Category: News

Iranian President meets Speaker of Azerbaijan’s National Assembly
IRNA news agency, Tehran
6 Aug 04
Baku, 6 August: President Mohammad Khatami here 6 August referred to
parliament as the cornerstone of democracy and symbol of sovereignty
and said that placing focus on parliament indicates respect for the
nation.
Speaking in a meeting with the Speaker of Azerbaijan’s National
Assembly Murtuz Alasgarov, he pointed to the decisive role of the
parliaments of both countries in expansion of mutual ties and urged to
implement the mutually signed agreements, despite bureaucratic
problems.
Turning to Iran-Azerbaijan historical, religious and cultural
relations, he said that Iran’s bolstering ties with Caucasus area,
particularly its Muslim neighbours including Azerbaijan Republic is
part and parcel of Iran’s foreign policy principle.
“Given plenty of potentials for cooperation in various fields,
high-ranking officials from both countries are determined to further
broaden the current relations,” he added.
The president noted that security, stability and progress in
Azerbaijan is linked to security in the Islamic Republic of Iran and
hoped that Karabakh clashes will lead to sustainable peace.
Appreciating the steps taken to establish a legal Caspian regime, he
said that Majlis is quite serious on the issue.
The chief executive hoped that a comprehensive plan securing the
interests of the Caspian littoral states will soon be drawn up.
He turned to the Caspian environmental problems and the health of its
aquatics as a key to healthy life in the regional countries and urged
the protection of its environment considering its unique position in
the world.
“The convention on the Caspian Sea environment inked by the littoral
states will soon be examined by Majlis. We expect Azerbaijan’s
National Assembly will take a similar step,” he added.
The president expressed the satisfaction of Iranian nation with the
independence of Azerbaijan and said that Iran was the first country
officially recognizing it as an independent country.
For his part, Alasgarov expressed pleasure over the president’s visit
and said that dialogue between the high-ranking Iranian delegation and
Azeri officials will help expand mutual ties.
The speaker pointed to parliamentary relations between the two
cooperation.
Turning to the unrest in Karabakh region and its partial occupation by
Armenia as an obstacle interfering with Azerbaijan’s progress, he
underlined that his country will not let Armenia take even a small
part of its territory.
Alasgarov also appreciated Iran’s approach towards Karabakh issue on
the international scene and said, “We believe that Iran will take
measures towards seeking a peaceful solution to the problem.
President Khatami heading a high-ranking political and economic
delegation arrived in Azerbaijan Republic capital of Baku on Thursday
afternoon on an official visit in response to the invitation of his
Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
Officials of the two countries, during Khatami’s visit, are scheduled
to sign eight cooperation agreements and issue a joint political
communique.
The Azerbaijan Republic is situated in eastern Transcaucasia, on the
western coast of the Caspian Sea. To the south, it borders on Iran, to
the west Armenia, to the north-west Georgia, and to the north the
Republic of Dagestan, in Russia.
On the last day of his stay in the Central Asian country, Khatami will
visit the historical city of Ganja to pay tribute to the 12th century
prominent Iranian poet Nezami Ganjavi, who has been buried in the
city. He is also to visit the historical Shah Esma’il Mosque in the
city.

Azeri-Armenian talks may be reviewed due to Karabakh exercises – minister
ANS TV, Baku
6 Aug 04
Azerbaijan might review the expedience of conducting talks with
Armenia, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said.
According to him, this is linked to illegal staff exercises by
official Yerevan in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan and the
preparations for the 8 August local government elections in Nagornyy
Karabakh. If Armenia continues to take the same path, then this will
prevent negotiations, Mammadyarov said.

