MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE TO INTRODUCE NEW BILLS

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
08 March 2006

NKR Ministry of Agriculture is going to introduce a new bill on
veterinary medicine to the government. The law currently in force,
which was passed in 2001, already does not regulate the sphere duly,
says V. Baghdassarian, Minister of Agriculture. `The amendments were
so many that drafting a new bill was preferable. The new law will
define the functions of the privatesector,’ he says. The minister says
the new legislation will enable adopting subordinate legislation if
necessary to react to new conditions. He mentioned that the new law
corresponds to the requirements of he international veterinary
medicine legislation. The bill includes articles on public health,
measures for the prevention and management of diseases transmitted
from animals to people. The next bill the ministry will introduce is
the bill on seeds. The minister of agriculture said so far the sphere
was regulated by the law on seed breeding, put in effect in 2001. The
minister of agriculture said the adoption of this law is important in
the creation of legislation on seed farming in NKR.

SRBUHI VANIAN.
08-03-2006

3/10/06
What Really Happed to the Shah of Iran
By _Ernst Schroeder_ (mailto:[email protected])

My name is Ernst Schroeder, and since I have some Iranian friends from
school and review your online magazine occasionally, I thought I’d
pass onthe following three page quote from a book I read a few months
ago entitled, “_A Century Of War : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the
New World Order_
( 532309X/netnative) “, which
was written by William Engdahl, a German historianm . This is a book
about how oil and politics have been intertwined for the past 100
years.

I submit the below passage for direct publishing on your website, as I
think the quote will prove to be significant for anyone of Persian
descent.

“In November 1978, President Carter named the Bilderberg group’s
George Ball, another member of the Trilateral Commission, to head a
special WhiteHouse Iran task force under the National Security
Council’s Brzezinski. Ball recommended that Washington drop support
for the Shah of Iran and support the fundamentalistic Islamic
opposition of Ayatollah Khomeini. Robert Bowie from the CIA was one
of the lead ‘case officers’ in the new CIA-led coup against the man
their covert actions had placed into power 25 years earlier.

Their scheme was based on a detailed study of the phenomenon of
Islamic fundamentalism, as presented by British Islamic expert,
Dr. Bernard Lewis,then on assignment at Princeton University in the
United States. Lewis’s scheme, which was unveiled at the May 1979
Bilderberg meeting in Austria, endorsed the radical Muslim Brotherhood
movement behind Khomeini, in order to promote balkanization of the
entire Muslim Near East along tribal and religious lines.

Lewis argued that the West should encourage autonomous groups such as
the Kurds, Armenians, Lebanese Maronites, Ethiopian Copts, Azerbaijani
Turks, and so forth. The chaos would spread in what he termed an ‘Arc
of Crisis,’ which would spill over into Muslim regions of the Soviet
Union.

The coup against the Shah, like that against Mossadegh in 1953, was
run by British and American intelligence, with the bombastic American,
Brzezinski, taking public ‘credit’ for getting rid of the ‘corrupt’
Shah, while the British characteristically remained safely in the
background.

During 1978, negotiations were under way between the Shah’s government
and British Petroleum for renewal of the 25-year old extraction
agreement. By October 1978, the talks had collapsed over a British
‘offer’ which demanded exclusive rights to Iran’s future oil output,
while refusing to guarantee purchase of the oil. With their
dependence on British-controlled export apparently at an end, Iran
appeared on the verge of independence in its oil sales policy for the
first time since 1953, with eager prospective buyers in Germany,
France, Japan and elsewhere. In its lead editorial that September,
Iran’s Kayhan International stated:

In retrospect, the 25-year partnership with the [British Petroleum]
consortium and the 50-year relationship with British Petroleum which
preceded it, have not been satisfactory ones for Iran =80¦ Looking to
the future, NIOC [National Iranian Oil Company] should plan to handle
all operations by itself.

London was blackmailing and putting enormous economic pressure on the
Shah’s regime by refusing to buy Iranian oil production, taking only 3
million or so barrels daily of an agreed minimum of 5 million barrels
per day. This imposed dramatic revenue pressures on Iran, which
provided the context inwhich religious discontent against the Shah
could be fanned by trained agitators deployed by British and
U.S. intelligence. In addition, strikes among oil workers at this
critical juncture crippled Iranian oil production.

As Iran’s domestic economic troubles grew, American ‘security’
advisers to the Shah’s Savak secret police implemented a policy of
ever more brutal repression, in a manner calculated to maximize
popular antipathy to the Shah. At the same time, the Carter
administration cynically began protesting abusesof ‘human rights’
under the Shah.

