Author: Zargarian Hambik

YEREVAN DOES NOT FEAR BAKU WITHDRAWAL FROM OSCE MINSK GROUP

Interfax News Agency
March 20 2008
Russia

Yerevan is ready to continue Karabakh settlement negotiations with
Baku, Armenian President Robert Kocharian told a press conference
on Thursday.

"We have always been ready for negotiations, as this is the only way
to resolve the Karabakh conflict," he said.

The OSCE Minsk Group format is the best way of settlement, he said.

"This does not mean though that we will cling to this format if
Azerbaijan rejects it."

Baku has recently suggested changing the format of the settlement
negotiations.

"The main reason for the position of Azerbaijan is the recognition
of independent Kosovo, which caused profound concerns in Baku. They
are trying to seize the initiative and create counterbalances just
in case the precedent is used," Kocharian said.

"If their behavior does not change, our next step should be the
recognition of independent Karabakh and the signing of related
treaties," said Kocharian, whose presidency expires on April 9.

"At least, that is what I would do if I were the president: to
recognize and to sign cooperation agreements, especially those
military," he said.

AZERBAIJAN WILL NEVER ACCEPT KARABAKH’S SECESSION – PRESIDENT

Interfax News Agency
March 20 2008
Russia

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that the fate of
Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagornyy Karabakh will never be
decided in a plebiscite.

"The issue of Nagornyy Karabakh breaking away from Azerbaijan in five,
10 or 100 years, either in a plebiscite, as a result of any popular
vote or in any other way, has never existed and will not exist," Aliyev
said in an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax on 20 March.

"We will not accept any status [for Nagornyy Karabakh] outside the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," he added.

Aliyev also said Azerbaijan is pleased with the results of the recent
vote at the UN General Assembly on the new resolution on Karabakh.

"We regard the resolution as another diplomatic and political success
of Azerbaijan," the agency quoted him as saying.

At the same time, Ilham Aliyev criticized the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chair countries for voting against the resolution. "I think as
co-chair countries they should have abstained [from voting]. We did
not expect that they would vote for [the resolution], but thought
they would abstain," he said. "The vote showed that although some
co-chair countries actively lobbied and campaigned among UN member
states in order to persuade them to join them, this attempt failed.

The co-chair countries are the world’s leading countries, nuclear
powers and UN Security Council members, and who supported them?

Vanuatu? Angola? This shows the mood of the world community. This shows
that justice does exist in the world," the Azerbaijani president said.

Commenting on the recent unrest in Armenia, Aliyev said that
"what happened in Armenia both during and after the [19 February
presidential] election is a result of Armenia’s aggressive and
occupying policy against Azerbaijan. If there was peace in the Caucasus
and Azerbaijan and Armenia were not at war, the events there would
have developed according to a different scenario."

President Aliyev stressed that his country has chosen democracy and
development. "We have chosen the path of democracy, social justice,
development and integration in the region and are successfully
following this path," he said. "Armenia has chosen the path of
isolationism, aggression, occupation of someone else’s territories,
violation of the principles of international law and a policy of ethnic
cleansing. You can see for yourselves what this has resulted in. If
in Xocali [an Azerbaijani-populated town in Nagornyy Karabakh where
ethnic Azerbaijanis were massacred in 1992] they committed genocide
against the Azerbaijani nation, then after the election in Armenia
they committed a crime against the Armenian nation," he said.

At the same time, Ilham Aliyev praised Azerbaijan’s economic
development, saying that the country’s GDP has grown by 86 per cent in
the past four years, "which made it possible to accumulate sufficient
financial resources and pursue an intensive social policy".

Aliyev stressed that he kept all his election promises, reducing
unemployment and providing refugees with accommodation. He said that
650,000 jobs have been created in the country and the level of poverty
has fallen from 49 to 16 per cent.

Ilham Aliyev went on to say that Azerbaijan has no plans to seek NATO
membership. "Azerbaijan believes that membership of any organization
requires mutual agreement. We are not planning to impose ourselves
on anyone," he said.

"We are ensuring our own security, we are a self-sufficient country
in terms of economy, politics and energy. Therefore, we believe that
relations should be based on equality, mutual respect and interest.

Our current level of cooperation with NATO suits us," Interfax quoted
Aliyev as saying. "Proceeding from the current situation, the issue
of Azerbaijan’s membership of NATO is not on the agenda," he said.

Aliyev described the country’s increasing military spending as
natural. He said that over the past four years, Azerbaijan’s budget
has grown tenfold and reached 12bn dollars in 2008 while the country’s
military expenditure has increased to 1.3bn dollars.

