Armenia’s crime rate down in 2004

Arminfo
18 Feb 05

Yerevan, 18 February: The number of crimes registered in Armenia
was 10,083 in 2004, down by 990 (or 8.9 per cent) in comparison with
2003. Meanwhile, 84.7 per cent of the crimes were solved, as compared
with 82.7 per cent in 2003. These figures were announced by a collegial
session of the Armenian Prosecutor-General’s Office today.

Compared with the previous year, the number of apartment burglaries
has decreased. However, the number of thefts of personal property has
gone up. At the same time, the number of crimes against individuals
was down by 35 cases (1,644 – 1,609). The number of murders decreased
by one (76 – 75), and so did the number of rapes and rape attempts.

As research shows, the most widespread crimes are theft of private
or state property and crimes against individuals, whereas cases of
draft dodging account for 20 per cent of all crimes.

Twelve cases of murder and six attempted murders, as well as 33 cases
of grievous bodily harm remain unsolved.

In general, the year 2004 saw a better situation regarding the rate
of solving economic crimes; 265 such crimes were registered, up by
107 from the equivalent figure in 2003. Of the crimes related to tax
evasion, 86.2 per cent were solved. In all, 29 criminal proceedings
have been instituted over failure to pay taxes.

Meanwhile, Armenia’s courts of first instance looked into 3,330
criminal cases against 4,256 people, which is 21 cases and 164 people
more than in 2003.

[Passage omitted: Minor details]

Armenia’s economy advances, official says
By Vanessa Colón

The Fresno Bee
(Updated Saturday, February 19, 2005, 7:36 AM)

Armenia is on the move to a better economy, but more work needs to
be done, said the U.S. ambassador to Armenia.

Members of the Armenian community in Fresno took in the good news
Friday, but some of them wondered whether the United States could do
more to help the nation prosper.

John Evans, U.S. ambassador to the republic of Armenia, made an evening
stop at the Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church. The U.S. Embassy
in Armenia and the offices of Armenian Technology Group Inc. in Fresno
coordinated his visit.

“The main problem is persistent poverty. … [but] the rate of poverty
is coming down,” Evans said.

“First of all, we are trying to bring a measure of security and
stability in that nation. Secondly, we are trying by every possible
means to build up the economy.” Many Armenians say they are thankful
for the economic assistance the United States gives to Armenia, but
some of them want more change. They say Armenia can’t prosper as much
because of an economic blockade from neighboring nations.

“The U.S. provides economic assistance to Armenia. … You do see
good economic development, but in the countryside you do see poverty,”
said Varoujan Der Simonian, executive director of the nonprofit group
Armenian Technology Group Inc. in Fresno.

“Overall, it’s in need of help,”

In fiscal 2004, an estimated $89.7 million was budgeted for assistance
programs in Armenia.

Der Simonian hopes the Bush administration doesn’t make cuts in
financial help to Armenia.

The nation, which borders Turkey, was part of the former Soviet
Union. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and a debilitating
economy, many fled to Russia and others emigrated to the United States
and Western Europe.

Part of the financial strain includes an economic blockade by
Azerbaijan and Turkey. The country was hit with an earthquake in 1988
that killed more than 25,000 people.

“The sooner the blockade is lifted, the better,” Der Simonian said.

Some Armenians say part of the economic difficulty includes the
Armenian diaspora.

More than one million of Armenia’s roughly 3 million residents left
the nation when it gained its independence in 1991. Many left their
nation between 1915 and 1923 when the Ottoman Turks executed 1.5
million Armenians. The modern republic of Turkey evolved from the
Ottoman Empire.

Several people at the church have taken trips to Armenia and have
seen the changes.

“It’s improved but has not improved as much as we wanted to,” said
Hygo Ohannessian, chairwoman of the Armenian National Committee of
Central California.

Ohannessian said: “It was one of the top-producing countries in the
Soviet Union during the Soviet era.”

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559) 441-6313.

–Boundary_(ID_qlkQB/xeZytFBromt9EDeA)–

The rags-to-riches philanthropist

The Daily Telegraph/UK
(Filed: 20/02/2005)

The Mormon billionaire who started out selling eggs has floated his
plastics empire, but Jon Huntsman tells Sylvia Pfeifer Mammon will
still help his charitable mission

Jon Huntsman is not a conventional businessman. On the day that the
self-made billionaire took the chemicals business he founded 35 years
ago to the New York stock market, he cashed in shares worth more than
$100m. It wasn’t that he needed the money â~@~S he has no interest
in the fast cars, yachts or Palm Beach mansions that usually excite
the very rich. Huntsman just wanted to fund his charitable foundations.

Huntsman is one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs. His
rags-to-riches tale of a poor Mormon boy who built up a plastics empire
worth $12bn is the embodiment of the American dream. But Huntsman is
also a noted philanthropist.

Aside from his personal donations, the company’s policy has been to
divide every dollar of free cash flow, putting half into the business
and half into good works. To date, Huntsman has given away some $500m,
both from the company and his own resources.

However, earlier this month, that policy ended when the chemicals
group raised $1.5bn through a partial flotation. Now, Huntsman himself
must keep funding his charities, which range from the Huntsman Cancer
Institute (both his parents died of cancer) to helping Armenia.

So why did he decide to take the group public? And what made him
change his previous famous conviction that commodity businesses are
better off being private? The short answer is that the operating
environment has become more difficult.

“My view has changed dramatically . . . The energy uncertainties,
combined with the whole problems with terrorism and uncertainty in the
economic conditions throughout the world make it very difficult for
an individual to cope with the peaks and valleys that could accompany
a business the size of $12bn . . . I feel very strongly that the
best protection to our shareholders, including our family and other
shareholders, is to be a public company where we have access to equity
markets,” he says in an interview from fresh from ringing the opening
bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

“Our profits will [now] go towards paying down debt. We won’t have
the luxury to direct money towards charitable things,” he says. “I’ll
sell my own stock from time to time. . . to help continue to fund my
own charities.”

Talking to Huntsman at any length is like getting a lesson in business,
ethics and family values all at once. His philanthropic zeal dominates
his conversation. Meanwhile, the company’s annual reports are peppered
with mission statements and family photos of his wife, their nine
children and 52 grandchildren.

His one indulgence, he says, is fly fishing. Aside from that, “business
and my faith are in every way as relaxing as most men and women find
things like golf or yachting”. But it is the weekly visits to the
chemotherapy wards in his cancer hospital “to give the patients a
hug and encouragement” that really energise him, he adds.

Cynics may find such apparent saintliness from a billionaire grating,
but Huntsman sees no difficulty in reconciling faith and money.

“It’s very difficult for me to separate my family from my business,
from my faith, from our charitable work,” he says. “It’s all rolled
into one package.”

The one thing he does preach is that every man should return some
of his fortune to society. This belief no doubt has its roots in his
upbringing. He was born in Blackfoot, Idaho, in 1937, into a family
of devout Mormons. The young Huntsman won a scholarship to Wharton
Business School in Pennsylvania. On graduation, he went to work for
his uncle, selling eggs in Los Angeles â~@~S a job he has often
described as “the worst in America”.

Nevertheless, it was while doing this that he developed the world’s
first plastic egg cartons. An agreement with McDonald’s to supply the
fast-food giant with Styrofoam “clamshell” cartons led him to make a
fortune. In 1970, a couple of deals and lots of borrowed money later,
the Huntsman Corporation was born.

So how did a former egg salesman manage to build up such a huge
chemicals group? His strategy was to buy unwanted assets at distressed
prices. This was best illustrated by the $2.8bn acquisition, in 1999,
of the old chemicals empire of ICI based on Teesside.

The highly profitable deal not only doubled the group’s size but was
personally resonant for Huntsman, who can trace his family roots
back to another UK port â~@~S Liverpool. Somewhat surprisingly,
he describes the Teesside complex as “my favourite place on the
entire earth”.

However, as the acquisitions mounted so did the debt. In 2001, the
family had to sell 49 per cent of the business to Matlin Patterson,
the US venture capital firm, a decision Huntsman describes as “a very
painful experience”.

Today, the restructured Huntsman empire is a mix of commodity and
speciality chemicals. Last year the company secured a £16.5m grant
from the British government to build the world’s biggest producer of
low-density polyethylene on Teesside.

Huntsman is convinced that the chemicals industry is “headed for some
very fine years”. He argues that his company is well-placed to weather
the economic cycles since only one third of its business comes from
commodity chemicals.

Huntsman has no plans to retire yet and remains chairman of the group
after handing operational control to his son Peter in 2000. Over
the next two weeks the family will appoint an independent board of
directors â~@~S six out of the 10 board members will be non-family
â~@~S chosen from some of the best-run corporations across America.

So what advice can he give any budding entrepreneurs out there?
Unsurprisingly, he has no magic answer. Success, he notes, “is a
process that’s surprising even to the individuals involved”.

For anyone in need of more practical views, Huntsman is about to
publish a book on how to become a winner. Entitled Winners Never Cheat:
Everyday Values We Learned as Children (But May Have Forgotten),
the book aims to be a lesson in good management behaviour â~@~S
play by the rules and keep your word, for example â~@~S together
with nuggets of successful techniques.

“It’ll be a fun book,” promises Huntsman. “I think if your goal is
to become wealthy, by and large, you fail. If your goal is to try
to be fair and honest and to build a quality company, step by step,
day by day, someday eventually it evolves into an opportunity to
reach beyond your own expectations.”

–Boundary_(ID_Pe/022Rhpm3VVM9C8/gzQA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

National Pride: Brothers say horses should be an Armenian treasure
By Vahan Ishkhanyan

ArmeniaNow Reporter
18 Feb 2005

During 10 years the Mirzoyan brothers have created Armenia’s largest
stable of sport horses. Their number is at 56 now (the second is the
hippodrome in Yerevan that was established during Soviet times and
now has 46 horses, of which a few are the property of individuals).

The stable is in their birthplace – in the village of Lernamerdz in
the Armavir region. The big stable situated in the unsightly rural
area catches the eye from the distance with its grove of young poplars.

“My brother brought the first horse from Echmiadzin,” says stable
director Gevorg Mirzoyan. “Then horses were given to us as gifts. At
some point we began to attend to it seriously. A horse is a dream. My
dad was very much fond of horses too (his father is a well-known
patriot in the national circles, Janpolad Mirzoyan). The news that
we were setting up a horse-breeding farm pleased him very much.”

Gevorg Mirzoyan, 56, graduated from the Philological Department of
the Yerevan State University. In 1987, together with Paruyr Hairikyan,
he founded the Union for Self-Determination, which was struggling for
Armenia’s independence. He worked at the State TV and Radio Committee,
from which he was fired in 1988 by KGB for his political views. A court
later reinstated him. In 1994, he participated in the Karabakh war.

Mirzoyan considers horse-breeding to be the continuation of his
nationalistic activities: “I thought at that time that we should
fight for independence, then I fought in the war, now I consider
horse-breeding to be the right thing to do. In a country that has no
horses a horse becomes a national wealth.”

He considers politics to be a damaging occupation and that it is the
scum of society that are engaged in it: “The war ended and I don’t
know where they came from and became ministers. Those who sincerely
fought for Armenia saw the country in a different way.” A piece of that
“different way” is the stable of Lernamerdz.

He considers even the place to be symbolic – it is in the center of
the triangle of three mountains – Aragats, Ararat and Ara.

Horse-breeding is not a business for the Mirzoyans. Gevorg’s brother
is a businessman, who only spends on the horse-breeding farm from
his incomes without any profit expectations: “If I sold the horses,
I would drive a Jeep. But if it were so, I would be among the animals
who take 50,000 dollars out of the pocket. Not drams, but dollars. They
(officials) spend 12,000 dollars a day in casinos, and they pay a
pension of 12,000 drams a month to people. If someone gave (officials)
12,000 drams, their heart would break.” Gevorg Mirzoyan says that
several times rich people and officials came to buy a horse from him,
but he didn’t sell. He told them that they’d better spend the money
to build a school in the village.

During the Soviet years, there were farms breeding sport horses which
disappeared in the ’90s, since during the crisis it was impossible
to maintain horses. The Mirzoyans once bought a few horses from those
horse-breeding farms, and they now gave offspring.

A worker at the stable, horse trainer Norik Sargsyan worked in the
horse-breeding farm of Ddmashen, which was the largest and had about
80 horses. He remembers how horses began to die there because of lack
of food: “So many horses died of hunger at that time. We could not
find food, they couldn’t stand the winter cold. There was no water,
foals were born in heavy conditions. Once I came and saw that six of
them had died, then 10 of them had gone.”

Sargsyan has worked as a horse trainer and jockey since 1972. He has
trained about 300 horses. He says that the best studs he had seen are
in Lernamerdz, built by the Mirzoyans from foundation to top. Here,
he has trained nine youngsters in the skills of horseriding. Every day
except on Sunday the horses are trained by specialist trainers. Many
of the horses participated in championships organized in Armenia and
won prizes. One of their lot, “Clever” last year placed first in a
championship called “Call of the World”, held here.

Twenty of the horses are thoroughbred English saddle-horses. The
Mirzoyans decided to create an Armenian breed that will be a mixture
of the local horse and the English one. They already got one such
horse and called the breed “taron”.

“When we say local it is conventional, in reality there is no such
breed,” says Gevorg Mirzoyan. “The locals are a mixture, during Soviet
times horses were brought from different places and they mixed up with
each other. Then, horses were not properly kept in villages, they were
fed with remains from other animals’ food, and that’s why they have
no good look, their bodies are small. My goal is to create a local
breed – a taron-horse. This horse-breeding farm will be called the
Taron-Horse Medical-Sports Complex to where people will later come to
ride horses. Sporting and healthcare arrangements will be held there.

However, the Mirzoyans already now consider that they have achieved
the result, which is not only theirs but also of Armenia: “During
those years horses were dying of hunger. Offspring of some of them
are now here, whom we have saved and won by that.”

BIOGRAPHICAL DATA OF NEW AMBASSADOR OF ARMENIA TO IRAN KAREN NAZARIAN

YEREVAN, February 18 (Noyan Tapan). It was already mentioned that by
RA President Robert Kocharian’s decree Karen Nazarian is appointed
Ambassador of Armenia to Iran. The press service of the RA Ministry
of Foreign Affairs provided Noyan Tapan with the biographical data
of the newly appointed Ambassador. K. Nazarian was born in Yerevan
on November 29, 1966. In 1990, he graduated from the Yerevan State
University, the Faculty of the Oriental Studies. K. Nazarian has worked
in the system of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1991, he
worked at the Department on Military-Political Problems. In 1992-94,
he worked at the Embassy of Armenia in Russia. In 1994-96, he was
the Chief of the Secretariat of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
the Head of the staff. In 1996-2002, he worked in Geneva as the
Ambassador of Armenia to the UN and the Resident Representative. From
2002 up to his last appointment he worked as the Adviser of the RA
Minister of Foreign Affairs, being a member of the Armenian-American
Inter-Governmental Commission. His has the diplomatic degree of
the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He is married,
has two children.

[Congressional Record: February 18, 2005 (Extensions)]
[Page E284-E285]
>>From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr18fe05-28]

REMEMBERING THE TRAGEDY OF KHOJALY

______

HON. DAN BURTON

of indiana

in the house of representatives

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, for years a number of
distinguished Members of this House have come to the Floor of this
Chamber every April to commemorate the so-called Armenian Genocide–the
exact details of which are still very much under debate today almost 90
years after the events. Ironically and tragically, none of these
Members has ever once mentioned the ethnic cleansing carried out by the
Armenians during the Armenia-Azerbaijan war which ended a mere decade
ago.
Khojaly was a little known small town in Azerbaijan until February
1992. Today it no longer exists, and for people of Azerbaijan and the
region, the word “Khojaly” has become synonymous with pain, sorrow,
and cruelty. On February 26, 1992, the world ended for the people of
Khojaly when Armenian troops supported by a Russian infantry regiment
did not just attack the town but they razed it to the ground. In the
process the Armenians brutally murdered 613 people, annihilated whole
families, captured 1275 people, left 1,000 civilians maimed or
crippled, and another 150 people unaccounted for in their wake.
Memorial, a Russian human rights group, reported that “scores of the
corpses bore traces of profanation. Doctors on a hospital train in
Agdam noted no less than four corpses that had been scalped and one
that had been beheaded. . . . and one case of live scalping:”
Various other witnesses reported horrifying details of the massacre.
The late Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev, who was the first
to film the aftermath of the massacre, wrote an account of what he saw.
He said, “Some children were found with severed ears; the skin had
been cut from the left side of an elderly woman’s face; and men had
been scalped.”
Human Rights Watch called the tragedy at the time “the largest
massacre to date in the conflict.”
The New York Times wrote about “truckloads of bodies” and described
acts of “scalping.”

[[Page E285]]

This savage cruelty against innocent women, children and the elderly
is unfathomable in and of itself but the senseless brutality did not
stop with Khojaly. Khojaly was simply the first. In fact, the level of
brutality and the unprecedented atrocities committed at Khojaly set a
pattern of destruction and ethnic cleansing that Armenian troops would
adhere to for the remainder of the war. On November 29, 1993, Newsweek
quoted a senior US Government official as saying “What we see now is a
systematic destruction of every village in their (the Armenians) way.
It’s vandalism.”
This year, as they have every year since the massacre, the leaders of
Azerbaijan’s Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities issue appeals on
the eve of commemoration of the massacre of Khojaly urging the
international community to condemn the February 26, 1992 bloodshed,
facilitate liberation of the occupied territories and repatriation of
the displaced communities.
And every year, those residents of Khojaly, who survived the
massacre–many still scattered among one million refugees and displaced
persons in camps around Azerbaijan–appeal with pain and hope to the
international community to hold Armenia responsible for this crime.
I am pleased to say that on January 25, 2005 the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe overwhelmingly adopted a resolution
highlighting that “considerable parts of Azerbaijan’s territory are
still occupied by the Armenian forces and separatist forces are still
in control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.” It also expressed concern
that the military action between 1988 and 1994 and the widespread
ethnic hostilities which preceded it, “led to large-scale ethnic
expulsion and the creation of mono-ethnic areas which resemble the
terrible concept of ethnic cleansing.”
Mr. Speaker, this is not the ringing condemnation that the survivors
of Khojaly deserve but it is an important first step by an
international community that has too long been silent on this issue.
Congress should take the next step and I hope my colleagues will join
me in standing with Azerbaijanis as they commemorate the tragedy of
Khojaly. The world should know and remember.

____________________

[Congressional Record: February 18, 2005 (Extensions)]
[Page E288]
>>From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr18fe05-41]

THE OCCASION OF THE 17TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NAGORNO KARABAKH FREEDOM
MOVEMENT

______

HON. MICHAEL R. McNULTY

of new york

in the house of representatives

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I join today with many of my colleagues in
extending my congratulations to the people of Nagorno Karabakh on the
anniversary of the Nagorno Karabakh Freedom Movement.
On February 20, 1988, the people of Nagorno Karabakh officially
petitioned the Soviet government to reunite with Armenia and reverse
the injustice perpetrated by the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.
This peaceful and legal request was met with violent reaction by the
Soviet and Azerbaijani leadership, and escalated into full military
aggression against Nagorno Karabakh. The people of Nagorno Karabakh
bravely defended their right to live in freedom on their ancestral
land.
Today, Nagorno Karabakh continues to strengthen its statehood with a
democratically elected government, a capable armed forces and
independent foreign policy.
I stand with the people of Nagorno Karabakh in celebrating their
continuing freedom and democracy.

____________________

PRESS RELEASE

Alpha Epsilon Omega,
Armenian Genocide Commemoration Committee
Contact: Narek Zograbyan
Tel: 818-445-1164
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

Alpha Epsilon Omega, The Armenian Fraternity, has
launched the “Never Again” awareness wristband
campaign and will soon launch the accompanying
website,

The wristbands will bring greater awareness to the
Armenian Genocide and the struggle for recognition.
They will serve as a constant reminder that the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a crucial part
in preventing future genocides.

The awareness wristbands are in black and have “NEVER
AGAIN” embossed on one side. They will be available
starting mid March. All funds raised by the sale of
the wristbands will go to various organizations that
are actively pursuing the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide.

If you would like to become a sponsor, or would like
to know how you or your organization can contribute to
this campaign, please send an email to
[email protected].

Thank You,

Narek Zograbyan
Committee Chair
Alpha Epsilon Omega,
Armenian Genocide Commemoration Committee
818-445-1164
[email protected]

Europe to take more persistent stance on Azeri parliamentary polls – Swiss MP

Ekho, Baku
16 Feb 05

The rapporteur of the monitoring group of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe, Andreas Gross, has called for changes to
Azerbaijan’s Electoral Code ahead of the parliamentary elections in
November. In his interview with the Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho, Gross
said that the composition of the Central Electoral Commission should
be replaced. Our wish is to ensure that the electoral commissions are
fairly balanced between the authorities and opposition, he pointed
out. Gross also called on the Azerbaijani parliament to take into
account the proposals of the opposition and European bodies while
adopting a new Electoral Code. Touching on the establishment of
public TV in the country, Gross expressed his concern about the
poor financial basis of public TV and said that it should not be
working on a par with state television, adding that state TV should
be transformed into a public channel. The following is an excerpt from
S. Rza’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 16 February headlined
“Andreas Gross: The Milli Maclis largely depends on the presidential
administration”. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:

The visit to Baku by Andreas Gross and Andres Herkel, rapporteurs of
the monitoring group of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe [PACE], ended last week. The schedule of their visit was
extremely busy. They held talks with human rights activists, leaders
of political parties and state officials during the visit. The number
one subject discussed during the European MPs’ talks were preparations
for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the country. In this
context, the sides also touched on a number of points concerning
the forthcoming elections. Andreas Gross, one of the rapporteurs and
Swiss MP, spoke about the details and results of his meetings held
in Baku in an interview with Ekho.

Early preparations for parliament polls

[Correspondent] Could you compare the period of preparations for
the 2003 presidential elections with the processes taking place in
the run-up to the parliamentary elections? What kind of changes have
taken place since then?

[Gross] Unfortunately, we saw many mistakes in 2003. We made a number
of proposals to your government in 2004 to overcome difficulties
that lie ahead. We sincerely hoped that our proposals would be
taken into account during the 17 December 2004 local government
elections. Unfortunately, we did not see this. That’s why we have
started the preparations for the parliamentary elections so early in
2005. This time we have taken a more persistent position.

[Correspondent] How will it manifest itself?

[Gross] We will definitely visit Azerbaijan more often this year –
once in two months. In addition, I would like to recall that we
have already considered once the issue of depriving the Azerbaijani
delegation of its mandate in PACE. We did not go into details of
this issue during the January session due to the discussion of the
Karabakh conflict in PACE. We did not want to influence the course
of the discussions. At the same time, we stated that if everything
is not going as we want and our proposals are not taken into account,
we may raise again the issue of depriving the Azerbaijani delegation
of its mandate in April or June. We have to take this step since
we do not get enough support from our Azerbaijani colleagues in
PACE. Furthermore, we do not think that the Azerbaijani parliament is
strong enough. Your country’s supreme legislative body largely depends
on the presidential administration. Parliament is an autonomous and
independent body. There should be a clear-cut distinction between
these institutions in a democratic state.

[Correspondent] Why have you drawn the conclusion that the members
of our delegation in PACE are not giving you enough support?

[Gross] We have visited Azerbaijan 18 times since November 2000. I
cannot say that nothing has changed. Some members of the Azerbaijani
delegation have started understanding us better. However, there
is a question – do they have the power to change anything? In this
case, the problem is not about the Azerbaijani MPs, the Azerbaijani
parliament itself is very weak. But the Azerbaijani parliament now
has a perfect opportunity to prove its strength and power.

Changes to election law

One of our most important demands is to make changes to the Electoral
Code. The MPs can make positive changes to the Electoral Code and adopt
it in this form. I think that the MPs should think about their people,
not about their posts, while making changes to the Electoral Code.

[Correspondent] Are you talking about changing the staff of the
Central Electoral Commission (CEC)?

[Gross] The CEC staff should be changed. Every electoral commission
should be independent and assured that the elections will be held in
a fair and democratic way. Our dearest wish in the issue of reforming
the electoral law is to ensure that the electoral commissions are
fairly balanced between the opposition and the authorities. The
electoral commissions are like referees in a football match between
Azerbaijan and Armenia. The sides in question cannot have their own
referee in the game as the referees should be independent and neutral
with regards to the two sides.

[Correspondent] Some opposition parties have submitted a package
of changes to the Azerbaijani Electoral Code. Are you familiar with
them? Can such proposals serve as a guarantee for holding democratic
elections?

[Gross] I have already received the aforesaid document from two
sources. I think the parliament should accept the consensus option
if it adopts a new Electoral Code. It is necessary to take into
account the proposals of the opposition, the Council of Europe and
the Venice Commission. Even the CEC proposes changes to the Electoral
Code. Representatives of the CEC are interested in balancing the
influence of the executive authorities on the electoral commissions.

[Correspondent] Has the CEC told you about this?

[Gross] No, we did not know that they had proposals on reforming the
electoral system. To be frank, we were pleasantly surprised at this.

[Correspondent] It was underlined earlier that the Electoral Code
was adopted literally two years ago and there is no need to change
anything. Furthermore, the current Electoral Code was adopted with
the consent of the same opposition and different European bodies.

[Correspondent] We received information about this from the Azerbaijani
mass media. At today’s meeting (12 February 2002) with the head of the
Azerbaijani presidential administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev, I asked him:
“You told a newspaper that you are not going to discuss this. Then
why are we here?” But Mehdiyev said that the papers are mistaken. He
also said that the government was ready to discuss changes to the
Electoral Code.

Opposition

[Correspondent] The opposition is being accused of passivity after the
2003 presidential elections and the following developments. Moreover,
its activities have been almost unnoticeable. How ready is it to
worthily contest the parliamentary elections?

[Gross] Even the government understands that there are poor conditions
at the moment for holding absolutely democratic elections. Citizens’
right to assemble freely during the elections is just like water for
fish. This is one of the most important rights not only during the
elections. The opposition has not been allowed to stage even one mass
action after the 2003 presidential elections. This was reflected in all
our documents. We have been talking about this for 15 months. However,
the Azerbaijani government has ignored our statements. Moreover, a
large number of opposition members are still in jail. For this reason,
the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan is closely connected
with the process of democratization in Azerbaijan. I spent four hours
in Azerbaijani prisons during my current visit. I met opposition
party leaders. As I understand, they were jailed for nothing. They
were arrested because of their party affiliation. At official meetings
with your government members, we asked them to pardon them on 21 March.

[Passage omitted: public TV might be established in September]

Public TV

[Correspondent] Is your concern linked to the date for the
establishment of public TV or what?

[Gross] We are concerned about possible delays in the establishment
of public TV and the lack of pluralism there. We are also concerned
about the possible poor financial basis of the TV channel. At the
same time, we have questions about the state TV channel working on
a par with public TV. It was initially said that state TV will be
transformed into a public channel. There is no country where public
TV operates at the same level as state TV. Perhaps, Azerbaijan is
inventing something new. Public TV is a basis for free and democratic
elections everywhere because we can watch debates by people who have
different opinions. The people should understand that the truth is
not on one side, it can come from several sides.

[Passage omitted: European experts will assess the work of state and
public TV in parallel after the parliamentary polls]

Prisoners

[Correspondent] You visited prisons and met political prisoners. What
are your impressions, how far is Azerbaijan from a solution to this
problem?

[Gross] I met some activists of opposition parties arrested for the
October 2003 events [post-election riots]. The people I met have been
jailed mainly for their political convictions. As for the solution to
the problem as a whole, Azerbaijan is still far from this. We cannot
resolve the problem of previous political prisoners as long as new
ones appear. The reason why events are progressing in this way is
the lack of freedom of speech and independent judiciary bodies. At
the meeting with the justice minister, we noted that we could name
the judges in the Court of Appeal who have taken bribes and issued
unfair decisions. He said he will tackle the problem.

[Passage omitted: minor details]

Lebanon Is on the Brink. Syria Begins Arming its Supporters

DEBKA file, Israel
Feb 19 2005

DEBKAfile Special Report

Lebanon’s climate has been charged with latent violence since the
assassination Monday, February 14, of Lebanese former prime minister
Rafiq Hariri, and his funeral two days later. Sparks began flying
when the opposition unveiled their “peaceful democratic uprising for
independence” Friday, February 18, and, as revealed by DEBKAfile’s
intelligence sources, Syrian forces began distributing weapons to
groups supporting Damascus and the 1.4 million expatriate laborers
in the country.

The resignations of president Emil Lahoude and the Karame government
were forcefully demanded by the opposition leader, Walid Jumblatt,
head of the Lebanese Druses who speaks for a rare multiethnic coalition
made up of his own community, Christian factions endorsed by Maronite
Catholic Archbishop Nasrallah Sfeir, and Sunni Muslims led by the
dead billionaire’s oldest son, Bahaa Hariri, with the blessing of
the Sunni Muslim Mufti of Lebanon.

Saturday, February 19, Omar Karame, who succeeded Rafiq Hariri as
prime minister, accused this group of attempting a coup d’etat.

The belligerent Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned (or
threatened) that “popular agitation against Syria’s grip on the country
following the killing of Rafiq Hariri could plunge Lebanon into civil
war again. Backed solidly from Damascus and Tehran, he exhorted the
100,000 Shiites massed in Beirut to mark the Ashura festival not to
forget the real enemy. “Death to Israel!” they roared after him.

All three uprisings launched in the Middle East in five years were
steeped in violence. In 1991, after the first Gulf War, Iraq’s Shiites
rose up against the Saddam regime. Thousands were savagely mowed down
by his tanks. Syria’s Kurdish community challenged Assad in 2003,
only to lose thousands of dead and many more thrown into Syria’s
prisons. The Palestinian confrontation with Israel has left 5,000
Palestinian and 1,300 Israelis dead since 2000.

The sparks will fly in earnest when government and Syrians move into
aggressive mode to crush the opposition, which will become increasingly
inflamed by multiplying leads to Syria and its Lebanese minions as
Hariri’s assassins.

Our sources report that US, French and Israeli intelligence have
already gathered solid evidence that General Rostum Ghazallah of
Syrian military intelligence orchestrated the murder on orders from
Damascus with the aid of Lebanese general intelligence and its chief
General Jamil al-Sayad.

The Damascus-backed government in Beirut and its masters has no
intention of going quietly. Bashar Assad desperately needs the
political and economic benefits he extorts from Lebanon to prop up
his regime.

Monday, February 21, presidents George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac
meet in Paris. With Lebanon at the forefront of their agenda, they
will have to look hard at some tough questions. How to handle the
situation if Assad orders his Syrian troops in Lebanon to march on
Beirut in defense of his puppet government? And worse still, what
if the full weight of the Syrian army is sent across the border to
squash the uprising? Will the two Western leaders dispatch a joint
US-French force to repulse the Syrian onslaught?

If they did, it would be the most drastic event to hit the Middle
East since the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The second American
invasion of an Arab land might this time be partnered or endorsed by
a European power.

To force the hands of the American and French presidents, the leaders
of the Lebanese uprising are preparing a spectacular event to coincide
with their summit. One proposal is for a hundreds of thousands of
protesters to march through Beirut’s streets and seize the parliament
building.

Other “intifada” events in the planning:

1. Giant rallies to strangle normal life in the capital.

2. A human chain from Hariri’s tomb to government headquarters on
the seam-line dividing the Hizballah-dominated southern district from
the Christian-controlled West that would aim to paralyze government
activity

Opposition leaders have notified Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri,
head of the Shiite Amal, that the only session they will allow to
be held is an open debate on the murder of the former prime minister
that produces the formation of a state inquiry commission.

3. This commission’s mandatory guideline must be to call General
Rostum Ghazallah as its first witness.

4. The mobilization of Lebanese expatriate communities in the United
States and Europe for synchronized street rallies to generate broad
international popular sympathy on the same lines as Ukraine’s Orange
Revolution.

5. Armenian Christians in Lebanon and Western countries will be asked
to join the struggle.

The campaign waged by this anti-Syrian coalition faces three major
challenges:

First, to keep a tight rein on the uprising so that it does not run out
of control and degenerate into a bloodbath and all-out civil strife.

Second, to divide the hitherto pro-Syrian Shiite community against
itself. If parliament speaker Berri can be won over to the opposition
side against the government, the Shiites will be split between Amal and
Hizballah. This will sunder the entire pro-Syrian front and seriously
shake the government.

DEBKAfile’s Lebanese sources report that most Karame cabinet ministers
have departed Beirut to avoid the sound and fury following the
assassination; the tourism minister has resigned. President Lahoud
has not so far uttered a word on the crisis, no doubt waiting for
his script to be written in Damascus.

Third, The opposition must prove it can get the masses out on the
streets for long, sustained rallies. Its failure to muster sizeable
popular backing would foredoom the intifada to failure. If the struggle
peters out, Syria will tighten its grip on Lebanon and go from strength
to strength, with adverse effect on America’s strategic position in
the region and a setback for Israel too.

With the old Levant under their jackboots, the Syrians will quickly
expand their role as main crossroads for international terrorists
moving back and forth among their targeted arenas – whether into Iraq
or over to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.