British Petroleum reportedly began to organize capital flight out of
Iran, through its strong influence in Iran’s financial and banking
community. The British Broadcasting Corporation’s Persian-language
broadcasts, with dozens of Persian-speaking BBC ‘correspondents’ sent
into even the smallest village, drummed up hysteria against the Shah.
The BBC gave Ayatollah Khomeini a full propaganda platform inside Iran
during this time. The British government-owned broadcasting
organization refused to give the Shah’s government an equal chance to
reply. Repeated personal appeals from the Shah to the BBC yielded no
result. Anglo-American intelligence was committed to toppling the
Shah.

The Shah fled in January, and by February 1979, Khomeini had been
flown into Tehran to proclaim the establishment of his repressive
theocratic state to replace the Shah’s government.

Reflecting on his downfall months later, shortly before his death, the
Shah noted from exile,

I did not know it then – perhaps I did not want to know – but it is
clear to me now that the Americans wanted me out. Clearly this is
what the human rights advocates in the State Department wanted =80¦
What was I to make of the Administration’s sudden decision to call
former Under Secretary of State George Ball to the White House as an
adviser on Iran? =80¦ Ball was among those Americans who wanted to
abandon me and ultimately my country._[1]_
( 1090.html#_ftn1) [1]

With the fall of the Shah and the coming to power of the fanatical
Khomeini adherents in Iran, chaos was unleashed. By May 1979, the new
Khomeini regime had singled out the country’s nuclear power
development plans and announced cancellation of the entire program for
French and German nuclear reactor construction.

Iran’s oil exports to the world were suddenly cut off, some 3 million
barrels per day. Curiously, Saudi Arabian production in the critical
daysof January 1979 was also cut by some 2 million barrels per day.
To add to the pressures on world oil supply, British Petroleum
declared force majeure and cancelled major contracts for oil supply.
Prices on the Rotterdam spot market, heavily influenced by BP and
Royal Cutch Shell as the largest oil traders, soared in early 1979 as
a result. The second oil shock of the 1970s was fully under way.

Indications are that the actual planners of the Iranian Khomeini coup
in London and within the senior ranks of the U.S. liberal
establishment decided to keep President Carter largely ignorant of the
policy and its ultimate objectives. The ensuing energy crisis in the
United States was a major factor in bringing about Carter’s defeat a
year later.

There was never a real shortage in the world supply of petroleum.
Existing Saudi and Kuwaiti production capacities could at any time
have met the 5-6 million barrels per day temporary shortfall, as a
U.S. congressional investigation by the General Accounting Office
months later confirmed.

Unusually low reserve stocks of oil held by the Seven Sisters oil
multinationals contributed to creating a devastating world oil price
shock, with prices for crude oil soaring from a level of some $14 per
barrel in 1978 towards the astronomical heights of $40 per barrel for
some grades of crude on the spot market. Long gasoline lines across
America contributed to a general sense of panic, and Carter energy
secretary and former CIA director, James R.

Schlesinger, did not help calm matters when he told Congress and the
mediain February 1979 that the Iranian oil shortfall was
‘prospectively more serious’ than the 1973 Arab oil embargo._[2]_
( 1090.html#_ftn2) [2]

The Carter administration’s Trilateral Commission foreign policy
further ensured that any European effort from Germany and France to
develop more cooperative trade, economic and diplomatic relations with
their Soviet neighbor, under the umbrella of détente and various
Soviet-west European energy agreements, was also thrown into disarray.

Carter’s security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and secretary of
state, Cyrus Vance, implemented their ‘Arc of Crisis’ policy,
spreading the instability of the Iranian revolution throughout the
perimeter around the Soviet Union.

Throughout the Islamic perimeter from Pakistan to Iran,
U.S. initiatives created instability or worse.”

— William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and
the New World Order, © 1992, 2004. Pluto Press Ltd. Pages 171-174.

_[1]_ ( ref1) [1] In
1978, the Iranian Ettelaat published an article accusing Khomeini of
being a British agent. The clerics organized violent demonstrations
in response, which led to the flight of the Shah months later. See
U.S. Library of Congress Country Studies, Iran. The Coming of the
Revolution. December 1987. The role of BBC Persian broadcasts in the
ousting of the Shah is detailed in Hossein Shahidi. ‘BBC Persian
Service 60 years on.’ The Iranian. September 24, 2001.

