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

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 26 2005
Azerbaijan’s Population to exceed 11 Million By 2050
The population of Azerbaijan will increase to 11.6 million from the
present figure of over 8 million by 2050, says a report of the
Washington-based research organization.
The population will increase in other countries of the Commonwealth
of Independent States as well. The figure will reach 3.3 million in
Armenia, 8.3 million in Kyrgyzstan, 10.9 million in Tajikistan, 7.4
million in Turkmenistan and 38.4 million in Uzbekistan, Population
Reference Bureau said in a report.
The population will go down to 33.4 million in the Ukraine, 8.5
million in Belarus, 3.6 million in Georgia and 3.3 million in
Moldova. The figure in Kazakhstan is expected to remain unchanged at
15 million over the next 45 years.
Among CIS states, Tajikistan is a country with most young people, as
40% of people are below 15. Ukraine has the most `old’ people, as 16%
are over 65. Children below 15 make up 15% of this country’s
population, the organization’s experts say.
Turkmenistan and Russia are the only countries in CIS with life
expectancy below 60 among men, as the figures make up 58 and 59
respectively. The highest figure, 70 years, is observed in
Azerbaijan, the report said.
The highest average life expectancy among women in CIS states, 75
years, is observed in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Georgia. The
figure is 66 and 67 in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan respectively.
The Population Reference Bureau experts also estimated that the world
population grows 80 million every year, with 99% of the growth made
up by poor countries.
India will be the most populated country by 2050, with 1.628 billion
people, compared to 1.437 billion in China. The United States and
Indonesia will keep their places in the list with the population of
420 million and 308 million respectively.
The report also said that the world population will make up 7.95
billion in 2025 and 9.26 billion in 2050.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 26 2005
Aliyev leaves for Russia

Baku, August 25, AssA-Irada
President Ilham Aliyev will leave for Kazan, Russia on Friday to
attend a summit of CIS heads of state.
The President is expected to hold the next round of talks on the
Upper Garabagh conflict settlement with his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharian. He is also to meet the Presidents of Ukraine and
Kazakhstan Viktor Yushchenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov left for Kazan on Wednesday to
address issues relating to preparations for President Aliyev’s visit.
He will also report to the President on the results of the meeting he
held with his Armenian counterpart Vardan Oskanian in Moscow.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 26 2005
Moscow Says Concerns over Russo-Armenian Ties Groundless
Azerbaijan’s concerns over Russo-Armenian ties are groundless, a
Russian parliament member has said.
The Russia-Armenia relations are considered defense union ties and
`Azerbaijan should know this’, said director of the CIS Institute, MP
Konstantin Zatulin.
Zatulin said that Azerbaijan should not be concerned over the recent
transfer of Russian arms to Armenia. He said that its `doubts and
accusations’ against Russia and Armenia over the transfer of Russian
military bases from Georgia to Armenia `are in vain’.
`The distance between Russia and Armenia in the present
communications age challenges such views and renders out of place the
statements that Russia disrupts military balance in the region by
taking this step.’
The MP added that due to Azerbaijan’s concerns over the presence of
Russian bases in Armenia, Moscow may station a part of its military
contingent in Russian territory.

