Author: Karagyozian Lena

EACH DIASPORAN ARMENIAN EVEN IF ONCE SHOULD VISIT ARMENIA, LEBANESE ARMENIAN STUDENTS SAY
Noyan Tapan
Apr 27 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 27, Hranuch Hakobian,
Chairwoman of RA National Assembly Standing Committee on Science,
Education, Culture and Youth Affairs, received a number of Lebanese
Armenian students who have come to Armenia on a cognitive and
instructive visit. She acquainted them with the parliament’s
structure, legislative works, presented the prospects of economic,
political and cultural development of Armenia. A sincere and ingenuous
conversation about preservation of the Armenian nation, strengthening
of Spyurk-Homeland bilateral contacts, efficient use of the current
resources took place. The Lebanese Armenian students with fervour
presented their impressions from the days spent in Armenia confessing
that the Homeland gave them strength, belief and resolution. In their
opinion, each Diasporan Armenian even if once should visit Armenia
in order to feel himself a complete Armenian.

GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR AND ARTSAKH FREEDOM WAR DISABLED VETERANS DEMAND RESPORATION OF THEIR PRIVILEGES
Noyan Tapan
Apr 27 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The disabled veterans of the Great
Patriotic war and the Artsakh freedom war, and the family members of
those killed in military operations during these wars refuse their
current monthly monetary aid of 6 thousand drams (about 13 dollars)
and demand restoration of their privileges. Hovhannes Rushanian,
disabled veteran of the Great Patriotic war, former employee of the
Ministry of Interior Affairs, and Albert Manukian, disabled veteran
of the Artsakh war, stated this during the April 26 press conference
at the Hayeli Club. In the words of A. Munukian, by abolishing
the privileges, the Armenian government and the National Assembly
violated the rights of the servicemen and their families, which
are stipulated by an interstate agreement. He noted that under the
agreement on the mutual recognition of the privileges and guarantees
of the participants and disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic war,
participants in military operations in the territory of other states,
and the family members of those killed in action, which was signed
in Minsk in 1992, the disabled veterans of war are entitled to a 50%
discount in utility payments. He said that he filed an application
regarding this issue to the RA Presidential Staff, which readdressed
his application to the government that in its turn sent it to the
Ministry of Social Security, from which there came a response that
it is not within the ministry’ competence to restore or establish
any privileges. A. Manukian stated that he intends to apply to
the Armenian President again. He noted that the matter concerns
1,060 disabled veterans and 2,700 family members of those killed in
action. In his opinion, restoring the privileges of 3,700 persons
would not significantly affect the country’s state budget.

ARMENIA: ALARM AT RUSSIAN GAS DEAL
By Rita Karapetian in Yerevan
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
April 27 2006
Gas prices to stay low – but the opposition says the political cost
is too high.
Politicians from various parts of the Armenian political landscape
are voicing concern over a deal which hands over an important part
of the country’s energy sector to the Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Opposition member of parliament Arshak Sadoyan last week called on
the government to annul the deal agreed on April 6 to sell Gazprom
the fifth as yet unfinished generating unit of the Hrazdan gas-fired
power station. The unit was the only part of the plant not already
in Russian ownership.
In a sign of how controversial the deal is, the speaker of parliament,
Artur Baghdasarian, a leading member of the pro-government coalition,
has also expressed concern that the sale places too much control of
the energy sector in Russian hands.
Baghdasarian, who heads the Orinats Yerkir party, said the deal was
a good one from an economic point of view but “politically, it’s
worrying that Armenian energy capacities are being concentrated in
Russia’s hands”.
The Armenian government has justified the deal on the grounds that
it will guarantee low prices for consumers.
Russia, currently the sole supplier of gas to Armenia, announced
a price rise at the end of last year. Although Armenia is regarded
as a strategic partner of Moscow, it was offered the same price as
Georgia – 110 US dollars per 1,000 cubic meters instead of the earlier
56 dollars.
The Armenian authorities immediately said they were negotiating with
the Russians to find ways of compensating for the price hike and
mitigating the potentially damaging social and economic repercussions.
These negotiations led to the 249-million dollar Hrazdan deal with
Gazprom. Of the total sum, 188 million will go towards subsidising
retail gas prices over the next three years, according to Energy
Minister Armen Movsesian. The rest will be taken as government revenue.