The BBC was so much identified with Khomeini that it won the name
‘Ayatollah BBC.’

_[2]_ ( ref2) [2]
Comptroller General of the United States. ‘Iranian Oil Cutoff:
Reduced Petroleum Supplies and Inadequate U.S. Government Response.’
Report to Congress by General Accounting Office. 1979.
From: Baghdasarian

Civil Georgia, Georgia
March 11 2006

Protesters Raid Court, University in Akhalkalaki

Couple of hundred protesters in Akhalkalaki, a town in
predominately ethnic Armenian populated Samtskhe-Javakheti region,
stormed a local court chamber and a building of the Tbilisi State
University’s Akhalkalaki branch on March 11.

Initial reason of a protest rally of about couple of hundred people
in the center of Akhalkalaki was to demand an immediate and unbiased
investigation of a murder of 24-year-old Gevork Gevorkian in Tsalka,
Shida Kartli region on March 11. Gevorkian died in a clash, which the
local population and some ethnic minority advocacy groups claim was
triggered by ethnic reasons. But the Georgian Public Defender
strongly denied that ethnic reasons were behind this clash in Tsalka
and said on March 11 that it was `an ordinary hooliganism.’

Later, the protesters voiced demands related with the right to
conduct the proceedings in courts and in the state structures in
Armenian language. Protesters dispersed shortly after the court
building and a local branch of the Tbilisi State University were
raided.

Khacatur Stepanian, one of the organizers of the protest rally said
that storming of the court and university could have been a
provocation.

`I can say for sure that nothing of this kind was planned by us. I
think it was a provocation, provoked by someone,’ Khacatur Stepanian
told Imedi television.

A group of non-governmental organizations based in Samtskhe-Javakheti
region requested the Georgian leadership to consider possibility of
granting the region autonomy with `broad authority for
self-governance, including the right to hold elections for all bodies
of governance.’

Haber Gazete, Turkey
March 11 2006

Bay Area ANC Hosts Publishers Hrant Dink And Ragip Zarakolu

SAN FRANCISCO–The Bay Area Armenian National Committee (ANC) hosted
its annual “Hye Tad Evening” at Treasure Island, with special guests
including Turkey’s Agos Armenian Weekly editor, Hrant Dink and Belge
Publishing House owner, Ragip Zarakolu.

Hrant Dink is the publisher and founding editor of the only bilingual
Turkish-Armenian newspaper, the Agos Weekly, established in 1996.

Dink thanked the Bay Area ANC for inviting him to the event. Speaking
in Armenian, he said, “I am delighted to have the opportunity to meet
the Armenian community here,” adding that he was happy to have had
the chance to meet and talk with ANC committees all over the world.

Dink grew up in Malatia, attended Armenian school in Istanbul, and
studied Philosophy and Zoology at Istanbul University. Through his
writings, publications, and public statements, Dink has been an
outspoken advocate for the democratization of Turkish society and for
the need to break the silence about the Armenian genocide.

Dink recently went on trial for “insulting the Turkish state,”
because of his remarks about reciting the Turkish oath. Dink said
about the oath, which says “I am Turkish, I am honest, I am
hardworking,” that although he was honest and hardworking, he was not
a Turk, but an Armenian. Although he was finally acquitted in that
case, he was later convicted of “insulting the Turkish identity” for
writing an article about the impact of the Armenian genocide on the
diaspora.

Although his suspended sentence requires that he not repeat the
crime, Dink said, “I will not be silent. As long as I live here, I
will go on telling the truth,” and vowed that he would appeal to
Turkey’s supreme court and to the European Court of Human Rights if
necessary. “If it is a day or six months or six years, it is all
unacceptable to me,” he said. “If I am unable to come up with a
positive result, it will be honorable for me to leave this country.”

Dink now faces new charges for attempting “to influence the
judiciary,” because of his comments about his conviction.

Despite government pressure on people who are speaking out, Dink
said, “It was a dream 10 years ago to imagine seeing the publication
of books and articles on the Armenian genocide. There is no doubt
that there has been some positive change.”

“People are starting to defend their rights,” said Dink, hoping for
“great changes.”

“The activities of the diaspora, the Genocide resolutions passed by
other countries every year, have contributed to the growing
consciousness in Turkey,” said Dink, who also attributed much of the
growing recognition of the Armenian genocide in Turkey to the Kurdish
struggle for national rights there.

“The government used to say, ‘We don’t have Kurds or a Kurdish
problem. Those people fighting up in the mountains are actually
Armenians,'” said Dink. “And to prove their assertions, they would
publish photographs in newspapers showing the uncircumcised corpses
of the defeated fighters. The Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan was
referred to as ‘The Armenian Bastard.'” Dink said that one of the
first things his paper did was to prove a certain priest who appeared
in a government newspaper photo with a Kurdish leader, was not, in
fact, an Armenian priest, as was claimed.

“We said we’re going to speak in their language,” Dink said of the
decision to publish Agos in Turkish as well as Armenian, against the
protests of many in the Armenian community. “Since then we began to
speak about our history and to counter their lies. We said, ‘Now,
it’s our turn.'”

Dink said that the process of democratization in Turkey can no longer
be turned back. “There is a movement to talk about the past and a
desire to know what happened to Armenians, ” he said. One of the
unexpected consequences of this movement was that many people in
Turkey are now revealing that their ancestors were Armenian.

“On the other hand, the Turkish government has responded with more
propaganda,” said Dink, citing the fact that four years ago, new
textbooks were distributed to all the schools which claim that
Armenians massacred the Turks.

Comparing the small number of books on the Genocide now being
published, with the millions of government textbooks denying the
Genocide, Dink said, “My hope is that those 3,000 books will vanquish
the governments’ millions.” He said that the process of recognizing
the Armenian genocide is going to take place from within the country,
starting from the general population. He said that outside pressures
for change must find a partner from within the country, or there is a
danger for extreme nationalism. Dink described a new ideological
movement within Turkey which brings together the Turkish and the
Islamic identities to form one unifying identity. He also pointed out
that the nationalist groups and Islamist groups are competing with
one another and as a result attacks against Armenians have increased.

Nevertheless, Dink expressed optimism about Armenian genocide
recognition. “One day they will recognize that the Armenian genocide
has to be addressed. But they will try to delay it and water it down
as much as possible.”

Regarding Turkey’s entry into the European Union, Dink said, “Turkey
is like a young man in love with a young European woman. But by the
time a union can actually take place, the man will be old and the
woman will be ugly… But love is the important thing. It keeps men
young, because they try to look better, act younger, take care of
themselves. Joining the European Union is not the important thing,
but being in love is important.” Dink also expressed his hope that
one day Armenia would join the European Union.

Ragip Zarakolu is the owner of Belge Publishing House. Through the
publication of books deemed subversive by the Turkish authorities,
Zarakolu has given voice to countless victims of injustice whose
stories have been silenced, denied, and banned by successive Turkish
regimes. The first book on the Armenian genocide which he published
in Turkish was Yves Ternon’s, Le Genocide des Armeniens, under the
title, Armenian Taboo, in 1994. Later came Vahakn Dadrian’s Genocide
as a Problem of National and International Law. When Zarakolu was
acquitted of charges against him for that publication, the
possibility of more free discussion about the Armenian genocide in
Turkey increased.

Among Zarakolu’s other translated publications about Armenian and
non-Armenian human rights issues is Mgrditch Armen’s Heghnar’s
Fountain, Franz Werfel’s Forty Days in Musa Dagh, Avetis Aharonian’s,
The Fedayees, Tessa Hoffman’s Talaat Pasha Trials in Berlin, Peter
Balakian’s Black Dog of the Fate, and most recently, Turkish
translations of Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story.

Because of his work, Zarakolu spent three years in prison in the
1970’s. His wife also spent several years in prison.

Zarakolu spoke about his first exposure to the Armenian genocide,
when his mother, a witness to the deportations, told him about being
kept in the house, while hearing Armenians being taken away outside.

“My mother said, ‘The Armenians were crying outside, and we were
crying inside,'” said Zarakolu. Referring to Turkey’s involvement in
WWI as a “stupid, adventurous war of the Ittihadists,” Zarakolu said
his mother lost both her parents. She was also able to save two
Armenian girls from deportation, but the government later removed
those girls from their home.

Zarakolu also spoke admiringly of Sarkis Cherkezian, an Armenian
genocide survivor born in a Syrian refugee camp who just passed away
at 90 years of age.

“We learned many things about the realities of what happened to the
Armenians,” he said of his close relationship to Cherkezian. He said
it was because of people like Cherkezian that he is able to write.

Zarakolu discussed the initial years of the Belge publishing house,
during which his work was not only banned but received little
attention. “We had a press conference for our collection of writings
of the first reports on the Armenian genocide, but there was no
coverage in the press,” said Zarakolu.

