CONFIDENCE MEASURES, REFERENDUM NEEDED TO SOLVE KARABAKH DISPUTE: THINKTANK
Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2005 Tuesday 4:23 PM GMT
An influential Western thinktank proposed a package of
confidence-building measures on Tuesday it said should lead to
a referendum on the status of the disputed Caucasus territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said there remained a risk of a
resumption of large-scale conflict 11 years after a 1994 ceasefire
ended a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory that
claimed some 25,000 lives.
“So far, despite progress in the negotiations, the resumption of war
remains as likely as peace,” the Brussels-based group’s European Vice
President, Alain Deletroz, said in a statement introducing a 40-page
report on the dispute.
The measures it proposed include a withdrawal of Armenia-backed
Nagorno-Karabakh troops from districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh
and the renunciation by Azerbaijan of the possibility of using force
to take control of the territory.
The voluntary return of displaced persons would also be a crucial
element, as would investigations of war crimes, under the plan proposed
by the group.
In endorsing such measures, Armenia and Azerbaijan should also agree
the mechanism for an eventual referendum on the territory’s status,
in which only Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and Azeris would participate,
the ICG said.
The risk of a return to armed conflict was symbolised, the thinktank
said, by a “line of contact” on which are stationed some 18,500
Nagorno-Karabakh soldiers, half of them estimated to be from Armenia,
and 30,000 to 45,000 Azerbaijani fighters.
“Nothing has been done on the ground to build confidence and trust,
demilitarise and demobilise, or resume trade and communications,”
the report read.
Agreement to hold a later referendum “is the crucial ingredient in
a viable peace process,” it continued.
Despite the failure to achieve a settlement, the ICG said both sides
had shown signs of flexibility in recent years that should eventually
enable a final status referendum.

NOBEL LITERATURE PRIZE DUE THIS WEEK AMID TALK OF NEW TWIST
Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2005 Tuesday 11:39 AM GMT
The Nobel prize for literature, one of the most keenly-awaited awards
of the Nobel season, will be announced on Thursday, the Swedish Academy
said, amid speculation the jury this year could switch tack and honor
a non-fiction author.
While the list of possible winners appears largely the same as in
recent years, featuring US novelists Philip Roth and Joyce Carol
Oates, Ismael Kadare of Albania, Israeli Amos Oz and Swedish poet
Tomas Transtroemer, the Swedish Academy might just have a surprise
in store, pundits say.
“The Academy has spoken of wanting to broaden the prize, which could
open the door for instance for literary journalists like Poland’s
Ryszard Kapuscinski,” Eva Bonnier, head of Sweden’s Bonnier publishing
house, told AFP.
“Kapuscinski is a possibility. It would be very exciting if the Academy
decides to go in that direction,” agreed Ola Larsmo, a freelance
literary critic who writes for Sweden’s paper of record Dagens Nyheter.
Speuclation is just that, though — speculation. Larsmo pointed out
that the Academy is keeping tight-lipped about this year’s laureate
ahead of the announcement at 1100 GMT Thursday.
Horace Engdahl, head of the Swedish Academy, acknowledged that “it
is important that the prize develops as literature develops”.
If the award ends up going to a non-fiction writer it would not be
the first time, he told AFP, pointing out that Alfred Nobel, the
awards’ founder, did not specify in his will whether it had to go to
a fiction writer.
Since the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901, several non-fiction
writers and non-poets have won, including Bertrand Russell in 1950
for his philosophical writings and Winston Churchill three years
later for his historical texts.
However the majority of prizes have been awarded to fiction writers
and poets.
If the academy sticks to tradition this year, authors like Algerian
Assia Djebar, Dutch Cees Nooteboom, Belgian Hugo Claus, Somalia’s
Nuruddin Farah and Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri are thought
to be among the front-runners.
Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who was recently charged in Turkey with
“public denigration of the Turkish identity” for remarks he made
about the country’s massacre of Armenians, is also considered a
leading candidate.
Last year, the prize went to Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek.
That award came as a complete surprise to most Nobel observers and
was so controversial that it continues to make waves today.
On Tuesday for instance, a member of the Swedish Academy said he was
resigning to protest the choice.
“Giving the Nobel Prize to Elfriede Jelinek has destroyed the value
of the award for the foreseeable future,” Knut Ahnlund wrote in a
column published in the daily Svenska Dagbladet.
Ahnlund, who has been a member of the academy since 1983 but who has
not actively participated in the jury work for nearly a decade, said
he would officially hand in his resignation over last year’s choice.
The Nobel Literature Prize is traditionally made public on a
Thursday. It will be the sixth and last of the 2005 Nobel Prizes to
be awarded.
Each Nobel prize this year carries a prize sum of 10 million Swedish
kronor (1.1 million euros, 1.3 million dollars), to be shared if the
award is given to more than one laureate.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIAN, ARMENIAN POLICE HOLD JOINT RIOT DRILL – TV
Channel One TV, Russia
Oct 11 2005
A joint exercise of Russian Interior Ministry and Armenian police
special-purpose units has been held outside Krasnodar. The two
countries’ law-enforcement agencies practised how to counteract
mass riots.
Under the scenario of the exercise, a group of protesters gathered
outside a government headquarters and demanded the government’s
resignation. The unsanctioned rally then turned into an impromptu
storming of the building. In 15 minutes’ time special-purpose police
units squeezed the crowd off the square. However several protesters
managed to get inside the building and take hostages. The second
phase of the exercise was an operation to free the hostages.
Over 1,500 people took part in the operation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA LIKELY TO MAINTAIN CONTINGENT IN IRAQ, DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS
Associated Press Worldstream
October 11, 2005 Tuesday 3:25 PM Eastern Time
Armenia’s military will likely seek to maintain its small contingent
in Iraq for at least another year, the defense minister said Tuesday.
The first rotation of 46 servicemen was sent to Iraq in January and
replaced by a second group that began a six-month tour of duty in July.
“In all likelihood, the (Defense Ministry) will ask the National
Assembly to approve a third and fourth rotation of Armenian
peacekeepers in Iraq,” Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian said Tuesday
during a ceremony in which he decorated members of the first group
to serve in the U.S.-led coalition there.
Parliament approved the decision to send troops to Iraq late last
year despite criticism from opposition parties, many Armenians and
even the 30,000-strong Armenian community in Iraq, which fears being
targeted for attacks.
President Robert Kocharian and his government have sought to portray
the contribution as a way to boost ties with Europe.
The Armenian contingent serves under Polish command.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IMPROVEMENT IN FAVOR OF AGGRIEVED PARTY NOTICED AT COURT SITTING ON CASE OF ARMENIAN OFFICER’S MURDER IN BUDAPEST
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. An improvement in
favor of the aggrieved party was noticed at the September 27 court
sitting on case of Armenian officer’s murder in Budapest. Lawyer
Nazeli Vardanian and representative of RA Defence Ministry Hayk
Demoyan representing the aggrieved party declared it at the October
10 press conference.
The specialists who carried out 2 psychiatrical expertises of
Ramil Safarov were interrogated at the court sitting. The expert who
carried out the second psychiatrical expertise appeared in a defeatist
situation and held very weak positions. He ungroundedly recognized
Safarov limitedly responsible. To recap, the specialist who carried
out the first psychiatrical expertise recognized the defendant sane
and insisted on this point of view at the court sitting.
According to the representatives of the aggrieved party, the third
psychiatrical expertise will be an expertise of documents: it will be
decided through comparison of the results of 2 expertises which of
the experts correctly presented Safarov’s health condition. Nazeli
Vardanian reported that they are going to submit both of expert
conclusions to the independent experts by the next sitting to be held
on December 15.
It’s expected that the second Azeri officer who participated in the
NATO program in Budapest, Anar Aliyev, will at last appear before
the court at the December 15 court sitting.

AZERBAIJAN: RISK OF REVOLUTION IN NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
ANSA English Media Service
October 10, 2005
(ANSA) – MOSCOW, October 10 – Following the “colour revolutions”
in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, another former Soviet republic
is facing an imminent risk of popular uprising as Azerbaijan will
vote on November 6 in parliamentary elections amid growing discontent
against the authoritarian regime of President Ilham Aliyev, son and
successor of the last communist despot.
Main opposition leader Rasul Guliyev, who has lived in exile in
the United States since 1996, has decided to return home before the
elections, using the immunity which the status of election candidate
gives him. He warned from the columns of Moscow’s Nezavisimaya
Gazeta daily on Monday that the situation was becoming increasingly
serious and one could not be sure next month’s elections would be
held normally.
“A new wave of repression could be the straw that breaks the camel’s
back and the situation may turn uncontrollable. People can be urged
to extreme actions and in this case I cannot answer for the fate of
those who are currently in power in Azerbaijan,” Guliyev said.
In fact not a Sunday passes without riot police being called to
disperse by force unauthorised opposition rallies in the centre of
Baku and it seems Aliyev’s regime has done lately the best it can
to learn how to crush a mass revolt. Obviously, the powerful in
Azerbaijan fear the scenario, which in the past two years brought
about the ousting of the post-Soviet worn-out regimes in Tbilisi,
Kiev and Bishkek, may repeat.
In the past few weeks the regime started to openly accuse the
opposition of plotting to oust the established order together with
the enemy Armenia and with a U.S. organisation (National Democratic
Institute). And made numerous arrests.
Leader of Azerbaijan’s Democratic Party and former parliament speaker
who is issued an arrest warrant in his homeland, Guliyev expects
grand things from the November 6 elections.
“We can win some 100 seats out of the 125 if there is no
election-rigging,” Guliyev said.
But he takes for granted the fact that there will be manipulations,
as he claims there were in the 2003 presidential elections.
“We shall not accept election-rigging. The people will take to the
streets to defend their rights and at that point the United States
will back the popular protest movements,” Guliyev warned.
Despite the fact the Western world does not appreciate much 43-year-old
Aliyev because of the corruption reigning within his clan, it has
backed him so far because Azerbaijan, where nearly 40 percent of the
mostly Muslim eight million population lives below the poverty line,
is the starting point of the black gold pumped from the Caspian
Sea. With U.S. blessing a recently opened oil pipeline carries oil
to Turkey passing through Georgia. (ANSA).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERI LEADERS INTOXICATED BY OIL DOLLARS – ARMENIAN DEFENCE MINISTER
Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005
Yerevan, 11 October: Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan today
expressed the opinion that “some Azerbaijani leaders are intoxicated
by oil dollars”.
Serzh Sarkisyan said this at a ceremony to award the Armenian
servicemen who participated in the international peacekeeping operation
in Iraq, Mediamax news agency reports.
“During the Karabakh war, we proved our right to life, we defended
our independence and ensured the security of our people. Maintaining
the high combat readiness of our army today, we must ensure a peaceful
solution to the Karabakh problem. This is especially important today
when some Azerbaijani leaders seem to be intoxicated by oil dollars
and are singing the same old tune.
The current situation may be compared with the early 1990s, when
Azerbaijani leaders expressed a desire to resolve the Karabakh problem
in a short time in a military way, to seize Nagornyy Karabakh, Armenia
or part thereof. The hostilities showed that this was not a desire,
but only a myth and insanity which vanished on the battlefield. Now
that 11 years have passed since the hostilities, they are singing
the same old song again,” Serzh Sarkisyan said.

ARMENIAN PAPER SAYS DM AND SPEAKER FIGHT FOR KOCHARYAN’S JOB
Haykakan Zhamanak, Armenia
Oct 6 2005
“The problem of successor”
The issue of Robert Kocharyan’s successor is becoming more and more
urgent in view of the fact that after 2008 he may decide not to run
for president. Kocharyan’s interest in constitutional reforms shows
that he would like to keep his job.
Through the constitutional reforms he will be able to ignore all the
previous presidential terms and to start from scratch. The adoption of
these changes will make him a sacred figure and he may simply decide
to transfer the power to somebody else.
The chairman of the National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan, and Defence
Minister Serzh Sarkisyan have started fighting for the position of
Kocharyan’s successor. Everything depends on the situation and it is
not ruled out that somebody else will become his successor.
[Passage omitted: the details how Russian president Putin became a
president are presented].
But one thing is obvious that in the political developments the problem
of the successor is becoming more and more noticeable and this process
may only be stopped by a strong opposition that will be able to capture
power. And as this has not taken place yet, the fight for power will
first of all take place within the authorities. Such process will
take place within the opposition as well and each opposition leader
will try to gather all the opposition activists around himself and
to become the only leader.
At present Artashes Gegamyan made a claim for this and he is hoping to
become the leader of the opposition. [Passage omitted: speculation on
Gegamyan’s plans]. By the way, Gegamyan has been widely cooperating
with certain forces in this matter. He can help these forces to gain
victory over Serzh Sarkisyan as long as they agreed to one proviso that
they in turn will support him in his fight against Stepan Demirchyan’s
and other opposition leaders.
Thus the opposition as well has its role in the matter of choosing
Kocharyan’s successor.

DEFIXIONES: DIAMANDA GALAS
by Sybil Nolan
Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)
October 11, 2005 Tuesday
Where: Hamer Hall, Friday
DIAMANDA Galas’s one-woman show, Defixiones, intended to honour
the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek dead killed by Turks during the
disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in and after World War I.
How effective it was in its stated purpose depended on the audience’s
knowledge of this awful part of history, for we got little help from
the show itself.
Defixiones ran 80 minutes and was sung or recited in several languages,
including Greek and Turkish, with only a few minutes of English. Yet
the show lacked a narrative structure to explain the content to those
watching and listening.
This, then, was a Performance with a capital P, and you were either
spellbound by the voice and presence of Galas — who appeared covered
from head to toe in black robes, with only her face and hands showing
— or you were irrelevant.
It seemed there were many aficionados of this Californian Greek artist
in the audience, for she was rewarded with a standing ovation.
Galas has a truly amazing voice and uses it like a weapon to assault
the ears. Moving between piano and music stand on the darkened stage,
a microphone in front of her, a harsh soundtrack booming behind her,
she found 100 different ways to throw her voice.
Sometimes it evoked a long elegant spear, sometimes a stone discus
slowing spinning towards the audience. At one point, as Galas sat
in profile at the piano, I could have sworn it became a curved steel
blade flying above her head and exiting stage right, perhaps impaling
unwary stage crew in the wings.

RA DM: ARMENIA NEEDN NOT CHANGE ITS STRATEGY
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005
YEREVAN, October 11. /ARKA/. Armenia needn’t change its strategy, the
RA Minister of Defense Serge Sargsyan told reporters when commenting
on the recent statement of the Deputy of the RF State Duma Alexander
Fomenko, who said that adoption of the NATO standards by Armenia will
complicate the strategic partnership of the latter with Russia.
According to the Minister, the Deputy doesn’t understand correctly the
international and NATO standards. According to Sargsyan, the standards
of NATO imply transition to NATO armament, ideology and everything
connected with it, while international standards imply availability
of battle-worthy subdivisions in line with those standards. “These are
different conceptions”, he said. Particularly, drawing an analogy with
sport, Sargsyan noted that Russian and American sportsmen use various
standards however achieve the same goal when holding a record in one-
hundred- meter race.
To remind, on Saturday Fomenko stated in Yerevan that adoption of the
NATO standards by Armenia will complicate its strategic partnership
with Russia. According to him, partners should have the same military
standards. If they are different, it will complicate the strategic
partnership between two countries, since Russia is not going to adopt
those standards.