AZIMOV: “NOT ANY FRAME AGREEMENT BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA EXISTS”
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan –
July 3 2006
“Not any frame agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia exists. We
think that the statement made was in haste or of provocation
character. The purpose of making this statement is to make the
situation tense and forward new issues after.”
Deputy foreign minister Araz Asimov has told about it. (APA).
According to him, since the discussions have not finished it is too
early to speak about any agreement. “In the middle of the discussions
bringing of any information to the attention of public, will be
neither good to anyone, nor serve any purpose. Everybody can say
everything. Statement given by co-chairs is not right.” Araz Asimov
said that it is too early to say anything about the results. As
concerns holding of referendum in Nagorno Garabagh, Araz Azimov
said that it is only possible within laws of Azerbaijan. Territorial
integrity and border security’s taking as a base it might be held.
Today the purpose Armenia and the states supporting it is to manipulate
saying this or that word.

ARMENIANS RESIDING IN ENCLAVES IN AZERBAIJAN MAY HAVE SOME LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Author: R. Abdullayev
TREND, Azerbaijan –
July 3 2006
Al nations living in Azerbaijan, including Armenian community of
Nagorno-Karabakh, may use their right for self-determination within
the country’s territorial integrity. In particular, Armenians may
use some local governing mechanisms in their enclaves, Trend reports
quoting Araz Azimov, deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan.
“There are many models in global practice. We are ready to discuss
a new model at a certain stage to be based on the realities of this
region”, Azeri official said, outlining that first it is necessary
to release all grounds of Azerbaijan from Armenian occupation.
“Both the parties admitted that solving the status question at this
stage is not possible. It is necessary to create certain conditions
to achieve the agreement on this matter”, said Azimov.
Azeri official also said first the conditions for peaceful coexistence
of two communities in Nagorno-Karabakh shall be established. This
requires for safety to all Azerbaijanis to get back home. Besides,
Armenian forces in and around Nagorno-Karabakh shall be withdrawn
from there.

KARABAKH ISSUE TO BE TOUCHED AT WORLD SUMMIT OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS
Author: S.Agayeva
TREND, Azerbaijan
July 3 2006
The Karabakh issue will be discussed at the World Summit of religious
leaders started July 3 in Moscow, Trend reports with reference to
Caucasian Moslems Board (CMB).
Shieik-ul-Islam haji Allehshukur Pashazadeh, chairman of Caucasian
Moslems Board (CMB), that takes part at the summit, is going to call
religious leaders to solidarity in supporting Azerbaijan’s cause.
Azeri-Armenian conflict will probably be discussed at the meeting
between Pashazadeh and Catholicos of all Armenians Garegin II.
The following themes are offered for discussion at the summit: role of
development in modern society, protection and propaganda of moral and
spiritual values in today’s society and religion’s responsibility,
fighting terrorism and extremism, education and necessity in youth
treatment, role of mass media, ecological responsibility, dialog and
partnership, globalization problems and so on.
By the totals of the summit, an epistle will be approved to deliver
to the leaders of Big Eight at forthcoming Summit in St Petersburg.

IT IS INCORRECT TO MAKE STATEMENTS HALF-WAY THE PEACEFUL DIALOG ON NK CONFLICT – DEPUTY FM
Author: R. Abdullayev
TREND, Azerbaijan
July 3 2006
It is necessary to have the specific approved and coordinated document
prior to speaking of some “framework agreement”, though there is
no such, said Araz Azimov, deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan,
speaking July 3 with journalists on lat statements made by Matthew
Bryza, US co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group.
“It is incorrect to make statements half-way the peaceful dialog
as confusion may take place as a result. As seen, the opposite
side tried to use such statements”, said Azimov, underlining that
Azerbaijan will be ready to normal relations with Armenia only if
it releases all occupied grounds and have all refugees and IDPs
return home. “Namely these frames constitute Azerbaijan’s position
within Prague process. There could be no other frames or conditions”,
added Azimov.
Alongside, Azeri official called the opposite side to yield its
‘extreme position’ as no one will get all he desires. “We heard
Yerevan’s speculations many times. They do not make any sense”,
Azimov added.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJANI DAYS TO BE HELD IN CANADA – PICKET IN FRONT OF ARMENIAN EMBASSY
Author: S.Ilhamgizi
TREND, Azerbaijan
July 3 2006
Azerbaijani days will be held in Canada in September, a representative
of the Canada-Azerbaijan alliance, an Azerbaijani composer residing
in Toronto, Adil Bagirov told Trend.
The event will be organized jointly with the Azerbaijani embassy in
Canada and the State Committee on work with Azerbaijanis residing
abroad.
In accordance with the program of the event, the Azerbaijani days
will be organized in Montreal (3 days), in Toronto (3 days) and Ottawa
(1 day).
Babirov announced earlier the Canada-Azerbaijan alliance held a picket
in front of the Armenian embassy in Ottawa.

UPDATE: MOSCOW KNIFE ATTACK ON 2 ARMENIANS RE-QUALIFIED AS RACE-HATE
RIA Novosti, Russia
July 3 2006
MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow prosecutors said Monday that
the stabbing of two ethnic Armenians in the Russian capital on July
1 must be re-qualified as race-hate attack rather than hooliganism.
A representative of the Moscow prosecutor’s office said earlier Monday
that the Saturday afternoon attack on the two men, aged 23 and 26,
was “a result of a conflict with a group of 17- and 18-year-olds.”
An investigation was launched into hooliganism, a charge often brought
against suspects in assaults and similar incidents.
“The Moscow prosecutor’s office has instructed prosecutors of
Moscow subway to re-qualify the charges,” said Sergei Marchenko,
a representative of Moscow prosecutor’s office.
Police said they had taken a resident of central Russia into custody
in connection with the assault. “The detained 24-year-old resident
of Lipetsk is suspected of attacking two Armenians,” a spokesman said.
“The suspect was on the wanted list already.”
The spokesman said police was checking another group of people
suspected of involvement in the attack.
“Investigators know their names and other details,” he said.
This is another attack in a series of race-hate crimes that have
recently rocked the country.
The city of Voronezh in central Russia has seen at least seven
apparently racially motivated killings of non-white foreigners over
the past six years, including the murder of a Peruvian student last
October.
St. Petersburg has been suffering from negative publicity over alleged
neo-Nazi attacks and murders, including the killing of a student from
Senegal in April and the stabbing of a nine-year-old girl of mixed
Russian-African origin in early 2006.
In an effort to combat these extremist and xenophobic trends, Russia
set up a nationwide public movement, Our Russia, in late June. The
movement comprises politicians, entrepreneurs, figures from the arts
world and human rights activists, who will work closely with all of
Russia’s religious and cultural communities.
On June 20, Russia’s Supreme Court quashed the guilty verdict given
to a man convicted of a knife-wielding attack on a Moscow synagogue
that left nine people injured and sent his case for retrial. A lower
court had sentenced Alexander Koptsev to a 13-year prison term for
attempted murder but cleared him of instigating racial hatred.

ALIYEV: ECONOMIC STRENGTH WILL LEAD TO ADVANTAGEOUS RESOLUTION OF KARABAKH
The New Anatolian, Turkey
July 2 2006
Azerbaijan’s rapidly growing economy will permit it to resolve the
dispute with Armenia over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region
to its own advantage, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev asserted,
asserting that time is in Baku’s favor.
Aliyev’s comments late Thursday were the latest in a series of
increasingly aggressive statements on the disputed enclave, whose
status remain unresolved more than a decade after a ceasefire ended
six years of open conflict.
Azerbaijan won’t accept any resolution that “doesn’t correspond to
the country’s national interests,” said Aliyev, underlining that from
a political viewpoint, Azerbaijan’s superiority is evident and that
its military potential is also growing.
“As for the economy, we’re five times stronger than Armenia now and
in the near future our economic superiority will have increased by
10 to 20 fold,” he said. “I’m fully confident that due to this we’ll
be able to settle the Karabakh problem to our advantage.”
Stressing that Azerbaijan is willing to solve the problem by peaceful
means, Aliyev however said added that would never compensate for the
loss of its territory.
Nagorno-Karabakh is situated inside Azerbaijan, but is populated
mostly by ethnic Armenians who have run it and seven contiguous
districts since an uneasy 1994 ceasefire ended six years of full-scale
war. Sporadic border clashes regularly break out and the unresolved
conflict has held up development in the strategic region.
Pushed by international mediators, including France, the U.S. and
Russia, Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian, have
already met twice this year to try and agree on a resolution. Neither
effort yielded any results, though some observers have said the fact
that the two presidents continue to meet is positive.
Azerbaijan’s economy has grown substantially in recent years as its
vast Caspian Sea oil reserves have begun to be tapped. Aliyev said
last year that the country’s military spending was set to double to
nearly $300 million.
Foreign ministers at a G8 meeting in Moscow on Thursday called for
a prompt resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status within the year.
“We’re calling on Azerbaijan and Armenia to show the political will
to reach an agreement this year and prepare their peoples for peace
and not war,” the joint statement said.

