Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Georgia issued visa to Armenian delegates to visit Baku
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006
[ 17 Mar. 2006 20:24 ]
The Azerbaijani Embassy in Georgia issued visa to the Armenian
delegates to visit Azerbaijan to attend the conference “Enhancing
transportation security in OSCE region” organized by OSCE in Baku.
Diplomatic sources informed APA about it. According to the information,
Armenians arrived in Baku through Yerevan-Tbilisi-Baku route.
The spokesman of the Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Georgia Elkhan Polukhov
told APA that the Embassy did not grant a visa to any Armenian citizen
to visit Azerbaijan.
The Armenian delegation composed of head of Foreign Ministry OSCE
department Varuzhan Nersesyan, deputy head of the Armenian delegation
to OSCE Hambarsum Minasyan and deputy chief of Armenia’s Transport and
Communication Ministry Vahan Badalyan attended the two-day conference
in Baku./APA/

Azerbaijani embassy in Russia sent a note to Russian Foreign Ministry
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006
[ 17 Mar. 2006 20:12 ]
Azerbaijani embassy in Russia sent a note to Russian Foreign Ministry
in connection with the fact that Nagorno Garabagh is shown as the
territory of Armenia in the website of Inter RAO EES company.
Azerbaijani embassy in Russia told APA that the note reads publication
of information questioning territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is
unacceptable. The embassy requested the Russian Foreign Ministry to
focus on correction of the error made by INTER RAO EES Company and
not to allow publication of such false information in future.
In the website of Inter RAO EES company about the Southern Caucasus
countries, territories of the Nagorno Garabagh and Nakhchivan AR aren’t
shown as Azerbaijani territories, at the same time, Azerbaijani city-
Shusha is shown as ‘Shushi’ and Lachin as ‘Kashatag’. /APA/

Ukraine concluded WTO negotiations with Armenia and Columbia
ForUm, Ukraine
March 17 2006
Ukraine has concluded talks with Armenia and Columbia relating to the
World Trade Organization bills, RIA Novosti informed Friday referring
to Ukraine Economy Ministry.
“We have concluded the WTO accession talks with Armenia and Columbia,”
Arseniy Yatsenyuk said, adding that there have also been positive
developments in the negotiations with Australia.
The minister said that Ukraine intends to intensify the negotiating
process now when the bilateral agreement with the United States has
been passed.
A presidential administration official previously said that the
country could complete talks on joining the body governing global
trade before the end of March 2006.
Ukraine has signed protocols with the majority of WTO members,
including with the United States on March 2, on mutual access to
commodities and services markets. In mid-February, the U.S. granted
it market economy status after the European Union declared Ukraine
a market economy at the end of 2005.

Ukraine completes market access negotiations with Armenia, Columbia
Interfax – Ukraine News Agency , Ukraine
March 17 2006
Kyiv, March 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine has completed negotiations
on market access agreements with Armenia and Columbia as a part of
its preparations for World Trade Organization accession.
The press service of the Economy Ministry told Interfax-Ukraine
about the end of the talks on Friday, citing Economy Minister Arseniy
Yatseniuk.
Having agreed with Armenia and Columbia, Ukraine now must complete
similar talks with Australia, Kyrgyzstan, Panama, Egypt and Taiwan
before it can apply to join the WTO.

Armenian serviceman attempting to pass front line in Terter detained
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006
[ 17 Mar. 2006 19:15 ]
The military men of Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry detained an Armenian
military man Saakyan Vardan Martikovich, who passed the front line
in Hasangaya village of Azerbaijani region of Terter, near contact
line of troops on 3 February, this year.
The investigation found out that Saakyan Vardan was born in Uits
village of Sisian region, Armenia, on June 25, 1986, and he is
Armenian citizen.
Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Prisoners of War, Hostages and
Missing Persons informed APA that Saakyan was drafted to Armenian
Army under a contract and sent to Azerbaijan’s occupied province of
Nagorno Garabagh for military service.
The international organizations (the International Committee of the
Red Cross, the International Working Group to Search for the Missing,
Hostages and Prisoners of War) have been informed about Saakyan./APA/

U.S. Negotiators Say Peace Talks Stall but Not Dead
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006
17/03/2006 19:12
A senior American diplomat believes there is still an opportunity
for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make a breakthrough in the Karabakh
settlement process.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Daniel Fried said in Yerevan on Thursday that he is convinced that
negotiations can be continued despite the lack of progress at the
latest round of high-level talks at Rambouillet.
“Both governments express their countries’ interests and take the
Karabakh settlement process seriously,” Fried said, sharing with
the media his impressions of the meetings with officials in Baku
and Yerevan.
On the last leg of his regional tour in the Armenian capital, Daniel
Fried met with Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian, Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian.
Fried, who had visited Azerbaijan and Georgia, said the goal of his
trip was to study the situation in the region after the Rambouillet
meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as
to discuss a number of issues pertaining to the future of the region,
including energy security.
OSCE Minsk Group Cochairman from the United States Steven Mann, who
accompanied the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs in his tour, said: “It is a difficult fact that we
did not move ahead at Rambouillet. But the two countries’ presidents
are willing to move forward.”
On Wednesday, Fried and Mann had dinner with a dozen politicians
representing Armenia’s pro-government and opposition forces.
Fried said the U.S. Government is also interested in the democratic
situation in Armenia.
The American diplomats left Yerevan for Istanbul later on Thursday
to attend a meeting of the Minsk Group cochairmen due to be held there.

Happy is the one who can call himself a Turk
Khilafah.com, UK
March 17 2006
In December 2005 the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was held on trail
for violating the Turkish Republic’s criminal code, article 301: the
crime of “denigrating Turkishness”. The novelist faced nationalist
protesters hurling abuse and threatening violence. Scuffles broke
out inside and outside the cramped courtroom. Armed police in riot
gear were deployed, but failed to prevent the ugly scenes. Although
Pamuk has become the most well known individual to be arrested under
a series of patriotic laws, he is by no means the only one. Scores
of writers and journalists are being prosecuted for this crime of
“denigrating Turkishness”. Fatih Ta’, owner of the Aram publishing
house, was charged with “insulting Turkishness and the security
forces” under article 301 code, and with “insulting the memory of
Kemal Ataturk” under Statute 5816, a law to protect Ataturk. Ragip
Zarakolu, owner of the Belge publishing house, was put on trial for
“insulting Ataturk” under Law 5816, and “insulting the armed forces”
under article 301. Although he Turkish authorities dropped the charges
a month later, they failed to avoid international condemnation.
There was outrage and indignation at the Turkish moves to trample
on the principle of freedom of speech, and condemnation at Turkey’s
denial of an event that so many in the West say was the first organised
genocide of the 20th century. However, few mentioned how ridiculous
the law of “insulting the memory of Kemal Ataturk” actually is, or how
inhumane it is to have statutes that force citizens to honour such
a nebulous notion as “Turkishness”. These acts of legislation are
meaningless and insulting to the intelligence of the Muslims of Turkey.
The western press and other bodies made much of the Pumuk trial at
the time. On December 8, 2005, Human Rights Watch said: “The Turkish
judiciary must promptly acquit the novelist Orhan Pamuk and sharply
dismiss the indictment against him if Turkey is to allay serious
doubts about its commitment to free expression”. The nub of the Pumuk
case was that he expressed an opinion to a Swiss magazine Das Bild in
February 2005 that, “Thirty thousand Kurds and one million Armenians
were killed in these lands.” He expressed an opinion on events that
occurred during the First World War that are discordant with those
of the Turkish government.
This, in the modern Turkish Republic, is illegal. Similarly the
British historian David Irvin expressed an opinion about events that
happened during the Second World War. His views were also in conflict
with the official opinions held by certain governments, such as in
Austria where it is illegal.
The other similarity between the two cases is that they both involve
self publicists that have courted controversy. They have both gone
up against laws that they knew had the potential to be their undoing.
Irving was arrested in November 2005 for speeches he made in Austria in
1998 in which he denied the existence of gas chambers and extermination
camps in Europe during the period of Nazi rule. Austria has the
strictest holocaust denial laws in Europe and Irving was well aware of
this fact. However Austria also has a poor record for actually dealing
with suspects of Nazi war crimes. This case was more about “sending
a massage” rather than exposing the opinions of a quasi-historian to
be bereft of strong supporting evidence.
The rights and wrongs of the opinions of these two controversial
figures are not the issue of concern here. What is of interest is
the reaction of the western press to these two individuals voicing
their opinions, especially, as these two cases hit the news at a
time when Europe was debating the whole notion of free speech. The
vigorous defence of freedom of speech, in relation the Danish cartoons
and Orhan Pamuk, seems not to be extrapolated to protecting Irving’s
right to free speech. Similarly the outrage expressed towards Turkey,
for forcing people to hold their view and their view alone, was not
extended to Austria.
The response of Europe to the Danish cartoons, coupled with the
condemnation heaped upon Turkey and the fact that one their scholars
is now languishing in a cell prove that the idea of free speech is
merely an illusion.
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AzerTag, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006
AZERBAIJANI EMBASSY IN MOSCOW SUBMITS NOTE OF PROTEST TO RUSSIA~RS
FOREIGN MMINISTRY
[March 17, 2006, 18:33:14]
Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow submitted a note of protest to
Russia’s Foreign Ministry against the information published on the
Caucasus-related page of the Inter RAO EES company’s website.
In its note, the Embassy points to “inadmissibility of publications
reflecting the violation of territorial integrity of the Azerbaijan
Republic”, and requests the Russian Foreign Ministry to call on the
Inter RAO EES to eliminate the errors and distortions, and not allow
their repetition in future.
The Embassy also asks to forward the text of the note to the Inter
RAO EES for its personnel to have correct information about the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh deals with by the
Russian Federation as co chair of the OSCE Minsk group.
On the webpage, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenian
armed forces is presented without pointing to its belonging to the
Republic of Azerbaijan; the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is not
mentioned as part of the Republic of Azerbaijan; names of several
Azerbaijani towns are presented as they sounds in Armenian: the
Azerbaijani towns Shusha as Shushi, and Lachin as Kashatag.

U.S. urges Turkey to open up border crossing with Armenia
Xinhua News Agency, China
March 17 2006
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Daniel Fried urged Turkey to open up the border crossing with Armenia
as a step toward normalization of relations between the two countries,
local media reported Friday.
Fried, who is currently on a visit to Turkey, called upon Turkey to
open up the border crossing, which he said would contribute to building
up relations between Turkey and Armenia, semi-official Anatolia News
Agency reported.
The U.S. official also discussed with Turkish officials Iran’s nuclear
program and the Cyprus issue, the report added.
Turkey and the United States shared concern over the Iranian nuclear
issue, but officials from both sides agreed that it should be resolved
through diplomatic means, Anatolia said.
But meanwhile, Fried conveyed the message to Turkey that the military
alternative was still on the table, it added.
On the Cyprus issue, Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ali
Tuygan, who held talks with Fried, emphasized the importance of ending
the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot north.
Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia on
the basis that Armenia claims that up to 1.5 million Armenians died
as a result of systematic genocide during the Turkish Ottoman period
between 1915 and 1923, a charge disputed by Ankara.

US Expects Normalized Turkish-Armenian Relations
By Cihan News Agency
Zaman Online, Turkey
March 17 2006
Published: Friday, March 17, 2006
zaman.com
Deputy Undersecretary of the US Department of State Daniel Fried,
speaking during his meeting with Turkish Foreign Ministry officials
on Friday, said that his country wished for the normalization of
relations between Turkey and Armenia.
Arriving in Turkey together with US special envoy Steve Mann, Fried
held talks in Ankara with the Turkish FM Undersecretary Ali Tuygan
and his deputy Ahmet Uzumcu.