Author: Tambiyan Samvel

Article by: BatumiNews.com
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Situation still tensed in Tsalka
posted: May 14, 2004
The situation is still tensed in the Tsalka region, Georgia. The regional
Prosecutor launched a criminal investigation against the individuals, who
participated in the swoop-on-raids in the villages settled mostly by
Adjarans with the paragraph on hooliganism.
The investigators of the police and the prosecutor’s have been working in
Tsalka for 4 days already, though have not traced down the suspected
rowdies.
The Adjarans, whose houses were raided by the local Armenians, are demanding
punishing of the ruffians.
Nodar Kinkladze, the deputy chief of the Kvemo Kartli regional police, said
that the Armenian population is against the interior forces to stay on the
region, whilst the Adjarans are protesting against the withdrawal of the
military units, threatening they will leave the region.

Azerbaijan threatens renewed war
BBC News
Last Updated: Wednesday, 12 May, 2004, 16:59 GMT 17:59 UK
Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of the ceasefire
Azerbaijan’s president has warned the country is ready to return to war
with Armenia – on the 10th anniversary of a ceasefire between the two.
Ilham Aliyev said he was trying to find a peaceful solution to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but the Azeri army was prepared to “free”
the territory.
Ministers from both sides are reportedly meeting to try to agree a
peace settlement.
But our correspondent says relations are, if anything, worse than ever.
‘Right to war’
“We are trying to resolve this problem by peaceful means but so far
we have not been able to achieve that,” Mr Aliyev said at a military
base just a few miles from the border with Armenia.
“We must increase our military potential. Our army is able at any
moment to free our territory,” he said, according to the AFP news
agency.
“We have every right to do that, to restore our territorial integrity,
and international law is on our side since Armenia violated all
international norms.”
Mr Aliyev added that government expenditure on Azerbaijan’s military
was increasing each year, “and it will keep increasing in the future”.
The leaders of the two countries signed a ceasefire in May 1994,
but there is sporadic fighting along the ceasefire line.
The foreign ministers of both countries were meeting in Strasbourg,
and were expected to discuss Armenia returning some of the Karabakh
regions to Azeri control, in exchange for reopening transport links.
But the peace process appears to be going nowhere, says the BBC’s
Chloe Arnold in the capital Baku.
The ceasefire ended five years of hostilities which erupted when
the Soviet Union collapsed, and Armenians living in the mountainous
territory of Karabakh demanded independence from Soviet Azerbaijan.
Thousands died and one million were forced out of their homes in
the conflict.
Our correspondent says there is growing impatience with the peace
process in Azerbaijan, where many ordinary people here now say the
only way to resolve the dispute is to go back to war.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
May 10, 2004, Monday
Armenian president starts official visit to Beirut
Beirut
Armenian president Robert Kocharian arrived in Beirut Monday on a
three-day visit during which he is to meet Lebanese officials and
leaders of the Armenian community. Kocharian, who is accompanied by
his wife and daughter, will meet President Emile Lahoud for talks on
bilateral relations and the situation in the Middle East, including
in Iraq, officials said. Lebanon hosts the Arab world’s largest
Armenian community, with about 200,000 members. The community has
government ministers and parliament members, and is very active in
the business sector. dpa wh sc

Fragile peace in Nagorno-Karabakh
By Steven Eke
BBC regional analyst
Wednesday, 12 May, 2004
I sit in a vineyard on the outskirts of Nagorno-Karabakh’s main
town, Stepanakert, the evening mist rolling down from the lush,
surrounding hills.
Everything is peaceful, the only sounds being those of farm animals
and the occasional passing car.
It is difficult to imagine this place at war, especially a conflict
such as that fought by Armenia and Azerbaijan, which saw both sides
commit appalling acts of cruelty against each other’s civilian
population.
The two South Caucasus nations of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as
the unrecognised Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, saw ethnic cleansing
long before it would again appear in the former Yugoslavia.
But while some of those who committed the worst atrocities there are
now facing justice, Nagorno-Karabakh has not moved on. The wounds,
Armenian and Azeri, are still raw. And who, really, in the West
actually remembers the first signs of unrest here in 1988?
On one of the hills to my east, I can see the town of Shusha. From
there, Azeri forces relentlessly shelled Stepanakert. The town’s
people could only have been sitting ducks.
I know that the antipathy between Armenians and Azeris is very real,
and has existed for centuries. At every step, I hear anti-Azeri
statements, usually mixed with anti-Turkish sentiments.
Venom
Most Armenians still seem unable to distinguish Azeris from Turks. Yet
it seems strange to me that people who had lived together during the
Soviet period could have secretly harboured such venom.
In Stepanakert, it is easy to think you are in Armenia proper. The
Armenian national flag is everywhere – on lamp-posts, hanging
above shop doors. The telephone codes are the same as Armenia’s
On Wednesday, Nagorno-Karabakh is marking a decade of peace. Ten
years have passed since the end of war, but peace is fragile.
Even now, ordinary civilians and soldiers alike die in mine accidents
on the no man’s land separating Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan. There
is no peace settlement, and I cannot help but feel it would take the
smallest of sparks to ignite the region once again.
The military situation means it is only possible to enter
Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia, along a highway leading directly
from Yerevan.
There are no border controls with Armenia, and nothing to suggest you
are entering Nagorno-Karabakh. Indeed, part of the highway leading to
Stepanakert has been rebuilt, largely using money from the Armenian
diaspora, most of which is in the United States.
I was aware as I drove to Stepanakert, surrounded by untouched forests,
awe-inspiring mountains and fertile fields, that I was in what is
legally Azerbaijan. For the self-styled Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
has not been recognised by a single other country on earth. Even
Armenia.
Sympathy
Yet in Stepanakert, it is easy to think you are in Armenia proper. The
Armenian national flag is everywhere – on lamp-posts, hanging above
shop doors. The telephone codes are the same as those in Armenia.
The people speak Armenian – admittedly with an accent. They have
restored the town, which is an attractive, green, relaxed place. There
is tradition – with farm animals wandering the streets. There is also
modernity – the ubiquitous mobile phone.
The people I spoke to made it abundantly clear: “We are Armenians”.
“Either we live as part of Armenia, or in an independent state,”
said others.
“But we don’t want to live in Azerbaijan, and we don’t want the Azeris
living among us”.
The most positive assessment I found was that Armenians and Azeris
could be “good neighbours”. Nothing more.
What surprises me most is the local people’s profound interest in
the outside world. They want the world to remember their troubled
republic. They believe that, whatever the territorial claims from
oil-rich Azerbaijan, the international community will somehow be more
sympathetic to their cause.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 7 2004
SALOME ZURABISHVILI: `LOCAL CONFLICTS IN REGION IMPEDE ITS
DEVELOPMENT’
[May 07, 2004, 11:20:23]
As correspondent of AzerTAj reported, Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Georgia Salome Zuarabishvili is paying an official visit to Moscow.
On May 6, head of foreign policy department of this country had a
meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Sergey Lavrov during which have been discussed situation in Georgia
after resignation of the head of Ajaria Aslan Abashidze and the
further prospects of development of the Russian – Georgian relations.
On results of negotiations, the head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Russia and Georgia have held press conference on which the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov
has stated that the position of Russia on Abkhazia has not changed
and based on recognition of territorial integrity of Georgia. `Russia
proceeds from the principle of respect of territorial integrity of
Georgia – this position is consecutive and constant’, the head the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has told. He
has emphasized, that Russia is satisfied with the peace settlement of
situation in Ajaria, it always considered this conflict as internal
work of Georgia.
In turn, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili,
answering questions of journalists, has declared that: `Georgia
highly estimates the political support rendered to authorities of
Georgia on the part of Russia, considers, that `arrival of the
Secretary of Security Council of the Russian Federation Igor Ivanov
to Batumi was very important. Russia during last moment has offered
help, and it creates that ground of trust which is necessary for
development of relations in a right way ‘.
The head of foreign policy department of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili
also has declared, that the delayed local conflicts brake development
of the Caucasian states, and these conflicts into which also enters
also Nagorny Karabakh – actually, freeze our development. As she
said, on the solution of similar conflicts depend all the Caucasian
peoples. S. Zurabishvili has emphasized, that the CIS countries take
the important place in the policy of Georgia, and Georgia would
continue further active interaction with the states of Commonwealth.
She has noted also that her country attaches great importance to
cooperation with the Organization of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation.
Alongside with it, Salome Zurabishvili has declared, that Georgia
wants to combine partnership with the NATO and cooperation with
Russia.
It is necessary to note that during the meeting of the head of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and the head of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation also have been discussed
questions on situation in Abkhazia, about the status and terms of
stay of the Russian military bases on territories of Georgia,
questions of visa regime between the two states, combat against the
international terrorism.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
May 5, 2004 Wednesday
Azeri presid notes positive changes in OSCE Minsk group work
By Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman
BAKU, May 5
Azerbaijani president Ilkham Aliyev has noted positive changes in the
activities of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Nagorno Karabakh.
Aliyev told journalists on Wednesday, “the activity of the Minsk
Group has become noticeable, its co-chairmen are persistently seeking
solution to the problem.”
The Azerbaijani president believes the settlement process is underway
although not very actively.
President Aliyev expressed the hope that the negotiations on the
Karabakh conflict settlement with mediation of the OSCE Group,
co-chaired by Russia, France and the United States, will bring
concrete results.
“If we did not believe in that there would be no sense in conducting
talks,” the head of Azerbaijan stressed.
He positively assessed meetings held between the Azerbaijani and
Armenian presidents in Geneva in December 2003 and in Warsaw in April
2004, as well as talks held at the level of the two states’ foreign
ministers.
The next meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia
with participation of co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group will be held
in Strasbourg on May 12.
On this day ten days ago the two sides reached an agreement on
ceasefire on the Karabakh conflict zone which is still being
observed.

