Author: Kalashian Nyrie

KARABAKH IMPORTANT FACTOR IN CAUCASUS – MINISTER
Ayastani Anrapetutyun, Yerevan
8 May 04
Text of Galust Nanyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Ayastani
Anrapetutyun on 8 May headlined “The NKR is an important factor in
the region”
This is an interview with the foreign minister of the Nagornyy Karabakh
Republic (NKR), Ashot Gulyan. The Bishkek agreement on the armistice
signed on 12 May 1994 will mark its 10th anniversary soon. It does
not contain any term, it only says that the armistice should last
until the signing of a peace agreement.
According to NKR Foreign Minister Ashot Gulyan, when the armistice
agreement was signed, the NKR was given the opportunity to start
peaceful life. “It is natural that the Karabakh party’s participation
in the signing of the armistice agreement, as well as in other
discussions, was one the most painful problems for Azerbaijan,”
Gulyan said.
Irrespective of everything, the most important thing is that they
reached such an agreement and it is still in force. According to
Gulyan, if the NKR as a party is responsible for maintaining the
armistice, so the NKR should logically be a full participant in the
Karabakh conflict settlement.
When several months ago the former foreign minister of Azerbaijan,
Vilayat Quliyev, said that Azerbaijan is ready to negotiate directly
with the NKR if Armenia walks out of this process, Ashot Gulyan says
that it was not serious readiness. This was simply a regular political
step on the part of Azerbaijan and aimed to find out what response
it will get.
“The NKR president, as well as numerous members of the NKR Foreign
Ministry, have repeatedly said that the Karabakh party is ready to
negotiate with Azerbaijan in any format without any pre-conditions,”
Gulyan said.
He also said that in the 10 years they managed to make quite serious
progress in the issue of creating and establishing an independent
state.
Gulyan said that thanks to these efforts, the NKR has really become
an important factor in the region. If earlier the NKR was seen in the
region only as a military and political factor, which had military
potential, today “I think that the level of the NKR’s economic and
public development allows us to say that Nagornyy Karabakh is really
an important factor in the region in all spheres,” Gulyan said.
As for the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border and the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict in this context, Gulyan said that only Armenia and
Turkey can settle these relations. “I have the impression that the
Turkish government is hostage to the pre-conditions put forward by
Azerbaijan from time to time,” Gulyan said.

Wrestling With the Spirit–and With Death
by Giga Chikhladze
Transitions on Line, Czech Republic
May 21 2004
Once championed by Tolstoy, the pacifist Russian Dukhobors of
southern Georgia now find themselves without a champion or much of a
future.
GORELOVKA, Georgia– Small white-and-blue houses, all decorated with
ornamental window frames, some topped by storks’ nests. A landscape
whose only touches of modernity are scattered electricity poles,
vertical complements to the ash trees that blaze with red berries in
the autumn. Villages named Gorelovka, Orlovka, Bogdanovka and peopled
with fair-haired, blue-eyed Russian-speakers. But for the harsh,
stony highland countryside with bluish hills outlined against a
dove-gray sky, it could be a village somewhere on the steppes of
southern Russia.
This, though, is the Caucasus and the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of
Georgia, home to a unique and dying way of life.
FROM A HARD PLACE TO A ROCKY PLACE
For the pacifist, non-conformist Russian Orthodox who came to be
known as the Dukhobars, this spot near the Armenian border and the
outer edges of the Russian Empire became a haven 150 years ago.
It was not a haven they chose.
The Dukhobors appeared in southern Russia in the 18th century, at a
time when nonconformists of all kinds were splitting away from
established Russian Orthodox ways and doctrines. One foundation story
says the Dukhobors were followers of a certain American Quaker who
somehow found his way to the steppes—and, certainly, the similarities
between the two faiths are striking. Like the Quakers, the Dukhobors
rejected the priesthood, original sin, and the authority of the
Bible. They were vegetarians, teetotalers, and pacifists.
The central thread of Dukhobor spirituality is the teaching that
God’s kingdom resides in our souls and God’s words direct our
actions. The believer needs no priest nor church hierarchy to
intercede between the individual soul and God. The “struggle for the
soul” is their essential dogma–and the origin of the epithet,
originally derogatory, they earned in Tsarist Russia: Dukhobor, or
“spirit wrestler.” In time the expression lost its insulting
overtones and became a neutral term.
