Caucaz.com, Georgia
Aug 26 2005
Azerbaijan. Forthcoming general election: the crackdown continues
By Franck MADIOT, freelance political journalist (Russia, Central
Asia, The Balkans) in Paris
On 26/08/2005
(Translated by Michèle-Ann OKOLOTOWICZ)
© Yeni Fikir
Three months away from the general election set for 6 November 2005,
the Azeri authorities are sparing no effort to contain democratic
impulses. The recent arrest of Ruslan Bachirli is just further proof.
At 27, Ruslan Bachirli heads Yeni Fikir (New Thinking), one of the
main Azeri opposition movements, following in the footsteps of
movements led by a youth hungry for political reform such as those
initiated in Serbia with Otpor!, followed by Kmara in Georgia and
Pora in Ukraine.
Arrested on 3 August, this charismatic young man is suspected of
having plotted a coup in Azerbaijan, with the backing of Armenian
intelligence agencies. This crackdown occurs just as popular protests
are multiplying against the background spectre of an `orange
revolution’. These past few weeks, the country’s authorities have
been quick to launch a widespread public relations campaign on the
`democratisation’ of the media in the country in order to attempt to
deflect the American strategy of expansionism through democracy.
But the Ruslan Bashirli incident has two sides to the story. Through
the voice of their Attorney general, Zakir Garalov, who claims to
have a video tape of the incident, the authorities first declared on
4 August that Ruslan Bachirli was given 2,000 dollars by Armenian
secret service agents in Tblisi on 28 and 29 July 2005 to finance
demonstrations in Azerbaijan. A further 20,000 dollars were promised.
Affiliated to the Popular Front, one of the country’s main opposition
parties, Ruslan Bachirli has allowed the Azeri authorities to use the
opportunity of this arrest to point the finger at the mastermind
behind this operation, namely Ali Kerimli, a serious opponent in the
forthcoming elections… The authorities have also claimed that Ruslan
Bachirli worked for the National Democratic Institute, an American
organisation. Thus, the stage is set: Azerbaijan is neither Ukraine
nor Georgia or Kirghizia.
Elchin Garalov, Ruslan Bachirli’s lawyer, has not denied that the
video exists but explained that the protagonists were members of
Georgian and Armenian democratic movements, and not agents. He added
that what was said during the dinner in Tbilisi, where alcohol ran
freely, had been quoted out of context. He also added that the money
paid to Ruslan Bachirli, who was drunk at the time, was returned the
following day by his client.
However, an important question was raised by Bachirli’s lawyer: how
come the so-called Armenian agents, who allegedly filmed the dinner
to encourage Ruslan Bachirli to stick to his promises, gave the video
recording to Osman Almuderov, Bachirli’s aide, also present at the
dinner? Almuderov supposedly rushed the next day to deliver the
recording to the Azeri authorities because he did not want to work
with the Armenians against his own country.
The situation is not very clear, Bachirli’s defenders are today
trying to understand who is responsible for this sting operation and
what its outcome will be. Is it a ploy to discredit Ali Kerimli and
the Popular Front or an attempt to postpone the general elections
based on political and security issues?
Another hypothesis is that minority factions within the political
apparatus organised this imbroglio to destabilise President Ilham
Aliyev and to damage his credibility in the eyes of international
bodies before the elections.
One thing remains certain: the events in Georgia, Ukraine and
Kirghizia will henceforth weigh heavily on all the upcoming elections
in the post-Soviet states.

