Karabakh leader urges Azerbaijan not to go to war

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
1 Sep 06
The leader of Nagornyy Karabakh has accused Azerbaijan of intimidating
this republic and harbouring “foolish and revengeful plans”. In an
address on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Karabakh’s
independence, Arkadiy Gukasyan urged Azerbaijan to resolve all issues
at the negotiating table, no matter how complicated they were. Also
speaking at the festivities, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Markaryan said that Armenia’s main goal was to prevent a war.
The following is an excerpt from Gukasyan’s and Markaryan’s speeches
broadcast live by Nagornyy Karabakh Public TV and rebroadcast live by
Armenian Public TV on 1 September:
[Arkadiy Gukasyan, the president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic]
Dear Armenian Prime Minister, the Holy Father, guests, ladies and
gentlemen! Fifteen years have passed since the memorable day on 2
September 1991 when a joint session of the parliaments of the Nagornyy
Karabakh Autonomous Region and Shaumyan District proclaimed the
independence of Nagornyy Karabakh.
[Passage omitted: on the way Karabakh has gone through over these
years] The Azerbaijani leadership is trying to put back the clock and
is threatening us with its military budget growth at the expense of
oil dollars. We heard these kinds of threats in the past as
well. During the years of the Karabakh movement our neighbours
intimidated us in different ways, including Azerbaijan’s erroneous
arguments, its population of eight million, favourable geopolitical
position and now with jihad.
This kind of behaviour of the Azerbaijani authorities is
pointless. The Karabakh conflict cannot be settled militarily. War
will only bring new losses and terrible suffering to both peoples. I
urge Azerbaijan to give up their foolish, suicidal and revengeful
plans and to resolve all issues, no matter how complicated they are,
at the negotiating table. Karabakh’s foreign policy is aimed in the
first place at solving the conflict peacefully together with
Azerbaijan.
In fact, the Nagornyy Karabakh people’s fight for independence is at
the same time a fight for establishing democratic norms both inside
our own state and in the whole region. Azerbaijan’s bellicose
statements calling for a military solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict can be explained by the lack of democracy in Azerbaijan. I
believe that international observers, who are trying to draw up
mutually acceptable plans to resolve the Karabakh conflict, also
expect Azerbaijan to display a constructive position on the settlement
of the conflict during the negotiating processes. [Passage omitted:
repetition]
If the current settlement of the conflict has reached deadlock, this
has happened as a result of the Azerbaijani leadership’s
non-constructive position, and it is not the fault of Armenia or
Nagornyy Karabakh. Azerbaijan has not realized yet the realities of
the modern world, and by threatening to resume hostilities it wants to
resolve the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict with the help of others. A
resolution to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict is possible only through
mutual compromise, and the leaders of the conflicting sides have to
display courage and political will to that end. At the same time, a
peace agreement should not call into question the historical choice of
the Karabakh people.
I can assure you that Karabakh is ready to start a direct and
constructive dialogue with Azerbaijan without any precondition. I
believe that this format of negotiations is more normal and that it
complies with the essence of the conflict. If Baku prefers solving the
problem militarily and takes this foolish step, then it will receive a
worthy response from the defence army of Nagornyy Karabakh which is
capable of ensuring the safety of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic and
its people.
[Passage omitted: on achievements over the period of cease-fire]
[Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan] Dear compatriots, I
congratulate you on the Independence Day of Nagornyy Karabakh on
behalf of Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, National Assembly
Chairman Tigran Torosyan and the Armenian government.
[Passage omitted: Markaryan on the Karabakh people’s fight for
independence] [Markaryan] The Armenian people will support you. Your
success is our success. We are also worried about any threats made
against the Karabakh people.
Our main goal is to prevent a war. We do not want to give away our
success, which we have achieved at the cost of our blood, to others at
the negotiating table.
We have two options – Nagornyy Karabakh should either reunite with
Armenia or establish an independent state.
[Passage omitted: heads of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as the
defence minister of Nagornyy Karabakh and representatives of public
organizations delivered speeches]

Azerbaijan protests independence parade in breakaway region

ANS TV, Baku
2 Sep 06
[Presenter] A holiday was marked today on the Azerbaijani land
occupied by Armenians. The separatists of Nagornyy Karabakh celebrated
the 15th anniversary of the occupation and of the republic that they
had set up there. Baku believes that this is nothing more than an
attempt to wreck the talks.

