Author: Hovhannisian John

UN GA ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON SITUATION IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Sept 8 2006
Situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan was discussed
at the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New
York, 7 September, correspondent of AzerTAc reported. In hourly-long
discussions, representatives of the UN-member states have adopted
a resolution. In the Resolution, the UN General Assembly expressed
serious concern with ecological damage caused by the arsons set in
the occupied areas of Azerbaijan. In the document, also was stressed
necessity of quick ecological operations to prevent the arsons and
eliminate its consequences. The sides are ready to cooperate in
this field, the Resolution says, and appraises this cooperation as
trust-building step. As is stated, the Resolution envisions sending
an OSCE mission with the participation of UN Environment Program
specialists to region to ascertain the short and long-term damage
to the environment. The UN relevant structures are called to render
assistance to the fire-affected areas, and the OSCE Chairman-In-Office
is asked to present not later than April 30, 2007, a report connected
to the question to the General Assembly member-states.
Azerbaijan’s permanent representative at the United Nations Yashar
Aliyev made remarks at the discussions. “The arsons committed at the
occupied areas of Azerbaijan since early June of current year cover
over 600 square meters of territory. The fact the Azerbaijan government
is deeply concerned deeply is that the arsons continue and they occur
in the areas the Azerbaijanis should return. These lands in short
time have become deserts, the Ambassador emphasized. After official
request of Azerbaijan government, the OSCE fact-finding mission on
3-5 July has been at some fire-affected areas, and confirmed the
fact. The mission’s report confirms lack of appropriate fire safety
equipments and sufficient water reserve in both sides, and the main
– the need for international assistance. Ambassador Aliyev called
on the General Assembly to take urgent measures to extinguish the
fire, lessen influence of the ecological disaster, and restore the
fire-affected territories of Azerbaijan.
In the discussions, taking the floor on behalf of the GUAM states,
the representative of Ukraine, then representative of Pakistan and
Turkey expressed concern with the arsons in their territories and
called for adoption of the aforementioned resolution.
Speaking on behalf of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the USA
representative also upheld the offer of Azerbaijan side, noting that
a joint mission of UN Environment Program and OSCE specialists would
be sent to region to learn the situation.
Representative of Armenia estimated discussion of the question carried
out in the frame of United Nations as an obstacle in negotiations
for settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict,
expressing protest to send a fact=finding mission to the region.
In his reply, Ambassador Yashar Aliyev, noted that last days the
Azerbaijani side, on request of the OSCE MG co-chairs, together with
the Armenian side has worked out and prepared a draft of consensus.
Therefore, disagreement of the Armenian representative with the Draft
resolution at the last moment is “an inglorious and worthless step”.

BARROSO AGAINST PUTTING SO-CALLED GENOCIDE AS A PRECONDITION BEFORE TURKEY
Turkish Press
Sept 10 2006
BRUSSELS – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has
announced that he is against conditioning Turkey’s EU membership on
recognition of so-called Armenian genocide.
In a meeting with representatives of the Reformist Movement (MR) at
the Belgian parliament, Barroso said that Turkey “cannot be forced”
to acknowledge the so-called genocide, and this cannot be put as an
additional precondition before Turkey.
Submitting a resolution to the Senate last summer, senators Francois
Roelands du Vivier and Christine Defraigne of MR proposed that
so-called Armenian genocide should be included within the framework of
the resolution on the Holocaust, and those who do not acknowledge it
should be sentenced up to one years in prison, and fined to 5,000 Euro.
The Belgian parliament shelved similar resolutions and motions after
debating them last year.
In the debates at the Senate’s Justice Committee, all other parties,
except MR and ECOLO (the Green Party in Belgium) expressed thought that
“a wrong legal step is being taken”, “it is not Belgian’s business
to assess and judge historical incidents”, and “recent positive step
taken by Ankara cannot be ignored”.
The last resolution, presented to the Senate, has been suspended “for
some time” due to the local elections in Belgium due on October 8th,
and the reactions of the Turkish community.

