ARMINFO News Agency
September 12, 2006 Tuesday
ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES ARE NOT OBLIGED TO MAKE PUBLIC THE WHOLE
INFORMATION ON KARABAKH PEACE TALKS
The Armenian authorities are not obliged to make public the whole
information about the Karabakh peace process, says the expert of the
Caucasus analytical center Sergey Shakaryants.
For example, the US does not tell his people what genocides and
massacres he is planning in one or another region of the world. In
order to understand what the OSCE MG are proposing one does not need
the explanations of the Armenian authorities. One has just to
familiarize himself with what US co-chair Matthew Bryza says.
Bryza hopes that the Armenian side will withdraw its troops from the
security zone and that US soldiers will be deployed in the region
under the guise of peacekeeping. This hope is part of the failed
anti-Iranian plan. The last events in Lebanon have proved that the US
and Israeli armies are helpless in the face of the well-trained Shi’a
guerrillas. A war against Iran might put an end to the world
civilization but the failed rehearsal in Lebanon has shown that the
US plan will not work out, says Shakaryants.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMINFO News Agency
September 15, 2006 Friday
ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN CALLS ARMENIA’S DIPLOMATIC POSITION IN
SETTLEMENT ISSUE PASSIVE AND DEFENSIVE
The Head of the RA Parliament Constant Commission for Foreign
Relations, representative of the Supreme Body of ARF Dashnaktsutiun
party , Armen Rustamyan, calls Armenia’s diplomacy in the Karabakh
conflict settlement issue passive and defensive.
According to him, both diplomats and Parliamentarians have chosen the
passive line. Sometimes, at different forums, the RA Parliament
representatives orient themselves “by place” under absence of any
common concept on this problem.,m making ripostes to Azerbaijan,
while the latter claims the same at all international forums for many
years, i.e. about the occupied territories, millions of refugees and
so on. Much time has passed since the operations, the international
community is interested in the future not in the past, while
Azerbaijan accents just on them. Therefore, Armenia has to
sequentially achieve the international recognition of Nagorno
Karabakh by the international community, not by Azerbaijan.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 15, 2006 Friday
POLITICAL FORCES IN ARMENIA THINK AZERBAIJAN’S ASPIRATION TO LEAD
KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS OUTSIDE OSCE MG EVIDENT FAILURE OF AZERBAIJANI
DIPLOMACY
The involvement of other international instances into the Karabakh
peace process exceeding the OSCE Minsk Group frameworks is pregnant
with dangerous consequences, said Galust Sahakyan, Head of RPA
faction, commenting at the request of ArmInfo on the inclusion of the
Karabakh problem into the agenda of UN General Assembly on GUAM’s
initiative.
In his turn, Hrayr Karapetyan, Head of ARFD faction, believes that
the victory of the initiative cannot be considered as a defeat of the
Armenian diplomacy. “Quite on the contrary, it shows that the
Azerbaijani diplomacy failed to achieve desirable results within the
frames of OSCE MG and tries to transfer the problem to other
instances. The response of official Yerevan to such tactics of
Azerbaijan is well-known: if Azerbaijan further tries to lead the
peace process outside the OSCE MG, Baku will have to negotiate with
Stepanakert,” H. Karapetyan said. He added that it is not important
what instance will discuss the problem, it is important how the
discussion will continue.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 15, 2006 Friday
DM DID NOT CALL JOURNALISTS “MISERABLE PEOPLE”
When saying “miserable people” Armenian Defense Minister Serzh
Sargsyan did not mean journalists, the leader of the Republican Party
parliamentary group Galoust Sahakyan said during a briefing today.
It would never occur to Sargsyan to call journalists “miserable
people.” Sahakyan says that his words were misinterpreted.
To remind, when asked by journalists if the editor of the Iravunk
daily Hovhannes Galajyan was beaten because of his article “What
Makes The Super Minister Nervous?” Sargsyan said that he does not
answer “miserable people” and does not punish them.
In his turn, the leader of the Justice opposition bloc Stepan
Demirtchyan condemned Galajyan’s beating and pointed out that already
having control over TV the authorities are now trying to scare the
indepedent press.
To remind, Galajyan was beaten by two unknown people a few days ago.
Investigation is underway. The attackers have not been found yet.

