Author: Nargizian David

ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN OPPOSITION TRANSFERS TO FUTSAL GROUND

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.09.2007 20:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European qualifying draw for the 2008 FIFA Futsal
World Cup was held on Tuesday 18 September in Nyon, Switzerland. As
result, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Finland and Armenia will compete in
Group 6. UEFA qualifying round matches will take place from February 23
to March 2 in Czech Republic. The group winners will go into a playoff.

In November 2006, Azerbaijan and Armenia were also qualified for the
same group. Despite Armenia’s readiness to host the Azeri team in
Yerevan, the Azerbaijani FFA insisted on a neutral ground, explaining
the decision by incapability to ensure security for Armenian players
in Baku. In June, the UEFA executive committee cancelled the games
between Azerbaijan and Armenia awarding the teams with 0 point each.

OSCE MG: THERE IS LITTLE TO BE DONE FOR COORDINATION OF FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.09.2007 20:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "We can only welcome Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov’s statement. It proves that there is little to
be done for coordination of fundamental principles of Karabakh
settlement," OSCE MG Russian Co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov told a news
conference in Yerevan.

As reported earlier, the Azeri FM said that "if the Armenian side
agrees to the proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, it will
be a real breakthrough."

EXPECTATIONS FROM CO-CHAIRS ARE AS USUAL

Lragir.am
14-09-2007 13:11:15

The speaker of the president of Armenia Victor Soghomonyan told
reporters on September 14 that official Yerevan’s expectations from
the recurrent visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are as usual.

The co-chairs will arrive in Armenia on September 15 but they will meet
with the Armenian government on September 17 because the co-chairs
will first visit Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to meet with the NKR
government. On September 18 the co-chairs will leave for Baku.

"During this visit we expect from the co-chairs what they do every
time for years on, in other words, mediation, they work on the
document that is on the ground and try to bring the approaches of
the sides closer. This is their mission, and this is what we expect
from them, in other words, we expect from them what they always do,
and I think this time too they will do it duly," stated the speaker
of the Armenian president.

ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL AGVAN HOVSEPYAN: SOMEBODY WANTS TO DISORIENT INVESTIGATION ON THE MURDER CASE OF LORI REGION PROSECUTOR

ArmInfo
2007-09-12 19:59:00

Prosecutor of Lori region Albert Kazaryan killed on 25 August was a
true professional and the man of law knowing his business, Armenian
Prosecutor General Agvan Hovsepyan said when making a speech in the
National Assembly today.

He also added that the best local investigators, headed by Andranik
Mirzoyan, are investigating the case.

All the observed options are concerning Albert Kazaryan’s prosecutor
activity. The investigation has no so-called household option. As
for accusations turned into a show that witnesses are examined by
means of beating and blackmail, ‘I take personal responsibility to
clean the crime. Some other crimes maybe cleaned in the course of
investigation, and there are people for which cleaning of the given
crime is unfavorable’, – Agvan Hovsepyan said.

He said as a sample that a girl has recently told the Police that she
had seen how Albert Kazaryan was killed. She was examined over three
days, but her testimony was false and at present the investigators
clarify who wanted to disorient the investigation, Armenian prosecutor
general said.

AZERBAIJAN FEELS RIGHT DEMOLISHING CHRISTIAN CEMETERIES

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.09.2007 15:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Under the pretext of building a highway Baku
demolishes a Christian cemetery (the Nariman cemetery), where
Armenians, Jews and Russians were buried.

Chief engineer of Civil Service Trust Firuz Askerov said "the hearsay
that bulldozers have razed to the ground the graves at the Nariman
cemetery is false."

"They work to lay a way through the site of displaced graves," he said.

According to him, "134 graves have been replaced from the Nariman
cemetery to the Govsany cemetery." Askerov said "besides Azeri graves
there were also graves of Russians, Georgians, Tatarts, Molokans, etc."

(However, he failed to mention about Armenians). He emphasized
that "only those graves which lie on the territory covered by the
contraction plan will be replaced," APA reports.

Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reports that although local authorities
assure of reinterment, photos in Internet show a complete dump. The
photographers say the bulldozers just raze the graves to the ground
depriving the relatives to rebury the remains.

The city administration says exhumation and reinterment is performed
in accord with ethnic and religious traditions in the presence of
relatives of the deceased. Meanwhile, the Jewish News Agency reports
that "observance of Jewish traditions is restricted to the fact that
grave-diggers throw the ashes into sacks and then give them to the
relatives."

"DEAR ARMENIA" PROGRAM AIRED IN ARGENTINA

Panorama.am
17:11 10/09/2007

Channel 13 of the Argentinean Television for the first time ever aired
"Dear Armenia" program on September 7. Armenian foreign ministry
press services report that the first program started with a welcome
note of Vladimir Karmirshalyan, Armenian ambassador to Argentina. The
ambassador outlined friendly relations and closer partnership between
the two countries. He also told about programs under implementation and
made reflections to the history and present of the Argentinean Armenian
community. The program also talked about the Armenian culture and aired
Armenian songs performed by Argentinean Armenian singer Kh. Chipyan.

The program is aired under the sponsorship and with the assistance
of the Armenian embassy in Argentina.

