Category: News

Azeri leader, Turkish-American lobbyist discuss Karabakh
ANS TV, Baku
9 Jun 04
Presenter Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev touched on the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem during his meeting with a delegation led by the
president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, Ercument
Kilic, and indirectly asked his interlocutors to help express
Azerbaijan’s fair position in the world.
Correspondent over video of the reception President Ilham Aliyev
touched on the Nagornyy Karabakh problem at the meeting with
the president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations,
Ercument Kilic. The president said that all steps taken to solve the
Nagornyy Karabakh have been fruitless and stressed the importance of
expressing Azerbaijan’s fair position in the world. Aliyev also said
that everybody, including the US public, should know that Azerbaijan is
the victim in this conflict. Our lands are under occupation, he said.
Aliyev However, this is a temporary situation. We want international
legal norms to be observed, Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity to
be restored and the Armenian occupying army to be withdrawn from
our lands.
Correspondent According to him, Section 907 to the Freedom Support
Act banning direct US government assistance to Azerbaijan has still
not been suspended. This shows once again that the Turks should close
ranks in solving important issues.
The president of the assembly, Ercument Kilic, who listed the
assembly’s services in the sphere of developing Turkish-American
relations over the 25 years of their work, explained the purpose of
their visit to Baku.
We play the role of a bridge for developing joint Turkish-American
cooperation in the USA. This bridge is healthy. But we want this
bridge to exist not only between Turkey and the USA, but also with
Azerbaijan, end quote. On behalf of the 300,000 Turks living in the
USA, Kilic promised to speed up their activities to create the right
idea of the essence of the Karabakh problem.
Parvana Sabirqizi, ANS.

The Detroit News
Stefan Karidian, 75, has 27 books of stamps from Armenia. “My collection
hinges on the history of this country,” he says.
Stamps tell Armenian tales
By Sarah Frame / The Detroit News
BIRMINGHAM – Stefan Karidian can trace his family’s history by looking
through his stamp collection. He has 27 books of stamps, postcards
and envelopes from Armenia, the country his parents emigrated from.
“Armenian stamps are my specialty,” said Karidian, 75, of West
Bloomfield Township. “My collection hinges on the history of this
country. I have stamps that relate to Armenian churches, artists,
and also stamps and postcards that commemorate the mass genocide of
the Armenian people. My dad survived that and then came here.”
Collectors like Karidian commonly see their own lives in their stamps,
said Michael Schreiber, editor of Linn’s Stamp News, the world’s
largest weekly stamp newspaper.
“You can make of it (stamp collecting) anything you want,” Schreiber
said. “You can collect on any topic, any country.”
Collectors from all over the Midwest will attend the Metropex 2004,
a stamp exposition sponsored by the Oakland County Stamp Club planned
for June 12 and 13.
The show will feature more than 20 dealers and will be at the
Birmingham Masonic Temple.
Dodie Spatz, 66, of Bloomfield Township recalls that her interest in
stamps began when her father went to work in the Venezuelan oil fields.
“My dad would send letters to my mother with these pretty stamps
on them, and I began to save them,” Spatz said. “Now I have quite
a collection, and it’s gotten bigger since I joined the Birmingham
Stamp Club.”
You can reach Sarah Frame at (313) 222-2103 or [email protected].

CBS unveils the identities of the eleven ‘The Amazing Race 5’ couples
By Steve Rogers, 06/10/2004
Reality TV World, MA
June 11 2004
CBS announced yesterday the identities of the eleven couples
apppearing in its upcoming The Amazing Race 5.
Prior to yesterday’s annoucement, only the identity of one couple had
been formally announced — that of Alison Irwin, the runner-up in
last summer’s Big Brother 4, and Donald Patrick, Alison’s college
football playing boyfriend whom she frequently mentioned (as
“Donnie”) while confined within the Big Brother house.
In addition to Alison and Donny, the cast also includes an NFL
cheerleader, a former Miss Teen USA, the second runner up at Miss USA
2003, and a male model. Maybe it’s just us, but does anyone else
think it’s a bit obvious that CBS is pulling out all the stops in an
apparent attempt to finally transform the Emmy Award-winning but
modestly-rated program into a ratings hit? No wonder CBS was
reportedly “so pleased” about this edition that it wasted little time
greenlighting The Amazing Race 6. Of course, at this rate, don’t
expect TAR6 to feature more than a token older couple… but remember
Race fans, it could be worse — after all, The Mole viewers had to
watch their show disintegrate into a watered-down home for D-list
celebrities… only to watch the ratings-challenged ABC network still
ultimately pulled the plug on the series.