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in Russian
15 Sep 06
ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT COALITION OFFICIAL PRIORITIZES COUNTRY’S KEY
TASKS
Yerevan, 15 September: The deepening of democracy, fair solution of
the Karabakh conflict and neutralization of external threats are main
tasks Armenia is facing now, Armen Rustamyan, member of the board of
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun Party, said in
Yerevan today.
Commenting on intensification of Azerbaijan’s efforts to have the
Karabakh problem discussed at the UN, Rustamyan said that the UN did
not plan to be involved in the settlement of the conflict because it
voluntarily handed the relevant authority over to the OSCE 12 years
ago, Mediamax reports.
Rustamyan also said that Azerbaijan’s position is mainly caused by
the fact that none of the three proposals made by the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs over the last seven to eight years did not satisfy
official Baku.

Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow, in Russian
15 Sep 06
RACE RIOTS BREAK OUT IN RUSSIA’S VOLGA AREA
[Presenter] Events similar to those in Kondopoga are probably
occurring in another Russian region. Clashes have taken place in the
town of Volsk, Saratov Region. Our correspondent Andrey Triatskiy has
the details.
[Correspondent] The conflict happened in the local club Galaktika on
the night of Sunday [10 September]. Two young men, who were there
with their wives, picked a fight with local Armenians. The dispute
turned into a mass brawl. As a result, one person was killed and
three people suffered stab wounds. The killed person was a
25-year-old local resident, a former paratrooper who served in
Chechnya. One person was injured among the Armenians.
On Monday [11 September] the conflict escalated. Local young people
broke into a bridge and dam technical school. The youths attacked
local Armenians. One student received a stab wound. The riots in
Volsk did not stop with this incident. Our correspondents and locals
say that town residents carried out so-called sweep operations at
night. People from neighbouring districts also took part in the
disturbances. It is unknown whether there have been casualties.
[Presenter] The police in Volsk have been put on alert. The police
are patrolling the town round the clock. I want to stress that
officially the information about the unrest has not been confirmed so
far.
[In a later report at 0614 gmt on 15 September, Ekho Moskvy news
agency said that the local administration had ordered all people from
Russia’s southern republics to leave town markets to avoid acts of
provocation]

Azartac news agency, Baku, in Russian
15 Sep 06
AZERI OFFICIAL SAYS UPCOMING UN DEBATE ON KARABAKH CONFLICT
“BRILLIANT VICTORY”
An Azerbaijani presidential aide has said that the inclusion of the
Nagornyy Karabakh problem on the agenda of the 61st session of the UN
General Assembly is a victory for Azerbaijan’s foreign policy.
In an interview with the state-run Azartac news agency on 15
September, the head of the foreign relations department at the
Azerbaijani presidential administration, Novruz Mammadov, said: “The
inclusion of the issue on the agenda of the UN General Assembly is a
crucial event, a brilliant victory and success of Azerbaijan’s
foreign policy. This should be recognized.”
Mammadov said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev raised the
issue at the Kiev summit of the GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan
and Moldova alliance) countries on 22-23 May 2006.
At its plenary session on 13 September, the UN General Assembly took
a decision to include the issue of frozen conflicts on the territory
of the former Soviet Union on the agenda of its 61st session. The
proposal was put forward by the GUAM.
Mammadov also praised the USA and Britain for supporting the position
of the GUAM during the voting for the issue, as Armenia and the
countries supporting it tried to vote down the proposal.
Mammadov thinks that this will allow the countries in the world to
closely familiarize themselves with the situation in the states with
frozen conflicts. He said that the security in the South Caucasus was
of great importance not only for the region, but also for Europe and
the entire world.

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
September 15, 2006 Friday 0
No ethnic hate behind cafe fight – Saratov police
VOLSK /Saratov region/, September 15
Police in Russia’s Saratov region ruled out ethnic hate as the prime
motive behind the fight in the town of Volsk between local residents
and ethnic Armenians in which one person was fatally stabbed.
“The incident occurred in a Volsk cafe in the evening on September
10,” regional police spokesman Alexei Yegorov told Itar-Tass on
Friday. “Three local residents came up to a table where Armenian
construction workers were taking a meal. A row flared up which
escalated into a knife fight. The injured were taken to hospital,
where one of them, a local resident, died. The other brawlers
escaped,” Yegorov said.
“We see no connection between the incident and ethnic hate. Local
residents have always had friendly relations with representatives of
other nationalities. It was a domestic incident,” he underlined.
Representatives of ethnic communities living in the Saratov region
share this view. “At present, a conference of district heads,
mayors, law-enforcement officials and leaders of the ethnic
communities is taking place in Saratov,” the spokesman went on to
say.
“A joint statement to the residents of the province is in the works;
it will underline that the incident has nothing to do with ethnic
hate and is of domestic nature,” he noted.
A criminal case was opened over the fatal fight. The participants in
the brawl have been put on the wanted list. A more precise evaluation
of what has happened will be made after they have been caught,
investigators said.