Caucaz.com, Georgia
Aug 26 2005
Rice Hopeful About Crucial Armenian-Azeri Talks
Baku, August 26 – The United States underscored its hopes for a
breakthrough in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process Thursday when
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Azerbaijan’s President
Ilham Aliev to discuss his upcoming crucial meeting with his Armenian
counterpart.
In a statement cited by the Itar-Tass news agency, Aliev’s office
quoted Rice as telling the Azerbaijani leader that she `attaches
great importance’ to the talks that are due to take place in the
Russian city of Kazan on Saturday. She was reported to express hope
that they will facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh
conflict, a key U.S. goal in the region. Aliev, according to his
press service, said he has similar hopes.
U.S., Russian and French diplomats spearheading the negotiating
process signaled last month that Aliev and President Robert Kocharian
could clear the final hurdle to peace in Kazan. U.S. Undersecretary
of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky similarly noted on July
27 their meeting `can potentially be a turning point.’
Preparations for that meeting were discussed by the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Moscow on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Vartan Oskanian and Elmar Mammadyarov sounded cautiously upbeat after
their talks held in the presence of the mediating troika.
Speaking to RFE/RL, Mammadyarov did not deny that the parties have
been discussing a peace deal that would enable the residents of
Karabakh to decide its status at a referendum.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MOSNEWS, Russia
Aug 26 2005
Russian MP Completes Sex Movie Depicting Ukrainian PM, Georgian
President
MosNews
Russian parliamentarian Aleksei Mitrofanov of the notorious LDPR
party reported this week that he had completed shooting a 26-minute
soft porn titled Yulia. The main actors in the film have the same
first names and bear a striking resemblance to Ukrainian Prime
Minister Yulia Timoshenko and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.
The popular Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda has published an
extensive report about the film. The article said that the producer
had to abandon plans to invite Russian porn star Elena Berkova to
play Yulia Timoshenko as the actress’ relatives in Ukraine had been
receiving threats.
Instead, actress Elena Bond was cast to play the role. Ethnic
Armenian Alen Melik-Grigoryan played Georgia’s president Saakashvili.
Ukraine and Georgia have both protested against Mitrofanov’s project,
and Ukrainian media has spread a rumor that a gay porn film featuring
look-alikes of Russian President Vladimir and former Ukrainian PM
Viktor Yanukovich is being made.
Mitrofanov dismissed all the criticism as groundless. He told the
media that the Yulia film will take foreign relations to new heights
– – literally and figuratively. `Political erotics are a new genre
that I have discovered,’ he said. `The film is about politics. It
makes a political statement, they don’t just [have sex].’
`Is the film The Interpreter propaganda or big cinema?’ Mitrofanov
said. `Is the film JFK propaganda or big cinema? Why is it that in
America these films are considered big cinema but films like this in
Russia are considered propaganda? This is big cinema and I am a great
master.’
Photo:

Envoy rubbishes US media reports on Iran-Azeri ties
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
25 Aug 05

[Presenter] Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan Afshar Soleymani has made
interesting statements about the current state of relations between
Tehran and Baku. He said that Iran is not Azerbaijan’s enemy. Those
saying such things were a bit brainless.
[Correspondent over video of the ambassador’s news conference] US
media reports that Iran is going to attack Azerbaijan are nonsense,
Iranian ambassador to our country Afshar Soleymani told a news
conference today. The ambassador said that such reports were only
ridiculous. But his comments on this were also laughable.
[Soleymani speaking in Azeri] When a person bangs his head against the
wall, he says all sorts of things. He can’t help it. This might be the
case here. Naturally, a normal and healthy person will never say
so. I think he had dreamed it all.
This can never happen between Iran and Azerbaijan.
[Correspondent] Soleymani ruled out any problems between Iran and
Azerbaijan in any spheres and said that Iran always supported
Azerbaijan. Asked about the reasons for Azerbaijan’s absence from the
list of seven countries, including Armenia, which Iran had provided
with financial aid, the ambassador said:
[Soleymani] As far as Iran is concerned, Azerbaijan is not the same as
the other seven or seventy countries. This was the reason. Iran sees
the Azerbaijani Republic as a fraternal and neighbouring country.
[Correspondent] To prove his statements, Mr Soleymani said that trade
between Iran and Azerbaijan totalled 500m dollars. The ambassador also
noted that Iran had no humanitarian organizations in Armenia, unlike
in Azerbaijan.

Armenian youth movement vows to fight “ideological interference”
Mediamax news agency
26 Aug 05
YEREVAN
The public movement of like-minded young people We has issued a
statement, condemning external attempts to interfere in the domestic
and political life of Armenia.
The statement by the We movement says that “Armenia is persistently
moving forward on the democratic path and this is our choice”,
Mediamax reports. “There is no power able to make us give up the
freedom we have at the moment,” the statement reads.
Expressing its gratitude to countries and international organizations
“which have established equal and authentic partnership with our
country”, the We movement condemned “all those who, acting from
outside or hiding under cover of various organizations in Armenia,
interfere in Armenia’s political life and try to give us instructions
on issues of choice and building our future, assuming that we are
unable to rule our own country independently”.
“We also condemn all those who, guided by purely personal aims, are
trying to use a foreign hand to write the history of our future, thus
calling into question the sovereignty of our country and our freedom,”
the statement said. The We movement said that “it will fight any
ideological interference by peaceful and civilized means”.
The We movement also reported that it will stage a peaceful rally
outside the Armenian National Assembly in Demirchyan Street at 1100
[0600 gmt] on 29 August. The protesters are planning to urge MPs to
discuss the package of constitutional amendments and adopt a
constitution which “will lead us towards creating a prosperous and
democratic country protected from external threats”.

British man stabbed to death in Jerusalem

The Independent – United Kingdom; Aug 26, 2005
Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Police were last night hunting a lone Arab who stabbed to death a
21-year-old British Jew and wounded another as they returned from
praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Shmuel Mett, from Golders Green, north London, was stabbed to death
with a kitchen knife two months before he was due to get married in
England.
Mr Mett, an ultra-Orthodox rabbinical student at Jerusalem’s Mir
Yeshiva religious college, was with his close friend Sam Weissbart,
22, also from Golders Green, when the attack happened on David
Street. Mr Weissbart, also a yeshiva student, was stabbed but escaped
to a nearby police station. He was recovering yesterday in the Shaare
Zedek hospital.
David Street, one of the main alleys leading into the heart of the Old
City, runs through the Christian Quarter, which is mainly populated by
Christian Arabs. But Jews frequently go through it to pray at the
Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, without being attacked or
threatened.
Relatives of Mr Weissbart said that a man jumped out at him shouting
something he could not understand.
He said that he thought he had been punched before realising that he
was bleeding from a wound just above the hip bone. He had not seen
what had happened to Mr Mett, whom he had known from childhood.
The murder was caught on one of the many CCTV cameras throughout the
Old City and police were reported to be taking a photograph of the
assailant round the neighbourhood in an effort to find him. Police
said last night that a third yeshiva student, whom they did not
identify, had been walking with the two men and had come forward to
give information.
The dead man’s parents, Percy and Judith, flew immediately to Israel
from London for the funeral yesterday evening at the Mir Yeshiva in
the ultra orthodox Beit Israel neighbourhood. More than 1,000 yeshiva
students and local residents attended the funeral, conducted in
Yiddish and Hebrew, along with eminent scholars and leading rabbis
attached to the yeshiva. Mir Yeshiva is currently on holiday but is
normally attended by 400 to 500 students and is one of the leading
centre of Talmudic scholarship in world Jewry.
One leading mourner sobbed as he cried out in Yiddish: ‘Why do the
disciples of the wise die when they are so small?’ Mr Mett’s fiance,
Dina Rosenfeld, whom he was due to marry in two months, was understood
to have remained in London.
Earlier, Daniel Harrington, a 22-year-old American traveller from
Spokane, Washington, said he had heard a ‘commotion’ at around 8.30pm
on Wednesday and had left the Petra hostel where he was staying to see
what had happened. He said that he had been at the scene for about
four minutes when the police arrived and started to move people back.
Mr Harrington said the blade appeared to be in Mr Mett’s stomach and
that there appeared to be blood running from a second wound on his
leg. He added: ‘When I arrived he was still breathing and he had
colour, but by the time the police moved me on he was as white as a
sheet.’ Students at the yeshiva, largely foreigners unable to go home
for the August break, were among demonstrators on Wednesday evening at
the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital where Mr Mett had been taken,
protesting at reported police plans to hold an autopsy, which
ultra-Orthodox Jews regard as forbidden by their religion.
In the face of the protests ” and the resistance of Mr Mett’s sister,
who lives in Israel ” police announced yesterday morning that they
would not be holding an autopsy but instead there would be a ‘visual
inspection’ of Mr Mett’s wounds by a doctor approved by the dead man’s
family.
At the yeshiva, fellow students, who declined to give their names,
spoke of Mr Mett as a ‘smiley, quiet, boy who was very serious about
studies’. One student, also from Golders Green, said: ‘Shmuel was one
of those people who was impossible to dislike. This is a tragic,
tragic thing.’ The student said that both Mr Mett and Mr Weissbart had
regularly attended the Hagers synagogue in Golders Green.
One family friend, who asked for his name not to be used, said: ‘Sam
couldn’t sleep last night. He said that when he shut his eyes he saw
the man jumping out at him shouting.’ One of Mr Weissbart’s cousins
Noah Feld, said both men ” who had been friends since attending Pardes
House school in Golders Green and had been together at the Gateshead
Yeshiva before coming to Israel ” ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly. They were
gentle, special people’.
Mr Feld said Mr Weissbart had managed to reach the police station at
the Armenian quarter about 300 yards from where the attack took place
in David Street, where a small group of ultra-Orthodox mourners
gathered to pray yesterday afternoon.
Yoram Halevy, commander of the Old City’s police station, said a
Palestinian carried out the stabbings. Police said the attack was
‘nationally’ motivated.

New railway plan testifies to Turkish pressure – Armenian minister
Mediamax news agency
26 Aug 05
Yerevan, 26 August: Armenian Transport and Communications Minister
Andranik Manukyan said in Yerevan today that the plan to construct the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway is “Turkey’s attempt to put
political pressure on Armenia”.
Manukyan said that the railway from Turkey to Georgia and further to
Azerbaijan will bypass Armenia and endanger the already existing
communication lines. The minister said that despite the existing
Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway, which is ready for exploitation, Turkey
proposes building a new railway which will require “a lot of money and
years” to build. “With this behaviour, Turkey is practically putting
political pressure on our country,” the Armenian minister said.
Manukyan said that the Armenian authorities will speak out against the
construction of the new railway since this plan will cause “Armenia’s
double isolation in the region”.
At present, the feasibility study of the draft project of the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway is being carried out at the
moment. According to preliminary calculations, the construction of the
98 km railway line from Kars to Akhalkalaki and the upgrading of the
Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi section will cost 400-500m dollars.

Azeri leader off to capital of Russia’s Tatarstan to attend CIS summit
ANS TV, Baku
26 Aug 05
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has left for Kazan to attend the summit
of CIS heads of state, Azerbaijani ANS TV has reported.
Aliyev will have a meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan to
discuss the Karabakh problem, it said.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 26 2005
Political analyst says Armenia `not ready for concessions yet’
Baku, August 25, AssA-Irada
Armenia is not ready to make concessions in the settlement of the
Upper Garabagh conflict yet, said political analyst, head of the
Political Innovation and Technology Center Mubariz Ahmadoghlu.
The Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents are due to meet in Kazan,
Russia on Saturday to gold the next round of negotiations.
`Expecting a specific agreement at this round of talks is illogical.
Armenians are not ready for concessions yet’, Ahmadoghlu said.
`The Kazan meeting is unlikely to be different than others. After the
meeting Azerbaijan should determine whether to continue peace talks
or resort to other means.’
Ahmadoghlu said that Russia stepped up its efforts in the negotiating
process and regarded this as positive. `Russians understand that the
continuing conflict weakens their position in CIS. It is therefore
important for them to be closely involved in assisting the conflict
resolution from the standpoint of re-asserting the influence they
have lost in the region.’*

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]:
PRESS RELEASE
25-08-2005
Minister Oskanian receives delegation from the Committee of International
Relations of the House of Representatives
On August 25 Minister Oskanian receives delegation from the House
International Relations Committee.
During the meeting sides touched upon Armenia’s inclusion in the Millennium
Challenges program.
Minister Oskanian presented Armenia’s accomplishments of the program and
basic features of the draft proposals submitted to the Millennium Challenges
Corporation Board of Directors.
Members of the delegation noted that Armenia’s draft proposals are quite
realistic and well revised. They expressed hope that the Corporation’s
board of directors will approve it.
Sides noted with satisfaction the current level of US-Armenian relations.
They agreed that developed interactions should be aimed at enhancing
bilateral relations in all areas.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress