Author: Vanyan Gary

Akayev could arrive in Russia, Putin says
The Russia Journal
Mar 25, 2005 Posted: 16:03 Moscow time (12:03 GMT)
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks that Askar Akayev’s
arrival in Russia is quite possible. The President of Russia has said
at a news conference in Yerevan (Armenia) that the Russian government
was ready to receive Akayev, if the latter were willing to come.
Putin remarked that the present events in Kyrgyzstan were the result
of the government’s weakness, as well as social and economic problems
that have been growing in the country over a long period of time. The
new government of Kyrgyzstan should take the situation under control
and cope with this situation, the Russian President believes. He
expressed hope that relations between Russia and Kyrgyzstan would
develop positively, as they did before. /RosBusinessConsulting/

Putin signs decree on Year of Russia in Armenia
Interfax
Mar 25 2005 12:39PM
MOSCOW/YEREVAN. March 25 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin
has signed a decree on observing the Year of the Russian Federation
in Armenia and the Year of Armenia in the Russian Federation “for
the purposes of further developing Russian-Armenian relations and
expanding bilateral ties,” the presidential press service told Interfax
on Friday.
Putin said he hopes the opening of the Year of Russian culture
in Armenia will provide a very good basis for the development of
relations not only in humanitarian affairs but also in economic and
political matters.

ARMENIAN NEWLY APPOINTED AMBASSADOR TO IRAN HANDED CREDENTIAL COPIES TO IRANIAN FM
PanArmenian News
March 24 2005
24.03.2005 08:46
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian newly appointed Ambassador to Iran Karen
Nazarian has handed copies of his credentials to Iranian Foreign
Minister Seyyed Kamal Kharrazi. In the course of the meeting the
parties discussed a wide range of issues. The interlocutors
emphasized the high level of the Armenian-Iranian cooperation, which
promotes increase of the commodity turnover volume and realization of
joint programs. Karen Nazarian has expressed readiness to make every
effort to develop cooperation between the two countries.

Glendale News Press
March 24 2005
State of city just ducky
Mayor discusses city’s achievements and highlights Glendale’s
commitment to open, transparent government.
By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press and Leader
GLENDALE — Using a stuffed duck as a prop, Mayor Bob Yousefian
discussed the city’s achievements in the past year during his State
of the City address Wednesday, touching on improvements in public
safety, transportation and development.
“In short, the city is doing wonderfully,” Yousefian said at a
luncheon sponsored by the Glendale Chamber of Commerce. “Don’t listen
to the naysayers.”
Yousefian touted the City Council’s successes, including a commitment
to hire 100 new police officers, acquiring more than 550 acres of
open space in the last four years and setting the stage for mixed-use
development in downtown Glendale. He said the Americana at Brand, a
controversial outdoor shopping center approved by the City Council in
April 2004, will be the envy of the region.
The Americana also served as something of a theme for the Chamber of
Commerce’s business awards, presented at the meeting. Two key figures
from the Americana debate received awards, Jeanne Armstrong and the
Glendale Galleria.
Armstrong, named the chamber’s Woman of the Year, was the city’s
driving force behind the Americana as director of development
services. She retired in November but remains project manager of the
Americana.
The Galleria was named the chamber’s Business of the Year. Galleria
owner General Growth Properties led the fight against the Americana,
funding a failed referendum drive and suing the city over the
project’s approvals.
Neither Armstrong nor Galleria Senior General Manager JoAnne Brosi
mentioned the Americana during their comments.
“I started with the Galleria the week before 9/11, so I bonded very
quickly with all the merchants,” Brosi said. “I realized very quickly
what a great community this was.”
Catherine Pelley, president and chief executive of Glendale Memorial
Hospital and Health Care, received the CEO of the Year award. Bill
Wiggins, chairman of Automation Plating Corp. and a former mayor of
Burbank, received the Man of the Year award.
“This is the one day of the year that really shows the relationship
of the business community and the Chamber of Commerce with the City
Council and city staff,” Higgins said. “It’s a special day.”
Yousefian drew the biggest laugh of the luncheon during his speech
while criticizing City Council candidates who have called for more
transparency in government. He said that Glendale televises more
public meetings per month, 37, than any other city in the state.
