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.

2787th ANNIVERSARY OF EREBUNI-YEREVAN CELEBRATED
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN. The 2-day celebration
“Erebuni-Yerevan”, during which a number of events were held in the 12
communities of the capital city, came to a close with the festivities
in Republic Square of Yerevan on October 9. The celebration started
on the previous day at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre after
Spendiarian.
“The capital represents a third of the country’s population and a
considerable part of its scientific and cultural potential. The
development over the past decade has shown that despite various
difficulties, we proved worthy and capable of creating our
independence. Taking a look at Yerevan, we feel sure that we are on
a path toward a sustained growth,” Mayor of Yerevan Ervand Zakharian
said.
In his words, the urban development programs, which had remained on
paper for many decades, have been successfully implemented in recent
years. It was noted that the construction of Yerevan’s Main Avenue
started, while Northern Avenue will be delivered for use in 2007.
Yerevan Mayor underlined the necessity for creating favorable
conditions not only for Kentron community but also for the other
communties in order to repair streets, reconstruct accident-prone
buildings and construct new dwelling houses.
E. Zakharian stated that the target allocations for improvement of
Yerevan increased substantially this year. Work is underway to enhance
the quality of public transport services, repair irrigation networks,
lay streets with asphalt and improve street lights.
Yervand Ghazanchian, People’s Artist of Armenia and Chairman of
the Union of Theatrical Workers of Armenia, Azat Gasparian, Honored
Artist of Armenia, Perch Zeituntsian, a prosaist, and Harutyun Kehyan,
a footballer, were presented with Yerevan Honorary Citizen cetificates.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

S. SARGSIAN: TODAY PROBABILITY OF WAR IS NO GREATER THAN EVER
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Despite the bellicose mood of the
Azeri side, today the probability of war is no greater than ever. RA
Defence Minister Serge Sargsian expressed this opinion during a talk
with reporters on October 11.
S. Sargsian said that three years ago the Azeris were also speaking
about solving the problems using arm power, and how much thier present
statements correspond to reality will be evident in two months,
after the elections in Azerbaijan. The minister underlined the
existence of an element of election propaganda in these statements:
“Simply I cannot fully imagine the size of this element.”
Having read the media reports about the situation in Azerbaijan,
the minister took the view that the party lead by Ilham Aliev will
win in the elections.
Asked if this victory would be a real one, Serge Sargsian noted that
there may be violations but “great things cannot be done by rigging”.
In response to NT correspondent’ question, the minister said that
no increase in the tension at the Armenian-Azeri borderline has
been observed in connection with the upcoming elections. “Today’s
situation does not differ from the one existing, say, 2 or 5 months
ago. Compared with the situation 7 months ago, today is quite calm,”
Serge Sargsian stressed.
Speaking about the increase of Azerbaijan’s military budget, RA
Defence Minister noted that after a while the quantitative factor of
the budget changes into the qualitative one, but it is not yet clear
when it will happen. “No doubt it is dangerous when the enemy, or
rival, or neighbor has a budget several times greater than yours. But
there is also the problem of using this budget efficiently, various
forms of meeting the needs of the army,” Serge Sargsian noted.
“It would be most advantageous if we had comparable financial
possibilities. On the other hand, the difference in our budgets will
never become a reason for making any concessions,” RA Minister of
Defence stated.

AZERI LEADERS MAKING WARLIKE STATEMENTS DUE TO ELECTION – ARMENIAN MINISTER
Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005
Yerevan, 11 October: Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said
today that the warlike statements made by the leaders of Azerbaijan
are to some extent due to the forthcoming parliamentary election in
that country.
Sarkisyan said today that we will be able to judge the real sentiments
of the Azerbaijani leadership more precisely in two months’ time
after the parliamentary election, Mediamax reports.
The Armenian defence minister said that the ruling party will be named
as the winner in the forthcoming parliamentary election in Azerbaijan.