Author: Kalashian Nyrie

If you refuse to kill in Russia, you will go to prison
Kavkaz-Center
Fri, 06 3 2005
In his interview to “Real Azerbaijan”, Alexander Litvinenko responded
to the statement of the Russian Embassy in Armenia
– Mr. Litvinenko, what is your comment on the statement of the Russian
Embassy in Armenia concerning your announcement about connection of
the GRU to the shooting of Armenian parliament that is the consequence
of Boris Berezovsky’s political order and insinuations against the
Russian-Armenian relations?
– Russian Embassy in Armenia is trying to wash away the crimes of
Russian Special Services by all means. I declare once more that
shooting of the Armenian parliament was organized by the GRU.
Boris Berezovsky is a political figure. And the fact of recognition
of his status by the Russian Embassy indicates that all former
statements of the official Kremlin about Berezovsky are deprived of
any grounds. Berezovsky has never mentioned that he is interested
in weakening of Russia ‘s role in the region and in deterioration of
relations between Russia and the states of the Southern Caucasus .
Moreover, as Executive Secretary for the CIS in the past, Berezovsky
has done a great deal for the development of Russian-Armenian
relations. The Russian diplomats in Armenia present the desirable for
the actual when they note that I speak for Berezovsky and implement his
will. At present I am a veteran of military service, lieutenant colonel
transferred to the reserve. Even when the judge advocate brought in
an action against me to reduce to the ranks (as it is known, hearing
of the case was held in my absence), the court rejected his suggestion.
I was dismissed from the FSB on the basis of the edict issued by
Vladimir Putin, and it was related with the “organizational” measures.
The embassy is casting aspersions on me.
– Some Russian media, close to the Kremlin have reported that you
are abusing your once high position in the leadership of FSB and
misinform the public.
– But then I am asking – Why have not they brought action against
me? My books were on sale in Moscow for a long time. Then they banned
my books. As to my second book, it was sold even in the building
of State Duma. No one has ever brought an action against me. No
one, neither Putin nor the FSB insisted on refutation. Each of my
statement was confirmed with the corresponding documents of special
services. Anywhere, in Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, etc., in any country,
the representatives of Russian embassies said that it was insinuation
and nothing else. I produce the documents, name the witnesses, and
give detailed interviews. But they respond to all that with one word –
insinuation! And there is no one to say anything.
As to the statement concerning Russian Embassy in Armenia, I repeat,
they are trying to wash away terrorism and dirt from their special
services. Russian Special Services is a terrorist organization.
– Taking the opportunity, I would like to ask you if you have any
information regarding the relatives of Aslan Maskhadov and field
commander Doku Umarov, captured by the Russian Special Services.
– I also read Doku Umarov’s interview published by the Chechen sites,
in which he says that his relatives were taken hostages by Russian
special services. As to the whereabouts of Maskhadov’s relatives,
nothing is known to me. The Chechens suppose they are killed. Let
the Russian ambassador in Armenia answer this question – Where are
Aslan Maskhadov’s relatives? According to the Russian legislature,
they are considered the citizens of Russia, aren’t they? What has
become of them ? Where are they today?…
If you refuse to kill in Russia, you will go to prison.
Interview with Mr. Litvinenko was conducted by Elnur Eminogly,
“Real Azerbaijan”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IRAN, TURKMENISTAN TO BUILD HYDROGEN POWER PLANT
IPR Strategic Business Information Database
June 2, 2005
According to “Tehran Times”, Iran and Turkmenistan are determined
to construct a 1,000-megawatt hydrogen-fuelled power station, an
Iranian official said. Ramezan Vahidi, director for research center of
renewable energies, told reporters no private financier has dared to
get involved in the project “because of big expenses”. The first phase
of investment requires 2,000 euros per kilowatt, he said, adding the
costs would fall in the next stages. Iran has also cooperated with
Armenia in construction of windmill to generate electricity.