“How much more transparent can we be?” said Yousefian, who is up for
reelection in the April 5 municipal election. “I guess we should
start wearing suits that are made of plastic and see-through.”
Yousefian said the stuffed animal, an AFLAC duck, will be his mascot
until the election, because he will duck all of the criticism thrown
his way.

ArmenTel says wants no delay for country’s 2nd mobile operator
Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
March 23, 2005
YEREVAN, Mar 23 (Prime-Tass) — Armenian national telecom company
ArmenTel does not want to delay the start of operations of Armenia’s
second mobile operator K-Telecom, Vasilios Fetsis, Armentel’s CEO,
told reporters Wednesday.
K-Telecom is holding negotiations with ArmenTel regarding cooperation
on Armenia’s mobile market and on the 25 MHz frequency, which is used
by ArmenTel and is expected to be divided between the operators.
Fetsis said that the companies have agreed upon all matters except
the issue of how much K-Telecom should pay for use of ArmenTel’s
lines. ArmenTel offered K-Telecom ‘close to liberal’ tariffs, Fetsis
said, adding that K-Telecom wants to use the lines for next to nothing,
which is impossible.
K-Telecom may build its own network, but it is more profitable and
quicker to rent lines from ArmenTel, Fetsis said.
Fetsis said that if the companies do not come to an agreement on
the matter in four-six months, the issue is expected to be regulated
by Armenia’s Transport and Telecommunications Ministry, adding that
negotiations have already lasted for more than four months.
Fetsis said that ArmenTel plans to invest 15 million – 20 million
euros in mobile network development in Armenia in 2005. The total
amount of investments this year is estimated at 50 million euros,
including 25 million euros planned for fixed-line investment.
In 1997, Greek company Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA
(OTE) paid U.S. USD 142.470 million to gain control of a 90% stake in
ArmenTel. It bought a 41% stake from the Armenian government and a 49%
stake from Trans-World Telecom.
According to the agreement between OTE and the Armenian government,
ArmenTel was granted the right to hold a monopoly for 15 years, but in
September 2003 the government initiated a procedure to amend ArmenTel’s
license due to the allegedly low-quality services it provided.
In November 2004 the Armenian government decided to make amendments
to ArmenTel’s license, depriving the company of its exclusive right to
provide GSM, mobile satellite and mobile radio communication services
in the country.
But the company kept its monopoly on IP telephony voice transmission
services. End

Valley Star , CA
March 22 2005
High School Riot Closes Child Development Center
Child Development Center faced lockdown when ethnic tensions between
students led to a riot at Grant High School last week.
By Lagina Phillips, Tiffany Farmakis
A brawl at Grant High School forced a lockdown of Valley College’s
Child Development Center, across the street from Grant, sending four
students, two high school faculty members and an LAPD officer to the
hospital for minor injuries.
“The fight was very horrible,” said 15-year-old Grant freshman Mary
Kirishyan. “All you saw was trash cans flying in the air and everyone
running around, it was very scary.”
Grant was under total lockdown for three hours after the noontime
fight between Armenian and Hispanic students erupted into a
full-blown riot involving 200-400 students, according to Deputy
Police Chief Larry Manion.
“Faculty and school administration did a superb job assisting. We
were very happy it ended peacefully,” said Manion. “The worst injury
was when one police officer got hit on the head with a golf ball.”
The Child Development Center, located off Ethel Avenue at the
northeast end of Valley, is only yards away from the high school.
Police notified Terry Teplin, director of the Center, to keep all
children inside while campus police patrolled the college’s
perimeter. Up to 72 children from preschool to 12 years old were at
the Center at the time of the lockdown.
“The preschoolers don’t know what’s going on, but we’ve explained to
the [older] children that some high school students got into a fight
and we are staying inside for safety,” Teplin said. “The police
officers and firemen have been coming in to talk with the children.”
The Child Development Center provides child-care for student-parents
while they attend classes. The center has a well-rounded program for
pre-school to school-aged kids and includes many different indoor and
outdoor group activities.
“We called campus police around 12:30 because we heard helicopters
and we were concerned,” Teplin said.
She was directed to the LAPD, which instructed a lockdown. Children
were escorted outside once their parents arrived, with the last of
the children not being picked up until 10:20 p.m.

