TURKISH FM CAUTIONS OVER POSSIBLE RIFT DURING FRENCH ‘YEAR OF ARMENIA’
Today.Az
13 September 2006 [20:14] – Today.Az
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s visit to France to take part
in an intercultural dialog meeting coincides with the inauguration
of France’s “Year of Armenia.”
Noting that Turkey would not intervene in France’s relations with third
parties, Gul said that the Armenian issue would not harm bilateral
relations between Turkey and France, which have significantly improved
recently. In a press conference held in Paris, Gul, who first recalled
that more than 400,000 Turks live in France, said both France and
Turkey should take precautionary measures to prevent possible rifts
between the country’s Armenian and Turkish communities. Stressing
that Turkey’s E.U. membership bid had been used as a propaganda tool
in French domestic politics, Gul stated they respected pluralistic
democracy. To this end, Gul said, “Democracy has both weaknesses and
strengths; this is natural.”
Gul also said Turkey would initiate a comprehensive campaign in a
few months to convince the French public, which has been opposed
to Turkey’s E.U. membership, to accept Turkey. Stating that Turkey
attached great importance to its relations with France, Gul said:
“The views of France have been very important throughout Turkey’s
venture toward full membership. Turkey would have never begun
negotiation talks with the E.U. if French President Jacques Chirac
had not offered his support on Dec. 17.”
In response to a comment over France’s demand for a military base in
Cyprus, Gul noted with regard to the Cyprus issue that every country
should consider international treaties, adding: “France has interests,
and so does Turkey. When these are taken into account, common sense
will prevail.”
Meanwhile, at a press conference held at the French foreign ministry,
the country’s foreign minister responded harshly to an Armenian
reporter who asked whether it was a contradiction for France
to organize the “Year of Armenia” in France as Turkey prepared
celebrations for the “Year of France.” The French foreign minister
replied, “Cultural and political affairs should never be confused
with each other.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OLD GYUMRI, OLD FRIEND
~ By Richard Foss ~
LA City Beat, CA
09-14-06
Glendale spot offers Armenian specialties in a friendly atmosphere
Photo by Richard Foss
Unimaginably tender: Oxtail stew has tomatoes, peppers, and a hint
of seasoning
“For an exotic ethnic capital, this looks a lot like Glendale,”
I remarked to my companions as I drove down San Fernando Road. As
indeed it should; the population of Glendale is more than 40 percent
Armenian, but, though signs in angular script are everywhere, the
buildings look like California strip malls. (Not that I could tell
you what traditional Armenian architecture looks like, but I’m pretty
sure that pastel stucco walls and glass doors aren’t it.)
We were on our way to Old Gyumri, a restaurant I’d last enjoyed
about 10 years ago. When my friends and I arrived this time, I was
pleased that the place looked exactly the same, even to the faded sign
announcing “Fast Food Takeout.” There was irony in this, because the
service on that first visit was fast only by the standards of the
former Soviet bloc.
This time the service was actually both fast and polite, and we were
handed menus and served water by a waiter who offered to explain any
unfamiliar dishes.
Since Armenian food draws on traditional styles from the Middle East
and Eastern Europe, we were familiar with many items, but we were
most interested in those ones unique to Armenia. Our server seemed
surprised and first suggested chicken kebabs, but readily helped us
when he realized we really wanted the more unusual dishes.
Our meal started with “Turshu,” a huge plate of pickled cabbage,
carrots, celery, garlic, and peppers ($4.99). These were lightly
spicy and sour, a terrific pick-me-up for a hot day and pleasant
even on the relatively cool evening of our visit. The hot pepper was
as zingy as any pickled jalapeño I’ve had at a Mexican restaurant,
the celery and cucumber a refreshing contrast. We also ordered a
dip called Ikra ($3.99), a mix of cooked eggplant, tomato, and red
bell pepper that was a lightly sweet and tangy contrast to the sour
pickles. It came with both a thin flatbread of the type usually seen
in Persian restaurants and a thick, crusty white bread, and we were
very happy with the balance of flavors.
We continued with a Russian salad called Stalichni ($4.99) and an
eggroll-like starter called a blinchik ($1.50). The blinchik was
decent but ordinary – mildly spiced beef wrapped in thin bread,
then fried. The salad was more interesting, a mixture of chopped
vegetables, minced pork, mayonnaise, and sour cream, enlivened with
liberal amounts of dill. Despite liking it very much, we packed more
than half of the salad and pickles to take home – the portions were
big and we had obviously over-ordered, and we needed to save room
for our main courses.
