Author: Kanayan Tamar

EREBUNI, LONDON, RESTAURANT REVIEW

07 May 2012

Matthew Norman finds an emigrees’ hidden treasure at Erebuni in
Bayswater.

Matthew Norman is charmed by Erebuni Photo:

JEFF GILBERT By Matthew Norman

Restaurant Erebuni, London Guards Hotel, 36-37 Lancaster Gate, London
W2 3NA

Contact: 020 7402 6067; [email protected]

Price: Three courses with wine and vodka: about £50 per head

Even in the trade I often describe without a shred of ironic intent
as the hardest game in the world, the Good Lord now and then shines
his light to illuminate the critic’s path. Such an intervention
transformed dinner at Erebuni.

Sitting entirely alone in the basement of an anonymous Lancaster Gate
hotel, awaiting a friend marooned in London traffic, expectations were
low. That Erebuni, named after a fortress in the Armenian capital of
Yerevan, targets itself exclusively at the expat market had become
apparent when the call to book a table was answered with a peremptory
“da, da?”, and the welcome had not been bathed in warmth.

A morose waiter was gracing me with the widest of berths. He stood
behind the bar in the adjoining room, polishing glasses while watching
on his telly the same Russian soap playing at deafening volume on the
set bang in front of me. As it finished on a seemingly muted dramatic
climax and the Cyrillic credits rolled, all it needed to complete
the wormhole trip back to the double-dip paradise of 1975, I felt,
was George Smiley ambling in with a Soviet attache he was hoping
to turn and play back at Karla in Moscow Centre. I love Cold War
atmospherics as much as the next nostalgist for an age when everyone
knew the geopolitical rules and lived in dread of nuclear annihilation,
but there must be limits.

Then my friend arrived, took in the vista of isolation, and posed
a question. “Do you think it would help if we mentioned,” mused
this daughter of an Armenian father, “that Aram Khachaturian was my
godfather?” I thought it might, what with the composer of the Sabre
Dance and the music for Spartacus being an Armenian national hero.

The waiter abandoned his glass-polishing and sidled over with the
menus, and I mentioned the Khachaturian connection. He nodded gravely,
flirted with a smile, proffered his hand to her, though not to me (I
considered claiming cousinhood with another fabled Armenian musician
– Charles Aznavour, perhaps, or possibly Cher – but bottled it),
and announced himself as Edouard. Suddenly the gloom lifted and out,
metaphorically, came the sun.

By the time Edouard returned with shots of vodka and the portable
wooden bell with which he could be summoned, we were already falling
for a restaurant whose jolly decor – wood panelling, colourful naif
paintings of rural scenes from the homeland, bright red tablecloths,
a dance floor in the other room; an expatriates’ club, all in all, with
a buzzy vibe even when half empty – had ceased to feel incongruous.

We ordered a bottle of Georgian red by way of a chaser, and set about
choosing an array of dishes. Sekhotats, thin strips of aubergine
flavoured with parsley and dill, was mild and pleasant, if a touch
anodyne, but basturma – Armenian dried beef – had more to say for
itself. We struggled to identify precisely what flavour it was trying
to impart (cinnamon? cloves? beetroot?), but it was dark, salty,
intimate and moreish. From the former imperial motherland of Russia
came Bliny S-Miasom (sic), pancakes filled with mince meat and served
with tomato and sour cream.

These were good, but the standout dish was Ukha Tsarskaya, which
mingled sturgeon and salmon with potato, tomato, pickled cucumber,
black olives and dill in a peppery, spicy, lemony broth that released a
distinct new flavour with each spoonful. Weird and wonderful in equal
measure, this favourite of Peter the Great is both the soup of kings
and a king among soups. “It reminds me of something my grandfather
used to make,” my friend enthused. “It’s something you’d only expect
to come across in the home of a cook as brilliant as he was.”

Both main courses were well presented and cooked, if less
individualistic. “Dolma echmiadzin” is listed as a traditional Armenian
dish, but while these vine leaves stuffed with mince, rice and spices
were fresh, juicy and full of fun, in a blind tasting they would take
some discerning from the version served across the Med.

The same went for Lula, grilled minced lamb served in taftoon bread
with artistically carved tomato, and barely distinguishable for what
one would expect in an Iranian joint.