Gazprom has pledged not to alter the cost of its wholesale gas supplies
to Armenia until 2009. Movsesian said the price controls would also
have the side effect of holding down electricity charges.
Ahead of the agreement, President Robert Kocharian’s office released
a videotaped speech in which he said the price Armenian consumers
pay for gas would not increase by more than 10-15 per cent.
Gazprom has undertaken to invest 150-160 million dollars to complete
the fifth generating unit at the Hrazdan plant over the next two years.
The Hrazdan thermal station is the most productive power station in
Armenia, generating around 20 per cent of the country’s electricity.
Russia acquired the four current units in 2003 in return for writing
off Armenian government debt. Construction of the fifth unit began
in the 1980s but has never been finished.
Russian companies now have a firm grip on the entire Armenian energy
sector.
The electricity giant UES owns Armenia’s electricity-distribution
networks too, having bought them last year from the British-registered
offshore company Midland Resources.
In 2002, UES acquired the Sevan-Hrazdan hydroelectric cascade,
consisting of six linked power stations – the country’s largest –
in exchange for clearing debts for the Russian-supplied nuclear fuel
on which the Metsamor nuclear station runs.
Metsamor, which supplies a significant part of Armenia’s energy,
is due to close in 2016 at the latest.
The latest deal with Gazprom has met with mixed reactions even within
the governing coalition.
Prime minister and Republican Party leader Andranik Margarian said
the sale was a very successful transaction which had been handled
with skill.
“This does not threaten our energy security; on the contrary, it
strengthens it,” said Margarian.
Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisian said it would take a minimum of
180 million dollars to complete the unit, and the costs could not be
recovered for a decade. “I mean, we would have an enterprise working
to profit by 2017 at best,” he explained. “But how big would those
profits be? How much will gas rise in price? These are questions to
which only Nostradamus knows the answer.”
But the leader of the pro-government faction in parliament, United
Labour Party leader Gurgen Arsenian said gas was “a new Russian energy
weapon that could potentially be used against Armenia”.
The opposition has been more outspoken, with Viktor Dallakian of the
Justice parliamentary group warning that handing over Armenian energy
resources to the Russians was a threat to national security.
Dallakian also disputed the economic benefits of the deal, saying
it undermined efforts to boost energy cooperation with neighbouring
Iran. If an agreement had been concluded with Tehran, he said the
Hrazdan power plant would be running on Iranian gas and selling the
electricity generated back to Iran. As a result, he went on, Armenia
would have enjoyed annual profits of 100 million dollars for the next
20 years, while retaining ownership of the Hrazdan plant.
Instead, said Dallakian, the government had simply given the power
plant as a “present” to the Russians.
Initially, there were reports, including on Gazprom’s own website,
that the Russian firm had bought a 40-kilometre section of the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline which is currently under construction,
and that the Russians would also help build a new stretch, which is
due to be finished by the end of this year.
Several hours later, the information was corrected on the Gazprom site,
with the parts regarding the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline struck out.
However, many people in Yerevan do not believe this is the end of the
matter. Independent deputy Manuk Gasparian predicted that the Armenian
section of the gas pipeline would be sold off by the end of the year.
Rita Karapetian works for Noyan Tapan news agency in Yerevan.

OMBUDSMEN OF BSEC GATHER IN ISTANBUL
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
April 27 2006
Ombudsmen of the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation
(BSEC) have gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss role of ombudsman
institution in strengthening democracy.
The two-day conference organized with the assistance of the
Parliamentary Assembly of BSEC started on April 26.
Addressing the meeting, former Turkish President Suleyman Demirel
expressed hope that ombudsmen would contribute to bring peace and
stability to the region.
Human rights commissioner of Azerbaijan Mrs. Elmira Suleymanova spoke
of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
She said over one million Azerbaijani nationals were forced to flee
their homelands and became refugees or internally displaced persons
(IDP) in result of 18-years long Armenian aggression.
Mrs. Suleymanova also called on all the human rights defenders to step
up their efforts to help Azerbaijani refugees return to their homes.
The conference will last until April 27.