My companions paired the starters with an Armenian yogurt drink and
a tarragon-lemonade soda, while I tried a glass of a red wine called
Khachkar. It was a decent light red, not about to make the folks
in Napa look over their shoulders, but well balanced and suited to
the meal.
We continued with oxtail stew ($7.99), barbecued lamb heart and
lung ($7.99), and barbecued sturgeon ($13.99). This was a study
in contrasting textures, starting with the oxtail, which had an
intense beefy flavor and soft, almost gelatinous feel. This may not
sound appetizing, but it really was – it was the most tender meat
imaginable, cooked with tomatoes, peppers, and a hint of seasoning
to near-melting consistency.
The lamb heart and lung was another matter, the heart intensely
flavored and slightly chewy, the lung mild, but – well, there’s no
other word for it but squishy.
I’ve enjoyed lamb offal in a good haggis (and, yes, there is such
a thing), but this preparation emphasized textures that I regard as
a drawback. One of my companions grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania
where organ meats are a delicacy, and he liked it just fine, but I
didn’t care for it much.
The sturgeon suited everyone’s tastes much better, three magnificently
grilled filets of lightly seasoned fish with pomegranate syrup on
the side for dipping.
It was the last item to arrive and ended our dinner on a high note. We
ate every speck of it.
We asked about dessert and were told that the restaurant doesn’t serve
it – Armenians go from their dinners to cafes where champagne and
fruit are served, and the restaurateur was happy to recommend one if
we wished. We had dined so well that nothing else was needed, and we
left with a new appreciation for the exotic cuisine of a deceptively
ordinary-looking neighborhood.
Old Gyumri, 4441 San Fernando Rd., Glendale, (818) 550-0448. Open
daily, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Wheelchair access good; parking lot. Beer and
wine; some vegetarian items.
–Boundary_(ID_I91AIkU/4PsTeRYRrFNnAw)–

RUSSIAN POLICE CADET ARRESTED IN RACIST SLAYING
Agence France Presse
September 13, 2006
Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, DC
A Russian police cadet has been arrested on suspicion of racially
motivated murder after a knife attack on a 17-year-old student of
Armenian descent, the prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.
“Nikita Senyukov, who was born in 1988 and was a fourth-year student
at Police Academy Number One in Moscow, has been arrested on suspicion
of killing Vigen Abramyants this April,” the prosecutor general said
in a statement.
The prosecutor refused to comment on a report in Russian daily
Kommersant that the police cadet was a member of a nationalist
organization linked to a racist market bombing in Moscow that killed
11 people last month.
Senyukov, who is the son of a high-ranking policeman, was arrested
due to information provided by three suspects in the market bombing,
Kommersant reported.
The newspaper described the three bombing suspects and police cadet
Senyukov as “supporters of the nationalist organization Russian
All-National Union,” though it said that the organization denied that
the four were members.
The stabbing of Vigen Abramyants, an ethnic Armenian, took place in
the Pushkinskaya metro station in central Moscow in the daytime.
Russian NGOs have decried the rising number of racially motivated
killings in the country, with the Sova group counting 14 such
killings from March to May of this year, up from four in the same
period of 2005.
NGOs accuse police and prosecutors of frequently disregarding
racial hatred as a motivation, classifying the attacks instead as
“hooliganism.”

FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY REIGN IN KONDOPOGA
By Carl Schreck – Staff Writer
The Moscow Times
Thursday, September 14, 2006. Issue 3497. Page 1.
Margarita Slezova, mother of one of the men killed in the Kondopoga
brawl, motioning toward a recent photograph of her son, Grigory Slezov,
who was 27.
KONDOPOGA, Karelia — In the aftermath of the ethnic explosion here
that left two men dead, destroyed numerous businesses and kiosks,
and forced hundreds to flee, Russians across the country are asking
the same question: Could it happen here?
Aside from its picturesque setting on Lake Onego, Kondopoga — with
its Soviet-era streets names, Lenin statue and World War II memorial —
differs little from thousands of towns struggling to stay afloat.
There’s the paper mill, employing one out of five of Kondopoga’s
roughly 38,000 residents. There are the same crumbling apartment
blocs and storefronts that can be seen everywhere in Russia.
