Category: News

Armenians direct water to flood Azeri frontline village – TV
ANS TV, Baku
17 May 04
[Presenter] The situation in the area of Agdam District of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani front is specially tense.
[Correspondent, over video of a board captioned as Xacincayi] Armenians
again stepped up their activities in the direction of Agdam on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani front on the night of 16-17 May. This time,
the enemy directed stream waters at the village of Tazakand in Agdam
District via a Friendship gas pipeline formerly laid in Yerevan. As
a result, houses of refugees settled in the area were flooded.
[Video shows a flooded house]
[Tahir Ibayev, refugee] This happened at about 0500 [0000 gmt] this
morning. The stream rushed into the house.
[Correspondent, over video] According to approximate calculations, the
gas pipeline is made up of pipes of about 730 millimetre in diameter
and one metre deep [underground]. According to local residents,
Armenians blew up the pipeline in 1994 and stopped exploiting
it. Specialists think that Armenians pump water from Xacincayi to
Tazakand through the pipeline and this is another provocation by
Armenia against the Azerbaijani people.
[Nizami Aliyev, deputy executive head of Agdam District, in his office]
[Sentence indistinct] Such a case has not occurred so far. For this
reason, we have not taken any preparatory measures beforehand to
prevent this.
[Correspondent, over video] The volume of water flowing through
the pipeline has reduced a little now and reached 2 cubic metres per
second. It is assumed that the enemy will suddenly increase the volume
of the pumped water at night. In this case, not only Tazakand, but
other villages nearby might be flooded. For this reason, the district
executive head is implementing urgent measures to avoid the imminent
disaster and change the course of water flowing through the pipeline.
Afat Telmanqizi, Sahin Rzayev, Zaur Naibov, ANS.

Georgian premier visits Armenian-populated region
Yerkir web site, Yerevan
18 May 04
17 May: Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania made an unofficial
visit to Javakhk [Georgia’s Samtskhe- Javakheti region predominantly
populated by Armenians] on 15 May, A-Info news agency reported.
He toured the Georgian church at the village of Poka on the shore
of the lake Parvana, meeting with the nuns. He also engaged in a
conversation with the local residents, who asked the prime minister
to provide the village with an antenna so that they could watch
Georgian TV. Prime Minister Zhvania has not held any meetings with
local officials.

Five arrested on 14 May – Armenian web site
A1+ web site
18 May 04
17 May: The [opposition] Justice Party headquarters has been conducting
detailed research, the results of which were announced today.
The party members try to prove with the help of facts that the ninth
point of the PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe]
resolution has been violated in Armenia up until now. The practice
of administrative arrests has not stopped: five people were arrested
on 14 May.
>>From the morning through to the evening of 14 May, barriers were
put out to block the movement of people and some roads were closed.
Violating the constitution and the PACE requirements, the mayor’s
office has not authorized a peaceful rally on Freedom Square.

US CITIZEN KILLED IN YEREVAN
18.05.2004 13:36
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the evening of May 17 US citizen Joshua Haglund
was killed in the center of Yerevan. As reported by the Police of
Armenia, the 33-year-old Haglund’s body with knife wounds was found
in one of the yards adjoining Sayat Nova Street. The Police does not
report about the professional activities of the victim. Meanwhile,
according to the some information, English language specialist
J. Haglund worked in the US Embassy in Armenia. In its turn the US
Embassy thereupon refrains from comments.

Akdamar Church in Ruins
ZAMAN 05.14.2004, By Ahmet Ãœnal, Van
Link: ;alt=&hn=8549
Famous for its 10th century Church of the Holy Cross, the Akdamar
Church on the island of Akdamar in Lake Van’s is almost in ruins.
The church, which is visited by many foreign tourists, is worn out and
close to ruins. The church has been neglected and harmed by treasure
hunters and at risk of collapsing. Both its foundation and ceiling
have cracks and holes.
The City of Van’s Culture and Tourism Province Director, Bilal Sonmez,
told Zaman that a project for the preservation of the historical
identity of the church is already being prepared. Sonmez said that
the issue has already been transferred to the Culture and Nature
Assets Council and that the directorate is waiting for a decision.
Erdogan Acar, a tourist at the church, said that he was nervous to
walk around inside the church because of its near ruined condition. He
added, “We could prove that we are a great nation if we claim our
historical heritage.”

Turkish Press
May 17 2004
Two Important Visits
BYEGM: 5/17/2004
BY ERDAL SAFAK
SABAH- Ankara will host two stars this week, but while one of them is
on the verge of fading the other is still rising. The falling star is
British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He says that he likes his job and
is hopeful for a third term, but Britain’s ruling Labour Party has
started to prepare itself for the post-Blair era. Deputy Prime
Minister John Prescott has even said that the search for a successor
has gained momentum.
Blair’s visit is based on a decision made in the wake of last
November’s terrorist attacks in Istanbul under which the two
countries’ premiers will meet twice a year. Blair is the first to do
so. The visit’s agenda is already set: next month’s NATO summit in
Istanbul, the Greater Middle East Initiative, recent developments in
Iraq, the Cyprus issue and of course Turkey’s European Union
membership bid. Blair has been clear on his policies towards Ankara
from the beginning, plus he is honest and has taken a favorable
attitude towards Turkey. In March he said that the EU has to show its
will to accept Turkey – describing it as a proud country with a
Muslim majority – under the same conditions as its other members. He
reiterated this on May 9, adding that it has already decided that
Turkey will become an EU member, but he urged Ankara to fulfill the
conditions which other members also had to complete. There are rumors
that Blair will surprise Ankara by announcing his government’s
decision to allow direct flights to the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus (TRNC). We’ll see.
The second guest, a rising star who came to power after a revolution,
is new Georgian President Mihail Saakasvili. He has pledged to do
whatever is needed to preserve Georgia’s territorial integrity, which
means that two revolutions are on the way. Sakasvili will visit
Ankara on May 20-21. It is said that he will offer his help in
mediating between Turkey and Armenia.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS
AND INFORMATION

Nagorny Karabakh: 10 Years and Counting
The Moscow Times
Tuesday, May 18, 2004. Page 11.
SAATLI, Azerbaijan — Tergul Husseinova used to live in a little wooden
house with geraniums in the window boxes and chickens scratching in
the yard. She had two cows and 35 sheep, and her family of five lived
a simple, happy life, she told me.
But all that changed 10 years ago. Armenian troops stormed the
village where she lived, and she was forced to leave. She piled
all her belongings onto a horse and cart and headed east to Saatli,
where she still lives today in a hut made of mud and straw.
Last week saw the 10th anniversary of the cease-fire that was signed
between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It marked the end of a bitter war
over the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh, and the start of
talks to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
But no one has been celebrating. The war may have ended, but tension
between the once-friendly neighbors is worse than ever. Earlier this
year, an Azeri officer on a NATO training exercise in Hungary hacked
to death an Armenian officer with an ax. He said the Armenian had
been taunting him about Karabakh.
Neither side benefits from the current situation. Armenia is all but
cut off from the rest of the world. Two of its borders are closed —
with Azerbaijan, to the east, and Turkey, Azerbaijan’s long-time ally,
to the west. The economy is in dire straits, and over the last 10
years more than 1 million people have left the country in search of
a better life abroad.
Azerbaijan, meanwhile, has been saddled with the biggest refugee
population per capita of any country in the world. Some of the Azeris
who were forced out of Karabakh and the six surrounding districts now
under Armenian control are living with relatives. Others have moved
to Russia.
But the majority, like Tergul and her family, still live in makeshift
accommodation — railway carriages, half-finished buildings with no
heat or light, or corrugated iron shacks. The government has built
a few more permanent houses for the refugees. But relocating all of
them would mean accepting that Azerbaijan lost the war and will never
see the return of its lands — something no one here would allow.
On the anniversary last week, the Azeri president, Ilham Aliyev,
traveled to a military base just a few kilometers from the Armenian
border and warned that his army was ready to go back to war. But few
have taken him seriously.
Tergul says she just wants to go back home before she dies. But peace
talks are going nowhere and, in all likelihood, she and thousands of
others like her will never see their homes again.
Chloe Arnold is a freelance journalist based in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Arabs should also turn their fury at their own
International Herald Tribune
Massoud A. Derhally IHT Monday, May 17, 2004
AMMAN, Jordan To the majority of Arabs, the United States is a country
of double standards, and its leadership expounds the arrogance
and belligerence of an imperialist power. Thus the abuses at Abu
Ghraib prison will be etched forever in Arabs’ minds: If only the
American people knew what their country did abroad, many Arabs think,
if only Americans understood the anguish brought on by Washington’s
self-serving foreign policies, then they would understand why so much
Arab hate is directed toward them.
Unfortunately, most Arabs end the argument here. Yes, the repulsive
prison pictures vindicate some Arab grievances. But if there is a
lesson to be learned, it is that Arabs should be equally enraged by
the deficiency of human rights in their own countries.
Countless acts of violence have taken place in the Arab world that
dwarf the abuse of Abu Ghraib. There are wretched human rights
violations every day in the Middle East, yet they somehow aren’t met
with the same indignation and high standards of accountability Arabs
hold America to.
Why is that? The United States is a beacon of democracy, freedom
and transparency. It is the very absence of these fundamental values
that underscore the impotence of the Arab people. Arabs need to ask
themselves why it is that so many places have experienced their own
form of renaissance – be it Latin America, South Africa or Asia –
and why they haven’t.
That is the lesson to be learned from this fiasco in Iraq. If
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld can exhibit some humility,
so can our leaders in admitting their mistakes – and so can we,
in our struggle to define ourselves in this century.
It is true that America’s unrelenting support of Israel, now anchored
more than ever after President George W. Bush’s unconditional
endorsement of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral disengagement
plan, provides ammunition to hate. But invoking the Israel card for
most Arab governments has, by and large, meant giving the stamp of
approval to crackdowns, the denial of civil liberties and the creation
of systems that instill fear and paranoia.
In this sense, Arab anger at America is a culmination of the
frustrations in their own lives: the inability of people to vent their
anger openly at their own governments, the failure to rise up against
injustices committed in their own backyards, and the absence of checks
and balances that in democracies ensure that those in authority are
held accountable.
Democracy, some say, is not viable or applicable for Arabs. Arabs need
to be ruled by an iron fist, the argument goes, and the culture of
the Arab world doesn’t allow for the expression of different opinions
or the coexistence of different ideologies. Such statements expound
the very stupidity that lead to the massacre of Muslims in Bosnia and
Kosovo, of Jews in World War II, and of Armenians by Turks after World
War I. It is this line of reasoning that has fostered an environment
that nurtures zealotry – a defeatist mentality that perpetuates the
subservient role Arabs have become accustomed to.
If there were a single transparent and democratic system in place today
in the Arab world, those calling for reforms would be hailed and not
arrested. Women would be empowered. Were pictures of torture, abuse
and humiliation of prisoners to come out, then perhaps the region would
escape this twilight zone and experience its own renaissance. So when
Arabs look at those pictures of Iraqis being humiliated, they should
also take a look in the mirror – they may not like what they see.
Massoud A. Derhally is a freelance journalist and a former
correspondent for Agence France-Presse.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Major Russian armed forces exercises to be held in June
Pravda.RU:Russia
18:13 2004-05-17
The Russian Armed Forces will hold major exercises in June 2004,
acting Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told President Vladimir Putin.
“In June, permanent alert units will be redeployed from one Russian
region to some other by Defense Ministry transport planes civilian
Il-62 and Il-86 aircraft,” Mr. Ivanov said at president’s Monday
meeting with cabinet members.
In addition, exercises within the framework of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan) will be held in the Central Asian strategic sector
from August to September, the acting defense minister noted.
“The central role will be given to the Russian permanent alert units
and our airbase in Kant [Kyrgyzstan],” Mr. Ivanov said.
“This will be a mobile redeployment of airborne and task force units,”
he added.
“The Russian Navy is planning major independent and international
campaigns in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea in
August-September,” Mr. Ivanov said.
© RIAN

USA CITIZEN KILLED
A1 Plus | 13:56:37 | 18-05-2004 | Social |
At 10:00 PM yesterday a corpse was found near “Zigzag” shop in
Sayat-Nova Street. Under the preliminary information by Police,
the killed man is a USA citizen, Joshua Heglantz.
There were violence signs on the corpse. Policemen informed the dead
man was brutally beaten then was stabbed into resulting in death.