Author: Hambardsumian Paul

WASHINGTON ORGANIZATION PLANS TO PRESENT VALUES OF ARTSAKH MATERIAL CULTURE TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 05 2006
STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On
September 5, Chairwoman of the Washington organization Leaders’
Council for Human Rights, Catherine Porter, met with NKR President
Arkady Ghoukassian. She informed the President about the plans of
the organization headed by her concerning presenting the values of
Artsakh material culture to the international community.
The guest said that the monuments of Christian period and the rich
pre-Christian heritage can greatly promote tourism development in
Nagorno Karabakh and can introduce the country to the international
scientific circles.
As NT was informed by the Acting Spokesperson for NKR President, Arkady
Ghoukassian greeted Mrs Porter’s initiative and expressed the readiness
of the NKR authorities to cooperate in the above mentioned sphere.

AZERBAIJAN SLAMS ARMENIA’S NEW STANCE ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
September 5, 2006 Tuesday 10:23 AM MSK
Azerbaijan slammed a statement by Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian on Monday that whether he would hold any more talks with his
Azerbaijani counterpart largely depended on the position Azerbaijan
will take in debating the Nagorno- Karabakh issue at the United
Nations.
Oskanian’s statement has “surprised” Azerbaijan, to say the least,
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tair Tagizade told Interfax.
“One has the impression that the Armenian minister of foreign affairs
has completely forgotten that Armenia has made a commitment on the
settlement of this conflict with a whole number of international
organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Council of Europe,”
Tagizade said.
“If Oskanian deems it possible to make a statement of this
kind, setting some kind of additional conditions for the further
participation of Armenia in these negotiations, Azerbaijan reserves
a sovereign right to appeal to any international organization seeking
that it should question Armenia’s meeting its commitments,” he said.

FIRST LARGE FOREIGN UNIT ARRIVES FOR LEBANON-ISRAEL BUFFER ZONE
By John Kifner
The New York Times
Sept 4 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 3 – Hundreds of Italian marines, and their
armored vehicles, landed in southern Lebanon on Sunday, the first
large foreign contingent of what is to become a reinforced United
Nations buffer force on the border with Israel.
A spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping force said that
about 1,000 Italian troops were expected to be ashore by nightfall,
including the small vanguard that arrived Saturday in choppy seas on
rubber dinghies and helicopters.
The arrival of the Italians increases the number of troops on the
ground to roughly 3,250 out of a projected goal of 15,000. A 250-member
French contingent arrived late last week, mainly engineering troops who
set to work repairing bombed-out bridges and roads. And 2,000 troops
were already in place from the previous peacekeeping contingent,
known as the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
The United Nations had hoped to have at least 3,500 troops by
Saturday. The full international force is supposed to complement a
similar size deployment of the Lebanese Army in securing an uneasy
cease-fire after a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah
guerrillas.
But under a kind of “don’t flaunt, don’t search” arrangement between
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, the army apparently does not
intend to try to disarm Hezbollah.
Neither do the United Nations forces, officials have said, although
they will have a tougher mandate – enabling them to use force if
threatened – than did the generally ineffective force in place since
an Israeli incursion in 1978.
In Israel on Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that he had
tried to contact Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon to raise
the possibility of peace talks.
“How natural it would be if the Lebanese prime minister replied
to the many requests I conveyed to him, through different people,
to sit down together, shake hands, make peace and end once and for
all the hostility, fanaticism and hatred that part of his country
feels toward us,” Mr. Olmert said at a school in Maalot-Tarshiha, in
northern Israel. The town was a frequent target of Hezbollah rockets
during the fighting in July and August.
“I hope this day comes soon,” he said, adding, “I’m sure all of Israel
yearns for it.”
At a news conference last week in Beirut, Mr. Siniora said that
Lebanon would be the “last Arab country that could sign a peace
agreement with Israel.”
On Sunday, Italian soldiers wearing blue berets on armored personnel
carriers newly painted with white U.N. initials drove through wrecked
Lebanese villages decked with yellow Hezbollah flags, drawing waves
and V-for-victory signs.
Italy intends to deploy 2,450 ground troops in four phases over two
months – the largest contingent – and assume command of the force
early next year.
The current commander of the peacekeeping force, Maj. Gen. Alain
Pellegrini of France, told reporters in Tyre that the new version
of the United Nations force “is strengthened with stronger rules
of engagement.”
“We have more people, more equipment, and we will have more possibility
to use force to implement our mission,” he said.
But the effort to fill the complete 15,000-troop deployment is still
troubled by the reluctance of many countries to join what could be
a dangerous mission – particularly if their troops become combatants.
Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country, announced that it would
send 1,000 troops after Israel eased off its objections to Indonesia’s
participation. Turkey is weighing participation, although Lebanon’s
tiny Armenian minority has objected because of the Turkish genocide
of Armenians in 1915.
Israel has announced that its troops, still on the fringes of Lebanese
territory, have found and blown up several Hezbollah arms caches. The
United Nations has said that the Israeli forces should fully withdraw
over the border as soon as the number of soldiers in the international
force reaches 5,000.
“The cease-fire is holding for the moment,” General Pellegrini said.
“But it’s fragile. Any incident can escalate.”
Greg Myre contributed reporting from Jerusalem for this article.

