STATEMENT OF THE OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIR COUNTRIES
Lragir.am
08 Sept 06
Sixtieth Session of the UN General Assembly
Agenda Item 40, “The situation in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan”
The Russian Federation, France, and the United States of America, as
the Co-Chair countries of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group, remain committed to promoting a
peaceful, negotiated resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In
this capacity, we take with great seriousness concerns raised by
either side to the conflict regarding threats to the security and
stability of the region, as well as any developments that pose new
obstacles to the negotiation process.
Accordingly, we have examined closely the information provided by the
Government of Azerbaijan regarding fires in the eastern part of the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. We
also note the report of the Personal Representative of the
Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, who, at the request of the Government
of Azerbaijan and direction of the Chairman-in-Office, has carried
out a monitoring mission to the affected areas. We note, in
particular, that fires of both natural and manmade origin are a
regular occurrence in the region in question. The question of whether
more extensive fires this year are a cause of ecological concern
requiring international attention to their suppression is one that
can only be answered through a technical examination of the
situation.
Therefore, the Co-Chairs stand ready, together with the Personal
Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, to lend their
immediate assistance to the organization of an OSCE mission, with the
support and expertise of the United Nations Environmental Programme,
and to report to the UN General Assembly 011 the results of the
mission, as requested in the present resolution, as well as to the
OSCE.
We commend the spirit of goodwill demonstrated by both Armenia and
Azerbaijan in agreeing to cooperate to address the situation raised
through this resolution. We hope the agreement reached today reflects
a new readiness by both sides to engage in further measures to build
confidence that will advance the process of negotiations, and we will
redouble our efforts, through the OSCE’s Minsk Group, to promote such
activities.
Mr. President, we note that over the past two years, the Co-Chairs of
the Minsk Group have worked intensively with the Foreign Ministers
and Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to identify core principles
of an agreement that would lead to a just and lasting settlement. Our
nations, reinforced by the voices of the Group of Eight leading
nations at their summit in St. Petersburg in July, have called on the
Presidents of both Armenia and Azerbaijan to accept now these core
principles as a basis for resolution of the conflict, and to prepare
their publics for peace, and not war. We reiterate that call today
and restate the readiness of our governments to lend full support to
the achievement and implementation of a peace agreement.

V.OSKANIAN: SYRIAN MUFTI’S VISIT TO ARMENIA TESTIFIES TO FRIENDSHIP
BETWEEN THE TWO NATIONS
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 7 2006
YEREVAN, September 7. /ARKA/. On Wednesday Armenian Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian during his meeting with the Syrian clergy delegation,
headed by Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badr Al-din Hassuni, said that their
visit to Armenia testified to friendship between the two nations and
existence of dialogue between the religions.
Press and Information Department of the RA Foreign Ministry informed
ARKA Agency that during the meeting emphasizing high level of bilateral
relations, the sides pointed out the fact of absence of political
discrepancy between Armenia and Syria.
Al-din Hassuni spoke well of friendly relations and cooperation
between the two states, pointing out the importance of the role of the
Armenian community in Syria and its contribution to the development
of the country.
The interlocutors also touched upon regional issues; including the
situation is Lebanon, process of peace talks over the settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. S.P.-0–

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER RECEIVES U.S. AMBASSADOR IN CONNECTION WITH
COMPLETION OF HIS DIPLOMATIC MISSION
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 7 2006
YEREVAN, September 7. /ARKA/. Armenian Foreign Minister received
Wednesday U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans in connection with
the completion of his diplomatic mission.
The foreign ministry’s press service reported that they pointed out
that over the two years of Evans’ work in Armenia, a tangible progress
in the Armenian-American relations has been observed.
At the same time, Oskanyan and Evans expressed confidence that new
initiatives and spheres will be further included in the agenda of
the bilateral cooperation of the two countries.
The foreign minister thanked the ambassador for his contribution
to the Armenian-American relations, and wished Evans luck in this
further activity. R.O. -0–

OSCE YEREVAN OFFICE ORGANIZES PRESENTATION OF RESULTS OF RESEARCH ON
TRAFFICKING IN ARMENIA ON SEPTEMBER 8
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 7 2006
YEREVAN, September 7. /ARKA/. The OSCE Yerevan office organizes a
presentation of results of 2 researches on trafficking in Armenia on
September 8.
On Thursday Press and Public Affairs Department of the OSCE Yerevan
office informed ARAK News Agency that during the event the Armenia
Sociological Association would present “Sociological Research:
Illegal Trade and Labor Exploitation of Armenia Migrants”.
Besides that, the Union of Armenia Aid will hold a presentation on the
theme of “Children in Children’s Homes and Special Schools of Armenia:
Potential Victims of Trafficking and Exploitation”.
The U.S. Department for Struggle against Drugs and Low-Enforcement
Cooperation rendered financial assistance during elaboration of
these researches.
Vladimir Pryakhin, ambassador and head of the OSCE Yerevan Office,
the Chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission for Struggle against
Trafficking, Head of International Organizations’ Department of the RA
Foreign Ministry Valery Mkrtumyan and Blanca Khanchilova responsible
for issues of democracy of the OSCE Yerevan office will make a speeches
during the event. S.P.-0-

Reuters, UK
Sept 7 2006
Senate panel backs U.S. Armenia envoy nominee
Thu Sep 7, 2006 2:36pm ET
Politics News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Senate panel backed President George W.
Bush’s pick for ambassador to Armenia on Thursday after an
impassioned debate over the administration’s withdrawal of the
previous ambassador who described Turkey’s 1915-1923 assault on
Armenia as genocide.
Several members said the committee should reject Richard Hoagland to
protest the administration decision to recall John Evans in May after
he asserted the killing of 1.5 million Armenians during the Ottoman
Empire should be called genocide.
U.S. administrations have avoided that term in order not to offend
Turkey, a key ally.
“In Darfur we are witnessing the first genocide of the 21st century
and the Bush administration called it that,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer,
a California Democrat. Boxer said she could not support Hoagland
“until we call the first genocide of the 20th century by its rightful
name.”
At his confirmation hearing, Hoagland avoided using the term
genocide.
The committee approved Hoagland’s nomination 13-5, advancing it for a
full Senate vote.
Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, said no one
was questioning Hoagland’s credentials and said rejecting a qualified
nominee “because of concerns of U.S. policy toward that country would
set a troubling precedent.”
While Turkey has acknowledged that atrocities were committed, it
contends there was not an intention to eradicate Armenians so it was
not genocide.
The Bush administration is trying to patch relations with Turkey,
which it holds up as a model of democracy among Islamic countries,
after they were frayed by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said to withdraw an
ambassador “because he uttered the word genocide is to kow-tow” to
other countries. “I think the vote is bigger and more important than
just Ambassador Hoagland and that’s why I’ll vote ‘no’.”
But Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich said he felt the
administration was justified in recalling Evans.
“By golly, if they recalled a person because of this, it had to be
something really, really important in terms of this country’s
relationship with Turkey,” Voinovich said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenians at Home
By Kevin Matthews
UCLA International Institute, CA
Sept 7 2006
“That’s where the village was,” locals said, pointing at mounds of
earth. “That’s where the church was.”A history teacher and curriculum
coach at Glendale High School, where roughly half of the multiethnic
student population is Armenian, Nancy Witt says she attends training
sessions at UCLA partly to keep up with her students-not just the
subjects she’s been teaching for 14 years. At an Aug. 8 session led by
UCLA Professor Richard G. Hovannisian, the discussion centered on the
changing character of Armenian immigrants who have arrived in Southern
California from various spots in the Ottoman Empire, Arab Middle East,
Iran, the Caucasus region, and Europe over more than a century.
Armenians traveled far and wide: the next UCLA conference to be
organized by Hovannisian and the UCLA Armenian Studies Program will
focus on Armenian trade and communities in and around the Indian
Ocean. Still, Southern California and Greater Los Angeles have the
highest concentration of ethnic Armenians outside of the Republic of
Armenia. At the session, Hovannisian highlighted diversity within
a local minority group that has been broadly but unevenly affected
by migrations and a genocide perpetrated in the last years of the
Ottoman Empire.