KIDS’ ECO-CAMP HIGHLIGHTS ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Source: World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe office (MEERO)
Reuters AlertNet, UK
Sept 9 2006
Children learn through fun and games at the Eco-Camp
World Vision MEERO,
Twenty four children from six villages in an ecologically devastated
region of Lori in north Armenia, heard how their communities’ precious
forests are disappearing at an alarming rate during an ecology camp
in late August.
Experts say some 30% of trees in Lori were illegally felled for
heating and construction purposes during the last decade.
‘This region used to be very rich in forests, and it suffered most
from people’s barbarity. Youth today don’tknow how long it takes for
a sapling to grow into a tree, have no idea about the environmental
disaster they face in future,’ said Marat Manukian, Lori ADP acting
manager.
[rquotebox] An estimated 15% of forests are cut in Armenia for heating
and construction purposes each year. [rquotebox] Forests covered 25%
of Armenia at the beginning of the 20th century but now only 8% to 9%
of the nation is forested. An estimated 15% of forests are cut in
Armenia for heating and construction purposes each year.
Organized by Lore Eco-Club NGO with the support from World Vision,
the eco-camp aimed to raise awareness about environmental issues and
find solutions through interactive games and presentations.
The participants were the children who have previously participated
in seminars on environmental issues and won a composition contest.
Together with ten local and two Peace Corps volunteers they learned
about water turnover of water, desertification, the provisions of
Orhus Convention and the importance of preserving the environment.
‘We believe these children will return to their villages and educate
their peers. We hope to see more people like us, people who care for
the environment and understand its importance for the development of
our region’, says Manya Melikjanyan, the president of Lore Eco-Club.
The camp was held near the village of Gyulagarak, where members of
Lore recently discovered massive, unauthorized woodcutting and raised
a clamour among the international organizations and governmental
bodies. As a result, the felling was stopped and the forest of relic
pine-trees will be preserved.
[lquotebox] We do hope that unauthorized tree felling will be reduced,
if we join efforts and educate people. [lquotebox] Sona Vardumyan,
22, a volunteer from Stepanavan, said those who plan wood cuttings and
all the population are now on the alert. ‘We do hope that unauthorized
tree felling will be reduced, if we join efforts and educate people’,
she adds.
Lore Eco-Club NGO was established in 1999 to implement environmental
and health programs. World Vision and the club have been organizing
seminars on environmental issues, publish booklets, monitor the Lori
woodlands and plant trees since April, 2006.

PEOPLE IN TURKEY PROTEST AGAINST TROOP DEPLOYMENT IN LEBANON
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2006 14:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Some 15 thousand people throughout Turkey had taken
to the streets on Tuesday to protest against the government motion,
which allowed deployment of Turkish troops in Lebanon. Anti-war
activists protesting against the troop deployment in Lebanon clashed
with anti-riot police in Ankara on Wednesday as Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was receiving UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Some 300 leftist activists gathered at crossroads and closed the
traffic to march to the Prime Ministry on Wednesday afternoon. Police
set up a barricade and did not allow the protestors to march to the
Prime Minister’s House where PM Erdogan was receiving Annan.
Rejecting to end their protest, masked activists began to clash with
police who later used tear gas to disperse the protestors. Police
chased the activists down to the side streets and detained dozens
of them.
Some protestors threw stones to the Ankara office of the ruling
Justice and Development Party, headed by the country’s PM, reports
Cihan News Agency.

EU PARLIAMENT REPORT SAYS TURKEY SLOW ON PROMISED LEGAL REFORMS
Katerina Ossenova at 11:16 AM ET
JURIST
Aug 6 2006
[JURIST] The Foreign Affairs Committee [official website] of the
European Parliament [official website] approved a report Monday taking
Turkey to task for slow progress on a variety of legal and other
reforms agreed to by Ankara as part of its bid [EU backgrounder] for
membership in the European Union [JURIST news archive]. Among other
things, Turkey was criticized [press release] for its “persistent
shortcomings in areas such as freedom of expression, religious and
minority rights, the role of the military, policing, women’s rights,
trade union rights and cultural rights.”
The parliamentary committee also called for Turkey to acknowledge
responsibility for the Armenian genocide [JURIST news archive] that
took place during World War One, an admission Turkey has until now
rejected. On the positive side, however, the report also acknowledged
Turkey’s progress [EU Observer report] in opening the first chapter
of EU legislation, introducing new laws to fight corruption and
broadcasting in minority Kurdish.
The text of the report will be debated by the full European Union
Parliament [official website] in September and a formal progress report
on Turkey’s accession progress is due on October 24; the EU has urged
Turkey to make tangible improvements by that time. The European Union
Parliament has never vetoed a past accession bid but if the reform
process is not “reinvigorated,” the accession talks could be placed
on hold.