Gulf Times, Qatar
Sept 2 2006

Turkey seen getting EU thumbs down in reform
Published: Saturday, 2 September, 2006, 10:16 AM Doha Time

Rehn … due to meet Turkish officials for talks on Thursday
BRUSSELS: European Union lawmakers are set to approve a report
slamming the slow pace of reform in Turkey in the latest warning from
Brussels that the accession hopeful must do better.
A draft of the report to be voted on by the European Parliament’s
foreign affairs committee on Monday complains of insufficient
progress on freedom of expression and raises concerns over the lot of
religious minorities, corruption, and violence against women.
The report comes weeks before a crucial European Commission
assessment of Ankara’s reform efforts and follows a growing chorus of
concern from EU officials that Turkey has been dragging its heels
since opening entry talks last October.
`The European Parliament … regrets the slowing down of the reform
process,’ the draft report said, highlighting what it called
`persistent shortcomings’ across a range of areas.
`The report is a clear signal that if Turkey wants the process to be
successful, the speed of reforms must be increased,’ Camiel Eurlings,
the Dutch conservative charged with drafting the report, told
Reuters.
Eurlings, in a telephone interview from Istanbul on a trip to meet
religious minorities, urged the European Union’s Executive Commission
to put more pressure on Ankara by setting deadlines for reforms in
specific areas to be implemented.
Legally, the European Parliament must give its assent to any state
joining the bloc but has never sought to veto any past accession.
However, it has been effective in pressuring EU hopefuls to speed
reforms in previous enlargement rounds.
Ankara has denied that the pace of reform has slowed since last
October and has said it may call parliament back from its summer
recess two weeks early in mid-September to push through the latest
package of reforms.
The report praised recent acquittals of academics prosecuted for
`insulting Turkishness’ but cited concerns over cases such as that of
Armenian-Turkish editor Hrant Dink, given a suspended six-month jail
term for remarks about claims that Ottoman Turkey committed genocide
against Armenians in World War I.
A forthcoming law aimed at protecting religious minorities did not go
far enough, the report added, whereas a law passed in June increasing
the number of crimes classified as terrorism could undermine recent
advances in human rights, it said.
Progress on reforms was lacking in other areas including
civil-military relations, law enforcement, women’s and trade union
rights and the independence of the judiciary, it said.
The report affirmed EU calls for Turkey to remove what could be the
main stumbling block in the talks this year, notably its refusal to
implement an agreement with the EU opening its sea and air ports to
Cypriot traffic.
The EU has warned that failure to implement the protocol this year
extending Turkey’s customs union with the EU to 10 new members could
jeopardise Turkey’s negotiations with the union.
EU officials from Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn down have warned
Ankara in recent weeks it needs to speed up efforts to meet EU
standards, particularly in areas such as freedom of expression and
combating violence against women.
Rehn is due to meet Turkish Economy Minister Ali Babacan, Ankara’s
chief EU negotiator, for talks in Brussels next Thursday.
Recent polls show not only that most Europeans are against the poor,
mainly Muslim country entering the bloc but that Turks themselves are
becoming increasingly disillusioned with the EU accession process,
seen taking over a decade. – Reuters