Just back from his first-ever trip to eastern Turkey, to ancestral
Armenian land where his parents were born and where reminders of the
1915 genocide persist, Hovannisian also had new stories to recount.
The Aug. 8 session was part of a five-day workshop for educators
organized by the UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies and
supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, by the UCLA
History-Geography Project, and by the California Geographic Alliance
at UCLA. Under this year’s theme of “Migration,” the workshop included
curriculum planning and three history lessons by UCLA faculty. CEES and
other member centers of the International Institute regularly sponsor
K-12 training workshops. In turn, teachers in leadership positions
such as Witt’s use the experience to train and assist colleagues.
Remains Hovannisian, who holds the Armenian Educational Foundation
Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA, visits Armenia regularly and
has traveled around the Middle East and to Istanbul, but his recent
two-week trip to eastern Turkey was different. He was “going back
to see a civilization that doesn’t exist,” he explained to about 15
LA-area teachers.
“That’s where the village was,” locals would tell him, pointing
at mounds of earth. “That’s where the church was.” Disturb the
surface of the Syrian desert, where much of the killing took place,
Hovannisian said, and you immediately find human bones. On this trip,
he traveled with a Turkish colleague, something that would have been
almost unthinkable twenty or thirty years back, he said.
The Armenian Genocide began in 1915 as the Ottoman Empire sought
scapegoats for the defeats of World War I. By 1923, when the Republic
of Turkey was founded, massacres and deadly forced marches had reduced
a pre-WWI population of some two million Armenians in the empire
to about 200,000. Fewer than 75,000 live in Turkey now, and almost
exclusively in Istanbul. The holocaust’s legacies include repetitions
(“Who remembers the Armenians?” Hitler said to his generals before
invading Poland), the travels and traumas of survivors, denials by
the Turkish government, and failures by others to acknowledge the
enormity of the facts.
In the latest U.S. chapter of this tale, members of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee have been unable to get the State Department to say
whether the Bush administration’s recall in May of U.S. Ambassador
to Armenia John Evans was related to Evans’ public and pointed
uses of the G-word in early 2005, in place of officially sanctioned
descriptors such as “tragedy” and “calamity.” A delayed hearing on the
nomination of Evans’ replacement is set for today, Sept. 7. According
to Hovannisian, Evans acknowledged the Armenian Genocide both at a
faculty luncheon and a public event on Feb. 17, 2005.
Over some of his more than 40 years at UCLA, Hovannisian and colleagues
gathered taped testimony from some 800 genocide survivors, all but
a very few of them now deceased. More recently, he reports, the
long project has advanced. The entire archive has been digitized,
about half of the interviews have been transcribed, and perhaps 100
have been translated from the relevant languages–Armenian, Turkish,
Arabic, Russian.
Three Waves Hovannisian’s focus for the Aug. 8 session was on Armenians
who eventually came to Southern California-beginning with a few
agricultural workers who arrived in the San Joaquin Valley in the
last decades of the nineteenth century. A pre-WWI U.S. population of
less than 40,000, concentrated in New York and New England, swelled
after the genocide, reaching 100,000 by the time of the restrictive
Immigration Act of 1924.
Two more large “waves” of immigrants would affect the development of
communities such as Glendale. After World War II, Armenians began an
exodus from the Middle East, fleeing turmoil and rising nationalism.
Emigration from Iran, where Armenians had lived for centuries
in relative quiet, spiked after the 1979 revolution. Finally, the
numbers of Armenians leaving the Soviet Union from the 1970s increased
dramatically following the unraveling of the USSR in 1991.
So Glendale, for example, is populated largely by Iranian and,
more recently, former Soviet Armenians with very different cultural
heritages-­their cuisines, dialects, and behavioral patterns. In
contrast to the more recent post-Soviet immigrants, many Armenians
of Iranian descent arrived with significant financial assets and a
family tree untouched by the genocide.
“We’ve got the waves,” Witt said. According to Witt, the Glendale
district has put resources into educating high school teachers
about the Armenian Genocide. Last year, a group of tenth grade world
history teachers visited Washington, D.C., to hear Hovannisian and
other scholars on the subject.