As previously reported, The Amazing Race 5, once again featuring
eleven couples in a race around the world, will premiere with a
special 90-minute broadcast on Tuesday, July 6 at 9:30PM ET/PT
(following a special 90-minute premiere of the fifth season of Big
Brother.) After the premiere, the series will settle into its
regularly scheduled Tuesdays at 10PM ET/PT time period (following Big
Brother 5’s regular Tuesdays at 9PM ET/PT broadcast.)
The eleven couples competing in The Amazing Race 5 are:
• Kami And Karli French, 26-year-old identical twin sisters from
Eugene, Oregon. Kami is a café manager while Karli is a student at
University of Oregon.
• Marshall and Lance Hudes, brothers who are originally from New
York, but have since relocated to Dallas, Texas, where they own and
operate a pizza shop. Marshall is 31-years-old, while Hudes is age
26.
• Colin Guinn and Christie Woods, a couple from Corpus Christi, Texas
that have been dating for over a year. Colin, age 24, owns a cell
phone store. Christie, age 26, is the managing partner of the
Longevity & Wellness Center and the 1996 Miss Teen USA.
• Chip and Kim Mcallister, married parents from Coto De Caza,
California. Chip, age 46, is the owner of a web technology company.
Kim, age 44, is the owner of an information technology recruiting
company. They have been married for over 25 years and have three
children.
• Alison Irwin and Donald Patrick, a dating couple from Pennsylvania.
As Big Brother 4 viewers are well aware, the 23-year-old Alison
managed to cheat, lie, flirt, and backstab her way to Big Brother 4’s
final two, where she was trounced by the equally reviled Jun Song in
the program’s final houseguest voting. Throughout the show viewers
endured Alison’s incessant whining regarding whether her relationship
with 21-year-old boyfriend Donny would still be intact after he’d
seen her Big Brother behavior. Obviously the answer was yes… so now
CBS viewers will get to spend another summer watching Alison cheat,
lie, flirt, and backstab — only this time while she travels (at
least partway) around the world. Thanks CBS.
• Linda Ruiz and Karen Heins, best friends and bowling partners from
Palmdale, California. Linda, age 45, is a mother and tennis teacher.
Karen, age 41, is a mother and homemaker. Both have been married for
over 20 years.
• Dennis Frentsos and Erika Shay, a “once engaged” couple from New
York. Dennis is a 27-year-old mortgage broker from West Nyack while
Erika is a 25-year-old wedding planner from Piermont. According to
CBS, Dennis broke off the engagement after Erika went tandem
skydiving naked with her instructor. No word on whether any peanut
butter or chocolate was involved.
• Jim and Marsha McCoy, a father and daughter from Florida. Jim is a
53-year-old helicopter pilot who lives in Jacksonville. The
26-year-old Marsha is a law student living in Gainesville and
attending the University of Florida College of Law. Marsha, who
considered herself an “ugly duckling” as a child, is an NFL
Jacksonville Jaguars cheerleader. With Jim having spent 23 years in
the military, the family once lived in Germany for two years.
• Charla Faddoul and Mirna Hindoyan, first cousins from Maryland.
Charla, age 27 and living in Phoenix, is “married to the man of her
dreams” and is manager/co-owner of a chain of ten sportswear stores.
Mirna, age 23, lives in Towson and is an attorney who graduated from
the University of Maryland School of Law. The two were born only a
month apart in Syria and emigrated to the United States when they
were young children. Between the two of them, they speak a variety of
languages, including Armenian, Turkish, French and Spanish, and have
traveled extensively to foreign countries — skills that should prove
valuable during the competition.
• Brandon Davidson and Nicole O’Brian, a dating couple. Nicole, age
21 and currently living in Los Angeles while trying to break into
Hollywood, was Miss Texas USA 2003 and second runner up at Miss USA
2003. Brandon, age 25, is a male model currently living in Houston.
The two consider themselves very religious and spiritual people and
met just over a year ago when both were hired to work the runway at a
bridal expo in Houston.
• Bob Barron and Joyce Nicolo, a dating couple from Mount Laurel, New
Jersey who, despite living in the same town, met on an Internet
dating website. Both are widowers who lost their partners to cancer.
Bob, age 61, is retired. Joyce, age 54, is a medical practice
administer.

