Author: Tigranian Ani

New chairman of OSCE PA stands ready to contribute to Nagorno Karabakh
conflict settlement

2008-07-04 16:17:00

ArmInfo. Newly elected Chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is
prepared to make all possible efforts to settle the ‘frozen’ Armenian-
Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the "Trend" reports.

"We will be trying to resolve this problem with common efforts. I
should say that it is also in my disposal as a newly elected Chairman
of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. I will be trying to do all the best
and use all resources that we have to search ways of resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," said the Chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly, Joao Soares, on 3 July in Astana. According to him, the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly should play a decisive role in this process. "I
highly appreciate words of OSCE Chairman, Alexander Stubb, who
yesterday said that the OSCE should not only manage conflicts, but also
resolve the problems and conflicts. And I fully support this," Soares
said to a press-conference as a result of the 17th session of the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly in Astana. "I want to note that I can not work a
miracle, however, we shall try to do our best", the chairman added.

PM TIGRAN SARGSYAN TO VISIT NKR

armradio.am
03.07.2008 17:52

On July 4 RA Prime minister Tigran Sargsyan will leave for the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic on a working visit. The delegation headed by RA Prime
minister will comprise the Ministers of Agriculture, Energy and Natural
Resources, Labour and Social Affairs, Culture, Education and Science.

In the framework of the visit Tigran Sargsyan will have meetings with
NKR President Bako Sahakyan and Prime Minister Arayik Harutyunyan, will
participate in the joint sitting of the Armenian and NKR Governments,
where the results of the discussions between Ministers on issues
of mutual importance will be considered. Accompanied by NKR Prime
Minister and participants of the joint sitting Tigran Sargsyan will
visit the memorial to the victims of the Artsakhi war to pay homage
to the memory of the killed.

In the framework of the visit RA Prime Minister will visit Shoushi
where he will familiarize with the state of infrastructures, the
construction and reconstruction works underway.

The delegation will return to Yerevan on July 6.

TO CONDUCT A MORE ACTIVE POLICY

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 03, 2008
Armenia

According to MP ARTAK DAVTYAN, "In view of Armenia’s passive posture,
it is certainly more convenient and advantageous to the West to meet
the Azerbaijani aggressive propaganda half-way by adopting such
resolutions about or against Armenia. Thus, they have created an
illusion that the Republic of Armenia acts as an occupant country here.

What’s more, they have done that completely ignoring the fact that the
continuing blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan is in gross violation of
the same European values and the standards established by the Council
of Europe and the World Trade Organization.

Therefore, we must do our utmost to have both the United Nations and
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe pass relevant
resolutions condemning the implementation of programs circumventing
Armenia."

ICRC (press release), Switzerland

azerbaijan-news-010708

1-07-2008 News release 08/117

Azerbaijan: Safe water reaches conflict-affected villagers

Baku (ICRC) ` Families living in the village of Ayridara, along
Azerbaijan’s border with Armenia, will soon have access to safe
drinking water thanks to a water project carried out by the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in cooperation with
the local authorities and the community.

"Fourteen years have passed since the Nagorny Karabakh ceasefire was
announced, but access to clean water is still an ongoing concern for
the civilian population living in conflict-affected villages," said
Juan Carlos Carrera, the head of the ICRC’s office in Barda.

"Residents of places like Ayridara are regularly prevented from
getting access to safe water because many springs are located between
military positions or too close to the front line," he added.

The ICRC’s community-based water supply project will make a steady
supply of clean water available to Ayridara’s 150 residents. Work
started in April and involved upgrading 1.25 kilometres of pipeline
and the installation of two reservoirs and two containers for
collecting spring water.

"The water supply system in Ayridara was built during the Soviet era
and had fallen into disrepair, so villagers were forced to carry water
in buckets from other places," said Bakir Guliyev, the ICRC’s engineer
in charge of the water project.

"Residents helped us dig trenches for the pipe work and were happy to
have contributed to this achievement. We have had the active support
of both the local administration and the villagers."

For further information, please contact: Gulnaz Guliyeva, ICRC Baku,
tel. +994 12 465 63 34 or +994 12 465 64 52

NATO SHARES ARMENIA’S INTERESTS, PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.06.2008 16:36 GMT+04:00

Principles of bilateral cooperation underlie the Armenia-NATO
cooperation, a NATO official said.
"We share Armenia’s interests, problems and challenges and we
are ready for further cooperation," Jean-Francois Bureau, NATO
Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, said during today’s
presentation of "NATO-Armenia. 10 years of progress" book in NATO
information center in Yerevan.

NATO information center and "Emergency Wave" information center
at the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations signed a memorandum on
cooperation envisaging raising of public awareness, formation of an
interdepartmental information center, etc.

YURIY MERZLYAKOV: "IT HAS BEEN AGREED TO DEVELOP THE NEGOTIATION PROCESS ON THE BASIS OF MADRID PROPOSALS"

Azeri Press Agency
June 27 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku. Ulviyya Aliyeva-APA. OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Matthew Bryza
(USA), Bernard Fassier (France) and Yuriy Merzlyakov (Russia) have
finalized their visit to Azerbaijan. The co-chairs made a statement
for the journalists at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport,
APA reports.

Merzlyakov said they held interesting meetings with President Ilham
Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Azerbaijan. He
reminded that two weeks have passed since the St. Petersburg meeting
between the presidents and said the co-chairs tried not to lose
the time. "It was agreed to develop the negotiation process on the
basis of Madrid proposals. We talked about that". Fassier said the
co-chairs didn’t bring new proposals to the region. "We have enough
work to do what the both sides told us in St. Petersburg. We are
trying to clarify some points of Madrid proposals and to make some
amendments and to improve some of them. The presidents appreciated
their meeting in St. Petersburg as positive and constructive and
expressed optimism. Making reference to that we can say that our
meetings in Azerbaijan were also positive and constructive, but we
have huge work ahead". Fassier highly appreciated the military parade
in Azerbaijan held on the Army Day. Bryza said that he was in good
mood and he hoped the situation in Yerevan would also be so. "We will
leave for Yerevan and then for Khankendi. Essentially we will learn the
Yerevan’s reaction to Madrid proposals. This visit is not different
form previous ones. Simply it is our first visit to the region after
the presidents’ meeting in St. Petersburg. The presidents should keep
intercourse with each other. At first the foreign ministers should
meet and solve some issues".

POLISH VOLUNTEER AID TO HELP THE WORLD’S MOST NEEDY

Polish Radio External Service
artykul85218_Polish_Volunteer_Aid_to_help_the_worl d_s_most_needy.html
June 20 2008
Poland

The Polish Foreign Ministry has just launched a new programme for
volunteers who provide help to people from the most impoverished
regions of the world. The government-led scheme is geared to cover
health and travel expenses for Polish volunteers – ambassadors of
good will.

Bogdan Zaryn reports.

Judyta is just one of 31 Polish volunteers who has traded a vacation
of fun in the sun on the Baltic, for a lesson of true reality in
poverty-stricken Armenia under the Foreign Ministry scheme Polish
Volunteer Aid 2008: ‘I am going to Armenia to help doctors set up a
hospice for the fatally ill.’

Under the scheme travel expenses, accommodations, vaccines and
medical check ups are all covered by the Foreign Ministry. In the
past, NGOs had to fend for themselves in raising revenues for such
endeavors. Dorota Gadzinowska, from the NGO Polish Humanitarian
Organization, says that the new scheme will definitely make a
difference in providing help abroad: ‘For the organizations it means
it’s a lot easier to get funds. Now we have a programme and before we
had to search for it somewhere else. ‘For the volunteers I think it is
important because there is Ministry support, no longer do we have to
hang on the fringes of society. No longer are volunteers considered
"weird" people going or "crazy" people, that they have support and
some recognition hopefully.’

The Polish Humanitarian Organization has an estimated 200
volunteers. Collecting funding, providing Trainer workshops and going
abroad to assist civil societies are just some of the activities on
a long roster. Minorities expert Marek Szopski thinks that Polish
volunteers can be crucial in cultivating future good Samaritans: ‘In
the past there really wasn’t that much official support for volunteer
action. Unusually that was supported or funded from other sources. I
see the change as a very positive one because it will certainly use
the energy and the talent of a lot of particularly young people. That
is something that actually considering their commitment and usually
pretty good understanding and intellectual capacities, I think that
Poland can contribute quite a lot. There are young people who find
their individual responsibilities much more shouldered. They can
display their imitative and their talent which often is curbed in
the local conditions.’

The Foreign Ministry Polish Volunteer Aid 2008 plans to send Polish
relief to Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

YEREVAN’S ARARAT CONTINUES HEADING TOURNAMENT TABLE OF ARMENIAN FOOTBALL HIGHER LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP

Noyan Tapan

Ju ne 18, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The games of the 11th tour of
Armenian Football Star National Championship took place on June
17. The following results were recorded: Pyunik – Mika 1 to 1, Ulis –
Banants 0 to 1, Ararat – Shirak 2 to 1, Gandzasar – Kilikia 3 to 1.

Yerevan’s Ararat remains at the top of the tournament table with
24 points.

It is followed by Ashtarak’s Mika with 20 points, Yerevan’s Pyunik
17, Yerevan’s Banants 13, Kapan’s Gandzasar 11, Gyumri’s Shirak 10,
Yerevan’s Ulis 9, Yerevan’s Kilikia 3 points.

The games of the 12th tour are scheduled for June 25. Before it,
on June 21, the Shirak – Banants and Ararat – Pyunik games missed
from the previous tours will take place.

COMMENTARY OF VICE-PREMIER, NKR MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE ARMO TSATRIAN ON AZERBAIJAN’S STATEMENT ON ARSONS ALLEGEDLY ORGANIZED BY THE KARABAKHI SIDE

KarabakhOpen
16-06-2008 17:30:39

Question: The Azerbaijani side has again brought up to date the issue
of arsons, which supposedly take place on the Karabakhi territory. How
would you comment on it?

Answer: In recent years, at the beginning of summer, the Azerbaijani
side has made it a rule to accuse the Karabakhi side of the frontier
territory arsons, as a result of which the fires allegedly spread over
to the Azerbaijani side. In reality everything is to the contrary. One
of the main reasons of early fires is the burning of the harvest
remains by Azerbaijani farmers. On the Azerbaijani side the harvest
ripens two weeks earlier than in the NKR, which is conditioned by the
climatic zone. In dry and hot weather the anabatic wind prevailing
in our zone quickly spreads the fire from the Azerbaijani territory
to the territory of the NKR. It is no coincidence that every year the
fires start when the harvest of the grain crops in Azerbaijan’s flat
regions bordering the NKR is over.

The fuss made by the Azerbaijani side over the fires is exclusively of
propagandistic character. If Azerbaijan was really anxious about the
early fires, it wouldn’t have rejected the recommendations worked out
as a result of the visit to the region of the OSCE-led Environmental
Assessment Mission to fire-affected territories in 2006. The mission
refuted all the accusations of the Azerbaijani side suggesting the
parties a number of recommendations on prevention of fires and joint
struggle against them.

However, by Azerbaijan’s fault neither of them was implemented.

Moreover, the official Baku even refused to participate in the
meeting to discuss the results of the mission and the report prepared
by it. Such a stance of the official Baku convincingly demonstrates
Baku’s real motives in initiating the discussion of fires in political
organizations.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION PASSAGE "WILL DO NOTHING TO FOSTER TURKISH-ARMENIAN RECONCILIATION"

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.06.2008 16:10 GMT+04:00

Faced with a difficult dilemma due to the ongoing closure case against
the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, the United States
should underscore its strong support for Turkish democracy, according
to a report by a prominent U.S.

think tank.

In developing its position the U.S government needs to tread lightly
lest perceived interference in Turkey’s internal affairs provoke a
counterproductive nationalist reaction, advised the recently released
report by the Pittsburgh-based RAND Corporation.

Sponsored by the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, the report,
entitled "The rise of political Islam in Turkey", was penned by Angel
Rabasa and Stephen Larrabeethe. It examines the ascent of the AKP to
power and discusses four possible scenarios for Turkey’s future and
their implications for American foreign policy.

According to Rabasa and Larrabee, the United States has a strong stake
in a stable, democratic Turkey and in the success of a political
model that showcases the coexistence of a ruling political party
rooted in Islam and secular democracy. "An unstable Turkey wracked
by internal dissension would make it even more difficult to stabilize
Iraq and enhance regional stability in and around the Persian Gulf,"
said the report.

The U.S. approach would be more likely to be effective if it were
carried out in coordination with the European Union, the report
continued. Given the sensitivity of the issue of Turkish membership
in Europe, the U.S. should quietly support Turkey’s EU membership
bid behind the scenes and avoid overt pressure. At the same time,
Washington needs to recognize that Turkish membership in the EU
would have an impact on American-Turkish relations in the long run
given that Turkey’s foreign policy would be likely to become more
Europeanized over time, according to the researchers.

"Turkey’s growing interests in the Middle East are likely to make
Ankara wary about allowing the United States to use its military
facilities for Middle East and Persian Gulf contingencies,
except where such operations are clearly perceived to be in
Turkey’s interest, predicted the report. The United States cannot,
therefore, automatically count on being able to use Turkish bases
for its operations and should look for alternatives as well," said
the report’s chapter dedicated to Incirlik

As to the Armenian Genocide issue, RAND Corporation supposes that if
the H.Res.106 "were to pass, the Turkish government could come under
domestic pressure to take retaliatory action, possibly curtailing
American access to Incirlik and other Turkish facilities. The passage
of a resolution recognizing World War I-era killings of Armenians
at the hands of the Ottomans as genocide will do nothing to foster
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, maintained the researchers, urging
the executive branch to work closely with the congressional leadership
to keep the issue from poisoning relations with Ankara."

The Corporation also demanded more U.S. pressure on Iraqi Kurds. "The
United States needs to deal more resolutely with the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, terrorist attacks against Turkish
territory, according to the report, which added that closer military
and intelligence cooperation with Ankara against the PKK needs to be
followed up by other concrete steps. In particular, the United States
needs to put greater pressure on the Kurdistan Regional Government,
or KRG, to crack down on the PKK and cease its logistical and political
support of the group," the report said.

However, the report added that the PKK threat cannot be resolved
by military means alone. "While a tough anti-terrorist program is
an important component of a long-term strategy to defeat the PKK,
it must be combined with social and economic reforms that address
the root causes of the Kurdish grievances. In addition, America
should encourage Turkey to enter into a direct dialogue with the KRG
leadership. There can be no long-term stability on Turkey’s southern
border without accommodation of the KRG. This does not mean that
Turkey should recognize an independent Kurdish state, but it does
need to reach an understanding with the KRG, whose cooperation is
essential to reduce the PKK threat," the report said.