Photo: UCLA historian Richard Hovannisian instructs local K-12
teachers on more than a century of Armenian migrations to Southern
California and elsewhere. His archive of interviews with 800 survivors
of the Armenian Genocide is now digitized, with transcriptions and
translations in the works.
–Boundary_(ID_QPBApC0oAZWIge3QuCdr7g)–

World Bank issues report on the ease of doing business in 175 countries
Regnum, Russia
Sept 7 2006
The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation have released
a report Doing Business 2007, reports REGNUM correspondent. The report
ranks 175 countries as to the ease of doing business there.
In terms of attractiveness for business, Kyrgyzstan has gone up from
104th to 90th place from 2005 and is now more attractive than Turkey,
China and Russia, but less attractive than Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
Georgia has jump up from 112th to 37th, Kazakhstan from 82nd to
62nd place. Now the leaders of the region are: Armenia (34), Georgia
(37) and Kazakhstan (62). Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have the worst
positions among the CIS countries – 133rd and 147th, respectively.
Russia is 96th – lower than China, but higher than Brazil and India.
Ukraine and Belarus are 128th and 129th, respectively.
The top reformers are Georgia, Romania, Mexico and China. In the CIS
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia
and Ukraine have carried out, at least, one reform. Tajikistan have
carried out no reforms, while Uzbekistan has made business an even
harder job for its companies.
The report gives a review of the reforms carried out in the past
year. For example, Georgia reduced the size of the minimum capital
required for starting a business from 2,000 to 200 lari ($85).
Business registration rose by 20% between 2005 and 2006. Reforms in
customs and the border police simplified border procedures. It took 54
days to meet all the administrative requirements to export in 2004 –
it now takes 13.
Armenia brought together the procedures of new business registration
in tax authorities and social security funds thereby reducing the
time of new business starting by one day. The country softened the
requirements for construction business licensing and simplified the
property rights transfer procedure. Armenia enhanced the rights of
creditors by allowing them to claim guarantees outside courts.
Kyrgyzstan introduced a fixed noratial tariff for land transfer
contract certification. The tariff has replaced an interest
honorarium. This reform has reduced the cost of property right
transfer from 5.25% to 1.99% of the cost of the property. The country
also allowed non-court guarantee and pledge claims, which has made it
easier for creditors to get back their debts. The period of compulsory
employee dismissal notification was reduced from two to one month.
Azerbaijan simplified the documentation requirements and reduced the
time of new business registration – from 115 to 53 days. The country
revised the Civil Code and enlarged the rights of creditors to claim
their unpaid debts. From now on, seized property will be sold through
a public auction. This makes the sale maximally profitable.
Russia reduced the single social tax and the size of pension
allocations and abolished 3 taxes: tax on securities, tax on the use of
“Russia” and “Russian Federation” and tax on forest. Besides, in Moscow
they will no longer demand that new businesses register their seals.
Ukraine formed a single body for new business registration: now
the procedures of registration in the pension, social security and
employment funds, in the fund of insurance against industrial accidents
and in the tax authorities (except for the registration for VAT) will
be carried out by one body. As a result, the number of steps for new
business registration has been reduced from 15 to 10 and the time –
from 34 days to 33 days.
Moldova reduced the number of licenses for business or commercial
activity from 400 to 128 and lowered the corporation income tax from
20% in 2004 to 18% in 2005 and 15% in 2006.
The first credit bureau of Kazakhstan has begun issuing crediting
reports on potential borrowers. Today, the bureau has information
(both negative – non-payment of loans, and positive – timely payment)
on 5.5% of Kazakhstan’s population. It gets the information from 29
commercial banks.
Belarus lowered the turnover tax from 3.9% to 3% and the transport tax
from 4% to 3%, but has much to do yet in tax reforms: if a company
in Belarus pays all the required taxes, it will have to pay 186%
of its profit. Belarus also sped up the process of new business
registration by obliging the committee registering new companies to
meet every week rather than once in two weeks. At the same time, the
country took a step back by prohibiting creditors to register their
pledge claims at notary’s office. Now they have to appeal to court.
Uzbekistan has made things worse for its business. The country imposed
a new tax on business – compulsory allocation to the school education
development fund. As a result, the tax burden on local companies has
grown from 106.3% to 122.3% of their profit. The local creditors have
become less protected in bankruptcy cases.