Congressional Record: March 17, 2005
>>From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
______
HON. JAMES R. LANGEVIN
of rhode island
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia John Evans for properly labeling the atrocities committed by
the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as genocide and to urge the
President to follow his example and accurately characterize this crime
against humanity in his commemorative statement next month.
Ambassador Evans recently completed his first U.S. visit to major
Armenian-American communities to share his initial impressions of
Armenia and our programs there. During his public exchanges with
Armenian-American communities throughout the United States late last
month, Ambassador Evans declared that “the Armenian Genocide was the
first genocide of the twentieth century.”
By employing this term, the Ambassador is building on previous
statements by Presidents Reagan and Bush, as well as the repeated
declarations of numerous world-renowned scholars. In effect, Evans has
done nothing more than succinctly name the conclusions enunciated by
those before him.
In 1981, President Reagan issued a presidential proclamation that
said in part: “like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the
genocide of the Cambodians which followed it–and like too many other
persecutions of too many other people–the lessons of the Holocaust
must never be forgotten . . .” President Bush, himself, has invoked
the textbook definition of genocide in his preceding April 24th
statements by using the expressions “annihilation” and “forced exile
and murder” to characterize this example of man’s inhumanity to man.
Furthermore, Evans’ remarks correspond with the signed statement in
2000 by 126 Genocide and Holocaust scholars affirming that the World
War I Armenian Genocide is an incontestable historical fact and
accordingly urging the governments of Western democracies to likewise
recognize it as such. The petitioners, among whom is Nobel Laureate for
Peace Elie Wiesel, also asked the Western Democracies to urge the
Government and Parliament of Turkey to finally come to terms with a
dark chapter of Ottoman-Turkish history and to recognize the Armenian
Genocide.
The Ambassador’s declarations also conform to the summary conclusions
of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) when it
facilitated an independent legal study on the applicability of the 1948
Genocide Convention to events that occurred during the early twentieth
century. The ICTJ report stated that “the Events, viewed collectively,
can thus be said to include all of the elements of the crime of
genocide as defined in the Convention, and legal scholars as well as
historians, politicians, journalists and other people would be
justified in continuing to so describe them.”
The Armenian people’s ability to survive in the face of the
repression carried out against them stands as a monument to their
endurance and will to live. Therefore, it is critically important that
the United States speak with one voice in condemning the horrors
committed against the Armenians. Only by working to preserve the truth
about the Armenian Genocide can we hope to spare future generations
from the horrors of the past.
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I join the Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs,
Representatives Frank Pallone and Joe Knollenberg, in applauding the
statements of Ambassador Evans and others, and in urging the President
to reaffirm the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide.
____________________

The Economist
March 19, 2005
U.S. Edition
The wrongs and rights of minorities
Turkey has yet to face up to its diversity
THE country has moved some way towards meeting the Copenhagen
criteria for EU membership. It has abolished the death penalty,
saving the life of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK, an
outlawed Kurdish organisation responsible for a guerrilla war through
much of the 1990s. It has revised the penal code (previously
unchanged since 1926) and reinforced the rights of women. It has
introduced a new law allowing broadcasting in any language, including
Kurdish. And it has brought to an end the random searches that used
to be common, particularly in the east. Now nobody can be searched
without a court order.
The government has also introduced an official policy of zero
tolerance towards torture, for which its police and security forces
became infamous in the West in 1978 with the release of “Midnight
Express”, Alan Parker’s film about a young American imprisoned on
drugs charges. The punishment for torture has been increased, and
sentences may no longer be deferred or converted into fines, as often
happened in the past.
But changing the law is one thing, changing habits is another. A
villager in the east who gets searched by the state police may still
not dare demand to see a court order. The police forces, it is said,
are being retrained, but the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TIHV)
says that of 918 people treated at its centres in 2004, 337 claimed
they had been tortured. The comparable figures for 2003 were 925 and
340. The TIHV says that even in 2004, “torture was applied
systematically by police, gendarmerie and special units in
interrogation centres.” It claims that 21 people died in
“extra-judicial killings” during the year.
In its October 2004 report on Turkish accession, the European
Commission emphasised the need for further “strengthening and full
implementation of provisions related to the respect of fundamental
freedoms and protection of human rights, including women’s rights,
trade-union rights, minority rights and problems faced by non-Muslim
religious communities.”
>From its very beginnings the republic has been confused about
minorities. In his book, “Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two
Worlds”, Stephen Kinzer, a New York Times journalist, wrote:
“Something about the concept of diversity frightens Turkey’s ruling
elite.” Officially the state recognises only three minorities: those
mentioned in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, signed after Ataturk’s army
had thrown out the occupying forces left over from the first world
war. The treaty specifically protects the rights of the Armenian,
Greek and Jewish communities in the country.
In the early years of the republic there were Kurds in parliament,
and the deputy speaker was an Alevi (a religious minority of which
more later). But after Kurdish uprisings in 1925 and 1937 were
brutally suppressed, the republic went into denial about its cultural
diversity. The word “minority” came to refer only to the Lausanne
trio, who were non-Muslims and indeed were increasingly perceived as
non-Turks. If you are a member of a minority in Turkey today you are,
almost by definition, seen as not fully Turkish.
The Kemalists’ narrow brand of nationalism has helped to suppress the
country’s sensitivity to minorities. At Anit Kabir, one of the huge
murals in the museum below Ataturk’s tomb depicts the Greek army
marching through occupied Anatolia in 1919, with a soldier on
horseback about to bayonet a beautiful Turkish girl. In the
background is a Greek cleric brandishing a cross and inciting the
soldiers. The picture caption explains (in English): “During these
massacres the fact that clerics played a provoking role has been
proven by historical evidence.” As anti-clerical as Ataturk was
(whatever the faith), it is hard to believe that he would have
approved of such a message.
Turkey has also found it difficult to face up to the Armenians’
persistent allegation that the massacres of 1915, in the maelstrom of
the first world war, were genocide. Gunduz Aktan, the head of an
Ankara think-tank and a former Turkish ambassador in Athens,
dismisses the claims as “Holocaust envy”.
The most troublesome minority in recent years has been the biggest of
them all, the Kurds. Where minorities are concerned, size does
matter. The Armenians, Greeks and Jews in Turkey today number in the
tens of thousands; the Kurds up to 15m. In the 15-year guerrilla war
in the east between the Turkish army and security forces and Mr
Ocalan’s PKK, some 35,000 civilians and troops were killed. Many more
villagers were displaced (some say perhaps a million), terrorised out
of their homes, often by fellow Kurds, and forced to move to cities
far away. But nobody really knows what proportion of the Kurds the
PKK stands for.
The more extreme Kurds say they want their own homeland – “Kurdistan”,
a word that provokes shivers in Ankara – to embrace their people living
in Iran and Iraq as well as in Turkey. The more moderate Turkish
Kurds want to be allowed to speak their own language, to be taught it
in school, and to hear it broadcast – all of which they are slowly and
grudgingly being granted. DEHAP’s party congress this year was
attended by Mr Ocalan’s sister and Feleknas Uca, a German member of
the European Parliament. Both addressed the meeting in Kurdish. The
Kurds’ cause has received extensive publicity abroad. Leyla Zana, a
member of the Turkish parliament imprisoned for ten years for
speaking in Kurdish in the parliament building, was released last
year after intense pressure from abroad. The Kurdish Human Rights
Project, a London-based charity, has been effective in bringing
Kurdish cases to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Among them are thousands of claims for compensation for loss of
property as a result of the military incursion against the PKK in the
1990s. Such cases, however, can be heard in Strasbourg only if
domestic laws offer no prospect of compensation, and Turkey recently
passed a law “on damages incurred from terrorism and combating
terrorism”. The governor of Tunceli, a town close to mountains where
the PKK was particularly active, said recently that 6,200 people in
his province had applied for compensation under the new law.
The government is also making modest attempts to help Kurds who were
forcibly removed from their villages to return home. Incidents in the
east are now few and far between, even though last summer the PKK,
renamed Kongra-Gel, ended a ceasefire called after Mr Ocalan was
arrested in Kenya in 1999. The organisation said the government had
reneged on a promised amnesty to its members.
So has the Kurdish problem been more or less resolved? Not if you
listen to the many Turks who believe in conspiracy theories. Such
theories thrive in a society that still thinks transparency in public
affairs is an oxymoron. After the tsunami disaster in Asia on
December 26th last year, the American embassy in Ankara felt obliged
to issue an official denial of colourful Turkish newspaper reports
that the wave had been caused by American underwater nuclear
explosions designed to kill large numbers of Muslims.
The conspiracy theory about the Kurds goes something like this: Mr
Ocalan, although held in solitary confinement on a remote island in
the Sea of Marmara, still controls the larger part of the
organisation through visits from his brother, his sister and a
lawyer. Since his captors are said to be able to control what
messages he conveys in return for supplying him with cigarettes and
other favours, why would he end the ceasefire unless dark forces
wished to resurrect the Kurdish uprising? And why ever would they
want to do that? In order to undermine the EU negotiations by
reigniting civil war in the east, concludes the theory.
This may not be as absurd as it sounds. There are powerful groups
inside Turkey who see no advantage in joining the EU, and many Turks
believe in the presence of dark forces inside the state. Anyone who
doubts the idea of an état profond, a deep state – a combination of
military officers, secret-service agents, politicians and businessmen
that pull invisible strings – is silenced with one word: “Susurluk”.
This is the name of a town in western Turkey where in 1996 a Mercedes
car crashed into a lorry, killing three of its four occupants. These
proved to be an eerily ill-assorted bunch: a notorious gangster,
sought by Interpol, and his mistress; a Kurdish MP and clan chief
suspected of renting out his private army to the Turkish authorities
in their fight against the PKK; and a top-ranking police officer who
had been director of the country’s main police academy. What they
were doing together that night may never be known – the sole survivor,
the clan chief, claims to remember nothing – but it is sure to fuel
Turkish conspiracy theories for years to come.
There is another large minority in Turkey that has received nothing
like as much attention as the Kurds. Most Turks are Sunni Muslims,
whereas most Arabs are Shiites. But there is a group called the Alevi
who have lived in Anatolia for many centuries and who are not Sunni.
Their main prophet, like the Shiites’, is not Mohammed but his
son-in-law, Ali. Most of them maintain that their religion is
separate from Islam, and that it is a purely Anatolian faith based on
Shaman and Zoroastrian beliefs going back 6,000 years. Christian,
Jewish and Islamic influences were added later, though the Alevi
accept that the Islamic influence is the strongest.
Their number is uncertain, because no census in Turkey has asked
about religious affiliation since the early 1920s. At that time the
Alevi accounted for about 35% of the then population of 13m. Today
the best estimate is that they make up about a fifth of a population
that has grown to 70m, their share whittled down by the success of
the republic’s policy of “ignore them and hope they will assimilate”.
Many of the Alevi are also Kurds. The most predominantly Alevi town
is Tunceli, once a PKK stronghold and a place notably short of
mosques. The Alevi are not keen on them because Ali, their prophet,
was murdered in one. Their houses of prayer are called cemevi.
In the cities they tend to practise their religion in private. Kazim
Genc, an Alevi human-rights lawyer, says he discourages his daughter
from mentioning her faith because Sunni Muslims think Alevi rites
include sexual orgies and incest. Of the AK Party’s 367 members of
parliament, not one has admitted to being an Alevi.
The current government treats the Alevi as merely a cultural group,
not a religious minority. That way it can sidestep its legal
obligation to set aside space in towns and cities for religious
communities’ “places of worship”. When in May 2004 a group of Alevi
in the Istanbul district of Kartal asked for land to be allocated for
a cemevi, the local governor said they were Muslims and Kartal had
enough mosques already. Indeed it has: almost 700 of them. But there
is only one cemevi. The Alevi have taken the case to an Istanbul
court and are awaiting a hearing.
Another case has gone all the way to the Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg, a journey that the Kurds have taken with some success. It
involves a student who is trying to establish his right to stay away
from compulsory religious classes in school on the ground that they
teach only Sunni Islam. The authorities may have to learn to come to
terms with yet more scary diversity.

AMARAS ART ALLIANCE PROGRAM
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Tatoul Badalian, Director
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 617.331.0426
The Hovanness Badalian Music Fund is on line.
Named after beloved singer Hovanness Badalian, the Fund was created in
April of 2004 to provide financial assistance to children ages 5 to 18
that are enrolled in Armenian music programs. Individuals and
organizations that provide material and services to these children are
also eligible to receive assistance. The Fund was established by
Amaras Art Alliance of Watertown, Massachusetts and it’s web pages are
incorporated in the latter’s newly launched web site
. We ask for the publics support in
making this unique program known to all parents of young children

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
03/17/2005
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Trials of Writers Symbolize Turkey's Freedom of Expression Problems 2) PACE Presses Azerbaijan to Free Political Prisoners or Face Consequences 3) 'Topsy-turvy' Turkish Reports Simply Worn-out Maneuver 4) OSCE Report on Mountainous Karabagh Strikes down Azeri Allegations of Resettlement 5) Armenian-Azeri Talks on Hold 1) Trials of Writers Symbolize Turkey's Freedom of Expression Problems --Publisher Zarakolu Dragged to Court for Printing Jerjian Book ISTANBUL (Combined Sources)--The co-founder and owner of Belge Publishing Ragip Zarakolu has again been taken to court in Turkey, this time for printing a translated version of George Jerjian's book "The Truth Will Set Us Free: Armenians and Turks Reconciled." He faces charges of insulting the state and defaming the founder of the Republic, Ataturk. In his defense, Zarakolu stated that in translating and publishing Jerjian's book, he presents to the Turkish reader a book read throughout the world. "The Turkish public must know about the existence of such a book, especially these days, when there's so much said about Armenian deportations and genocide. The reader can choose for himself; if he has opposing views, he can respond, creating a forum for debate," said Zarakolu. He also said that the case against him is in violation of his freedom of expression. The judge in the case has postponed the trial until May 12 "in order to review reaction of people who have read the book." The trail is being closely followed by international human rights organizations, as well as progressive Turkish intellectuals. If convicted, Zarakolu faces one-and-a-half to four years imprisonment. "The postponement is typical of such trials where hearings take place over many months, and sometimes years, causing much inconvenience and financial cost to those involved. Even if the defendant is acquitted of the charge, the long, drawn out process can be seen as a form of harassment. The trial itself can serve to make others think twice before publishing views that may bring them before the courts," writes International PEN, a world-wide organization of writers, established in 1921 to fight for the freedom of expression. Zarakolu also faces separate charges of "incitement to racial hatred," for writing an article critical of Turkey's foreign policy on Kurdish issues. Those charges carry a two-year jail sentence. An investigation was launched for his publication of Zulkuf Kisanak's "Lost Villages." In a separate case, writer Fikret Baskaya was acquitted of charges of "insult to the State, State institutions, and the military," stemming from articles published in the early nineties (since republished as a book titled: "Articles against the Current") in which he was critical of the Turkish authorities. International PEN and The Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA), as well as other international NGOs, among them Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, were in Turkey observing the hearings. 2) PACE Presses Azerbaijan to Free Political Prisoners or Face Consequences BAKU (Armenpress)--The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) warned Azerbaijan on Wednesday, that it must free its remaining political prisoners or face punitive measures. The assembly's rapporteur on political prisoners, Malcolm Bruce, said in Baku earlier this week that it wanted to see progress by its next meeting in April, or it would press for a review of the former Soviet republic's membership in the 46-nation Council of Europe. Human rights activists in Azerbaijan say some 100 political prisoners remain in jail, including more than 40 people arrested in October 2003 in a police crackdown on protests that broke out after presidential elections that the opposition claimed were rigged. Azerbaijan Joined the Council of Europe in 2001. 3) 'Topsy-turvy' Turkish Reports Simply Worn-out Maneuver YEREVAN (Yerevan)--Foreign ministry Hamlet Gasparian on Thursday, called Turkish press reports on a speech presented by an Armenian diplomat, simply "topsy-turvy." Turkish media reported that Armenia's ambassador to the European Union Vigen Chitechian, stated during a meeting of EU-Armenia cooperation commission in Strasbourg, that "the problem of the Armenian genocide was created by diaspora Armenians." Gasparian explained that, as a rule, Ambassador Chitechian uses the phrase "the diaspora itself was created as a result of the Genocide." He added that this is yet another attempt by the Turkish press to mislead the international community into thinking that serious disagreements exist between diaspora Armenians and those in Armenia. "It is a worn-out Turkish trick meant for uninformed people," he added. 