This series of programs will be aired each Friday, at 9.30. Until now
only Jewish and Arabic communities had the chance of national TV hour
among the national

The New Zealand Herald
Monday September 10, 2007

Blog: Political minefield offers rich pickings for jokes

The 14th century Tsminda Sameba church overlooked by
5047m Mt Kazbek. Photo / Jill Worrall

9:55AM Monday September 10, 2007
By Jill Worrall
There’s little work available in the Georgian town of
Kazbegi, just 20km from the Russian border.

The two nations are not on speaking terms at present
so the border is closed. Kazbegi is now without its
usual rumble and belch of trucks, buses and vans –
it’s a forlorn place where men sit in doorways with
nothing to do.

So, I’m not altogether surprised when the jeep drivers
tell us it’s not safe to walk up to the 14th century
Tsminda Sameba church that sits perched on a hill
overlooked by 5047m Mt Kazbek, Georgia’s highest
mountain.

"There are two bears on the path," they tell us,
seriously. We should take the jeeps to be safe. So we
do.

Interestingly the black-robed priest and his small
flock of pilgrims who take the path arrive safely at
the church – maybe they had a higher level of divine
protection.

The closed border is a graphic example of why the
Caucasus would be no place to cut one’s teeth in the
field of international relations.

While Georgia and Russia are at loggerheads, Georgia
and Azerbaijan are talking to each other so their
borders are open. But don’t even contemplate trying to
cross from Azerbaijan into Armenia – those two nations
are bristling with tension over disputed territory.

Armenia is however, friendly with Iran,
which in turn is regarded a little guardedly by
Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, Armenia and Turkey are caught in
long-standing enmity. And to compound things further
Armenia and Georgia are possibly a little envious of
the Azeris’ oil-fields, while Georgia and Azerbaijan
seem a little miffed about the amount of money Armenia
receives from its wealthy diaspora.

It’s rich pickings for collectors of national jokes
too.

Georgians, for example, are teased about their claims
to be the first to make wine, along with several other
"firsts".

The region is the political geographer’s paradise – a
soap opera of kinship, enmity, envy, spies and the
usual pot pourri of other human emotions that can both
divide and unite.

The Tsminda Sameba church . Photo / Jill Worrall
But political minefields seem a long way away up at
the little stone church of Tsminda Sameba where the
wind billows the priest’s gowns and Mt Kazbek and its
snowfields loom on the skyline on a cloudless blue
Caucasian day.

CIS CONFLICTS IMPEDE DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONS AMONG COUNTRIES: HEAD-OF-STAFF OF PRESIDENT’S EXECUTIVE POWER

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Sept 6 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend E.Huseynli / The Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh should be resolved within the framework
of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and with a condition of
repatriation of all refugees, Ramiz Mehdiyev, the head-of-staff of
the Azerbaijani President’s Executive Power, said in a meeting of
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Council of Interior Ministers
in Baku on 6 September.

On 6 September a meeting of the CIS Interior Minister set up its work
in Baku. Chairmanship of the organization was passed from Kazakhstan
to Azerbaijan. Armenian interior ministries also in attendance.

According to Mehdiyev, regional conflicts in CIS impede the development
of relations between the countries. The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh is one of them.

Azerbaijan supports the resolution of the conflict is a peaceful
manner.

Terrorism gives birth to a more global threat. Thanks to joint
activities of the Interior Ministers of CIS member-countries, many
dangerous crimes were avoided in the region, Mehdiyev said.

The meeting will conclude on 7 September.

DEMOCRATIC PATH NOT TO ENDORSE EX-PRESIDENT’S POSSIBLE PRESIDENTIAL BID

ARMENPRESS
Sep 6, 2007

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS: A former parliament member Manuk
Gasparian said his Democratic Path party would not endorse ex-president
Levon Ter-Petrosian if he decides to contest the 2008 presidential
election. Gasparian, however, added that the party would not hamper
his possible bid either.

Speaking to a news conference today Manuk Gasparian said only
two members of his party’s governing board say they would like
Ter-Petrosian to be nominated.

Manuk Gasparian then argued in favor of a single opposition candidate
saying this should be the prime task for all opposition groups.

"Today there are 3-4 opposition leaders who would at best garner 3-4
percent of votes if contest the poll separately. It will be also a
waste of money,’ he said, adding that he has calculated that the
opposition candidates will have to spend about $25-30 million on
their election campaigns.

He said Arthur Baghdasarian of the Orinats Yerkir and Raffi
Hovhanesian of the Heritage party have the best chances among
opposition candidates.

ARMENIA IS WORKING AT INVOLVING KARABAKH INTO NEGOTIATIONS PROCESS, VARDAN OSKANIAN STATES

Noyan Tapan
Sep 6, 2007

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. "We are working at involving
the Karabakh side into the process of negotiations on the peaceful
settlement of the conflict," RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian stated
at the September 6 press conference. According to him, Azerbaijan is
impeding that work. "I think Azerbaijan will also finally understand
that the sooner Nagorno Karabakh is involved into the negotiations
the sooner that problem will be solved," the Minister said.

V. Oskanian reported that the draft document on the peaceful
settlement proposed by the mediators today supposes serious progress on
achievement of peace. He called Azerbaijan for "showing the necessary
will" and continuing to work at the document. "If Azerbaijan continues
its radical statements, certainly, the process will have no progress."