And, like numerous towns in post-communist Russia, there’s the local
outdoor market, which is dominated by dark-skinned natives from the
Caucasus, much to the dismay of ethnic Russians.
The white people in Kondopoga say “hot-blooded” Azeris, Chechens and
others don’t respect local mores and accuse them of flaunting their
wealth and paying off the police so they can sell illegal drugs.
That the recent ethnic riots were sparked by a fight at an Azeri-run
restaurant, Chaika, in which natives of the Caucasus purportedly
killed two ethnic Russians has only reinforced that sentiment.
“The only things Chechens understand is force,” said Sergei, 46, a
retired Army officer whose sons served in the North Caucasus. “Everyone
gets into fights, but here we do it with our fists. They showed up
with weapons and the intent to kill.”
Natives of the Caucasus, many of whom fled north after the outbreak
of the first Chechen war in 1994, counter that the ethnic Russians
are too drunk or not enterprising enough to start their own businesses.
“If we are paying off the police, it certainly didn’t do us much good,”
said Hamzat Magamadov, a Chechen.
“When the pogrom started, we had to hide our children, who were
trembling with fear. The police did nothing.”
Officials from Kondopoga to the republic of Karelia’s capital of
Petrozavodsk to Moscow blame the riots on everything from alcohol to
police ineptitude to mafia turf wars to political opportunists trying
to stoke racial fires for their own ends.
But Kondopoga residents — ethnic Russians and Caucasus natives alike
— say government authorities are unwilling to face an ugly truth:
Ethnic tensions have been brewing here for years, they say, and all
it took for widespread turmoil to break out was the Aug. 29 bar fight.
“This was just the last straw,” said Margarita Slezova, whose son,
Grigory Slezov, 27, was killed in the fight at Chaika, once one of
Kondopoga’s few watering holes. As she spoke, Slezova, dressed in
black, tended to a small shrine for her son in her apartment.
Her son, she said, had stopped by the restaurant and bar for a drink
with friends to celebrate the new apartment he had moved into with
his common-law wife, Kristina, who is due to give birth to their
child in November.
“I can’t say for sure what happened,” Slezova said, “but when things
turned violent, he apparently defended himself.”
Carl Schreck / MT Flowers and broken glass adorning the veranda
outside Chaika restaurant.
Prosecutors and witnesses say a group of ethnic Russians had been
drinking at Chaika and began arguing with the Azeri bartender. The
argument led to a fight, and soon the bartender was getting pummeled
by the group of ethnic Russians. The bartender escaped, returning later
with a group of Chechens bearing knives, baseball bats and iron rods. A
brawl ensued, spilling onto the cement veranda outside. Along with
Slezov, Sergei Usin, 32, lost his life. Several others were injured.
In the days following the brawl, mobs armed with Molotov cocktails
torched Caucasian-owned businesses, including Chaika, and rampaged
through the outdoor marketplace, smashing dozens of kiosks that remain
unrepaired. Most of the Chechens living in Kondopoga fled. Forty-nine
Chechens are at a summer camp outside Petrozavodsk under police
protection. Four Chechen men, meanwhile, have been charged with
murdering Slezov and Usin. A Chechen, a Dagestani and an ethnic
Russian have been charged with hooliganism.
There have been numerous attempts to make sense of the chaos and
violence, and the loss and confusion and uncertainty about what
looms ahead.
State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov recently called the violence a
“criminal showdown” and a “provocation of interethnic violence,”
Interfax reported.
Alexander Belov, head of the ultranationalist Movement Against Illegal
Immigration, or DPNI, turned up in Kondopoga soon after the riots
to address a crowd of 2,000 angry white people. He called for the
expulsion of natives of the Caucasus lacking residence permits.
Everyone blames the police. “The only people the police are protecting
right now are themselves,” said Yury Zakharnyov, a friend of Usin’s
who is a turbine operator at the paper mill. A police officer speaking
at a recent town meeting was shouted down by the 300 residents in
attendance.
What’s clear is the devastation and recrimination, and the lingering
fear that, in a way, nothing has changed.
“Look at those empty stands,” said Artur Galstyan, an Armenian shoe
trader at the Kondopoga market, pointing to a dozen kiosks. “Those
were empty before the pogrom. Nobody was stopping the Russians from
selling anything there. But all they do is drink.”
Galstyan said he wasn’t afraid of being attacked; Armenians, after all,
like Russians, are Christian.
But he conceded that locals had trouble distinguishing between
different peoples. “Azeri, Chechen, Armenian — it’s all the same to
them,” he said.
Like Galstyan, a beefy 37-year-old, not all natives of the Caucasus
have left town. And a modicum of normalcy has returned. Police were
on constant patrol.
But an uneasy current persists. “No to Gooks!” is scrawled on a
kiosk hawking honey; on Proletarskaya Ulitsa, Kondopoga’s main drag,
windows had been smashed in and building facades charred.
An odor redolent of a steaming landfill emanated from Chaika. Broken
glass, stray clothing, a one-legged table and random blocks of wood
and concrete were strewn on the veranda. Passersby don’t seem terribly
fazed by the rubble, but people have laid flowers in front of the
restaurant in memory of Slezov and Usin.
No one appeared to have been lulled into thinking the violence was
over for good, especially if the Chechens who fled the town return. “I
don’t think things will remain calm,” Slezova said.
Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights, said that
ethnic violence similar to the riots in Kondopoga had broken out in
several Russian regions in recent years and that a Kondopoga-like
scenario could happen anywhere.
“With such a high level of xenophobia,” he said, “such conflicts
could emerge across the country.”
The natives of the Caucasus who once lived in Kondopoga seemed aware
of that much. Satsyta Visayeva, who came to the town 12 years ago with
her husband, said she didn’t know where the family would go after
they left the summer camp, which is outside Petrozavodsk. There is
talk of some of the self-exiled Chechens seeking political asylum in
Finland or elsewhere in Scandinavia.
“Maybe they can come back eventually,” Slezova added, her crisp speech
suddenly breaking into a sob. “But only later. The city needs time
to calm down.”
Staff Writer Anatoly Medetsky contributed to this report from Moscow.

SUSPECT IN RACIST KILLING SAID TO BE POLICE ACADEMY CADET – PART 2
The Moscow Times
Thursday, September 14, 2006. Issue 3497. Page 2.
The 18-year-old suspect in the racially motivated killing of an
Armenian teenager in the Moscow metro in April was a police academy
cadet, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Nikita Senyukov was arrested Tuesday in connection with the stabbing
death of Vigen Abramyants, 17, on the platform of Pushkinskaya metro
station on April 22.
“He was a fourth-year student of a police academy under the Moscow
police,” said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the office of the
chief Moscow prosecutor.
Petrenko said Senyukov had admitted to the crime but said he acted
in self-defense after Abramyants attacked him.
She said Senyukov would be charged with murder later this week. If
convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
The police academy’s head, Alexei Bezyazychny, told Ekho Moskvy
radio that Senyukov had dropped out of the academy shortly before his
arrest. He said that Senyukov’s father is a retired senior officer
from the Interior Ministry.
Kommersant and Moskovsky Komsomolets on Wednesday linked Senyukov to
a group of Moscow students accused of bombing the Cherkizovsky outdoor
market in August, killing 12 people and wounding more than 50 others.
Investigators believe the attack was motivated by hatred for natives
of the Caucasus and Asian countries who trade at the market.
Four men have been detained in connection with the attack.
Petrenko, however, denied any link between the market bombing and
the metro attack.

ARMENIAN DASHNAKTSUTIUN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION (ADRF) IS GOING TO NOMINATE ITS OWN PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER IN 2008 IN ARMENIA
REGNUM
September 13, 2006
Armen Rustamyan: “ADRF may become opposed, if …”
As a REGNUM correspondent informs, on September 12, ADRF Supreme
Body representative, permanent parliamentary Commission on Foreign
Affairs Head Armen Rustamyan stressed that any decision on party’s
participation in presidential elections and its strategy should be
approved by the ADRF Supreme Assembly at its session in 2007. Besides
that, the party’s participation in presidential elections depends on
parliamentary elections’ outcomes in 2007.
“The party position may be changed after the parliamentary
elections. First, it depends on elections’ transparency and their
conducting without violations and second on MPs’ number at country’s
parliament. We realize; for further country’s development, guaranteeing
democratization’s process, securing by Armenia its own place in
region, fair elections without falsifications should be held. If
the elections are hold with violations, ARFD will become opposed,”
Armen Rustamyan stressed.
Besides that, if there is not necessary number of seats after
parliamentary elections, ARDF may refuse to take part in establishing
new government. “If we do not have necessary number of seats and
we are not able to solve accumulated questions, our governmental
participation will have no sense,” Armen Rustamyan concluded.

