AKHUNDOVA: “NK CONFLICT CAUSES EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS FOR NATIONAL MINORITIES”
Today, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006
A report on teaching of native language at secondary schools was
presented at the session of PACE which started yesterday.
The correspondent of the Europe bureau of APA reports from the session
that Azerbaijani parliamentarians Elmira Akhundova and Rafael Huseynov
delivered a speech on the issue.
Ms.Akhundova said that European Convention main recommendations on
protection of rights of national minorities in Azerbaijan has been
implemented successfully, and national minorities in Azerbaijan were
enjoying their right to receive education in their native tongues
without any restrictions.
“However, internally displaced Kurds from Lachin, Gubadli, Kalbajar,
which were occupied by Armenians as a result of the Karabakh conflict,
faced difficulties to get education in native language now.
If the conflict is solved on the basis of the principle of preserving
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the government can provide more
intensive assistance for the education of the national minorities,”
she said.
Azerbaijani MP Rafael Huseynov said that there were no problems on
national minorities in Azerbaijan and added that there were many
national minorities speaking different languages, and these nations
are provided great opportunities to read and write in their native
language in the country.
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GARABAGH TALKS NOT AS HOPELESS, US OFFICIAL SAYS
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006
Baku, April 10, AssA-Irada
The current prospects for resolving the long-standing Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh conflict are not as dim as they were in the wake of the
Rambouillet meeting, the Department of State Assistant Secretary for
European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried has said.
He indicated that the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia failed to
reach agreement on a number of issues during the last round of talks
in February. He added that he had accompanied the US co-chairman of
the mediating OSCE’s Minsk Group, Steven Mann, during his visit to
the region shortly after the negotiations.
“We have held a series of effective meetings with the Azerbaijani
and Armenian administrations,” the US diplomat said, referring to
the negotiations with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian and
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov in Washington. He
said both countries had confirmed their readiness to continue the
peace process.
“This is why the situation is not hopeless,” Fried said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NATO OFFICIAL, AZERI LEADERS MULL GARABAGH, US-IRAN TENSION
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006
Baku, April 10, AssA-Irada
NATO backs a peaceful settlement to the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh
conflict and sees mutual efforts by Azerbaijan and Armenia as
pivotal to settle the long-standing dispute, the visiting special
representative of the alliance’s Secretary General to South Caucasus
and Central Asia, Robert Simmons, has said.
Simmons said the Garabagh conflict and the US-Iran tension will be
in focus of his discussions in Azerbaijan. He will also monitor the
country’s progress in fulfilling its commitments on the Individual
Partnership Plan.
Simmons emphasized that the NATO-Azerbaijan cooperation is successfully
developing. The first stage of the Partnership Plan is drawing to
a close and the activities to be carried out within the next stage
have already been discussed with Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
The head of the Azeri delegation at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
Ziyafat Asgarov said in a meeting with Simmons on Monday that Armenia’s
policy of aggression is the only hurdle in the way of NATO-Azerbaijan
collaboration.
“Armenia’s territorial claims pose a threat not only to Azerbaijan
but the entire South Caucasus region,” he said.
Simmons has met with President Ilham Aliyev to discuss prospects for
cooperation. He also held meetings with Ministers for Defense Safar
Abiyev and Interior Ramil Usubov.

PACE CALLS FOR FURTHER AZERI-ARMENIAN TALKS
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006
Baku, April 10, AssA-Irada
The Council of Europe supports the continuation of talks on settling
the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, the CE Parliamentary Assembly
president Rene van der Linden has said.
“Both countries are CE member states and we are interested in moving
the negotiating process forward,” Linden told a news conference
dedicated to the opening of the Assembly’s spring session on Monday.
He noted that no progress was achieved at the latest round of talks
between the Azeri and Armenian presidents at Rambouillet in February.
“But we believe that in the end, the sides should reach an accord on
a peaceful settlement.”
The PACE president ruled out the possibility of altering the current
format of the international mediating mission.
“We will await the completion of talks brokered by the OSCE Minsk
Group. But replacing the MG format with the Council of Europe mediation
would be inappropriate,” Linden said.

NO PROSPERITY WITHOUT PEACE – US OFFICIAL
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006
Baku, April 10, AssA-Irada
Azerbaijan wants to earn significant resources by producing and
exporting its oil and gas but this can only become a possibility in
the event of peace in the region, the Department of State Assistant
Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, Daniel Fried, has told
European journalists in Washington.
Fried said the most important issue to the negotiated settlement of
the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict is that Azerbaijan and Armenia
have to understand that neither of them can receive everything at once.
“Neither country can get the maximum. At the same time, it cannot
happen that either of them receives nothing at all. Both countries
have interests at stake and these interests have to be taken into
account,” he said.

FRENCH MEDIATOR, AZERI OFFICIALS TO MULL GARABAGH
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006
Baku, April 10, AssA-Irada
The French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement to
the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict Bernard
Fassier arrived in Baku on Monday evening as part of his visit to
the region. He will discuss with officials the course of peace talks
after the latest fruitless meeting between Presidents Ilham Aliyev
and Robert Kocharian in Rambouillet, France in February.
Fassier is scheduled to hold meetings at the Foreign Ministry and the
Milli Majlis (parliament). He is also to meet with President Aliyev.
The hard-line Garabagh Liberation Organization (GLO) has come out
against the activity of the OSCE mediators and plans to hold a protest
against Fassier’s arrival. The GLO was to discuss the form of the
protest action at its meeting on Monday.
Azeri officials said shortly before the French mediator’s visit that
it would not affect the country’s position on the Garabagh conflict.

NO FRESH US-ARMENIAN TALKS
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006
Baku, April 10, AssA-Irada
The reports saying that Armenian President Robert Kocharian has
recently had a telephone conversation with US State Secretary
Condoleezza Rice are wide of the mark, the spokesman for the Armenian
president, Viktor Sogomoyan, has said.
He said the two had last discussed the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh conflict in February prior to the latest round of
talks between the two presidents.
The discussions held by Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian
in the French town of Rambouillet in February turned out fruitless,
as the parties failed to iron out issues of principle.
“It appears that authors of this information have simply got the time
wrong,” he said.

AZERI NGOS TO SUBMIT DATA ON GARABAGH CONFLICT TO THE HAGUE
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006
Baku, April 10, AssA-Irada
A group of local NGOs intends to send 85 volumes of unique archive
material on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict
to the International Tribunal in The Hague.
The work has been carried out by the Center for Refugee Rights chaired
by the well-known Latvian journalist, Tatyana Chaladze, and the Public
Association for the Protection of Migrants and IDPs in Azerbaijan,
both members of the Civil Society Development Association.
The documentary material about Garabagh, collected by Chaladze
over four years, is now being converted into electronic format and
translated into English, a source from the Association said.

ARMENIA’S PROGRAM OF ACTION AS PART OF EU NEW NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY NEW RESOURCE OF DEVELOPMENT
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 11 2006
Yerevan, April 10. /ARKA/. Armenia’s program of action as part of
the European Union’s (EU) new neighborhood policy will become a new
resource of the country’s development, RA President Robert Kocharyan
stated at his meeting with the newly appointed EU Representative to
the South Caucasus Peter Semneby. President Kocharyan stressed the
importance of launching the program as soon as possible.
The sides also discussed issues related of holding parliamentary and
presidential elections in Armenia in 2007 and 2008 in conformity with
international standards.
Kocharyan appreciated the formation of the institute of EU
Representative to the South Caucasus, which allowed Armenia to
systematize its relations with the European structures. The President
expressed hope for more serious cooperation with the European Union
during Peter Semneby’s activities in Armenia.
In his turn, Semneby stated that he has been appointed as EU
Representative to the South Caucasus while the South Caucasus-EU
relations are entering a new stage. He pointed out that the
establishment of stability remains in the center of the EU’s attention.
President Kocharyan also briefed the guests on the negotiations for
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, latest developments and Armenia’s
position.

EXPERIENCE OF ENTERPRISE INCUBATOR FOUNDATION TO BE PRESENTED AT WORLD CONGRESS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 11 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Work expetience of the Enterprise
Incubator Foundation (EIF) will be presented as the best example
during the world congress of business incubators to be held in Saint
Louis (US) on May 1-5. EIF Director Bagrat Engibarian announced it
at the April 11 press conference. In his words, EIF is not only an
incubator of enterprises engaged in the information technologies (IT)
sector but also an agency that assists the enterprises not making
part of the incubator by offering the models which were developed in
Armenia. B. Engibarian said that EIF gives advice to the appropriate
Ukrainian bodies with the aim of creating an enterprise incubator in
this country.
Ii is also envisaged to use EIF’s experience for establishing a
similar incubator in Georgia. As an evidence of EIF’s successful
activities, he indicated the fact that the donor organizations and some
international organizations on development programs implementation in
Armenia have cofinanced EIF’s programs by allocating 3 mln USD. It
was noted that the impact of the EIF on development of Armenia’s
IT sector was acknowleged by the famous KPMG audit and consulting
company. In the opinion of B. Engibarian, EIF’s contribution to a 15%
annual production growth of the Armenian IT sector and attraction of
considerable investments (in 2005, investments of 14.4 mln USD were
made) was quite significant. To recap, the EIF is operating under the
5 mln-dollar World Bank program envisaged for 2002-2005. The program
has been extended until late 2006, after which the EIF will operate
by self-financing principle.