POLAND STANDS IN ITS POSITION TO RESOLVE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT CONSIDERING TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY AND SELF-DETERMINATION RIGHT – POLISH SPEAKER
Author: S.Agayeva
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 9 2006
Poland stands in its position to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict taking into consideration the territorial integrity and
self-determination right, the Chairman of the Polish Senate Bogdan
Borusevich said on November 9, as a result of his visit to Azerbaijan,
Trend reports.
According to him, the position of Poland is that the
Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved
peacefully and within the international norms and principles. The
OSCE Minsk Group should be only possible solution to the conflict.
According to the Senate, Poland made an initiative to become a mediator
between Turkey and Armenia.
According to him, Poland has good relations with both countries and it
is ready present the interests of Armenia to Turkey, and interests of
Turkey to Armenia. He considers that in this way Poland may mitigate
the distrust between these countries.

NKR PREPARING FOR REFERENDUM DUE DECEMBER 10
PanARMENIAN.Net
09.11.2006 13:04 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The government of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
has allocated 40 million AMD for conduction of the constitutional
referendum due on December 10. According to chairman of the NKR Central
Electoral Committee Sergey Nasibian, 280 polling stations will function
on the territory of the republic. One polling station will be opened in
the NKR Permanent Representation in Yerevan. Presently the electoral
rolls are being ascertained. Then the rolls will be put up in the
polling stations two days before the referendum, reports Mediamax.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GODFRY HOPES INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS WILL WATCH PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA
Panorama.am
18:20 08/11/06
Anthony Godfry, temporary charge d’affairs of USA in Armenia, expressed
hope today that OSCE observers will watch the parliamentary elections
in Armenia. His optimism is connected with the statement of President
Robert Kocharyan who said an invitation will be sent to OSCE observers
to participate in elections. Godfry also said he had a meeting with
the chairman of Central Electoral Committee who assured the republic
is seriously getting ready for the elections.

AZERI PRESID TO MOSCOW TO DISCUSS RELATIONS, REGIONAL ISSUES
by Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
November 8, 2006 Wednesday 12:18 AM EST
Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev will begin his three-day working
visit to Russia on Wednesday in order to discuss prospects for the
development of bilateral cooperation and regional problems. Aliyev
is expected to arrive in Moscow in the evening from Brussels where he
has held a series of talks with the European Union and NATO leadership.
Diplomatic sources in Baku believe that during the Azerbaijani head of
state’s meeting with the Russian leadership the sides will consider the
whole spectrum of bilateral relations. The talks’ participants are also
expected to discuss the situation in the Caucasus, ways of regional
conflict settlement, including the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Official
Baku pins great hopes on Russia’s mediator role as one of the three
chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in the Karabakh problem settlement. “We
see that the Russian government takes sincere efforts towards finding
a peaceful solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
It is not ruled out that in the context of regional security the sides
will also consider the situation around the Iranian nuclear programme.
One of the probable subject matters of the talks will be natural gas
supplies from Russia to Azerbaijan in 2007. The Azerbaijani side
has recently repeatedly stated that it does not intend to refuse
from importing Russian gas in the coming years. It is also hoped in
Azerbaijan that gas prices offered by the Russian side will remain
the same or rise not considerably. In 2006, Azerbaijan purchased gas
from Russia at 110 US dollars per 1,000 cubic metres.
Analysts in Azerbaijan has noted the intensification of the political
dialogue and economic relations between the two countries in recent
years. Official Baku has also expressed satisfaction with the state
of bilateral cooperation the level of which is characterised here as
strategic partnership.
Aliyev said in a recent interview to foreign media that Russia and
Azerbaijan have managed to remove all unsettled problems in bilateral
relations. “Not a single problem has remained at present that could
spoil our relations. On the contrary, we have rather good achievements
in the development of cooperation in the economic, political and
cultural spheres,” the Azerbaijani head of state pointed out.
Last year, trade turnover between the two countries for the first time
reached the level of one billion dollars and it is expected to grow
to 1.5 billion dollars by the end of the current year. The Year of
Azerbaijan in Russia in 2005 and Year of Russia in Azerbaijan in 2006
have become major events in the life of both countries that made a
noticeable contribution to the two neighbouring states’ rapprochement.

RA FM RECEIVED UK DELEGATION
PanARMENIAN.Net
09.11.2006 13:37 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ November 7 Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian received the British delegation led by Sir Brian Fall,
the UK Special Representative for the South Caucasus, RA MFA press
office told PanARMENIAN.Net. The delegation included UK Ambassadors
to Armenia and Georgia, who are in Yerevan to participate in the
conference initiated by the RA Foreign Ministry jointly with the
Wilton Park. The sides expressed satisfaction with the high level
and efficiency of the conference and discussions and remarked that
an event of the kind was organized in the South Caucasus for the
first time. The meeting participants also referred to the regional
problems including the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement talks
and the Russian-Georgian relations.

AZERI ARMY CAN LIBERATE ‘SEIZED TERRITORIES’ DURING ONE WEEK, AZERI EXPERT SURE
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.11.2006 13:44 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “I am convinced that but for Russia’s support to
Armenia, Azerbaijan could liberate the seized territories,” Azeri
military expert Uzeir Jafarov said in an interview with Day.az. “As
for the fact that Armenia can buy Russian weapons at a lower price,
one should remember that Armenia is a member state of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and this allows buying arms at a
reduced price,” he said. When touching upon the defeat of Azeris is
1990-ies the expert said, “Now Armenians are idealizing the events of
that time and forget that they also met defeat at some periods. Now,
despite certain shortcoming of the Azeri army there are forces that can
fulfill the task quickly. It’s not a secret that during the Karabakh
war Russia was actively supporting Armenia. But time has passed and
a big deal of work has been carried out,” Jafarov said.