Armenian Army Breaches Cease-Fire Agreement
Baku Today
June 11 2004
Armenian troops located in Armenia’s Verd District violated the
cease-fire agreement on Thursday by firing at Azerbaijan’s army
positions in western Tovuz District, the press office of Azerbaijan’s
ministry of defense said, according to ANS.
In another case of a breach of the cease-fire agreement, Armenian
troops occupying Azerbaijan’s Khocavend District in Nagorno-Karabakh
early Friday fired at Azeri positions.
Reports on the Armenians’ violating the 1994 armistice said the
latter on Monday shot an Azerbaijani battalion commander to death
and wounded a soldier in Jojug Merjanli village of the southwestern
Jebrail District.
Jojug Merjanli is the only village in Jabrail District that is
controlled by Azerbaijani army. The rest of the district was captured
by Armenians in 1993.
Azerbaijan’s news reports said the killed officer, Captain Zaur
Ismailov, 28, was shot by an Armenian sniper while he was fighting
to take his wounded soldier, Ramil Baghirov, 19, out of the line
of contact.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a former autonomous region within Azerbaijan, and
also seven Azeri administrative districts –Lachin, Kelbajar, Aghdam,
Fuzuli, Jabrail, Zangilan and Gubadli — were captured by Armenian
troops in 1991-94 war with Azerbaijan.
The occupied territories make up for 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s total
area and nearly 700,000 civilian Azeris were forced to leave their
homes as a result of the war.
Despite a shaky cease-fire agreement signed between Baku and Yerevan
in May 1994, no final settlement has been found to the conflict.

Saving Private Ivan: Mike Davis Remember Normandy’s heroes – but also that
the Red army played the decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany
The Guardian – United Kingdom
Jun 11, 2004
The decisive battle for the liberation of Europe began 60 years ago
this month when a Soviet guerrilla army emerged from the forests and
bogs of Belorussia to launch a bold surprise attack on the mighty
Wehrmacht’s rear.
The partisan brigades, including many Jewish fighters and
concentration-camp escapees, planted 40,000 demolition charges. They
devastated the vital rail lines linking German Army Group Centre to
its bases in Poland and Eastern Prussia.
Three days later, on June 22 1944, the third anniversary of Hitler’s
invasion of the Soviet Union, Marshal Zhukov gave the order for the
main assault on German front lines. Twenty-six thousand heavy guns
pulverised German forward positions. The screams of the Katyusha
rockets were followed by the roar of 4,000 tanks and the battle cries
(in more than 40 languages) of 1.6 million Soviet soldiers. Thus
began Operation Bagration, an assault over a 500-mile-long front.
This “great military earthquake”, as the historian John Erickson called
it, finally stopped in the suburbs of Warsaw as Hitler rushed elite
reserves from western Europe to stem the Red tide in the east. As a
result, American and British troops fighting in Normandy would not
have to face the best-equipped Panzer divisions.
But what American has ever heard of Operation Bagration? June 1944
signifies Omaha Beach, not the crossing of the Dvina River. Yet the
Soviet summer offensive was several times larger than Operation
Overlord (the invasion of Normandy), both in the scale of forces
engaged and the direct cost to the Germans.
By the end of summer, the Red army had reached the gates of Warsaw
as well as the Carpathian passes commanding the entrance to central
Europe. Soviet tanks had caught Army Group Centre in steel pincers
and destroyed it. The Germans would lose more than 300,000 men in
Belorussia alone. Another huge German army had been encircled and
would be annihilated along the Baltic coast. The road to Berlin had
been opened.
Thank Ivan. It does not disparage the brave men who died in the North
African desert or the cold forests around Bastogne to recall that 70%
of the Wehrmacht is buried not in French fields but on the Russian
steppes. In the struggle against Nazism, approximately 40 “Ivans”
died for every “Private Ryan”. Scholars now believe that as many as 27
million Soviet soldiers and citizens perished in the second world war.
Yet the ordinary Soviet soldier – the tractor mechanic from Samara,
the actor from Orel, the miner from the Donetsk, or the high-school
girl from Leningrad – is invisible in the current celebration and
mythologisation of the “greatest generation”.
It is as if the “new American century” cannot be fully born without
exorcising the central Soviet role in last century’s epochal victory
against fascism. Indeed, most Americans are shockingly clueless about
the relative burdens of combat and death in the second world war. And
even the minority who understand something of the enormity of the
Soviet sacrifice tend to visualise it in terms of crude stereotypes of
the Red army: a barbarian horde driven by feral revenge and primitive
Russian nationalism. Only GI Joe and Tommy are seen as truly fighting
for civilised ideals of freedom and democracy.
