Annan asks UN members for Holocaust commemoration

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13 (Reuters) – Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
begun to poll U.N. General Assembly members in an effort to convene a
special session to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi
concentration camps, U.N. officials said on Monday.

Soviet Red Army troops freed the Auschwitz concentration camp in
Poland on Jan. 27, 1945. The 60th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz is to be observed in 2005 as Holocaust Memorial Day.

“The secretary-general feels this would be an important event and
awaits the responses,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

A majority of the 191-member assembly will have to approve the January
session, requested by the United States and supported by Russia,
France, Hungary, Canada and the Netherlands, representing the
25-member European Union as well as other nations.

U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, in a Dec. 10 letter to Annan, said the
General Assembly should convene three days before the anniversary to
avoid conflicting commemorations in Auschwitz.

U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat, visiting Annan on
Monday, said Arab nations had raised objections. However, Yahya
Mahmassani, the Arab League’s U.N. ambassador, told Reuters he was
unaware of any opposition.

“I am appalled by what I understand is the opposition of some (Arab)
countries to this session, which reflects a degree of a historical and
mindless venom which is difficult to justify in the international
arena,” Lantos told reporters, without naming any nation.

The secretary-general said he was determined to do everything in his
power to proceed with such a session,” he added.

“I feel very deeply and strongly about the importance of a special
session,” said Lantos, the only holocaust survivor in the
U.S. Congress.

Lantos survived by serving as a 15-year old messenger for Raoul
Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of
Hungarian Jews from Nazi destruction near the end of World War
II. Wallenberg is the uncle of Nane Annan, the wife of the
secretary-general.

Six million Jews were exterminated in the concentration camps and
millions of others — including Poles, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners
and Gypsies — were killed, imprisoned or used as slave labor.

A session on the Holocaust would mark a change for the General
Assembly, which sets aside several days a year for resolutions on the
rights of Palestinians and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.

12/13/04 21:52 ET

Azeri leader calls for international involvement in Karabakh resolution

MPA news agency, Baku
14 Dec 04

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has urged international
organizations to get involved in the resolution of the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict, MPA news agency reported on Tuesday 14 December.

Speaking at a meeting in Chatham House in London on 13 December, the
president said: “We have mediators in the persons of the OSCE and its
Minsk Group. However, this is not enough. Other international
organizations – the European Union, the Council of Europe and the UN –
can and should play a more active role.”

The agency quoted Ilham Aliyev as saying that the issue should be put
on the “permanent” agenda of international organizations as this will
help establish peace in the region.

The agency added that the president called for “a unified approach” to
ethnic conflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Dniestr and Nagornyy
Karabakh since all these conflicts are very similar.

The Messenger, Georgia
Dec 14 2004

Mines in Upland Karabakh kill ten this year

The HALO Trust, a British humanitarian organization, reports that 31
people, including three children, were injured by antipersonnel and
anti-tank mines this year in Upland Karabakh. Of these, ten people,
including one child, died as a result of their injuries.
The Trust told news agency Mediamax that the accidents were a result
of the activization of agricultural works and non-observance of
safety rules, Prime News reports. It states that it intends to expand
its project to inform the population about the danger of mines, and
notes that there have been fewer accidents involving children since
the NGO began working to inform school children of the danger
eighteen months ago.

Agence France Presse — English
December 14, 2004 Tuesday 6:18 PM GMT

Britain’s Straw meets Azerbaijani president

LONDON

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev Tuesday in the Central Asian leader’s first official visit to
Britain since taking office last year.

Straw said the two discussed oil, the major industry for
petroleum-rich Azerbaijan, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
project intended to provide a major export route for oil from the
Caspian region.

“We fully support Azerbaijan’s commitment to political and economic
reform and to deepening relations with the European Union,” Straw
said, adding that Britain would continue to urge the state to make
greater democratic and human rights reforms.

Aliyev took over from his father Heidar, a former KGB general who
ruled the former Soviet republic with an iron fist for more than
three decades.

After the elder Aliyev died from heart failure in December at the age
of 80, his son, a former oil company executive, succeeded him,
creating the first family dynasty in the post-Soviet Union.

Straw said he had thanked Aliyev for Azerbaijan’s contribution of
soldiers to the US-led multinational force in Iraq, and to forces in
Afghanistan and Kosovo.

Azerbaijan is the only majority Muslim country to send combat troops
to help the US-led coalition in Iraq. But as in Iraq, the majority of
Azerbaijan’s eight million people are Shiite Muslims.

“I assured President Aliyev of our support for efforts to find a
peaceful, lasting settlement to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh,”
Straw said, referring to the disputed territory now under control of
neighboring Armenia.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
December 14, 2004, Tuesday
15:06:27 Central European Time

E.U. Parliament to vote on Turkish entry ahead of summit decision

Brussels

The European Parliament will vote Wednesday on Turkey’s bid to join
the European Union, setting the scene for the bloc’s expected
decision December 16-17 to fix a date for opening entry talks with
Ankara.