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 1, 2006 Friday
ARMENIA IS THREATENED WITH JIHAD;
Religious leader of Azerbaijan sends a no-nonsense message to the
neighbor state
by Sohbet Mamedov
STATEMENT MADE BY THE RELIGIOUS LEADER OF AZERBAIJAN ON THE READINESS
TO DECLARE A JIHAD ON ARMENIA AS AN INDICATION OF COMBATIVE
DISPOSITION IN AZERBAIJANI SOCIETY; Allahushukjur Pashazade: I’m
prepared to declare a jihad to liberate the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan.
Religious factor is to be added to the equation of the
Azerbaijani-Armenian confrontation now. Sheikh-ul-Islam Haji
Allahushukjur Pashazade, religious leader of Azerbaijan and the head
of the Moslem Directorate of the Caucasus, issued a warning to
Armenia at his press conference in Baku the other day. “I’m prepared
to declare a jihad to liberate the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan,” he said. Pashazade added, however, that he would do so
when the time is “ripe” because potential of negotiations was not
depleted yet. According to Pashazade, the subject of Nagorno-Karabakh
ranks the highest on the agenda of all his meetings with senior
officials and religious leaders from foreign states. “Many of them
support our just case,” Pashazade said. “They are even prepared to
help Azerbaijan with resolution of the conflict.” (It should be noted
that Pashazade commands considerable respect both in Azerbaijan and
throughout the Islamic world.)
Pashazade is known as a level-headed person in Azerbaijan itself, and
his jihad warning therefore made headlines in the republic. Indeed,
Pashazade has been urging the faithful to keep their heads and give
the authorities a chance to settle the matter (have the occupied
territories released, that is) by peaceful means for the last decade
or so.
Local analysts take Pashazade’s warning to official Yerevan as an
indication that Azerbaijani society is weary of waiting for conflict
resolution and that it is becoming more and more accepting of radical
ideas. Even the OSCE Minsk Group is aware of the trend. Its officials
are frantically trying to arrange another round of the
Azerbaijani-Armenian peace talks. Tair Tagizade of the Directorate of
Information of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said yesterday that a
meeting of two foreign ministers was to be organized in the middle of
September. The ministers might even agree to arrange a meeting
between national leaders, Tagizade said.
Attempts to revive the dialogue between Baku and Yerevan are made
against the background of frequent skirmishes at the line dividing
national armies of the warring sides. Press Service of the
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said yesterday that the Armenians had
violated the cease-fire regime once again and opened up on
Azerbaijani positions in the environs of the village of Gjuljustan
(Geranboi district). The Azerbaijanis returned fire and the skirmish
eventually wound down without any losses reported.
Delays with the conflict resolution process, occupation of almost 20%
of the territory of Azerbaijan by Armenia lasting for over 13 years,
and Yerevan’s reluctance to obey four resolutions of the UN Security
Council demanding withdrawal from the seized areas compound mount
tension in Baku. Local analysts point out that this state of affairs
that constitutes neither peace nor war can last and the chances of
renewal of the hostilities increase by the day. Almost 1 million
Azerbaijani refugees are waiting for the word to go ahead and
liberate their ancestral lands. Even President of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliyev keeps saying that “this is Armenia’s last chance to settle the
matter without bloodshed.”
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, August 29, 2006, p. 3
Translated by A. Ignatkin

NAGORNYY KARABAKH LEADER, BELGIAN SENATOR DISCUSS KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
Arminfo, Yerevan
31 Aug 06
Stepanakert , 31 August: The president of the Nagornyy Karabakh
republic, Arkadiy Gukasyan, and the head of the commission on defence
and foreign affairs of the Belgian Senate, Roelants du Vivier Francois,
discussed the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict at a
meeting on 31 August.
The sides noted the importance of peace and stability to economic
development and democratic institutions in the region, Arminfo
reported.
At the request of the guest, Gukasyan informed Francois of Karabakh’s
official position on the settlement of the problem, as well as of
socioeconomic and political developments.

VISITS OF PRESIDENTS OF FRANCE, ROMANIA AND SLOVENIA TO ARMENIA EXPECTED TILL LATE THIS YEAR
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Aug 30 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 30, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. It’s envisaged
that till late 2006, RA President Robert Kocharian will pay a
working visit to Germany, an official visit to Kazakhstan, will
participate in the CIS summit to take place in Minsk. RA President’s
Spokesman Victor Soghomonian stated about it at the August 30 press
conference. In his words, French President Jacques Chirac’s, Romanian
and Slovenian Presidents’ visits to Armenia are expected till late
this year. V.Soghominian mentioned that the information about the
RA President’s visits and foreign states heads’ visits to Armenia
are preliminary.
Terms and details of the visits are defined by diplomatic
channels. Responding a journalist’s question concerning the
possibility of a visit to be paid to Armenia by President of Iran
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Victor Soghomonian mentioned that he has “no
clear information at the moment” about it.