GOVERNMENT OF ITALY TO RENDER TO AZERBAIJAN FOOD ASSISTANCE
[June 01, 2005, 18:40:45]
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 1 2005
The government of Italy will render to Azerbaijan humanitarian food
assistance at amount of 1 million Euros. The agreement on it has been
signed on June 1 in the Cabinet of Azerbaijan. From the Azerbaijan
side, the agreement was signed by Vice-Premier, Chairman of the State
Commission on International Humanitarian Assistance Ali Hasanov,
from the Italian side – by the ambassador of Italy to Azerbaijan
Margarita Costa. The food assistance, aimed for the IDPs driven
form their homelands as a result of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, will consist of packages of Parmesan cheese, rice,
granulated sugar.
Vice-Premier Ali Hasanov, expressing gratitude to the Italian
government for this noble action, has emphasized that Italy rendered
great volume of the humanitarian assistance to the Azerbaijani refugees
among all European countries. It has been marked that the present
aid appears after official visit of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliyev to Italy. The first humanitarian assistance has been rendered
to Azerbaijan on results of visit of the national leader, President
Heydar Aliyev in 1997 by oil company “ENI” at amount of 2,2 million
US dollars. The Azerbaijani refugees have received assistance also
during visit to Azerbaijan in May 2002 of the head of the Catholic
Church, the Pope of Rome.
At the ceremony of signing, also were present representatives of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy.

Azerbaijan, Armenia: Conflict settlement concept elaborated
Baku Today
June 1 2005
Deputy Foreign Minister and the President’s special envoy on the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict Araz Azimov has elaborated on the Azerbaijani
government’s concept on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
Azimov told a news conference on Monday that the concept, based
on international legal norms and the recommendations indicated in
the last resolution on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict passed by the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, envisions liberating
occupied lands, repatriating refugees, establishing relations between
the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities and normalizing ties between
the two countries.
Azerbaijan considers Armenians living in Nagorno Karabakh its citizens
and believes that the conflict cannot be settled only by freeing the
occupied lands, he said.
“We consider the liberation of lands a beginning of this process,”
said Azimov, noting that areas should be cleared from landmines
and communication links restored in the future. He added that these
activities will be impossible without the support of the international
community.