It is thus all the more important to recall that – despite Stalin, the
NKVD and the massacre of a generation of Bolshevik leaders – the Red
army still retained powerful elements of revolutionary fraternity. In
its own eyes, and that of the slaves it freed from Hitler, it was the
greatest liberation army in history. Moreover, the Red army of 1944
was still a Soviet army. The generals who led the breakthrough on the
Dvina included a Jew (Chernyakovskii), an Armenian (Bagramyan), and
a Pole (Rokossovskii). In contrast to the class-divided and racially
segregated American and British forces, command in the Red army was
an open, if ruthless, ladder of opportunity.
Anyone who doubts the revolutionary elan and rank-and-file humanity
of the Red army should consult the extraordinary memoirs of Primo
Levi (The Reawakening) and KS Karol (Between Two Worlds). Both hated
Stalinism but loved the ordinary Soviet soldier and saw in her/him
the seeds of socialist renewal.
So, after George Bush’s recent demeaning of the memory of D-day to
solicit support for his war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve
decided to hold my own pri vate commemoration.
I will recall, first, my Uncle Bill, the salesman from Columbus, hard
as it is to imagine such a gentle soul as a hell-for-leather teenage
GI in Normandy. Second – as I’m sure my Uncle Bill would’ve wished –
I will remember his comrade Ivan.
The Ivan who drove his tank through the gates of Auschwitz and battled
his way into Hitler’s bunker. The Ivan whose courage and tenacity
overcame the Wehrmacht, despite the deadly wartime errors and crimes
of Stalin. Two ordinary heroes: Bill and Ivan. Obscene to celebrate
the first without also commemorating the second.
Mike Davis teaches American history at the University of California at
Irvine and is an editor New Left Review; his latest book is Dead Cities
[email protected]

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
June 11 2004
WE ARE WELL AWARE OF WHAT OCCURS ON SOUTHERN CAUCASUS
[June 11, 2004, 11:42:29]
These words have been told by the deputy chief of Headquarters of the
US European Command general Charles Wald at the meeting with Minister
of Defiance of Azerbaijan, colonel-general Safar Abiyev.
As was stated from the press-service of the ministry, Mr. Safar
Abiyev, having noted, that similar meetings have strategic character
and that the USA pays great attention to Azerbaijan, reminded that the
situation in region of the South Caucasus continues to remain intense,
and a part of lands of Azerbaijan to this day is under occupation of
Armenia. He added: ¡°It is impossible to freeze the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict. It is high time to call a spade a spade and it is necessary
to recognize Armenia as a state ¨C aggressor¡±.
General Charles Wald has thanked for reception, saying that shares his
views on the stated idea, and has emphasized, that present position
in region of the South Caucasus is under the control of the largest
international organizations of the world. We are well aware of what
occurs in the region¡±, he said.
Minister Safar Abiyev has told that Azerbaijan seriously prepares
for ¡°Cooperative Best Effort-04 ¡± exercises, which will take place
in September of this year within the framework of the NATO ¡°PfP¡±
program.
Having noted, that carrying out in Azerbaijan similar exercises is
very significant event which even brings Azerbaijan with the NATO
closer, the American general has told: ¡°The US European Command of
Armed Forces thinks much of cooperation with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
is a state having great authority in the region. Relations between
the USA and Azerbaijan are improving and our relations are long-term.
The US and Azerbaijan have common strategic interests.
Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan has noted, that cooperation of
Azerbaijan and the USA every day becomes closer, he has also reminded
on importance of cancellation of the 907 Section to the ¡°Freedom
Support Act¡±.
In the meeting on which the wide exchange of opinions on questions of
the international and regional safety was held, also presenting was
the Charge d’Affaires of the US embassy in Baku Nancy §®celdowney,
and the military attach¨¦ lieutenant colonel Brendan Mcalon.

Azeri Defence Ministry reports Armenian truce violation
Assa-Irada
10 Jun 04
Baku, 10 June: The [Azerbaijani] Defence Ministry press service has
told Assa-Irada news agency that the positions of the Azerbaijani
armed forces in the village of Koxa Nabi of Tovuz District [on the
border with Armenia] came under fire from positions in Armenia’s Berd
District at 0010-0025 [1910-1925 gmt] on 10 June.