“THE APRIL INCIDENTS WERE PLANNED BEFOREHAND”
Karine Asatryan
A1+
[04:42 pm] 12 April, 2006
This day two years ago, until midnight, it never occurred to anyone
that the authorities would order to raise batons on the peaceful
demonstrators whose only demand was to establish justice in the
country. The violations on the night of April 13 came to testify
that the authorities of the third Republic of Armenia are able to do
anything. According to NA deputy Hmayak Hovhannisyan, the incidents
of April 2004 were planned.
– The opposition was isolated from the process of governing the country
by a coalition memorandum. I don’t want to say that the opposition
must have its people in the executive branch. It must by all means
control several Committees in the Parliament, as it was after the
1999 elections when it gave them the possibility to participate in
the processing of the legislative policy. Since the 2003 elections
all the initiatives of the opposition are blocked. As the opposition
was not given any chance to be integrated into the political field,
they went to the streets.
And so happened what happened.
– Could the April violations be prevented?
– There is one thing we must understand: if because of the obstacles of
the authorities or maybe because of their own mistakes the opposition
does not do its duty as a state institution which participates in
the governing of the country, there is always danger of suchlike
situations. These cases can be prevented, but in April 2004 the
authorities themselves created the situation as they wanted to prove
that the opposition will not reach anything even if the oppositional
wings join together.
– Do you mean to say that today there is danger of suchlike situation?
– Not today, as the society lives in an atmosphere of hopelessness. The
people do not pin hopes on anything for positive changes. In 2003
there was hope that there would be changes if the two oppositional
wings joined together. The hope was immediately eliminated by
the authorities. They warned the people beforehand that the joint
opposition will not reach anything.
Then they made a scenario and involved the opposition in it as a
result of which the opposition really failed to reach anything. This
was how the atmosphere was created.

ARMENIANS of COLORADO
PRESS RELEASE
April 25, 2006
Press contact: Kim Christianian
P.O. Box 13854
Denver, Colorado 80201
Tel: (303) 588-5524
[email protected]
Armenians of Colorado Inc., is pleased to announce the passage of the 5th
annual Colorado Armenian Genocide Commemorative Resolution. The resolution
passed in both chambers unanimously and the roll calls were added as
co-sponsors. State Senator Lois Tochtrop, co-sponsor of all five
resolutions, was very pleased with the outcome and said, “I hope that the
actions at the state level will encourage or even push the legislators at
the Federal level to finally pass the Congressional resolution”.
Armenians of Colorado held its annual Commemorative ceremony at the Armenian
Genocide Memorial plaque at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.
Co-sponsors Senator Lois Tochtrop and Representative Michael Garcia
addressed the crowd as did representatives from Senator Allard and
Congressmen Udall’s offices.
Armenians of Colorado Inc is proud to also announce a new partnership with
the Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness & Action. The organization
will hold its first conference on May 8, 2006 at the Adams Mark Hotel in
Denver Colorado. The conference will consist of renowned genocide scholars
and speakers with the focus of organizing efforts leading to the cessation
and prevention of genocide. The day will culminate with an “awareness” walk
from the hotel to the Colorado State Capitol where a rally and press
conference will take place. Many of the partners of the coalition are
organizations that Armenians of Colorado Inc has collaborated with in the
past to bring events of genocide awareness. “This event will take the level
of awareness out of the college setting and bring it to the general public”,
says Kim Christianian, Chairperson of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration
Committee for Armenians of Colorado. Christianian, who has written
Colorado’s resolutions and proclamations for the last 5 years hopes that
through this alliance, the Armenian Genocide curriculum can be introduced
into the Social Studies curriculum at the middle and high school level.
The Colorado Armenian community through its coordinated efforts with the
Armenian Assembly, ANCA, and Armenians of Colorado Inc., has made great
progress in gaining support for Armenian issues at the Federal level.
Colorado Congressmen Udall and Beauprez have joined the Congressional Caucus
On Armenian Issues as well as signed the House Letter to President Bush and
co-sponsored H. Res. 316. Congresswomen Musgrave and Degette have also
co-sponsored H. Res. 316. Congressman Salazar has signed the letter to
President Bush. Senators Allard and Salazar have both signed the letter and
co-sponsored S. Res. 320.
