aydin Mirzazada,
says Azerbaijan is discontent with some provisions of the report, in
particular, the demand for immediate release of Elchin Amiraslanov,
Arif Kazimov and Farhad Poladov, who are responsible for grave crimes,
he said.

“The Council of Europe is open for discussions and the Azerbaijani
delegation will convince their colleagues at PACE that it is
impossible to free these individuals, as they pose a threat to
society,” Mirzazada added.*

Armenia year in Russia to promote cooperation of two countries
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 31, 2005 Tuesday 3:00 PM Eastern Time

YEREVAN, May 31 — The holding of the Year of Russia in Armenia
this year and of the Year of Armenia in Russia next year will be of
much importance for the development of Russo-Armenian cooperation,
Ovik Abramyan, the Armenian minister for territorial management,
said at the meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, the chief of the Russian
president’s administration, here on Tuesday. They head the organizing
committees of their countries to prepare the functions in the framework
of these events.

It was arranged that the Armenian side would present within a fortnight
its proposals for the holding of the Year of Armenia in Russia. The
functions will be held not only in Moscow and other large cities,
but also in many Russian regions.

Abramyan commended high standards of the recent guest performances
in Armenia of the State Art Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre and of
the Itar-Tass photo exhibition devoted to the 60th anniversary of the
Great Victory. Medvedev, in his turn, thanked the Armenian government
for assistance to functions in the framework of the Year of Russia
in Armenia and the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Victory.

BAKU AND ASTANA PLAY IT SAFE IN CASPIAN OIL BATTLE
By Marat Yermukanov

Jamestown Foundation
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
May 31 2005

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Until Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev made a landmark
trip to Baku on May 25, marking Kazakhstan’s decisive move towards
joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project, bilateral relations
between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan had shown few signs of progress.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev visited Kazakhstan in March 2004,
a meeting that produced a joint statement on friendly relations
and strategic partnership directed at safeguarding stability in the
Caspian region and rooting out terrorist organizations that could
undermine the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. At that time, Nazarbayev went out of his
way to pledge Astana’s readiness to mediate Azerbaijani-Armenian talks
on Karabakh. Armenian President Robert Kocharian reacted angrily to
this indiscreet remark, stating, “Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be a part
of Azerbaijan” (Kontinent, March 30, 2004).

Although Nazarbayev’s arrival for the BTC launch was generally welcomed
by project participants as a positive sign, Kazakhstan has not signed
the requisite intergovernmental agreement with Azerbaijan specifying
conditions for transporting Kazakh oil through the BTC pipeline. In
his talks with Aliev, Nazarbayev stressed the priority of economic
interests in bilateral relations and sidestepped the thorny issues of
terrorism and separatism. Nazarbayev had good reason to be sure that
the talks would be productive. Oil experts estimate that Azerbaijan
alone cannot provide enough oil to operate the BTC pipeline at its
full capacity of 50 million tons of oil. In the future, the total
annual oil output of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan could reach 220 tons,
but not before Kazakhstan starts commercial development of the Kashagan
oil deposits in 2008 (Delovaya nedelya, May 26).

One of the reasons Kazakhstan was reluctant to climb on the BTC
bandwagon until the last moment was believed to be the high costs of
pumping oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. On his recent
visit to Astana and subsequent trip to Baku, Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili removed that hurdle by convincing BTC shareholders to lower
transportation tariffs for Kazakhstan to $3.30 per barrel. But even
this moderately low tariff is less attractive than the transportation
costs charged by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which
Astana currently uses to ship the bulk of the oil produced by the
Tengiz-Chevroil joint venture. The fact that the BTC pipeline passes
through volatile regions in the North Caucasus and eastern Turkey
makes the prospect of using that route even grimmer for Kazakhstan.

Astana’s hesitancy about joining the BTC project for so long seems
to be primarily the political uncertainty of the route. Even after
the hearty handshaking with BTC shareholders at the Azeri Sangachal
oil terminal, Nazarbayev has left his options open for backtracking
regarding the current route, as well as the maritime route to Iran,
Azerbaijan, and Russia as an alternative to highly politicized BTC
route. Nor has Kazakhstan ruled out, despite all political risks it
may entail, the construction of a pipeline to Iran via Turkmenistan.
The Iranian option would be incomparably cheaper than the BTC
pipeline, which demands up to $3 billion to build oil transportation
infrastructure in western Kazakhstan. Astana will have to pour millions
of dollars into the projected 700-kilometer pipeline that is to
link oil producing Atyrau (western Kazakhstan) with Atyrau seaport,
from where the oil will be delivered to Sangachal oil terminal in
Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan depends on Russia for oil tankers, as creating
its own shipbuilding industry is not economically feasible for this
landlocked country. Astana needs only five high-capacity tankers to
service the Atyrau-Sangachal oil transport route. All these economic
and political factors may force Kazakhstan to make a hard choice
between competing powers (Novoye Pokolenie, May 27).

In recent months Russia, in its drive to raise the annual capacity of
the CPC to 67 million tons, has incessantly pressured Kazakhstan to
increase the amount of oil pumped through the CPC pipeline. To achieve
that target Russia is planning to build ten additional oil refineries.

Notably, just a few weeks before Nazarbayev’s departure for Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov, a man known for his close
personal links to Russian energy oligarchs, unexpectedly announced
at a cabinet meeting that recent talks with Moscow on increasing the
amount of Kazakh oil through the CPC pipeline had led nowhere, and
therefore Kazakhstan would have to look for other routes. Although
he did not specify the BTC, it was clear that Tbilisi and Baku had
some role in that change of heart.

However, Azerbaijan also finds it difficult to cut the cord with
Russia, as it currently lets 5 million tons of its oil flow through
the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline via Russia. In his remarks at the
opening ceremony for the BTC project, President Aliev said that the
doors to the BTC pipeline were open for everyone, including Russia
(Panorama, May 27).

Not surprisingly, these words resonated with the often-emphasized
multi-vector oil policy of President Nazarbayev, who was the only
one in Baku to stress the importance of diversified export routes
for the Caspian region’s hydrocarbons.

It is still too early to determine how oil cooperation between
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan will be shaped in the future. But they share
at least one common interest: the search for a safe course ahead of
the impending battle for oil.

Agence France Presse
May 27 2005

Turkish PM tries to defuse crisis over halting Armenia conference

27/05/2005 AFP
ISTANBUL, May 27 (AFP) – 23h07 – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Friday tried to defuse a crisis over squelching a debate
on the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire which has
provoked concern in the EU.

A landmark conference questioning the official line on the mass
killings that had been due to open Wednesday at Istanbul’s
prestigious Bogazici University was postponed after Justice Minister
Cemil Cicek accused the participants of “treason.”

Cicek condemned the initiative as “a stab in the back of the Turkish
nation” and said the organizers of the conference of Turkish
academics and intellectuals who dispute Ankara’s version of the
1915-1917 massacres deserved to be prosecuted.

The minister’s intervention sparked concern within the EU, which is
due to open membership talks with Ankara later this year, about
Turkey’s commitment to democratic norms.

Erdogan tried Friday to distance his government from Cicek’s
statements.

“Cemil Cicek is the spokesman of our government. He made a statement
but not a statement of the government, it was a personal statement,”
Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

The killings, one of the most controversial episodes in Ottoman
history, is rarely discussed in schools and the aborted conference
would have been the first by Turkish personalities to question the
official stand on the events.

Several countries have recognized the massacres as genocide — a term
Turkey fiercely rejects — and Brussels has urged Ankara to face its
past and expand freedom of speech.

The incident follows a brutal police clampdown on a women’s
demonstration in Istanbul in March, which also raised tensions
between the European Union and Turkey.

AKI, Italy
May 27 2005

TURKEY: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CONFERENCE IS POSTPONED

Istanbul, 27 May (AKI) – A conference questioning Turkey’s official
policy that the 1915-21 mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule
never took place has been postponed following pressure from the
government. The conference, initially slated to be held at the
Bhosphorus University on Wednesday, provoked outrage among
nationalists, after participants said they would challenge the
commonly held view in Turkey that the deaths of an estimated 1.5
million Armenians was due to the epidemics and other hardships
suffered during deportations after separatist Armenian militants
joined sides with Turkey’s World War I enemy Russia and started
killing Turkish civillians.

`How can this be a scientific conference? Some of the participants
are even not historians’ wrote Ruhat Mengi in the daily Vatan,
apparently refering to one of the conference organisers, Prof. Murat
Belge, Head of the Literature Department at Bilgi University, the
only Turk who has joined the 90th anniversary commemorations of the
genocide in the Armenian capital Yerevan on 24 April.

But the strongest criticism came from the Turkish justice minister
and government spokesman, Cemil Cicek.

`The conference would be tantamount to stabbing Turkey in the back,’
he said.

