BREAKAWAY AZERI REGION SAYS UN RESOLUTION ON FIRES “ACCEPTABLE”
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan, in Armenian
Sept 11 2006
[Presenter] The Nagornyy Karabakh foreign ministry considers the UN
[General Assembly] resolution on the fires on the contact lines
between the Azerbaijani and Karabakh armed forces to be acceptable.
The Karabakh leadership is deeply concerned about the fires that damage
agriculture, and asked the office of the personal representative of
the OSCE chairman-in-office on 15 June to conduct monitoring on the
border with Azerbaijan.
The OSCE held the monitoring with a two-week delay and prepared the
well-known report that denies Azerbaijan’s accusations.
[Karabakh president Arkadiy Gukasyan] It is clear that Azerbaijan
is deliberately making a fuss, because they themselves have started
the fires and this propaganda campaign. The matter is that since the
very beginning, we have asked various international organizations to
send a mission [to the scene] and we ourselves want the international
community to have a clear impression and understanding of what is
going on in Nagornyy Karabakh, especially in border areas.
Azerbaijan’s aim is the same – to discredit everything connected
with Karabakh.

SENATOR BLOCKS VOTE ON AMBASSADOR NOMINEE TO ARMENIA TO PROTEST U.S. GENOCIDE POLICY
By: Donna De La Cruz, AP Worldstream
Associated Press
Sept 12 2006
A senator put a hold Tuesday on the nomination of Richard Hoagland to
be ambassador to Armenia to protest the Bush administration’s refusal
to classify the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide.
Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 13-5 to send
Hoagland’s nomination to the full Senate for a vote. Until Democratic
Sen. Robert Menendez lifts his hold, however, the Senate cannot vote
on Hoagland’s nomination. Under Senate rules, any senator can block
nominations or legislation.
Menendez said all Americans must recognize the atrocities committed
between 1915 to 1923 in Armenia, during the waning days of the Ottoman
Empire, amounted to genocide. The Bush administration and Turkey,
successor to the Ottoman state, admit many Armenians died but reject
the genocide classification.
“Mr. Hoagland has declined to acknowledge the mass killings of the
Armenians as genocide, and has said that if confirmed, he would work
to represent the president’s policy,” Menendez said. “I have great
concerns that Mr. Hoagland’s confirmation would be a step backward.”
The Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Republican Sen. Richard
Lugar, has said the Senate should not withhold confirmation of Hoagland
“based on disagreements with administration policy.” Lugar has said
Armenia, which borders Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan, is an important
country that should not be left without a U.S. ambassador.
Hoagland would not use the word genocide at his confirmation hearing
in June to describe the killings. The current ambassador, John Evans,
reportedly had his tour of duty cut short because, in a social setting,
he referred to the killings as genocide.
Turkey, an important NATO ally, has strongly denounced the
characterization, and U.S. policymakers are wary of antagonizing that
country major ally.
The Bush administration does not question that Ottoman troops killed
or drove from their homes 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915. In
a presidential message on the 91st anniversary April 24, President
George W. Bush called it “a terrible chapter of history” that “remains
a source of pain for people in Armenia and for all those who believe
in freedom, tolerance and the dignity and value of every human life.”
As in previous such messages, he omitted using the word “genocide.”

AZERI PRESSURE GROUP DESCRIBES RIGHTS CAMPAIGNERS’ VISIT TO ARMENIA AS “BETRAYAL”
Turan News Agency, Azerbaijan
Sept 12 2006
Baku, 11 September: The Civic Solidarity youth organization has
demanded that 10 “enemies of the people” be stripped of Azerbaijani
citizenship for their recent visit to Armenia within the Camp of
Mutual Understanding project. Those enemies are the head of the
Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly,
Arzu Abdullayeva, rights activists Nigar Abdullayeva, Rana Yuzbasova
and Fidan Mammadova and journalists Seymur Baycan, Ismayil Abdulazimov
and Xamis Masimov.
The cause of such a strong reaction is a visit by these individuals
to the Gughark camp in Armenia.
The youth organization said in a statement that the camp hosted a
meeting of representatives of Armenian and Azerbaijan youth at the
initiative of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly and that representatives
of Nagornyy Karabakh also attended the meeting. The authors of the
statement believe that a visit to Armenia is “a betrayal” and demand
that government agencies strip these people of Azerbaijani citizenship,
confiscate their passports and expel from the country international
organizations that prepare such projects.
In turn, the Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens’
Assembly issued a statement denying these accusations. International
law rejects xenophobia – eternal enmity between nations. The
accusations voiced against the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly are aimed
at casting a shadow on the organization’s activity, the statement said.

OSCE CONCERNED ABOUT VIOLENCE AGAINST MEDIA IN ARMENIA
Associated Press
Sept 12 2006
A leading European organization expressed concern about violence
against journalists and intimidation of the media in Armenia,
where the editor of an opposition newspaper was beaten last week by
unidentified assailants.
The Yerevan office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe said it is “deeply concerned over recent incidents of violence
and intimidation against local journalists which have obstructed their
professional duties and infringed upon the freedom of expression.”
In a statement, the OSCE cited the Sept. 6 beating of Ovannes
Galadzhian, the editor of the newspaper Iravunk, who said he was
attacked by two men outside his home. The chairman of the paper’s
editorial board, Gaik Babukhanian, said he suspected the attack was
prompted by the paper’s criticism of the authorities.
He said the paper had also faced economic and other forms of pressure.
The OSCE statement also said that a freelance journalist, Gagik
Shamshian, was threatened and abused on July 12.
It called on Armenian law enforcement agencies to properly investigate
such cases and punish the perpetrators, as well as to “undertake
prompt measures to ensure the safety of media professionals in order
to promote freedom of expression in the country.”
Critics say President Robert Kocharian has violently cracked down on
dissent in the former Soviet republic, allowed corruption to flourish
and done little to improve the lot of impoverished Armenia’s 3.3
million people.

AZERI PRESSURE GROUP URGES ARMENIA’S EXCLUSION FROM COE
TREND (in Russian), Azerbaijan
Sept 12 2006
Baku, 12 September: Armenia must be excluded from the Council of
Europe, the Karabakh Liberation Organization [KLO] said in an appeal
on 12 September.
The KLO also commented on the latest statement of the president of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Rene van der Linden.
The appeal said that Rene van der Linden’s statement saying that the
occupation-affected country may be excluded from the council if it
resumes military operations is a warning for Baku.
The KLO said that it condemns such a biased position which promotes
Armenia’s policy of annexation. The international organization sticking
to this position should have excluded Armenia, which has occupied
Azerbaijani territories. Since this has not happened, the statement
of the PACE president does not make any difference, the KLO said.
The KLO believes that Azerbaijan must use the right to necessary
protection and liberate its occupied lands on the basis of Article
51 of the UN Charter.

TOROSYAN: ANY COUNTRY HAS A RIGHT TO NUCLEAR PROGRAM
PanARMENIAN.Net
12.09.2006 15:23 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Any country has a right to a nuclear program and no
one can deny this right to it, Armenian Speaker Tigran Torosyan stated
during a news conference. In his words, the Iranian nuclear problem
should be solved by means of talks exclusively. “It is important for
sustaining peace and it will provide guarantees that the parties,
who sign the commitments, will not break these,” he noted. Torosyan
remarked that this phase of the Iranian history will pass as well and
the country, which has much importance in the region, will remain a
state, which comes for peace and ensures prosperity to its people.

BUILDING OF IRAN-ARMENIA SECOND GAS PIPELINE POSSIBLE
PanARMENIAN.Net
12.09.2006 15:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yerevan and Teheran study the opportunioty for
building the second branch of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, Iranian Mejlis
Chair Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel stated at a news conference in Yerevan. In
his words, The building of the first pipeline is almost finished and
Armenian and Iranian Presidents will be present at its opening. “The
main goal of the gas pipeline is to supply gas to Armenia.
However, Iranian gas can go to other countries via Armenia. Energy
cooperation can also increase commodity turnover, which is now $200
million,” said Haddad-Adel.

PUTIN: RECOGNITION OF KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE MAY HAVE NEGATIVE IMPACT ON CONFLICT SETTLEMENT
PanARMENIAN.Net
12.09.2006 16:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In case of declaring independence of Kosovo against
Serbia’s will, Russia will veto the decision of the UN Security
Council, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated at a meeting with a
group of scientists from foreign countries in Moscow last week-end. In
the opinion of the Russian President recognition of Kosovo independence
may have negative impact on conflict settlement in Nagorno Karabakh,
Transniestria, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. “We should think of the
regional consequences of recognition of Kosovo independence,” the
Russian President said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJAN HAMPERS OSCE FULL MONITORING
PanARMENIAN.Net
12.09.2006 16:58 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On September 12, in accordance with the agreement
achieved beforehand with the NKR authorities, the OSCE Mission
held a planned monitoring of the Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijani
armed forces’ contact-line near the settlement of Seysulan of the
NKR Martakert region, reports the Press Service of the NKR MFA. From
the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring mission was led
by Coordinator of the OSCE Office, Lieutenant Colonel Imre Palatinus
(Hungary) and Field Assistant of the OSCE PR C-i-O Irzhi Aberle (the
Czech Republic). The monitoring passed in accordance with the planned
schedule, no violations of the cease-fire regime were registered.
However, the Azerbaijani side once more did not lead the OSCE mission
to its front line. In spite of the fact that the dividing line between
the positions of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan on the area where
the monitoring was conducted comprised less than a hundred meters,
the Azerbaijani party led the OSCE Mission to a point at a distance
of seven hundred meters from its front line, thus hampering the full
visual inspection of the mentioned zone. From the Karabakh party,
representatives of the NKR Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense
accompanied the OSCE monitoring mission.

AZERBAIJAN REJECTS KARABAKH ANY PROPOSAL ON COOPERATION
PanARMENIAN.Net
12.09.2006 18:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “There were no requests for cooperation by Azerbaijan
and in general I do not think Baku aims at establishing cooperation and
forming a constructive atmosphere,” NKR President Arkady Ghoukassian
said. In his words, Azerbaijan has other purposes: to create problems
over Karabakh and attain the international community denouncing what
is going on in Karabakh. “If Azerbaijan had suggested cooperation,
we would agree with pleasure,” the NKR President said.
In the Karabakh leader’s words, NKR authorities have addressed
similar requests to the Azeri colleagues many times, but these were
in vain. “The more we are associated with Azeris, the more there are
chances to settle the conflict. We have many problems relating to
water, fires and other matters. I am sure that border area residents
of Azerbaijan are interested in contacts as well. However, Azeri
authorities were always against this,” Ghoukassian said, reports
KarabakhOpen.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress