Transitions on Line, Czech Rep.
Sept 1 2006

OSCE Karabakh Troubleshooter Under Fire

by Shahin Abbasov and Khadija Ismailova
1 September 2006
Hopes for a breakthrough in the Karabakh peace process any time soon
appear to be thoroughly dashed. From EurasiaNet.
Azerbaijan’s patience is wearing thin over the lack of movement
toward a Nagorno-Karabakh peace settlement, and officials in Baku are
taking out their frustration on the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) trouble-shooter responsible for
monitoring the cease-fire.
Hopes for a breakthrough in the Karabakh peace process, so high at
the outset of 2006, now appear to be thoroughly dashed. In a
mid-August speech to Azeri diplomats, President Ilham Aliev indicated
that Baku’s position is hardening. “Azerbaijan will not tolerate the
creation of a second Armenian state on its territory,” the president
said.
Another sign that trouble may be looming on the horizon is the
vehement criticism coming from Baku aimed at Andrzej Kasprzyk, the
special representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office on
Karabakh-related issues. Recent statements by Azeri officials, backed
by media reports, have portrayed Kasprzyk as incompetent, biased in
favor of Armenia, and possibly involved in nefarious business
dealings.
Having held the special representative designation for nearly a
decade, Kasprzyk’s responsibilities include managing existing
cease-fire monitoring mechanisms and promoting confidence-building
measures between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He also supports the OSCE’s
Minsk Group in promoting a lasting peace settlement for Karabakh.
Now it appears that Kasprzyk no longer enjoys the confidence of
Aliev’s administration. Dissatisfaction with Kasprzyk’s handling of a
recent inquiry into a series of fires in areas of Azerbaijan under
occupation by Armenian forces triggered Baku’s attacks against him.
The fires began breaking out in June. Convinced that the blazes had
been deliberately set by Armenians, Azeri officials pressed Kasprzyk
to look into the matter, and quickly started to criticize him for not
pursuing the investigation vigorously.
Azeri officials reportedly became enraged when Kasprzyk’s report went
into specific detail about the damage done by the fires, but shied
away from examining how they started. The closest the report got to
taking a stand was a suggestion that, given the arid conditions
prevailing in the area during the summer, fire was a perennial
threat.
“I am not an investigator,” the Arminfo news agency quoted Kasprzyk
as saying. “I could not find any evidence about what caused the
fires.” He indicated that international efforts to monitor the fires
were hampered by gunfire exchanges between Armenian and Azeri forces
deployed along the so-called contact line.
On 17 August, the Turan news agency quoted Novruz Mamedov, the head
of the Azeri presidential administration’s international department,
as complaining that Kasprzyk and the Minsk Group co-chairs had
“displayed a belated reaction” to Baku’s request for an
investigation, thus “showing their one-sided position.”
The same day, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated that
“the non-prevention of Armenian-instigated blazes in the occupied
territories may lead to an ecological catastrophe.” Other Azeri
officials assailed Yerevan, accusing Armenian authorities of taking
no action to fight the fires. Azeri authorities at the same time
appealed to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and
UNESCO for help in containing the fires. Armenian officials have
generally maintained a low profile in the controversy.
>From Baku’s viewpoint, the fires are politically motivated, designed
to prevent the resettlement of Azeri internally displaced persons.
“If the fires continue, it will create problems for people who will
move to these areas; people will not be able to use this land for at
least the next five-10 years,” Araz Azimov, Azerbaijan’s deputy
foreign minister, told reporters.
Azimov went on to ridicule Kasprzyk’s assessment on the fires.
“Kasprzyk himself admitted that he is not an ecologist,” Azimov said.
“Therefore, his [inference] that natural causes were behind the fires
in the occupied territories is completely groundless,” Azimov said.
Despite their clear dissatisfaction with Kasprzyk’s performance,
Azeri officials have not taken formal action to prompt the special
representative’s replacement. Without such action, Kasprzyk said he
intends to keep performing his duties. “I will not resign,” the Turan
news agency quoted him as saying on 26 August.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Sept 1 2006

Elmar Mammadyarov: Some of the `road map’ principles for the Garabagh
conflict settlement have been agreed on
[ 01 Sen. 2006 12:51 ]
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov commented on the
`road map’ offered by Matthew Bryza, U.S co-chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group, which mediates for the settlement of the Nagorno Garabagh
conflict, APA reports.
The Minister said the `road map’ is the phases of core principles of
an agreement.
`The `road map’ defines the stages leading to an agreement. It offers
eight or nine principles for the settlement of the Nagorno Garabagh
conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Some of these principles
have been agreed on,’ the Minister said./APA/

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Sept 1 2006

Vasili Istratov: Armenia is responsible for the fires in Azerbaijani
lands
[ 01 Sen. 2006 12:24 ]
`Armenia is responsible for the fires that broke out in Nagorno
Garabagh and around it. Because, Armenia controls these territories,’
Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan Vasili Istratov told journalists,
APA reports.
Responding to the question whether Russia can help remove the damage
inflicted to the ecology by the fires, Mr.Istratov said ecological
problems should be addressed by joint efforts.
`Russia is ready to help if international aid is needed,’ the
ambassador underlined./APA/

Pasadena Star-News, CA
Sept 1 2006

Diplomat’s assassin denied parole

LOS ANGELES – Parole was denied Thursday for an Armenian immigrant
serving a 25-year-to-life term for the 1982 murder of a Turkish
diplomat, who was shot 14 times in the head and chest as he sat in
his car near Westwood.
Hampig “Harry” M. Sassounian, who admitted his role in the Jan. 28,
1982, assassination of Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan more than
20 years after the crime, will have to wait until 2010 for a second
chance at release, said Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles County
District Attorney’s office.
Sassounian’s attorney, Mark Geragos, did not immediately return a
call seeking comment.
Sassounian was originally sentenced in 1984 to life behind bars
without the possibility of parole for the ambush slaying.
In 2000, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned the
Pasadena man’s life-without-parole sentence.
The three-justice panel, citing juror misconduct, reversed the
special circumstance finding that Arikan was killed because of his
national origin but upheld his murder conviction.
Prosecutors were poised to retry the special circumstance allegation
but agreed not to do so after Sassounian read a statement in court
admitting his guilt and renouncing terrorism.
A judge subsequently sentenced Sassounian to the 25-year-to-life
term, with the possibility of parole.
“I participated in the murder of Kemal Arikan,” Sassounian said
during the 2002 Los Angeles Superior Court hearing. “I have been
legally convicted of that crime. I renounce the use of terrorist
tactics such as the assassination of diplomats to achieve political
goals.”
Arikan, 54, was shot at close range in the head and chest by two
armed men when he stopped his car on Wilshire Boulevard on his way to
the Turkish consulate in Beverly Hills.
During the trial, a jailhouse informant testified that Sassounian,
then a 19-year-old security guard, told him he killed Arikan to “get
revenge on what the Turkish people did to his people.”
Ottoman Turks killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-18
in their historic homeland in eastern Turkey.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Sept 1 2006

John Evans: I do not retract my words on the 1915 Armenian genocide
[ 01 Sen. 2006 11:19 ]
`I assessed the 1915 `Young Turkish’ government’s actions against
Armenians as genocide and I do not retract this statement,’ said John
Evans, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Armenia, APA reports.
Holding his last press conference in Yerevan before leaving for the
US, Evans stressed that his position regarding the so-called Armenian
genocide remains unchanged.
He said he has received a `nice note’ from Bush that thanked him for
his work in Armenia. He also commended Bush’s choice of the next U.S.
ambassador to Yerevan, Richard Hoagland, as a `consummate
professional.’
Evans was recalled from Armenia on March 7 this year. The reason for
that is believed to be his statement that Armenians suffered genocide
in the Ottoman Empire
`The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century,’
Evans had declared during a February 2005 meeting with
Armenian-American activists in California.
But later on seeing this statement caused a serious dissatisfaction,
Evans told a press conference that his words were unofficially stated
which do not represent official position of his state.
`This expression belongs to me only not a politician. But I must say
this was not uttered on time,’ he said.
Richard Hoagland, currently the outgoing U.S. ambassador to
Tajikistan, has been confirmed by the U.S Senate as a new ambassador
to Armenia. /APA/

Los Angeles Times
Sept 1 2006

Killer of Turkish Diplomat in Los Angeles in 1982 Loses Parole Bid
>From the Associated Press
September 1, 2006
A man convicted for the 1982 murder of a Turkish diplomat in Westwood
was denied parole Thursday.
Harry Sassounian, 43, will not be eligible for parole again until
2010, said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County
district attorney’s office.
Sassounian’s attorney, Mark Geragos, said he didn’t view Thursday’s
decision as a setback, arguing that it is rare for parole to be
granted on the first try.
“The parole commissioners were very complimentary of his chances next
time around,” Geragos said in a telephone interview.
Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan was killed Jan. 28, 1982, while
stopped at a traffic signal. Sassounian was 19 at the time. A second
gunman was never caught.
In 2000, a federal appeals court upheld Sassounian’s murder
conviction but overturned the special-circumstance conviction, which
alleged that Arikan was killed because of his nationality.
A jail informant testified that Sassounian told him he killed the
54-year-old diplomat as revenge for the deaths of about 1.5 million
Armenians at the hands of Turks late in the 19th century and early in
the 20th century.
The reversal threw out Sassounian’s sentence of life in prison
without parole.
Prosecutors later agreed to drop plans to retry Sassounian on the
special-circumstance allegation, allowing him a chance at parole in
exchange for his denouncing of terrorism.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Sept 1 2006

Azeri FM Comments on `Road Plan’ of Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Source: Trend
Author: A.Ismayilova

01.09.2006

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that as there
many issues have been agreed on, now is the right time to solve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Trend reports. He was commenting on the
alleged `road plan’, mentioned by the U.S. Ambassador Matthew Bryza,
the OSCE Minks Group Co-chair.
`However we should still continue talks on the more difficult
issues,’ the Minister stressed.
Mammadyarov said that the plan involves defining the methods on the
possible signing of an agreement. `I do not regard it as a new
principle of the negotiation process.’
With regards to the opportunities for dispatching the Azerbaijani
peacemakers to Lebanon, the Minister said that the issue should be
studied separately. `It is necessary to define the situation in
Lebanon, as the question concerning the mandate of peacemakers has
not been solved yet. I cannot say that Azerbaijan will dispatch its
peacemakers there, but we are dealing with the issue,’ Mammadyarov
stated.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Sept 1 2006

Azerbaijan Shall Increase Warfare Budget as Much as Needed to Free
Grounds From Armenian Occupants – MP Aydin Mirzazadeh

Source: Trend
Author: J.Shahverdiyev

31.08.2006

Azerbaijan should increase its warfare budget as much as needed to
release our grounds from Armenian occupants, said MP Aydin
Mirzazadeh, member of Political Council with New Azerbaijan Party,
Deputy Chairman of permanent commission for defense affairs, reacting
to words said by Benito Ferrero-Valdiera.
Speaking at «Caspian Outlook-2008» forum in town of Bled (Slovenia),
the EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Benito Ferrero-Valdiera
called Georgia and Azerbaijan to retrain from increasing the warfare
budget.
Mirzazadeh said this demand was not possible to accept as `20% of
Azeri grounds have been occupied by Armenians and Georgia is
currently unable to control is two autonomous entities. History shows
that a country under occupation shall increase its military budget.
Nevertheless, Azerbaijan’s military budget totals 8 percent against
30 percent in Armenia», he said.
Mirzazadeh also said the EU Commissioner’s opinion on Azerbaijan is
not clear. «The Commissioner says nothing of Armenia’s collaboration
with the EU but much of some claims to Azerbaijan», he underlined.

SONG CONTEST
Aram Abrahamian
Aravot.am
31 Aug 06
The ministry of culture was right publishing the texts of five drafts
of anthem, which have passed the contest. Unfortunately, the public
doesn’t have an opportunity to judge the music of those drafts: 5
drafts of anthem must be often sounded on radio and TV, which isn’t
done yet. I’m sure the anthem is 60% music and 40% words, because it
is often produced without the text. Besides, music is more powerful
emotionally, than the word is.
Speaking about the published texts I want to stress the following
fact: Ararat B/ I guess whose pseudonym it is/, Vahagn Davtian and
Liudvig Durian are skilful poets who are worth to become the authors
of the national anthem of Armenia. But those respectful poets will
admit that they aren’t like Charents.
So if the public discusses the texts, it will be meaningless to
compete with Charent’s “Es im anush Hayasatani”. This masterpiece is
also profitable that there will be no need to read it by heart. The
text written by the official of the ministry for Aram Khachatrian’s
music is non professional and skilful.
The ministry suggests introducing to other texts written for Aram
Khachatrian’s music on _www.mrcuyt.am_ () site. But
they are worse than the produces examples. It is impossible to compose
any high quality verse for the already composed music.
Aram Khachatrian’s music is impressive. The composer has used the
tunes of medieval “sharakan” /church songs/, which doesn’t only show
the composer’s talent but patriotism, too.
The selection of anthem isn’t a song festival. This is a political
action, however Khachatrian’s music is talented it symbolizes the past
epoch, refused ideology. So it shouldn’t display only musical approach
here. As for me “Mer Hayrenik” or anthems composed by T. Mansurian’s,
E. Erznkian’s, E. Hovhannisian or R. Amirkhanian are equally
adoptable. Let Khachatrian’s music remain as the history.

NA MUST BE RESPONDENT IN THE CC
Anna Israelian
Aravot.am
31 Aug 06
Chairman of the Constitutional Court Gagik Haroutiunian considers
this version more reasonable.
It is known that the first personal application the CC decided
to examine was Artak Zeinalian’s. Why was the examination of that
application appointed in November?
We haven’t started any examination in August as the NA was on holiday
and our courts as well. The law provides 9 months for the examination
of that case.
NA chairman Tigran Torosian informed during the latest press
conference that the CC had recognized the NA respondent for 7 cases
about constitutionality of laws and predicted that number of such
packages could be added. Na chairman didn’t know whether the NA would
be respondent for all that kind of cases or the government also must
be respondent in the CC. What is your opinion?
First of all they shouldn’t worry about the quantity of
applications. We should examine how it is displayed in
other countries. For example in Germany, 2-3% of personal
applications include issues of constitutionality and become point of
examination. Such applications are 3-5% in Czechia and Slovakia, 5-8%
in Russia. 10-11 from 112 applications is about constitutionality
in Armenia, that is 9-10%. First of all we must examine why that
percent is so high. I connect it with the accumulated problems,
first of all: CC didn’t have that power before, the citizen wasn’t
able to turn and a lot of issues have been accumulated. Only 10%
of our personal applications contents problems of constitutionality,
and NA different commissions have connection with those issues.
And if each commission once in three months is able to be respondent at
the CC, nothing strange will happen. Irrespective of the fact how the
law will be changed, will it remain the same or won’t, Constitutional
Court make the final decree in every country for recognizing the
respondent side. The law can’t determine, this is the respondent
side. As every case has its specificity and the court must decide
who must answer.
You think the NA must be respondent in the CC but the NA chairman
thinks that problem may be impossible to solve in the framework of
NA committees.
Na thinks there aren’t enough powers to provide for applications. The
parliament itself decides who will represent in the CC, and they
can send only three persons. That can be either the chief of the
commission, deputy chief or its member, or a certain advocate. The
problem is to choose the right way. The president of the country and
the parliament in Russia and many other countries have their permanent
representatives in the CC during the examination of all cases as the
examination of each case deal with the public authority. When the
NA tries to find any solution, it must think how to improve further
legislative activities.