Author: Kalantarian Kevo

CONGRESSWOMAN FROM HAWAIIAN ISLS BECOMES 201st SUPPORTER OF RESOLUTION CONCERNING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Jun 20 2007

HONOLULU, JUNE 20, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Last week the number
of the supporters of Resolution 106 increased by one in the person
of the Congresswoman Mazi Hironos, who is the representative of the
Hawaiian Islands in the U.S. House of Representatives. By the way, she
is the first Congresswoman, who has immigrated and has Asian ancestors.

The local Armenian community, as well as the democrat George Kassy
expressed their gratitude to Mazi Hironos for supporting Resolution
106 proposed by Adam Schiff, the co-Chairman of Congress Commission
on Armenian issues.

SARKISIAN MEETS JAILED OPPOSITIONIST’S WIFE
By Shakeh Avoyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
June 19 2007

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian met with the wife of former Foreign
Minister Aleksandr Arzumanian on Tuesday to discuss the politically
charged criminal case against the arrested opposition politician.

The meeting lasted for less than ten minutes, with Melissa Brown again
protesting her husband’s innocence and demanding his release from
pre-trial detention. Brown, who is a U.S. citizen, looked dissatisfied
with its results as she spoke with RFE/RL afterwards.

"I asked him the question which I am always asked: Why did they arrest
Alik? Especially considering the fact that he has long known Alik,"
she said.

Brown would not say if Sarkisian, who had served with Arzumanian
in the same Armenian cabinet from 1996-1998, pledged to intervene
in the highly controversial criminal proceedings. "I don’t want to
speak for him," she said. "You should ask the prime minister."

"He didn’t put any questions to me. We just talked a little,"
she added.

Arzumanian was arrested on May 7 and has since been kept in the
basement jail of Armenia’s National Security Service on charges of
illegally receiving a large amount of money from Levon Markos, a
fugitive Russian businessman of Armenian descent. His arrest came two
days after NSS officers searched his Yerevan apartment and confiscated
$55,400 worth of cash kept there.

They also confiscated a comparable amount of money from the Yerevan
apartment of Vahan Shirkhanian, another prominent oppositionist. But
unlike Arzumanian, Shirkhanian was not charged under an article of
the Armenian criminal code that deals with money laundering.

The two oppositionists, who were key members of the administration of
former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, co-head the Civil Resistance
Movement, a small opposition group campaigning for regime change in
the country. They both deny being financed by Markos.

Arzumanian’s arrest has been condemned as politically motivated by
virtually all major Armenian opposition parties as well as some human
rights campaigners and other civil society figures. Brown has actively
participated in street protests staged by them in Yerevan.

Sarkisian offered to meet her after one such rally held outside his
office earlier this month.

Brown said she will continue to campaign for Arzumanian’s release. "I
don’t pin hopes on anyone," she said. "I just want to talk to and
share my thoughts with everyone."

Meanwhile, it is still not clear when Arzumanian, who refuses to
answer questions from NSS investigators, will go on trial or whether
he will be tried at all. The NSS has been unwilling to divulge further
details of the case.

Arzumanian’s lawyer, Hovik Arsenian, claims that the former KGB lacks
the evidence to prosecute his client and is deliberately dragging
out the investigation. According to Arsenian, the investigators have
failed, in particular, to look into media reports quoting another
ethnic Armenian citizen of Russia as admitting that he is the one
who sent the confiscated sum to Arzumanian.

The man, identified as Aleksandr Aghazarian, was reported to have
revealed his address and offered the NSS to question him.

STAKES ARE HIGH FOR DIAZ AND GAMBURYAN
By Dave Meltzer

Los Angeles Times, CA
June 18 2007

The Ultimate Fighter 5 tournament championship and a nine-fight UFC
contract are the reward for winning their fight on Saturday.

On August 21, 2004, 21-year-old Karo Parisyan beat 21-year-old Nick
Diaz via split decision on a UFC show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Both received $6,000 for their efforts. Today, the two are among the
biggest MMA stars in the country.

When Parisyan’s training partner since childhood, and second cousin,
Manny Gamburyan, faces Diaz’s training partner since childhood and
brother, Nate, on June 23 at The Pearl in Las Vegas, the stakes will
be a whole lot higher: the Ultimate Fighter 5 tournament championship
and a nine-fight UFC contract, plus other sponsorship prizes thrown in.