Since then he has withstood a constant barrage of criminal charges,
further imprisonment, confiscation and destruction of books, the
bombing of his publishing house, and heavy government fines and
taxes. His publishing house has endured more than 40 criminal
indictments. Zarakolu is currently being tried for publishing George
Jerjian’s History Will Set Us Free, and Dora Sakayan’s An Armenian
Doctor in Turkey: Garabed Hatcherian: My Smyrna Ordeal in 1922.

Economic means permitting, Zarakolu hopes to publish the Turkish
editions of the Blue Book from the United Kingdom, Armin Wegner’s
testimonies, Captanian’s testimonies, and a selection of Zabel
Yeseyan’s works, as well as a photographic documentation of the
Armenian deportation to the Syrian Desert.

Prime News Agency, Georgia
March 11 2006

Ombudsman Urges Police Of Tsalka Region To Activate Work

Tbilisi. March 11 (Prime-News) – Sozar Subari, Public Defender of
Georgia, urges law enforcement bodies of Tsalka region to activate
work owing to recent events.

Sozar Subari stated at the briefing on Saturday that a quarrel
between Georgian and Armenian citizens of Georgia occurred in Tsalka
on March 09, which ended with death of Armenian citizen and injury of
four people.

Representatives of Ombudsman’s office arrived in Tsalka on March 10
to get familiar with situation on the spot.

It turned out that the quarrel happened because of life conditions
and not on ethnic base.

Police detained several suspects on the same day.

Armenian population of Tsalka held a protest action outside the
building of local administration.

About 300 people gathered outside the Police building demanding
punishment of all guilty by Lunch law.

About 200 people entered administrative building, raided studies and
burned down documentation.

Sozar Subari stated that the Lynch law is not civil method.

Sozar Subari appealed to everybody to refrain from any groundless
statements and allow law enforcement bodies to investigate the case.

Zaman, Turkey
March 11 2006

Genocide Movie with Turkish Money

By Foreign News Desk, Istanbul
Published: Saturday, March 11, 2006
zaman.com

The Council of Europe decided to give financial support to the
Italian movie “The farm of the skylarks” which is about the so-called
Armenian genocide.

The Council of Europe foundation Eurimages decided to allocate
600,000 euros to Italian Antony and Paolo Taviani Brothers’ new film
titled “The farm of the skylarks,” which was adapted from Armenian
originated Antoni Aslan’s novel after its last meeting in Strasbourg.

Euroimages’, to which Turkey contributes a million euros yearly, drew
reaction from Ankara. Turkish Representative to Eurimages, Ihsan
Kabil, told Zaman that the movie insults the Turkish army and calls
an army officer a “donkey.”

The meeting in Strasbourg was reported to host many discussions about
this issue. All members, except Turkey, approved the financial aid
for the film, which had previously been approved by a 23-member jury
early this week.

Kabil said Ankara could not prevent the decision despite its
diplomatic efforts. He further noted Eurimages’s French Chairman
Jacques Toubon was quite influential in the decision. “Touban
delivered a 15 minute speech during the meeting and explicitly
supported the so-called Armenian Genocide. He said Turkey committed
the genocide, acting as if he was talking about a historical fact
rather than an unproven claim.” Kabil and Ahmet Boyacioglu, Turkey’s
representatives in Eurimages, gave speeches to criticize Toubon’s
speech and the film. Toubon, also a European Parliament (EP) Deputy,
is known to be a supporter of the so-called Armenian Genocide.

Kabil also remarked about the scenario of the movie and said one of
the Turkish army officers in the film was called a “donkey,” the
movie was not sufficient in artistic value. “There are many
cartoon-like scenes in the film which insult Turks and all of the
Turkish soldiers in the movie were portrayed as cruel people.”

>From The ANCA Desk

Th ursday March 19, 2006

“The Armenian Genocide’ on PBS

Andrew Goldberg’s documentary, `The Armenian Genocide,’ will be one of
the most important works for informing the American public about the
Ottoman Empire’s attempt to exterminate its Armenian minority
population. The movie includes affirmation from Turkish and other
non-Armenian scholars at Harvard, Princeton and other major
universities, thoroughly provides photographic documentation of the
genocide, uses the voice of a very well known television celebrity, and
crafts a visual narrative that is moving and inviting.

