AZERBAIJANI OFFICER JAILED IN HUNGARY FOR BRUTAL KILLING OF ARMENIAN

Agence France Presse — English
April 13, 2006 Thursday 4:08 PM GMT

An Azerbaijani military officer who hacked to death an Armenian
lieutenant while attending a NATO-sponsored training course in Budapest
was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Judge Andras Vaskuti of the Budapest district court ruled that Ramil
Safarov, now 29 and an Azerbaijani army lieutenant, killed Armenian
Lieutenant Gurgen Markarian, 26, in a “premeditated, malicious and
an unusually cruel” way by nearly decapitating him with axe while
the victim was sleeping.

Safarov was also found guilty of planning the murder of another
Armenian, which he did not carry out.

“The crime was convicted in a malicious way because (Safarov) murdered
the victim solely because of his Armenian origin,” Vaskuti said,
as he detailed how Safarov had also stubbed out a lit cigarette on
the victim’s body after committing the crime.

Safarov will be eligible for parole in 30 years, according to the
ruling. Defence lawyers launched an appeal immediately after the
verdict was read out.

The brutal killing, which took place on February 19, 2004, inflamed
simmering ethnic tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former
Soviet republics which are fighting over control of the disputed
region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia had attributed the murder to “anti-Armenian hysteria” fanned
by the Baku government, while Azerbaijani officials countered that
the killer was himself a refugee from the conflict with Armenia and
that the victim had taunted him over the conflict.

The two young officers had been studying on an English-language course
in the Hungarian capital as part of the NATO alliance’s Partnership
for Peace programme, of which both Armenia and Azerbaijan are members.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-year war over Karabakh that claimed
around 25,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

It ended in a tense ceasefire in 1994 with Armenian forces in control
of most of the enclave and seven surrounding regions, but Karabakh’s
status remains unresolved and tensions are still at boiling point.

Azeri authorities had said several of the defendant’s relatives were
killed and his family had to flee its home in the city of Jebrail when
it was taken by Armenian forces. They now live in squalid conditions
in a student dormitory in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.

Since the end of military hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh, all ties
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbours in the volatile Caucasus
region, have been severed. The border is now a heavily-militarised
front line peppered with land mines.

For almost a decade, Western powers have been leading fruitless
efforts to tease out a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict,
but summits including the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents have
not led to progress.

Most recently, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in March that
talks over the disputed region, hosted by French President Jacques
Chirac earlier this year, were at a “dead end” and signaled that the
oil-rich state should prepare for war.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PACE URGES CE TO HELP AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA, GEORGIA WITH REFUGEES
by Yuri Ulyanovsky

ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 13, 2006 Thursday 01:06 PM EST

Deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
believe that problems of refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Georgia impede socio-economic and political development
of these countries. Besides humanitarian aid the international
community should also intensify assistance to them in fulfilling
development tasks, satisfying the local population needs so that to
give refugees hope for the future, the PACE believes. At the same time
the authorities of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan should maximally
use their internal potentials during periods when the volume of
international donations reduces.

The Assembly noted the appearance of a number of signs testifying to
the integration of refugees and displaced persons in the life of the
society of the three given republics and called on the authorities of
these countries to intensify policy in this sphere. In a resolution
adopted by the PACE deputies on Thursday they also urged member states
of the Council of Europe to render financial assistance to Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Georgia in their efforts to settle the problems of refugees
and displaced persons, as well as to continue supplying humanitarian
aid and assist them in conflict settlement.

The Assembly’s resolution contains an appeal to intensify the
interregional dialogue by taking measures of confidence building and
organising regular consultations between the state agencies responsible
for the solution of refugee problems. The PACE believes that the
legislations of the corresponding countries should be reconsidered
in order to guarantee refugees and displaced persons equal rights
with the local population.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE MINSK GROUP TO SUGGEST MORE IDEAS FOR KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
by Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 13, 2006 Thursday

The Minsk group of the OSCE on Nagorno-Karabakh will suggest to Armenia
and Azerbaijan more ideas for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict,
Bernard Fassier, the co-chairman of the MInsk group from France,
said in Yerevan on Thursday. He said these ideas would enrich and
develop the principles of peace settlement.

Fassier said the Minsk group of the OSCE with three co-chairmen –
from Russia, France and United States – would remain the format of the
talks on Nagorno- Karabakh. Despite the setback at Rambouillet, the
negotiating process goes on, and the co-chairmen act in coordination,
Fassier said.

“The three countries- co-chairmen of the Minsk group on
Nagorno-Karabakh are convinced that there is no alternative to peace,
and continue to say so,” he noted. “War cannot be a way to settle
the conflict,” he said.

The co-chairman from France said the demands of all the parties
involved cannot be fully met in settling the conflict. Compromise
usually means meeting the demands of each party 50 percent. If we meet
their demands 80 percent, this will be absolutely fantastic success,
Fassier said.

