ARMENIA’S DEFENSE OFFICE REFUTES INFORMATION ON SHOOTING OF AZERBAIJANI POSITIONS FROM ARMENIA’S TERRITORY
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 7 2006
YEREVAN, March 7. /ARKA/. The RA Ministry of Defense has refuted the
information on the shooting of Azerbaijani positions from the Armenian
territory. “No shooting was from Armenia’s territory,” Colonel Seyran
Shahsuvaryan, Press Secretary to the RA Minister of Defense, told ARKA.
Referring to the RA Ministry of Defense, RIA Novosty reported that an
Azerbaijani soldier was killed as a result of shooting from Armenia’s
territory at 4:45 a.m.

PARTIES OF NK CONFLICT CLOSE TO AGREEMENT, MATTHEW BRYZA SAYS
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 7 2006
The parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are close to an agreement,
Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs, told reporters in Yerevan.
The most important steps remain, he added. The issues that have to be
settled are the most difficult ones, and the leaders of the states
must have clear positions, Bryza said. The leaders of the states
must determine the terms of settlement themselves, and “we will do
our best for the decision to be made as soon as possible.”
The US diplomat disagreed with the opinion that the negotiations for
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement are in the deadlock.
He disagrees with those claiming that the Rambouillet negotiations
failed, and the OSCE Minsk Group has exhausted its potential.
The Presidents did not arrive at a decision in Rambouillet, but it
does not mean that the negotiations failed.

NORMALIZATION OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS TO BECOME NATURAL RESULT OF PROGRESS IN NK SETTLEMENT
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 7 2006
YEREVAN, March 7. /ARKA/. Normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations will become a natural result of a progress in the Karabakh
settlement, Deputy Assistant of State for European and Eurasian
Affairs Matthew Bryza told reporters.
“I touch upon the problem of the Armenian-Turkish relations during
all my visits to Turkey or Armenia,” he said.
Bryza pointed out that during his current visit to Armenia,
issues related to electric energy exports and cooperation in
the Euro-Atlantic family were discussed in the context of the
Armenian-Turkish relations.

USA BELIEVES IN DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS IN ARMENIA: STATE DEPARTMENT REP.
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 7 2006
YEREVAN, March 7. /ARKA – “Novosty-Armenia”/. The USA believes in
the democratization process in Armenia, Deputy Assistant of State
for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza told reporters.
“Armenia now is in the process of democratization. We believe in
this process, otherwise, we would not propose to include Armenia in
‘Millennium Challenge Account’ program,” he said.
According to him, as any other process, democratization requires
big work.
“Political will of the authorities is necessary to spread this idea
among the people,” Bryza said.
According to him, regular citizens should also take part in building
democracy through civil society and participation in elections.
“Political parties, including oppositional ones, should be active
and constructive,” Bryza said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEIGHBOURS ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN TRADE ACCUSATIONS
Agence France Presse — English
March 7, 2006 Tuesday 4:36 PM GMT
Baku
Azerbaijan accused neighbouring Armenia Tuesday of breaching a
ceasefire in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and causing
the death of an Azeri soldier, in the latest round of feuding between
the rivals.
Armenia quickly denied the charge and responded with
counter-accusations that Azeri troops had killed an Armenian soldier
last week.
The Azeri defence ministry said Armenian soldiers had opened fire
early Tuesday. A second soldier was said to be seriously wounded.
Nagorno-Karabakh, the focus the dispute, is a largely Armenian
populated enclave on Azeri territory. When the two former Soviet
republics became independent, they fought a war over the region that
claimed around 25,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands.
It ended in a tense ceasefire in 1994 with Armenian forces in control
of most of the enclave and seven surrounding Azerbaijani regions,
but Karabakh’s status remains unresolved.
The Armenian side quickly denied Tuesday’s accusation.
“The information from Azerbaijan about the death of a soldier does
not correspond to the facts,” a spokesman for the defence force in
Karabakh told AFP. “We are also tired of Armenia’s periodic violations
of the ceasefire.”
The Armenian defence ministry in Yerevan had previously issued a
statement saying Azeri forces had opened fire on March 3 in the
direction of northern Armenia causing head wounds to a 19 year-old
soldier who had later died in hospital.
The Armenian ministry claimed Azerbaijan had violated the ceasefire
on March 4,5,6 and 7.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said last week talks on Nagorno
Karabakh enclave were at a dead end and signalled that his country
should prepare for renewed war with Armenia.
“The Armenian side is stalling for time and the fact that the
negotiating process has reached a dead end is the fault of the Armenian
side,” Aliyev said.
“We are the victimized party and this gives us the right to resolve
the issue by any means. We must get ready and the population must be
mobilized,” Aliyev said.

RUSSIA REMAINS KEY TRADE PARTNER TO SOUTH CAUCASUS – DIPLOMAT
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 7, 2006 Tuesday
Russia will remain a key trade partner to all South Caucasian countries
for a long time, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza said in Yerevan on Tuesday.
He said that Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia should choose the way
of cooperation with Russia.
Bryza’s negotiations in Yerevan centered on energy security.
Positive cooperation between Armenia and Russian gas suppliers has
been developed for years, and should naturally go on, he said. Yet
the best way to energy security is diversification of supplies, the
diplomat said. He said it is a matter of gas, hydro and thermal power,
and nuclear energy.
Rates of the development of military-political relations between the
United States and Armenia depend on Yerevan, the official said.
Armenia has taken many important steps towards closer cooperation with
the Euro-Atlantic community, he said, emphasizing the Armenia-NATO
individual partnership plan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

USA WELCOMES MILITARY-POLITICAL COOPERATION WITH ARMENIA
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 7 2006
YEREVAN, March 7. /ARKA/. The USA welcomes military-political
cooperation with Armenia, Deputy Assistant of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza told reporters. “This cooperation
depends on the Armenian Government, and we welcome it,” he said.
“I do not think that Armenia will advance in this cooperation at such
a rate that would be too rapid for us,” Bryza said.
He pointed out that he was satisfied with the level of cooperation
with Armenia in this sphere. Particularly, the representative of State
Department pointed out the development of Armenia’s interaction with
the NATO in the frameworks of the IPAP program.
“I highly appreciate Armenia’s support in peacemaking missions,”
Bryza said and added that the USA will do everything to deepen these
processes.

ONE AZERBAIJANI SERVICEMAN DIES, ONE INJURED IN SHELLING INCIDENT
by Sevindzh Abdullayeva and Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 7, 2006 Tuesday
Baku
One Azerbaijani serviceman was killed on Tuesday when positions
of the national army came under fire in the Tertersky district in
western Azerbaijan, spokesman for the republic’s Defense Ministry
Ilgar Verdiyev said.
The fatality was identified as Private Perviz Dzhangirov, 20. The fire
was opened by Armenian armed groups from the neighboring occupied
territories, Verdiyev said, adding that Azerbaijan’s positions in
the Fizulinsky district in the southwest of the country were also
shelled on Tuesday. One serviceman was injured in the incident.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, national army positions in the
Kazakhsky district in the west of the country were shelled. There
were no casualties, according to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.
A Tuesday report by Itar-Tass correspondent in Yerevan Tigran Liloyan
citing the Armenian Defense Ministry said the Azerbaijani army shelled
border positions of Armenian army units in the Vaiksky, Taushsky and
Idzhevansky districts last night and on Monday.
Armenia did not return fire. There have been no casualties, Armenian
Defense Ministry spokesman Seiran Shakhsuvaryan said.

ARMENIAN ACBA DIRECTOR GENERAL CHAIRS UBA
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 7 2006
YEREVAN, March 7. /ARKA/. Director General of the Agricultural
Corporate Bank of Armenia (ACBA) Stepan Gishyan was elected Chairman
of the Union of Banks of Armenia (UBA). The decision was made at a
special general meeting of the UBA.
The meeting approved the new wording of the UBA Statute and elected a
new 9-member UBA Board. Formerly, the UBA Board had six members. The
UBA was chaired by Samvel Chzmachyan, president of the “Bank Anelik”.
The UBA is a member of the European Bank Federation.
ACBA was founded in 1995 and incorporated on March 29, 1996. The bank
was founded by the farm unions of Armenian regions under the EU TACIS
program.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WHERE KILLERS ROAM, THE POISON SPREADS
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times
March 7, 2006 Tuesday
Late Edition – Final
Along The Chad-Sudan Border
For more than two years, the world has pretty much ignored the
genocide unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan, just as it turned
away from the slaughter of Armenians, Jews, Cambodians and Rwandans
in earlier decades.
And now, apparently encouraged by the world’s acquiescence, Sudan is
sending its proxy forces to invade neighboring Chad and kill and rape
members of the same African tribes that have already been ethnically
cleansed in Darfur itself.
I’ve spent the last three days along the Chad-Sudan border, where this
brutal war is unfolding. But “war” doesn’t feel like the right term,
for that implies combat between armies.
What is happening here is more like what happens in a stockyard.
Militias backed by Sudan race on camels and pickup trucks into Chadian
villages and use machine guns to mow down farming families, whose only
offense is that they belong to the wrong tribes and have black skin.
I found it eerie to drive on the dirt track along the border because
countless villages have been torched or abandoned. Many tens of
thousands of peasants have fled their villages, and you can drive for
mile after mile and see no sign of life — except for the smoke of the
villages or fields being burned by the Sudan-armed janjaweed militia.
In some places the janjaweed, made up of nomadic Arab tribes that
persecute several black African tribes, have turned villages into
grazing lands for the livestock they have stolen. At one point,
my vehicle got stuck in the sand, and a group of janjaweed children
materialized and helped push me out. The children were watching a
huge herd of cattle with many different brands. Their fathers were
presumably off killing people.
This is my sixth trip to the Darfur region, and I’ve often seen burned
villages within Darfur itself, but now the cancer has spread to Chad.
One young man, Haroun Ismael, returned with me — very nervously —
to the edge of his village of Karmadodo, between the towns of Adre
and Ade. Eleven days earlier, Sudanese military aircraft and a force
of several hundred janjaweed had suddenly attacked the village. Mr.
Haroun and his wife had run for their lives, with his wife carrying
their 3-month-old baby, Ahmed.
The janjaweed raiders overtook Mr. Haroun’s wife and beat her so badly
that she is still unconscious. They also grabbed Ahmed from her arms.
“They looked at the baby,” Mr. Haroun added, “and since he was a boy,
they shot him.”
Sudan is also arming and equipping a proxy army of Chadian rebels under
a commander named Muhammad Nour. The rebels were repulsed when they
tried to invade Chad in late December, and now they are regrouping
for another attempt.
Sudan’s aim seems to be to overthrow Chad’s president and install a
pawn in his place, in part because this would allow Sudan’s Army to
attack rebels in Darfur from both directions.
Regardless of whether the rebels succeed in overthrowing Chad’s
government, they could ignite a new civil war in Chad. Much will depend
on whether the French will use their military base in Chad to fight any
Sudanese-sponsored invasion; the French aren’t saying what they’ll do.
Chad’s army is too small to defend its border, so it tries to
defend potential invasion routes. That leaves villages in other
areas defenseless.
“See that smoke over there?” asked Ali Muhammad in the market town
of Borota. “The janjaweed are burning our fields today.”
“Most people here have fled,” he added, “but I have old family members
to look after, so I can’t leave.”
These areas are too insecure for the United Nations and most
international aid workers, who are already doing a heroic and dangerous
job in Darfur and Chad. So Mr. Ali and others left behind get no food
aid and go hungry.
In the last few weeks, President Bush has shown an increased
willingness to address the slaughter in Darfur. He should now encourage
the French to use their forces to defend Chad from proxy invasions,
make a presidential speech to spotlight the issue, attend a donor
conference for Darfur, encourage the use of a NATO bridging force
until U.N. peacekeepers can arrive, enforce a no-fly zone and open
a new initiative for peace talks among the sheiks of Darfur.
The present Western policy of playing down genocide and hoping
it will peter out has proved to be bankrupt practically as well as
morally. Granted, there are no neat solutions in Darfur. But ignoring
brutality has only magnified it, and it’s just shameful to pretend not
to notice the terrified villagers here, huddling with their children
each night and wondering when they are going to be massacred.