While there are parts of the film that Turkish denialists will distort
to subvert the entire movie, `The Armenian Genocide’ soundly exposes
Turkey’s nefarious campaign of denial and beautifully recounts America’s
response to the plight of Armenians at the time. The documentary tells
the story of the Hamidian massacres, the special organizations marshaled
by the Ottoman government as mobile killing squads, and other elements
essential to the intentional nature of the Young Turk genocidal
program.

The movie includes a television interview with Rafael Lemkin, who was
one of the driving forces behind the United Nation’s adoption of the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
During the interview, Lemkin explained that he coined the word genocide
based on the cases of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. On April
17, PBS will make `The Armenian Genocide’ available to its local
stations across the country. We must all stay tuned for it and encourage
anyone we know to view this invaluable program, which will teach the
American public about the horrible crime the Ottoman Empire perpetrated
against our ancestors.

####
2006-03-09

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Civil Georgia, Georgia
March 11 2006

Ombudsman Rules Out Ethnic Motives Behind Tsalka Clash

Georgian Public Defender Sozar Subari said on Saturday that a clash
in Tsalka, Kvemo Kartli region, on March 9 which resulted into death
of Gevork Gevorkian, 24, and injury of four other young men, was a
result of `an ordinary hooliganism’ which has nothing to do with
ethnic confrontation as claimed by the local population in Tsalka and
some minority advocacy groups.

At a joint news conference ethnic minority advocacy group
Multinational Georgia and union of ethnic Armenians in Georgia `Nor
Serund’ condemned the incident and demanded from the authorities an
immediate and unbiased investigation of the case.

Maria Mikoian of the `Nor Serund’ said that clash erupted after a
group of Georgian young men irritated by the Armenian music in a
restaurant in Tsalka attacked ethnic Armenian young men.

`Unfortunately ethnic confrontation more and more often becomes a
reason behind criminal acts in Tsalka,’ Agit Mirzoev, executive
director of the Multinational Georgia, said.

But Public Defender dismissed this reason as groundless. `Our
representatives traveled there and probed into the case. We can say
that this dispute has nothing to do with ethnic confrontation… Law
enforcers should immediately investigate the case and persecute those
who are guilty,’ Sozar Subari said on March 11.

Police said on March 10 that five suspects were arrested.

Meanwhile a group of about 200 local residents rallied in the town of
Akhalkalaki in Samtskhe-Javakheti region which is predominantly
populated by ethnic Armenians, on March 11, the Georgian media
sources reported. Protesters demanded a fair investigation of the
Tsalka incident.

Clashes between the locals erupt sporadically in recent years in
Tsalka district with population of 20 000. Ethnic Armenians comprise
57% of population, according to the Georgian department of
statistics. 4,500 ethnic Greeks, 2,500 ethnic Georgians and up to
2,000 Azerbaijanis also live there.

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
March 11 2006

US State Dept’s Fried to Visit Turkey Next Week

WASHINGTON – Reportedly, US State Dept. assistant secretary for
Europe Daniel Fried will visit Turkey next week.

The Department of State announced after visiting Azerbaijan, Georgia,
and Armenia next week, Fried will come to Turkey on Thursday, March
16.

Fried will discuss democracy, the Mountainous Karabagh region, and
the other matters in Azerbaijan where he will make contacts on
Monday, and Tuesday; on the same day he will visit Georgia, and head
to Armenia on Wednesday.

Reportedly, Fried will visit Turkey on Thursday, and conclude his
contacts on Friday.

By Anadolu News Agency (aa)

Prime News Agency, Georgia
March 11 2006

Armenian Population Of Akhalkalaki Raided Buildings Of Local
Administration, Court And University

Tbilisi. March 11 (Prime-News) – Armenian population of Akhalkalaki
raided buildings of local administration, Court and branch of Tbilisi
State University on Saturday.

Participants of the action gathered regarding the murder, which
happened on March 09, and named a murder of Gevork Gevorkyan, 24, an
ethnic opposition.

Later they demanded to allow using Armenian language in office work
in Samtskhe-Javakheti region, most part of which is Armenian
population.

They also stated that education process in Akhalkalaki branch of
TbilisiStateUniversity should be held on Armenian language.

Participants of the action also tried to enter the building of
Akhalkalaki Patriarchy of Georgia, as according to them there was
ammunition in large amount.

Representatives of the Patriarchy met several participants of the
action who ascertained that there was no ammunition.

Representatives of the Samtskhe-Javakheti regional Police stated that
the situation is under control.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress