NKR IS READY TO COUNTERATTACK
Lragir.am
20 April 06
The Defense Army of Nagorno Karabakh Republic will counterattack
to any attempt of aggression on behalf of Azerbaijan, stated NKR
Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan April 20 in a press conference in
Stepanakert. “The Defense Army of NKR will fight for every patch
of its land. Nagorno Karabakh is permanently ready, which excludes
the possibility of unpunished aggression on behalf of Azerbaijan,”
stated Seyran Ohanyan.
At the same time, Seyran Ohanyan denied the possibility of waging a
“lightning war” by Azerbaijan. “Even if the foe succeeds in capturing
our trenches near the front line, which I think is impossible; they
do not know what awaits them at the front line,” stated Seyran
Ohanyan. According to him, any advance of the foe is aimed at
strengthening its positions, “but this advance is insignificant.”
On April 20 NKR President Arkady Ghukasyan stated in Stepanakert
that Armenia makes efforts to settle the Karabakh conflict. “The
leadership of Nagorno Karabakh does not have reasons for distrust,
and thinks that Armenia is trying its best to protect the interests of
the people of Nagorno Karabakh.” At the same time, Arkady Ghukasyan
said the settlement is not a one-sided process, “Each of the sides
pursues its interests and here the question is not in distrust but
in the effectiveness of the process.”

International recognition of NKR – the primary issue of the Armenia’s foreign policy agenda
ArmRadio.am
20.04.2006 17:05
Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly, member of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation Vahan Hovhannisyan said today that the
primary issue in the foreign policy agenda of Armenia, i.e. the
negotiations with Azerbaijan, should yield its place to another
question – recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic by Armenia.
Turning to the opinions that Armenian-Russian cooperation is living
a troublous period, Vahan Hovhannisyan said that the question has
two faces – economic and political.
“In political respect there is really reason for trouble,” Vahan
Hovhannisyan said, adding that economically the most efficient solution
has been found.

Serge Sargsyan: We never violate the cease-fire
ArmRadio.am
20.04.2006 17:45
“We never violate the cease-fire, we just respond to pressure the
shoots,” RA Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan said.
Commander of the NKR Armed Forces Seyran Ohanyan confirms that the
combatant preparedness of the Army is on a high level.
Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan has the impression that Azerbaijan is
willing to make new suggestions and gain much, which is not acceptable
for us.
“If any of the sides tries to gain more in such an obvious, apparent
way, then we shall hardly be able to come to an agreement,” Serge
Sargsyan said.
He does not consider the militant statements of Azerbaijan are attempts
to fail the negotiations process.

RA President received teh EU Trio delegation
ArmRadio.am
20.04.2006 17:58
RA President Robert Kocharyan received today the EU Trio delegation,
headed by Foreign Affairs State Secretary of Austria Hans Winkler.
The parties exchanged views on the cooperation between EU and South
Caucasus.
Positively assessing EU’s growing interest in the region,
the President attached importance to the final adoption of the
Individual Partnership Actions Plan with Armenia in the framework of
the European New Neighbors Policy and noted that it will make our
further collaboration of the European Union with our country more
simple and clear. “We consider the Actions Plan a certain route of
bilateral relations, which provides a new opportunity for implementing
targeted and coordinated reforms,” the President remarked.
Later Robert Kocharyan presented the latest developments in the
peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict and Armenia’s approaches
regarding the issues of energy security and cooperation.

Recognition of Karabakh should be on agenda- ARF Bureau member
20.04.2006 16:38
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau
member and National Assembly Vice Speaker Vahan Hovannisian spoke on
Thursday about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Armenia-Russia relations
and domestic political developments.
Taking a question on Yerevan’s current position on the Karabakh
conflict settlement, Hovannisian said that Yerevan is not going to
make more concessions other than those already spelled out for years.
“The statements Armenia makes to succeed in talks and show the
country in a better light should not be confused with the final goal,”
Hovannisian said. “If Azerbaijan admits even once it recognizes the
self-determination right of Nagorno Karabakh, it would be hard for
it to take its words back later.”
“Today, the negotiations with Azerbaijan should not be the first
issue on the agenda. Instead, the first item on the agenda should
be the recognition of Karabakh – in any form – by the international
community. This would make Azerbaijan go for more compromise.”
He added that presently not only the ARF but also state officials
realize this. Referring to the latest gas deals with Russia,
Hovannisian said that the political side of the deal was “really very
obnoxious,” but in terms of economics, the deal was the best solution
currently possible.
Speaking of the prospects of the political developments and the
possible outcome of the parliamentary election due next year,
Hovannisian said he was sure the ARF will be presented at the National
Assembly, noting that unlike the opposition, he believes the elections
will be fair.

