Author: Ophelia Vardapetian

The Hindu, India
October 24, 2004
FEMALE ELEPHANT DIES IN MYSORE ZOO
Our Staff Correspondent
Barely days before she was due to fly to Armenia as “India’s
ambassador of goodwill,” Komala, an eight-year-old female elephant
died under mysterious circumstances in Mysore Zoo on Friday.
Komala is the third elephant to die in the zoo in the past couple of
weeks. Her death came at a time when a large number of tourists, who
had arrived in Mysore for the Dasara celebrations, were visiting the
zoo.
Other instances
A 30-year-old tusker, Ganesha, and a 14-year-old female elephant,
Roopa, died in Mysore Zoo last month, and laboratories tests
confirmed that they were victims of chemical poisoning. A couple of
weeks earlier, a lion-tailed macaque died of poisoning. As at least
three animal deaths have been attributed to poisoning in the past few
weeks, there is suspicion of foul play in Komala’s death.
The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, who was visibly concerned, said
he would direct the Principal Secretary, Forests and Environment, to
visit the zoo and investigate the death of Komala. “It is unfortunate
that animals are dying in Mysore Zoo. Action will be taken against
the guilty,” he told presspersons after offering floral tributes to
Nandi Dhwaja outside the Mysore Palace premises.
Sources in the zoo said Komala had not had food since Thursday
morning. In the afternoon, she seemed to be suffering from dysentery,
and veterinarians provided treatment. But, on Friday afternoon,
Komala breathed her last. A post-mortem was conducted on Friday
evening. A complaint has been lodged at the Nazarbad police station.
After the deaths of the elephants and the macaque, the zoo
authorities had introduced a system to test the food supplied to
animals.
Gift
Komala had been chosen as India’s gift to Armenia after an elaborate
nationwide search carried out by the Central Zoo Authority recently.
As an ambassador of goodwill, Komala was to fulfil India’s promise to
Armenia to gift a female elephant as a companion for the lone male
Indian elephant housed at the Yerevan Zoo.
Gentle giant
According to the executive director of Mysore Zoo, Manoj Kumar,
Komala had been chosen as she was the gentlest of the gentle giants
short-listed for the trip to Armenia.
“Only animals bred in captivity are included in an exchange
programme,” he added.
Komala had been separated from her parents for the last couple of
weeks to prepare her for life in Armenia.
The Armenian authorities were scheduled to take the elephant on a
special flight.
A special cage was made, and officials from the Forest Department
were preparing to accompany the elephant.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIA’S AIR BASE IN KYRGYZSTAN MARKS FIRST ANNIVERSARY
Kabar news agency
23 Oct 04
Bishkek, 23 October: The Russian air base in Kant will mark its
anniversary today. Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev and Russian President
Vladimir Putin attended the official opening of the base a year
ago. The main purpose of the air base is to defend the Central Asian
air direction of the Collective Security Treaty Organization which
includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Russia.
(Passage omitted: the air base has been reconstructed)
It is planned that the air base will receive several SU-27 aircraft
and the number of military servicemen will be increased by another 100
people.
It is expected that deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian air
forces, Col-Gen Yevgeniy Nogovitsyn (as received, First Deputy
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force is Col-Gen Anatoliy
Nogovitsyn), will lead a delegation of generals and officers to attend
the anniversary celebrations. Gazeta.ru (Russian web site) has
reported, quoting the head of the (Russian) Air Force press service,
Aleksandr Drobyshevskiy, that Nogovitsyn will familiarize himself with
the results of the final inspection of the training of the Kant air
base staff in the summer and will meet servicemen and their family
members. The general will also meet senior officials from the Kyrgyz
Defence Ministry.
The Kyrgyz Defence Ministry has said that Kyrgyz Defence Minister Esen
Topoyev will attend the air base’s first anniversary celebrations on
behalf of Kyrgyzstan.
A group of singers and dancers from the (Volga) Ural Military District
will congratulate the servicemen of Russia’s air base.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Oct 23 2004
Kocharian Meets Zhvania, Burjanadze

Visiting Armenian President Robert Kocharian held separate meeting
with the Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and Parliamentary
Chairperson Nino Burjanadze on October 23 in Tbilisi.
`I want to say, that Robert Kocharian always pays a huge attention to
eliminate even a minor flaw in relations with Georgia,’ Prime
Minister Zurab Zhvania told reporters after talks with the Armenian
President.
He said that economic cooperation has been discussed during the
talks. `We talked about import of the electricity from Armenia, which
is so important for us,’ Zhvania added.
Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said after talks with
Robert Kocharian, that `Georgia pays a great attention to relations
with Armenia.’ `Bilateral ties are not only important for Georgia and
Armenia, but for the entire region as well,’ she added.
Robert Kocharian, who arrived in Georgia for three-day visit on
October 22, has already met with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil
Saakashvili on Friday. He also intends to meet representatives of
Armenian community in Georgia.

Interfax
Oct 18 2004
Baku publishes black list of Nagorno-Karabakh businesses
Baku. (Interfax-Azerbaijan) – The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has
published a list of foreign companies that are engaged in what Baku
views as illegal economic activities in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Certainly, this list is far from being full. An investigation and
information collection is continuing,” Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
spokesman Metin Mirza told Interfax on Saturday.
The list mainly contains companies developing international telephone
communications in Nagorno-Karabakh, including Daewoo Unitel (South
Korea), Kyivstar (Ukraine), Gruppo Telecom Mobile (Italy), and
Vodafone (Italy-Britain), Mirza said.
The French company Pernod Ricard, which exports grapes from
Nagorno-Karabakh, is also on the list, he said.
Interfax has so far been unable to obtain comments from these
companies.
The republic of Nagorno-Karabakh is a breakaway Azerbaijani territory
populated mostly by ethnic Armenians which has close economic and
military-political ties with Armenia. Azerbaijan is seeking to
restore control over the self-proclaimed republic.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MP UPBEAT ON ARMENIA’S BENEFITS FROM TURKEY’S EU ADMISSION
Mediamax news agency
8 Oct 04
YEREVAN
Turkey’s EU admission is beneficial to Armenia, Galust Saakyan,
chairman of the Republican Party parliamentary faction, said in
Yerevan today.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Saakyan said that if Turkey
joined the EU, Armenia would border the EU directly.
”Turkey’s EU admission can contribute to the opening of the border
with Armenia,” Saakyan said. He added that the European community was
determined to succeed in opening the Turkish-Armenian border, and “if
not today, it will be opened tomorrow”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Iran-Khatami-Tajikistan
Khatami arrives in Tajikistan Dushanbe, Sept 11, IRNA — President
Seyed Mohammad Khatami arrived here in the Tajik capital on Saturday
on the last leg of his three-nation tour of Armenia, Belarus and
Tajikistan. Khatami was officially welcomed on arrival by his Tajik
counterpart Emomali Rakhmonov. The welcoming ceremony began with
the playing of the national anthems of the two countries followed
by the review of a guard of honor by the two presidents. Khatami
is due to hold talks with top Tajik officials on ways of bolstering
Tehran-Dushanbe ties.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Russian ambassador appreciates Azerbaijan’s position on terror act committed in Beslan
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 10 2004
Baku, September 9, AssA-Irada — On Thursday, Russian Ambassador to
Azerbaijan Nikolay Ryabov held a news conference on completion of
his diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan.
Commenting on the terror act perpetrated recently in Beslan, North
Ossetia, Ryabov recalled that the Azerbaijani people shared their
excitement with Russia and medical aid has been provided to the terror
victims on the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev.
Touching upon the Upper Garabagh conflict, Ambassador Ryabov underlined
that Azerbaijan’s occupied lands will be freed soon. Adequate steps
will be taken for the settlement of the Upper Garabagh conflict
during the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents to
be held in Astana, Kazakhstan on September 16 on the initiative of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, he noted The new Russian ambassador
to Azerbaijan was not named at the event. Ryabov has been appointed
Ambassador to Moldova.*
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 5 2004
Movement for Azerbaijan to hold protest actions in Russia, Georgia
and Ukraine

Baku, August 5, AssA-Irada
The Movement for Azerbaijan has decided to hold protest actions in
Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.
`Activists of the Movement will hold public protest actions in front
of the Armenian embassies and central squares in Moscow, Tbilisi and
Kiev on August 22 and 31, the organization said on Thursday.*
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agency says Russia trying to hinder Azerbaijani gas going through Iran
Assa-Irada, Baku
15 Jul 04

BAKU
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received Russia’s ex-prime minister
and current ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin, on 15 July.
Aliyev touched on Russian-Azerbaijani relations and drew attention to
positive dynamics in these relations which have a firm base. According
to him, the days of Russian culture recently held in Baku, a
Russian-Azerbaijani business forum, plans to hold a year of Azerbaijan
in Russia and a year of Russia in Azerbaijan, the fruitful work of the
intergovernmental commission and frequent mutual visits by official
delegations testify to a high level of understanding between the two
countries. Aliyev expressed the hope that this tendency will continue
in the spirit of strategic partnership in the future.
Chernomyrdin expressed the hope that Russian-Azerbaijani relations
will continue to develop and strengthen.
The aim of the sudden visit to Baku by one of Russia’s gas magnates,
Viktor Chernomyrdin, is not disclosed officially, and observers link
it to the fact that an Iranian gas pipeline might be built through
Azerbaijan to export gas to Europe. Russia, which does not want
Iranian gas to go to Europe, managed to prevent the construction of
the gas pipeline through Armenian territory.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress