VIMPELCOM WAVERS OVER REMAINING 10% IN ARMENTEL

RIA Novosti, Russia
Dec 6 2006

MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) – VimpelCom [RTS: VIMP], Russia’s
second-largest mobile operator, has yet to decide on the acquisition
of the remaining 10% stake in Armenian telephone company Armentel,
a company official said Wednesday.

VimpelCom, best known for its Beeline brand, finalized a deal with
Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (OTE) in mid-November to
buy from the Greek telecoms group its 90% stake in the company for
341.9 million euros ($440 million).

Through the deal, VimpelCom will also take on Armentel’s debt, which
totals around 40 million euros ($51 million).

The Armenian government earlier proposed selling to VimpelCom the
remaining 10% stake, on condition that the company does not attempt
to monopolize the South Caucasus country’s telecoms market.

"Certainly, VimpelCom is interested in a 100% stake in Armentel,"
said Vladimir Ryabokon, a vice president and corporate development
chief. "The issue is being discussed, and a final decision has yet
to be made."

Andrei Bliznyuk, VimpelCom’s candidate for the post of Armentel
director, earlier said the Russian company plans to invest around
$100 million in the Armenian telecoms sector in 2007.

Greece’s OTE bought Armentel in 1997 for $142.5 million, and has
since invested $300 million in the company, whose earnings in 2005
stood at 110 million euros ($140 million).

Armentel has about 600,000 fixed-line and 400,000 mobile service
subscribers, and uses the GSM 900 and CDMA standards.

As well as Russia, VimpelCom operates in the former Soviet republics
of Kazakhstan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTER IS NOT ENTHUSIASTIC ON NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT PROCESS

Regnum, Russia
Dec 6 2006

Discussion of question of status by the whole Nagorno Karabakh
population is possible at a certain stage of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict settlement process, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov said speaking at a session of the OSCE ministers’
council in Brussels. "Being guided by democratic standards, legal
norms and human rights, we believe that the process of determining
the status will be carried out on the basis of equality with direct
and equal participation of the region’s population, which includes
two communities, Azerbaijani and Armenian ones, so the Azerbaijani
population should return under safe conditions to the paces of their
original living in Nagorno Karabakh region," he said.

"After that opening of communications for mutual use by the parties
in both directions, restoration of the relations between the two
communities and normal life in the region, of cooperation between
the communities in humanitarian sphere, implementation of special
educational and tolerance programs, establishment of trust between
the people and the nations will follow," the minister stressed.

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani foreign minister said that "despite
intensified activity shown this year by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs,
OSCE chair-in-office and the parties in the conflict, we have not
come to a final decision yet." At that Elmar Mammadyarov noted that he
was not enthusiastic on the whole settlement process, Day.Az informs.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE ARMENIAN

South China Morning Post, HongKong
December 5, 2006 Tuesday

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BEZHUASHVILI: INITIATIVE ON CONSIDERING FROZEN CONFLICTS AT UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN GUAM COUNTRIES HAS NOT RIPENED

Regnum, Russia
Dec 6 2006

GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) countries’ initiative
to discuss issues of frozen conflicts in the GUAM countries’
territories at the 61st session of the UN General Assembly, Georgia’s
Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili announced at a news conference in
Tbilisi on December 6.

According to him, GUAM foreign ministers decided at their meeting
in Brussels to postpone this issue from being introduced to the
UN scheduled for December 7. "The issue is on the agenda of the
61st General Assembly and it will not be taken away from it by next
September, so we shall put in on the agenda as soon as it has ripened
and is completely ready," Bezhuashvili said noting that GUAM’s aim was
not just discussion of the issue, but adoption of effective decisions,
Trend reports.