After Cicek’s remarks the Bosphorus University announced that the
conference had been postponed.

The decision was welcomed by officials and others who refuse to even
consider the Armenian allegations, but liberal columnists, conference
participants and pro-democracy activists slammed the government’s
reaction.

“I am very sad and disappointed. It would have been a forum that
showed that democracy worked in Turkey and that different voices can
be heard” said Muge Gocek, a Turkish professor of sociology at
Michigan University who traveled to Istanbul for the conference.

`The biggest mistake is criticising the conference as being
one-sided. People like Cicek think that they have the authority to
decide what is in the `national interest’ and they shape the society
according to their decisions’, Belge wrote in his column in the
Radikal daily on Friday.

The liberal paper’s headline on Thursday read: `Zero tolerance on
thought’

The Human Rights Association (IHD) was also critical of Cicek.

“We strongly condemn the politicians and especially the justice
minister who prevented the Armenian conference from taking place
through pressure, threats and statements that make [organisers]
targets” the IHD said in a statement on Wednesday.

Hans Jorg Kretschmer, the European Union Commission’s representative
to Turkey said that the government’s did not fit in with ideas of
democracy.

Organisers have said they intend to hold the conference, however a
date has yet to be specified.

ANRY CUNY: ARMENIA IS ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURE

YEREVAN, MAY 25. ARMINFO. France’s Ambassador to Armenia Anry Cuny
took part in the opening of the first exhibition National
Architectural Wealth of France of the 20th century.

As the ambassador mentioned, the culture and architecture play
significant role in the Armenian-French cooperation. Stressing the
importance of the cooperation in the sphere of architecture, the
ambassador informed that now only the diploma of State Architectural
University of Armenia from the Armenian diplomas is accepted in
France. “Armenia is an original architectural structure”, the French
ambassador expressed in Armenian.

The exhibition is held at the National museum-institute of
architecture in Yerevan. The French architecture will be exhibited
till June 18.

Pan Armenian News

ARMENIA MAY BECOME CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA

24.05.2005 08:43

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Artur Baghdasarian met with
Brussels Mayor Freddy Thielemans in the city, reported the Press Service of
the National Assembly of Armenia. The parties discussed matters of
realization of joint social programs, as well as agreement over problems of
integration of disabled persons into the society, retraining nurses and
other questions was reached. In the course of his visit to Brussels Artur
Baghdasarian also met with Belgian State Minister Francois-Xavier De Donnea,
with whom he discussed questions of providing ambulance cars and buses, as
well as health and tourism cooperation.

Libération, France
mardi 24 mai 2005

Lycos va chercher à reclasser en Arménie

Le portail Internet supprime 75 postes sur 109 en France.

Par Frédérique ROUSSEL

a cure d’amaigrissement engagée depuis l’année dernière se poursuit à
Lycos Europe. Aux réductions de postes s’ajoute une proposition de
reclassement inédite faite à 34 développeurs informatiques :
s’installer à Erevan, la capitale de l’Arménie, pour travailler dans
une filiale de l’entreprise. Si le portail multifonctions (moteur de
recherche, contenus, hébergement de pages perso) a diminué son
déficit au premier trimestre 2005, il atteint encore 8,1 millions
d’euros contre 11,9 en 2004. Comme révélé par France Info hier matin,
le portail Internet envisage de supprimer 75 emplois sur les 109 en
France (200 au total en Europe). Objectif : parvenir à l’équilibre en
2006.

Reclassement. Le projet a été présenté en comité d’entreprise le 4
mai. «Nous allons transférer la gestion européenne des services de
mail et d’hébergement vers l’Allemagne à Guterslow, et l’Arménie à
Erevan, explique Olivier Soussan, directeur du marketing et de la
communication, en étant soucieux des droits des salariés et de la
législation en vigueur.» Quelle est l’alternative pour les employés ?
«Des offres d’emploi valides en France et des mesures de reclassement
interne au sein du groupe.» Autrement dit, certains devront plier
bagage pour aller respirer l’air outre-Rhin ou découvrir la vie de la
petite République située entre la Turquie et l’Azerbaïdjan.

Contrées. «J’imagine que la vie est moins chère là-bas, avance le
secrétaire du comité d’entreprise, Jean-Michel Chereau (non
syndiqué). Dans les mesures d’application, il y a une aide au
logement et au transport. Mais au bout de huit mois, vous vous
retrouvez avec un salaire entre 300 et 500 euros selon votre grade.
Si vous voulez revenir en France, vous ne pouvez pas.» D’autant que
la proposition de reclassement concerne des développeurs «capables de
créer un programme» et qui gagnent en France «entre 2 000 et 3 500
euros par mois». L’offre est décidément alléchante… Lycos a ouvert
une filiale à Erevan en 2002, en rachetant une entreprise «qui,
jusqu’à présent, faisait du petit développement pour la société,
comme la maintenance ou le développement de petites applications,
alors qu’en France, on développait des solutions mails».

Ce nouveau projet survient après une renégociation sur les RTT. «Il y
a un an et demi, la direction a demandé à renégocier les 35 heures,
précise Jean-Michel Chereau. On a perdu 11 jours de RTT sur 23. On
pensait être tranquilles. Et au bout de six mois, on supprime des
postes.» Voici donc venu le temps des délocalisations des sociétés
Internet. Vers des contrées moins onéreuses, comme la Roumanie par
exemple, où certains fournisseurs d’accès ont déjà jeté leur dévolu.
Les fonctions qui ne demandent pas un contact direct avec le client,
comme la programmation ou la gestion des mails, peuvent fort bien
s’exercer ailleurs.

DAY OF BULGARIAN CULTURE AND SLAVONIC WRITTEN LANGUAGE WAS SOLEMNLY
CELEBRATED IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, MAY 23. ARMINFO. Armenia and Bulgaria will sign a document
shortly contributed to both the integration process to Europe and the
strengthening of European security mechanisms, stated Armenia’s Deputy
Foreign Minister Armen Bayburdyan at a briefing in Yerevan on the
occasion of the Day of Slavonic written language, Bulgarian culture,
and Saints Kirill and Methodius.

Bulgarian Ambassador to Armenia Stephan Dimitrov noted that the
official holiday of Bulgarian Republic is celebrated on May 24 during
a century. In Armenia this holiday is celebrated during the last 46
years on the initiative of “Armenia-Bulgaria” association.

Dimitrov also informed that Armenia’s Minister for Science and
Education Sergo Yeritsyan will leave for Bulgaria June 2 with an
official visit. Process of reforms in the educational systems in both
countries will be discussed at a meeting with Bulgaria’s Minister for
Education Igor Demyanov. The parties will discuss details on
fulfilling a cooperation program in culture and education spheres for
2003-2006, within the framework of which the project on exchange of
students is being fulfilled.

The US and French Ambassadors to Armenia John Evans and Henry Cuny, as
well as representatives of diplomatic mission accredited in Armenia
participated at the action. -r-

RUSSIAN MP: NO BAKU PERMIT NECESSARY FOR VISITING KARABAKH

Pan Armenian News
21.05.2005 04:48

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “A visit to Nagorno Karabakh means that I visited
it and nothing more,” stated Russian State Duma Deputy Konstantin
Zatulin when answering a question of Echo Baku newspaper whether this
act is recognition of the independence of Nagorno Karabakh by the
Russian MP. “As of the “recognition” of the unrecognized republic,
the word “unrecognized” refers to the relations of other countries of
the world with Nagorno Karabakh,” Zatulin continued. In his words,
he is not a state and his actions should be considered as those of
a private person. “I went to Nagorno Karabakh and I do not think
one has to ask for a permission of Azerbaijan. I flatly disagree
with the opinion I should not go there.” Answering the remark that
he accomplished his visit via Armenia, “which can per se mean loyal
attitude towards the occupation,” he answered, “Try to visit Nagorno
Karabakh via Azerbaijan and then tell me how you managed to do it.” In
his words, it is his 9th visit to Karabakh. “I suppose the topic of
“How one should visit Nagorno Karabakh” can endlessly be discussed,
however I am convinced that it is necessary to visit Nagorno Karabakh,
as well as engage in other affairs, which maybe do not keep within the
formal rhetoric of the parties,” he accentuated. As Zatulin noted,
it is necessary to hold talks continuously. The latest meeting of
the Armenian and Azeri Presidents in Warsaw turn out constructive
according to the reports of both parties. Simultaneously he noted
that proceeding from the first model of behavior of Ilham Aliyev,
the meeting would not take place. However, in his words, Aliyev
displayed responsibility and met with his Armenian counterpart,
which should further be done without any conditions. “If we proceed
from this approach to the affair, the Azeri newspaper will become
less interested in the formal side of the questions why someone went
somewhere and will be more interested in impressions of those, who
went there and their own positions,” he underscored.