Author: Vasilian Manouk

United Press International
Dec 1 2007

PKK reportedly planning move to Azerbaijan

Published: Dec. 1, 2007 at 1:49 AM

ANKARA, Turkey, Dec. 1 (UPI) — The Kurdistan Workers Party may be
planning a move to Azerbaijan from northern Iraq, Turkish
intelligence reports say.

Leaders of the party, usually known by its initials, PKK, have been
discussing the move with Armenian officials, Today’s Zaman reported.
They would relocate to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is under
Armenian control.

The Turkish parliament recently authorized military operations across
the border into Iraqi Kurdistan. In response, the United States and
the Iraqi government have put pressure on Kurdish leaders to deny the
PKK a base.

A former PKK member has told Turkish intelligence that most of the
camps in Iraqi Kurdistan have been evacuated.

The Kurds are the world’s largest ethnic group without a country
where they are dominant. Several countries have large Kurdish
populations.

/Top_News/2007/12/01/pkk_reportedly_planning_move_ to_azerbaijan/6147/

HAKOB HAKOBIAN DENIES ALLEGATION OF RA FIRST PRESIDENT, ACCORDING TO WHICH BUSINESSMEN ARE VICTIMS OF OPERATING REGIME

Noyan Tapan
Nov 14, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. "Any businessman paying taxes is a
person of value for the state: he/she cannot be a victim," businessman
Hakob Hakobian, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia, declared
at the November 14 press conference, commenting on the allegation of
the first President of the Republic of Armenia, according to which
businessmen are the victims of the operating regime. Hakob Hakobian
does not consider himself or his friends to be victims at all.

Referring to the checkings being conducted in the enterprises of
Khachatur Sukiasian, another businessman MP of the National Assembly,
Hakob Hakobian expressed conviction that Khachatur Sukiasian has never
deviated from the constitutional norms. "If those checking are being
conducted because of his political opinions, I am against it. If those
checkings are artificially being made political, I am against it,
too," Hakob Hakobian declared.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH: RISKING WAR

A1+
[03:52 pm] 14 November, 2007

Tbilisi/Brussels, 14 November 2007: Azerbaijan and Armenia should halt
their dangerous arms race and restrain their belligerent rhetoric
and instead renew efforts to find a negotiated settlement for the
Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Nagorno-Karabakh: Risking War, the latest report from the International
Crisis Group, examines the dangers of ignoring the conflict both for
the region and for the wider international community. Oil money has
given Azerbaijan new self-confidence and the means to upgrade its
armed forces. Armenia has done surprisingly well economically and
is increasing its own military expenditures. With both countries now
building military capacity, neither believes it is time to compromise.

"The international community needs to take the threat of war
seriously," says Magdalena Frichova, Crisis Group Caucasus Project
Director. "The risk of armed conflict is growing, and the dangers of
complacency enormous."

Armenians and Azerbaijanis went to war over the mountainous province
in the early 1990s, causing some 22,000 to 25,000 deaths and more
than one million refugees and displaced persons in both countries.

Today, most of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as considerable adjacent
Azerbaijani territory, is occupied by ethnic Armenian forces.

Hope for diplomatic progress has been consistently undermined by
the parties’ lack of political will and insufficient international
resolve. Over the past few years, the leaderships of both countries
have turned their publics increasingly against compromise, while
boosting military expenditures.

Both trends must be reversed.

The current negotiations — the Prague process, facilitated since
April 2004 by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and led by France, Russia and the U.S. —
can provide the framework for a negotiated settlement.

Elections in both Azerbaijan and Armenia will complicate the political
environment in 2008, however, so the sides should agree on a document
of basic principles, even one that specifies where disagreements
remain, before the polls. Such a result would secure what has been
agreed upon so far and maintain the process during the year.

The Minsk Group co-chair and the wider international community
should coordinate efforts to impress on both countries the need
for progress. The EU and the U.S. should make the resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict a key element of relations with the parties.