Also, at 0050-0125 [1950-2025 gmt], the Armenian military on the
positions near the village of Kuropatkino in the Armenian-occupied
Xocavand District [in Karabakh] fired on the positions of the
Azerbaijani armed forces deployed on the opposite side.
The enemy was silenced with retaliatory fire. There were no casualties.
From: Baghdasarian

Government Boosts Spending With 2003 Budget Savings
By Atom Markarian 11/06/2004 12:13
Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep
June 11 2004
The Armenian government unveiled on Thursday plans for a nearly 4
percent increase in public spending this year which will be financed
with resources saved up during the implementation of its 2003 budget.
Ministers decided to seek parliament approval for raising the projected
2004 expenditures by 12 billion drams to almost 330 billion drams ($580
million). The measure would mark the first-ever growth of the Armenian
state budget mid-way through a fiscal year. Officials said the extra
money was largely freed by Armenia’s debt settlement agreements with
Russia and Turkmenistan which reduced the amount of funds set aside
for external debt servicing last year. They said the government also
economized on state procurements.
According to Finance and Economy Minister Vartan Khachatrian, most of
the additional expenditures, 7 billion drams, will be channeled into
the construction and repair of secondary schools across the country.
The rest of the money will be spent on the reconstruction of the
country’s northwestern regions still reeling from the 1988 earthquake
and improving supplies of water and natural gas in rural areas.
Government spending, which is still too small to meet Armenia’s
socioeconomic needs, will be further boosted with a new $20 million
budgetary loan which the World Bank is expected to disburse in
October. The money will likely be included in the state budget for
next year, though.
Khachatrian revealed that the Armenian government would like to
receive within the next five years $700 million in assistance from
the United States under Washington’s Millennium Challenge Account
(MCA) program of promoting political and economic reforms around the
world. He said Yerevan expects to secure $100 million as early as this
year and to invest it in education, health care and social services.
“We want to focus on direct investments in the economy, especially
in the rural areas,” Khachatrian told reporters.
Armenia is among 16 developing nations of the world that were
recently selected by the U.S. to be eligible for the additional aid.
Its allocation and amounts will depend on specific proposals to be made
by their governments. The top executives of the Millennium Challenge
Corporation, which is administering the scheme, visited Yerevan last
week to discuss ways of using the potential extra aid with government
officials and civil society representatives.
Senior officials from the U.S. State Department have made it clear
that the Armenian authorities must also improve their “poor” human
rights record if they are to benefit from the MCA.

Azeri defence chief urges world to recognize Armenia as aggressor
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
10 Jun 04
Azerbaijani Defence Minister Safar Abiyev has once again urged the
international community to recognize Armenia as an aggressor.
At today’s meeting with the deputy commander of the US European
Command, Gen Charles Wald, Abiyev said that the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict could not be frozen. The fact that Yerevan is an aggressor
should be confirmed.

Azeri campaigner sees hidden agenda in Armenians defectors
Ekho, Baku
5 Jun 04
The two Armenians who fled Azerbaijan during the armed conflict
in Karabakh in 1990 and have returned to Baku asking for refugee
status in order to go to the West and leave Azerbaijan disgraced as
a country dangerous to Armenians, Azerbaijani human rights activist
Eldar Zeynalov writes in the Ekho newspaper. Should Azerbaijan accept
the men, it might urge thousands of Chechens to follow suit and harm
Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia, he said. According to Zeynalov,
the Azerbaijani authorities have a hand in this story seeking to keep
the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Baku under
control. The following is the text of an article headlined “About the
defectors: Who needs them and what for?” by Eldar Zeynalov, director
of the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, in the Azerbaijani newspaper
Ekho on 5 June 2004. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:
Azerbaijan still dangerous for Armenians?
The press keeps discussing the theme of the two Armenian defectors,
Roman Teryan and Artur Apresyan, time and time again, although less
intensively than two months ago when they turned up in Baku [from
Armenia]. Based on an opinion about me as a “defender of Armenians”,
some newspapers with a reputation for printing scandal have addressed
me on several occasions. I did explain my attitude but the press
never reported my words.
My stance, based on international law on forced migration, could
not be clearer than it is. A refugee is a foreigner who underwent
discrimination in his home land, which posed a threat to his life,
health or property, and who seeks asylum in another country that he
thinks is safer.
Are these Armenians foreigners to us? They argue that they lived
in Baku before the events in Karabakh. If so, they are our former
compatriots and can certainly apply for reinstatement in their
previous citizenship. All the more so that our authorities have been
treating them with overt sympathy. It was really dangerous for them
to live in Baku in 1990. How about today? Floundering in statistics,
the authorities keep saying that some 20,000 or 30,000 Armenians still
live in Baku. Why not let in another two, what is wrong about it? All
the more so that these good Armenians risked their life advocating
Azerbaijan in Armenia.
However, if such loyal returnees from Armenia and our former citizens
cannot live here, a great number of questions arise that need to be
answered before we rush slap-bang to help them move to the better-off
parts of Europe. If a person left Azerbaijan in 1990, was recognized as
a refugee, then came back home but cannot stay here, it is tantamount
to our authorities signing a confession that nothing has changed
since 1990 and it is still dangerous for Armenians (at least males)
to live here.
Returnees’ hidden agenda?
The “defectors” themselves must have been thinking as much, given
that they had asked from the very start for entry into a third state,
seeking asylum abroad before they turned to Azerbaijan. The question
arises how to define a situation with the two Armenians who actually
came to our country to set it up by making it deport themselves
to a third state and thereby prove that Azerbaijan is dangerous
for Armenians to live in and human rights are not observed here?
Strange as it may seem, this fact was disregarded above all by media
outlets normally specializing in exposing real and imaginary Armenian
provocations.
There is another point. Well, assume Azerbaijan and Armenia are
dangerous for them. Why then should they go to Germany or the
Netherlands while hundreds of thousands of Armenians who are afraid
to live in Azerbaijan and do not care about “mother Armenia” have no
problems living in other CIS states, for instance Russia, Ukraine and
even Belarus? Having no language or cultural barrier, living next to
their friends and relatives, what else would they need to be happy?
What they seek is probably a comfortable seat on the back of a Western
state. They have tried to do it on their own but to no avail. Now they
are trying to ride into paradise on another vehicle. The vehicle is our
state which is expected to blemish itself by giving them a paper with
umpteen seals affixed to certify that it is bad here. The organization
that took on the task is a specific state body, the one in charge
of safeguarding the state border that these guys crossed legally,
once they are not in jail. This body sheltered those nice guests in
an “inn” on the top of a building at the head of Parliament Avenue
[National Security Ministry], called a news conference for them and
did a lot more to promote this story.
Interests of national security
Did the state pursue any interest in getting involved in this fishy
business? Taking a closer look, one can see that from the very
outset, both the “defectors” and the state officials, and even the
non-governmental organizations that joined in (not all of them,
by the way) are coming down heavily on the office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) like a ton of bricks. If the UNHCR
office refuses to grant the Armenians refugee status, its will prove
to be inefficient; if it does, it will disgrace our country. Public
statements by local UNHCR office staff may give a cue to what all this
rush is about. It is the UN plans to give up its responsibility in
June for establishing the status of those seeking refuge in Azerbaijan.
Indeed, there is a dozen staff sitting at the UNHCR office, with only
a few of them doing the job of interviewing and inquiry. On the other
hand, the government has special services and a whole state committee
for refugees. So it is right up their street, all the more so that
the UNHCR office, the International Organization for Migration and
other international organizations have talked themselves hoarse and
run themselves off their feet coming and training our officials who
must deal with such things as part of their remit.
Fancy 8,000 Chechens turning up at our offices tomorrow to ask for
refugee status based on our very well written law. Should we grant
them the status, we would thereby recognize that the thing going on in
Chechnya is a real war and genocide of Chechens rather than a police
operation. We could also spoil our relations with the mighty northern
neighbour [Russia]. Should we deny the status or deport them, the
Chechens would sue Azerbaijan at the European Court and, I can assure
you, they would win the case (precedents can be found in Georgia).
So let the UNHCR office fiddle around with all that and be the whipping
boy. Ah, they do not care for it? Okay we will play a dirty trick
on them in the form of the Armenian defectors. Tomorrow they [UNHCR
staff] may see hungry Azerbaijani people coming from tents to smash
their windows. The day after tomorrow, a bellicose non-governmental
organization may stage a pogrom and accuse the UNHCR office of
inefficiency in getting our refugees back home and therefore being
Armenian agents. Unsmiling tie-wearing guys from a serious office
would keep watch over the process, throwing in their instructions
once in a while. That would go on until the local UNHCR office “became
reasonable” and came back under the control of our authorities, as it
used to be. It seems that they see no other scenario for the future,
unfortunately. There may be a far cry between the stubborn Ukrainian
and the pliable French.
All this looks very funny viewed from aside, my dear sirs. Would I
take part in this show? No, thanks!