Initially, consideration of the frozen conflicts issue in the territory
of GUAM (Nagorno Karabakh, Georgian-Abkhaz, Georgian-Ossetian and
Transdnestr conflicts) was scheduled to take place in New York on
December 4, and then it was postponed for December 7. The new point
on prolonged conflicts in the GUAM territory was introduced to the
agenda of the 61st General Assembly in September. 16 countries voted
for putting the issue on the agenda including Latvia, Turkey, Great
Britain and the USA. 15 countries voted against, including Armenia,
Greece and Russia.

ARMENIA’S PARLIAMENT APPROVES EXTENDING SMALL TROOP PRESENCE IN IRAQ

Associated Press Worldstream
December 6, 2006 Wednesday 2:17 PM GMT

Armenia’s parliament on Wednesday approved extending this ex-Soviet
republic’s small troop presence in Iraq for one year.

Lawmakers in the 131-seat parliament voted 85-19, with one abstention,
to extend the mandate of the 46-member contingent.

The peacekeepers have been deployed in Iraq since January 2005. They
serve under the Polish command.

President Robert Kocharian and his government have sought to portray
the deployment as a way to boost ties with Europe.

ARMENIA EXTENDS TERM OF MILITARY CONTINGENT IN IRAQ

RIA Novosti, Russia
Dec 6 2006

YEREVAN, December 6 (RIA Novosti) – Armenia’s parliament voted
Wednesday to extend its military presence in Iraq by 12 months.

Armenia’s legislature ratified December 24, 2004 a memorandum on
the dispatch of a peacekeeping contingent to Iraq for a term of 12
months. In 2005, Armenia’s national assembly extended the contingent’s
mission in Iraq for another 12 months.

Serzh Sarkisyan, the Armenian defense minister, earlier said Armenia’s
participation in the peacekeeping mission in Iraq gave the republic
additional leverage in its relations with international organizations
to protect its interests.

Sarkisyan added that Armenian servicemen were carrying out a
humanitarian mission in Iraq and were not directly engaged in combat
operations.

The proposal by the Armenian president to extend the term of the
republic’s peacekeeping mission in Iraq was supported by 85 MPs,
with 19 votes against and one abstention.

The Armenian peacekeeping contingent in Iraq comprises three staff
officers, two military doctors, an engineering unit (10 men) and a
transport platoon (31 drivers).

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT VOTES TO EXTEND IRAQ FORCE MANDATE BY ONE YEAR

Agence France Presse — English
December 6, 2006 Wednesday 3:25 PM GMT

The Armenian parliament on Wednesday extended by one year the mandate
of its peacekeeping force in Iraq by a majority of 85 votes to 19.

"The extension of the mandate of the peacekeeping soldiers in Iraq
will improve Armenia’s image and that of its armed forces and will
permit the active development of a partnership in the area of defense
with various states," Armenian Defense Minister Serge Sargsian said
in parliament.

The Armenian peacekeeping force, comprising 46 soldiers, has been in
Iraq since January 25, 2005.

The former Soviet republic works with NATO in the Partnership for
Peace, a military cooperation deal with former Communist bloc countries
to reinforce stability in Europe.

AZERI MINISTER SAYS BRUSSELS TALKS PUT OFF AT ARMENIA’S REQUEST

Day.az, Azerbaijan
Dec 5 2006

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said that the
Karabakh peace talks expected on 4-5 December in Brussels were put
off at Armenia’s request.

In an exclusive interview with Day.az website on 5 December,
Mammadyarov said:

"A meeting with my Armenian counterparts took place sometime earlier,
after Minsk. They asked me for some time to understand the situation
so as to define the final direction of movement. As I understand,
there is no answer and therefore there is no meeting."

Mammadyarov said that none of the voiced hypotheses about the return
of Armenian-occupied Lacin District and a referendum on Nagornyy
Karabakh’s status were matters braking the negotiating process.

Commenting on a statement by the regional alliance of Georgia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan and Moldova (GUAM) condemning the scheduled constitutional
referendum in the breakaway Nagornyy Karabakh region, Mammadyarov
said that international organizations will not naturally accept the
conduct of the referendum. He believes that the "referendum" fits
into no logical framework and it will give a negative impetus to the
peace process.