Gamburyan, 26, began training with Parisyan when he was 10 and Parisyan
was 9. Both were immigrants from Armenia and started age-group judo
competition at a young age. Gamburyan was national champion in his
age group at the age of 13, when he competed at 88 pounds, and was
a top-level teenager until going all the way to the Junior World
Championships in 2000. Both started MMA training at the same time
under famed judo master and pro wrestling TV personality Gene LeBell.

Nate Diaz, 21, Nick’s brother, grew up in Stockton and shares his
brothers’ hot temper and all-around game, with his strength in
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu taught under Cesar Gracie, combined with good
technical boxing. Their match takes place on a show airing live on
Spike TV, headlined by the show’s two coaches, B.J. Penn vs. Jens
Pulver. Besides the money and the contract, also at stake is a
potential fast ride to stardom. An interesting twist is that on the
final episode of the Ultimate Fighter reality show, that aired Thursday
night, Parisyan, who hasn’t gotten along with Nick Diaz since their
fight, on the set as a guest, nearly got into a fight with Nate Diaz.

The previous winners of The Ultimate Fighter tournaments have become
unique fighters in the sport, huge stars to most fans, and hated
among the hardcore fans who believe the show gave them a shortcut to
stardom. Season one winner Forrest Griffin is one of the five most
popular fighters in the country, although he desperately needs a
win in his June 16 fight in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with Hector
Ramirez to keep from a career tailspin after two losses last year.

Diego Sanchez, the other season one winner, has become one of the top
170-pound fighters in UFC, although is also coming off a loss. For
season two, Rashad Evans is unbeaten, and faces his toughest test to
date on July 7 in Sacramento against Tito Ortiz. The other winner,
Joe Stevenson is currently a top contender at lightweight. Season three
winner Michael Bisping remains unbeaten, and is the company’s biggest
drawing card in the United Kingdom. The other winner, Kendall Grove,
is one of the more popular fighters, but hasn’t been tested against
top-level competition. For season four, Travis Lutter won and earned
a title shot at Anderson Silva, but he lost the fight, and worse,
failed to make weight beforehand. The other winner, Matt Serra,
shocked the world by winning the welterweight title from Georges
St. Pierre on April 7 in Houston.

It’s an intriguing match, because Gamburyan neither wanted to be on the
show, and, at 5-3 1/2, as the smallest of the 16-fighters in the cast,
was dismissed by many, including UFC President Dana White, as being a
contender, because of his lack of reach seemingly would make him too
easy of a target standing. But what wasn’t counted on was that nobody
could keep him from taking them down and he was difficult to reverse
position on, and was aggressive while on top . Diaz is tall and lean,
at 6-0 and able to cut to the 155-pound weight limit.

In addition, during the six weeks of filming of the show during January
and February, the two were training partners on Jens Pulver’s team.

"We trained together every day, sometimes twice a day," said Gamburyan,
who said he got along with Diaz on the show, but neither wanted to
speak to the other after they ended up in the finals because each
has a feeling that they need to dislike their opponent.

"We know what each other is good at. We know what each other isn’t
as good at."

Gamburyan is 8-2, plus two more wins in the tournament that don’t count
on his record, coming off a shoulder injury that kept him sidelined
for a year. While he actually beat Joe Lauzon to earn a spot in the
finals back in February, he wasn’t allowed to talk about it until it
aired on television on Thursday night.

He said that was the hardest thing he ever had to do, as friends and
training partners were prodding him for what happened. He said at his
gym, one of his friends saw him back in February when the show ended,
looked at him and seemed to figure it out.

"He looked at my knuckles and could see I had just been in a fight,"
said Gamburyan. "He then looked at my face and could see I didn’t have
any damage. So he hugged me and said, congratulations on getting to
the finals and told everyone in the gym."

Gamburyan never clued anyone in, but joked how in his gym, everyone
seemed to figure he was in the finals, but everyone also thought they
had figured he was facing Lauzon, the preshow favorite to win it all.

On Thursday afternoon, he noted he was counting the hours before
he could finally talk about his match, and take credit for knocking
Lauzon out of contention with a 30-27 decision win.

Gamburyan didn’t want to be on the show in the first place, nor
would he ever do it again, saying the six weeks without television,
radio, his girlfriend, music and seeing the same people every day,
drove him crazy.

"Even if they offered me $100,000, I’d never do it again."

He was first contacted late last year when UFC matchmaker Joe Silva
called him up and offered him a match on the Dec. 30 show. Silva
then called him back and said they were going to do a lightweight
tournament on the next Ultimate Fighter and he thought it would be
a great opportunity for him. Gamburyan told Silva he wasn’t interested.

Silva called him back and told him, "I want you to do it." He told him
that if he still turned it down, he’d get him a fight on a PPV show
but said he was passing up a golden opportunity that could springboard
his career a lot faster than some preliminary wins on PPV events would.

The one person who, to a degree, had to eat crow on Gamburyan was
White, who talked several times during the season that he felt
Gamburyan was too small for the top level guys on the show. White
eventually conceded Gamburyan had proven him wrong after beating
Lauzon in the semifinals.

But Gamburyan conceded as well the show was a great thing for him,
particularly when it comes to training and diet. Gamburyan packed
about 174 pounds on his frame before the show, and said it would kill
himself to cut to 160 for judo competition. But by training harder
and cutting out all junk food, he spent the entire six weeks on the
show at 155 pounds and was just about the only guy not having to cut
weight to fight. He’s now 160 without any cutting and makes 155 with
ease. He said if the opportunity was there, he’d like to cut to 145.

But for now, that isn’t happening since the lightest weight class
in UFC is 155. He also has a score to settle with UFC’s current
lightweight champ, Sean Sherk, who beat him via split decision six
years ago when both were starting out.

"I don’t diet," he said. "I eat what I want, but I don’t eat bad. No
sweet stuff, no pizza, hamburgers, or cokes. I haven’t partied in
six months. After June 23rd, I have to take a break."

Gamburyan credits his judo background for his balance, his grip
strength and ability to throw people. He says he trained harder
than anyone on the show. His strengths are his aggression, his power
and his conditioning. Diaz is taller, with ridiculously more reach,
more boxing skills, and is excellent with submissions on the ground.

Gamburyan concedes Diaz the advantage standing up from a technical
standpoint, but said he hits harder and has knockout power. It’s hard
to ascertain a conditioning edge, because both men fight as a torrid
pace and were constantly outlasting opponents during the show.

Regarding the main event, between the two coaches of the show, Pulver
vs. Penn, Gamburyan doesn’t see it as the one-sided win for Penn that
oddsmakers and almost everyone is predicting.

"I never rolled with B.J.," he said. "But Jens is no slouch. He’s
hard to take down. I hope B.J. trains hard. If B.J. stands with him,
it won’t be a good night for him. I’d say the odds are 70-30 in Jens’
favor in a stand-up fight, but on the ground, the odds go to 80-20
for B.J."

Notes: June 22 in San Jose at the HP Pavilion is a Showtime PPV
headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. Phil Baroni, promoted as the biggest
grudge match of the year, complete with interviews right out of 1970s
pro wrestling.

Dave Meltzer is the creator and author of the Wrestling Observer
Newsletter, a leading publication covering pro wrestling and MMA. For
more information:

KOCHARIAN HONORS SLAIN TURKISH-ARMENIAN EDITOR
By Gayane Danielian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 18 2007

President Robert Kocharian publicly honored on Monday the assassinated
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink with a posthumous state award
granted each year to prominent individuals in recognition of their
contribution to Armenian culture and science.

Dink was among 18 writers, artists, and scientists awarded this
year from a special presidential endowment set up with the help of
French-Armenian philanthropist Robert Bogossian in 2001.

Kocharian singled out the late editor of the Istanbul-based
Armenian weekly "Agos" for special praise as he addressed a solemn
award-giving ceremony in his office attended by Dink’s wife, daughter
and brother. He cited Dink’s contribution to "restoration of historical
justice, mutual understanding between peoples, freedom of speech,
and protection of human rights."

"It was a big loss for our people," Kocharian said of the editor’s
shock assassination. "I want to assure members of his family that we
will always remember Hrant Dink, that Armenia is also a home for his
family, that we are always happy to see them in Armenia," he added.

Dink’s widow Rakel was given a standing ovation as she received the
$5,000 prize from Kocharian. "We will find the power to endure our
pain," she said in a brief speech.