Azerbaijan will develop a "powerful military-industrial complex to
ensure its security in the future", the Azerbaijani president said.

Ilham Aliyev also said that he wants Azerbaijan to be a developed
country, adding that oil revenues will make this possible. "We
expect the implementation of energy projects to yield hundred of
billions of dollars – if previously we said [that this would happen]
in the next 20 years, now [we say] in 10 years. And all this gives
an opportunity to carry out both political and economic reforms,
strengthen the country’s international position and look to the
future. We see Azerbaijan in the future as a developed, democratic and
modern state where people live in peace, accord and social justice,"
Interfax quoted Ilham Aliyev as saying.

PRESS CONFERENCE OF PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARIAN

Azat Artsakh Daily
Published on March 21, 2008
NKR Republic

ROBERT KOCAHRIAN: Today is the last day of the state of emergency,
and it is already possible to draw some conclusions regarding last
20 days. That’s why I have decided to meet with you. I am confident,
and the events prove that the introduction of the legal regime of
the state of emergency helped prevent greater losses and graver
consequences. With the introduction of the state of emergency the
situation calmed down and through definite measures it became possible
to uphold the process of stabilization. During the twenty days no
infringements of the regime have been recorded, the army and the police
have demonstrated restraint during their service, and the majority of
the population accepts these measures with consideration. As you know
through the process we have undertaken steps to reduce the number
of the servicemen, and, in addition, too times steps were taken to
mitigate the legal regime. All the state structures have been working
with no interruption, life is going back to normal, and I don’t see
and factor or any reason to extend the state of emergency. Starting
tomorrow the state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia will be
lifted. My task is to secure a total stabilization of the situation,
from the viewpoint of governance we should be able to come back
to the pre-election situation. Of course, we are not talking about
the psychological factor; it will obviously require more time. In
that manageable and stable situation I should pass powers to the
President-Elect, and it will be that way. The investigating group is
working, the volume of materials is huge and the investigators are
tasked to reveal and restore the fundamental nature of the events in
their totality, to identify culprits and, certainly, to call them
to responsibility. First of all it concerns the organizers and the
instigators. And our approach, which was articulated before, remains
the same: if those who were misled or just happened to be there and
participated at the riots present themselves voluntarily and assist the
investigating group, they will be treated in a more placid way. There
are already many such examples. The state of emergency doesn’t imply
any additional privileges for the law enforcement bodies regarding
the ongoing investigation and they continue to act in the framework
of the same legal field. The factual material is being collected and
today it can be stated unequivocally that the recent mass disorder was
of an organized nature. There is no doubt about that, it ranges from
the barricade construction, looting and to the acts of vandalism. I
can also add that very soon some of the indictments will be sent to
courts, because many of those charged have already pleaded guilty and
we have legally stipulated speedy court proceedings. As I said, soon
some of the cases will be handed to the courts. The court proceedings
will, of course, be open, and all of you will have an opportunity to
be fully informed.

Yerevan has always been one of the safest capitals in the world. I
am confident that today’s Yerevan remains safe, however that image
was somewhat tarnished and we, working together, should do our best
to restore the Yerevan’s image and high rating. What are the lessons
to be learned from the recent events? First, democracy should be able
to protect itself against the mob. I consider it to be one of the
most important lessons. We have been conducting large-scale reforms
in Armenia in different areas, in economic, state governance and
social areas. However, life shows that there is a need to strengthen
mechanisms, which are called upon protection of our citizens and
their property. The foundation of the statehood must be under legal
protection. Unfortunately, after these events it became clear that a
number of clauses that are in place in almost all European countries,
are missing in our legislation. For instance, the appeals directed
to the servicemen to leave their service, the appeals directed to
the Police at the Opera Square to join the opposition, to disregard
their duties. If these appeals were made, let’s say, in Germany
these persons and the organizers of the rally would be sentenced to
up to five years in prison. In some countries the punishment is even
stricter. At the moment we study the experience of these countries,
and to protect and to strengthen the foundations of our statehood,
I am going to initiate the adoption of a corresponding legislation,
which will be much stricter than the present one. I gave you a
concrete example of the German legislation. Up until these very
events we couldn’t imagine that in Armenia there are individuals,
who can make the execution of the order to disintegrate the state
their life purpose. We encountered cruel reality and must make
corresponding conclusions. I want to repeat that it is necessary to
undertake serious legislative steps towards the enforcement of the
foundation of our statehood. But those steps will not be made at the
expense of democracy; they will be made first and foremost to protect
democracy from the mob and adventurism. These steps are needed to
tame in politics the adventurism of those who are ready to sacrifice
other persons’ lives to satisfy their political ambitions. Steps should
also be taken to reinforce the relevant police units and provide them
with safer and more advanced special equipment. The events revealed
that whatever equipment is being used now is dated and is not always
safe. The equipment is mostly the one we have inherited from the
Soviet times. For instance, had that special equipment been safer
the number of civilian casualties would be not seven but four.