Parliamentary sources said a majority of the assembly’s 732 lawmakers
were likely to vote for an early opening of membership negotiations
with Turkey.

Members of the parliament’s conservative European People’s Party are
split on the issue, with group leader Hans-Gert Poettering urging
E.U. leaders to offer Ankara a privileged partnership rather than
full membership but other group members favouring the launch of
accession talks.

Poettering’s stance reflects the tough position of the conservative
opposition in Germany.

However, socialist deputies, representing the second largest group in
the assembly, want to open talks with Turkey, a line also espoused by
most members of the Liberal Democrat and green groups.

The parliament’s vote is not binding on E.U. governments. But “it is
clearly a signal to the E.U. summit,” said a parliamentary official.

Euro deputies will be voting on a report on Turkey drawn up by Camiel
Eurlings, a conservative Dutch member of the Parliament who has
lauded Ankara’s efforts at reform.

In discussions on Turkey, pro-membership lawmakers have underlined
that Islam must not be an issue. Ankara’s espousal of European values
as part of its drive to join the Union would prove that “Islam and
democracy are not incompatible,” said socialist group leader Martin
Shulz.

Banging the door in Ankara’s face may stall the country’s impressive
reform effort, Shulz warned.

With only two days to go before their summit talks, E.U. governments
are still split on how best to deal with Turkey.

Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy are striving to ensure the final
summit statement does not mention French, Danish and Austrian demands
that Ankara should be offered the fallback option of a “special
relationship” if membership talks fail.

Pro-Turkey leaders are also expected to resist any reference in the
final text suggesting that “long transition periods, derogations,
specific arrangements or permanent safeguard clauses” may be
considered.

Diplomats said Turkey would also be asked to recognise (Greek) Cyprus
but said this could be done through Ankara’s extension of its current
customs union arrangement with the E.U. to all ten new members which
joined the bloc in May this year.

France has said it wants Turkey to recognise the killing of Armenians
between 1915 and 1923 as genocide. But Paris has said this is not a
precondition for opening talks and could be done after negotiations
begin. dpa si sc

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
December 14, 2004

Gazprom to bid in tender to build gas pipe from Iran to Armenia

YEREVAN, Dec 14 (Prime-Tass) — ArmRosgazprom, in which Russian
natural gas monopoly Gazprom and the Armenian government each hold
45% stakes, is to bid in a tender for a contract to build a gas
pipeline linking Iran with Armenia, Karen Karapetyan, an executive
director of ArmRosgazprom, told ITAR-TASS Tuesday.

The tender will be announced soon, he added.

Russian independent gas producer Itera holds a 10% stake in
ArmRosgazprom.

Karapetyan denied reports that the pipeline could be used for the
transit of Iranian natural gas to Europe, adding that this would
require a pipeline with a larger diameter and throughput capacity,
which would require considerable investment.

The 40-kilometer stretch of the pipeline that is to cross Armenia’s
territory will be built using a U.S. USD 30 million loan from Iran, a
press officer withthe Armenian government told ITAR-TASS. The
relevant agreement was signed during Iran’s President Mohammad
Khatami to Yerevan in September, thepress officersaid.

Construction of the pipeline is to start at both the Armenian and
Iranian ends simultaneously, with a 100-kilometer stretch of pipeline
to run across the territory of Iran to the border with Armenia. The
construction should be completed by January 2007. Armenia plans to
pay for Iran’s natural gas exports in kind, with electric power
supplies, the press officer said. End

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
December 14, 2004 Tuesday

Russian Duma speaker in Armenia for talks

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Speaker of the Russian State Duma lower house of parliament Boris
Gryzlov arrived Tuesday in the Armenian capital on a three-day
official visit.

On Wednesday, he will meet with President Robert Kocharyan and Prime
Minister Andranik Margaryan. A meeting with the leadership of the
National Assembly (parliament) is also on the schedule of the Duma
speaker.

The talks will center on bilateral ties and cooperation between
parliamentarians of the two countries.

“Of course in our talks we will not deprive of our attention the
situation in Ukraine on the eve of the next round of presidential
elections,” Gryzlov said.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
December 14, 2004 Tuesday

Duma speaker to discuss CIS strengthening in Yerevan

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

“The CIS strengthening and cooperation among the CIS states” will be
prioritized at the talks of State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov in the
Armenian capital. He made the statement upon arrival in Yerevan on
Tuesday evening. Gryzlov pays a three-day official visit in Yerevan
at the invitation of the leadership of Armenian parliament.

“We should discuss interparliamentary cooperation,” Duma speaker
emphasized. He recalled that the committee on interparliamentary
cooperation between the Russian Federal Assembly and the Armenian
National Assembly worked in Moscow early in December. “We will
consider our further ties in elaboration of the then signed
agreement,” he pointed out.

Gryzlov will also discuss trade and economic cooperation at a meting
with the Armenian leadership.

“At our talks we will also pay attention to the situation in Ukraine,
the current situation on the eve of another round of the election,”
the Duma speaker remarked. “I think we have topics to talk about” the
situation in Ukraine, Gryzlov indicated.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
December 14, 2004, Tuesday
09:44:00 Central European Time

French not to press Turkey on admitting Armenian genocide

Paris

Turkish acknowledgment of genocide against the Armenian people during
World War I will not be a prerequisite for starting negotiations for
Ankara’s admission in the European Union, French Foreign Minister
Michel Barnier said Tuesday.

“This is not a condition posed by France, especially not a condition
for opening negotiations (with the E.U.),” Barnier told France 2
television. “Legally, this would not be possible.”

France’s sizeable Armenian community has been pressuring the French
government to force Ankara into acknowledging its responsibility in
the deaths of more than 1 million Armenians between 1915 and 1917,
which Turkey has steadfastly refused to do.

However, Barnier said this “is a question, a question we will ask
during the negotiations, and we have a dozen years to ask it”.

El Mundo, Espana
14 Dic, 2004

Francia exige a Turquia mas condiciones para entrar en la UE.
Paris solicita que las negociaciones para la adhesion empiecen a
finales de 2005 o en 2006.

ELENA ALJARILLA. Especial para EL MUNDO

UE. Ampliacion. Francia exige a Turquia mas condiciones para entrar

BRUSELAS.- A solo tres dias de la cumbre europea en la que los
Veinticinco tienen que decidir si abren o no las negociaciones de
adhesion con Turquia, Francia esta apretando las tuercas a Ankara y
ha puesto sobre la mesa nuevas condiciones como la admision del
genocidio armenio ocurrido a principios del siglo pasado, o el
reconocimiento de la Republica de Chipre. Ademas, pide que las
negociaciones no empiecen hasta finales del ano proximo o principios
de 2006.

“Pienso que, en un momento dado, Turquia debera hacer ese ejercicio
de memoria y de reconciliacion con su propia Historia y reconocer
esta tragedia que a principios de siglo afecto a varios centenares de
miles de armenios”, aseguraba el ministro frances de Asuntos
Exteriores, Michel Barnier, en referencia al exterminio por parte de
las autoridades turcas, entre los anos 1915 y 1923, de un millon y
medio de personas en Armenia. “Esta cuestion” anadio, “sera reclamada
por Francia en su momento”.

De hecho, el ministro galo de Exteriores, recordo que una de las
condiciones que se le pide a Turquia es que asegure buenas relaciones
con sus vecinos y lo ilustraba con el ejemplo de los paises
fundadores: “Desde hace 50 anos el proyecto europeo esta fundamentado
sobre una idea de reconciliacion entre nosotros, y Francia y Alemania
fundaron este proyecto sobre esa idea de reconciliacion”.

Ademas, Francia, cuya opinion publica se muestra mayoritariamente
contraria a la entrada de Turquia en la UE, quiere que las
negociaciones no se inicien hasta el segundo semestre de 2005, o
incluso principios de 2006, y ha recordado que, en cualquier caso, el
ingreso del gigante turco sera decidido en referendum en su pais.

“Hemos elegido que, una vez llegado el momento, si se alcanza de aqui
a 15 anos un tratado de adhesion (con Turquia) como es nuestro deseo,
sea el pueblo frances el que tenga la ultima palabra”, explicaba
Michel Barnier en rueda de prensa, e insistia en que la apertura de
las negociaciones de adhesion no significa el ingreso automatico de
Turquia porque “los resultados no estan garantizados”.

De hecho, es la primera vez que se reconoce que unas negociaciones
para entrar en la Union Europea pueden no culminar con el objetivo
buscado.

Una clausula especial

Ademas, se ha incluido una clausula sin precedentes que permite
suspender las negociaciones en el caso de que Turquia renuncie a
seguir adelante con el proceso de reforma iniciado con el actual
Gobierno.

Segun esta clausula, las negociaciones podran “suspenderse” si se
constata “una ruptura grave y persistente de los principios de
libertad, democracia, respeto a los Derechos Humanos, libertades
fundamentales o Estado de Derecho” en Turquia.

Ahora la decision esta en manos del Consejo Europeo que se celebrara
en Bruselas los dias 16 y 17 de este mes. Aunque no todos los paises
presentan tantos recelos, Francia no esta sola en esta batalla
dialectica en la que todos intentan mantener el mensaje de esperanza
a Ankara. Junto a los franceses estan alemanes, chipriotas, griegos,
austriacos y holandeses principalmente, aunque hay otros paises que
se oponen con matices.

Espana, por su parte, es uno de los paises que mas abiertamente han
apoyado la adhesion turca en la Union Europea. Asi lo defendio ayer
el ministro espanol de Asuntos Exteriores, Miguel Angel Moratinos,
quien aseguraba que la postura de Espana es que las negociaciones con
Turquia “tengan un solo objetivo: la adhesion a la Union Europea”.

De hecho, Moratinos, se mostraba mucho mas optimista que su homologo
frances y al termino del Consejo de Asuntos Exteriores aseguraba que
“se habia avanzado mucho”, aunque reconocia que ahora “queda lo mas
complicado que es fijar la fecha de inicio de negociaciones”.