DELEGATION LED BY ROMANIAN NATIONAL DEFENCE MINISTER TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA ON OFFICIAL VISIT ON SEPTEMBER 6
Noyan Tapan
Sept 04 2006
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. A delegation led by Romanian
National Defence Minister Teodor Atanasiu will arrive in Armenia
on a three-day official visit on September 6. After the official
meeting ceremony at Erebuni airport the delegation will have a press
briefing. As Noyan Tapan was informed by Colonel Seyran Shahsuvarian,
Spokesperson for RA Defence Minister, during the visit, on September 7,
the delegation will have meetings with RA President, Prime Minister,
Defence and Foreign Ministers. On September 7, the delegation will
visit the Museum of Victims of the Armenian Genocide, will lay a wreath
to the memory of the Genocide victims. On September 8, visits to the
Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin and Matenadaran are scheduled. Then
the head of the Romanian delegation will meet with journalists.

Armenian minister, Belgian senator discuss ties

Arminfo
2 Sep 06

Yerevan, 2 September: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan met
the head of the commission on defence and foreign affairs of the
Belgian Senate, Roelants du Vivier Francois, today.
At the meeting Oskanyan highly rated the Belgian Senate’s effort to
raise the Armenian question in Belgium and its tangible contribution
to the development of relations between Armenia and Belgium.
The Belgian senator pointed out that Armenian-Belgian cooperation was
developing successfully in several directions. He also shared with
Oskanyan his impression of his visit to Nagornyy Karabakh and his
approach to the peaceful solution of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
At the request of the guest, the Armenian foreign minister briefed him
on the current stage of the Karabakh conflict settlement. The sides
also discussed developing cooperation between Armenia and Belgium
within the framework of the programme Expanded Europe: New Neighbours
and the current developments in the region, as well as
Armenian-Turkish relations.

AZERBAIJAN INCREASING ITS MILITARY BUDGET
ArmRadio.am
31.08.2006 17:39
“Azerbaijan must increase its military budget to the volume necessary
to liberate out territories from Armenian invaders,” member of the
political council of the “Yeni Azerbaijan” party, Deputy Chairman of
the Mili Mejlis Standing Committee on Defense Issues Aydin Mirzazadeh
told “Trend” agency in response to the question about the statement
by the EU Commissioner on Foreign Affairs Benita Ferro Waldner.
To remind, speaking at the “Caspian Outlook 2008” forum, she called
on Georgia and Azerbaijan to refuse from the increase of the military
budget.
Mirzazadeh said that this demand of the EU Commissioner cannot be
accepted.
According to him, “the position of the EU Commissioner toward
Azerbaijan is not understandable.” “The Commissioner does not say
anything about EU’s cooperation with Armenia, instead she lays certain
demands on Azerbaijan,” the Azeri political scientist underscored.
“We’ll not give our lands to Armenia. The best argument in this
question is the creation of a well-equipped army,” Mirzazadeh declared.

ILHAM ALIYEV: PRAGUE PROCESS IS THE MOST ACCEPTABLE WAY OF SETTLING KARABAKH CONFLICT
By Gohar Gevorgian
AZG Armenian Daily
31/08/2006
On the sidelines of “Caspian Perspectives-2008” congress in Slovenian
town of Bled president Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan stated that
presently the negotiation process is being conducted within the
framework of Prague format that means stage-by-stage settlement
of dispute. Commenting on Aliyev’s words Vladimir Karapetian,
spokesperson for the Armenian Foreign Ministry, told Regnum that
Armenia continually touches upon the Prague process. “We are talking
about the basic principles lying on the negotiation table.
Thus, the Armenian side has nothing new to say about the Prague
Process,” he said.
Day.az news agency reports that dubbing the Prague Process most
acceptable option, Aliyev expressed hope that Armenia will at last
display constructive approach and will in turn make efforts for
conflict’s regulation. Aliyev also demanded to liberate “occupied”
lands without any prerequisite saying he is not going to give up his
position that is based on international regulations. Aliyev senior
did not forget to add that the unresolved Nagorno Karabakh conflict
is a source of serious threat to the whole region.
Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian also touched upon Karabakh
conflict in Slovenia saying that the negotiations today are at
critical point and the world community has to do everything to bring
Azerbaijan back to realistic and constructive position for discussing
the principles on the negotiation table.
As to the meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Tair
Kakhizade, head Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s Information Department,
said that the meeting between FMs will be held in mid-September but
the date and place are not finalized yet, Regnum reports. The Armenian
Foreign Ministry says that information about future meeting will be
released only upon Oskanian’s return.

EU NEIGHBOURS DRIFTING INTO WAR, BRUSSELS WARNS
By Andrew Rettman
EUobserver.com, Belgium
Aug. 29, 2006
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Brussels has voiced alarm at the mounting
risk of open warfare in the EU’s southeast neighbours – Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan – amid European plans to sign new cooperation
pacts and build new pipelines in the region.
“Negative trends are coming together, the combination of which
is, frankly, alarming,” external relations commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner said at an experts’ forum in Slovenia on Monday
(28 August), citing a recent upswing in aggressive rhetoric and
arms spending.
“Defence spending is going through the roof,” she stated, adding
“there is a serious danger of the rhetoric lowering the threshold
for war” in reference to the so-called “frozen conflicts” of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia in Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan.
The three regions tore away from Georgia and Azerbaijan in three
separate conflicts in the early 1990s which together claimed some
35,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands before the various
warring parties ceased fire after reaching tense impasses.
Local diplomats say potshots are still exchanged “daily” on the
Nagorno-Karabakh border and “monthly” on the borders of the Georgian
territories, with one woman shot dead in fighting between Georgian
troops and Abkhazian separatists in the Kodori Gorge in July.
The International Crisis Group’s (ICG) Europe director, Nicholas Whyte,
shared Ms Ferrero-Waldner’s analysis, saying “That’s an extremely
reasonable concern…they are preparing for war.”
He cited potential Georgian military aggression in Abkhazia and
potential Azeri aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh as the most likely
threats to peace in the short term.
Preparing for war Georgia’s military budget proportionally increased
faster than any other country’s in the world last year, he stated,
while Azerbaijan has boasted that its military budget in 2007 will be
the size of the total budget of Armenia – its main aggressor in the
conflict over the ethnic-Armenian dominated Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Georgian and Azerbaijani diplomats in Brussels both say they
are committed to diplomatic conflict resolution under the various
multinational formats at work in the region, but Tbilisi sees Abkhazia
and South Ossetia as Russian-run mafia enclaves while Baku makes no
secret of its growing impatience with the status quo.
“[Displaced] Azerbaijani people have been waiting for the liberation
of the occupied territories, to return to their occupied lands for
15 years,” an Azeri diplomat told EUobserver. “It’s ridiculous to
wait for ever, to stand and do nothing.”
Russia is an added complicating factor in the region, with between
2,000 and 3,000 Russian “peacekeeping” troops stationed in Abkhazia and
South Ossetia as well as significant numbers in Armenia, with Moscow
issuing thousands of Russian passports to the Georgian separatists.
If fighting breaks out, the ICG’s Mr Whyte believes both Georgia and
Azerbaijan “are underestimating” the severity of the international
and Russian reaction, with Baku also underestimating the tactical
defensibility of Nagorno-Karabakh by an inferior force.
EU goals at risk Ms Ferrero-Waldner is planning to visit the region
in October to sign political and economic “action plans” for closer
EU integration, with the Georgian and Armenian action plan texts set
to “take note that [these countries] have expressed their European
aspirations” for future EU membership.
The texts are also set to give Georgia and Armenia the option to
formally “align themselves” with “some” future EU statements on common
foreign and security policy topics.
But the EU commissioner warned that sepratism could derail the
integration process, saying on 28 August that “the most important
impediments to the region’s development are the frozen conflicts.”
South Caucasus is strategically important to the EU, with Azerbaijani
oil already flowing from Baku via Georgia and Turkey to Europe
through the so-called BCT pipeline, and with plans afoot for major
gas pipelines to the EU from the Caspian Sea basin in the next five
to ten years.
Western analysts agree that the energy income to supplier state
Azerbaijan and transit state Georgia is helping to buy extra arms
and creating a bullish atmosphere however. “Oil is not helping to
lubricate conflict resolution,” Mr Whyte said.