The Independent (London)
September 15, 2006 Friday
BOYD TONKIN;
BOOKS A Week in Books
What do you call a state that puts a writer on trial because of
remarks made by a character in a novel, on a charge that carries a
three-year sentence, and then schedules the hearing for a few days
before her first baby is due? A likely candidate for swift progress
towards entry to the European Union? Probably not. Yet, in Turkey,
the surface story seldom tells the entire truth.
Elif Shafak, who will face a court in Istanbul on 21 September to
answer a case of “insulting Turkish identity” under the notorious
Article 301, knows that better then anyone. Her fiction (The Gaze and
The Flea Palace are published here by Marion Boyars) sets out with
passion, wit and courage to break down every Turkish monolith. It
tells tales within tales, shows layers under layers, to reveal a past
and present full of fractures that let the daylight in and banish the
shadows that narrow minds. Fair-haired, fashionably-dressed, raised
in Spain and France and with a university post in Arizona, Shafak
nonetheless rescues old Ottoman traditions and Sufi beliefs from the
disdainful condescension of Ataturk’s secular state. I heard her
speak, compellingly, about her work in London this summer. Any
country should be saluting such a writer, not menacing a mother-to-be
with a prison stretch for thought-crimes.
Armies of her admirers in Turkey share that opinion. Yet the recent
spate of prosecutions under Article 301 – about 60 in the past year
or so, most famously against Orhan Pamuk – is being driven by
right-wing secular nationalists who dread the dilution of “pure”
Turkishness into a European super-state. Sounds familiar? As Shafak
says, many lands now host culture-wars between hopeful openness and
xenophobia.
So every foreign pundit who howls that such cases should scupper
Turkey’s EU accession talks does the diehards’job for them. They fear
European influence, and the cosmopolitanism that an author such as
Shafak brings. Another point that needs endless iteration in today’s
nervy climate is that these artistic persecutions have nothing
whatever to do with any official “Islamist” agenda. Exactly the
contrary: Shafak has shown plenty of sympathetic interest in the
rising appeal of the headscarf and the mosque for educated Turks of
her (thirtysomething) generation. She carefully calls the
pro-European government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “Muslim democratic”
regime, not an Islamist one. Like it or not, judicial independence
(and competing powers) fuels this war against the written word.
The deeper truth is that Turkey is a political nation at war with
itself. Shafak likens it to “a tapestry of clashing and coexisting
forces”, where “the government and the state are not one and the
same”. Last autumn, a conference on Armenian history in Istanbul was
initally banned by the justice minister (it later went ahead) but
welcomed by the foreign minister. And it is, of course, the
still-open wound of the Armenians’ terrible fate as the Ottoman
empire broke apart that has led to Shafak’s day in court next week.
In her new novel The Bastard of Istanbul (originally written in
English – another “insult” in nationalist eyes), an Armenian figure
whose grandparents died in the massacres regrets having “been
brainwashed to deny the genocide” of 1915. Invoke the G-word with
reference to the mass death of Armenians, and every warning light in
the Turkish “deep state” will glow a wrathful red. The outcome is a
Satanic Verses-style furore in which fictional creatures stand
accused of a secular blasphemy. Shafak drily points out that: “As
much as I believe in their vivacity, my Armenian characters cannot go
to court to be tried under Article 301.” So she must, with – I hope –
the support of every reader and writer who cherishes the freedom she
upholds.

Lider TV, Baku, in Azeri
15 Sep 06
AZERBAIJAN TO ALLOCATE 220M-DOLLAR LOAN FOR RAILWAY BUILDING IN
GEORGIA
[Presenter] The Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku railway, which causes Armenia’s
concern, may be put into operation soon. The sides are doing their
best for the implementation of the project, Georgian ambassador to
Azerbaijan Zurab Gumberidze has told Lider TV in an exclusive
interview. He said that Azerbaijan will finance part of the
construction of the main line passing through Georgia.
[Gumberidze speaking from his office in Georgian with Azeri
voice-over] Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey attach great importance to
this project. Azerbaijan is interested in a rapid operation of the
railway. Azerbaijan and Georgia have already discussed all parameters
of a credit agreement. Under the document, Azerbaijan will allocate a
220m-dollar interest-free loan for the construction of the main
railway line going through Georgia. A total of 192 km of the railway
line passing though Georgia needs restoration and 29 km needs
reconstruction. Azerbaijan has always supported Georgia. This project
once again shows friendly and fraternal relations between the states.