4) OSCE Report on Mountainous Karabagh Strikes down Azeri Allegations of Resettlement (RFE/RL)--Armenia claimed a major diplomatic victory Thursday, when the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE) denied Azerbaijan's allegations that Armenia is encouraging and financing a massive resettlement of Armenians in the Azerbaijani territories around Mountainous Karabagh. The Armenian Foreign Ministry released excerpts from a report drawn up by a fact-finding OSCE mission that toured those areas early last month. The report was officially submitted to the OSCE's governing Permanent Council in Vienna earlier on Thursday and has not yet been made public by the organization. "The Fact-Finding Mission has seen no evidence of direct involvement by the authorities of Armenia in the territories," concludes the report cited by the ministry. "There is no clear organized resettlement, no non-voluntary resettlement, no recruitment." "Overall settlement is quite limited," the OSCE team was quoted as saying, adding that there are less than 15,000 Armenians living in all seven districts in Azerbaijan proper, and not between 30,000 and 300,000 as was claimed by Baku. "The Fact-Finding Mission has concluded that the overwhelming majority of settlers are displaced persons from various parts of Azerbaijan, notably, from Shahumian (Goranboy) Getashen (Chaikent)-now under Azerbaijani control--and Sumgait and Baku." The Armenian Foreign Ministry welcomed the reported findings of the OSCE inspectors led by a senior German diplomat, Emily Haber. "Armenia appreciates the diligent, hard work of the Minsk Group co-chairs and the members of the Mission," the ministry said in a statement. "We believe that their detailed, first-hand, objective report clearly describes the situation on the ground in the region." "Armenia believes that the most important accomplishment of the Fact Finding Mission Report is that it has laid to rest Azerbaijan's charges," read the statement. The OSCE inspection was organized as a result of a compromise agreement between the conflicting parties and the mediators. The deal prevented a vote in the UN General Assembly on an Azerbaijani draft resolution condemning the decade-long occupation of the Azerbaijani lands. The resolution was endorsed by many Islamic nations, but the United States, Russia and France warned that it would hamper their peace efforts. Prior to the completion of the official OSCE report, French mediator Bernard Fassier, who was in Karabagh as part of the OSCE monitoring team in January, confirmed Karabagh's stance that the borderlands have been settled sporadically and unevenly, and, in many cases, by itinerant refugees driven from Azerbaijan during the war years. Fassier noted, "In many areas there is no electricity and poverty predominates. I wouldn't say people live. Rather, they are surviving in half-destroyed walls topped by a tin roof." The OSCE team found that the vast majority of Armenian settlers live in the Lachin district that serves as the shortest overland link between Armenia and Karabagh. The Armenian side has ruled out Lachin's return to Azerbaijan under any peace accord. A senior Karabagh official declared last month that Stepanakert will continue to populate Lachin. The Armenian Foreign Ministry statement said the area is "viewed differently in the negotiation process." "This is so because Lachin is Mountainous Karabagh's humanitarian and security corridor," it explained. "Without it, Mountainous Karabagh would remain an isolated enclave." 5) Armenian-Azeri Talks on Hold YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has come away from a meeting with international mediators without an agreement on the next round of Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on Mountainous Karabagh, according to officials. Oskanian and Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov had been scheduled to take place in Prague on March 2, but were delayed due to Oskanian's bout with pneumonia. Oskanian said on March 4 that a new date for the potentially crucial meeting will be set "in the coming days." He was in Vienna on Tuesday, discussing the peace process with the French, Russian and US co-chairs of the OSCE's Minsk Group. "The new dates for the Prague negotiations are still not known," said Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamlet Gasparian. Gasparian referred all inquiries regarding reasons for the longer-than-expected delay to the Minsk Group. "They are the ones who organize the negotiations," he said. The canceled meeting was supposed to continue a series of Armenian-Azeri talks held in the Czech capital since last summer. Mammadyarov and Oskanian announced in January the second stage of the "Prague process," raising fresh hopes for breaking the deadlock in the Karabagh peace process. 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