The report says that the key problems in the region are red-tape
in trade and complicated tax system. For example, in Kazakhstan
the export of a product takes 93 days and requires 14 documents. In
Belarus tax payments make up 186% of local companies’ profits, while
the procedures of their registration take 1,188 working hours.
The key indicators of the report are how much time and money is needed
for a new company to prepare all necessary documents, its activities,
trade operations, taxes and closing procedures.

Turkiye, Turkey
(via Turkish press)
Sept 7 2006
Who Do The Armenians Think They Are?
Published: 9/7/2006
BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- The European Parliament gave a young Dutch MEP, who wants to
make his career from Turkey, the task of preparing a report on
Turkey. I can’t remember another report so ridiculous. His intentions
are bad. It seems that cleverer politicians have misled this young
MEP. Moreover, he claims to be a friend of the Turks.
He says Turkey has to accept the so-called Armenian genocide. We were
surprised to see Armenia in Turkey’s EU progress report. Those who
are unable or more reluctant to make Armenia withdraw from
Azerbaijan’s soil are criticizing our policies. How many times do we
have to say it? ‘If the Armenians withdraw from Azerbaijan soil, then
we would develop every relation with Armenia.’ Armenia would become a
prosperous state in two years if we opened its doors to the world.
Even simpletons know that there are many Armenians working illicitly
in Istanbul.
But the Armenians think that this is the opportunity to form their
‘greater Armenia.’ The Kurds also think that they are close to
forming their ‘greater Kurdistan.’ The PKK has become more violent.
Barzani lowered the Iraqi flag. What’s happening? What do they
believe? I should say it: They believe Turkey won’t stay on the US
side in a war with Iran. They thing Washington will break off its
relations with Turkey in such a case, and think that the Kurds and
the Armenians would then have an opportunity. They are calculating
that Turkey wouldn’t be considered in the Middle East. They think
that such a Turkey would benefit both the Arabs and Iran. But Turkish
foreign policy would never be based on such a scenario. A few Turkish
mistakes shouldn’t inspire Armenian and Kurdish fantasies. We already
got sunk into our debate over sending troops to Lebanon. We shouldn’t
get stuck in a small part of the big game. We shouldn’t work for
something impossible like finding a solution to the Palestinian
problem. We shouldn’t make even one small mistake in the realities of
foreign policy.

Armenian Foreign Minister Hails Syria’s Stances
SANA – Syrian Arab News Agency, Syria
Sept 7 2006
Thursday, September 07, 2006 – 04:35 PM
YEREVAN, (SANA) – Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan hailed
Syria’s supporting stances and help to Armenia during the difficult
past years.
Receiving the Syrian Grand Mufti of the Republic Ahmad Bader Hassoun,
Mr. Oskanyan stressed his country continuous support to the Arab
issues, particularly the Palestinian Cause.
For his part, the Grand Mufti underlined the importance of cooperation
among all countries and peoples to work to achieve the peace in
the world, pointing out to the strong relation connecting the two
friendly countries.
Talks during the meeting also dealt with the cordial and hearty
relations between the two friendly countries.

Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
Sept 7 2006
First Armenian Church plans Rally Day
Thursday, September 7, 2006
The First Armenian Church welcomes returning families and new friends
for the opening of the 2006-2007 Sunday School year on Sunday, Sept.
10 at 10:30 a.m.
The worship service begins at 10:30 a.m. with family worship, with
children invited forward each Sunday for a fun and meaningful message
designed just for them. Afterwards the children, ages pre-K through
high school, go to their respective classes where the curriculum
is Bible-based Christian material designed to make learning about
God’s love and grace in Jesus personally accessible, challenging and
enjoyable for each student.
Each week the church provides nutritional refreshments for the
children and once a month a luncheon is available. On Rally Sunday,
there will be a brunch for all the children.
This year the church welcomes from California a new ministry intern,
Razmig Minassian and his wife, Jennifer, who will be teaching the
high school students. Mr. Minassian is a recent graduate of Talbot
School of Theology, and Jennifer, from Biola University.
Members of the community are welcome to attend.