NKR PEOPLE’S OPINION MUST BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT IN CONFLICT SETTLEMENT
Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 26 2006
YEREVAN, June 26. /ARKA/. Karabakh people’s opinion must be taken
into account in Karabakh conflict settlement, Russian political
analyst Victor Nadein-Rayevski said Saturday at a press conference
held in Yerevan.
He is convinced that Karabakh people must decide its own fate and
pointed out that this is the essence of democracy.
Nadein-Rayevski finds it wrong to distance Karabakhi people from
the process of negotiation on the conflict settlement regardless of
whether the republic enjoys international recognition or not.
The political analyst thinks time is needed to comprehend what was
said above. He said the years of the republic’s de-facto independence
have played their role and Karabakh people’s and authorities’ worry
is completely.

RA NA SPEAKER DOESN’T THINK NEWLY ESTABLISHED POLITICAL PARTIES CAN OUTDO REPUBLICAN PARTY IN 2007 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 26 2006
YEREVAN, June 26. /ARKA/. Tigran Torosyan, Armenian National
Assembly Speaker and Republican Party’s Vice Chairman, thinks newly
established political parties will be unable to outdo his party in
2007 parliamentary elections.
Asked by Golos Armenii newspaper about his view on new-created
parties Bargavach Armenia (Prosperous Armenia) and Union in the Name
of Armenia, Torosyan ruled out this probability.
Bargavach Hayastan hasn’t even convened its congress, Torosyan said
calling into question the party’s ability to obtain necessary public
support. He is convinced the party has no capacity needed for that
and will fail to accomplish in campaigning for parliamentary seats
unless resorts to violation of political game rules.
At the same time, he welcomed new parties thinking they will add
a fresh blood to Armenia’s political life, which has stalled for
recent time.
However, Torosyan pointed out some circumstances should be taken
into consideration.
“It these two parties, like many other parties, try to put emphasis
on such aspects as money and administrative measures, they will
jeopardize the whole Armenian multi-party system, not only themselves.

ARMENIAN FM’S STATEMENT ON MATTHEW BRYZA’S INTERVIEW
Today, Azerbaijan
June 26 2006
Armenian Foreign Ministry made a statement on recent interview by
Matthew Bryza to RFE/RL.
The statement reads:
Taking into account the statement that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group presented to the OSCE Permanent Council, in Vienna, on June
22, and the interview that Matt Bryza, the new US co-chair gave soon
thereafter, where albeit partially, the principles of the settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict were revealed for the first time,
and also taking into account the recent desperate calls by Azerbaijan
for a military solution and autonomy for Nagorno Karabakh, we would
like to make several observations.
The co-chairs have partially revealed the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
resolution principles; they have left out references to a corridor
linking Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia, and issues relating to Nagorno
Karabakh’s status until a referendum;
The co-chairs have, for the first time, affirmed that the people
of Nagorno Karabakh shall determine their own future status through
a referendum;
Those items over which the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
continue to disagree does not include a referendum; that concept has
been agreed to by the presidents; The area of disagreement between
the presidents has to do with the sequence in which the consequences
of the military conflict are removed;
In an attempt to resolve this remaining area of disagreement, a
proposal was made by the co-chairs after Rambouillet. This proposal
was accepted by Armenia in Bucharest. Azerbaijan rejected it.
Armenia finds that the basic principles, overall, on the table today
remain a serious basis for continuing negotiations; Armenia is prepared
to continue on that basis to continue to negotiate with Azerbaijan;
Armenia believes that Azerbaijan’s wavering on these principles is
a serious obstacle to progress in the negotiations. If this policy
continues, Armenia will insist that Azerbaijan conduct direct
negotiations with Nagorno Karabakh.
Finally, we would remind Azerbaijan once again that regardless of the
size of their military budget, they cannot force the people of Nagorno
Karabakh to renounce freedom and the right to self-determination.

THOUSANDS RALLY AGAINST DISCRIMINATION
BÝA, Turkey
June 26 2006
Organized by the leftist Freedom and Solidarity Party 6,000.rally
against discrimination. Party chairman Kozanoglu criticizes pending
Anti-Terror Law and urges: “Everyone, including those on the mountains,
should be granted the right to participate.”
BÝA (Istanbul) – The Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP) has held a
“Let’s Defend Living Together” rally in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district to
voice reaction to increasing intolerance towards people of different
origin in the country and stress that cultural and social diversity
is a wealth for Turkey.