Azeri politician says Ajarian leader’s resignation Georgia’s victory
Turan news agency
6 May 04

BAKU
“This is a great victory of the Georgian people, a great achievement
of Georgian democracy and the triumph of President Mikheil
Saakashvili,” said Azerbaijani political expert Zardust Alizada,
commenting on the latest developments in Ajaria to Turan news
agency. He said that the events showed that Azerbaijan could also
resolve “its problems” if it pursued correct domestic and foreign
policy. In Alizada’s opinion, Saakashvili has public support, he was
elected through democratic polls and is carrying out a real struggle
against corruption, and therefore, he has serious international
support.
There is nothing like that in Azerbaijan. “The president was elected
as a result of falsifications and himself leads the corrupt pyramid,”
Alizada said.
He believes that if Azerbaijan pursues “correct” domestic and foreign
policy, then a senior Russian official will come and take with him
separatists such as [head of the self-styled Nagornyy Karabakh
republic] Arkadiy Gukasyan and [Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan.
Political expert Rasim Musabayov also thinks that the latest events in
Ajaria will “positively” impact the situation in the region. Georgia
has recently turned into a synonym of “anarchy”, the central
government did not control many regions. However, the recent events
demonstrated the ability of the democratic government to tackle
problems that were too tough for the old nomenclature lead by
Shevardnadze.
“If President Saakashvili continues to act decisively and carefully,
taking into consideration the position of the world community, Georgia
will find a solution to the Abkhaz and South Ossetia conflicts,”
Musabayov said.
The Georgian authorities have taken a serious step towards setting up
a unitary country and have proven their ability to tackle serious
problems without using force, Musavat Party leader Isa Qambar said,
commenting on the Ajaria events.
He described [Ajarian leader Aslan] Abashidze’s resignation as “a
serious blow to corruption in the South Caucasus”. Qambar expressed
the hope that further processes in Georgia would develop within the
framework of democracy and without violence.
Justice Party Chairman Ilyas Ismayilov expressed “concern” over the
possible impact of the Georgian events on ethnic Azerbaijanis in this
country. He said he hoped that further processes would also be carried
out without bloodshed. He assessed the events in Ajaria as a struggle
against separatism.

Eurasianet Organization
April 28 2004
GEORGIA STRIVES TO BURNISH IMAGE AMID AJARIA CRISIS
Alex van Oss: 4/28/04
Amid a constitutional crisis involving the renegade region of Ajaria,
Georgian leaders have waged a diplomatic offensive to bolster
Georgia’s international image. In the United States, Georgian Prime
Minister Zurab Zhvania has touted his government as “one of the most
competent” in the former Soviet Union. Meanwhile, President Mikheil
Saakashvili was promoting trade ties during a tour of Ukraine and
Poland.
Since the Soviet collapse in 1991, Georgia has been riven by civil
strife and economic dysfunction. [For additional information see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. At a public appearance in Washington on
April 26, Zhvania emphasized that with Saakashvili’s reform-minded
administration in place, Georgia should no longer be viewed as a
“failed state.” Since January, Georgia has made great strides in
curbing corruption, long seen as the single most daunting obstacle to
Georgia’s stabilization, Zhvania maintained.
“Formerly untouchable gangsters are now in prison, so people now have
physical security. This is just a beginning,” Zhvania said during the
appearance, sponsored by the Center for International and Strategic
Studies. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. “The
Minister of Finance [Zurab Nogaideli] has put an end to absolute
chaos…and, for the first time in Georgia’s history, is paying
refugees their pensions without a single day of delay – though, of
course, these pensions are still miserably low.”
Progress in the battle against corruption is making Georgia a safer
investment risk, Zhvania contended.
“Georgia’s energy sector was unbelievably corrupt,” he said. “They
[energy-sector officials] had ways of seizing money that were almost
state-of-the-art. … Our current interior minister [Giorgi
Baramidze], though only 29, is the most competent we’ve ever had.
Already, he has a 16-month plan in place to reconstruct and make the
energy sector more attractive for investment.”
Zhvania suggested that Georgia was now in position to promote
stabilization in the broader Caucasus region, adding that Tbilisi
could potentially help foster the normalization of relations between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. He added that during recent visits to
Azerbaijan and Armenia, Saakashvili had been “inspired by the
increased pragmatism” shown by the leaders of those nations, along
with a new sense that “all three countries live in one region.” There
had even been requests, Zhvania said, for Georgia to serve as a venue
for regular discussions on improving regional cooperation.
The uncertainty surrounding the Ajaria issue clouded Zhvania’s
generally sunny assessment of Georgian stabilization efforts.
Saakashvili’s efforts to restore the central government’s authority
in all of the country’s constituent entities have brought Tbilisi to
the brink of armed confrontation with Ajaria on several occasions in
recent months. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Tbilisi-Batumi tension is once again spiking. On April 28, Ajarian
leader Aslan Abashidze confirmed that armed forces loyal to his
regional authority had been mobilized to repel a potential attack by
Tbilisi. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Zhvania said the Ajaria issue was “not a dispute between Georgia’s
central and regional governments, or between Saakashvili and
Abashidze. It is Georgia’s attempt to restore democracy.” He insisted
that Abashidze has steadfastly refused to act within Georgia’s new
democratic framework, going on to recount a conversation he had with
Abashidze earlier in April. “I offered to [Abashidze] that if he
began a general disarmament, he could keep a small force for personal
security and stay in office to the end of his elected term. But he
must stop attacking people and journalists,” Zhvania said. “He
refused even to talk about it.”
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Saakashvili indicated that the Ajaria issue
would be resolved quickly. “Aslan Abashidze has no chance,” Imedi TV
quoted Saakashvili as saying April 27. “The time for such people is
over. I think that gradually – not gradually but very soon –
everything will be settled.”
Saakashvili has been away from Georgia during most of the recent
crisis. On April 28 he arrived in Poland, following a three-day stay
in Ukraine. His tour has so far been devoted to boosting commerce. In
Kiev, Saakashvili took action to encourage free trade between Georgia
and Ukraine.
Georgian officials insist that they have no plans to use force to
resolve the Ajaria standoff. In Washington, Zhvania called on the
United States and Russia to exert pressure on Abashidze to
“compromise.” According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, US
President George W. Bush discussed Georgian domestic developments
with Russian leader Vladimir Putin during an April 26 conversation.
Russian leaders have tended to view Saakashvili’s administration as
the aggressor in the Tbilisi-Batumi standoff. On April 28, the
Russian Duma adopted a statement that expressed concern over the
recent escalation of tension, the Civil Georgia web site reported.
“We have all reasons to suppose that Tbilisi plans to use force for
the conflict resolution,” the Duma statement said. It went on to
recognize that the Ajaria matter was an “internal affair,” but it
stressed that the issue had the potential to adversely impact Russian
national security.
During face-to-face discussions April 27, top Bush administration
officials reportedly pressed Zhvania for assurances that Tbilisi
would do everything possible to avoid violence in Ajaria, Civil
Georgia reported. “Everybody understands that presence of illegal
armed groups in one of Georgia’s regions is inadmissible and the
problem should be solved once and forever through peaceful means,”
Zurab Zhvania told Georgian reporters just before holding talks with
US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Editor’s Note: Alex van Oss is a freelance journalist based in
Washington, DC.

Azeri president fails to start Karabakh settlement from scratch – daily
Yeni Musavat, Baku
29 Apr 04

Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan
respectively started their meeting at 1330 [0830 gmt] Baku time
yesterday. The meeting was also attended by the OSCE [Minsk Group]
cochairs.
[Passage omitted: Presidents’ remarks on the meeting]
Observers pay a special attention to a point from the presidents’
statements. Ilham Aliyev acknowledged that efforts to restart talks
from scratch yielded no results. It is no secret that Ilham Aliyev,
who stepped into his father’s shoes at the expense of certain
conditions, has been burdened (or he burdened himself) with
troublesome problem of making compromises on Karabakh.
Ilham Aliyev realized his responsibilities and therefore, he wanted to
resume the negotiations on the Karabakh settlement from scratch and
this might have been advantageous to Azerbaijan. However, Aliyev’s
efforts received sharp reactions, particularly from the USA, and the
new co-chairman [of the OSCE Minsk group], Steven Mann, stated openly
that not only it was important to give the go-ahead for the
negotiations but it was necessary for Azerbaijan to compromise.
The above said has also to do with Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan. He has been manipulating the “Karabakh card” for a long
period and it is high time for him to make concessions. It is not by
accident that the French president also “reprimanded” him [Kocharyan]
before a visit to Warsaw… [ellipsis as published].
There only remains to wait for the effects of this and next meetings
on the overall atmosphere in Azerbaijan and Armenia.
[Passage omitted: Presidents of the South Caucasus republics also met
yesterday]

Portland Press Herald
Friday, April 30, 2004
Dispatches
Staff reports
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Portland: Jews, Armenians will host examination of Holocaust
PORTLAND – Portland’s Jewish and Armenian communities will host a public
forum Sunday afternoon to examine the effects of the Nazi Holocaust and the
Armenian genocide on subsequent generations.
The forum will be at 2 p.m. in Luther Bonney Auditorium at the University of
Southern Maine, off Bedford Street.
Speakers will include Vigen Guroian, theology and ethics professor at Loyola
College in Baltimore, and Abraham Peck, director of USM’s Academic Council
for Post-Holocaust Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies. For more
information, call 772-1959 or 780-5331.