Special investigation revealed that three casualties were the result
of the use of that special equipment and not the result of the use
of combat arms.

We have already started working in that direction and I assume that
the next government should work with one of the European states to
implement a special training program for the special police unit
as well as to equip it with modern equipment. Both in the media and
in public there is a guesswork, as of who gave the order to shoot,
was there such an order or not? Nowhere in the world the police are
waiting for a special order. Our law "On the Police Force" stipulates
that the policemen can undertake measures if there is direct danger to
his or a third person’s life. Can you imagine that in other situations,
not this particular one but in general, let’s say at the crime scene,
the policeman calls his chief to find out if he can take measures? Can
you imagine what would be the consequences? For that very reason the
law stipulates in detail when and in what circumstances policemen can
use weapons. Another conclusion that we should draw from these events
is the necessity of decisive steps to prevent some nongovernmental
organizations from getting involved in politics. For instance,
the investigation shows that the "Willpower test" organization of
home-guard veterans was almost totally involved and many of its members
became active participants of the disturbances. It is known that a
certain part of the "Erkrapah" leadership also participated in the
disorders. We cannot insist at the moment that the organization per se
was a partaker, today we cannot say that, the investigation will reveal
if it is the case or not, but some members did partake. In the future
similar happenings should be excluded, such an organization cannot
place itself as a "joker" in political processes, i.e. to adjust to
this or that political situation. It would be a serious threat to the
Republic of Armenia. I am also confident that the punishment for the
calls for violence or certain moves that can bring to violence must
be more severe. In this case too the experience of other countries
can be instrumental. It is obvious that in many civilized countries
solutions were found and the legislation is much harsher than that
of Armenia. Another important conclusion deals with the activities
of the government that should be more efficient for the people, more
transparent and comprehensible. This last conclusion is being much
spoken about, however I was trying to concentrate more on precise
measures, which must be taken to prevent the occurrence of similar
events in Armenia. A couple of words about the mass media. The
society suffered a serious blow, it suffered a serious trauma, which
relates not only to the casualties. It was a blow to our ideas,
to our identity.

During the first week all the faces had the same expression, same
question: did it really happen in our country, did it really happen
to us? I could not imagine that there are individuals among us who
can set ambulances, the very cars that were transporting the wounded,
to fire, and leave the wounded on the streets. I couldn’t believe
it was possible that someone would loot ambulance cars. All of us
today face a very important problem: to heal that wound rather than
torment it. And with this regard much depends on you, on the steps
we will take, on how we will present this problem to our people.

Are we going to instigate new clashes, new tension or on the contrary,
we’ll try to assist in bring calm? These questions can be logically
discussed in a quite situation. Even in our everyday life if two
individuals are quarreling the most reasonable thing to do is to
distance from each other, give it 2 or 3 days, to calm down a little
and only then try to ease the situation. But if one forces them
towards each other there inevitably will be another fight with much
graver consequences, and in the future it will be much more difficult
to restore relations. I am saying this realizing and being sure that
tomorrow some papers will publish lots of false information, lots of
different calls, and publications in those papers will hardly serve
the purpose of stabilization and settling down the situation.

MATTHEW BRYZA: ISSUE OF NEXT MEETING OF AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS REMAINS UNCLEAR

arminfo
2008-03-21 12:05:00

ArmInfo. The issue of the date and place of the next meeting of the
Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia remains unclear, U.S. Co-Chairman
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, told the Trend.

The American co-chairman said the President of Armenia, Robert
Kocharyan, who completes his presidential term will not participate
in the NATO Bucharest summit, and the newly elected President of
Armenia, Serj Sarkisyan, will come to the presidential oath no
earlier than 9 April, Bryza said, adding that it remains unclear
when the next meeting of the leaders of the two countries will take
place. The U.S. politician considers that the fair and sustainable
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains as one of the
key issues of the US-Azerbaijan partnership. "The United States
and Azerbaijan are satisfied with the deep friendship and strong
strategic partnership. The high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan clearly
made aware Washington that they intend to, in every possible way,
strengthen and intensify our close relations in a wide diapason of
issues of mutual interest," M. Bryza said.

NUMEROUS ANTI-GENOCIDE ACTIVISTS VISIT CONGRESSMEN AND DISTRIBUTE INFORMATIONAL FOLDERS CONCERNING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Noyan Tapan
March 20, 2008

WASHINGTON, MARCH 20, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Over 100
anti-genocide activists from across the nation joined the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA) and the Genocide Intervention
Network (Gi-Net) for their second annual "End the Cycle of Genocide"
campaign held in Washington, DC from March 12-14th.

The three day program, hosted by the ANCA and the GI-Net, puts
community human rights advocates directly in touch with dozens of
legislators and every single Senate and House office in support of
practical legislative initiatives to stop the genocide in Darfur and
end Turkey’s ongoing denial of the Armenian Genocide.

ANCA Eastern Region Executive Director Karine Birazian, along with
activists from the Eastern Region, spent three days on Capitol Hill
meeting with various members of Congress as well as distributing
informational folders on the Armenian Genocide and the genocide taking
place in Darfur.

WILL JACK GEVORGIAN BECOME A CONGRESSMAN?

AZG Armenian Daily
21/03/2008

Diaspora

American-Armenian well-known physician Jack Gevorgian , also known
by nickname "Doctor Death", needs to gather 3000 signatures to
participate in the Congress elections of Michigan this year. The
fact of being condemned for a criminal crime is not an obstacle to
becoming a member of Congress.

To recall, "Doctor Death" helped 130 people suffering from incurable
diseases to depart this life.

As news websites inform, this fact is an interesting political wrinkle
for Michigan.

PER CAPITA SUGAR CONSUMPTION IN 2007 WAS 35 KG

ARMENPRESS
March 20, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 20, ARMENPRESS: Each Armenian consumes annually on
average 35 kg of sugar. Sugar is among 25 primary food commodities
of Armenians.

Ashot Ananian, head of a department at the National Statistical
Service, said to Armenpress about 88,000 tons of sugar, worth almost
$25 million, had been imported to Armenia in 2007.

In 2006 some 57,000 tons of sugar had been brought, worth a little over
$16 million. However, the biggest amount was brought in 2005-103,000
tons worth over $25 million.

Armenia imports sugar from neighboring Georgia, Brazil, the United
Arab Emirates, Greece and Russia.

Last year Armenia itself produced 3,300 tons of sugar.

AZERBAIJAN SEEKS MINSK GROUP’S BREAKING UP

DeFacto Agency
March 20 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 20.03.08. DE FACTO. Azerbaijan is dissatisfied with the work
carried out by the OSCE Minsk group and seeks the OSCE Minsk group’s
breaking up via the OSCE secretariat in Baku, the RA FM Vardan Oskanian
stated at the RA NA.

"We know it, they officially made an inquiry at the OSCE secretariat",
Vardan Oskanian noted. "It is the first time I have said it. The
process is going on, and we’ll do our best to prevent it".

12 PEOPLE UNDERGO MEDICAL TREATMENT

AZG Armenian Daily
19/03/2008

Post-election

Twelve people (among them two soldiers, two police officers and
8 citizens) that suffered from March 1 mass disorder at present
undergo medical treatment in medical centers of RA Ministry of
Health. According to Armenpress agency, four people (one soldier,
two police officers and one citizen) undergo treatment in St. Grigor
Lusavorich Medical Center. In N2 and N3 hospitals undergo a cure
one citizen each, in Erebuni Medical Center – three citizens and in
Armenia Medical Center – two, one of them in reanimation department.

One soldier remains in Pr. L. Mikaelian Surgery Institute’s reanimation
department.

NA SESSION STARTED

Panorama.am
20:33 17/03/2008

A few while ago the National Assembly session started.

Note, today6 the chairman of the NA Tigran Torosyan signed a decision
to start the session by the initiative of the NA deputies today at
18"30. Two questions should be discussed in the session: to make some
changes and notes in the RA law on "holding meetings, demonstrations
and collective ceremonies".

According to one of the proposed changes "the collective events
can be forbidden by the authorized bodies if, according to verified
facts, they are intended to break the constitutional terms, to create
national, rational, or religious hate and problems, violation and war
campaign, they can result in disrupting state security, social order,
public health and immorality."

And according to the document, those facts can be considered as
verified if there is an official conclusion made by the Police or
National Security.

According to another [proposed statement the authorized bodies
can forbid the holding of the collective meetings, if one is
already carried out and in the result of it there are murders and
other criminal cases, and the authorized bodies should start the
investigation and accuse the guilties.

The legislation will come into force after ten days the NA accepted it.