Prime minister of Canada recognizes Armenian Genocide
20.04.2006 17:27
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Ottawa – The Prime Minister of Canada, the Right
Honourable Stephen Harper, made a clear statement recognizing the
historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.
In response to a reporter’s question regarding the Armenian Genocide,
the Prime Minister said: “That was a vote held in the last Parliament
[Motion M-380 – April 21, 2004]. As you recall, Parliament passed that
resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Our party supported that
resolution and we continue to recognize that parliamentary resolution”.
Dr. Vagharch Ehramdjian, Chairman of the Armenian National Committee
of Canada (ANCC), thanked the Prime Minister Harper, on behalf of
the Canadian Armenian Community, for his historic statement.

Marblehead Reporter, MA
April 20 2006
Holocaust commemoration set for April 24
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Many local organizations, temples, churches and colleges are
joining with the Holocaust Center, Boston North to sponsor this
year’s Community Interfaith Commemoration of the Holocaust, Monday,
April 24, 7 p.m., with an art exhibit at 6 p.m. at Peabody Veterans
Memorial High.
“It is vital to remember the Holocaust as a warning of what can happen
when people and nations become indifferent bystanders,” said Holocaust
survivor Sonia Weitz. “To forget the victims would be forgetting that
they ever lived. Most died without leaving anyone behind to remember,
to recite the traditional memorial prayers. To forget would be a
victory for the perpetrators.”
Harvard Law School professor Martha Minow will give the keynote
presentation entitled “Lessons and Parallels, from the Holocaust
to Darfur.” She will be the recipient of the Holocaust Center’s
Service Award.
The program includes the traditional Survivors’ Candle lighting
ceremony, the presentation of the flag by area veterans, a performance
by the Gordon College women’s choir, an interfaith service with
Rev. Thomas Buckley of Andover, Rev. Dr. Susan Jarek-Glidden of Quincy,
Rabbi Myron Geller of Gloucester and Cantor Sam Pessaroff of Peabody.
Doors open at 6 p.m. In addition to student art, there will be an
exhibit on the Armenian genocide presented by Peabody resident Apo
Torosyan. The Social Action Committee and Youth Group from Temple
Ner Tamid will have postcards available to encourage our government
to stop the genocide in Darfur. The video “Present Memories” will be
shown from 6-7 p.m.
Co-sponsoring the commemoration this year are: Temples Ahavath Achim,
B’nai Abraham, Beth Shalom, Congregation Sons of Israel, Emanuel,
Ner Tamid, Shalom, Shiryat Hayam and Sinai; Cohen-Hillel Academy,
Community Covenant Church, Danvers Diversity Committee, Facing History
& Ourselves, Gordon College, Jewish Federation of the North Shore,
office of District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, Peabody’s No Place
For Hate, Peabody Veterans’ Council, Peter Torigian Life Center and
Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation.
The community is welcome. There is no charge. For information,
call the Holocaust Center, Boston North Inc., 978-531-8288 or visit
holocaustcenterbn.org.

Murder Case Judgement Reverberates Around Caucasus
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
April 20 2006
Armenia welcomes life imprisonment for Azeri military officer who
killed Armenian – but Azerbaijan seeks appeal.
By Marina Grigorian in Budapest and Yerevan and Rauf Orujev in Baku
(CRS No. 336, 20-Apr-06)
At the end of a case that has transfixed the two warring countries
in the Caucasus, a Budapest court handed down a life sentence last
week to an Azerbaijani military officer found guilty of murdering a
colleague from Armenia attending the same English course.
Ramil Safarov was given a life sentence without right of appeal for
30 years, for the murder of Gurgen Margarian with an axe in February
2004. Both men, who were aged 26 at the time, were attending a NATO
English-language seminar in Hungary.
The case has become a cause celebre in both countries, divided by
conflict for more than 18 years, with groups forming in Azerbaijan to
champion Safarov and Margarian being honoured as a martyr in Armenia.
The murder was committed on the night of February 18-19 in the military
academy in Budapest where the two men were staying. Safarov came into
Margarian’s room and killed him. A post-mortem established that he
delivered 16 axe-blows and almost severed Margarian’s head.
Having killed Margarian, Safarov then went down the corridor and tried
to break into the room of the second Armenian officer on the course,
Haik Makuchian, but his door was fortunately locked.
The judge Andras Vaskuti explained the severity of the sentence by
saying that the murder had been premeditated and brutal and that
Safarov had shown no signs of remorse.
Safarov’s lawyers made a case that their client was suffering from
post-traumatic stress, as he comes from Jabrail, one of the regions
of Azerbaijan outside Nagorny Karabakh taken by the Armenians during
the conflict in 1993 and now under Armenian control.
There were several examinations of Safarov’s mental health, with one
coming to the conclusion that he was not entirely sane. However, in
the end, the judge cited the last assessment, which concluded that
Safarov was of sound mind when he committed the crime.
Safarov’s father Sahib Safarov told IWPR that his family were the
victims of Armenian aggression.
“Two of his cousins died from the bullets of Armenian aggressors –
Ildirim Khudiev and Jabbar Yusifov,” he told IWPR, giving details
of atrocities committed by Armenian forces in Jabrail against his
family. “What kind of attitude do you have to that?”
In an interview published in Ekho newspaper in January, the senior
Azerbaijani psychiatrist Professor Agabek Sultanov – present at the
mental health examination of Safarov, which deduced that he was not
entirely sane – said that he had reached the conclusion that Safarov
suffered from mental trauma.
Safarov later told the court that he was at home in August 1993
when Armenian forces attacked his home region at the height of the
Nagorny Karabakh war – although this version of events is disputed,
with Safarov saying at another point that he was studying in Baku
and Turkey between 1992 and 1996.
Sultanov also said that Safarov had told him that he and his
Azerbaijani colleague had been taunted and sworn at by their Armenian
counterparts on the NATO course. In one incident Safarov came to
a birthday party of a Hungarian colleague and gave him a wristband
depicting the Azerbaijani flag. Margarian reportedly came later and
told the Hungarian that the red strip in the flag was “their blood,
which we shed, we should rip out all their guts”.
This apparently is the origin of the account in the Azerbaijani media
that Margarian had insulted the Azerbaijani flag.
However, no witnesses were produced by the defence to confirm these
incidents of harassment in court and prosecution lawyers strongly
disputed that they had taken place. They also accused Sultanov of
bias, saying he had exceeded his responsibilities by taking part in
a medical examination of Safarov in contravention of Hungarian law.
“For two years the Azerbaijani side has created a whole industry
of lies around this case and not a single assertion has received
confirmation in the course of the trial,” said Haik Demoyan, who
represented the Armenian defence ministry at the trial.
In his last words to the court on April 13, the accused asked them
to take into account his psychological state, but did not say he was
sorry for what he had done.
Handing down a life sentence, the judge emphasised that “the murder
of a sleeping man in peace time is always a crime and cannot be an
act of heroism”.
Newspapers and broadcasters in both countries took a passionate
interest in the case with the Armenian media widely reporting that
an ultra-nationalist Azerbaijani newspaper had called Safarov “Man of
the Year”, while the Azerbaijani media gave prominence to a statement
by an Armenian nationalist that he would pay 125,000 dollars for the
assassination of Safarov.
In Armenia, the sentence was warmly welcomed. In Azerbaijan there
were mixed views of Safarov himself, but there was near-universal
agreement that the sentence was too harsh.
Haik Demoyan told a press conference, “The sentence for Safarov was
also a verdict on the anti-Armenian policies of Azerbaijan.”
Levon Mkrtchian, head of the nationalist Dashnaktsutiun group in the
Armenian parliament, said, “The decision has a moral and political
meaning for us.”
Narine Abrahamian, a lawyer, said, “I am sorry for Safarov, he is
still young and has already committed such a grave crime. I think such
a harsh sentence was required to prevent the repetition of similar
brutal crimes wherever Armenians and Azerbaijanis live together.”
Anna Hakobjanova, from the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait where many
Armenians died in pogroms in 1988, said, “It is hard to even imagine
what would happen if everyone who had suffered from war starts to
seek vengeance. Whole families died during the Armenian pogroms in
Sumgait and Baku. So should we all go and arm ourselves with axes
and go and kill Azerbaijanis.”
A public organisation Defence of the Interests of Gurgen Margarian
has been formed in Yerevan by his friends and colleagues. His parents
have been allocated a plot of land for the construction of a house.
They have never publicly commented on the case of the murder of
their son.
In Azerbaijan human rights ombudsman Elmira Suleimanova called the
sentence “unjust” and said she hoped that Safarov could be extradited
to Azerbaijan. She had earlier praised Safarov as a “model of
patriotism for Azerbaijani youth”.
Eldar Zeinalov, head of the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, also
said the life term was “unjustifiably harsh,” arguing that the court
should have taken into account the youth of Safarov, the fact that
this was his first offence and positive character references about him.
Three days after the murder Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliev called
on the media “not to inflate this matter”. But campaign groups swiftly
formed to call Safarov a hero.
One of Safarov’s main defenders, Akif Nagi, who also heads the
Karabakh Liberation Organisation which leads calls for a military
re-conquest of Nagorny Karabakh, said the court had “unequivocally
supported the Armenian side” and insisted that Safarov should have
been tried by a military tribunal since the murder had taken place
during a NATO seminar.
The Karabakh Liberation Organisation organised a rally on April 17
in the centre of Baku in which hundreds of students chanted “Freedom
for Ramil Safarov”. The march was broken up by police and dozens of
protesters, including Nagi, were detained.
Azerbaijani housewife Fatma Mamedova is one of those who voiced
support for Safarov as someone who was expressing the frustration of
Azerbaijanis who lost their homes to the Armenians.
“Ramil put up with it for a long time but in the end he couldn’t bear
it,” she said. “And I think he did the right thing. One way or another
he paid for the death of his nearest and dearest at the hands of the
Armenians and for the fact that his home is under occupation.”
Fuad Agayev, a respected Azerbaijani lawyer, agreed that the sentence
was too harsh, but blamed “certain public organisations functioning
in Azerbaijan” for making things worse for Safarov.
“They should not have used this unfortunate man and his act for their
own purposes,” Agayev told IWPR. “We have to urgently stop this current
campaign to raise Safarov to the rank of national hero. He is no hero.”
Safarov’s lawyers said in Budapest that they would try and get his
sentence reduced to one of 10-15 years and that if they had no success
they would apply to the European Court of Human Rights.
Marina Grigorian is editor-in-chief of De Facto news agency in
Yerevan. Rauf Orujev is a correspondent with Ekho newspaper in Baku.

Armenian ex-foreign minister: War with Azerbaijan can start again
Regnum, Russia
April 20 2006
“Results of the talks of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in
Rambouillet are not just failure of the process of Nagorno Karabakh
conflict settlement, but of the OSCE Minsk Group effort as well,”
former Armenia foreign minister Alexander Arzumanyan has announced
at a news conference in Yerevan.
A REGNUM correspondent quotes him as saying that the process of
settlement has been delayed not only by the conflicting parties,
but by the West and the USA. “In the beginning of 2006, the
European Union appointed Peter Semneby as its new representative
for South Caucasus, who, undoubtedly, needs time to adjust. Then,
the USA replaced their ambassador in Azerbaijan, soon, probably,
the ambassador in Armenia will be replaced too; all this is done to
drag the process out by the end of 2006, and then, as it is known,
the time starts for election races – the time, when the settlement
process will be given a place far from the leading one,” Alexander
Arzumanyan thinks. It is worth mentioning that in 2007 parliamentary
elections will be held in Armenia, in 2008, presidential elections
will be held both in Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Assessing the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group negatively at the
talks in Rambouillet, the ex-minister, however, noted that the
mediator format was “the most successful one for the whole time of
the negotiation process.” “I do not expect any fundamental changes
in the settlement process, however, taking into consideration recent
statements made by Azerbaijan after the meeting in Rambouillet, it
is not ruled out that a war with this country can resume,” believes
the former foreign minister.

US GOVERNMENT CONSIDER CONSTRUCTION OF NEW NUCLEAR PLANT IN ARMENIA – ARMENIAN MINISTRY OF EXTERIOR
Author: Z.Ibrahimli
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
April 19 2006
Vardan Oskanyan, Minister of Exterior of Armenia, reportedly said
‘today Americans are almost eager to build a new nuclear plant in
Armenia’. Trend reports with reference to Mediamaz agency, in his
interview published today in Armenian Aykakan Zhamanak Oskanyan said
‘there was a time when they (Americans) didn’t even want to hear of
it.’ ‘The USA is concerned in this issue, the US government discusses
it and, I suggest, we have a chance to replace our old nuclear plant
with a new one’, – Armenian diplomat said.
“As far as I know, the USA are going to solve regional problems through
constructing this new plant and thus are seriously thinking it over”,
– Oskanyan added.