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.

From: “Katia M. Peltekian”
Subject: BAKU: Rice Hopeful About Crucial Armenian-Azeri Talks
Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep
Aug 26 2005
Rice Hopeful About Crucial Armenian-Azeri Talks
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.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Aug 25 2005
PRESS SERVICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN REPORTS
[August 25, 2005, 21:14:54]
On 25 August, Secretary of State of the United States Condeleeza Rice
has called to the President of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev.
The sides expressed pleasure for development of the relations between
Azerbaijan and the United States in numerous fields.
Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice stated that she attaches great
attention to the negotiations between the Presidents of Azerbaijan
and Armenia related to settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno
Karabakh conflict during the Kazan Summit and is hopeful that it will
promote peace settlement of the problem.
President Ilham Aliyev, in turn, marking importance of the talks with
the Armenian president in Kazan, expressed confidence for positive
results.
During the phone talk, also were exchanged views on situation in
Azerbaijan, including the preparation process for the forthcoming
parliament elections.
Head of the Azerbaijan State and the US Secretary of State have also
discussed a number of other questions of mutual interest.

Thursday, August 25, 2005
*********************************
One of my problems is my total inability to communicate with teenage hooligans or, for that matter, adults, or even seniors who happen to be clear-cut cases of arrested development.
*
An Armenian editor from New York recently visited the editorial office of another Armenian paper in Paris and was given such an unfriendly reception that it bordered on the hostile. I know now why we have no use for critics and dissidents: we don’t need them because every Armenian is another’s critic and dissident. What we need now is peacemakers, negotiators, compromisers, harmonizers, and coordinators.
*
We said “Yes, sir!” to sultans and Stalin for almost 700 years; and we now compensate by saying “No, sir!” – but only to our fellow Armenians.
*
I once met a Turkish student who spoke Armenian fluently but identified herself as a Turk. She probably thought she would get more respect that way.
*
An Armenian will criticize a writer for repeating himself and a speechifier, sermonizer, or propagandist for not repeating himself.
*
There seems to be an unspoken theory among us that says, you can tell how good an Armenian is by how much he hates Turks.
*
When confronted with the issue of hating Turks, an Armenian will rationalize it by saying, “I don’t hate them; I just want them to acknowledge the Genocide.” Which raises the following questions: What if being dependent on Turkish justice is almost like being a subject of the Ottoman Empire? What if by rationalizing our hatred of Turks we also rationalize our intolerance of fellow Armenians? What if our hatred pollutes our relations with our fellow men? What if Gandhi was right when he said, “Hatred harms the hater more than those he hates”?
*
And if you were to ask me: “What about you? Don’t you hate anybody?” My answer would be, “Of course I do! I was born and raised as an Armenian.”
#
Friday, August 26, 2005
**********************************
Armenian proverb: “Better the slave of a wise man than the master of a fool.”
*
Denis Donikian: “Dissent is not so much a form of political opposition as a defense of values that we all share.”
*
We have no use for human rights because our own rights were violated by a long line of tyrants. We have no use for civilized conduct either because we were ruled by barbarians. You may now guess the identity of our role models.
*
The very same people who have made Turkish barbarism their central concern see nothing inconsistent in adopting their methods, and the only reason they don’t massacre is that it is against the law. But the moment the law is relaxed in their favor, as it happened in the Soviet era, they will not hesitate to be their brothers’ executioners.
*
Whenever a fellow Armenian calls me a brother I start wondering who is Cain and who is Abel.
*
There is a Cain and Abel in all of us, but we prefer to parade as Abels and to assign the role of Cain to anyone who dares to disagree with us. We thus view dissent and criticism as activities peculiar to the Cains of this world even as we ourselves violate their fundamental human right of free speech.
#
Saturday, August 27, 2005
************************************
“You are a dishonest man, a bad writer, and a worse Armenian,” a reader, himself a poet, informs me. To which I can only say: “I am sure the nation will be eternally grateful to you if you reject me as a role model.”
*
Jewish saying: “Fools who hide their ignorance are wiser than the wise who parade their knowledge.”
*
Denis Donikian: “If you want to solve our problems, share your money not your ideas.”
*
Armenian proverb: “Neither candle not incense can open a path to heaven.”
*
All politicians are atheists, including those who believe in god.
*
Some people are so outrageously wrong that they don’t have to be corrected; sooner or later life, facts, the reality principle will speak to them much louder than any logical argument or appeal to common sense.
#

CONFERENCE ON ARMENIANS IN OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Turkish Press
Aug 25 2005
FM GUL: “WE CONSIDER SUCH MEETINGS AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLAIN OUR
THESES”
ANKARA – “We consider international meetings an opportunity to
explain our theses both in Turkey and abroad,” Turkish FM & Deputy
Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday about the conference
on Armenians under Ottoman Empire.
Upon a question about the international conference to be held
at Istanbul’s Bogazici University from Sept. 23 to 25, Gul said,
“when I was invited to the conference, I said that I might attend
it in principle if my program enabled me. We consider such meetings
an opportunity to explain our theses both in Turkey and abroad. We
should benefit from such opportunities. We should not remain silent.”
“The most important thing is to explain the historical truths. Our
government has decided to be more active to this end. We will not allow
hostile circles to affect new generations with unfounded allegations,”
Gul added.

OBASANJO OFFERS RUSSIA PRISONERS SWAP
This Day (Lagos)
August 24, 2005
Adeyeye Joseph With Agency Reports
Lagos
President Olusegun Oba-sanjo has offered to swap thirteen Russians
currently facing trial in the country for illegal bunkering with
Nigerian prisoners held in Russian jails.
The one and half year old trial of the Russians has caused a big stir
in their home country. TASS, the official news agency, reported that
legislators, at a time, called on the government of President Vladmir
Putin to break relations with Nigeria over the issue.
Russian newspapers reported, yesterday, that President Obasanjo made
the offer in a letter he wrote to UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Ara
Abramyan recently.
Abramyan who is also head of the Union of Russian Armenians is at the
forefront of the political negotiations to get the Russians back home.
In the letter, Obasanjo reportedly told Abramyan that as soon the court
proceedings are finished and the verdict is announced he may “make
political steps or consider a possibility of exchanging detainees”.
Obasanjo said his offer was based on the importance attached to the
matter by the Russians. “I take your concern and intention to solve
the issue as soon as possible into an account,” the Russian media
reported the President as writing.
The President according to the UNESCO ambassador also promised “to
take care” of the sailors.
In Russia, it is believed that the sailors are victims of a sort. The
Russian media claimed that the detained sailors were only “charged
additionally” with the owner of the ship signifying that the sailors
knew nothing of the illegal bunkering activities.
The Russian Foreign ministry said its country has fulfilled the bail
demands and is waiting for Nigeria to expedite action on the bail.
“The formalities that the Nigerian court demanded from the Russian
side are fulfilled. At present, the point is that these documents
should pass through relevant Nigerian institutions,” the Russian
foreign ministry said.
The Russian sailors were arrested in October 2003 while they were
crew members of the MT African Pride, a ship that was arrested with
thousands of tonnes of illegally siphoned oil.
The hearing of the case began in March 2004. The youngest of the
suspects, who the Russian media reported to have just recovered from
malaria and to be presently sick with gastroenteritis, is 25 years
old while the oldest is 65 years.
The 10 Russians were arrested alongside one Romanian and two Georgians
by Nigerian Naval officers in October 2003 for allegedly using the
MT African Pride for illegal oil bunkering.
The ship with its oil contents later disappeared from where it was
detained. A probe of the curious disappearance of the ship by a
committee of the House of Representatives opened a can of worms on
the activities of the navy.
Three naval admirals were later tried for their roles in the ship
disappearance with two of them indicted. The other one was freed.
As part of efforts to secure the release of the detained expatriates,
the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Roseline Ukeje had on
August 4 admitted them to bail.
Part of the conditions included that the ambassadors of the respective
countries world write undertakings that the accused were known to
them and that they would produce them (accused) whenever they were
needed for trial.
But following the inability of the accused to meet this condition,
they brought an application on August 17 through their counsel, Chief
Emeto Etudo, seeking an order to vary the August 4 order of the court
admitting the accused to bail by the substitution of Ambassador of
Russian Federation and Ambassador of Republic of Georgia with Charge
‘d’ Affairs of the Russian Federation.
The expatriates also wanted an order granting leave to the Charge
‘d’ affairs to make any undertaking required from the Ambassadors of
Russia and Georgia in the said order for bail.
The counsel said the Russia ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Igor Meikhov
is presently on vacation and was unable to write the undertaking as
directed by the court.
Justice Ukeje granted the bail condition variation request.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KARABAKH FOREIGN MINISTER QUESTIONS AZERBAIJAN’S DRIVE TOWARDS DEMOCRACY
Armenpress
AUG 25, 2005
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS: In an interview with De-Facto news
agency Nagorno-Karabakh foreign minister Arman Melikian said the
decision of Azerbaijan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) to restore
election district 122, which before Karabakh had broken away from
Azerbaijan, included voters living there, poses a serious threat to
its declared goal of furthering democratic reforms, since this will
give Azeri authorities a broad possibility to manipulate the outcome
of next parliamentary elections in favor of the incumbent regime.
Melikian said Azerbaijan’s promises to create also a website for
online voting will take the voting process out of international
observers’ control. He argued that Karabakh legislation provides
for a dual citizenship ‘but if a Karabakh citizen decides to also
obtain an Azerbaijani citizenship the two states (Nagorno-Karabakh
and Azerbaijan) will have to sign a relevant agreement to regulate
the rights and obligations of people with dual citizenship, including
also their suffrage.”
According to the minister, before doing so Azerbaijan will have to
recognize Karabakh’s independence and also incorporate a provision
on dual citizenship into its constitution.