2006 Colorado Armenian Genocide Commemorative Resolution
CONCERNING REMEMBRANCE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE FROM 1915 TO 1923 ON APRIL
24, 2006, and every year hereafter, AS
“COLORADO DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”
WHEREAS, This year marks the 91st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide when
1.5 million men, women, and children of Armenian descent were victims of the
brutal genocide perpetrated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire from 1915-1923;
500,000 more were exiled, and 500,000 were able to escape the regime of
terror and establish themselves in new foreign lands, and, as a result,
today there are only 100,000 people of Armenian heritage left residing
within the borders of modern Turkey; and
WHEREAS, The United States’ Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry
Morgenthau, Sr., stated, “Whatever crimes the most perverted instincts of
the human mind can devise, and whatever refinements of persecutions and
injustice the most debased imagination can conceive, became the daily
misfortunes of this devoted people. I am confident that the whole history of
the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great
massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when
compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915″. The killing of the
Armenian people was followed by the systematic destruction of churches,
schools, libraries, treasures of art, and cultural monuments that continues
to this day in an attempt to eliminate all traces of a noble civilization
with a history of more than 3,000 years.”; and
WHEREAS, Contemporary newspapers, such as the New York Times, carried
headlines including “Tales of Armenian Horrors Confirmed”, “Million
Armenians Killed or in Exile”, and “Wholesale Massacre of Armenians by
Turks”; and
WHEREAS, The Armenian Genocide has been acknowledged by countries and
international bodies such as Argentina, Belgium, Canada, the Council of
Europe, Cyprus, the European parliament, France, Great Britain, Greece,
Lebanon, Russia, the United Nations, and Uruguay; and
WHEREAS, Modern Turkey continues to deny and distort the facts of the
genocide and to honor the perpetrators of that crime against humanity as
national heroes; and
WHEREAS, The Armenian people have been denied the right to
self-determination on their ancestral lands and have received no form of
reparations for their tragic loss; and
WHEREAS, Each year, Armenians throughout the world honor those who perished
from 1915 to 1923, and all the world’s people should commemorate the
Armenian Genocide and condemn any attempt to deny its historical truth or
mischaracterize the episode as anything less than genocide the term coined
by Raphael Lemkin in 1944 who referenced the Armenian massacres as a seminal
example of such an atrocity; a crime against humanity; and
WHEREAS, We must all do our best to raise awareness about the Armenian
Genocide not only because it is an undeniable chapter of world history, but
also because learning more about this unconscionable tragedy will help
people better understand the necessity of eliminating hatred in our own
communities; to that end, we support the efforts of Armenians of Colorado
Inc. to encourage the educators in Colorado to include the Armenian Genocide
in the school curriculum. We also commend our local PBS stations KRMA, and
KBDI for airing the documentary The Armenian Genocide by filmmaker Andrew
Goldberg scheduled for April 17th and April 26th respectively and encourage
our Legislative colleagues to watch the program.
WHEREAS, For four consecutive years this legislative body has passed a
similar joint resolution in which the roll calls were added as co-sponsors
designating April 24 as “Colorado Day of Remembrance of the Armenian
Genocide”; and
WHEREAS, Armenian-Americans living in Colorado have greatly enriched our
state through their leadership in business, agriculture, academia,
government, and the arts; now, therefore,
1. That this legislative body pause in its deliberations to commemorate the
91st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide to be recognized at a memorial
service on Sunday, April 23, 2006, at the Armenian Genocide memorial plaque
located in the northeast quadrant on the State Capitol grounds;
2. That we, the members of the General Assembly, hereby acknowledge April
24, 2006, and every year hereafter, as “Colorado Day of Remembrance of the
Armenian Genocide”;
3. That the State of Colorado respectfully urges the United States Congress
to likewise commemorate the Armenian Genocide.
Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be sent to the
Honorable George W. Bush, President of the United States; the members of the
Colorado Congressional Delegation; the members of the Congressional Caucus
on Armenian Issues of which Colorado Congressmen Udall and Beauprez have
joined; the Honorable Bill Owens, Governor of Colorado; the Armenian
Assembly of America in Washington, D.C.; and the Armenian National Committee
in Washington, D.C.