Bloomberg
Aug 26 2005
Turkey’s Erdogan Faces Resistance to Promise of Kurdish Rights
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
pledge to give more rights to the Kurdish minority has reignited the
debate over what the government should do to end insurgent attacks
and appease the European Union.
Erdogan, 51, promised “more democracy” for minorities and became
the first Turkish leader to say the government had made mistakes in
its treatment of the Kurds during an Aug. 12 speech in Diyarbakir,
the biggest city in the largely Kurdish southeast. The Kurdistan
Workers Party, or PKK, which seeks autonomy for the southeast,
responded with a one-month cease-fire.
The gesture by Erdogan may halt the resurgence of a civil war that
has cost 35,000 lives and aid Turkey’s bid to join the EU, which has
criticized limits on Kurdish rights. Erdogan still faces the
challenge of winning support from the army and general public. His
overture may put Turkey on a “very dangerous road,” columnist Melih
Asik wrote Aug. 19 in the Istanbul daily Milliyet.
“Erdogan is probably telling the military that it’s evident the use
of force doesn’t resolve these problems,” said Kemal Kirisci, 50,
co-author of “The Kurdish Question and Turkey,” (Frank Cass
Publishers, 1997). “But while there are people in the Turkish system
who want to go further with reforms, there are also people who are
saying, `Whoa, hold it!”’
Turkey’s constitution makes the military the guardian of the
country’s unity and secular state. While the army’s powers have been
reduced since 2002, it has forced four governments from power since
1960. Officers on the National Security Council this week objected to
Erdogan’s admission that there is a “Kurdish problem,” the
Istanbul-based daily Vatan reported Aug. 24.
Kurdish Language
Kurds are asking the government to permit public schools to teach the
Kurdish language and to lower the percentage of votes political
parties must receive to gain seats in parliament. The current 10
percent threshold has kept Kurdish parties out of the legislature.
Erdogan is asking private television stations to carry Kurdish
programs, Milliyet reported Aug. 17.
Erdogan’s statements mark progress, says Yusuf Akgun, 38, the deputy
mayor of Diyarbakir. In the 1960s and ’70s Turkish governments
wouldn’t admit that the Kurds existed, telling people to refer to
them as “mountain Turks.”
“The Kurds have heard a lot of promises in the past,” Akgun said in
an Aug. 17 interview. “But the prime minister has said things that
make us hope it will be different this time.”
The conflict between the Turkish army and the PKK has threatened to
spread in recent months. The military has finalized plans for strikes
against PKK camps in northern Iraq, where they say about 3,000
fighters are based, Milliyet said Aug. 18, citing a speech by General
Sukru Sariisik.
Northern Iraq
Generals and ministers have said Turkey may launch such attacks if
the U.S., which has about 140,000 troops in Iraq, doesn’t fulfill
promises to crack down on the PKK. The U.S. says Turkey shouldn’t act
without the approval of Iraqi authorities.
In the 1990s, at the height of Turkey’s war with the PKK, the
southeast was under emergency rule and people suspected of links with
the rebels were routinely tortured, according to Turkey’s Human
Rights Association, based in the capital, Ankara.
PKK leader Abdulla Ocalan called a cease-fire in 1999 after he was
captured by Turkish agents in Kenya. He was convicted of treason
later that year and is serving a life sentence in a Turkish jail.
The PKK resumed attacks in June 2004, saying Turkey hadn’t done
enough to meet Kurdish demands. Fighting had escalated in recent
months. The PKK on Aug. 19 said it would cease hostilities for one
month to allow the government to take “practical steps.”
EU Concerns
Erdogan’s government said it wouldn’t respond to a group considered a
terrorist organization by the U.S., the EU and Turkey.
The EU said in its 2004 annual report on Turkey that there were still
“considerable restrictions on the exercise of cultural rights” for
Kurds. It called on Turkey to allow greater use of the Kurdish
language in education and broadcasting.
Turkey is also grappling with the legacy of another ethnic conflict.
Armenians say hundreds of thousands of their people were killed in
1915 in a genocide conducted by the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor
to modern Turkey. The claim is backed by parliamentary votes in
France and Germany. Turkey says the killings occurred amid civil
unrest during World War I and weren’t genocide.
Kurdish activists focus on language rights and poverty. Many Kurds
are illiterate in the language they grew up speaking.
“I can’t read this,” said Sahin Altuntur, a textile trader in
Diyarbakir’s bazaar district, pointing to a Kurdish language text
message on his mobile phone. “I’ll have to find someone more
cultured to do it. With my friends we talk Kurdish, but at school
they only taught us to read and write in Turkish.”
The country’s five poorest provinces are all in Kurdish areas,
according to government statistics for 2001. Unemployment in
Diyarbakir is around 70 percent and tens of thousands leave the city
each summer for seasonal farm work elsewhere, Akgun said.
The conflict with the PKK is the chief cause of underdevelopment,
said Shah Ismail Bedirhanoglu, head of the region’s biggest business
group.
“Money is like a bird, when it hears a bang it flies away,” said
Bedirhanoglu, 45. “Where there’s war, there’s no investment.”

Itar-Tass, Russia
Aug 26 2005
Reform process in South Caucasus needed to be boosted – PACE

PARIS, August 25 (Itar-Tass) – The constitutional reform in Armenia,
the forthcoming elections in Azerbaijan and reforms in Georgia were
the main issues discussed during high-level meetings held by the
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE), René van der Linden, during his visit to the South Caucasus
on August 18-23.
Van der Linden said the development of democracy in Azerbaijan and
Armenia would help create a favourable atmosphere for the settlement
of the Karabakh conflict.
Van der Linden, who returned from his trip to the North Caucasus on
Tuesday, stated his intention to enhance the possibility for
parliamentary diplomacy available to the countries’ PACE delegations
as a complement to the primary means of bilateral diplomacy and the
Minsk Group process. He added that democratic development in the two
countries would create a better climate for finding a solution.
Summing up the results of his trips to Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan, the PACE president said it is necessary to step up
democratic reforms in the region.
In Armenia, the President urged dialogue between the government,
opposition and civil society. The constitutional reform was a test
case for further democratic development in Armenia and of its
willingness to fulfil its obligations and commitments to the Council
of Europe, he said. The success of the referendum would depend in
particular on the revision of voters’ lists, media independence and
the organisation of an effective public awareness raising campaign.
The President appealed to government and opposition parties to use
the coming days to reach an agreement on joint amendments, so as to
attract the broadest support for reform. He said that failure of the
reform process would have negative consequences for the country as a
whole. He also urged all political actors to enhance their efforts to
ensure good relations with Armenia’s neighbours.
Van der Linden welcomed the progress made since the Rose Revolution
in Georgia, while recognising that state and society can not be
transformed overnight. He urged the authorities to maintain the
momentum of reform so as to ensure that all obligations and
commitments were met within the previously extended deadlines. He
stressed that an effective system of checks and balances, including a
strong opposition, independent judiciary, active civil society and
free media were necessary to the process of democratic reform; they
should not be considered only as part of its eventual result.
The reform of local self government was a particularly important
aspect of Georgia’s democratisation process and the president
encouraged the authorities to persevere in the ambitious and
far-reaching legislative agenda on this issue. On foreign policy, the
President encouraged the authorities to pursue all avenues for the
peaceful resolution of conflicts, not only those in South Ossetia and
Abkhazia, but also that concerning Nagorno-Karabakh.
In Azerbaijan, the president stressed that the November elections
would be a test case for the country and an important opportunity for
the international community to see that the government was doing its
utmost to ensure free and fair elections. With regard to the
electoral fraud committed during the 2003, René van der Linden was
reassured by President Aliyev’s promise that a full investigation
would be completed by November.
He noted the importance of election monitoring and reminded the
authorities that in January 2006 PACE would consider the report of
its own 40-strong election observation mission. The authorities
should reinforce and guarantee media independence and pluralism,
including by bringing the capital’s Public TV station into operation.
He urged all political parties to approach the elections in a
positive and constructive spirit of democracy.

Philadelphia Inquirer, PA
Aug 26 2005
Rockers on a roll.
Accessing System’s spiritual side
By Dan Deluca
Inquirer Music Critic
Daron Malakian, the guitarist and principal songwriter for the
dazzlingly versatile Armenian American heavy rock band System of a
Down, is not a religious man.
But when Malakian, who will play at the Spectrum tonight along with
his System band mates, Serj Tankian, Shavo Odadjian and John
Dolmayan, talks about the creative outpouring that led to SOAD’s two
2005 albums, Mezmerize (out now) and Hypnotize (due in November), he
speaks in spiritual terms.
“The best way I can explain it is that I’m like a religious person
who prays a lot,” says Malakian, 30, who was born to parents who
emigrated from Iraq to System’s home base of Los Angeles. (The other
band members were born in Armenia and Lebanon, but they all attended
the same Armenian private school in L.A.)
“You pray a lot to get closer to God. For me, my religion is what I
do with music. I’m very into it. I’m very serious about it,” he says.
“And I’m always ready for my higher power to channel the music
through me. That’s what I wait for.”
Tankian has described System’s sound, which combines a metal edge
with Zappa-esque adventurousness, as “progressive rock in a
three-minute-song format.” The wide range of Malakian’s musical
interests is apparent as he randomly scrolls through his iPod. “Let’s
see, what have I got on here,” he says, talking on the phone from a
tour stop in Miami. “I just listened to Elvis in Hawaii. James Brown.
I’ve got some Scandinavian death metal. Wham! Agnostic Front. Alien
Sex Fiend. Al DiMeola. And I got the 2 Live Crew…”
Malakian’s catholic taste is apparent on the masterful Mezmerize, on
songs such as the radio hit “B.Y.O.B.,” which moves in the blink of
an eye from an all-out guitar thrash attack to operatic vocal
flourishes to a mock war recruitment ad song chorus (“Everybody’s
going to the party, have a real good time/Dancing in the desert,
blowing up the sunshine”).
“That’s pretty much my ball game,” says Malakian, who has always
written most of the band’s music but sings more than ever
onMezmerize. “What I bring to the band is my structuring and
songwriting style. Make it progressive, make it interesting, yet keep
it simple.”
With such an ambitious musical agenda and lyrics that often take a
confrontational political stance – and frequently mention the deaths
of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Turkish government
between 1915 and 1923, which Malakian calls a “genocide” – it’s one
of the wonders of modern popular music that System of a Down is a
multi-million-selling band.
Like the prog-rock upstarts of Mars Volta (who will open tonight),
Malakian says “we see ourselves as an experimental band.”
“I don’t put walls in front of what I can write songs about or what I
can’t write songs about. There’s a hell of a lot of people who are
afraid to say the things that we’re saying right now, and I think
people appreciate that kind of honesty.”
Malakian, who has many relatives in Iraq, says he writes songs from a
social, rather than a political, perspective.
“When we sing a line like ‘Why don’t presidents fight the war?/ Why
do they always send the poor?,’ you can bring it down to a class
issue, if you like. Or it could be really personal for you, if you
just came from Iraq and have lost two legs and are sitting in a
hospital listening to that song.
“There are plenty of kids out there like that. And I’d like there to
be someone to speak for them.”

BAKU Today, Azerbaijan
Aug 26 2005
Russian MP Expects No Progress from Forthcoming Meeting of Azeri,
Armenian Presidents in Kazan
Baku Today / Trend 26/08/2005 09:09
There is no hope in progress during the forthcoming meeting of the
Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents in Kazan, Russian MP Konstantin
Zatulin, the Director of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Institute, said.
Zatulin noted that people should not pin strong hope in the
settlement of all problems, particularly the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, which have remained unsettled for many years between the
countries. He appreciated the initiative taking into consideration
that `generally there is a need in meetings and different problems
have occurred at organization of meetings between Azerbaijan and
Armenia in the different levels so far’.
The meeting of Ilham Aiyev, the President of Azerbaijan, and Robert
Kocharian, the President of Armenia, to be held within the summit of
the CIS heads of countries in Kazan. is scheduled for 27 August 2005

Itar-Tass, Russia
Aug 26 2005
Azerbaijani, Armenian presidents to hold direct talks on Karabakh

BAKU, August 26 (Itar-Tass) — Azerbaijan’s President Ilkham Aliyev
is leaving for Tatarstan’s capital Kazan on Friday morning for a
meeting of the CIS heads of state and celebrations on the occasion of
the city’s millennium, the presidential staff has said.
Within the framework of the CIS summit on August 27 another round of
direct talks will be held between the presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
As he dwelt on Baku’s position at the talks over Karabakh, Ilkham
Aliyev in his latest interview to the mass media said `as long as
there is the hope for a peace settlement of the conflict, talks must
go on.’
He noted `certain progress’ achieved at the negotiations lately, but
added there were still no guarantees in sight, because large
differences still remained.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said about the August 24 talks on the
Karabakh issue between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers
produced `encouraging signs may be built up from at the meeting of
Ilkham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian in Kazan.’
Diplomatic sources in Baku do not rule out that at the summit there
may be a meeting between Aliyev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor
Yushchenko. Cooperation in the oil and gas sphere will be the main
theme on the agenda.
A delegation of Ukraine’s oil and gas company Neftegaz Ukrainy
visited Baku early this week for talks with the state oil company and
Azerbaijan’s government on the possibility of Ukrainian specialists
taking part in the development of oil and gas fields and the
transportation of Caspian oil through the Odessa-Brody pipeline.