Category: News

Music from all Quarters
Narooma News, Australia
Sept 1 2004
Four international artists will bring a unique musical experience to
listeners in the Narooma Golf Club Auditorium, at 2pm this Saturday
September 4.
The Tavantinsuyu En-semble – the name means “The Four Corners of the
Earth” – comprises violin, clarinet, viola and piano. They have a
wide repertoire of works from many parts of the world, which reflects
their diverse backgrounds. Their performances have been acclaimed as
exciting and “not to be missed”.
Ronald Woodcock (violin) has performed in over 89 countries, in
London, Paris, Vienna and Buenos Aires, and in remote centres such as
the Solomon Islands, Afghanistan, and Peru.
He studied at the Sydney Conservatorium, in Brussels on a Belgian
Government scholarship and in France with the great cellist Pablo
Casals.
Graham Evans (clarinet), once a member of the famous Irish Guards
Band, won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London, had an
adventurous career with Britain’s longest established chamber
orchestra, travelling throughout Europe and the United States, and
now performs and teaches in Brisbane.
Iola Shelley (piano), born in Wales, began piano lessons at four and
was the youngest student ever to receive the LRAM and ARCM Performing
Diplomas, aged 13.
She also studied cello, oboe and organ. She has an international
reputation as an accompanist and chamber music pianist, performing
with leading soloists from around the world
Louise Woodcock (viola) studied at the Capetown College of Music and
the Vienna Academy of Music. She has played with the Capetown and
Durban Symphony Orchestras, the Auckland Symphonia and the New Music
Group chamber ensemble, and was the founder of the Spring Chamber
Music School in Australia.
For this concert the Ensemble has chosen works ranging from the
romantic warmth of Max Bruch and the Latin American rhythms of
Salzedo to the intensity of Armenian composer Khachaturian, as well
as selections from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, New Zealand
composer Douglas Lilburn’s moving violin and piano sonata and a short
piece by young Australian composer, Nigel Sabin.

Coup trial in African oil state mirrors thriller plot
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
August 30, 2004, Monday, BC cycle
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea — Frederick Forsyth wrote it up as
“The Dogs of War,” and set it here: A ragtag band of mercenaries,
recruited by a British elite, tries to seize control of a mineral-rich,
African backwater.
Forsyth – writing during a Cold War stay three decades ago on this
palm-lashed volcanic island capital – rechristened Equatorial Guinea as
“Zangoro” for the thriller, and put his soldiers of fortune in quest
of platinum, not oil.
Despite those broad variations, the basic plot is playing out again
here as a trial unfolds for 19 South Africans, Armenians and others
accused of a failed plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial
Guinea, Africa’s No. 3 oil producer.
Equatorial Guinea insists this time it is fact, not pulp fiction. The
country has been emboldened by the arrest in recent days of Mark
Thatcher in South Africa, and the Zimbabwe conviction of famed
Eton-educated mercenary Simon Mann in connection with the alleged coup
plot. It accuses Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister,
and his London friends of scheming to replace President Teodoro
Obiang’s 25-year-old regime with a puppet government.
Star witness Nick du Toit, a South African arms dealer, appears to
be “an intermediary between the mercenaries and the financiers,”
Attorney General Jose Olo Obono, who is leading the prosecution,
told reporters. Du Toit, who faces the death penalty for his role in
the plot, has cooperated with prosecutors.
For the elites in the novel, a coup has an allure beyond any
run-of-the-mill robbery.
“Knocking off a bank or an armored truck is merely crude. Knocking
off an entire republic has, I feel, a certain style,” Forsyth’s
coup-plotter, Sir James Mason, observes in the fictional version.
Prosecutors say the real coup plot fell apart in March, when security
forces in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, tipped off by South Africa’s
intelligence service, arrested 90 suspected mercenaries as they were
allegedly moving into position to seize power.
So far, prosecutors have built their entire case on the testimony
of du Toit – and skepticism that the Cold War- and apartheid-era
veterans he recruited came to this oil-rich nation for the fishing
and agriculture opportunities, as they claim.
Equatorial Guinea says du Toit was the advance man for Mann, the
plot’s alleged mastermind, and Mann’s alleged British associates
– including Thatcher, financier Eli Calil, and businessman Greg
Wales. Equatorial Guinea reportedly has filed a civil case against
alleged British backers in London, and says it is pursuing its own
international warrants against them.
Other evidence cited by Equatorial Guinea out of court – such as a
note sent out of prison by Mann, allegedly seeking help from Thatcher,
Calil and others – has yet to be introduced at the trial.
Some of the suspects say their confessions were obtained under torture,
which the U.S. State Department and others say is routine here. One
of the original 90 defendants, a German, died in his first days of
custody after what Amnesty International said was torture.
In court on Monday, South African Jose Cardoso testified that he was
physically abused – or “shocked” – and that interrogators invented his
confession. “Is it normal for statements to be taken as you’re being
taken to the torture room, to be tortured, as I was?” Cardoso said,
gesturing with chained hands.
Du Toit’s wife, Belinda, who is attending the trial, also claims he
was tortured. She shows a photo of her husband before he left South
Africa for Equatorial Guinea, looking trim, prosperous and relaxed.
The Nick du Toit testifying in chains is 60 pounds thinner, his face
gaunt, hair and beard shaggy, clothes hanging off him.
President Obiang, whose tiny nation of 500,000 pumps roughly $15
million in oil daily, has engaged European public-relations firms
and lawyers to advise him on the conduct of the trial. The British
and French lawyers, who refuse to be identified, are the ones who
intervened to let journalists watch the proceedings.
Obiang’s government faces deep suspicions over the impartiality of
the eventual verdicts in his country, which the International Bar
Association and others say is essentially an enterprise of Obiang’s
tribe, with a suppressed opposition and no independent radio or press.
Forsyth’s thriller, and its coincidentally overlapping plot, hangs over
the courtroom at times. Obono referred to du Toit as a “dog of war”
not only in the courtroom but in the criminal charges themselves. In
a 1988 coup attempt, mere possession of Forsyth’s book was enough to
net one soldier’s conviction here.
Diplomats and rights groups monitoring the trial daily cite the
suspected torture and shortcomings of the trial, which is being
translated from Spanish – the official language – for the Afrikaners,
Armenians and other foreigners on trial. Local defense lawyers,
compelled by the government to represent the 19, met their clients
only the day before the trial and complain of intimidation.
Du Toit is the only defendant facing the death penalty, and the
government has raised the prospect of a possible presidential pardon
for him. A member of Equatorial Guinea’s security services suggested
a different fate, however, approaching Belinda du Toit in court one
day and drawing a hand across his throat, she said.
In fiction, “The Dogs of War” ends disastrously for the mercenaries,
with their plot collapsed and mercenaries dead. Ultimately, Nick du
Toit believes the real-life end will be different.
“He believes he’s coming home,” his wife said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Court in Azerbaijan sentences Nagorno-Karabakh activists to prison terms
Associated Press Worldstream
August 30, 2004 Monday 12:38 PM Eastern Time
BAKU, Azerbaijan — An Azerbaijani court on Monday handed down prison
sentences to six protesters arrested in June for causing disturbances
at a NATO forum attended by Armenian officers.
The defendants conviced by a court in the capital Baku are members
of the Organization for the Liberation of Karakbakh, a group that
opposes ethnic Armenian control over Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory
in Azerbaijan that has been disputed since a war that ended in a
decade ago.
The organization’s head, Famil Nasibov, was sentenced to five years
in prison, his deputy Firidum Mammadov to three years, while three
members of the group’s youth branch received four-year sentences.
Their lawyers said they will appeal.
The protesters pushed through police cordons, broke glass doors
and stormed into a conference hall in Baku’ Europe hotel where a
NATO forum was being held in June, calling on Azerbaijan to stop
negotiating with neighboring Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The protesters and hotel security guards suffered minor injuries in
the incident in the hotel and the meeting resumed in several minutes.
Armenian-backed forces took control of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding
areas in a six-year war that killed some 30,000 people and drove
about a million from their homes.
A 1994 cease-fire has largely held, but no final settlement has been
reached, and the ongoing confrontation has hurt the economies of both
former Soviet republics.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are not NATO members, but both participate in
the alliance’s Partnership for Peace program.

PRESS RELEASE
Fund for Armenian Relief’s Fellows Alumni Association
9-38 Tumanyan Street,
Yerevan, Armenia
Contact: Gevorg Yaghjyan
Local seminar coordinator
Tel: (3741) 53-58-68
Fax: (3742) 53-48-79
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
SATELLITE SYMPOSIUM
“Bone and Joint / Trauma Surgery”
Yerevan, August 27-29, 2004
FARFAA – Salzburg Medical Seminars Program together with AAF (American
Austrian Foundation) and the National Institute of Trauma organized a
Satellite Symposium on “Bone and Joint/Trauma Surgery”. The symposium
was organized with the general sponsorship of FAR (Fund for Armenian
Relief). It took place on August 27-29, in Yerevan. About 50 bone
and joint/trauma specialists from different hospitals of Armenia
participated in the symposium.
The co-chairmen of the symposium were Professor Vachagan Ayvazyan,
the head of the Union of Traumatologists and Orthopaedic Surgeons
of Armenia, Director of TOBRC, head of the Bone and Joint / Trauma
Surgery Chair at NIH, and Dr. Bostrom, a prominent professor at the
Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, USA. The symposium was
also attended by Dr. Konstantinos N.Malizos, Professor of Orthopaedic
Surgery at the University Hospital of Thessalia in Larissa, Greece.
Some of the lectures during the symposium were “Reconstruction of
Long Bone Defects with Vascularized Fibular Grafts”, “A Comprehensive
Approach to the Osteonecrosis of the Skeleton” (by Dr. K. Malizos),
” Total Knee Replacement Exposures: Technical Pearls & Pitfalls”,
“Management of Complications in Total Hip Arthroplasy”,
“Osteoarthritis: Treatment Alternatives”, “Orthobiologics and
Growth Factors in Bone Healing” (by Dr. Bostrom). Several case
presentations were demonstrated on “Total Hip Replacement”, “Legs
Fracture” (by TOBRC), “Elbow Joint Repalcement” (by OSC), “Hip
Repacement”, “Electrotrauma Management” (by EMC), “Island Flaps in
Limb Reconstrsuction” (by PRSMSC) and “Foot Reconstruction” (by SNMC).
The goal of the symposium was to present the latest information on the
experience and the knowledge of the international faculty members to
doctors of Armenia. All the participants had the opportunity to fill
in a questionnaire expressing their approach about the organization
of the symposium.
The symposium was positively evaluated by participants and organizing
committee due to the high level of presentations, interesting
discussions and established connections.
On August 27, the guest lecturers paid visits to Yerevan’s hospitals.
The organizers are especially grateful to the FAR for technical
(laptop, projector) and financial assistance and AAF for cooperation.
The organizers would like to thank academician Vilen Hakobyan, the
rector of the Yerevan State Medical University, who provided the YSMU
Conference Hall for the Satellite Symposium.
We hope that this program will find continuation in the future and
will help to enhance the practice of local specialists due to gained
theoretical knowledge and discussions.
FARFAA is a non-for-profit non-governmental organization of medical
professionals, aimed at improving the health care system and advancing
the medical sciences in Armenia.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
August 31, 2004
His Holiness Karekin II Receives Foreign Minister of Denmark
On August 27, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos
Of All Armenians, received Per Stig Moeller, Foreign Minister of the
Kingdom of Denmark, in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. Mr. Moeller
Was accompanied by Vladimir Karmirshalian, Ambassador of the Republic
Of Armenia to Denmark.
Welcoming Mr. Moeller to the spiritual and administrative headquarters
Of the Armenian Church, His Holiness reflected on the mission of
The Church as well as the close historic ties which exist between
The two countries and peoples. His Holiness also spoke of the
Positive relations that have been established in recent years in the
Ecclesiastical sphere between the Churches of Denmark and Armenia.
During the meeting, the Catholicos and the Foreign Minister
Also discussed the Nagorno Karabagh issue, and the desire of all
Parties to see it resolved through peaceful means. His Holiness
Informed Mr. Moeller that he has met a number of times with the
Spiritual head of Azerbaijan, and confirmed that religious leaders
Have a very important role in the resolution of the conflict, by
Publicly advocating that disagreements must be solved through mutual
Understanding and reciprocal dialogue.
Finally, the Pontiff of All Armenians touched upon the concerns
Of Armenians living in Denmark, and their desire to become active,
Contributing members of Danish society.
At the conclusion of the meeting, His Holiness extended his gratitude
To the state authorities of the Kingdom of Denmark and to the Danish
People, for the assistance and help they have provided to Armenians,
Most notably following the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 and the
Devastating earthquake in Northern Armenia of 1988.
##

Daily Trojan Online
Local News
August 31, 2004
Glendale man commits suicide: Vanik Tergalstyan barricaded himself in
a friend’s apartment and shot himself in the chest after the police
used tear gas in an attempt to force him out, the Los Angeles Times
reported.
Tergalstyan was taken to County-USC Medical Center where he was
pronounced dead Monday morning. Police said the man had a criminal
history and was involved in a stalking situation with the women who
occupied the apartment.
The standoff started at 12:30 a.m. Monday near Dorian Street and
Pacific Avenue and continued for eight hours.
Police said they attempted to negotiate with Tergalstyan for six hours,
but he was uncooperative.
About 100 people in a surrounding hotel, apartment building and other
homes were evacuated just after 1 a.m.
The police also evacuated part of Pacific Avenue and the access roads
to the Ventura Freeway for nine hours disrupting morning traffic.

Democrats Dominate New York Politics
By RICHARD PYLE
The Associated Press
08/31/04 02:45 EDT
NEW YORK (AP) – Seldom has a national political party held a
nominating convention so deep in enemy territory. From the northern
Bronx to Brooklyn’s Coney Island boardwalk, from eastern Queens to
the liberal fortress of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, New York City
is wall-to-wall Democrats.
It’s been that way for about 170 years.
Among some 50-plus mayors during that time, only five have been
Republicans. George Opdyke was elected during the Civil War; no
other reached City Hall until Fiorello La Guardia in 1934. Even the
current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, was a Democrat who switched parties
to avoid a primary he had no chance to win. The last Republican that
Gotham supported for president was Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
How did a city that was founded by the conservative Dutch in the
17th century and which disdained the American revolution in the 18th
became a Democratic stronghold in the 19th? One word: immigration.
Created in the 1830s, the New York Democratic Party’s rise to power
closely paralleled the city’s role as receiving point for millions
of immigrants, people needing help to start new lives from scratch.
Germans, Irish, Jews, Italians and other Europeans who funneled
through Ellis Island’s immigration halls – along with blacks arriving
from the South before and after the Civil War, and more recently
Puerto Ricans and Dominicans – gravitated toward politicians who
delivered.
That was the Democratic Party, says Bronx-born former mayor Edward
Koch.
“New York built safety nets before any other government, as far as
I know – at least that’s the way we see ourselves – and that means
concern for the other person,” said Koch, a lifelong Democrat who
served in Congress and for 12 years at City Hall.
Ever the maverick, Koch is now backing President Bush for re-election,
putting him at odds with his fellow New York Democrats, who outnumber
Republicans by more than five to one.
>>From the mid-1800s, the Democrats exercised power through Tammany
Hall, a political machine that had been around for decades but enjoyed
its heyday under William “Boss” Tweed, who united rival factions,
dispensed patronage – and stole millions in public funds.
“Tammany Hall would help get you a job, and you would help Tammany
Hall by giving your vote,” said Kenneth Jackson, a Columbia University
professor of history and social sciences. “The Republicans were more
concerned about taxes.”
In 1868, the actual Tammany Hall on 14th Street was the setting for
the Democratic National Convention, the first of five the city has
hosted, most recently in 1992. The Republicans have never hosted a
convention here until now.
In the early 1900s, as Tammany influence waned, the city’s Democrats
found common cause with the growing organized labor movement. Spurred
by the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire that killed 146 female immigrant
workers, Democrats joined with unions to forge new safety laws for
the New York-based garment industry and other workplaces.
Robert F. Wagner and Alfred E. Smith, who led the Triangle fire
investigation, became liberal crusaders on urban issues – Wagner
as a judge and U.S. senator, Smith as New York governor and the
Democratic presidential nominee in 1928.
While the Irish, Italians and Jews still traded power at City Hall
in postwar years, Harlem Rep. Adam Clayton Powell was the forerunner
of a black political establishment that produced David Dinkins,
the city’s first black mayor, and is led today by Harlem Democratic
Rep. Charles Rangel.
All but three of New York’s 51 city council members, all but one in
the city’s 18-member congressional delegation, and all but three of
its 61 state Assembly members are Democrats.

PRESS RELEASE
Natioal Association for Armenian Studies and Research
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: 617-489-1610
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web:
Contact: Marc A. Mamigonian

MT. ARARAT ASCENT TO BE SUBJECT OF ILLUSTRATED LECTURE IN PROVIDENCE

A Boston-area couple’s historic ascent to the peak of Mt. Ararat and
the history of efforts to scale the mountain will be the subject of an
illustrated lecture on Thursday evening, September 9, at 7:30 p.m., at
the Egavian Hall of Sts. Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Church, 70
Jefferson Street, Providence, RI. The event will be co-sponsored by
NAASR and the Armenian Historical Association of Rhode Island.
Legendary Mountain a Symbol to Armenians
In July 2003, the husband and wife team of Philip Ketchian and Elsa
Ronningstam-Ketchian undertook a pilgrimage up to the snowy peak of
Mt. Ararat, a mountain cloaked in mist and steeped in legend. Nearly
17,000 feet in height, forbidding and beautiful, it looms over the
landscape, beckoning the adventurer up its slopes.
Mt. Ararat, in Eastern Turkey just over the border with Armenia, had
been only recently reopened for climbing after being closed for many
years by the Turkish government. The couple responded to the
challenge and signed up with a British expedition to participate in
its inaugural trip up the rocky peak. Ararat occupies a special place
in world history, religion, and legend. Also known as Masis, for
Armenians everywhere it is the most important symbol of national
identity and of their ancient homeland.

In the Footsteps of Earlier Adventurers
Following in the steps of such 19th-century pioneers as Parrot, Bryce,
Lynch, and Abovian, the Ketchians surmounted the hurdles of permits,
scorching heat, and frigid windy conditions to make their way up to
the majestic summit. This lecture will provide a unique opportunity
to hear a first-hand account of a journey that most have only dreamed
of undertaking.
The couple has climbed extensively together in the United States,
Spain, Switzerland, and Armenia. They reside in Belmont,
Massachusetts. Philip Ketchian is a physicist and has written a
comprehensive series of studies of the environment in Armenia and
articles on his hikes in the Armenian mountains. Elsa
Ronningstam-Ketchian is an Associate Clinical Psychologist at McLean
Hospital and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School.

Coup Trial in African State Mirrors Novel
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
.c The Associated Press
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) – Frederick Forsyth wrote it up as
“The Dogs of War,” and set it here: A ragtag band of mercenaries,
recruited by a British elite, tries to seize control of a
mineral-rich, African backwater.
Forsyth – writing during a Cold War stay three decades ago on this
palm-lashed volcanic island capital – rechristened Equatorial Guinea
as “Zangoro” for the thriller, and put his soldiers of fortune in
quest of platinum, not oil.
Despite those broad variations, the basic plot is playing out again
here as a trial unfolds for 19 South Africans, Armenians and others
accused of a failed plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial
Guinea, Africa’s No. 3 oil producer.
Equatorial Guinea insists this time it is fact, not pulp fiction. The
country has been emboldened by the arrest in recent days of Mark
Thatcher in South Africa, and the Zimbabwe conviction of famed
Eton-educated mercenary Simon Mann in connection with the alleged coup
plot. It accuses Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister,
and his London friends of scheming to replace President Teodoro
Obiang’s 25-year-old regime with a puppet government.
Star witness Nick du Toit, a South African arms dealer, appears to be
“an intermediary between the mercenaries and the financiers,”
Attorney General Jose Olo Obono, who is leading the prosecution, told
reporters. Du Toit, who faces the death penalty for his role in the
plot, has cooperated with prosecutors.
For the elites in the novel, a coup has an allure beyond any
run-of-the-mill robbery.
“Knocking off a bank or an armored truck is merely crude. Knocking
off an entire republic has, I feel, a certain style,” Forsyth’s
coup-plotter, Sir James Mason, observes in the fictional version.
Prosecutors say the real coup plot fell apart in March, when security
forces in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, tipped off by South Africa’s
intelligence service, arrested 90 suspected mercenaries as they were
allegedly moving into position to seize power.
So far, prosecutors have built their entire case on the testimony of
du Toit – and skepticism that the Cold War- and apartheid-era veterans
he recruited came to this oil-rich nation for the fishing and
agriculture opportunities, as they claim.
Equatorial Guinea says du Toit was the advance man for Mann, the
plot’s alleged mastermind, and Mann’s alleged British associates –
including Thatcher, financier Eli Calil, and businessman Greg
Wales. Equatorial Guinea reportedly has filed a civil case against
alleged British backers in London, and says it is pursuing its own
international warrants against them.
Other evidence cited by Equatorial Guinea out of court – such as a
note sent out of prison by Mann, allegedly seeking help from Thatcher,
Calil and others – has yet to be introduced at the trial.
Some of the suspects say their confessions were obtained under
torture, which the U.S. State Department and others say is routine
here. One of the original 90 defendants, a German, died in his first
days of custody after what Amnesty International said was torture.
In court on Monday, South African Jose Cardoso testified that he was
physically abused – or “shocked” – and that interrogators invented
his confession. “Is it normal for statements to be taken as you’re
being taken to the torture room, to be tortured, as I was?” Cardoso
said, gesturing with chained hands.
Du Toit’s wife, Belinda, who is attending the trial, also claims he
was tortured. She shows a photo of her husband before he left South
Africa for Equatorial Guinea, looking trim, prosperous and
relaxed. The Nick du Toit testifying in chains is 60 pounds thinner,
his face gaunt, hair and beard shaggy, clothes hanging off him.
President Obiang, whose tiny nation of 500,000 pumps roughly $15
million in oil daily, has engaged European public-relations firms and
lawyers to advise him on the conduct of the trial. The British and
French lawyers, who refuse to be identified, are the ones who
intervened to let journalists watch the proceedings.
Obiang’s government faces deep suspicions over the impartiality of the
eventual verdicts in his country, which the International Bar
Association and others say is essentially an enterprise of Obiang’s
tribe, with a suppressed opposition and no independent radio or press.
Forsyth’s thriller, and its coincidentally overlapping plot, hangs
over the courtroom at times. Obono referred to du Toit as a “dog of
war” not only in the courtroom but in the criminal charges
themselves. In a 1988 coup attempt, mere possession of Forsyth’s book
was enough to net one soldier’s conviction here.
Diplomats and rights groups monitoring the trial daily cite the
suspected torture and shortcomings of the trial, which is being
translated from Spanish – the official language – for the Afrikaners,
Armenians and other foreigners on trial. Local defense lawyers,
compelled by the government to represent the 19, met their clients
only the day before the trial and complain of intimidation.
Du Toit is the only defendant facing the death penalty, and the
government has raised the prospect of a possible presidential pardon
for him. A member of Equatorial Guinea’s security services suggested a
different fate, however, approaching Belinda du Toit in court one day
and drawing a hand across his throat, she said.
In fiction, “The Dogs of War” ends disastrously for the mercenaries,
with their plot collapsed and mercenaries dead. Ultimately, Nick du
Toit believes the real-life end will be different.
“He believes he’s coming home,” his wife said.
08/30/04 13:53 EDT

Armenian, Azeri ministers in Prague discuss Karabakh
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
30 Aug 04

The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Vardan Oskanyan and
Elmar Mammadyarov, met in Prague today.
The aim of the meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers is to prepare the basis for negotiations on the resolution
of the Karabakh conflict. Oskanyan believes that the basis has not yet
been established.