WEB’S PRISONERS INCREASE, POSSIBILITIES DO NOT
Lragir.am
30 Aug 06
There are about 100 thousand users of the web in Armenia. 30 percent
are companies, 70 percent are individuals. The director of Arminco
Andranik Alexanyan told these facts to the news agency ARKA. He
said the number of the Internet users in Armenia goes up because
the information technologies are becoming an indivisible part of
everyday life, as well as a means of business. At the same time,
Andranik Alexanyan said the potential of the sphere is not used at
full. He gave the example of the regions where a lot of gifted people
are found but where the Internet is not available. The director of
Arminco appreciated the healthy competition on this market. He said the
Internet providers learn a lot from one another. “Our market is small,
and competition should be tolerant,” said Andranik Alexanyan. At the
same time, he stated that the Internet infrastructures in Armenia
are in an extremely bad state.
“The tariffs are extremely high, the highest in the world, whereas the
quality is bad,” said Andranik Alexanyan. He says Armentel is to blame,
for it does not give due attention to the creation of quality Internet
infrastructures. “Armentel abuses the monopoly and does not give due
attention to the development of the Internet n Armenia, which has a
great future both as a business and as an infrastructure. For Armentel,
however, this direction is not attractive because it is mostly
interested in cellular communication,” said Andranik Alexanyan. He
said the government should be consistent and require due fulfillment
of obligations assumed by contract. Andranik Alexanyan said only in
2006 the only fiber optic cable of Armenia was damaged 20 times and
the country did not have Internet.

JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY: REBEL TO STATESMAN – ANDRE AGASSI
By Harvey Araton
The New York Times
August 29, 2006 Tuesday
Late Edition – Final
THE veteran Andre Agassi watcher knew better than to kiss off Agassi’s
21st United States Open as a formal farewell, even if the heavy odds
and his 36-year-old legs told us last night that was all it could be.
You could say that Agassi made his contender’s last stand here last
year, when he beat James Blake in a five-set match for the ages
before losing the final, with honor, never falling to the level of
Federer fodder.
Then his chronic back staged a full-scale insurgency, and he announced
that his last professional ball would be struck in New York. Hence,
the Andre vigil began with an exhausting 6-7 (4), 7-6 (8), 7-6 (6), 6-2
victory against the Romanian journeyman Andrei Pavel in a ceremonially
charged atmosphere at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
“I know he’s got tennis left in his hands — he made the final here
last year — but I hope he has it left in his back,” Agassi’s former
opponent, Jim Courier, said earlier. But the back is brittle, the body
lacks snap, and Agassi’s second-round date with Marcos Baghdatis should
be the final bow, the dropping of the curtain on the Las Vegas showman,
after being what Courier called “the iconic figure in tennis for the
last 20 years, the leading personality, the biggest drawing card.”
>>From style to substance, hair to bare, Agassi has compelled us to
take notice, made an impression, for better (now) or worse (then).
His locker-room colleagues yesterday — from the 17-year-old American
Donald Young to 53-year-old Jimmy Connors — could undoubtedly pinpoint
the first time they laid eyes on the man who, in the process of aging,
produced a most remarkable rebirth.
Connors declined to dig into his mental archives, citing the more
immediate “business responsibilities” of coaching Andy Roddick to a
first-round victory against Florent Serra. Luckily, another reliable
source happily recalled the occasion of the prime-time Jimbo pushing
the ball from the other side of the net at a 5-year-old boy whose
father was furiously grooming him for the big time.
Mike Agassi, Andre’s dad, explained that he used to string rackets for
visiting professionals at Caesars Palace, and Connors, among others,
was nice enough to humor him.
“Andre made a lob over Jimmy’s head, and Jimmy said, ‘Listen, you
want me to play with you, hit the ball right at me,’ ” Mike Agassi
said in an interview outside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Eleven years later, it was John McEnroe’s turn for a rendezvous with
the budding rebel, in the quarterfinals of a tournament at Stratton
Mountain in Vermont. Agassi was in full costume, denim and all,
with a punk hairdo that McEnroe called a rat’s nest.
When McEnroe followed his second serve to the net on the first point of
the match, Agassi blasted a forehand return long — by more than a few
inches — that made McEnroe roll his eyes at his unknown opponent’s
youthful impudence. McEnroe proceeded to win in straight sets but
later admitted that no one had ever returned his serve that fast.
Told the story by a newspaper reporter (me) who covered that match,
Courier said, “I bet John would tell you that was the moment he
realized that tennis was changing, and he was going to have to adjust.”
McEnroe never did fully make the conversion to power tennis, and he
never won a Grand Slam singles title after his 26th birthday. He wasn’t
the only champion to flame out young — Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and
Mats Wilander, to name three others — and that is what made Agassi’s
career unique. We charted his highs and lows across the decades. We
watched him evolve, it seemed, in the middle of a match.
“I’ve always said that, unlike the team-sport environment, where
you are protected in a cocoon, as a tennis player you are naked,”
Courier said. “You are growing up in public, warts and all. Andre
has taken the hard road.”
He was the antithesis of his generational rival, Pete Sampras, the
opposite of easy. He was, however, a convenient teenage dartboard
for critics, and, to varying degrees, we all took aim. Making harsh
judgments on developing young people is not the most enjoyable part
of this job, especially with the cameras now turned on children as
young as 12 and with a couple of my own at home.
Given the opportunity to cop that plea not long ago, Agassi refused.
“As I look back on it, I don’t think the media and the public should
have taken a different approach to it,” he told me. “I should have
been accountable a lot earlier.”
Such insight and admissions have made his professional and personal
achievements so much more worthy of applause. Yes, he falls six Grand
Slam titles short of Sampras and loses to him on both of their best
days. Yes, Agassi could have won more had he been focused sooner. But
he, not Sampras, accomplished a career Grand Slam. And he, as much
as any champion we’ve known, seemed to come to the enlightened
understanding that it was less about the judgment than the journey.
Mike Agassi, a short, stocky man, an Armenian who once boxed in the
Olympics for Iran, did a lot of talking outside Arthur Ashe Stadium
yesterday. He said he hadn’t seen Andre since arriving in New York,
doesn’t see him much at home. He said “the mother drops off the kids,
and Andre goes to the gym.” He called Agassi’s wife, Steffi Graf,
“the best thing to happen to our family.”
The father-son relationship sounded complex, as you would expect it
would be. But Mike Agassi said he felt nothing but pride and happiness
for the way it played out, for the man his boy has become.
The father made a rare trip from Vegas and an appearance at an Andre
Agassi match. He waited for nightfall, for the classic ball striker
and great showman of tennis, for the beginning of the end, however
long it lasts.