HEADS OF PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATIONS MET
A1plus
| 17:05:26 | 31-05-2005 | Official |
RA Presidential administration head Artashes Tumanyan and head of
the Russian presidential administration Dmitry Medvedev met today
to discuss a number of issues referring to the Armenian-Russian
cooperation.
Specifically, the parties noted the necessity of launching the
enterprises conveyed to Russia within Property for Debt agreement as
well as a number regional economic programs including the Iran-Armenia
gas pipeline.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INTER-GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA ON TURKEY’S AGENDA
AZG Armenian Daily #099, 01/06/2005
Turkey
On April 10, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter
to Armenian President Robert Kocharian. On April 26, Kocharian sent
a reply letter. The exchange of correspondence seemed to suggest a
meeting between two leaders in Warsaw summit of the Council of Europe,
May 16-17.
But Armenian President’s speech at the summit and Turkish side’s
morbid response stifled all hopes for a meeting. Turkish Prime Minister
preferred responding to Kocharian’s speech in a press conference rather
than discuss issues face to face. But before the President’s speech,
Turkish side had to officially respond to Kocharian’s letter of April
26. On May 31, Turkish Zaman daily wrote on this occasion in an article
titled “If Yerevan Does Not Take A Step Forward, Kocharian Will Not
Get Second Letter”, “The correspondence launched between Turkey and
Armenia after hot discussions over the so-called Armenian genocide
is falling short because of Yerevan’s inappropriate approach. Given
this situation, Ankara will not reply to Armenian President Robert
Kocharian’s letter. Though PM Erdogan’s proposal of ‘leaving the
study of the events of 1915 to historians and other specialists’
meet Kocharian’s ‘establishment of diplomatic relations first and
then discussing all issues’ was far from fully satisfying Ankara,
but it still was taken ‘positively’. But during the last month Yerevan
displayed no approach we hoped for. The failure of Kocharian-Erdogan
meeting in Warsaw as well as Armenian President’s tough stance at
the CE summit made it impossible to reply to the letter”.
Zaman notes that diplomatic circles complain that “Planes fly from
Istanbul to Yerevan and Turkish goods enter Armenia via Georgia,
meanwhile thousands of Armenians work in Turkey but the authorities
do not inform the people about this”.
Zaman quoted those circles as saying, “The only good news that
reached Ankara from Yerevan recently was Armenian foreign minister
Vartan Oskanian’s statement about Kars Treaty, ‘As long as there
are no new treaties, ones signed by the USSR are in force’. Ankara
wants to receive this statement from the RA Foreign Ministry website
‘via official ways”.
This publication of Zaman should be considered kind of a signal. We
don’t exclude that it was launched to check out moods in Armenia. Yet,
this signal shows that though Ankara avoids diplomatic relations
with Armenia, establishment of intergovernmental relations is high on
its agenda. Otherwise Turkey simply would not touch upon Kocharian’s
reply to Erdogan’s letter, the Turkish press would not occasionally
return to RA President’s speech in CE summit nor would it write about
Kocharian-Erdogan might-have-been meeting.
By Hakob Chakrian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US president “highly assesses” relations with Armenia
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
30 May 05
Armenian ambassador to the USA Tatul Markaryan has presented his
credentials to US President George Bush.
The traditional exchange of messages took place during the
ceremony. Ambassador Markaryan highly assessed the current level of
Armenian-American relations, noting that the Armenian-US cooperation
is based on common interests and values, as well as friendship between
the two nations. The ambassador thanked the United States for the
assistance to Armenia during the independence years. He emphasized
the Armenian-US cooperation in political, military, trade and economic
spheres and expressed the Armenian authorities’ readiness to continue
partnership relations with the USA.
President Bush highly assessed the level of the Armenian-US relations,
saying that the two countries have historical ties. Beginning from
1991when Armenia declared its independence, we have been working
together to establish democratic institutes and economic basis so that
Armenia can overcome the consequences of the destructive earthquake
of 1988, the collapse of the USSR and war with Azerbaijan for Nagornyy
Karabakh, the US president said in his message.
The US president also stressed that owing to great progress registered
in Armenia during the past 15 years the republic had been involved
in the Millennium Challenge programme.
The US president praised Armenia for its contribution to the struggle
against international terrorism and for sending peacekeepers to
Iraq. The US president’s message once again confirmed his country’s
readiness to assist the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict
and normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

OVER 20% OF COMPLAINTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN ARMENIA SOLVE POSITIVELY
Pan Armenian News
31.05.2005 07:13
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Over 20% of complaints referring to violation of
rights of private persons are decided positively, Armenian Ombudsperson
Larisa Alaverdian stated in the course of an on-line interview
with OpenArmenia.com. In her words, the indicator is considered a
positive one in the international practice. As noted by Alaverdian,
the statistics over the complaints, received by the Ombudsperson
Administration, are published in the Ombudsperson’s Annual Report and
it will appear on the website one of these days. At that she noted that
the most number of complaints from Armenian citizens were received over
questions of violation of civil rights, specifically, property rights
(256 complaints). Complaints of functionaries breaking the Criminal
Code are on the second place (218 complaints). “Complaints are made
of the violation of human rights due to “bad administration”, there
are 126 “complainants”, which include groups of persons and working
staffs of enterprises that were privatized or became bankrupt, as
well as enterprises, which do not fulfill their obligations to their
workers. Violations of the Labor Code and the human right for labor
on the whole are registered in 108 complaints,” she stated.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

l
Anzeige gegen türkischen Minister
VON GERD HÃ~VHLER, 30.05.05, 07:22h
Ministerpräsident Tayyip Erdogan unterstützt seinen Justizminister
nicht.Ankara – In der Türkei flammt die Kontroverse um die
Armenier-Verfolgungen im Osmanischen Reich wieder auf. Nachdem
Justizminister Cemil Cicek vergangene Woche die Teilnehmer einer
geplanten Akademikerkonferenz über die Armenierfrage als
â~@~^Verräterâ~@~ gebrandmarkt und damit die Absage der Tagung
erreicht hatte, muss sich nun die Staatsanwaltschaft mit dem Fall
beschäftigen: Ein Anwaltsverband und der Menschenrechtsverein von
Izmir erstatteten am Wochenende Anzeige gegen den Minister. Er habe
mit seinen Ã~DuÃ~_erungen gegen die Verfassung verstoÃ~_en, lautet
die Begründung.
Die Konferenz, zu der sich auch zahlreiche namhafte ausländische
Wissenschaftler angemeldet hatten, sollte sich mit dem Schicksal der
Armenier im Ersten Weltkrieg beschäftigen. Nach armenischer
Darstellung, die von den meisten internationalen Historikern geteilt
wird, fielen damals im untergehenden Osmanischen Reich fast 1,5
Millionen Armenier einem Völkermord zum Opfer. Die Türkei
bestreitet das. Justizminister Cicek hatte den Veranstaltern und
Teilnehmern der geplanten Konferenz mit dem Titel â~@~^Ottomanische
Armenier während dem Fall des Reichesâ~@~ vorgeworfen, sie
stieÃ~_en â~@~^der Türkei einen Dolch in den Rückenâ~@~ und
strafrechtliche Konsequenzen angedeutet. Die staatliche
Bosporus-Universität, an der die Konferenz stattfinden sollte, sagte
die Veranstaltung daraufhin ab.
Die Intervention des Justizministers hat in Teilen der türkischen
Ã~Vffentlichkeit und im Ausland Kritik und Empörung ausgelöst.
â~@~^Wir haben wieder einmal das getan, was wir am besten können:
uns selbst ins Bein geschossenâ~@~, kommentierte der angesehene
Kolumnist Metin Münir in der Zeitung â~@~^Vatanâ~@~. Der Historiker
Andreas Riedlmayer von der Harvard Universität meinte: â~@~^Dies ist
kein guter Tag für die akademische Freiheit in der Türkei.â~@~ Ein
EU-Diplomat in Ankara sagte, die â~@~^autoritärenâ~@~
Ã~DuÃ~_erungen des Justizministers stellten den Reformprozess in der
Türkei in Frage. Ministerpräsident Tayyip Erdogan ging auf Distanz
zu seinem Minister und sagte, ihn hätte es nicht gestört, wenn die
Konferenz stattgefunden hätte.
(KStA)
–Boundary_(ID_NKu2qm+vatXMaSigV5LMEg)–

ARMENIA’s CAPITAL IS PARALYZED BECAUSE OF ROUND DANCE AROUND ARAGATS
MOUNTAIN
YEREVAN, MAY 28. ARMINFO. Today in the morning Armenia’s capital was
paralyzed lost in fact the whole transport. The reason is simple
enough – the whole Yerevan bus and route-taxi depot was directed to
serve people dancing around Aragats Mountain. To remind, a round dance
round Aragats Mountain is organized today, on the Day of the First
Republic, on the initiative of Armenia’s prosecutor general Aghvan
Hovsepyan. About 200.000 people will participate there. The action
will start at 15:00 and last 15 minutes. The record pretended to find
itself in the Giness Records Book, will be shown by CNN TV-company.
According to official data, a non-ordinary situation in Yerevan given
its residents a lot of moral and material discomforts has not told
upon their health yet. Deputy director of “Emergency” CJSC Nune
Zhamkochyan informed ARMINFO that company’s workers were informed that
a hard day is expected and reported for work in time. There is no
information about a number of “emergency” calls yet. According to
Armenia’s Police press-service, the situation in Yerevan is normal, no
emergency situations are registered.