CHRISTIANS IN THE OSMANIC EMPIRE
Wlodzimierz Redzioch

Sunday – Catholic Weekly, Poland
Dec 6 2006

In the 7th century the caliphates were created in the Near East (a
caliphate is a kind of political-social organization of the Muslim
society; Muslim state with a caliph as its head): first Umayyad
dynasty in Damascus as its capital (661-750), then the caliphate of
Abbasids with its centre in Baghdad (750-1258). In Asia Minor there
was the Seljuks and later the Ottoman Empire. Its troops conquered
Constantinople, wonderful capital of the Byzantine Empire, in 1453.

The Turks renamed it to Istanbul and made it the capital of their
empire. Thus the Islamic empire conquered the lands where the Church
originated in the first centuries after Christ’s birth: three out
of four ancient Patriarchates (Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria),
together with their numerous believers were under the Muslim rules.

In that situation the problem of the existence of the Christian
communities within the framework of the so-called Umma (followers
of Islam define themselves as ‘Umma’ – Community of true believers)
was raised.

Islam is not only a religion but also a social-political system. And
that’s why, it defines the status of Christians in the Islamic
society. It was Muhammad that established the rules of co-existence
between Muslims, Christians and Jews living on the Arab Peninsula when
he organised the first Muslim communities (Islam regards Christianity
and Judaism as the so-called religions of the Book). The status of
Christians was described as ‘dimmi’, which means ‘protected people’. In
fact, they were tolerated, were free to practice their religion and
keep their traditions. However, they had a lower social and legal
position, and they had to pay a special tax.

The situation of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, in spite of
the above-mentioned legal rules, was satisfactory because of the
implemented millet system (literally the word means ‘nation’).

Actually, various denominations were awarded a special status of
‘nation-community’. Naturally, particular millets did not identify
themselves with any territory but with the religion and culture of
their inhabitants. At first there were four millets: Muslim, Hebrew,
Greek Orthodox and Armenian. The highest religious authority of the
given group represented the millet before the sultan.

The tolerance of the sultans and close Christians’ contacts with
Europe made the Christian communities grow dynamically, not only
on the religious and cultural levels but also on the social and
economic ones. Thanks to the modern schools the Christians were
the best-educated social group in the empire. But the liberal
European ideas that spread in that environment caused that in the
19th century the millet of the Eastern Catholics and their specific
religious-cultural situation was recognised. The result of the reforms
was the legal recognition of equality of all communities. At the
beginning of the 20th century the Christians constituted considerable
part of the society (24%). Their demographic situation gradually got
worse after the government of the so-called Young Turks seized power,
commencing with the massacre of the Armenian Christians in the years
1915-16 (it is estimated that about 1.5 million Armenians were killed
for various reasons).

"Niedziel" 49/2006

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AZERBAIJAN AGREES TO REFERENDUM IN KARABAKH IN 15 YEARS – MINISTER

Zerkalo, Azerbaijan
Dec 6 2006

A top Azerbaijani diplomat has admitted for the first time that
Azerbaijan has agreed with rival Armenia on holding a referendum in
Nagornyy Karabakh to define the breakaway region’s political status.

In an interview with the Russian-language daily Zerkalo, Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that the Armenian-controlled region
could hold a referendum to define its final status.

"Armenians are insisting on [holding the referendum] in five years.

But we agree on holding the referendum in 15 years," Zerkalo quoted
Mammadyarov as saying.

President Ilham Aliyev and other senior government officials had always
ruled out the possibility of holding a referendum in Nagornyy Karabakh,
as this would mean the predominantly ethnic-Armenian populated
region’s ultimate secession from Azerbaijan. Holding a popular vote
in a separate region is also contrary to Azerbaijan’s constitution.