The role of the EU special representative for the South Caucasus
(EUSR) should be strengthened and European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)
reviews and funding should be used to promote confidence building,
in addition to institution building and human rights.

"The international community needs to pressure hard for peace," says
Sabine Freizer, Crisis Group’s Europe Program Director. "Conditionality
should be used with financial aid instruments, and active diplomacy
should focus both sides on the costs of continued stalemate and
confrontation, which far outweigh those of an early compromise."

EUROPEAN OFFICIAL REFUSES TO COMPARE KARABAKH TO KOSOVO

Mediamax
Nov 5 2007
Armenia

Yerevan, 5 November: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan and
Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis discussed prospects
for the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict in Yerevan
today. Mediamax reports that Davis and Oskanyan said this during a
news conference following the talks that took place today.

Terry Davis recalled that he was the first rapporteur of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict and that he continues closely following the peace
process.

Talking about the authorities of Nagornyy Karabakh, Terry Davis
described them as a "regime" and "separatists" who he said are no
different from representatives of the "regimes" in South Ossetia,
Abkhazia or the Dniester republic. At the same time, Terry Davis
refused to draw parallels with Kosovo which he said is run by a
temporary administration under the aegis of the UN and is formed in
accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

Terry Davis expressed the opinion that as long as the conflict has
not been settled, residents of Nagornyy Karabakh are deprived of
many rights, for example, the right to address the European Court of
Human Rights.

According to him, a solution to the conflict will allow residents of
Nagornyy Karabakh to enjoy fully all rights and liberties available
to the member states of the Council of Europe. At the same time,
the secretary general of the Council of Europe did not specify how
he sees the solution to the Karabakh conflict.

Terry Davis stated that during his meeting with the prime minister
of Armenia today, he was assured that Yerevan is ready to receive
the mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
[PACE] on the assessment of cultural heritage. At the same time, the
secretary general of the Council of Europe noted that the Armenian side
is ready to receive the mission regardless of whether the Azerbaijani
authorities will give their consent or not.

HOW THE STOLEN CRIMINAL CASE OF "KARABAKH" COMMITTEE WAS DISCOVERED
Kima Yeghiazaryan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Nov 12 2007

Yesterday was the opening ceremony of the repaired building of the
Prosecutor’s Office of Malatia-Sebastia district. Profiting by the
occasion, the journalist addressed few questions to Prosecutor General
AGHVAN HOVSEPYAN.

"We know that the Prosecutor’s office is conducting a service
investigation in connection with the disappearance of the criminal
case of ‘Karabakh’ Committee. Is the investigation over? What have
you found out?"

"We received a request from ‘Iravounk’ newspaper. They asked us
to provide them certain data from the case. Based on the request,
I recommended that the case be submitted to me from the archive, so
as we could decide what data to provide to ‘Iravounk’ newspaper. The
case turned out to be missing from the archive. Naturally, I ordered
a service investigation.

As a result of the inquest it was found out that Head of the
investigative department had received the case by the recommendation
of the Prosecutor General as far back as on November 6, 1996 and
submitted it to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first President. Today we
have sent a note to Levon Ter-Petrsyn with a request to return the
case to the Prosecutor’s Office. The note was signed by the Head of
the Staff of the Prosecutor’s Office, since the archive is maintained
by his staff members."

"Do you think Mr. Ter-Petrosyan will return the case?"

"I find it difficult to say whether he will return the case or not. But
I must say that under the law, the investigative body is not allowed
to hand over a criminal case to another body. Even the President of
the Republic is not entitled to request a criminal case in accordance
with the law and keep it under his control. In 1996 this happened by
a gross violation of law. Criminal cases cannot be maintained in the
archives of any other body. Especially in private archives. I think
Levon Ter-Petrosyan will be reasonable enough to return the case to
the Prosecutor’s Office."

In addition to our request, we also received information from the
General Prosecutor’s Office that a special procedure is prescirbed
for getting acquainted with any case maintained in their archive. The
shift of all the criminal cases is recorded in the archive registry.

It was the mechanism of such clerical work that helped those
conducting the service investigation find out what shift had occurred
in connection with the criminal case of "Karabakh" committee.

However, we later managed to find out details on the specific
circumstances in which the case was brought out from the archive.

Based on the information we possess, Head of the archive was in one
of the marzes on November 6, 1996, but he was urgently called to the
Prosecutor’s Office and instructed to open the archive. The case
was submitted in the evening, after the end of the working hour,
so as the employees of the Prosecutor’s Office would not see the
volumes of the case brought out of the building. That time Head of
the Investigative Department of the Prosecutor’s Office was Souren
Goulyan, who had given his signature for removing the case from the
archive. S. Gyozalyan handed over the case to Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
2 guards. And the volumes of the case were moved to the Presidential
palace in 2 sacks.

By the way, the case consisted of 61 volumes, and not 50, as was
mentioned recently.

The fact that L. Ter-Petrosyan decided to have the criminal case of
"Karabakh" Committee removed from the archive of the Prosecutor’s
Office and keep it under his own control is no less noteworthy. It
covered the time period following the presidential elections held
in September, 1996. A month after being "re-elected" to the post of
President with the help of tanks he realized that it was necessary to
make the volumes of the case disappear, as the dangerous episodes it
contained were not probably few in number and might bring harm to his
"spotless" image.

When the material was ready for publication, it became known that that
L. Ter-Petrosyan had made the following statement: "At my request,
Artavazd Gevorkyan, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia
sent the volumes of the "Karabakh Committee" case to presidential
residence in 1995 or 1995 and submitted it to the Presidential
staff with relevant formulations. This was done with the purpose of
depositing the materials in the museum that was to have opened on
the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Karabakh movement.

After the shift of power the materials of the "Karabakh Committee"
case were moved to my personal archive, and to date they have been
kept in complete form. None of the Prosecutor Generals that followed
Artavazd Gevorkyan has applied to me with a request or demand for
returning the case. And even today I believe that the museum dedicated
to the Karabakh Movement is the most convenient place for keeping the
materials. However, if necessary, I am ready to immediately return
them to the archive of the Prosecutor’s Office."

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN

After familiarizing ourselves with LTP’s statement, there naturally
emerge several questions.

First: the disappearance of the "Karabakh" Committee case has been
discussed for already a week. Why did Mr. Ter-Petrosyan decide to
make such a statement only after the service investigation allowed
to find out who was keeping the case.

Second: L. Ter-Petrosyan expresses willingness to send the case to
the Prosecutor’s Office; however, we wonder whether he will return
the volumes of the case in the same form (safe and sound) as he
received. Or he has cut the sections that were unfavorable for him?

Third: What is the sense of giving an instruction 2-3 years ago
for removing the case from the archive ago for displaying them in a
non-existent museum? The opposite process is accepted in international
practice. First, the museum is built, and then necessary materials
are collected.

[MOSUL AND] IRAQ’S NEXT WAR
By Daniel Pipes

Source: Article submitted by the author, an IHC Featured Writer
IHC staff,
Published 11 November 2007

About 100,000 Turkish troops, backed by aircraft and tanks, are
poised to enter Iraq for counterterrorism purposes. But once there,
they might just stay permanently, occupying the Mosul area, leading
to dangerous regional consequences.

To understand this danger requires a refresher in Turkish irredentist
ambitions harking back to the 1920s. The Ottoman Empire emerged
from World War I on the losing side, a predicament codified in 1920
by the Treaty of S?vres imposed on it by the victorious Allies. The
treaty placed some Ottoman territory under international control and
much of the rest under separate Armenian, French, Greek, Italian,
and Kurdish control, leaving Turkish rule to continue only in a
northwest Anatolian statelet.

With Kemal Atat?rk’s military victories of 1919-22 and the reassertion
of Turkish power, however, S?vres was never applied. Instead,
the Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923, established all of Turkey’s
present borders but for the one with British-occupied Iraq. For Iraq,
Lausanne stipulated a provisional boundary (the "Brussels line")
to be replaced within nine months by a "friendly arrangement to be
concluded between Turkey and Great Britain." Failing an agreement,
the League of Nations would decide the border.

In fact, Ankara and London did not reach a "friendly arrangement"
and the League of Nations ended up assigning Mosul province, with
its 600,000 inhabitants, to Iraq. The Atat?rk government reluctantly
signed a treaty in 1926 based on the Brussels line.

For nearly six decades, Mosul’s disposition seemed settled. But it
re-emerged as an issue during the Iraq-Iran War of 1980-88, when
Saddam Hussein lost full control over northern Iraq. Four times
after 1983, he permitted Turkish troops the right of "hot pursuit"
onto Iraq territory to hunt down a mutual enemy, the Kurdish Workers’
Party (Partiya Karkerana Kurdistan, or PKK). These incursions inspired
some elements in Turkey to revive the old claims to Mosul.

The Kuwait War of 1991 led to a further collapse in Iraqi authority
north of the 36th parallel, prompting Turkish forces to engage
in hot pursuit across the border 29 times, feeding Ankara’s Mosul
ambitions. These aspirations culminated in 1995, when approximately
35,000 Turkish troops entered northern Iraq in "Operation Steel,"
leading Turkey’s President S?leyman Demirel explicitly to re-open
the 1926 file: "The border is wrong," he said.

"The Mosul Province was within the Ottoman Empire’s territory. Had that
place been a part of Turkey, none of the problems we are confronted
with at the present time would have existed." Demirel even accused
the Western powers of resurrecting the long-defunct Treaty of S?vres.

Demirel’s comments roused immediately, strong, and negative reactions,
and he backtracked, saying that "Turkey does not plan to use force to
either solve the [border] problem or gain territory." But, as I wrote
at the time, "nothing was actually resolved and the Mosul issue could
flare up into a crisis, especially if the Iraqi government continues
to weaken."

Which brings us to the current situation. Much has changed since
1995, with Saddam Hussein deposed, the PKK leader in a Turkish jail,
Islamists ruling in Ankara, and northern Iraq a flawed haven of
tranquility. But the PKK again roils Turkish-Iraqi relations, Turkish
forces routinely cross into Iraq, and the Mosul question looms anew.

In March 2003, Ankara’s then-new Islamist government decided against
helping the U.S.-led war effort to overthrow Saddam Hussein, a decision
that forfeited Turkish influence over northern Iraq. Despite the
presence of several Turkish battalions quasi-permanently stationed in
Iraq, a rejuvenated PKK began cross-border attacks in Turkey in 2004,
eventually killing thousands. In July 2006, Turkey’s Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdo?an announced his government was "running out of
patience" and Turkish forces repeatedly struck at PKK targets.

The issue reached new heights of tension in recent weeks, despite an
Ankara-Baghdad agreement requiring that Iraqi troops crack down on the
PKK and unconfirmed reports of a U.S. Special Forces covert operation
against the PKK. With Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s support,
Erdo?an has waved away American concerns about a Turkish invasion,
the Turkish parliament voted 507-19 to authorize air strikes and
ground invasions of Iraq, and Chief of Staff Ya?ar B?y?kan?t made
bellicose threats.

The Turks have entirely valid counterterrorist reasons to strike
the PKK in Iraq, but Ankara’s shadowy irredentism since the 1990s
suggests that it harbors aspirations to regain some Ottoman real
estate. In other words, yet another unsettled Middle Eastern border
threatens instability.

ARMEX REORGANIZED INTO PUBLIC CORPORATION

ARKA
Nov 9, 2007

YEREVAN, November 9. /ARKA/. The Armenian Stock Exchange (ARMEX)
self-regulating organization has been reorganized into public
corporation.

ARMEX members made such a decision during a special meeting on November
9, 2007.

By the RA law on the Securities Market Regulation, creditors of
a self-regulating organization have a right to demand from ARMEX
additional guarantees for the fulfillment of obligations, discharge
or early release, as well as compensation seven days after the
notification.

A self-regulating organization, ARMEX was established on the basis
of 21 brokerage companies and was registered by the RA Securities
Commission on February 13, 2001. The organization has been organizing
exchange trade in securities and foreign currency since July 6, 2001.

The CBA (Central Bank of Armenia) and the leading Scandinavian expert
in exchange industry OMX signed a memorandum on the purchase of ARMEX
and the Central Depositary. The transaction will probably be conducted
this November.

EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO 70th ANNIVERSARY OF PROSE-WRITER HRACHYA MATEVOSIAN OPENS IN NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Nov 9, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The exhibition which was opened
in the National Library of Armenia on November 9 was dedicated to
the 70th anniversary of writer, publicist Hrachya Matevosian. The
prose-writer’s works, articles, photos published in media were
presented at the exhibition.

In the words of Davit Sargsian, the director of the National Library of
Armenia, H. Matevosian is one of those writers, who become the art and
historic chronicler of the time with their works. According to him,
the pen of the prose-writer only served for the sake of the country
and the nation: he has never been indifferent to his people’s pains.

"The prose-writer has always been loyal to his principles and has
never served this or that official. And the most important thing
from the lessons given by him is that a true writer should always be
with his nation and not the authorities’ flatterer," said historian
Armen Karapetian.

KARABAKH CANNOT BE COMPARED WITH HONG KONG

A1+
[06:50 pm] 06 November, 2007

Hong Kong version is vital for settling Kosovo conflict.

Announcing this, the Prime Minister of Serbia Vojislav Kostunica
suggested giving Kosovo suverine status and international right and
preserving territorial integrity.

This progressive step of Serbs was imitated by Azerbaijan considering
it a good version for Karabakh conflict settlement. Politician
Aghasy Enokyan considers Hong Kong version unacceptable for Artsakh
and Kosovo. "This version may not offer real possibilities for the
conflict settlement,- says the politician,- They do not speak of
peacekeeping forces in Hong Kong, they have made an agreement to
solve the problem without armed conflict. It is impossible to think of
alternative versions for the conflict settlement without peacekeeping
forces in Karabakh and Kosovo case".

During the "Frozen Conflicts" discussions within the frameworks
of PACE in Berlin, Azerbaijnai representative Tofic Musaev deputy
head, International Law and Treaty Department of the Azerbaijan
Foreign Ministry said to the Azerbaijani mass media that a new
period of political dialogue was beginning owing to Serbia, which
also prioritized ethics. "The international community respects the
territorial integrity already", he said.

In the interview with "A1+" Aghasy Enokyan mentioned that "territorial
Integrity" conception was loosing its essence in the world. "They
speak about territorial integrity with serious and decisive tone,
but the term itself is losing its meaning, self-determination of a
nation living in a certain territory and the word of the international
community is more powerful, than the word of local authorities".

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: THERE ARE NO KURDISH BASES IN ARMENIA EXCEPT STOCK-RAISING ONES

arminfo
2007-11-05 18:25:00

ArmInfo. Armenian Defense Minister Mikael Haroutunyan categorically
refutes the information by Turkish and Azerbaijani sources saying
that PKK allegedly has exercise centers in the territory of Armenia.

In response to ArmInfo’s question, the minister said: ‘There are no
Kurdish bases in Armenia.’ He stressed that Kurds have long since
been living in Armenia exclusively as peaceful citizens. Existence
of military or exercise bases in the country is out of question. At
the same time the minister advised Azerbaijan and Turkey to care
for themselves.

‘There are Kurdish bases in Armenia, but they are stock-raising ones,’
the minister joked.

APA has recently disseminated information that a Turkish journalist
Ardan Zenturk blamed Armenia for supporting Kurdish movement in the
Star newspaper. In particular, he wrote that ‘part of PKK’s exercise
centers and the Bureau regulating international relations are in
Armenia. Ammunition of the terrorist organization is also delivered
from Armenia.’