Category: News

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION DERAILS DEMOCRATIZATION
A1 Plus | 19:36:12 | 11-05-2004 | Politics |
“Violence and election fraud have become dangerously commonplace in
our country and all illegalities are being committed amid growing
informational blockade”, said participants of For and Against Civil
Will forum held by 40 organizations on Tuesday in Yerevan.
Karen Hakobyan, a member of Hope organization, is convinced the time
came, when each citizen must feel himself guilty for the situation
created.
Chair of Armenian Helsinki Association Avetik Ishkhanyan says the
community let the authorities ruin the whole nation.
Today, the forum came up with a statement saying human rights violation
derailed democratization process in Armenia and illegalities committed
by the authorities created the atmosphere of impunity in the republic.
In their statement, the forum participants demanded to release all
political prisoners, to prosecute all those officials, who violated
constitutional law, provide right for receiving information to citizens
and to return broadcasting license to A1+ TV Company.

BAKU: Separatist, former minister not included in pardon by Azeri president
Assa-Irada news agency
10 May 04
Baku, 10 May: On Monday, President Ilham Aliyev issued a decree,
pardoning 363 prisoners. However, former defence minister Rahim
Qaziyev and separatist Alikram Humbatov, who attempted to establish
the “Talis Mugan Republic”, were not among those pardoned.
Qaziyev and Humbatov have been sentenced to life imprisonment for their
high treason, committing crimes against the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan and collaborating with special service bodies of foreign
countries.
Qaziyev, who once headed a group of military troops in Susa District
and had no military education and rank, was appointed defence minister
by certain forces. During his activity as defence minister, the
Azerbaijani army conducted unsuccessful military operations. Besides,
Susa and Lacin districts were occupied by Armenian military troops.
Humbatov, who did not get any military education either, managed
to receive the rank of colonel within a short period thanks to his
foreign supporters and former defence minister Qaziyev.
Humbatov, who declared himself the president of the self-proclaimed
“Talis Mugan Republic”, was sentenced to life imprisonment after Heydar
Aliyev came to power. Qaziyev played “a great role” in carrying out
Humbatov’s separatist actions.

BAKU: Azeri, Armenian foreign ministers to discuss Karabakh in Strasbourg
Bilik Dunyasi news agency
11 May 04
Baku, 11 May: Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will
meet Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan in Strasbourg tomorrow.
The sides are expected to discuss the issue of restoring transport
and communications lines between Azerbaijan and Armenia in exchange
for the liberation of Azerbaijan’s seven occupied districts.
According to Mammadyarov, the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group
and special representatives of the two countries’ presidents, Araz
Azimov and Tatul Markaryan, will also take part in the negotiations.