Armenian premier, Syrian trade minister discuss cooperation
Noyan Tapan news agency
5 Aug 04
YEREVAN
Stimulating multilateral Armenian-Syrian relations plays an important
role in Armenia’s Middle East policy, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Markaryan has said at a meeting with a Syrian delegation led by the
trade minister and co-chairman of the Syrian-Armenian intergovernment
economic commission, Ghassan al-Rifa’i. Markaryan added that although
over the period of establishing diplomatic relations the sides have
made efforts to develop trade, economic, scientific and cultural
relations and bring economic relations in line with political
relations, the economic relations between the two countries, however,
could not have been regarded as satisfactory up till now.
Ghassan al-Rifa’i informed Markaryan about the second sitting of the
intergovernment economic commission. He said that a number of
important agreements on healthcare, communications,
telecommunications, tourism etc. had been signed as a result of the
sitting. He spoke about Syria’s plans to establish a special working
group to monitor the fulfilment of these agreements.
Noyan Tapan learnt from the government’s press service that the sides
hoped that the forthcoming visit to Armenia by Syrian Prime Minister
Muhammad Naji al-Itri would give an extra impetus to the development
of the bilateral relations.

Armenian defence minister wants normal relations with Turkey
Arminfo
5 Aug 04
Yerevan, 4 August: The secretary of the Security Council under the
Armenian president , Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan, is for the
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. The minister said this at
a meeting with participants in the All-Armenian youth gathering
Baze-2004 in the resort town of Dilizhan.
The minister stressed there are no Armenian-Turkish diplomatic
relations and ties between the two countries today appear only in the
international foreign policy arena. “My personal opinion is that one
certainly needs normal relations with every neighbour. I support the
resumption of relations with Turkey,” the minister said.
Sarkisyan said that relations should be established in those fields
where Armenia and Turkey could cooperate. “The more normal their
attitude to us, then the more normal our attitude to them, but not
violating norms of national security at the same time,” he said.

Defence chief in favour of dual citizenship in Armenia
Arminfo
4 Aug 04

YEREVAN
The secretary of the Security Council [under the Armenian president],
Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan is in favour of introducing dual
citizenship in the country. Sarkisyan voiced this opinion at a meeting
with participants in the Baze-2004 all-Armenian youth forum in the
resort town of Dilizhan.
“Every Armenian has the right to have Armenian citizenship,” he said.
However, he believes that in this case, it is necessary to regulate
citizens’ duties such as service in the national army. Otherwise,
there should be some restrictions on dual citizenship, he said.

CSTO, NATO reach agreement on contacts in anti-terror fight – CIS
security chief
AKIpress news agency web site 6 Aug 04
Bishkek, 6 August: The Collective Security Treaty Organization
comprising six countries – Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – and NATO have reached an agreement to
establish contacts in order to jointly counter international
terrorism, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha has told a news
conference in Kyrgyzstan on the results of the Rubezh-2004 exercises.
The Rubezh-2004 exercises were held in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in
two stages, and over 2,000 servicemen were involved in them.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian government allocates funds for Karabakh war veterans
Arminfo
5 Aug 04
YEREVAN
The Armenian government has taken a decision to allocate 200m drams
356,506 dollars to the Defence Ministry from its reserve fund.
Arminfo news agency has learnt from the press service of the Armenian
government that the allocated funds will be spent on improving the
housing conditions of families of the killed azatamartiks freedom
fighters and providing houses for the disabled azatamartiks.
A group of azatamartiks has been staging an open-ended sit-in in
Yerevan demanding free flats for three days now

Azeri party urges leader to prevent Armenian officers’ presence at NATO event
Assa-Irada
6 Aug 04
BAKU
The board of the United People’s Front Party of Azerbaijan adopted an
appeal to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at its session held on
Thursday 5 August .
The appeal reads that the 10-year Azerbaijani-Armenian talks over the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict have not yielded positive results yet.
“The party hopes that President Ilham Aliyev will take in view the
fact that the issue is of moral importance for the Azerbaijani people
and express his position on preventing Armenian officers from visiting
Baku to attend NATO exercises in this September ,” the appeal said.
The document says the protest actions presumably outside the embassies
of NATO member countries will be postponed if the issue is resolved
positively. This will show that the national interests are more
important.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri opposition MP in favour of Bush’s victory in presidential polls
Sarq, Baku
5 Aug 04
Excerpt from Yadigar Cafarli and Teymur Turan report by Azerbaijani
newspaper Sarq on 5 August headlined “John Kerry’s remarks seem
dangerous” and subheaded “Asim Mollazada: ‘This man is one of the
authors of Section 907′”. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:
The main issue on the agenda is the visit to Baku by the rapporteurs
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe PACE on
Azerbaijan, Andreas Gross and Andres Herkel. At its autumn session,
PACE’s agenda will include the discussion of Azerbaijan’s commitments
to the organization. This attaches special importance to the visit of
the co-rapporteurs to Baku. A member of the Azerbaijani delegation at
PACE and an MP from the “reformist” wing of the People’s Front of
Azerbaijan Party, Asim Mollazada, also reckons that this visit is
important.
Mollazada The Azerbaijani public pins great hopes on the visit. I am
sure that Azerbaijan can get stronger by integrating European values.
Passage omitted: Azerbaijan’s relations with the PACE
US official’s regional visit
Correspondent The recent visit of US Assistant Secretary of State for
European and Eurasian Affairs Elizabeth Jones has caused much
interest.
Mollazada This was a scheduled visit. She visited not only Azerbaijan,
but also Georgia.
The visit had been planned. Therefore, I see nothing strange about
it. This was a working visit and if there are more of such visits and
such relations, this will be of benefit to Azerbaijan and the region.
There are some really dangerous processes under way in the region,
namely, in Georgia’s South Ossetia. Naturally, the USA – which has
relations of partnership with Azerbaijan and Georgia – is monitoring
these developments.
Correspondent Did the visit have an impact on the delay in the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline’s construction in Borjomi?
Mollazada I think that this is temporary. The construction will resume
within days.
The US presidential election
Correspondent The election campaign is under way in the USA. You used
to be an active supporter of George Bush in Azerbaijan. What about
now?
Mollazada I would like to recall that during his four-year term in
office, George Bush suspended the unjust Section 907 to the Freedom
Support Act banning direct US government assistance to Azerbaijan
. The measures he has taken on the issues where Azerbaijani and
American interests converge have facilitated Azerbaijan’s development.
Correspondent What about John Kerry then?
Mollazada Some of Kerry’s remarks seem dangerous to me. This man is
one of the authors of Section 907. He recently said that when elected
he would take certain decision regarding the “Armenian genocide”.
I believe that a person who prioritizes the interests of one ethnic
diaspora in his election campaign will prove unable to fully protect
America’s national interests in the future. What we want is
cooperation between the USA and Azerbaijan, a policy based on common
interests.
I hope that the majority of the American people will vote for the
politician who protects national security better.

VOLUME OF INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT INCREASES BY 4.9% IN ARMENIA IN FIRST HALF
OF 2004
YEREVAN, August 6 (Noyan Tapan). GDP of Armenia made 9.2% in the first
half of 2004. RA Minister of Trade and Economic Development Karen
Chshmaritian said during the August 6 press conference that the main
share of the registered economic growth falls on the real sector. In
particular, the share of chemical industry increased 3.7-fold, the
share of the light industry increased by 75%, machine-building – by 9%
and the production of metalic ore – by 50%. During the period under
review industrial output increased by 4.9% in comparison with the same
period of last year. In particular, 28 enterprises of the ore mining
sphere turned out production of 66.1 bln drams as against 67.5 bln
drams of last year. It was also mentioned that 9,913 people, in fact,
work at the enterprises of the sphere, their average monthly salary
makes 72,000 drams (about 150 dollars). The volume of output made 63.1
bln drams in the jewelry sphere during the last six months. The
imports of natural diamonds from Russia decreased: only 70,000 carats
of natural diamonds have been imported to Armenia up to day.
The agreement was reached with the government of Russia that if
Armenia doesn’t use 15% of raw materials imported to Armenia, it will
re-export it. Only 17 enterprises out of 32 enterprises of the sphere
of light industry operated in Jan-June of this year. They turned out
output of 6 bln, 169 mln drams, which is more by 75% than last year’s
index. 40 companies of the sphere of machine-building of the republic
turned out output of 2.5 blndrams. The volume of the production of
eight enterprises of the woodworking industry made 295 mln drams in
Jan-June 2004, which is more by 22% than last year’s index.