ARMENIAN CUT DIAMOND OUTPUT PLUMMETS 60% IN Q1

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
April 13, 2006 Thursday 1:55 PM MSK

Armenia reduced cut diamond production 60.4% year-on-year in the
first quarter of 2006 to 17.471 billion dram ($38.8 million), Gagik
Mkrtchian, the Armenian Trade and Economic Development Ministry’s
official in charge of gemstones and jewelry, told Interfax.

Mkrtchian said sales fell 66.7% to 18.895 billion dram ($41.9 million)
and that exports were down 63% to 17.795 billion dram ($39.5 million).

Mkrtchian said disruptions at Shogakn, Armenia’s biggest diamond
cutting plant, were to blame for the drop. Shogakn, which produces 40%
of Armenia’s cut diamonds, will resolve what he described as internal
organizational problems soon.

Armenia produced 113.583 billion dram ($248.5 million) in cut diamond
sin 2005.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DEVELOPMENT ON OLD FARM BY GAITHERSBURG OPPOSED
by: Nancy Trejos, Washington Post Staff Writer

The Washington Post
April 13, 2006 Thursday
Final Edition

Just outside Gaithersburg, off Interstate 270, is a 182-acre parcel
filled with grass, broken-limbed trees and a few paint-chipped houses
and barns. Crown Farm, as it is known, is one of the last large pieces
of undeveloped land in central Montgomery County.

That could all change under a plan by Gaithersburg businessman Aris
Mardirossian to turn it into a bustling residential and commercial
center with up to 2,250 homes and 320,000 square feet for shops and
office buildings.

But with the County Council scheduled to begin considering the
proposal Tuesday, some residents and civic groups are gearing up
for a fight. They said the development — east of Sam Eig Highway,
south of Fields Road and west of Omega Drive — would cause school
overcrowding and too much traffic.

“These folks have been used to a 180-acre farm in that area,” said
Jim Humphrey, a Montgomery County Civic Federation official. “Let’s
make sure this project can be accommodated by the infrastructure
before we go approving it.”

If approved, the development would include condos, townhouses,
single-family homes and high-rises, some as tall as 20 stories. About
400 or 500 of those units would be above stores or offices, maximizing
space for parks and pedestrian walkways. Mardirossian, who leads a
development team that bought the property from the Crown family over
the summer, said he and the builders, who include Los Angeles-based
KB Home, plan to run buses from the homes to the nearest Metro
station. “It’ll be like Connecticut Avenue. A real urbanist design,”
Mardirossian said.

Mardirossian has asked the city of Gaithersburg, which has its own
council and mayor, to annex the property. Because his plan would
require rezoning, it must go to the County Council first. County
planners and city officials have been scrambling to hammer out the
details of what would be one of the city’s most significant projects
in years.

Last week, the County Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic
Development Committee — made up of Nancy Floreen (D-At Large),
Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County) and Steven A. Silverman (D-At
Large), who chairs the panel — voted to require that 12.5 percent
of the homes be set aside as affordable housing.

Because Crown Farm is in a location designated as a “receiving area”
— or a place where the county encourages development — Mardirossian
ordinarily would be required to pay transferable development rights
to a farmer in the agricultural reserve. But the council committee
recommended instead that he be exempted in lieu of a $1 million payment
to the county’s agricultural easement program, a fund for preserving
open space.

Because the donation would be much less than what he would probably
pay in development rights, Mardirossian has offered to donate 34
acres for a new high school.

“To let a developer off the hook is just what they don’t need to do,”
said Pamela Lindstrom, a Gaithersburg resident who has been vocal in
opposing the project.

Silverman estimated that the transferable development rights would
cost Mardirossian about $11 million, far below what it would cost
to buy land for a school. “If you have a developer who’s prepared to
give us a high school site for free and save the taxpayers 60 or 70
million dollars, we ought to take the deal,” he said.

Praisner said she did not agree with the exemption. “I’m not
necessarily opposed to the annexation,” she said. “My point is that I
think it’s moving too fast and there are certainly complexities that
need to be worked out.”

Opponents say Mardirossian’s deep pockets and political connections
are driving the project.

Since January 2003, Mardirossian has donated $750 to council member
Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring) and $500 to Floreen, Board of Elections
records show. One of his companies, Aris Mardirossian Inc., donated
$2,500 to council Chairman George L. Leventhal (D-At Large).

Farm Development Coop, a company Mardirossian manages, donated $4,000
to Silverman. The company gave $2,000 to Floreen and $2,000 to council
member Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty), records show.

Mardirossian acknowledged that he and his family have given money to
candidates. “They cannot see that I came from Armenia and I created
something wonderful from this country and I can express my ideas,”
he said of his critics.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPLELINE SALE AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA WILL BE SIGNED ON DECEMBER 31, INDEPENDENT ECONOMIST SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. Gasprom has become an owner of a 82%
stake of ArmRusgasprom, which means that Armenia has no right to
impose a veto on ArmRusgasprom’s decisions. Independent economist
Eduard Aghajanov stated this during the April 13 press conference. In
his words, there is no economic benefit in this deal, since in case of
operation of the 5th power unit of Hrazdan Thermal Power Plant with
Iran, Armenia woull have received huge economic dividents. According
to him, the Armenian section of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline was also
given to Russia which means that there is no longer a hope that
Armenia will become a transit country in the future. In the opinion
of E. Aghajanov, energy security and independence of a country may be
insured only if this country has an alternative. In this sense, not
only Russia but also Iran should have been on the Armenian market. As
for RA Defence Minister Serge Sargsian’s statement that the 5th unit
is “a 3-storied building with only its basement being completed”,
RA National Assembly deputy Manuk Gasparian noted that the cooling
system of the power unit is currently functioning and the 5th unit
considered as a “half-built basement” cost the Armenian authorities
218 mln USD. M. Gasparian said that a preliminary agreement on sale
of the Armenian section of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline will be signed
with Russia on April 14, while the final agreement – on December
31. According to him, it means that Armenia will not receive money
in the event that gas is supplied through its territory.

BETWEEN EU AND MOROCCO TO BE USEFUL FOR ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 13, newly appointed Ambassador
of the Kingdom of Morocco to Armenia Abdeljalil Saubry (residence Kiev)
handed his credentials to RA President Robert Kocharian. Congratulating
the Ambassador on the occasion of his appointment, the President
expressed the hope that during his tenure certain progress will be
registered in the bilateral relations. According to Ambassador Saubry,
his country attaches importance to deepening of cooperation with the
South Caucasian states in consideration of the great resources of the
region. As Noyan Tapan was informed from RA President’s Press Service,
the sides highly estimated Armenia’s traditional close contacts with
the Arab world and expressed readiness to undertake concrete steps
in the direction of deepening the cooperation. In this respect they
considered formation of the respective legal-contractual field,
organization of mutual visits, activization of business contacts
and exchange of information to be their priority. Considering the
experience of cooperation formed between EU and Morocco as useful,
Robert Kocharian said that currently a process has started in the
Armenia-European Union relations that begun in Morocco many years ago.

FINAL PLANNING CONFERENCE OF “RESCUER-2006” EXERCISES TO BE HELD ON APRIL 19-21 IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 13 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The final planning
conference of the U.S. European Command’s “Rescuer-2006” exercises will
be held on April 19-21 in Yerevan. Noyan Tapan was informed about it
by Colonel Seyran Shahsuvarian, Spokesperson for RA Defence Minister.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUBEN SAFRASTIAN: TURKEY TRIES TO REANIMATE ITS IDEAFIX ABOUT MEDIATION IN NAGORNO KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 13 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “In my opinion,
Turkey is trying to receive dividents from the fact that the U.S. is
interested in it in connection with the possible military operations
against Iran,” Ruben Safrastian, candidate of historical sciences,
Head of the Department of Turkey of the Institute of Oriental Studies
of RA National Academy of Sciences, declared in his interview to Noyan
Tapan correspondent. According to him, Turkey is trying to derive
benefit from the formed situation and is carrying out bargaining,
which in many respects is aimed at satisfaction of its interests. In
particular, Turkey is trying to reanimate its old ideafix, according
to which it can become a mediator in the settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict in spite of the fact that Armenia has always
treated this negatively. Ruben Safrastian reminded that in 2001 former
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismayil Jem offered Turkey’s mediation in
the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

“Today Turkey, making use of the interest of the U.S. in itself in
connection with the Iranian crisis, is trying to press upon Armenia
with the support of the U.S. and to squeeze itself into the process of
settlement,” the scientist declared. According to Ruben Safrastian,
in Turkey they consider that one of the main ways of strengthening
its influence in the South Caucasus is the mediation services in the
Nagorno Karabakh issue. In this context Turkey is also interested
in including its military contingent in the peacekeeping forces in
the zone of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The scientist said that
in the respect of increasing its influence in the South Caucasus
Turkey has made progress only in Georgia that expresses willingness
to join NATO. However, the Turks have no progress either in Armenia
or in Azerbaijan. As for the latter, the expert reminded: “To all
appearances, the Turks have lost interest in Azerbaijan as they have
no chances to strengthen their influence in Azerbaijan, in any case,
under Ilham Aliyev. Of course, there is the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline,
there is Turkish capital in Azerbaijan, military and political
cooperation, but the influence of the U.S., Russia and Iran becomes
more and more strong in Azerbaijan”.

ROBERT KOCHARIAN AND BERNARD FASSIER DISCUSS RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF NEGOTIATION PROCESS OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 13 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. RA President Robert
Kocharian received Bernard Fassier, the French Co-Chairman of the
OSCE Minsk Group, on April 13. As Noyan Tapan was informed by the
RA President’s Press Office, recent developments of the negotiation
process of the Karabakh conflict settlement were discussed.