BAKU: Jailed Azeri officer’s case to be handed to Hungarian prosecutor
ANS TV, Baku
10 May 04
[Presenter] An investigation into the case of the Azerbaijani officer
Ramil Safarov, jailed in Budapest, has ended. Lawyer Adil Ismayilov
and ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova met him today.
[Correspondent over video of Safarov’s photo] The investigation into
the case of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov charged with killing
Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan ended today. In an interview with
ANS, lawyer Adil Ismayilov, who is in Budapest because of the case,
said that the investigation material would be handed over to a
prosecutor after he familiarized himself with them. Ismayilov said
that they would appeal to the prosecutor over two issues.
[Ismayilov, on the phone] Ramil said that he wanted an Azerbaijani
interpreter. [Sentence indistinct] They wanted us to inform the
prosecutor of this.
[Correspondent over video of Ismayilov speaking] Ismayilov said the
issue had not been resolved yet. He added that another unresolved
issue was his participation in the trial. This appeal had not been
responded to either. However, the Hungarian ombudsman promised to
help them in this issue. Let us recall that Ismayilov and Azerbaijani
ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova today visited Safarov.
[Ismayilov, on the phone] Elmira xanim [form of address] and I visited
the prison with the assistance of the Hungarian ombudsman. Our meeting
lasted for about an hour. He is in good health. His moral state is
good. He feels better. He has no problem with [word indistinct]
[Correspondent, over video] According to Ismayilov, it is not known
precisely when the trial will be held. Ismayilov said that Hungarian
lawyer Peter Zalay was familiarizing himself with the case.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PARLIAMENT SPEAKER HOPES FOR SITUATION IN ARMENIA TO SETTLE “VIA POLITICAL
DIALOGUE”
11.05.2004 15:42
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ All political forces represented in the
Parliament of Armenia will do their best to establish a new
political situation in the country and will solve the problems via
political dialogue. Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia Artur
Baghdasarian told it to journalists yesterday, after the completion of
the recurrent phase of political consultations between representatives
of the ruling coalition and the opposition over the settlement of
the domestic situation in the country. In his opinion, the political
consultations, which began after hard four-month discussions in
the Parliament, have born first fruits. Representatives of the
Republican Party of Armenia, Orinats Yerkir and Dashnaktsutyun,
People’s Deputy group, United Labor Party faction, Justice bloc
and National Unification faction have agreed to start political
dialogue. Thereupon a corresponding agenda will be formed on May
13. As Secretary of Justice opposition faction Victor Dallakian
told journalists in his turn, “coalition representatives asked for
two days to express their attitude to the opposition proposals.” In
his words, May 12 the coalition will present a corresponding written
proposal. Having discussed it, the opposition will decide whether to
continue the talks or not. It should be reminded that the question on
“the ways of overcoming the political crisis formed in Armenia after
the presidential election in 2003” is included in the agenda of the
negotiations.

AUTHORITIES KEEP ON IGNORING PACE RESOLUTION
A1 Plus | 20:40:50 | 11-05-2004 | Politics |
Justice, a 16-party opposition alliance, issued a statement on Tuesday,
pointing out the authorities’ steps taken in a clear breach of the
PACE 1374 resolution.
1. The authorities didn’t abandon their practice of arresting people
as so called administrative punishment.
2. Those arrested for participation in unauthorized rallies haven’t
been released immediately. 14 citizens have been taken in police
custody for political reasons. One of them, Martin Ghazaryan, is
already convicted and sentenced to one year in jail.
3. Those responsible for violence against people and human rights
violations have not been prosecuted.
4. Legislation on administrative offenders hasn’t been amended.

JUSTICE MINISTER REACTS ANGRILY TO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CONTROL CHAMBER’S REPORT
A1 Plus | 21:10:44 | 11-05-2004 | Politics |
Serious abuses in implementation of justice system improvement program,
which received a credit from World Bank, have been mentioned in the
National Assembly Control Chamber report.
Amount of more than 4 million USD was allocated for the repairs of
20 court houses. Only 9 of them were repaired.
The report prompted Justice Minister David Harutyunyan’s discontent. He
is unhappy about the fact that increase in building materials prices
hasn’t been taken into account in the report.
He called the report as a populist one.
Responding to that, National Assembly Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan said:
“We shouldn’t plunge in impunity. Abuses were disclosed and those
forged papers must stand trial”.

European parliamentary summit in Strasbourg debates: ‘How democratic is our
democracy?’
Strasbourg, 10.05.2004 – More than 50 Speakers and presidents of parliament
from across Europe, as well as the heads of some ten European parliamentary
assemblies, gather in Strasbourg from 17 to 19 May 2004 for a parliamentary
summit on the theme “Europe of citizens: parliaments and participation of
citizens”.
Sub-themes of the biennial European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments,
hosted this year by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, include:
“How democratic is our democracy?”, ways in which modern technology can
improve democratic procedures, and co-operation between national parliaments
and European assemblies. Discussion is expected on the use of referenda and
plebiscites, the democratic deficit, low voter turnout in European elections
and e-voting, among other subjects.
Representatives of the parliaments of all 45 Council of Europe member
states1 and of three observer states2 have been invited, as well as the
Presidents of the European Parliament and the Assembly of the Western
European Union. The heads of the parliamentary bodies of the Benelux,
Central European Initiative, CIS, NATO, the Nordic Council, OSCE and PABSEC
have also been invited as observers. Academic experts will present
discussion papers.
On the fringes of the summit, there will be separate meetings of:
* Speakers from the parliaments of EU member and candidate countries
* Speakers from the parliaments of the Western European Union
* Speakers from the parliaments of the three South Caucasus countries:
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
* The Secretaries-General of the participating parliaments and assemblies
The first European Speakers’ conference was held in 1975, and it has taken
place every two years in recent times, hosted alternately in Strasbourg or
in the capital of a Council of Europe member state.
The conference is open to accredited press (contact +33 3 88 41 25 44 for
accreditation), with full press facilities available. The plenary session
begins at 9.30 am on Tuesday 18 May in the debating chamber of the Palais de
l’Europe, Strasbourg.
For further information, including a full programme and the conference
papers, see the conference website at
1. For bicameral parliaments, the Speakers of both chambers have been
invited to attend.
2. The Canadian Senate and House of Commons, Israeli Knesset and Mexican
Senate and Chamber of Representatives.
Press Release
Parliamentary Assembly Communication Unit
Ref: 226a04
Tel: +33 3 90 21 50 26
Fax :+33 3 90 21 41 34
[email protected]
internet:
The Parliamentary Assembly brings together 626 members from the national
parliaments of the 45 member states.
President: Peter Schieder (Austria, SOC); Secretary General of the Assembly:
Bruno Haller.
Political Groups: SOC (Socialist Group); EPP/CD (Group of the European
People’s Party); LDR (Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group);
EDG (European Democratic Group); UEL (Group of the Unified European Left).

Make a Bitter Tale Better in the Caucasus
By THOMAS DE WAAL
Wall Street Journal
May 11, 2004
Ten years ago tomorrow a cease-fire halted a conflict that most of
the world has now forgotten. But the decade of quiet emanating from
the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontline around Nagorno-Karabakh should
not deceive us that there is lasting peace there. Rather the reverse:
Over the last year the truce has been under strain and the threat of
a new war in the South Caucasus cannot be ignored.
It was right back in 1988 that the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh,
an Armenian-majority province inside Soviet Azerbaijan, became the
first slithering stone in the avalanche of nationalist quarrels that
ended up destroying the USSR. Both Armenians and Azerbaijanis claimed
the fertile, mountainous territory as their own, entirely rejecting
the other side’s attachment to it. In 1992, with nothing resolved,
two well-armed independent states of Armenia and Azerbaijan emerged
out of the two Soviet republics and pitched into full-scale war with
one another.
When exhaustion caused both sides to sign a cease-fire on May 12,
1994, the Armenians had won a costly victory. More than a million
people had been displaced, most of them Azerbaijanis. Both countries
had thoroughly cleansed themselves of the nationals of the other. The
Armenians were left in occupation of a vast swath of land, including
Karabakh itself, that comprises around 14% of the internationally
recognized territory of Azerbaijan. Perhaps 20,000 people were dead.
The unresolved conflict still exerts a dread influence over a wide
area between the Black and Caspian Seas. Armenia is economically
stunted by the decade-long closure of its two longest borders, with
Azerbaijan and Turkey. Azerbaijan is a wounded nation, still living
with the cost of hundreds of thousands of refugees. More insidiously,
the political culture of both countries has been poisoned by the
nationalist myths the war created.
The international negotiators from the U.S., France and Russia
cannot be faulted for creativity and have come up with a series of
different peace-plans that try to bridge the conflict. The one that
went the furthest was also the most daring: In Key West, Florida,
in the spring of 2001 a framework document was discussed by the
two presidents that envisaged Armenia allowing the return of 95%
of all Azerbaijani refugees to their homes and having a road built
across Armenian territory to the isolated Azerbaijani exclave
of Nakhichevan. In return, however, Azerbaijan would have had to
surrender Nagorno-Karabakh itself, with the exception of the town
of Shusha. Under Article Two of that document, Nagorno-Karabakh was
“transferred to the sovereignty of Armenia.” The human benefits of
that agreement would have been immense — but so were the political
risks for Azerbaijan.
The rest of the world still has reason to be concerned about
what happens in these mountains. Next door is the fragile state
of Georgia. A few dozen kilometers north of the cease-fire line,
construction has begun on the $3 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline, the first big conduit for Caspian oil to pass to Europe. A
new conflict would blight the region and its prospects for another
generation — and unfortunately this cannot be entirely ruled out. In
the last six months, Azerbaijan has been gripped by an outbreak
of bellicose rhetoric toward the Armenians and calls to “liberate”
the lost territories.
What is to be done? In Azerbaijan, the new president Ilham Aliev,
a cultivated man, faces the difficult challenge of rejecting the
rhetoric of war in favor of compromise. The human cost of a new
war would be devastating: in even a limited conflict, Azerbaijan
would lose thousands of young men just in the thick minefields along
the front line; while the small beautiful province in the middle,
Nagorno-Karabakh, badly scarred by the relatively low-tech war of the
early ’90s, would likely be annihilated. On a purely practical level
Aliev will know — but needs reminding – that the $20 billion or so
Azerbaijan may yet earn from oil revenues in the next decade are far
better spent on social programs and business growth than on armaments.
The task facing the Armenians is less easily defined but just as
historic. It is to break out of a dangerously introspective predicament
and reach out to their neighbor in the Caucasus. To do this, they must
show far greater flexibility toward plans to repatriate hundreds of
thousands of displaced Azerbajanis to their former homes.
This sad conflict is actually soluble, if only the two sides can be
rescued from their isolation. Armenians and Azerbaijanis have far
more in common than, say, Israelis and Palestinians. Intermarriage
between the two communities used to be very high. The problem is
that for more than a decade now the two sides have barely engaged in
dialogue. Most astonishing to an outsider is that in all this time
Azerbaijan has not sat down and talked to the Karabakh Armenians —
whom after all it claims to be its own citizens.
This puts the international negotiators in a funny position. Of course
they must continue to work to maintain the cease-fire regime and work
on peace proposals. But their main job is somehow to be storytellers,
contradicting the bellicose and rejectionist language that issues from
the two ex-combatants, walled up in their prison-fortresses, with a
patiently told tale of how things could be different and Armenia and
Azerbaijan can still jointly come back to the community of nations.
Mr. de Waal, author of “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through
Peace and War” (NYU Press, 2003), is Caucasus editor with the Institute
for War and Peace Reporting, IWPR.

PARLIAMENT SITTING TOOK PLACE
A1 Plus | 16:12:02 | 10-05-2004 | Politics |
The bills in this week agenda for discussion and voting are more than
the legislative initiatives.
The bill on making changes to the Law on “State Pensions” envisages to
increase the pension for double-sided orphans from 7500 drams to 16500.
Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan introduced the issue on “Privileges to
be Granted to RF Enterprise” to the second reading. The privilege is
provided in case of VAT collecting as a result of property registration
of Hrazdan Heat Station. The sum makes $ 6,2 million.
The bills on making changes to Law on “Electoral Code” and Law on
“Lotto Games and Casinos” are entered on the agenda.
It is planned to discuss 13 bills postponed for 30 days. “Justice”
Bloc Secretary Viktor Dallaqyan is the author of 11 of them. He has
worked the bills on making changes to the Law on “Administrative Law
Breaches”, the bill on “Status of a Member of Armenian Parliament” etc.
After the break the Control Chamber will introduce its report.
At 6:00 PM the political consulting with participation of 7 parties
and groups will restart.