China Joins Kars-Tbilisi-Baku Railway Project
By Erdal Sen, Anka
Zaman Online, Turkey
Aug. 26, 2006
zaman.com
Seen as an important bridge for the transfer of energy resources from
Central Asia and the Caucuses to the rest of the world, Turkey is
taking significant steps toward reinforcing its strategic position
in the world.
With the construction of the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway, originally
brought to the agenda in 1960, Turkey will become a major transfer
route between Asia and Europe.
Regarding the project, scheduled for launch in 2007, Zaman conducted
an interview with Turkish Minister of Transport Binali Yildirim,
who revealed that Kazakhstan and China have also joined the project.
When completed, the project will be a modern version of the Silk
Road, enabling a person in Kars to reach Shanghai or Hong Kong via
Kazakhstan.
The project, which will be linked to the Marmaray Project, will permit
trains departing from Britain to reach China via Turkey non-stop.
The railroad venture will be completed in two years time and will
transport 20 million tons of cargo annually.
Indicating that the former controversy between Turkey and Armenia
stalled the project for years, Yildirim predicted the project would
change the face of the region to a great extent, as well as improving
general conditions.
Yildirim stressed that Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey were working
together to overcome the difficulties negatively affecting the
region’s economy.
“The project will establish a direct link between Turkey and
Azerbaijan. It is crucial that all shipping in the region will reach
Europe and Asia via Turkey,” explained Yildirim.
Railway to Cost $250 million
The transport minister informed Zaman that Turkey would be responsible
for the construction of the 76-kilometer branch that leads to the
Georgian border, while Georgia will undertake the construction of 25
kilometers of track within its borders.
Turkey’s portion of the total cost of the railway project is expected
to total $250 million when completed.
The project was previously shelved due to former Treasury Minister
Kemal Dervis’s refusal to guarantee funding.