PRESS RELEASE
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: 818-248-7737
Fax: 818-248-7745
E-mail: [email protected]
www.westernprelacy. org <; PRELACY P. R. COMMITTEE ORGANIZES A BOOK PRESENTATION The Western Prelacy Public Relations Committee, under the auspices of H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, has organized a book presentation event to be held on Sunday, April 30, at 6:00 p.m. at the `Armenak Der Bedrossian' Hall of St. Mary's Church in Glendale. The book that will be presented was a lost manuscript of Diana Apcar, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Japan during the first Armenian Republic (1918-1920), titled `From the Book of One Thousand Tales, Stories of Armenia and its People, 1892-1922'. The manuscript was found and published by Lucille Apcar, granddaughter of Diana Apcar, who will make the presentation. Diana Apcar, besides her diplomatic career, was a renowned writer and author of several books. In the 1920's, the building she lived in collapsed due to an earthquake and the manuscript for the aforementioned book was lost in the rubble. Many years later, the manuscript was found and her granddaughter Lucille Apcar published it into a book. The Western Prelacy Public Relations Committee has invited Lucille Apcar to Los Angeles to present her grandmother's recovered manuscript and to tell the public more about her grandmother's role in and service to the Armenian Community from the far away land of Japan. Following the official program there will be a reception and book signing.

MOSCOW TEEN BEING HELD IN ALLEGED RACIALLY MOTIVATED SLAYING
Ayinde O. Chase – All Headline News Staff Writer
All Headline News
April 24 2006
Atlanta, GA (AHN) – Moscow police are holding a high school student
tied to the killing of an Armenian teenager in the Moscow subway over
the weekend.
A spokesman for the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office says, “A 17-year-old
student from a Moscow high school has been detained in connection with
the killing of an Armenian committed last Saturday,” adding that the
teenager had admitted his involvement in the incident.
Prosecutors believed the case to be racially motivated due to a string
of recent attacks aimed at foreigners or people with darker skin.
The latest victim was Vagan Abramyants, 17, of the Moscow Academy
of Management was attacked and stabbed to death on the platform of
Pushkinskaya metro station in the center of the capital at about 5
p.m. on Saturday.

PanARMENIAN.Net
US to Do Utmost to Remove Differences between Karabakh
Conflict Parties
22.04.2006 20:16 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The negotiating process for the
settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict continues
in the framework of the Prague process, US Ambassador
to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish stated at a news conference
in Baku. In his words, significant improvements have
been achieved in agreeing on main principles, which
can be basis of a just and lasting peace. “The United
States will do its utmost to remove differences in the
stances of the sides,” Reno Harnish concluded, reports APA.

Azerbaijan Leader, Under Fire, Hopes U.S. Visit Improves Image
By C. J. CHIVERS
The New York Times
April 23, 2006 Sunday
Late Edition – Final
Next week, after years of waiting for an unequivocal nod of
Western approval, President Ilham H. Aliyev of Azerbaijan will
fly to Washington to be received at the White House, a visit his
administration hopes will lift his stature.
Being a guest of President Bush has been billed in Mr. Aliyev’s circle
as a chance for the 44-year-old president — dogged by allegations of
corruption, election rigging and repression of opposition figures —
to gain more international legitimacy.
“We have long waited for this visit,” said Ali Gasanov, a senior
presidential adviser. “Now it has been scheduled, and we hope that
we will be able to discuss global issues.”
For President Bush, who has made democracy promotion a prominent
theme of his foreign policy, Mr. Aliyev’s visit could prove tricky.
Mr. Aliyev’s invitation arrived during a period of increasing
diplomatic difficulties between the United States and both Russia
and Iran, countries that border Azerbaijan.
But while Azerbaijan’s strategic location could hardly be better and
its relations with the United States have mostly been warm, no leader
in the region more fully embodies the conflicting American objectives
in the former Soviet Union than its president.
Mr. Aliyev is a secular Muslim politician who is steering oil and gas
to Western markets and who has given political and military support to
the Iraq war. But his administration has never held a clean election
and has used riot police to crush antigovernment demonstrations.
The invitation, made last week, has raised eyebrows in the former
Soviet world, where Mr. Bush’s calls for democratization have increased
tensions between opposition movements and the entrenched autocrats.
Opposition leaders have long said the United States’ desires to
diversify Western energy sources and to encourage democratic growth
have collided in Azerbaijan. By inviting Mr. Aliyev to the White
House, they say, Mr. Bush has made a choice: oil and location now
trump other concerns.