PROCEEDING FROM ITS INTERESTS EUROPE CANNOT ALLOW DESTABILIZATION IN SOUTH CAUCASUS
PanARMENIAN.Net
08.11.2006 18:17 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ With assuming presidency in the EU during the
intial half of 2007 Germany will try to make the integration of the
South Caicasian states more real using the European Neighborhood
Policy, transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund doctor Jorg
Himmelreich said. In his words, the German government is aware of the
problems available in the South Caucasus, which ‘represent immediate
danger for the European security.’ According to Dr Himmelreich,
Europe cannot allow destabilization in the South Caucasus proceeding
from its own interests. Besides the European Neighborhood Policy
the EU can use extra instruments for regional cooperation, he said,
reports Mediamax news agency.

ELECTIONS AMERICAINES: “TRèS GRANDE VICTOIRE” POUR LES DEMOCRATES (ERDOGAN)
Agence France Presse
8 novembre 2006 mercredi 1:15 PM GMT
Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan a estime mercredi que
le resultat des elections parlementaires americaines constituait
“une très grande victoire” pour le Parti democrate.
“Le resultat aux Etats-Unis etait attendu, mais les scores qui ont
emerge sont bien plus eleves qu’on ne l’avait initialement estime”,
a declare M. Erdogan lors d’une conference de presse au siège de son
Parti de la justice et du developpement (AKP). “Les Democrates ont
remporte une très grande victoire”.
“Pour la première fois, une femme sera presidente de la Chambre des
representants, et pour la première fois il y aura un representant
musulman”, a note le Premier ministre, issu de la mouvance islamiste
mais qui se definit aujourd’hui comme “conservateur”.
Il faisait reference a l’elue californienne Nancy Pelosi, pressentie
a la tete de la Chambre des representants, et a celui du Minnesota
Keith Ellison, tous deux Democrates.
M. Erdogan a rejete l’hypothèse qu’une majorite democrate relance
au Congrès les initiatives pour une reconnaissance du caractère
genocidaire des massacres d’Armeniens commis en 1915-1917 dans l’empire
ottoman, un sujet très sensible en Turquie.
“Quelle que soit la majorite au pouvoir (republicaine ou democrate),
notre relation avec les Etats-Unis est vouee a etre bonne”, a-t-il
estime. “Nous nous entendons bien avec les deux”.
La Turquie, membre de l’Otan, est un allie fidèle des Etats-Unis meme
si les relations entre les deux pays ont connu un refroidissement après
le refus par le Parlement turc, lors de l’invasion de l’Irak en 2003,
de laisser transiter des troupes americaines en territoire turc.
–Boundary_(ID_HZ7bcvdBAU4W1nHwQmJ/9w)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA AND FRANCE WILLING TO DEEPEN COOPERATION IN ALL SPHERES
Public Radio, Armenia
Nov 8 2006
November 8 the newly appointed Ambassador of France to Armenia Serge
Smessov handed copies of his credentials to RA Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian.
Greeting the guest, Minister Oskanian wished success to the Ambassador
in his high mission.
During the meeting the Ambassador noted he is well familiar with the
CIS region. Mr. Smessov informed about the metings with different
official and public structures of France and representatives of the
Armenian community he had before arriving in Armenia.
Later the interlocutors referred to the broad agenda of bilateral
cooperation, emphasyzing the readiness of Armenia and France to deepen
cooperation in all spheres.

EXPERTS SAY AZERBAIJAN IS AN “ILLEGITIMATE”
Public Radio, Armenia
Nov 8 2006
The Republic of Azerbaijan has reached today’s status quite illegally,
violating all the norms of international and Soviet law.
Contrary to this, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic has declared its
independence in compliance with international and Soviet law.
Therefore, the solution to the Karabakh conflict should be searched
for only in the frames of international, and the settlement process
should be transferred to the legal field. Political scientist
Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan and lawyer Ashot Khachatryan expressed
the above-mentioned opinion in the Russian-language “The Nagorno
Karabakh Republic in the Light of International Law.” According to
the authors, those in Azerbaijan understand pretty well that from the
legal perspective their positions are very shaky, therefore they do
everything to keep the resolution of the issue on the political layer.
“When seceding from the USSR, Azerbaijan violated the laws of that
country. Particularly, it did not follow the law on “The rules of
seceding from the USSR,” which says that the Republic having autonomies
and regions, must hold separate referendums in every autonomy, and in
those regions where ethnic groups comprise majority, results of the
referendum are considered separately,” the authors mention, adding
that according to Article 15 of the same law, USSR citizens residing
on the territory of a country seceding from the USSR are granted
citizenship and the right of choosing the place of residence and job.
It is mentioned in the law that the USSR and the seceding Republic
should come to an agreement on the status of territories, which did
not belong to the given Republic at the moment of entering the USSR.”
“The given provision directly refers to the Armenian autonomous regions
of Utik, Artsakh, as well as Nakhijevan regions. “Illegally born”
Azerbaijan illegally annexed these territories, since before Azerbaijan
entered the Soviet Union on April 28, 1920 the above-mentioned
territories did not comprise part of its land.
Moreover, severely violating the USSR Law on “Self-determination of
nations” and ignoring the civil and ethnic group rights, on August
30, 1991 the Soviet Socialistic Republic of Azerbaijan unilaterally
declared its independence,” noted Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan and Ashot
Khachatryan.
Today three questions should be posed when discussing the Karabakh
issue: What to give? Whom to give? Why give? The authors note that
Armenia is required to give lands not belonging to any of the sides.
Concession of lands will mean inclusion of Armenian Utik and Artsakh
States within Azerbaijan.