The tellies had long since been extinguished, and a sequence of
ballads gave way to one of those musical novelties that lingers in the
mind… Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry as interpreted by an Armenian
folk singer. The Cold War had long since thawed, with a little help
from the flavoured vodka, and we were ever more rhapsodisic. “I’m
coming back one weekend soon for the Armenian dancing,” said my
friend over gateaux (a layered Napoleon known as “an exquisite Russian
delight”, and a luscious slice of honey and walnut cake).

When Edouard wandered over with coffee and delivered one last vodka
on the house, the Khachaturian-inspired glasnost was complete. “This
is officially my new favourite place,” she slurred as we tottered
unsteadily up the stairs of a restaurant infinitely too good to be
allowed to remain an emigrees’ hidden treasure a minute longer.

OBSERVERS: “UNDUE INTERFERENCE IN VOTING PROCESS”

02:32 pm | Today | Politics

Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Armenia featured a vibrant and
largely peaceful campaign, with overall balanced media coverage,
but pressure on voters and a deficient complaints process created an
unequal playing field, the international election observers said today,
international observers told a press conference in Yerevan.

“Observers noted a campaign environment that generally respected
freedoms of assembly and expression and candidates were, for the most
part, able to campaign freely. But the general lack of confidence
in the integrity of the process amongst political parties and the
general public is an issue of great concern.

The elections were held under a new Electoral Code that provided
a sound legal framework for conducting democratic elections, but
stakeholders failed to implement important aspects of the new law and
the manner in which complaints were dealt with undermined the right
to effective legal redress.

“Armenia deserves recognition for its electoral reforms and its
open and peaceful campaign environment but, in this race, several
stakeholders too often failed to comply with the law and election
commissions too often failed to enforce it,” said Francois-Xavier de
Donnea, the Special Co-ordinator to lead the short-term OSCE observer
mission and the Head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delegation. “As
a result, the international commitments to which Armenia has freely
subscribed were not always respected.”

The process of candidate registration was inclusive overall. Despite
improved legislation with regard to voter registration, observers said,
that the accuracy of the voter lists and their potential misuse for
electoral fraud added to the lack of confidence in the process.

“The high turnout of over 60 per cent, the wide age range among voters,
and the clear understanding of the electoral process by young and
old alike were impressive, but reports of widespread interference
with the running of polling stations, voters’ movement and casting of
votes throughout the day by certain political parties raised serious
concerns,” said Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, the Head of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe delegation. “The
authorities must address this unacceptable behaviour before the
presidential election next year.”

“I cannot stress enough how important it is to see these elections and
our preliminary findings in the broader context and as the beginning
of the process, not the end,” said Krzysztof Lisek, the Head of
the European Parliament delegation. “Our preliminary conclusions
today and the final recommendations of the OSCE Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights, once they are published, should be taken
as the goal to achieve in view of the upcoming presidential election.”

Election day was generally calm and peaceful, but marked by
organizational problems and undue interference in the process, mostly
by party representatives, the observers noted.

“The election campaign was open and respected fundamental freedoms,
and the media offered broad and balanced coverage during the official
campaign period,” said Radmila ekerinska, the Head of the Election
Observation Mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights.

“Unfortunately, this was overshadowed by concerns over the accuracy
of voter lists and violations of the Electoral Code that created an
unequal playing field.”

IRANIAN MFA: ARMENIA AND IRAN SHARE RELATIONS ADVANTAGEOUS FOR REGION

Panorama.am
07/05/2012

Friendly relationship between Armenia and Iran are advantageous for
the region, qudsonline.ir quotes Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

Answering to the question that Armenian-Iranian relations challenge
principles of Islam, Iranian statesman said:

“Iran creates relations with its neighbors on the ground of mutual
beneficial interests; we are in good relationship with Armenia which
is beneficial for both us and the region.”

AZERBAIDJAN. ” IL N’Y A PAS DE CENSURE OFFICIELLE, MAIS QUICONQUE MENE DE VRAIES ACTIVITES JOURNALISTIQUES EST EN DANGER ”
Stephane

armenews.com
lundi 7 mai 2012

Le chemin entre une cellule de prison azerbaïdjanaise et l’Ecole des
etudes orientales et africaines a Londres n’est peut-etre pas le plus
conventionnel qu’un etudiant puisse prendre.

Mais cela signifie que l’interet d’Emin Milli pour la liberte
d’expression et l’utilisation de plateformes numeriques pour s’exprimer
et contourner les restrictions imposees par l’Etat est très personnel.

Ce militant redige actuellement un essai sur les nouveaux medias et
les revolutions arabes.

Mais c’est sa propre campagne, menee en Azerbaïdjan au moyen de
blogs et des reseaux Facebook et Twitter, dans le but de reveler
les exactions du gouvernement et la repression lancee par celui-ci,
qui l’a conduit en prison pour 16 mois en 2009.

Il y a trois ans, Emin Milli, accompagne d’Adnan Hajizade, lui
aussi militant et blogueur, a ete agresse par deux inconnus dans
un restaurant.

Les deux hommes ont signale l’incident a la police mais ils ont
ete arretes pour houliganisme. Cette agression a eu lieu seulement
une semaine après qu’ils ont publie sur YouTube une video satirique
montrant un homme deguise en âne donnant une conference de presse.

Emin Milli aime faire preuve d’humour lorsqu’il critique le
gouvernement, mais les autorites n’ont clairement pas vu la
plaisanterie. Neanmoins, les deux blogueurs n’ont pas ete inculpes a
cause de ce qu’ils avaient ecrit ; au lieu de cela, on les a accuses
d’avoir commis une infraction inventee de toutes pièces.

” Le president azerbaïdjanais essaye de donner du pays une image
tolerable d’un regime autoritaire, explique Emin Milli. Ici, ce ne
sont pas des milliers de gens qui sont massacres dans la rue. Ici,
les attaques visent des personnes representant toutes les classes
sociales et differentes professions. Ils ne mettent pas tous les
blogueurs en prison. Ils en choisissent deux ou trois qui vont trop
loin, d’après eux. ”

Le fait que ces evenements se passent dans un Etat membre du Conseil
de l’Europe rend la situation plus grave, pense Emin Milli.

Emin Milli donne l’exemple d’Eynulla Fatullayev, journaliste
emprisonne après avoir exprime son opinion sur le Haut-Karabakh,
qui a fortement deplu au gouvernement. Amnesty International a lance
une campagne mondiale pour la liberation d’Eynulla Fatullayev ; la
Cour europeenne des droits de l’homme a declare que les charges qui
pesaient sur celui-ci bafouaient son droit a la liberte d’expression,
et a demande sa liberation immediate.

Les autorites azerbaïdjanaises ont alors ” decouvert ” de la drogue sur
cet homme quand il etait en prison et elles l’ont accuse d’infractions
a la legislation sur les stupefiants tout en abandonnant les charges
initiales pour se conformer au verdict de la Cour. Eynulla Fatullayev
est maintenant libre a la suite d’une campagne mondiale pendant
laquelle Twitter et Facebook ont beaucoup servi. Après quatre ans et
demi d’emprisonnement injustifie, il a meme recu une indemnisation
s’elevant a 28 000 euros.

Cependant, Emin Milli pense qu’aucune indemnite ne peut compenser le
temps perdu passe dans une cellule.

” Mon père est decede quand j’etais en prison. Ils m’ont libere le
lendemain de sa mort mais je n’etais pas present a son enterrement.

Rien ne peut me dedommager de ca. C’etait très important pour moi.

C’est ridicule que le Conseil de l’Europe autorise des dictateurs a
rester assis dans leurs datchas en riant de tout cela.

” Il existe beaucoup de journalistes courageux mais le monde ne
les connaît pas. [Les nouveaux medias] sont très importants pour
l’Azerbaïdjan. Je reagis en ecrivant a propos de ces personnes et en
revelant des faits scandaleux a d’autres medias.

” Les blogueurs et les utilisateurs de Twitter atteignent beaucoup plus
de gens que les journalistes traditionnels. Le taux de penetration
d’Internet en Azerbaïdjan est de plus de 50 % et l’utilisation de
Facebook est grandissante. Les gens se tournent vers Internet pour
obtenir la verite. ”

Neanmoins, a certains egards, les nouveaux medias ne sont pas
differents des medias traditionnels.

” Cela depend de quel type de journaliste vous etes. C’est dangereux
de reveler des injustices. Si vous ecrivez au sujet de faits reels,
vous serez vise. [En Azerbaïdjan] le gouvernement assure que les
droits des journalistes sont respectes – il n’y a pas de censure
officielle – mais quiconque mène de vraies activites journalistiques
est en danger. Les mots sont dangereux. ”

Emin Milli illustre ses propos en soulignant le cas d’Idrak Abbasov,
un des journalistes azerbaïdjanais les plus celèbres. Celui-ci a recu
en mars dernier le prix Index on Censorship a Londres en tant que
journaliste d’investigation. Il se trouve actuellement a l’hôpital
après avoir ete brutalement agresse par des policiers et des employes
de la Compagnie petrolière nationale (SOCAR), alors qu’il essayait
de filmer des demolitions de logements illegales.

Emin Milli retournera dans son pays en septembre pour continuer sa
lutte pour la liberte d’expression.

” Les absurdites de la vie quotidienne en Azerbaïdjan m’ont donne
envie d’ecrire a leur sujet. Les gens qui liront cela a l’avenir n’y
croiront pas. Ils penseront que ce ne sont que des histoires ! ”

Fin mai, le concours Eurovision de la chanson se tiendra a Bakou.

Certains militants ont appele a le boycotter ; Emin Milli desapprouve
cette strategie. Il souligne l’ironie de la situation d’un musicien,
Jamal Ali, qui aurait ete torture dans les locaux de la police
il y a deux mois seulement (mars). Cet homme a ete arrete pour ”
houliganisme mineur ” après avoir insulte la mère defunte du president
azerbaïdjanais.

Emin Milli veut que les personnes qui se rendent a Bakou pour
l’Eurovision ” aient l’occasion de voir la realite de l’Azerbaïdjan “.

ARMENIA VOTES AMID REPORTS OF WIDESPREAD IRREGULARITIES
Nanore Barsoumian

May 7, 2012

YEREVAN (A.W.)-Disappearing stamps, unidentified men, escorts,
and multi-votes: Facts and rumors painted a chaotic image of the
elections as they happened in eight polling stations visited by the
Armenian Weekly.

One of the polling stations visited by the Armenian Weekly (photo by
Nanore Barsoumian) Stamps disappearing from voters’ passports became
one of the first news items on voting irregularities on the morning
of May 6, when Armenians went to the polls for the Parliamentary
elections. The stamps were intended to leave no trace behind within
24 hours.

However, some disappeared in less than an hour.

One man pointed at the far right corner of a clean page in his
passport, “It was right there,” he told the Armenian Weekly. He voted
at 8:05 at polling station 6/02, minutes after the polls opened. By
8:40, the ink had entirely disappeared, he said. All but a tiny speck
remained (see photo).

The eight polling stations the Weekly visited included one in
the Kentron (central Yerevan); and seven in Achapniag district, a
poorer area in Yerevan (there are 41 districts in the country, and
around 2,000 polling places). Most followed the rule of allowing no
more than 15 voters into the voting area. Entrances at all but one
station were quite crowded, where patience seemed to run low. Party
representatives, and sometimes observers and journalists stood or sat
in the voting area, provided they had the proper identification card,
while between one and four dozen people loitered around the buildings.

Little black cameras were propped up high above voters, or stationed
at the corners of desks. Six parties had agreed to install the cameras
in as many polling stations as they could. Although they might have
caught visible voter fraud practices, spotting some of the more
serious allegations may prove to be an almost impossible task.

He voted at 8:05 at polling station 6/02, minutes after the polls
opened. By 8:40, the ink had entirely disappeared, he said. (photo by
Nanore Barsoumian) Some of the allegations at the polling stations
the Weekly visited included suspicion that some voters used red
pens on the ballot, as part of a vote buying scheme-in hopes that
ballots marked with red would be counted to make certain that all the
“purchased” votes are there. There were also rumors that vanloads of
voters were being driven around to various polling stations to cast
multiple votes using different identification cards. The Armenian
Weekly was unable to verify these claims.

One observer the Weekly spoke with confirmed rumors that men escorted
small groups of people. “Some men were coming back after voting,
which is illegal. They would return, and escort others in. We told the
chairman of the local election commission, and they got thrown out,”
Ani Karapetyan from Kentron TV channel told the Armenian Weekly.

Karapetyan noticed another problem as well. Two or three men
without identification badges were sticking around in the voting
station. When she asked them where their badges were, they said they
were representatives of the Republican Party, and claimed their ID
cards were in their pockets. Karapetyan told them that they were
required to have them in a visible place. They left soon after,
without showing her their badges.

The Weekly experienced a similar incident, when a man asking not to be
photographed failed to produce the required badge. The man who claimed
he was a representative of the Republican Party, and who was frequently
interacting with voters, left almost immediately after the Weekly
inquired about his identity and the absence of his identification card.

A man votes in Yerevan (photo by Nanore Barsoumian) What seemed
strange was the presence of observers, and even journalists, who seemed
unaware of what organization they represented, or had to check their
badges to identify themselves. One such man remained in the lobby
of the school that served as a polling station for the entire hour
the Weekly was present there. He asked the addresses of voters and
directed them either towards the right, or left-to either of the two
polling stations.

In another particularly chaotic polling station an argument broke out
between a Republican Party and Prosperous party representatives. The
latter claimed the Republican was standing too close to the cardboard
cubicle where voters cast their ballots.

The Weekly was also alerted about a picture of President Serge
Sarkisian-who heads the Republican Party list- at the aforementioned
voting station. Keeping his picture in the voting area would be
tantamount to campaigning, which is prohibited within polling stations.

In the neighboring polling station-separated by a line of low benches
unable to stop the flow of people between the two stations-the chairman
suffered from an epileptic seizure. The station was closed to voters
for around 40 minutes.

iDitord.org, a website that allows observers to submit their reports,
shows that there have been 1,036 instances of voting irregularities.

These included 283 reports of bribery and pressuring; 178 cases of
campaigning; and 134 instances of disruptions of the voting process.

Some of the reports claim that when people approached to register their
vote, it was revealed that their names had been crossed off already-in
other words, others had voted in their name. One observer said
“Pjni” mineral waters bearing the name of the Republican Party were
distributed in one district. Another observer said that a “carousel”
was organized at polling station 11/02, where a pre-marked ballot is
given to a voter who has to return with an unmarked one in order to
get paid.

So far, the preliminary results show that the Republicans received
the most votes, 44.35 percent; they were followed by the Prosperous
Armenia Party, with 30.26 percent; the Armenian National Congress,
6.99 percent; Heritage party, 5.70 percent; the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, 5.67 percent; the Armenian Communist Party, 1.06 percent;
and the Armenian Democratic Party, 0.36 percent (see the results here).

Dink murder’s mastermind demands from Turkish appeals court to overturn verdict

news.am
May 05, 2012 | 17:55

ISTANBUL. – Yasin Hayal, who was sentenced to life in prison during
the murder case of Hrant Dink – the founder and former chief editor of
Istanbul’s Agos Armenian bilingual weekly, who was gunned down in 2007
in front of his office building – , petitioned to Turkish Court of
Appeals with a request to overturn the court ruling made against him.

In his letter of petition, Hayal claimed that it was Erhan Tuncel’s
idea to kill Dink. He noted that Tuncel had convinced him that Hrant
Dink was an enemy of the Turks, Radikal daily of Turkey informs.

On January 17, the Turkish court found Yasin Hayal guilty of planning
and organizing Hrant Dink’s murder, and sentenced him to life in
prison. Erhan Tuncel, on the other hand, was found not guilty of
prompting Dink’s murder, and, instead, he was sentenced to 10 years
and 6 months for an explosion in a McDonald’s restaurant. But taking
into account that Tuncel was already incarcerated for that amount of
time, the court ruled his release.

The court also found the nineteen other defendants not guilty of being
members of a terrorist organization.

And earlier, Hrant Dink’s actual killer, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to
a total of 22 years and 10 months for Dink’s murder and for bearing
illegal arms. But Samast was tried at a juvenile court, since he was a
minor at the time of the murder.

Representatives of CIS Interparliamentary Assembly visit Tsitsernakaberd

16:41, 5 May, 2012

YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS: The observation mission of CIS
Interparliamentary Assembly, headed by MP of the Verkhovna Rada of
Ukraine Aleksey Logvinenko, visited Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex.

As Armenpress reports, the delegation members put a wreath to the
monument and flowers next to the unquenchable fire. They paid tribute
to memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian genocide with one
minute silence.

Suren Manukyan, Director of NAS Genocide Institute, presented to
foreign guests the history of the crime committed against humanity
early in 20th century and the exhibits of the museum.

Historical Trauma & Its Impact: Armenian Genocide

Friday, May 4th, 2012

Soseh Esmaeli
BY SOSEH ESMAEILI

>From the horrors of the Armenian Genocide to the tragedies that
occurred during the Holocaust and are currently taking place in
Darfur, genocide continues to play role in human history. These acts
of injustice not only cause death and destruction but also create
generations of survivors who were traumatized and who passed down
their legacies.

PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) is one example of what can occur
after being exposed to a traumatic event such as the genocide. The
symptoms for this disorder include nightmares, constant fear and
worry, hyper-alertness to his/her surroundings, and even flashbacks of
the trauma. After a traumatic event individuals can also experience
depression and anxiety. They can even develop specific ways to deal
with the painful memories like avoidance of the subject, increased
attempt to maintain order and success within their lives, catastrophic
views of the outside world, detachment of emotions, and increased
closeness with family members or cultural groups.

The survivors of trauma such as the Armenian Genocide may have passed
down memories of loss, struggle, horror, and strength through songs,
story telling, and with commemorative ceremonies. The retelling and
transferring of stories about the genocide from generation to
generation is a way to help process and heal from the cruelty and
injustice they had experienced. This can promote identity formation,
close-knit familial groups, and a sense of unity within the culture.
Behaviors and even symptoms of trauma can be passed down from
generation to generation as parts of familial or cultural ways of
living or seeing the world.

Denial of trauma can feel like a dismissal of the survivors’
experience, can perpetuate a feeling of helplessness, and even impact
the process of mourning. Remembering, processing, and understanding
traumatic events such as a genocide can play an important role in a
collective processing of cultural groups who have experienced such
events.

Until next time,

Soseh Esmaeili, PsyD, #PSB63123. James S. Graves, PhD, PsyD, #
PSY18196, Clinical Supervisor,

Famous Armenian singer to perform in Turkey

news.am
May 05, 2012 | 04:44

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s renowned recording artist Nune Yesayan will head
to Turkey to take part in a May 11 benefit concert organized by the
Istanbul Armenian community. The singer herself told this to Armenian
News-NEWS.am. She noted that it will be her solo concert and the
Armenian community had invited her with the objective of helping out a
local Armenian school.

To the question as to why she agreed to go to Turkey and whether she
has any fears, she responded: `Why should I not have agreed? The
Armenian community invited me and I am going for them. I have no
fears. The Armenians will meet me; we will be with the Armenians. They
are not savages; what are they supposed to do?’

Incidentally, Nune Yesayan is heading to Turkey on a concert for the
first time. She had received an earlier invitation from Hrant Dink – the
founder and former chief editor of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian bilingual
weekly, who was gunned down in 2007 in front of his office building – ;
they had `talked, but it was left incomplete.’ Yesayan also noted that
she is happy to be going to the concert and she will definitely visit
Dink’s grave.

APA, Azerbaijan
May 4 2012

Russian political analyst Sergey Rogov: `We need Gabala radar station
most of all for keeping the US strategic submarines in the Indian
Ocean under control’ – INTERVIEW

[ 04 May 2012 12:58 ]

Moscow. Farid Akbarov – APA. Interview with Director of the Institute
of USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, expert on
defense issues and foreign policy Sergey Rogov

– What level are the negotiations with Azerbaijan on prorogation of a
lease of Gabala Radar station in?

– The question is that the lease of Gabala radar station is running
out and Russia is interested in modernization of its missile attack
warning system. Armavir radar station situated in our territory
largely facilitates this issue. Despite it, taking into account the
geographical position of Gabala, of course, it would be better to keep
this station in modernized situation.

– The press writes that Azerbaijan demands USD 300 mln per year for
Gabala radar station’s rent…

– Of course, as always the question is money and the sides must close
a bargain. It is difficult to say how the deal will finish. Azerbaijan
is interested in getting much money, but Russia is interested in
decreasing the rental. These negotiations are not political, they have
a commercial character. Probably the deal will continue.

– If Russia loses Gabala radar station, what will it mean for your country?

– The Gabala radar station is not significant for Russia in terms of
threat from Iran, despite the intermediate-range missiles can reach
Russia’s territory and the likelihood of missile attack from Iran to
our country is not so great. Gabala radar station affords an
opportunity to keep the Indian Ocean, where the US submarines carry
out combat duty, under control. In this context, Gabala radar station
has a great significance and it is unlikely that the new radar
station, which will be constructed in our country, can compensate the
capabilities of Gabala radar station.

– In your opinion, how will the negotiations finish?

-I think that we will come to an agreement, because, it is significant
strategic issue in Russia-Azerbaijan relations. I don’t think that the
sides will refuse a compromise.

-Armenia announced that it could construct such radar station in its
territory. Is Russia considering this proposal?

-In principle, such alternative is possible, but probably it would be
expensive than modernization of Gabala Radar Station, because there is
ready-to-use infrastructure in Gabala. If we don’t reach a compromise
with Azerbaijan, one can not completely rule out this alternative.