CASE OPENED OVER ATTACK ON 2 ARMENIANS IN MOSCOW METRO
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
July 1, 2006 Saturday 05:58 PM EST
Criminal proceedings were instituted for an attack on two Armenian
citizens in the Moscow metro.
“Vache Tomasian, 20, and Varazdat Akobian, 23, who according to the
preliminary information, work as builders sought medical advice at
17.10 Moscow time on Saturday at the Moscow metro station Kuznetsky
Most,” spokesman for the Moscow prosecutor’s office Sergei Marchenko
told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
The Armenian attack victims noted that they got bodily injuries as
a result of a conflict with a group of young hooligans aged 17-18
years at the metro station. One Armenian got a knife hand injury and
another one got a bodily sliver.
The prosecutor’s office of the Moscow metro instituted criminal
proceedings under Article 213 of the Criminal Code for hooliganism.
“The investigation into the case is underway, the search operation
for young people involved in the crime is in progress,” the spokesman
for the prosecutor’s office said.

CINEMA: LA PROMENEUSE D’EREVAN
par Marie-Aimee Bonnefoy
Charente Libre , France
1 juillet 2006
Avec Ariane Ascaride, sa compagne et fidèle interprète, Guediguian
retrouve le fil de ses origines. Le plus marseillais des Armeniens
part pour un periple au pays de ses ancetres et son Voyage en Armenie
commence evidemment du côte de l’Estaque.
Anna y est cardiologue. Après l’avoir ausculte, elle annonce a son
père, Barsam, qu’il doit subir une operation. Mais celui-ci disparaît,
laissant des indices pour que sa fille vienne le retrouver la ou il
est. Voila la rigide Anna, obligee de partir dans un pays qu’elle
ne connaît pas et n’a nulle envie de connaître. Or dès lors qu’elle
atterrit a Erevan, elle realise qu’elle n’est pas la uniquement
pour retrouver son fugueur de père mais pour etre confrontee a son
armenite…
Le propos de Guediguian est personnel. Rien a voir avec Le promeneur
du Champ-de-Mars qui dressait un portrait subjectif de Mitterrand
a la veille de sa mort. Il a ici realise un film a son usage sans
doute pour apprendre a aimer et tolerer ce qu’est devenue la terre
de ses aïeux. S’il est sincère, Guediguian est toutefois maladroit
dans la facon de bâtir une intrigue. Les rencontres d’Anna semblent
aussi artificielles que les peripeties policières qui arrivent aux
personnages.
Sans doute l’histoire n’etait-elle pas la priorite du realisateur
que l’on sait depuis toujours engage a gauche. Elle etait juste un
pretexte aux decouvertes: les difficultes des petites gens depuis la
fin du communisme, la survivance de la foi dans ce qui fut le premier
royaume chretien, l’attachement au mont Ararat situe en territoire
turc… Mais aussi l’emergence d’une nouvelle economie mafieuse,
capitalisme du troisième type qu’Anna nomme l’internationalisme de
la saloperie
Guediguian constate et analyse. Il est genereux et vrai. Il evite
tout jugement hâtif et sait faire entendre tous les points de vue.
Mais son discours tombe vite dans une demonstration un peu trop
didactique. Son film de deux heures aurait gagne a etre plus concis,
il aurait tout autant convaincu et davantage persuade.
Voyage en Armenie de Robert Guediguian avec Ariane Asacaride et Gerard
Meylan, salle Nemo Angouleme.
GRAPHIQUE: Dans Voyage en Armenie avec Ariane Ascaride, Guediguian
retrouve le fil de ses origines * repro CL
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ROBERT GUEDIGUIAN, L’HOMME AUX MULTIPLES CULTURES
De notre redaction de Tours
La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest
01 juillet 2006
Robert Guediguian etait jeudi a Tours pour presenter son dernier film
” Le Voyage en Armenie “.
L’homme est a l’image de ses films, chaleureux, amical. Lors d’une
rencontre avec le public des Studio a Tours, ce petit-fils d’Armenien,
Marseillais de coeur, a explique comment l’idee de ce ” voyage ”
lui a ete suggeree par Ariane Ascaride.
Comment vous est venue l’idee du ” Voyage en Armenie ” ?
” Ce film m’a ete suggere par ma femme, Ariane Ascaride. Ariane a eu
l’idee de depart, elle voulait faire un film sur son père napolitain.
En meme temps, l’Armenie m’avait invite, pour une retrospective de mes
films en 2001. Et la-bas, le contact est passe. L’Armenie est un petit
pays devenu independant en 1990, un pays pauvre, qui recherche les
enfants de la diaspora comme moi. Ils sont a la recherche d’artistes,
de footballeurs, de sportifs d’origine armenienne, cela peut se
comprendre.
” Mais ce qui m’a le plus surpris, c’est que l’on me venère la-bas :
on m’a arrete dans la rue, offert des fleurs coupees… J’ai realise
que j’etais très connu, alors que je n’etais jamais alle la-bas. Et
on m’a suggere de faire un film en Armenie. J’avoue, j’ai craque.
Puis Ariane a transpose son histoire dans ce pays, elle a ecrit le
scenario, avec Marie Desplechin et moi. Voici comment est ne ” Le
Voyage en Armenie “. ”
Le tournage s’est realise dans de bonnes conditions ?
” Oui, j’ai tourne avec des acteurs francais et armeniens. L’Armenie
a une grande tradition d’acteurs et d’actrices, meme si le cinema
armenien est encore embryonnaire. Je leur ai dit qu’il faudrait
que les gens se mettent a tourner dans la rue. L’Armenie cherche
actuellement a produire des films avec ses voisins, comme la Georgie,
où le cinema est plus developpe. J’espère que mes films, qui sont
projetes en Armenie depuis toujours, vont y susciter des vocations. ”
” Je suis francais, armenien et aussi marseillais ”
Ce film sort dans une periode, notamment en France, où les idees
identitaires regagnent du terrain. Cela ne vous gene-t-il pas ?
” Si, les questions identitaires actuelles en France, et pas
seulement en France, ne sont pas très jolies, elles me semblent
regressives, reactionnaires. En realite, beaucoup de gens ont
une double identite, moi par exemple, qui suis francais, armenien
et aussi marseillais. Marseille est un bon exemple du melange des
cultures. Nous portons tous en nous plusieurs cultures. C’est ce qui
fait notre richesse. ”
L’Armenie, c’est aussi la reconnaissance du genocide armenien. Un
sujet sensible, la aussi. La Turquie finira-t-elle par se prononcer
sans ambiguïte sur cette question ?
” Aujourd’hui, la Turquie met la pression pour rentrer au sein de
l’Union europeenne. Elle finira bien par reconnaître le genocide
armenien. Seulement, elle est passee de l’empire ottoman a une
republique nationaliste pure et dure, comme si elle etait un pays
homogène. La Turquie a aussi ses extremistes. Mais je crois maintenant
que sur cette question armenienne, la Turquie est reellement divisee
en deux. ”
” Le voyage en Armenie ” sera-t-il projete en Turquie ?
” Oui, mes films passent en salle en Turquie, et celui-ci y passera
aussi. Je suis d’ailleurs en pourparlers avec la Turquie pour
participer a un festival. Et puis, ce film est moins un film politique
qu’un film sur l’humain. Chacun peut se reconnaître, quelle que soit
son origine, sa nationalite. Je pense que c’est une chambre d’echos
de toutes les problematiques. ”
Quel sera votre prochain film ?
” J’y travaille. Il se passera a Marseille, ma ville de coeur. ”
GRAPHIQUE: Image: Robert Guediguian.
Image: Ariane Ascaride et son père – dans le film – Marcel Bluwal,
lors du tournage du ” Voyage en Armenie “.
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