Approximately 6,000 people attended the meeting with party members
arriving from all parts of Turkey. Starting at the square in front of
the Haydarpasa Numune Hospital, thousands marched to the Kadikoy Port
Square shouting slogans “We are here, we defend living together”,
“Don’t be silent, shout, the people are brothers” and “There is no
freedom alone, either all of us or non of us”.
“We are here, we defend living together”.
Bulent Aydin and artist Zeynep Tanbay who presented the meeting reacted
to those saying “Either love it or leave it ” and telling those wearing
a turban “go to Arabia” by saying “we are going no where and we are
standing up in front of them because we defend living together. We
have not a single citizen to post anywhere else.
We defend not compulsory citizenship but voluntary citizenship”.
Agaoglu: “We multiplied through the democracy and freedom struggle”.
Addressing the crowd during the meeting, author Adalet Agaoglu said
“We have multiplied to this extent by showing solidarity on the path
to democracy and freedom. This success is the result of belief and
the truth is here in this square”.
Noting that the social diversity in Turkey was more colourful than
anywhere else in the world, Agaoglu added, “Difference and diversity
is good. This brings freedom and democracy together with it”.
Kozanoglu: Don’t keep on serving us the TMY.
ODP Chairman Hayri Kozanoglu said in his speech that “as the Kurd,
Turk, Laz, Circassian, Armenian we are different, we are together. We
cover our heads, we have open hair, we have short skits, we have ear
rings, we are different but we are all together. ODP members coming
from Hopa, Diyarbakir, Adana and Mersin… we are all different but
we are together”.
Stressing the need for more freedom and democracy in Turkey, Kozanoglu
said “We do not want a Turkey where they keep on reheating the
Anti-Terror Law and serving it to us”. He called for the government
to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem.
Kozanoglu said that everyone in Turkey including those on the mountains
should be given the chance to participate in social life and reacted
to children being involved in the Kurdish problem. “Leave them alone
so children can live their childhood” her said. He also defended that
everyone, including those who hold ranks, should be tried.
–Boundary_(ID_JJdgvAzDCEY+S4aM6UGnEw)–

KAREKIN PROTESTORS SLAP DOWN OLD WOMAN
BÝA, Turkey
June 26 2006
Group of protestors including rightwing lawyers stage protest against
visiting Armenian Patriarch Karekin and attack old woman on Heybeliada
(Khalki) island. Police detain one suspect but release Muammer
Kocadagli who is reported to have hit the victim.
BÝA (ISTANBUL) – Rightwing Jurists Union members lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz
and have staged an attack on an old during the visit of head of the
Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II to the Heybeliada
(Khalki) Island, 20 miles to the south of Ýstanbul on Marmara Sea.
Lawyer Kerincsiz and friends are a unique group of fierce nationalists
who fight against liberal reforms along Turkey’s EU membership
bid. They were responsible for the ban on the Ottoman Armenians
Conference in Istanbul after a complaint to a local administrative
court and as well as a series of criminal complaints against a number
of leading intellectuals including author Orhan Pamuk and journalist
Hrant Dink, Attempting to stage a protest against Karekin, the group
of nationalists attacked the unidentified woman in front of witnesses
when she verbally objected to their presence and said “don’t disturb
us, just go”.
Witnesses of the incident said the person in the group who hit the
woman on her face was Muammer Kocadagli who was briefly detained
and released after opening a protest placard near the Aya Triada
Monastry. Police on the scene detained one suspect and escorted the
woman to safety.
Police on the island had to barricade the roads from the Heybeliada
port to the Clergy school when the group attempted to march there.
Attorney Kerincsiz, who’s acts at court against Turkish intellectuals
and freedom of expression defendants have reached aggressive
proportions, told the police if they were not allowed to march, he
would go to the school using a horse coach. The police told him to
go to Buyukada where he could travel in a coach.
The first visit to Turkey by the head of the Armenian Apostolic
Church triggered protests by ultra-nationalist and Islamist Turkish
groups immediately after his arrival in Istanbul last Tuesday from
the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
At the airport Karekin II was greeted by dozens of protestors waving
Turkish flags and boasting a banner “We won’t let any Christian
clergyman into our homeland!” Police had to intervene and escorted
the cleric out of the terminal using another door after detaining
four protestors.
–Boundary_(ID_6H6Fglgxozhmyw5zkqJUGg )–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MAK RELEASES FIRST DATA FROM ARMAVIA FDR
By David Kaminski-Morrow in London
Flight International
June 26 2006
Preliminary analysis of the flight-data recorder (FDR) from the Armavia
Airbus A320 that crashed into the Black Sea in May has ruled out fuel
exhaustion and engine problems as contributing to the accident.
Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) has also disclosed that
“during the last minute, the flight passed to the director mode with
the autopilot switched off”. This is believed to indicate that the
autopilot had been disengaged, but the flight director was active on
the attitude director indicator displays.
MAK says the flight-data recorder contained 26h 20min of information
on eight flights conducted between 30 April and the crash on 3 May,
including the entire 1h 26min of the final flight.
MAK previously revealed that the cockpit-voice recorder contains
about 33min of audio information. This includes the beginning of the
incident and continues through the development of the situation on
board the twinjet.
The A320 had been attempting a second night-time approach to Sochi
airport in Russia after a service from Yerevan, Armenia.
Investigators studying the final flight have concluded that the
fuel on board was “sufficient for the safe completion of the flight”
and that the CFM International CFM56 powerplants “worked until the
moment of the aircraft’s impact with the surface of the water”. MAK
adds the aircraft was not destroyed in mid-air.
The Armavia A320 crashed after abandoning an initial approach to
Sochi airport’s runway 06. None of the 113 people on board survived.

YEREVAN DEPLORES U.S. DISCLOSURE OF PROPOSED KARABAKH DEAL
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
June 26 2006
Armenia criticized a senior U.S. official on Monday for disclosing
key details of the most recent framework agreement to end the
Nagorno-Karabakh which was put forward by the U.S., Russian and
French mediators.
In an interview with RFE/RL late last week, the U.S. Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said the conflicting parties have been
discussing a gradual solution to the dispute that would culminate in a
referendum on Karabakh’s status. Bryza said the vote would determine
the disputed region’s status “at some point” in the future after the
liberation of Armenian-occupied lands in Azerbaijan proper.
President Robert Kocharian appears to have been taken aback by the
remarks. His press secretary, Viktor Soghomonian, claimed that Bryza
unveiled only “some elements of the document proposed to the parties
which do not reflect the whole essence of the draft [Karabakh]
agreement.”
“If similar revelations appear in the media in the future, Armenia
will publish all the documents discussed at the talks in the last
seven to eight years,” Soghomonian told the Russian news agency
Regnum. “Namely, the [1998] draft agreement based on the principle of
a `common state’, the document discussed in Key West [in April 2001]
and the draft agreement which was recently discussed in Bucharest. I
am sure everything will be crystal clear then.”
“Incidentally, all three draft agreements were rejected by Azerbaijan,”
Soghomonian said.
Bryza, who has just taken over as the new U.S. co-chair of the OSCE
Minsk Group, essentially confirmed Karabakh-related information
leaked by Armenian and Azerbaijani officials last year. It is
therefore not clear why official Yerevan was irked by the move,
especially considering the fact that the proposed referendum would
likely legitimize Armenian control over Karabakh.
Azerbaijan’s reaction to Bryza’s remarks was far more positive, with a
spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Baku saying over the weekend that
they “reflect the state of affairs” in the Karabakh peace process. The
Azerbaijani newspaper “Zerkalo” quoted the official, Tahir Tagizade,
as claiming at the same time that the referendum would be held not
only in Karabakh but also Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev insisted on Friday that he will
“never let Nagorno-Karabakh be separated from Azerbaijan” and that
“this cannot be a subject of negotiations.”
The referendum option clearly envisages the possibility of
international recognition Karabakh’s secession from Azerbaijan,
though. It is believed to have dominated two rounds of unsuccessful
negotiations held by Aliev and Kocharian in Bucharest and outside
Paris last February. The fiasco has all but dashed hopes for a speedy
resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
Bryza said he and the two other Minsk Group co-chairs have decided
to take “a bit of a pause throughout the summer” to see whether Aliev
and Kocharian have the political will to make “tough compromises.”
“The Minsk Group has decided that there’s no sense in us trying to
arrange another round of presidential meetings or trying to broker
an agreement, because we have taken the process as far as we can,
and all that’s left to do is for the presidents to make these tough
decisions,” he said.
“We just don’t know where the presidents are right now,” added the
U.S. official. “We’re encouraging them, we’re nudging them by taking
a step back. Nudging them to show that they have this political will.”

ARMENIA URGED TO FOLLOW AZERI ‘DEMOCRATIC REFORM’
By Harry Tamrazian in Prague
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
June 26 2006
Azerbaijan is moving faster than Armenia in democratizing its political
system despite being considered a more undemocratic country by Western
human rights organizations, according to a senior U.S. administration
official.
In an RFE/RL interview late last week, Matthew Bryza, the U.S. deputy
assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, implied that
President Robert Kocharian has to follow Azerbaijan’s reform example if
he wants to be received by President George W. Bush at the White House.
Washington normally snubs those foreign leaders who were not elected
in polls deemed free and fair by the international community. Bush
made what is widely seen as an exception to that rule when he held
talks with Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliev at the White House last April.
The talks came five months after an Azerbaijani parliamentary election
that was denounced as fraudulent by Western observers.
Asked whether Kocharian too can now count on securing a White
House reception, Bryza said, “We obviously don’t look at balancing
presidential meetings like that, but there’s no reason not to want
President Kocharian to come to Washington. Let me just say I hope we
can see a similar series of positive steps on democratic reform in
Armenia as we hope we are starting to see in Azerbaijan.”
“Maybe we’re wrong about Azerbaijan. Maybe we’re overly hopeful. But
we think things are moving in a positive direction. And we hope to
see more of that from Armenia,” he said.
Bryza claimed that there were “some significant improvements” in
the Azerbaijani authorities’ conduct of the November parliamentary
election even if they “didn’t go as far as we would like.”
A monitoring mission from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, headed by a U.S. congressman, described the
polls as deeply flawed, citing numerous serious violations witnessed
by its observers. Western human rights groups also condemned a brutal
break-up by security forces of a big opposition demonstration in Baku
against the official vote results.
In a statement issued ahead of Aliev’s Washington trip, Human Rights
Watch urged Bush to “press for concrete progress in Azerbaijan’s poor
human rights record.” The respected watchdog said the Azerbaijani
government continues to harass political opponents and has yet to
implement election-related recommendations of the OSCE and the Council
of Europe.
Another New York-based group, Freedom House, again rated Armenia more
highly than Azerbaijan in it latest annual survey of political reform
across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet that was released earlier
this month. “Azerbaijan’s democratic performance continues to show
signs of deterioration, especially in the categories of electoral
process and civil society,” the survey said, explaining a drop in
the country’s already poor democracy rating.
By contrast, the same rating assigned by Freedom House to Armenia
improved slightly. The watchdog argued that although the November
constitutional referendum in Armenia was also flawed, it resulted in
the enactment of amendments that “should provide a more even balance
of power between the president, Parliament and the judiciary.”
Bryza insisted that democratic reform is high on the Bush
administration’s agenda but admitted that other factors such as
Azerbaijan’s oil reserves and geographic location are also at play.
“Just because Azerbaijan hasn’t gone as far as we would like on
democracy doesn’t mean we’re going to ignore our energy interests or
our military interests,” he said.
“Why would we freeze out President Ilham Aliev from contact with our
president forever because we think he needs to do more on democracy?
That doesn’t make sense,” he added.
Turning to the Armenian government, Bryza pointed to its handling of
the constitutional referendum which was also criticized by European
observers and denounced as fraudulent by the Armenian opposition.
Washington expects relevant “positive changes” from Yerevan before
the next Armenian elections, he said.
Incidentally the Bush administration official stopped short of
questioning the Kocharian administration’s commitment to democratic
change when he spoke with RFE/RL in the wake of the disputed
referendum. “It’s too early to judge whether or not democracy has
moved forward,” he said on December 7.
Bryza also steered clear of criticizing the Armenian authorities’
democracy and human rights records when he visited Yerevan last March,
stressing instead the importance of building democracy “from the bottom
up.” He said Washington regards Armenia as a “democratizing country.”

GAREGIN INSISTS ON GENOCIDE RECOGNITION IN TURKEY
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
June 26 2006
The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Garegin II, said in Istanbul
Sunday that Turks committed genocide against Armenians, a statement
that is likely to increase tensions during the last two days of his
weeklong visit to Turkey.
Garegin II, whose official title is Catholicos of All Armenians, has
been facing protests since his plane landed at the Istanbul airport
on Tuesday. The protesters included prominent lawyers from the Turkish
Lawyers’ Union, who previously pushed for the prosecution of novelist
Orhan Pamuk after he said that Turks had killed 1 million Armenians.
Turkey vehemently denies that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks around the time of World War I was genocide, and several cases
have been brought against those who say otherwise. The cases have
been opened under a law making it a crime to “insult Turkishness.”
Armenians say that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killing in an organized genocidal campaign by Ottoman Turks, and have
pushed for recognition of the killings as genocide around the world.
Garegin II was unreceptive Sunday to Turkey’s requests that Turkey
and Armenia, which are neighbors but have no diplomatic relations,
open their historical archives to researchers from both countries
to try to ease tensions and reach an objective conclusion about the
killings. “For our people research is not an issue. This is something
that happened and it needs to be recognized,” the Dogan news agency
quoted Garegin II as saying. “The genocide issue has been researched
for 90 years by academics.”
Garegin II said the protests hadn’t affected him. “They didn’t break
my spirit and they don’t reflect my visit,” he said. “But if these
kinds of protests continue, it shows that we have a lot of work so
that these two societies can live together.”
(Armenian Apostolic Church photo: Garegin II, right, and Patriarch
Mesrob II, the spiritual leader of the Armenian community in Turkey,
pictured outside an Armenian church in Istanbul.)

LIVING WELL AND BADLY
by Haroutiun Khachatrian
Transitions Online, Czech Republic
June 26 2006
South Caucasus and international experts find tentative agreement and
lingering tensions over the region’s political-economic affairs. From
EurasiaNet.
A recent economic conference held in the Georgian capital Tbilisi
sought to lay the groundwork for closer regional cooperation among
the three South Caucasus states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
Regional economic integration was not formally on the agenda of the
1-2 June conference, titled the International Monetary Fund and the
South Caucasus in the 21st Century. Participants officially explored
best practices as each state attempts to modernize its respective
economy. However, the underlying hope was that sharing experience would
provide an impulse for officials to explore integration opportunities
down the road, provided that existing political obstacles, including
the lack of a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, are eventually removed.
The regional IMF representatives from all three states – James McHugh
in Armenia, Basil Zavoico in Azerbaijan, and Robert Christiansen in
Georgia – were featured participants, and all faced a diplomatically
delicate task of outlining economic problems without appearing
to overly criticize government policies and responses. While each
Caucasus country features specific development conditions, conference
attendees generally agreed that corruption and tax evasion were among
the most serious problems prevalent in all three states.
“A large shadow economy should be brought into the formal economy
through an efficient tax [system] and improved corporate governance,”
said McHugh, referring to the situation in Armenia.
Georgian Minister of Finance Aleksi Aleksishvili said Tbilisi had
managed to improve its revenue collection capabilities, while stressing
that the government has stopped a practice common during the first
months following the 2003 Rose Revolution, in which entrepreneurs
were arrested, only to be released after making substantial payments
to the state treasury.
The conference scrutinized the unique economic situation in Azerbaijan,
where oil and gas development is causing revenues to spike. Several
participants focused on the potential threat of “Dutch disease,”
in which a rapid rise of income from the energy sector renders other
economic sectors of a given state uncompetitive in the global market.
Given that only about one percent of Azerbaijan’s population is
directly involved in the oil sector, the energy windfall stands to
be enjoyed by relatively few Azeris. Sabit Bagirov, president of the
Azerbaijan Entrepreneurship Foundation, warned that social tension
could grow worse in the country. “In several years, we may face a
situation that, with huge oil revenues, still a great number of poor
people are in the country, and the unresolved Karabakh conflict will
make their situation even worse. This may [make] millions of people
unhappy,” Bagirov said.
Most participants avoided making direct comparisons about the successes
and failures of economic development in the Caucasus.
Tigran Sargsian, chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, was
perhaps the only participant who sought to place developments in each
individual state within a regional context. “Today, the countries
of the South Caucasus live similarly badly and differently well,”
he said. Sargsian highlighted differences among the three Caucasus
countries. For example, according to Sargsian, Armenia was recognized
as a leader in terms of market reforms, while possessing a bad
record on poverty reduction. Georgia, meanwhile, was labeled as more
competitive than Armenia. Yet at the same time, Tbilisi must struggle
with a deficit of power producing capacity.
Given the underlying political differences, it did not come as a
surprise to participants when Sargsian’s analysis was characterized by
Azer Alasgarov, an Azerbaijan National Bank official, as “politicized.”
“I agree with your critical notions, but I would like the Azerbaijan
National Bank to have presented its own vision of the situation,”
was Sargsian’s answer. The conference was organized by the Caucasus
Research Resource Centers, the IMF, and the National Bank of Georgia.
“Living Well and Badly”
Haroutiun Khachatrian is a Yerevan-based writer specializing in
economic and political affairs. This is a partner post from EurasiaNet.