Dink was shot dead outside the "Agos" offices in Istanbul last January
by a young ultranationalist Turk furious with his public references
to the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as
genocide. The murder was universally condemned in and outside Turkey
and led to an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy for Dink, his family
and Armenians in general by tens of thousands of ordinary Turks. But
it also provoked a nationalist backlash, raising questions about the
security of the country’s small Armenian community.

Speaking to RFE/RL, Rakel Dink said she and other members of her
family are not yet considering leaving Turkey despite mounting
security concerns within the embattled community. Asked whether they
might eventually emigrate to Armenia, she said: "It could happen,
but there is no such urgency now."

Last Thursday Turkish prosecutors called for a prison sentence of
up to three years for Dink’s son Arat, who now edits "Agos," and
his colleague Serikis Seropyan for republishing a 2006 interview in
which his father made a case for genocide recognition. They accused
the two men of "denigrating Turkishness." Hrant Dink was given a
six-month suspended sentence on the same charge several months before
his assassination.

At a court hearing in Istanbul, Arat Dink accused judges of
contributing to his father’s death by making him a target thanks to
their high-profile judicial proceedings. "I think it is primitive,
absurd and dangerous to consider as an insult to Turkish identity
the recognition of a historic event as a genocide," he said, quoted
by the Anatolia news agency.

KARABAKH AT AN INTERSECTION
Davit Gharabekyan – Independent analyst

KarabakhOpen
18-06-2007 11:42:32

The upcoming election again necessitates our society to take a test
on democracy. The hope for legality started fading away soon.

After the well-known letter of the director of the Civic Action Center
NGO the CEC gave a nervous and insulting response, which was followed
by "sudden" hindrances for the human rights defender to visit the
penitentiaries, while he used to monitor prisons before that. The
Demo Newspaper and KarabakhOpen.com were checked out of the list of
local media which get grants from the NKR government.

Avoiding details, I will say that the society is now in an atmosphere
which reminds of the times of Peter’s reforms: officials of different
ranks rush to take a test on loyalty to the likely presidential
candidate to hold on to their posts.

I nevertheless hope that the next leader (whoever is elected) will
display will and determination and will not let the pre-election
moods or any ends prevail over the national interests and long-term
programs of development.

The leaders of the surveys conducted by the abovementioned independent
media and NGOs have so far successfully avoided extremities, although
the psychological tension is tangibly growing as the election campaign
is drawing nearer.

However, the choice of ways of development depends on the society. If
it wishes to live in legality and share responsibility with its
leader for its future supporting it through the difficulties of
social transformation and consistently pursues its goal, the nation
will overcome the crisis.

How the government should agree with people

Fundamental changes in the society are facilitated by the gradual
replacement of a one-pole government by a bipolar government. People,
the society is becoming the second pole, the most active part of which
is the independent media and NGOs. I consciously rule out political
parties and the parliament.

First, because the parliament has lost the role of a representative
of people and a bridge between people and the executive.

Second, the majority of parties have become nominal
organizations. However, none of the parliament parties complies with
the classical definition of a party, and has not proved its right
to be considered as a party, taking a test in government, fame and
political struggle.

Meanwhile, a lot of journalists stood up for their rights with endless
reproaches from the people they criticize, including influential
officials.

They raised and covered sharp issues, despite difficulties, and
obviously there is more trust and interest in their reports that the
meetings and conferences of parties.

The appearance of an NGO or establishment of an open discussion on
a complicated and urgent issue on the eve of the election is now
fashionable to perceive as lobby for a presidential candidate. In
addition, it is now fashionable to discern plots or intrigues,
or backstage forces in the actions of the opponent. In addition,
the outside forces are associated with something negative, cunning,
destructive.

A show on the Public Channel last week suggested that the meetings of
NGOs are funded by organizations backed by Jewish-Masonic forces. So
shall we reject international cooperation? As to money, I have
never seen an independent reporter who, unlike their critiques, has
apartments outside NKR, realty for several hundreds of thousands of
dollars (minimum), expensive cars…

So where is the way out? How can we improve our lives? The dialogue
among the public forces will help transfer the discussion of the
abovementioned problems into a constructive framework and define
the primary internal and external problems, as well as to work out
mechanisms of solving them.

NEW BRANCH OF VTB BANK-ARMENIA OPENS IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Jun 14 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The opening of the new branch of VTB
Bank-Armenia CJSC owned by VTB Bank OJSC (Russia) in Yerevan symbolizes
the Armenian and Russian economies’ being integrated and the fact that
the financial sector must contribute to this integation. The Chairman
of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Tigran Sargsian stated this on
June 14 during the opening ceremony of VTB Bank-Armenia’s branch in
"Moscow House" (Yerevan).

He expressed a hope that the bank will have a leading position in
Armenia and the "rapid implementation of the agreements reached will
be a new stimulus for integration of our economies."

Chairman of VTB Bank’s board Andrey Kostin said that they reached
an agreement with the CBA chairman on the programs of further
capitalization and development of the network of branches. According
to him, investment programs to be implemented in Armenia’s energy
sector, gas transportation, air transportation and metal mining have
been discussed with the Armenian prime minister Serge Sargsian.

It is noteworthy that VTB Bank envisages to increase the capital of
VTB Bank-Armenia up to 40 million dollars, and by this index it will
become the largest bank in Armenia.

SERGE AMIRKHANYAN: THERE ARE NO RESTRICTED TERRITORIES FOR SETTLERS

KarabakhOpen
13-06-2007 11:53:43

There are no restricted territories for settlers, said the head of the
Department of Migration, Refugees and Resettlement Serge Amirkhanyan
in an interview with KarabakhOpen.com. The head of the department
commented on NKR President Ghukasyan’s statement that immense funds
are necessary for the settlement of the liberated territories.

Serge Amirkhanyan considers resettlement as a crucial task. "The
faster, the better. The solution of this problem depends on
resettlement. In 2001 when I was appointed adviser to prime minister on
resettlement, we worked out a 10-year program, which costs 110 million
dollars. 35 thousand refugees could settle in these territories on
these funds. Both now and then we expected to get funds through the
Armenians worldwide. The government funds the settlement of 130-150
families a year. On the whole, 3 million dollars is allocated,
which means the program will last for decades," Serge Amirkhanyan
said. The head of the department also said there are no obstacles to
resettlement except funding.

Azerbaijan demands from its neighbor the land that had never belonged

Azat Artsakh Daily, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
09-06-200

The history of the modern Azerbaijan goes almost according to Orwell,
in spite of the historical facts and numerous confirmations about this
or that land’s belonging to various neighboring countries. To the
territorial claims against Armenia the story with the Georgian
monastery complex `Davit Garedji’ is added now. Who Azerbaijan will
sort out its relationship with next is hard to predict. It could be
Dagestan, Iran, or Turkey. But before making any demands it is better
to try and learn the history of the own nation and not to search any
family tree where it doesn’t exist; among Albanians, Persians, Turks
etc. /PanARMENIAN.Net/ In 1918 the Musafat party (Equality) first used
the term `Azerbaijan’ for the area situated on the territory of two
Transcaucasian historical areas; Shirvana and Arrana. Before that the
place-name `Azerbaijan’ only referred to the territories situated to
the south of the River Arax, in the area of Tebriz, Ardebil and Lake
Urmia. Later the land of Azerbaijan and Eastern Transcaucasia (modern
Azerbaijan) were populated with people of almost identical ethnic
origins. In 1936 Azerbaijan was integrated into USSR on the bases of
the Soviet Republic rights. The Azeri Turks were officially called
Azerbaijani; Azerbaijani was also the name of their official language.
It was then, when with the decision of the Soviet Government the Azeri
written language was translated from Latin to Cyrillic. This is how the
things had been before Heydar Aliyev came to power in Azerbaijan.
Taking the control of the country, he immediately decided to `revise’
the history of the country. It was then, when Farida Mamedov’s
notorious work `The Caucasian Albania’ appeared, Guliyev’s book about
medieval architecture of Albania where all the Armenian churches and
khachkars were announced to be Albanian, i.e. Azerbaijani. All this
enabled Baku to `revise’ the belonging of the territories included in
Az.USSR. The most interesting part is that the Deputy Minister of the
Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Khalaf Khalafov himself blurted out about
the boarders. `In its time the USSR authorities didn’t regard the issue
of delimitation of the administrative rights among the former Soviet
countries, which led to a number of problems in boarder delimitation.
According to his words, often different documents referring to the
issue of territories of this or that country contradict each other,’
says Day.az. Historian Jamil Hasanly is sure that, `Many native Azeri
territories have gone to the neighboring countries. Today we don’t have
to squander our territories. We must try to save what has been left to
us after giving out Azeri lands, and today we cannot lose a single
square meter’. The parties’ incapacity of finding a peaceful solution
of the controversies concerning the territorial integrity as well as
the right of nations’ self-determination leads to national conflicts
growing into military confrontation. The principle of territorial
integrity exclusively works for the protection of the country against
external aggression, and this is closely interconnected with its
formula in UNO Charter; `All the UN Members in their international
relations refrain from force or its implementation against the
territorial inviolability or political independence of any country, as
well as any other method incompatible with the objectives of the UNO’.
However the UNO Charter states that the principle of the territorial
integrity isn’t applicable for the countries which do not secure equal
rights for the nations and do not allow freedom of self-determination,
and this, perhaps, is the most essential point in the resolution of the
Karabakh Conflict. It should be reminded that the nation’s right on
self-determination is considered to be one of the universally
recognized principles of international law. It gained recognition in
the process of the colonial system breakdown and was toughened in the
Declaration of Independence of the colonial countries and nations (by
the Resolution N 1514 XV of the UN General Assembly adopted on December
14, 1960) and the consequent international pacts and declarations of
UNO. Creation of the multinational empires sooner or later brought to
their breakdown; the Roman Empire, the Golden Horde, the Ottoman
Empire, Austria-Hungary, USSR. Being one of the most significant
features of independence, territorial integrity became one of the
weakest points after the USSR breakdown. The main difficulty concerns
the change of the administrative bounds in the former Soviet Union into
public ones. But if Kosovo falls apart from Serbia why Nagorno-Karabakh
can’t be proclaimed an independent Republic? Maybe because Serbia is of
much less importance to the USA than Azerbaijan, yet for Russia
everything is just vise versa. Unfortunately once again Armenia has
found itself between two rocks, in spite of all international
principles and treaties.

09-06-2007

TERRITORIAL DISPUTE: ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN EDGE TOWARDS DEAL

Daily Times, Pakistan
June 8 2007

BAKU: A meeting this Saturday of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan
is raising hopes that a deal could be reached on a dispute over
the volatile territory of Nagorny Karabakh that has long disfigured
this region.

The two countries have been locked in a bitter stand-off over the
mountain territory for more than a decade, poisoning efforts to
bring stability to the strategic South Caucasus region, bordered
by Russia, Turkey and Iran. Having gone to war in the early 1990s,
their forces still clash sporadically and any escalation could derail
Western efforts to promote a corridor of oil and gas pipelines from
the Caspian Sea to Europe.

Russia and Turkey have a close interest. Ankara has closed its borders
with Armenia in support of Azerbaijan, while Moscow counts Armenia
as its closest ally among the ex-Soviet states on this southern
flank. Now however diplomats are saying that a meeting this weekend
in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg between Armenian President
Robert Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev could
herald a breakthrough.

No one is expecting a final settlement, but diplomats say an agreement
on basic principles could be reached by the end of this year. "If
they decide they want to resolve the last few issues on the table then
it’s realistic that you could anticipate the signing of an agreement
on the basic principles this year," US Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State Matthew Bryza, who is mediating in the talks, said in the
Azerbaijani capital Baku. The top French mediator, Bernard Fassier,
said that "never in the past have the two sides been this close to a
possible agreement," but cautioned that "this does not mean a deal
is at hand. It means that it is perhaps less far away than it was
before."French, Russian and US diplomats are mediating under the
auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE).Diplomats said the two sides could set aside the issue of the
final status of Nagorny Karabakh in favour of a step-by-step plan to
deal with other contentious matters.

AZERBAIJAN WOULD START A WAR IF BEING SURE
By Nana Petrosian

AZG Armenian Daily
08/06/20

"If the Azerbaijani authorities were sure if the perfection of their
armed forces, it would start a war at once," stated in an interview to
"Independent Artsakh" newspaper lieutenant-general Movses Hakobian,
Desense Minister of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to the Defense Minister, large expenses on the army are not
yet enough for successful military operations. During the war both
Armenia and Karabakh were under blockade, but neither the people nor
the army despaired and even won the war, he said.

Commenting on the Azerbaijani official statements that the Azerbaijani
forces are better equipped and are larger in numbers, Mr. Hakobian
assured that the army of Karabakh is provided with everything
necessary.

"Azerbaijan will face a catastrophe in case of unleashing the war,"
he assured.