The Dukhobors’ migration to the edges of the Russian empire began in
the early 19th century, when Tsar Alexander I settled them near the
Sea of Azov. The next three decades saw the most peaceful period in
the sect’s history, according to historian Valery Oghiashvili of
Tbilisi University.
As the political mood grew increasingly reactionary, particularly
under Alexander’s successor, Nicholas I, the Orthodox Church again
stepped up the pressure on this splinter group. Traditionalists saw
the Dukhobors’ rejection of religious ritual and the clerical
hierarchy as a rejection of the state. In 1837, the authorities
ordered the Dukhobors to be resettled in the Caucasus territories
recently annexed to the empire. Many went there on foot; others
scattered across Russia, disappearing from history or returning to
the Orthodox fold. Those who made it to Georgia were first settled in
the Kakheti region, then in the remote highlands of
Samtskhe-Javakheti.
When they first came to this high plateau, emptied of people as a
result of Georgia’s wars with Turkey and Persia, the Dukhobors lived
in primitive mud huts. Here, in conditions far removed from what they
had known on the south Russian steppe, they began to breed cattle,
grow vegetables, and spin wool.
TOLSTOY’S LEGACY
The spiritual—and practical—struggles of the Dukhobors won them the
support of Leo Tolstoy, the sage of Russian literature. Tolstoy, who
was strongly influenced by their devotion to pacifism and communal
living, helped the Dukhobors by paying for a school to be built in
Gorelovka at the turn of the last century. The school was only one in
the district for the next 45 years and is still where young people in
the village go to for their schooling.
But Tolstoy also sowed the seeds that might ultimately lead to the
demise of the community in Georgia. The Russian authorities may have
effectively exiled the Dukhobors, but they did not exempt them from
their duties to tsar and country. In 1895, a mass protest by the
pacifist Dukhobors against military conscription prompted many to
look for a refuge outside Russia. Tolstoy came to their aid,
sponsoring their migration to Canada. Some 10,000 people left “New
Dukhoboria,” as the Georgian community was known, for Canada at the
turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In Canada, they took the name
the Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood; today, the
denomination counts about 40,000 adherents, most in British Columbia.
For those who remained in Georgia, life was tough. “I still remember
the time when my grandmother went 160 kilometers on foot to Armenia
to buy wool,” says Maria Fedorova, a 76-year-old from Gorelovka.
“Then she would spin the wool here and take [the yarn] back to
Armenia, where she sold the goods she made. There was a time when we
lived from the wool business alone.”
Stalin made life harsher still. Lyubov Demidova, former head of the
Gorelovka village council, says that in the 1930s, Stalin’s
collectivization practically uprooted their way of life. Despite
their poverty, the Dukhobors were branded kulaks–well-off
farmers–and thus, class enemies.
“Most of our people suffered repression, and the remaining few had to
change their lifestyle. In spite of that all, though, we retained our
beliefs,” Demidova says.
THE FUTURE IS ELSEWHERE
What state repression could not accomplish, though, the invisible
hand of the market may. The collapse of the Soviet-era planned
economy brought hard times to Georgia’s highlands. Poor roads and a
lack of investment heightened the area’s isolation, forcing many
able-bodied workers to seek better opportunities, most in Russia.
Others left for fear of war between Georgia and Armenia. Although
that war never came, the Dukhobor population in Georgia, already
reduced to some 7,000 in 1990, plummeted to fewer than 1,200 in 2003,
about half of them in Samtskhe-Javakheti.
Most ethnic Georgians have also left the area. The population drain
has only partly been replenished by local Armenians.
The Dukhobors who remain eke out a living. After Georgia’s
independence, agricultural cooperatives were set up, but most have
gone bankrupt under the burden of high taxes and legislation. Large
herds of well-kept cattle used to graze on these hills, but now,
though villagers still keep a few cows and grow potatoes for their
own use, the farming economy in Samtskhe-Javakheti and other less
hospitable areas of Georgia has been devastated.
The impoverishment has been cultural as well as economic. “We’ve lost
and forgotten a lot,” laments Lyubov Demidova. “Only our old women
remember our ancestral songs, prayers, rituals, and traditions. Once,
mixed marriages between Dukhobors and outsiders were unimaginable.
This rule doesn’t apply now. We were vegetarian. Now we eat
everything. We didn’t drink alcohol, even beer. Now we do … We didn’t
smoke. Now we do …”
One of the few true Dukhobor features the locals have not yet
forgotten is the extraordinary influence of women. Women run almost
all aspects of life, not through formal structures but through family
ties. This matriarchal way of life is considered something close to
heresy in Georgia’s male-dominated society.
But not even matriarchy may be strong enough to hold the Georgian
Dukhobors together any longer.
Many believe it is time to leave if they can. Russia is no longer the
destination of choice. Even though most Dukhobors still speak only
Russian, many would head for Canada given the choice. “Our only hope
is the Canadian Dukhobor community,” says another (unrelated)
Demidova, Luda.
“They still cherish the old traditions and rituals. We would go there
if we could. We have no future here. Nobody helps us in Georgia. We
are simply disappearing.”

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 60; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
May 21, 2004
___________________
SPEND TIME WITH OUR YOUTH THIS SUMMER
St. Vartan Camp, held this year from June 26 to July 24, is looking for
medical professionals to staff the camp health center.
All applicants must possess a current LPN, RN, PA, NP or MD license and
be certified in CPR for the professional rescuer. Camp directors will
help volunteers who are not licensed in New York State obtain
reciprocity.
Health center workers have a variety of responsibilities, including:
overseeing the general health and safety of campers and staff,
administering medication, and maintaining and reviewing health records.
Weekly camp population is about 150 campers and staff.
A minimum stay of one week is preferable, although camp organizers
welcome those who can stay for shorter periods. Room and board are
provided, and the salary is negotiable.
This year the camp will be run at the Diocese’s new Ararat Youth and
Conference Center in Greenville, NY, located in the heart of the
Catskill Mountains, just 30 miles south of Albany.
If you or someone you know qualify and are interested in spending time
with the kids this summer, contact St. Vartan Camp Director Yn. Arpi
Kouzouian by e-mailing [email protected] or calling (617)
876-2700.
— 5/21/04
# # #

Armenia doesn’t intend to join NATO – defense minister
Interfax
May 21 2004
Moscow. (Interfax-AVN) – Accession to NATO is not a part of Armenia’s
foreign policy agenda, Defense Minister Serzhik Sarkisian told a
Friday news conference.
“The answer to the question about Armenia’s intentions of joining
NATO is clear from the start because the leadership of the republic
has said on many occasions that it does not include this issue in
its foreign policy agenda,” he said.
Armenia also has no intention of quitting the Collective Security
Treaty Organization in the near future, he said. Membership in it is
a component of Armenia’s national security, he said.

No word from ‘mercenaries’ in EGuinea
Related links
‘Mercenaries’ will take SA government to court
Sunday Times, South Africa
May 19 2004
The attorney for eight South Africans held in Equatorial Guinea for
allegedly preparing a coup has still not had telephonic contact with
his clients, he said.
Attorney Bernard van der Hoven said he had met the attorney general
of Equatorial Guinea, Jose Olo Obono, in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Although he was promised telephonic contact with the men, who had
been detained for over two months, Van der Hoven did not know when
this would be allowed.
“That’s the major concern,” he said.
He had also not been granted a visa to visit the West African state.
“We’ve been trying for eight weeks, but nothing,” he said.
Van der Hoven had also asked the Presidency to place the men under
diplomatic protection. “We haven’t received their decision yet,”
he said.
Obono was reportedly in South Africa as part of an investigation
team from Equatorial Guinea. The team planned to leave South Africa
on Wednesday evening, Van der Hoven said.
The detainees are among a group of 15 men accused of planning to
overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
They include Angolans, Armenians and South Africans, some of Angolan
origin.
There is also a German, who subsequently died after “an attack of
cerebral malaria”, according to the authorities, French news agency
AFP reported.

Azeri pressure group demands end to BBC’s “biased coverage” of Karabakh
MPA news agency
17 May 04
Baku, 17 May: Members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO)
and public figures are expected to visit the Martyrs’ Avenue tomorrow
(18 May) to mark the anniversary of the occupation of Lacin. Leaflets
calling for a guerrilla war against the Armenian occupiers will be
handed out, the chairman of the KLO, Akif Nagi, told MPA.
He said the organization’s youth subdivision had appealed to Grave
Crimes Court Judge Mansur Ibayev, asking him to release [Chairman
of the Karabakh war veterans organization] Etimad Asadov on bail
considering his participation in the protection of Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity and the fact that he was wounded [in the Karabakh
war]. Young members of the organization said that each of them was
ready to take Asadov’s place in prison.
Nagi added that the KLO had addressed the British embassy in Azerbaijan
over misinformation about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict by the
BBC’s Central Asia and Caucasus correspondent.
[Passage omitted]
The KLO demands that the diplomatic mission address relevant bodies in
Great Britain in order to put an end to the BBC’s biased coverage. The
organization places responsibility for the consequences of such
actions with the British embassy.

Telegraph, UK
May 14 2004
A canter through the Caucasus
Rachael Heaton-Armstrong revels in the peace of a country that’s
often in conflict.
Georgia basics
Terror and panic. What with civil wars, assassinated presidents and
ethnic tensions, I suppose most people on holiday in the Caucasus
experience some of that. In my case, though, the terror and panic I
felt shortly after my arrival in Georgia were related to horses.
Horse play: riding in the Caucasus
I spent most of my childhood on horses so, although I hadn’t ridden
for years, the fear that overwhelmed me when I saw some prancing out
of the stables took me by surprise. They were Arab/English/Akhaltekin
crossbreeds, a mixture of recently castrated geldings and young
mares, and somewhere in my nervous mind was the idea that they
wouldn’t understand English.
I was given a three-year-old filly. We greeted each other with mutual
trepidation and within minutes I found that, although she was
sure-footed and could come to a screeching halt if she wanted, both
her steering and brakes were capricious. We set off downhill at a
brisk trot. I clung to the pommel of the saddle – something I had
been forbidden to do as a child – adapted my English style and
ignored my nerves.
We were about to embark on a reconnaissance trip to check out this
idyllic country for a new trek. I was one of five Britons – the
others were a photographer living in Georgia, an actress, an art
dealer and the owner of Ride World Wide. Four Georgians took care of
our every need: a wild reprobate artist, a doctor trained in Vienna,
a taciturn engineer and the owner of the horses – all the soul of
courtesy.
Our introduction to the area had come during the car journey to the
stables when our tank was filled by an ancient babushka who shuffled
out of a roadside hut with a ceramic jug of petrol. A mile farther on
half of this was siphoned off to give to someone else who had run out
of petrol. This is the Georgian way.
We were in the beautiful rolling countryside of southern Georgia, an
hour from the capital, Tbilisi.
The bitter rivalries and tensions that continue to wrack this part of
the world (only this week civil war was narrowly averted in Georgia)
seemed a million miles away.
The Khrami Massif ranges from the gentle slopes of beech woods to
precipitous gorges of scrubby elm, hornbeam and oak that lead down to
fast-flowing rivers rushing towards the Black Sea. Wild boar live
here and show their appreciation by digging up the soft, fertile
ground.
We rode up sheer mountain paths that gradually faded out, testing our
tracking skills and the agility of the horses. On the steepest parts
we led them, their soft noses pressed hard against our backs, to
2,500ft crests where the meadows stretched far, far off to the
snow-capped Caucasus. These are picture book pastures – with
innumerable varieties of sweet-smelling flowers and herbs. The sound
of shepherds cracking their whips mingled with the skylarks’ songs as
swallows, house martins and swifts swooped around us for the feast of
insects the hooves would unearth.
Scores of tiny crumbling churches dot the landscape, hiding in the
woods or perching on hilltops. One of the finest is the 12th-century
Gudarekhi monastery, which sits miles away from any road. A stream
borders the surrounding walnut grove of this little Arcadia where
honeybees bliss out on pollen provided by the thick carpet of tall
flowers. Gudarekhi’s intricately carved arches and faded frescoes are
soon to be restored and the whole complex will be occupied by monks
whose predecessors were chased away by the Russians.
One afternoon, out of the silent dappled woods came an elderly man on
a pony, his burnished face and wide grin overshadowed by a huge furry
hat. Suddenly we were surrounded by his vast flock of goats and sheep
eager to reach their summer pastures.
Glorious days rolled into glorious days. Each started with morning
tea, sweetened with condensed milk, delivered to our tents by one of
our Georgian hosts, and ended 10 long hours later when we rode into
camp, usually well after dark, to be handed a bottle of potent
home-made chacha (Georgia’s answer to vodka).
In between we watched the scenery change every mile. We scrambled up
a five-storey seventh-century lookout tower topped with an eagle’s
nest, heard a bear playing in the river, watched a pine martin for
longer than it would have liked, rode along a railway track, saw
water buffaloes belonging to Azerbaijani nomads pulling carts laden
with wood, and swam in a silent, silky lake.
We picnicked in perfect spots, drank from mineral-rich springs, ate
succulent lamb kebabs and tiny river fish, washed in sparkling
streams and collapsed into exhausted sleep despite the loudest chorus
of frogs I have ever heard.
I soon regained my riding confidence, but after a couple of days I
wanted a change from the unpredictability of youth, so I swapped to a
perfectly mannered older horse that walked instead of pranced and
whose rolling canter was a real joy.
One magical day began with our first sight of Dmanisi, from the
opposite side of a deep gorge. Inhabited since Palaeolithic times,
the citadel stands high above a three-way junction of the east/west
Silk Road and the route south to Armenia. It was here that Professor
Kopaliani, who showed us around, discovered skulls that proved to be
1.7 million year old – the most primitive human remains ever to be
found outside Africa.
When we set off from Dmanisi at 3pm we were assured of a short ride
ahead. We took our time to wander through elegant beech woods, stop
for a lazy cup of tea and enjoy the novel idea of getting to camp
before dark. The track soon became a narrow path and finally even the
animal footprints disappeared. This didn’t seem to matter until we
reached a particularly breathtaking view we had seen well over an
hour before and we realised we were lost. Then we heard a chicken
clucking. Where there’s a chicken there’s a pot and where there’s a
pot there are people. We knew a village must be near.
We galloped up the hill to a clearing where an Asiri nomad summer
settlement was bathed in the setting sun, filtered through the smoke
of evening fires. Children led the procession to greet us with
turkeys, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats and the helpful chicken
looking on. But with the light fading we had to charge on, straight
into a ferocious, deafening wind that turned everything in its path
horizontal.
In the middle of this hostile, blasted plateau we managed to
rendezvous with a friend who was to guide us through the next part of
the journey. He was laden with manna – hot-from-the-oven khachapuri,
heavenly cheese-filled bread – and led us on his tiny pony down an
endless path of overhanging trees and sudden streams.
It was 11pm by the time we reached the dirt road and a house whose
owners spoke neither Georgian nor Russian. Instinct led us to the
village shop, which had for sale one pair of socks, giant sugar
lumps, Champagne, tinned meat, cheese, sweets, the odd toy and –
mercifully – cold beer. We then set off for the final, unbelievable,
five miles of the journey. We led the exhausted horses along the
moonlit, potholed road and finally collapsed at the gate of the
Bolnisi Sioni churchyard at 1am. Down the darkened path we saw an
ethereal blaze of candlelight flooding through the door of the
church. When the priest appeared in the doorway to welcome us with a
serene, beatific smile it seemed God had rewarded us with a glimpse
of heaven.
An enormous supra – a feast – was laid out in the tiny bell tower
where the priest lives, a gun hidden in his bed. Excellent
home-brewed wine accompanied the toasts of celebration and
thanks-giving that ended the day.
For six days we had seen no cultivation, but now on the home stretch
we meandered through tiny fields where women and men tended plots of
two or three crops sown together – maize and beans and potatoes. Then
up and over an escarpment to a sea of wheat.
We rode on through flowering acacia spinneys humming with bees and
cooled off in the Khrami River. But the rock I clung to – to save me
from being swept away – suddenly disappeared beneath me when the
river rose more than 12 inches in a few minutes and I had to be
pulled ashore.
We returned to Tbilisi shaking with exhilaration and exhaustion, our
spirits filled with the absolute beauty of the country and the charm
of its people. Legend has it that when God was dividing up the world
he kept the best, Georgia, for himself. He chose well.
Georgia basics
Ride World Wide (01837 82544, ) offers an
11-night trip similar to the one taken by Rachael Heaton-Armstrong
for £1,350 per person. This includes all meals and accommodation in
tents, hotels and guesthouses plus all riding and transfers.
International flights can be arranged separately.
Further reading: Stories I Stole from Georgia by Wendell Steavenson
(Atlantic Books, £7.99).

49er Online, California State University, Long Beach
May 13 2004
Senate approves Beach Pride resolution
By Gerry Wachovsky
On-line Forty-Niner
The final A.S. Senate meeting of the semester saw an approval of a
resolution authorizing a new agreement on the distribution of student
fees.
Executive director of Associated Students Inc., Richard Haller,
detailed the plan to the Senate and broke down how, exactly, the
funds would be distributed. The sports operating budgets, according
to Haller, were reduced 5 percent, and he also said that A.S.I. will
be responsible for annually auditing the sports, athletics and
recreation department’s agreement with the new terms. Haller said he
believes this will create more student involvement within S.A.R.
In other news, A.S.I. President Danny Vivian, in his weekly report to
the Senate, discussed the deal that Charles Reed, chancellor of the
Cal State University system, California Education Secretary Richard
Riordan and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came to regarding the
budget crisis and its relation to higher education.
According to Vivian, they agreed not to increase the General Fund
this year and they will not cut the Educational Opportunity Program.
Vivian also noted that while undergraduate fees could go up by 14
percent and graduate fees by 20 percent, next Wednesday the board of
trustees would be meeting to vote to further increase the fees.
Vivian urged the Senate body to “Support the legislators that are
[angry] about this,” and to fight to preserve quality higher
education.
While several of the Senate members will be returning next year to
continue representing the students, certain senators will be moving
on in their professional lives. Over the course of the year, the
Senate intent on many conflicts and enacted numerous resolutions that
affect a myriad of students on campus. It also resolved what proved
to be a controversial issue brought forth by the Armenian Student
Association alleging Turkish involvement in the genocide of
Armenians. In the end, the two groups “agreed to disagree” and the
Senate diffused what might have become a sticky situation. In
addition, they debated about issues relating to fees students have to
pay, and fought for campus organizations.
The senators collectively agreed that they accomplished a large
amount this year and a number of members expressed how honored they
are to have served on the Senate.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Youth Federation
Western United States
104 N. Belmont St. Suite 206
Glendale, CA 91206
Contact: Raffi Semerdjian
Tel: 818.507.1933
Fax: 818.240.3442
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Youth to Hold Armenian Independence Day Picnic – Festival
The Armenian Youth Federation Garo Madenlian Public Affairs Office
announced Friday that the AYF will celebrate the first Armenian
independence with a large-scale picnic-festival on Monday May 31.
The picnic-festival will feature well-known singers and performers
including Nersik Ispirian, Joseph Krikorian, Paul Baghdadlian,
Armenchik, Artash Assadrian, Hovhanes Shahbazian, Sako, Ara Sahagian,
and Harout Hagopian.
“May 28, 1918 represents one of the most significant turning points
in our history,” said Vicken Sosikian, chairman of the AYF Western
Region. “As a free public event in celebration of such a great turning
point in our history, we view the picnic-festival as a service to
the Armenian community.”
The picnic, to begin at 10am, will also offer attendees food, music,
and games. Local businesses and organizations will also have booths
through which they will make their products and information available
to the public. The picnic will be held at the Holy Martyrs Armenian
School located at 16617 Parthenia St. North Hills, CA 91343.
For more information or details please call (818) 507-1933.
The AYF will also commemorate Memorial Day the same morning, with a
wreathe laying at the Glendale City Hall Veterans Memorial.
The Armenian Youth Federation Western United States serves Armenian
American communities west of the Mississippi through education,
athletics, political activism, cultural activities and social
settings. To learn more about the AYF please log on to
#####

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
May 8 2004
Aliyev Urges Minsk Group Co-chairs to Mediate, Not To Observe Talks
Co-chairmen of the Minsk group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have to display that they are really
mediating the talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, President Ilham
Aliyev told reporters on Friday.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the co-chairs’ activities, Aliyev
said `they have to stop just observing the talks.’
The Minsk group was set up in March 1992, and its co-chairmen
representing the United States, France and Russia have failed in
their activities to find a peaceful settlement to the 16-year-old
conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
President Aliyev reiterated his government’s position that the
chances for resolving the conflict by peaceful means have not been
exhausted yet.
In regard to the status of Nagorno-Karabakh – a mainly
ethnic-Armenian populated region within Azerbaijan – Aliyev said that
all the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Azerbaijan’s
occupied territories should be returned to their homes first, and
then the status issue could be discussed.
Armenia occupied former autonomous Nagorno-Karabakh region and also
seven Azerbaijani districts in 1991-94 war, forcing over 700,000
Azerbaijanis to leave their homes. Despite an armistice signed in May
1994, no final solution has been achieved to the conflict between the
two countries.