Ali Kerimli, leader of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, noted that
when Mr. Aliyev was elected in 2003 in a vote deemed neither free nor
fair, the White House withheld an invitation, awaiting improvement
by Azerbaijan in promoting civil society and recognizing human rights.
“It is difficult for Azerbaijan’s democratic forces to understand
what changed,” said Mr. Kerimli, who was beaten by the police as were
several thousand demonstrators during a crackdown on a protest over
fraudulent parliamentary elections last fall. The demonstration had
been peaceful until the police rushed in with clubs.
“I think the White House must explain what has happened when three
years ago Aliyev was not wanted for a reception in the White House, and
now he falsifies another election and is received,” Mr. Kerimli said.
American officials insist nothing has changed, and say Mr. Aliyev
has been invited for what they call a “working visit,” during which
he will be urged to liberalize his government and its economy, which
is tightly controlled by state officials and clans.
“If we are going to elevate our relationship with Azerbaijan to
something that is qualitatively different, then there has to be
progress on democratic and market reforms,” a senior State Department
official said. “I am sure we will talk in these clear and blunt terms.”
The United States’ relationship with Azerbaijan rests on three
principal issues: access to energy resources, international security
cooperation, and democratic and economic change.
On the first two issues, the United States has made clear it is
satisfied. Mr. Aliyev has supported new pipelines to pump Caspian
hydrocarbons away from Russia and Iran to Western customers, and
provided troops to United States-led military operations in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
Azerbaijan also grants overflight rights to the American military and
is cooperating with a Pentagon-sponsored modernization of a former
Soviet airfield that could be used by American military planes.
Mr. Aliyev often welcomes foreign delegations to Baku, the capital,
describing in smooth English his efforts to push his nation toward
Western models of democracy and free markets.
But Azerbaijan has remained undemocratic. No election under Mr.
Aliyev or his late father, Heydar Aliyev, has been judged free or
fair by the main international observers. Instead, fraud and abuse
of state resources for chosen candidates have been widespread.
Ilham Aliyev’s government maintains a distinctly Soviet-era state
television network and has elevated Heydar Aliyev to the status of
a minor personality cult figure.
Moreover, Azerbaijan’s government is often described as one of
the world’s most corrupt. A criminal case now in federal court in
New York against three international speculators describes enormous
shakedowns and bribes in the late 1990’s at Socar, Azerbaijan’s state
oil company. Mr. Aliyev was a Socar vice president at the time.
Last year the Azerbaijani government showed signs of paranoia,
arresting several people shortly before the parliamentary election
and accusing them of plotting an armed coup.
Public evidence for the charges has been scarce, and a lawyer for two
of the men held in solitary confinement for months since — Farhad
Aliyev, the former minister of economics, and his brother Rafiq —
has urged Congress to raise issues of their treatment when Mr. Aliyev
comes to Washington. (The president is not related to the accused men.)
American officials say that Azerbaijan has been liberalizing slowly,
and evolving into a more responsible state. But given Mr. Aliyev’s
uneven record and the allegations against him, his visit has raised
fresh questions about the degree to which American standards are
malleable.
“Russian public opinion, when it looks at the United States policy in
Azerbaijan, cannot ignore the fact that the United States has a desire
not in favor of democracy but in favor of profits and geopolitical
domination,” said Sergei Markov, director of the Institute for
Political Studies here and a Kremlin adviser.
Mr. Markov and others have noted that the West has penalized Belarus
for police crackdowns after tainted elections last month.
“This is one of the reasons that Russian public opinion is very
suspicious of United States policies in the former Soviet political
sphere, and its propaganda about democracy,” Mr. Markov said.
“Ilham Aliyev will be in the White House not because he promotes
democracy,” Mr. Markov said. “He will be in the White House because
he controls oil.”
In Armenia, Mr. Aliyev’s invitation has also generated interest.
Armenia fought Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a wedge of territory
within Azerbaijan’s boundaries that each country claims. The conflict
has been frozen for several years, but Mr. Aliyev’s recent statements
have often been bellicose.
“The visit at this time should not be viewed as appreciation of their
democratic or other policies,” Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s foreign
minister, said via e-mail.