ANFAL AND LEADERS!
By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
Translated by Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
KurdishMedia
Updated: 9/13/2006 5:26:05 AM GMT
By Qadir Nadir, from: Hawal, Sulaymaniyah, independent weekly newspaper
in Sorani Kurdish, 9 Sep 06. p 3.
Although Anfal was the greatest act of dishonour to our nation,
it has been reduced by Kurdish leaders to such a degree that to
criticize the Kurdish leaders for insulting [our martyrs] creates
more reaction than the issue of their dishonoring of Anfal victims.
Besides, the anniversary celebrations they organize for their parties
are much more sumptuous and spectacular than the anniversary of Anfal
and Halabja tragedies.
In our country anything you write and say passes as truth. What is
happening here is unprecedented in the history of any nation. People
with background of serving the Ba’th party have now become
theoreticians of our national security; people who participated in
Anfal operations have been put in charge of running the small towns
where Anfal survivors are living; a “writer” who sold his pen to
Ba’th and was a Ba’thist agent is now in the prominent face of the
journal of Kurdish government.
I do not believe that the leaders of any other nations who have
suffered genocide such as the Jews, the Armenians and the Rwanda
people, have ever dared even to give shelter to even one perpetrator
of genocide.
It is only in our country that it is so easy to be a traitor and
sell yourself and then find respect and position. Yes, still we can
hear from the Kurdish officials some nationalist slogans, but when
you look at what is happening in the areas which suffered Anfal,
chemical attacks and Arabisation, you can realize clearly that what
they say is all lies and deception.
I read a story told by a woman who has survived Anfal.
I could not help weeping passionately when I read what she said about
her child. She says she had a little child who was ill. She was taking
care of him and hugging him to her chest when an Arab officer came
to take the child away from him. She hugged him even more closely
to her heart. But the Arab officer kicked her and smacked her hard
then took the child away. She says: Still there is a fire burning in
my liver when I remember his last look and his last two words: Daye,
Daye (Mum, Mum).
I read this and could not stop my tears from flowing as I could vividly
imagine this mother in her night of loneliness and helplessness. And
then, thanks to our leaders, apart from tears what else can we
do? Those leaders who have been sheltering the Anfalists for fifteen
years, and think that the best projects for Anfal women is to force
them to sell bread and eggs on the streets. And the government that
so far has changed five cabinets but has worked more for the comfort
and power of Anfalists than the victims of Anfal.
Let everyone put herself or himself in the place of an Anfal woman. Can
anyone even endure thinking even for few minutes? My own child had only
a simple ailment and he called me in this way. This shattered my soul.
Then how could be the state of the mother who heard her child for
last time? How can she live on? How many terrible stories must she
imagine every day? Has a dog eaten his child after he was killed?
When I read this story I cannot help but think of all those people
who shelter Anfalists and ignore the plight of these women as
criminals too.
I am sure the survivors of Anfal have suffered a lot in the last
fifteen years under the Kurdish political rule. None of the leaders
have ever visited them to tell them: the seats of power and prosperity
we enjoy now are the result of your sacrifice. That is why we will
become the fathers for your orphans. We will have even more kindness
to them [than to our children] and we will never let them to be forced
to wear torn shoes and ragged clothes. They must be as happy as our
children. Instead of your [martyred] brothers, we will become your
brothers and friends. We will not allow anyone to look at you with
disrespect. In place of your fathers, we will make your pains and
suffering the real daily concern of all our party members!
Everyone knows that the process of Anfal and chemical attacks aimed
at the elimination of the Kurdish people. Yet during 15 years of
Kurdish rule no serious major project for serving and benefiting Anfal
victims have been established although they enjoy annual revenues of
several billion dollars. To add insult to injury, the perpetrators
of Anfal roam freely ; they have power and they have roles. Also
internationally nothing has been done to promote the cause of Anfal
and bring onto international political agenda.
Then can we say that these leaders any national honour and dignity
in relation to Anfal?

POLL FINDS MUSCOVITES HOSTILE TOWARDS SKINHEADS, JEWS, AND MIGRANTS
UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
September 12, 2006
While 76% of Muscovites are hostile towards skinheads, a large number
of them share the neo-Nazis’ view of certain non-Russian ethnic groups,
according to an August 31, 2006 article in the national newspaper
Trud. Citing a poll of city residents’ attitudes towards non-Russians,
the paper reported that 1/3 of residents feel antipathy towards Jews
and Tatars, slightly higher numbers feel the same way about Armenians
and Georgians, and over half of residents are hostile towards Azeris
and Chechens.
The author of the article lists some possible reasons for these
attitudes, ranging from a large influx of migrants who tend to
cluster together in certain neighborhoods, negative perceptions of the
purportedly ill-gotten wealth of some migrants and, paradoxically,
the extreme poverty of others, and the fact that most migrants are
working-age men who are seen by some as competitors for the affections
of Russian women.
The paper reported that this fall, the Moscow City Duma will consider
a bill that envisions the creation of a commission to prevent ethnic
discrimination by fining violators 5-30 times the monthly minimum wage.
The fines will be doubled for any racist agitation of actions on
school grounds.

OIC TOURISM MINISTERS TO HOLD NEXT MEETING IN SYRIA IN 2008
Author: S.Agayeva
Trend
13.09.2006
The next meeting of the Tourism Ministers Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC) will be held in Syria in 2008. The decision was made
at the Tourism Ministers Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
which was held on 11 – 12 September in Baku,Trendreports.
As a result of the Forum two documents were approved, a Resolution
and the Baku Declaration. The Declaration included material which
condemned the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, fires in the
occupied territory of Azerbaijan, as well as termination of the
culture and historic heritage of Azerbaijan.
“It is an important decision.” Abulfaz Garayev, Azerbaijani Minister
for Culture & Tourism, said.
This material serves as a serious warning to Armenia, as well as to
Countries that support the Armenian aggressors.
According to the Minister, during its chairmanship at the organization
over the subsequent two years, Azerbaijan will contribute to the
development of tourism in Islamic countries. Participants of the
conference took a resolution to intensify relationships to protect
the culture and historic heritage in the territory of the OIC member
countries.
The Ministers decided to hold meetings to discuss actual problems in
2007 and 2008 in Pakistan and Iran respectively.

UN RESOLUTION ON FIRES IN SECURITY ZONE CALLED ACCEPTABLE IN NAGORNO KARABAKH
REGNUM
September 14, 2006
“Taking into account the final result, in particular, the intention
to send an OSCE mission to the region, supported by UN experts, in
order to asses long-term and short-term threats, which may lead to
a regional ecological disaster, the UN resolution may be considered
to be acceptable for the NKR,” Nagorno Karabakh Foreign Minister
Georgy Petrosyan is quoted by a REGNUM correspondent as stating,
commenting on resolution concerning fires in territories, occupied
by NKR, adopted at 60th session of UN General Assembly. The minister
stressed, such process is a logical sequence of the initiative of
the Karabakh authorities.
In particular, Georgy Petrosyan informed that the NKR authorities
were concerned with fires, which seriously damaged the republican
agriculture. In that connection, the NKR foreign ministry addressed
with a note to the Office of OSCE Chairman-in-Office personal envoy on
September 15, requesting to carry out crisis monitoring in the zone,
which borders on Azerbaijan.
Two weeks later, the OSCE mission monitored those areas, as a result
of it, the OSCE chairman-in-office personal envoy submitted a report,
in which accusations of the Azerbaijani side of alleged arsons
of settlements in the NKR security zone were refuted, the minister
reported. According to him, the NKR authorities were first instances,
which addressed to OSCE, requesting to send a monitoring group to
the region. The fact was dissembled by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs,
submitting a report to UN General Assembly.
Mr. Petrosyan assured that NKR was ready to receive new OSCE mission
in order to uncrown Azerbaijani myths.
According to him, putting a question at the UN itself is unacceptable,
as well as some formulations in the resolution. “Attempts to transfer
to UN questions, which should be solved by the OSCE Minsk Group,
may not contribute to talks’ advance; they just postpone possible
prospect of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement,” the minister
stressed. According to him, the fact should be specially stressed
that the resolution and, in particular, its content is “a result of
the consensus between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is lately a rare
occurrence; it should be welcomed, especially when the atmosphere
of trust is lacking between the parties.” According to the minister,
such projects should be discussed only with participation of all three
conflict parties in order to avoid problems during their decisions’
implementation. “NKR positions remain unchanged; we are going to
cooperate with international institutions; we are ready to contribute
to functioning of the OSCE expert group, comprised of specialists
from neutral countries,” Georgy Petrosyan stressed.