[Correspondent] Armenians have marked the 15th anniversary of the
separatist regime set up in Nagornyy Karabakh. They even held a
military parade. [Video showed Russian TV footage]

Members of the separatist regimes of [Moldova’s] Dniester, [Georgia’s]
South Ossetia and Abkhazia also arrived in Xankandi [Stepanakert].

[Passage omitted: more details of the celebrations]

TV channels of Russia, which has undertaken a role within the OSCE
Minsk Group to mediate a settlement to the Karabakh conflict, have
demonstrated support for the self-styled regime. Russia TV’s “Vesti”
news programme presented the self-proclaimed republic as an
independent entity, separate from Azerbaijan. Have a look, this is
what they showed – Nagornyy Karabakh as an independent entity and
Arkadiy Gukasyan as its president.

A reporter of the news programme, Marina Aleksandrova, sees nothing
wrong in this.

[Russian journalist by telephone] There are Abkhazia and Dniester. We
usually present these two entities exactly the same way as Nagornyy
Karabakh. These are similar conflicts.

[Passage omitted: more about Russia TV channels’ reports on Karabakh]

[Correspondent] There should also be measures in place to prevent
international structures from questioning Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity.

[Akif Nagi, head of the Karabakh Liberation Organization] The USA’s
first ambassador to Armenia has recently sent a message congratulating
them on their independence. This shows this country’s attitude. These
people are government officials, and the authorities should not keep
aloof as though they have nothing to do with the issue. [Passage
omitted: reiteration of similar ideas]

[Corespondent] The head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s
Information and Press Department, Tahir Tagizada, believes that
celebrations like these in the occupied region of Nagornyy Karabakh
have a negative impact on the negotiations. Both the separatist regime
and Armenia and international organizations should understand that
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity cannot be a subject of talks and
that Baku will never cede even an inch of its land.

Tagizada also said that a letter by Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan to the leadership of the self-styled republic demonstrating
support had once again shown that Yerevan was not interested in
constructive negotiations.

Afat Telmanqizi, ANS.

Nagornyy Karabakh calls for direct talks with Azerbaijan

Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian 0501 gmt 2 Sep 06

The leader of Azerbaijan’s breakaway province of Nagornyy Karabakh has
called for direct talks with Baku, Arminfo news agency has said.
In his address at the festivities to mark the 15th anniversary of
Nagornyy Karabakh’s secession from Azerbaijan, Arkadiy Gukasyan said:
“I want to confirm readiness of the Karabakh side to conduct a direct
and constructive dialogue with Azerbaijan without any preconditions. I
regard this format of talks as
more natural because it reflects the essence of the problem.”
Gukasyan recalled that in 1994 Azerbaijan had signed a cease-fire
agreement with Nagornyy Karabakh, the agency said. “In doing so, the
Azerbaijani leadership in fact recognized Nagornyy Karabakh as a fully
legitimate side to the conflict denying this today,” he added.
The agency quoted Gukasyan as saying that bellicose calls could be
explained by the lack of democracy in Azerbaijan. He said that the
settlement of the conflict is possible only through mutual
compromises. “The Karabakh problem cannot be settled militarily. The
war will only bring new losses and suffering to both peoples. I call
on the Azerbaijani side to give up crazy and suicidal revanchist plans
and to resolve all issues, no matter how complicated they are, at the
negotiating table.”

Azerbaijan holding talks with countries of Central Asia on Kars-Akhalkalak
rail project

ArmRadio.am
02.09.2006 14:33
The Azerbaijani side is holding active talks with Kazakhstan and other
countries on the issue of participation in the Kars-Akhalkalak rail
project. The railroad will be constructed in two years, Azeri Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told the journalists. He noted also that he
intends to visit the countries of Central Asia to hold consultations
on the question.

Arkady Ghukasyan: Declaration of NKR was the only salvation for Artsakh

ArmRadio.am
02.09.2006 15:46
Today the NKR governmental delegation headed by President Arkady
Ghukasyan, RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, other guests from
Armenia, Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Artsakhi people headed
for the communal grave to pay tribute to the memory of those killed in
the national-liberation war in Artsakh. Analyzing and assessing the
way passed in the past 15 years, NKR President Arkady Ghukasyan noted,
`The most important is that we have reached our objective ` we have
won the war, have constructed a state and are now developing it. And
we are confident we have not been mistaken. In his words, the
declaration of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was the only salvation
for Karabakh; otherwise Artsakh would face the fate of Nakhijevan.
From: Baghdasarian

Armenian minister, Belgian senator discuss ties

Arminfo
2 Sep 06

Yerevan, 2 September: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan met
the head of the commission on defence and foreign affairs of the
Belgian Senate, Roelants du Vivier Francois, today.
At the meeting Oskanyan highly rated the Belgian Senate’s effort to
raise the Armenian question in Belgium and its tangible contribution
to the development of relations between Armenia and Belgium.
The Belgian senator pointed out that Armenian-Belgian cooperation was
developing successfully in several directions. He also shared with
Oskanyan his impression of his visit to Nagornyy Karabakh and his
approach to the peaceful solution of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
At the request of the guest, the Armenian foreign minister briefed him
on the current stage of the Karabakh conflict settlement. The sides
also discussed developing cooperation between Armenia and Belgium
within the framework of the programme Expanded Europe: New Neighbours
and the current developments in the region, as well as
Armenian-Turkish relations.

The question of recalling Andrzey Kasprzyk is not on the agenda

ArmRadio.am
02.09.2006 16:00
The question of recalling Andrzey Kasprzyk is not on the agenda, Azeri
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammdayarov responded to the question of
`Turan’ agency whether Azerbaijani authorities intend to raise the
question of refusing from the cooperation with the Personal
Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzey Kasprzyk.
To remind, earlier a number of Azeri officials openly criticized
Kasprzyk for he didn’t denounce the Armenians for the fires on the
occupied territories.
Simultaneously, mass media started condemning Kasprzyk of his
pro-Armenian position.

Israel buys German nuclear-capable submarines

AP
8/25/2006 10:00:00 AM GMT
Israel purchased two German-made Dolphin submarines, called U212s,
capable of carrying nuclear heads, the Associated Press reported.

The new submarines, built at a cost of $1.3 billion with Germany
paying one-third of the bill, have diesel-electric propulsion systems
that allow them to remain underwater for longer periods of time than
the three nuclear arms-capable submarines already in Israel’s fleet,
the Jerusalem Post reported.

According to Jane’s Defense Weekly, the U212s can carry a crew of 35,
have a range of 4,500 kilometers and can launch cruise missiles
carrying nuclear warheads.

The German defense ministry said the sale agreement between Israel and
the manufacturers, Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG, was signed on July
6, and that the subs would be operational shortly.

Military experts believe that Israel’s purchase of nuclear-capable
submarines sends a clear message to Iran, which is facing growing
international pressure over its nuclear program.

David Menashri, an Israeli expert on Iran, claimed that Tehran is
clearly determined to obtain nuclear weapons and “the purchase of
additional Dolphin submarines by Israel is a small footnote in this
context.”

Iran, which unlike Israel is a signatory to the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), insists that its nuclear program is
for the peaceful generation of electricity.

The latest submarines would allow Israel to carry out a first strike
at the time it chooses and also provide it with crucial second-strike
capabilities, said Paul Beaver, a London-based independent defense
analyst.

Israel already have the that capability in the form of the Jericho-1
and Jericho-2 nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, which are buried so
far underground they would survive a nuclear strike, he said.

The Dolphin submarine is also one of the best deterrents, Beaver said,
adding that the technology on the subs makes them undetectable and
gives them defensive capabilities in the event of an attack.

“They are very well-built, very well-prepared, lots of interesting
equipment, one of the best conventional submarines available,” Beaver
said. “We are talking about a third string of deterrence
capabilities.”

Israel maintains a policy of ambiguity concerning its nuclear program,
neither admitting nor denying that it does posses nuclear
weapons. However, it’s believed to have the world’s sixth-largest
stockpile of atomic arms, including hundreds of warheads.

Members of two opposition parties in Germany criticized the
submarines’ sale, which which was concluded amid Israel’s deadly
offensive in Lebanon, where more than 1,200 civilians died.

Winfried Nachtwei, national security spokesman for the Greens, said
that the sale was wrong because Germany didn’t obtain any guarantees
that the submarines would not be used to carry nuclear weapons.

“This red line should not be crossed,” Nachtwei told the newspaper
Taz.

“Otherwise it is a complete renunciation of Germany’s policy of
non-proliferation,’ he added.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The final place of refuge for Christians in the Middle East is under threat
As Iraq and Lebanon are torn apart by sectarian mayhem and war, only
Syria’s religious tolerance offers refugees shelter
William Dalrymple in Damascus
Saturday September 2, 2006
_The Guardian_ ()
Wander through the streets of Damascus this week, and you will see
signs everywhere of the conflict in Lebanon. The bearded,
black-turbaned Hassan Nasrallah stares out from every shop window,
even in the Christian quarter.Here electric-blue neon crosses wink
from the domes of the churches, and processions of crucifix-carrying
boy scouts squeeze past gaggles of Christian girls heading out on the
town, all low-cut jeans and tight-fitting T-shirts. Thevideo shops are
full of DVDs showing “highlights” from the war – exploding Israeli
tanks and jubilant Hizbullah fighters – which sell even better than
the ubiquitous pirated versions of the latest Hollywood releases, The
Devil Wears Prada and The Da Vinci Code: evidence that in the
contemporary Middle East you don’t have to hate western culture, or
even be a Muslim, to relish the bloody nose given to ill-judged
Israeli and American attempts at imposing their hegemony in the region
by force of invasion and cluster bombs.
Evidence of the conflict in Iraq, Syria’s neighbour to the north-east,
is at first harder to spot than the ubiquitous images from Lebanon,
but on closer examination it is no less pervasive. Lounging in every
park and teahouse are unshaven, tired-looking Iraqi refugees, driven
from their homes by sectarian mayhem. This summer, as Baghdad
spiralled out of control, with more violent deaths in one fortnight
than in Israel and Lebanon together in nearly a month of warfare,
Syria responded by providing asylum (though not work permits) to all
Iraqis who were forced to flee, as well as free education for their
children.
Talk to the refugees in Damascus, however, and you soon find that one
group predominates: the Iraqi Christians. Although they made up only
about 3% of the population of prewar Iraq – 700,000 people – under
Saddam they were a prosperous minority, symbolised by the high profile
of Tariq Aziz, Saddam’s Christian foreign minister. Highly educated
and overwhelmingly middle class, the Christians were heavily
concentrated in Mosul, Basra and especially Baghdad, which before the
war had the largest Christian population of any Middle Eastern town or
city.
Now at least half of these Christians – around 350,000 people – have
fled Bush’s new Iraq and its violence, mass abductions and economic
meltdown.
Wherever I went in Syria I kept running into them – bank managers and
engineers, pharmacists and scientists, garage owners and businessmen –
all living with their extended families in one-room flats on what
remained of their savings, and assisted by the charity of the
different churches.
“Before the war there was no separation between Christian and Muslim,”
I was told by Shamun Daawd, a former liquor-store owner who fled after
he received Islamist death threats. “Under Saddam no one asked you
your religion, and we used to attend each other’s religious services
and weddings. After the invasion we hoped democracy would come; but
instead all that came was bombs, kidnapping and killing. Now at least
75% of my Christian friends have fled. There is no future for us in
Iraq.”
His friend Sabah Mansur Nesco told a similar tale when I met him at
the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, where he had come to collect the
rent money it provides for its more impoverished laity. He had lived
in a wealthy mixed area of Baghdad, al-Doura, he said, until two of
his nephews were kidnapped: for the first they had to arrange a
$30,000 ransom; for the second $10,000. The boys were returned, having
been tortured and beaten. Then some Christian neighbours were killed
by jihadis. Five Baghdad churches were bombed, and stories began to
circulate that Christian girls were getting raped at the
university. The family decided enough was enough, and drove to
Damascus.
The Christian community in Iraq is one of the oldest in the world, and
has existed since the first century; according to tradition it was St
Thomas and his cousin Addai who first brought Christianity to the
Parthian capital of Seleucia-Ctesiphon soon after the resurrection. At
the Council of Nicaea, where the words of the Christian creed were
thrashed out in 325 AD, there were more bishops from Mesopotamia and
India than there were from western Europe.
Later, the region became a refuge for groups considered heretical by
the Orthodox Byzantine emperors – such as the Mandeans, the world’s
last surviving Gnostic sect, who follow what they believe to be the
teachings of John the Baptist; and the Church of the East, or
Nestorians, who played a key part in bringing Greek philosophy,
science and medicine to the Islamic world. It was from the Nestorian
school of Nisibis, via Córdoba, that many of Aristotle’s and Plato’s
works reached the universities of medieval Europe. Yet in three years
most members of this ancient church, and almost all the Mandeans, have
been forced to flee the anarchy their western coreligionists have
helped unleash.
This is part of a much wider problem across the Middle East. Almost
everywhere the Christians are leaving, as ill-judged Anglo-American
adventures, intended to suppress terrorism, actually have the reverse
effect and steadily radicalise the entire region. Today in the Middle
East the Arab Christians are a small minority of 12 million; in the
last decade at least two million have left to make new lives for
themselves in Europe, Australia and America. Only in Syria has this
pattern been resisted.
Now there are worries that Syria, one of the last countries in the
region without an Islamist movement, is also in Washington’s cross
hairs: Donald Rumsfeld, among others, has accused Syria of sponsoring
the Islamic resistance in Iraq and in Lebanon.
Few would deny that Syria has much to reform. It is a one-party
Ba’athist state, where political activists are suppressed and an
extensive network of secret police fills the prisons with political
prisoners. Violent opposition to the regime is met with overwhelming
force, most dramatically in the case of the armed rising of the Muslim
Brotherhood in Hama in 1982. The city was sealed off and at least
10,000 people were killed – a similar operation to that undertaken by
the US in Falluja, except that Syria did not use banned chemical
weapons.
Yet if Syria is a one-party police state, it is one that tends to
leave its citizens alone as long as they keep out of politics. And if
political freedoms have always been severely, and often brutally,
restricted – as is also the case in most of the US’s ally states in
the region – Assad’s regime does allow wide-ranging cultural and
religious freedoms, which give Syria’s minorities a security and
stability far greater than their counterparts anywhere elsein the
region. This is particularly true of Syria’s ancient Christian
communities.
The Assads are Alawite, a Shia Muslim minority seen by orthodox Sunni
Muslims as heretical, and disparagingly referred to as Nusayris, or
Little Christians: indeed their liturgy seems to be partly Christian
in origin. The Assads have stayed in power by forming in effect a
coalition of religious minorities, through which they were able to
counterbalance the weight of the Sunni majority. In Syria the major
Christian feasts are national holidays; Christians are exempt from
turning up to work on Sunday mornings; and churches and monasteries,
like mosques, are given free electricity. This is unknown anywhere
else in the Middle East.
It would be tragic if the British now assisted the US in destabilising
not just Iraq and Lebanon, but also Syria. As Sabah Mansur Nesco put
it: “Bush brought nothing but killing, violence and mass emigration –
not just to Iraq but to Afghanistan and Palestine also. Now we just
pray he leaves Syria alone.
For us it is the last place of refuge.”
· William Dalrymple is the author of From the Holy Mountain: A Journey
in the Shadow of Byzantium. His new book, The Last Mughal, will be
published by Bloomsbury next month
_Williamdalrymple.com_ ()

Armed forces of Azerbaijan and Turkey to hold joint maneuvers

00:02 09/01/2006
“Military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey continues
developing; we constantly make certain steps aimed at even bigger
development of cooperation,” Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev
stated to the press; a REGNUM correspondent informs.

According to Mr. Abiyev, several joint maneuvers together with the
Turkish armed forces are planned to be held in the near
future. `Turkey has played important role in adjusting the Azerbaijani
armed forces to NATO standards, and, at present, Azerbaijani
peacekeeping forces are serving as part of Turkish peacekeeping forces
in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Economic projects, which are realized in
region, will strengthen military cooperation between Azerbaijan and
Turkey even more. Till now, agreement and tens of protocols on
military cooperation has been signed between Azerbaijan and Turkey,’
Mr. Abiyev stated.