AZERI MEDIA DISTORTED ISRAELI MP WORDS ON KARABAKH
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.09.2006 12:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Words I said over the Nagorno Karabakh issue
during my visit to Baku in May were distorted,” Knesset MP Yosef
Shagal said. In his words, he never stated the position of his country
over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. “Israel will express its attitude
to the NK conflict after Azerbaijan announces its position over the
Israeli-Palestinian confrontation,” Shagal said, reports APA.

BBC HELPS LAUNCH COMMUNITY RADIO STATIONS IN GEORGIA
BBC World Service press release, London
4 Sep 06
Members of two minority ethnic groups in Georgia will have a new
voice for their news and views with the launch of two new community
radio stations.
They are being set up by the BBC World Service Trust as part of the
Making Waves project to promote the rights of Armenian and Azeri
minorities living in the enclaves of Javakheti and Kvemo-Kartli.
With a radio station in each region, local people will be able to voice
their opinions, receive key information and play an active role in the
democratic process. The stations will improve coverage of cultural,
ethnic and religious issues.
Experienced broadcasters from the BBC are working alongside local
journalists and volunteers to develop their broadcasting and management
skills.
Simon Derry, Media Development Director of the BBC World Service
Trust, described the project: “We want to demonstrate the role the
media can and should play in building bridges between communities.
“Training is critical to the success of the project. We will train
at least 120 journalists and media managers in diversity reporting
and provide media skills workshops for non-governmental organization
(NGO) workers active in Georgia.
“We hope this will help to shatter existing stereotypes, improve
communications between the media and NGOs and help the Georgian media
to connect with minority groups.”
The first round of journalism training for community members in both
regions is already completed; the location for one of the broadcasting
stations has been identified and the project was officially launched
in July.
At the launch event in Tbilisi, Making Waves was warmly welcomed by
representatives of the republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
[Passage omitted]
Making Waves is funded by the European Initiative for Democracy and
Human Rights (EIDHR), a European Union programme that aims to promote
and support human rights and democracy in third world countries, with
support from the British Embassy in Georgia and the UK Government’s
Global Conflict Prevention Pool.
Project partners assisting with implementation are Studio Re (Georgia)
and IREX Europe.

OFFICIAL BAKU “SURPRISED” AT OSKANIAN STATEMENT
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.09.2006 13:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Statements of Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian regarding
the terms of Yerevan’s further participation in the Nagorno Karabakh
peace talks cause at least “surprise of official Baku,” stated Head of
the Information Department of the Azeri MFA Tahir Tagizadeh. “There
is an impression as if the Armenian FM has completely forgotten that
Armenia has assumed commitments over settlement of the conflict to a
number of international organizations, including the UN, OSCE and CE,”
Tagizadeh said.
“If Oskanian considers possible making statements like that,
stipulating that Armenia’s further participation in the talks with
additional moments, then Azerbaijan has sovereign right to raise
the issue of Armenia failing to meet its commitments before any
international organizations,” the Azeri diplomat said.
We note that the Armenian FM stated Monday that the opportunity to
hold the recurrent round of talks between Armenian and Azeri FMs
depends on the position of the Azeri party in the discussion of the
Karabakh conflict in the UN, reports Interfax-Azerbaijan.

TURKISH ENVOY SAYS CLAIMS IN SPAIN ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE “UNFORTUNATE”
Anatolia news agency, Ankara
4 Sep 06
Madrid, 4 September: “This is a wrong and unfortunate approach,”
said Turkey’s Ambassador to Spain Volkan Vural when commenting on
the move of two Spanish MPs to bring the so-called Armenian genocide
allegations to the Spanish parliament.
Two MPs from Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) have asked the Spanish
parliament to debate the so-called Armenian genocide allegations,
taking into consideration a letter from the Armenian committee.
In the motion they submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
Spanish parliament last June, ECR MPs Rosa M. Bonas i Pahisa and Joan
Puigcercos i Boixassa asked the parliament to acknowledge the so-called
Armenian genocide saying that “a crime against humanity was committed”.
They also “insist that Turkey should recognize the so-called Armenian
genocide” and “the EU should be a means to close up this matter”.
Necessary initiatives launched
In an exclusive interview with AA [Anatolia] correspondent, Ambassador
Vural said: “After we learned about this motion, we launched
initiatives at the Spanish Foreign Ministry and the parliament. We
sent a letter to the two MPs and the head of the Foreign Affairs
Commission in which we deemed this move as wrong, and we told them
that this will harm Turkish-Spanish relations. And, Turkish Foreign
Ministry has expressed its concerns to the Spanish government.”
Vural thinks that adoption of the motion by the Foreign Affairs
Committee is not likely.
“Even though it is adopted, it is obvious that it won’t have a legal
meaning. Everybody will see how wrong and unfortunate it is to make
historical incidents a tool for politics,” he commented.
Vural said: “ERC MP Rosa Bonas wrote a letter to me, and said that she
does not have any negative feeling for Turkey. She also said that she
has always supported Turkey’s EU membership and believes that Turkey
should become an EU member.”
Ambassador Vural added that he will meet Bonas in the coming days.
On the other hand, Bonas said that they will change some parts of
the motion, adding: “We will take out the article asking Turkey to
recognize the (so-called) Armenian genocide.”

GREEK CYPRUS THREATENS TO VETO TURKEY’S EU BID
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.09.2006 14:05 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Greek Cyprus is ready to block the opening and
closing of the EU’s negotiating chapters with Turkey if Ankara doesn’t
open its ports and harbors to Greek Cypriot ships and planes, stated
Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister George Lillikas.
Stressing that the position of the Greek Cypriot administration on the
issue remains firm, Lillikas said, “The policy we’re following is one
that doesn’t allow Turkey’s smooth accession.” Asked about the Finnish
warning to Turkey regarding fulfilling its commitments towards Greek
Cyprus and the Union and the implementation of the Ankara protocol
that extends the Customs Union to the 10 new EU members, including
Greek Cyprus, Lillikas said, “If Turkey continues to maintain the same
stance then there will be relative reactions and a relative stance
on behalf of the Greek Cypriot government,” reports the New Anatolian.
We remind that Turkey has refused to open its ports and harbors for
use by the Greek Cypriots unless the Union ends the isolation of the
Turkish Cypriots.
However, the 25-nation bloc is demanding that Turkey open its ports
to EU member Greek Cyprus by the end of this year. If not, Ankara’s
entry talks, which began last fall, may be suspended.

MEHTIYEV: “BAKU DOES NOT WANT WAR, BUT DOES NOT RULE OUT ITS RESUMPTION”
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.09.2006 14:34 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Azerbaijan does not wish resumption of the war
with Armenia, however, in case peace talks on the Nagorno Karabakh
settlement fail it will have to consider other ways to solve the issue
of territories controlled by the NKR Defense Army,” stated head of
Azeri President’s Administration Ramiz Mehtiyev.
The presidential Administration head also noted that Azerbaijan
continues actively taking measures to strengthen national armed forces
military efficiency and one of the steps in this regard is the latest
creation of the Ministry of Armaments Industry, reports Day. az.

GLOBAL GOLD MINING DEPRIVED OF LICENSE FOR WORKS AT ARMENIA AND NAKHICHEVAN BORDER
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.09.2006 14:41 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Ministry of Environment Protection of Armenia
has deprived Global Gold Mining American company of the license for
prospecting at the Marjan lot at the border of Armenia and Nakhichevan,
Armenian Minister for Environment Protection Vardan Ayvazyan stated
on September 5. In his words, the company failing to fulfill its
commitments was the cause of deprivation of the license. “The company
failed to fulfill its commitments at the Marjan lot, thus we deprived
it of the license,” the Minister said.
We note that recently the Global Gold Mining has invested $6.5 billion
in geological prospecting in Armenia. Before the yearend the company
plans to increase the investment volume up to $9.6 billion. In 2004
the company was license for prospecting in Tukhmanuk, Hankavan, Getik
regions (border zone of Armenia and Azerbaijan), as well as at the
Marjan lot at the border of Armenia and Nakhichevan, reports IA Regnum.

CE NOT TO INVESTIGATE FACTS OF FIRES IN KARABAKH
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.09.2006 16:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The probability for the Council of Europe to
investigate the fact of fires in Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent
territories is very little, reported the CE Department for Political
Affairs. The source noted that the process is rather difficult.
“The matter is that the CE does not have an official stance
specifically on that issue, as the organization does not have a
technical and material basis for checking the reliability of the facts
presented. The Council of Europe has expressed its attitude, based
on conclusions of other reliable organizations, e.g. the OSCE, whose
experts visited territories, where the fires occurred. According to
the mission conclusions, the fires were a result of a natural calamity.
Unfortunately, we as an organization cannot either confirm or deny
this information. We merely trust to OSCE data. The OSCE has larger
capacities for doing that.”

45,000 ARMENIANS EXPECTED TO SPEND SUMMER VACATIONS IN AJARIA
Armenpress
Sept 05 2006
BATUMI, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: Some 45,000 Armenians are expected
to have spent their summer vacations in Georgia’s autonomous region
of Ajaria on the Black Sea coastline by the end of September. The
anticipated figure will be up from 20,000 in 2005.
During a meeting with Armenian ambassador to Georgia, Hrach Silvanian,
the region’s prime minister Levan Varshalomidze said at the beginning
of September some 35,000 Armenians had already spent a week or more
in Ajaria’s sea resorts.
The ambassador went to Ajaria to welcome the crew of Cilicia ship,
patterned from a medieval Armenian merchant vessel that arrived in
Georgia after traveling through several seas and will be transported
from there to Armenia.
The region’s prime minister said the growing number of Armenians
choosing Ajaria as their vacation destination has brought about the
necessity of opening a Armenian consulate in its capital Batumi.
The prime minister also promised to instruct Batumi municipality to
help fence the Armenian church of Batumi.

ARMENIANS ARE RECONSTRUCTING THE AZERI TOMBS
A1+
[02:20 pm] 05 September, 2006
more images Surik Truzyan, head of Nor Khachakap community has got
a videotape revealing the brutal acts of the Azeris while destroying
his ancestors’ tombs.
Surik Truzyan is from Koushi, Dashkistan region. He was forcibly
displaced with his compatriots 17 years ago and resettled in the
village of Nor Khachakap which was inhabited by Azeris and was called
Saral till 1988. It is noteworthy that contrary to their vandalism,
the Azeri tombs have been cleaned and restored in Armenia. (You may
see the reconstructed Azeri tomb in the picture)
“The Azeris treated our tombs very badly; they completely destroyed
them and broke the khachkars,” says 74-year-old Ashot Kyalabyan.
The Armenia and Azeri tombs are side by side in Nor Khachakap. The
Azeri tombs of the village have been restored this year on the
initiative of the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Citizens’
Assembly. Regardless of the fact that the Azeris destroyed their
ancestors’ tombs the residents of the village treat it normally.
Arthur Sakunts, head of the Vanadzor office, claims that the tomb
of his ancestors which is in the territory of Azerbaijan, in the
village of Vernishen, Shahoumyan Region, is far from being in a proper
state. But in his opinion the conflict has aroused so many problems and
caused so much trouble that new demolitions are irrelevant. “Humanity
is not simply a term; it also implies respect and good treatment to
the memory of your rival.”
Asked whether there is any probability that the Armenian tombs may
be reconstructed in Azerbaijan like the Azeri tombs in Armenia, Arzu
Abdulajev, head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly in Azerbaijan,
answered that he had no notion of the state of the Armenian tombs in
Azerbaijan as they mainly worked in Baku and added, “It will cause
no more trouble as we take measures on this score.” By the way, an
Azeri journalist who was in Armenian in summer noted that Armenian
tombs may hardly be reconstructed in Azerbaijan.
Nine hundred USD was spent on the reconstruction of the Azeri tombs
which lasted five months.
By the way, the RA Government allocated 2 million 308 thousand AMD
to find the places of the Azeri tombs and cultural monuments in the
territories of Armenia and Karabakh and to take their photos.
And what work is being done by the above-mentioned sum allocated by the
government? The press service of the Ministry of Culture informed us
that they are implementing some work but they didn’t go into details.
According to the data of the Azeri media, the Azeris, formerly living
in the territory of Armenia, handed applications to the European Court
of Human Rights with the request to compensate their real estate of
20 milliard USD left in Armenia. By the way, the Azeri media notes
that Armenians have ruined all the Azeri tombs in Armenia.