Russia agrees to hand control of tank workshop to Georgia

Kavkasia-Press news agency
24 Nov 04

Tbilisi, 24 November: Russia signed an agreement on the handover
of the Tbilisi armoured vehicle workshop to Georgia at the Defence
Ministry today. The agreement was signed by Georgian Deputy Chief of
General Staff Col Levan Nikoleishvili and the chief of staff of the
Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus, Col Andrey Popov.

The armoured vehicle workshop is located on Moscow Avenue in
Tbilisi. Until now only Russian and Armenian military equipment has
been repaired there.

After the agreement was signed Nikoleishvili said that the workshop
would be handed over by 30 January next year, until which time it
will be jointly guarded by Russian and Georgian personnel.

Andrey Popov said that the Russian side would take it upon itself
to pay salary arrears to workers, although the amount has not been
specified.

“The factory employees will retain their jobs,” Nikoleishvili said,
adding that their working conditions would improve after the handover.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian MP denies arson attack allegations

Mediamax news agency
23 Nov 04

Armenian businessman and MP Gagik Tsarukyan has denied any involvement
in an arson attack on a service car of the editor-in-chief of Yerevan’s
Aykakan Zhamanak newspaper, Armenian Mediamax news agency reported
on 23 November quoting Aykakan Zhamanak.

Editor-in-Chief Nikol Pashinyan’s service jeep exploded and burnt in
Yerevan in the evening of 22 November, Mediamax reported. The editor
accused Tsarukyan of ordering the attack and said that the reason
could be articles in his newspaper criticizing Tsarukyan’s activities.

In the meantime, Mediamax quoted the Armenian Police as reporting
that faults in the vehicle’s battery had caused the explosion.

In his denial to Aykakan Zhamanak, Gagik Tsarukyan urged the police
to investigate the incident.

Gagik Tsarukyan is the president of the Multi Group concern and
chairman of the Armenian National Olympic Committee.

Armenian media condemn attack on newspaper’s car

Noyan Tapan news agency
24 Nov 04

Yerevan, 23 November: “The lives of journalists in Armenia are in
danger,” the National Press Club said, referring to the explosion of
an office car of Aykakan Zhamanak newspaper.

In its statement, the National Press Club described the incident as
yet another act of terror against freedom of speech. If until now
“they have limited themselves to destroying journalists’ equipment and
beating them up with truncheons, now explosives are replacing this”,
the statement said.

The National Press Club expresses its solidarity with the staff
of Aykakan Zhamanak and urges the authorities to restore law and
order in Armenia, “otherwise, the wheel of terrorism will take an
unpredictable path”.

Azeri minister warns of humanitarian crisis in Armenian-occupied Karabakh

Turan news agency, Baku
24 Nov 04

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said that Baku is
concerned about a “massive” settlement programme carried out by Armenia
on Azerbaijan’s occupied lands while holding peace talks to resolve the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. Addressing a UN General Assembly session,
he warned of a humanitarian crisis that may arise if the problem
persisted. The minister also said that Azerbaijan did not intend
to put the issue of the conflict resolution onto the UN agenda. The
following is the text of the report by Azerbaijani news agency Turan:

New York, 24 November: “The situation in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan” has been discussed at the 59th session of the UN in New
York. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov addressed the
session. The minister noted that UN Security Council SC resolutions
Nos 822, 853, 874 and 884 issued in 1993 are the basis for resolving
the conflict, a source from Azerbaijan’s resident representation at
the UN told Turan.

Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan has been abiding by the cease-fire
for 10 years, which testifies to Baku’s aspiration to settle the
conflict peacefully. He also informed the audience of a series of
meetings between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia
in Prague mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group. During these meetings,
the parties discussed the main parameters of the settlement of the
conflict, including the liberation of all the occupied territories,
the return of displaced persons to their native lands, the restoration
of transport and other communications between Armenia and Azerbaijan
and the gradual solution of the political side of the conflict.

However, Armenia is massively populating the occupied territories
while negotiations are being held and this causes Azerbaijan’s
“concern”. Earlier, this used to be episodic, but Armenia has
recently organized a massive settlement programme. This programme is
being implemented by the department for refugees and migrants of the
Armenian government and is called “Return to Karabakh”. The programme
is financed with funds that Yerevan allocates to Karabakh separatists,
the Azerbaijani foreign minister said.

Causing special concern is the situation in Lacin District, where
Armenia has already settled 13,000 Armenians. The names of Azerbaijani
villages and settlements have been Armenified. The Armenian diaspora
is taking a direct part in this programme, which aims at populating
Nagornyy Karabakh with Armenian migrants.

The Armenian government is also using its armed forces located in the
occupied lands of Azerbaijan to set up new residential areas, and
two residential areas have been constructed in Kalbacar with their
participation. Hundreds of Armenians from Iran, Russia, Lebanon and
other countries are being settled there and get numerous privileges
from the Armenian government. In particular, they get material
assistance and long-term loans to restore the houses that were
originally owned by Azerbaijanis.

The Armenian government intends to bring the number of the Armenian
population in the occupied Azerbaijani territories to 300,000 by 2010.

Mammadyarov said these and other facts were reflected in the reports
by the US State Department and some foreign media. “The settlement
policy being pursued by Armenia contradicts the corresponding UN SC
resolutions, international humanitarian law and in particular the
Geneva Convention of 1949 and confirms Armenia’s claims to Azerbaijani
lands,” Mammadyarov said.

Azerbaijan introduced draft resolution A/59/L at the General Assembly,
the minister said. However, Azerbaijan doesn’t intend to put the issue
of the settlement onto the UN agenda. But if the issues disrupting
the peace process remain unsolved, it will lead to a humanitarian
crisis. Armenia should “deport” the Armenians that were settled in the
occupied territories and guarantee that this will never happen again,
the minister warned.

The representatives of Turkey and Pakistan supported Azerbaijan’s
position at the assembly. They said the settlement of the conflict
is possible only on the basis of observing sovereignty, territorial
integrity and international law.

Armenia’s representative Armen Martirosyan attempted to deny the
abovementioned facts. He said there is no need for the involvement
of the General Assembly in the issue. The Armenian diplomat also said
that Nagornyy Karabakh has never been and will never be a constituent
part of Azerbaijan. A US representative speaking on behalf of the
co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group said that Azerbaijan’s concern
may be addressed at the OSCE. He supported Azerbaijan’s proposal to
establish a group of experts to investigate these facts.

Stressing that the discussions of the text of the resolution continue,
the chairman of the session adjourned voting.

Commenting on the hearings, Mammadyarov stressed their importance. “It
is difficult to talk about results yet, but Azerbaijan has managed to
tell the international community the truth about Armenia populating
Azerbaijani territories. Azerbaijan’s position in this issue remains
unchanged: all the occupied territories should be liberated and
displaced persons should return to their native lands.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU official comments on financial assistance to Egypt, Palestinians

MENA news agency
24 Nov 04

Cairo, 24 November: Director of Resources and Information at the
Directorate of External Relations of the European Commission David
Lipman underlined the importance of media cooperation between the
European Union and the Euro-Mediterranean partnership countries.

At a press conference held at the EU commission premises in Cairo,
Lipman explained that the European Union has chosen Egypt to be among
other capitals in which the EU will celerabte the 10th anniversary of
Barclona process which embodies the birth of the Euro-Mediterranean
cooperation. He said a number of ministers from the European Union
and Egypt, besides businessmen and representatives of Egyptian and
European universities would take part in the celebrations.

Lipman said the EU has allocated 15bn euros for the Euro-Mediterranean
partners from the year 2007 to 2013 with the aim of boosting
cooperation programmes between the EU and the Euro-Med partners
in addition to backing the Euro-Mediterranean neighbourliness
policy. The countries to benefit from such sums – all Barcelona
process participants, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldovia, as well as
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – have to enjoy democratic practices
and observe human rights, according to Lipman.

He said the EU will determine the size of assistance to Egypt by the
end of the coming year. The EU official said the EU has earmarked
600m euros in grants to Egypt within the framework of agreements
signed between Egypt and the EU.

He said the EU would discuss with the Egyptian government implementing
a working plan in 2005 whereby Egypt’s needs would be assessed as part
of the 15bn euros set aside by the EU for the Euro-Med partnership
countries.

Lipman, who wrapped up on Wednesday 24 November a visit to Egypt, where
a forum of information officials of Euro-Mediterranean partnership
countries was held in Cairo, said the EU will focus in the coming
years on supporting the policy of good neighbourliness so as to
activate movement of commodities, capital and individuals among
Euro-Mediterranean partners.

Responding to a question on EU help to the Palestinian National
Authority, Lipman noted that the EU was the biggest donating party
to the PA both financially and politically. He said the EU gives the
PA approximately 200m euros annually, and is ready to cooperate with
the Authority if head of the PLO Executive Committee Mahmud Abbas
succeeds deceased Palestinian President Yasir Arafat.

As regards projects being financed by the EU in Egypt, Lipman said the
EU is closely monitoring work in such projects and how the Egyptian
people get the maximum benefit from them. He explained that the EU aid
programmes were mainly trageting the fields of education and health.

The European Commission has presented the Ministry of Education in
Egypt with 10,000 computers, the official said, asserting that the EU
aimed to place Egypt atop its list of priorities to render successful
the political, economic and administrative reform plans in the country.

Azerbaijan-proposed draft UN resolution on Karabakh – full text

ANS TV, Baku
24 Nov 04

Presenter Here is the full text of a draft resolution submitted by
Baku to the 59th session of the UN General Assembly.

Correspondent, over archive footage of the UN The draft resolution
entitled “The situation on Azerbaijan’s occupied territories” reads:

Based on the UN goals, principles and terms;

confirming the principle of respect for any state’s sovereignty and
territorial integrity, security of internationally-recognized borders;

preventing the use of force for seizing territories and confirming
international humanitarian law and principles, especially the 1949
Geneva Convention and protocols amended to it;

confirming international human rights standards;

referring to the Security Council’s resolutions Nos 822, 853, 874 and
884, as well as referring to resolution No 48/114 entitled “Emergency
international aid to refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan”;

expressing serious concern about the continuation of the occupation
of Azerbaijani territories, the current situation on Azerbaijan’s
occupied territories and its negative impact on attempts to reach
peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan;

being seriously concerned about reports on resettlement on Azerbaijan’s
occupied territories whereas the entire local population has been
evicted from there;

emphasizing that the moves of this type, as well as misappropriation
of lands and property, other illegal moves on Azerbaijan’s occupied
territories, is in violation of international human rights, especially
the Geneva Convention on protection of civilian population during
the war dated 12 August 1949;

advising the OSCE Minsk Group to boost efforts to find a speedy and
lasting settlement to the conflict in the Azerbaijani Republic’s
Nagornyy Karabakh region;

and welcoming the efforts by the Council of Europe, the EU and the
Organization of the Islamic Conference in this direction, the General
Assembly:

1. once again announces its unchangeable support to the Azerbaijani
Republic’s sovereignty and territorial integrity;

2. strongly calls on the conflicting parties to make efforts for the
peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Azerbaijani Republic’s
Nagornyy Karabakh region and around it within international norms
and legal principles;

3. confirms the right of refugees and displaced persons from the
conflict area to voluntarily return to native lands on decent terms
with the help of the international community;

4. strongly calls on the conflicting parties to seriously observe
and respect international human rights norms;

5. notes inadmissibility of accepting the legality of any moves to
formalize neither the current situation nor the status quo occupation
of Azerbaijan’s territories;

6. emphasizes that resettlement or similar moves on the occupied
territories are illegal and in violation of international law,
especially international human rights, and stresses the importance
of immediately putting an end to all these actions and restoring the
status quo;

7. proposes that the OSCE urgently send a multinational fact-finding
mission consisting of relevant experts from the member countries
to conduct an investigation and submit a report on all aspects of
the situation on Azerbaijan’s occupied territories and asks for the
necessary help in this from the secretary-general, if needed;

8. asks the secretary-general to submit a detailed report on the
fulfilment of this resolution at the General Assembly’s 60th session;

9. makes a decision to include the issue of the situation on
Azerbaijan’s occupied territories on the agenda of the 60th session.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Former Soviet republics’ relationships with their former master

The Associated Press
November 24, 2004, Wednesday, BC cycle

A breakdown of which former Soviet republics enjoy generally warm
official ties with Russia and which have a chillier relationship:

WARM TIES: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine.

CHILLIER: Georgia, Azerbaijan.

CHANGEABLE: Uzbekistan.

Azeri Foreign Ministry to protest population census in Karabakh

Bilik Dunyasi news agency
24 Nov 04

Baku, 24 November: The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry intends to protest
the decision of the government in the so-called Nagornyy Karabakh
Republic NKR to conduct a census of the population there in 2005. The
census should not be held until the Karabakh conflict is resolved,
the Azerbaijani side believes.

The national statistics service of the “NKR” says that 146,592 people
lived in Nagornyy Karabakh as of 1 October 2004. However, specialists
from the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee believe that the
Armenian side distorted the figures for political and economic reasons.

According to the latest census of the population in the “NKR”,
120,000 people lived in Karabakh in 1999. Therefore, the Azerbaijani
statistics committee thinks it is unlikely that almost 27,000 people
have volunteered to move to this conflict zone over the past five
years. It is more likely that the figures are inaccurate, statistics
experts say.

Passage omitted: repetition

Armenian opposition MP lambastes 2005 draft budget

Noyan Tapan news agency
24 Nov 04

Yerevan, 24 November: The opposition Justice faction of the National
Assembly views the 2005 draft budget as unacceptable, a member of the
faction, Tatul Manaseryan, said at a parliament session on 23 November.

Manaseryan said that the submission of the draft budget to
the parliament, discussions on it and putting it to vote in the
future would be of a purely formal character, as the MPs could not
familiarizing themselves with the draft within a short period. It is
unacceptable that the budget has been declared to be socially-oriented,
he said. A significant portion of the social sphere is funded on
credit – at the expense of deficit which is now fully covered by
foreign sources. It means that there is already absolute dependence
on foreign sources in place.

Foreign loans amounted to 80m dollars in 2004 and in 2005 they are
expected to total 100m dollars, which will exceed the planned budget
deficit. The MP said that there are other ways to develop the economy,
such as levying fair and equal taxes and financing social and other
targeted programmes with the taxes.

Fighting shadow economy is still a major problem while tax revenue in
the state budget tends to decrease, Manaseryan said. Besides officially
registered unemployment, there is also shadow employment which is not
subjected to taxes. Although information technologies are declared
to be a priority sphere in the country, science and industries are
underfunded as previously.

Manaseryan said he has serious doubts about the 8-per-cent economic
growth forecast for 2005, while the volumes of both export and
import are growing, the state debt (1.28bn dollars) is growing,
agricultural production which makes up one-forth of GDP, or 1-2
per cent, is rising at a higher pace, whereas the state of small
and medium-sized businesses, which account for 38 per cent of GDP,
is getting worse by the day.

YOUTH MARCHING TO TSITSERNAKABERD

Azg/arm
25 Nov 04

More than 3 thousand young people marched to Tsitsernakaberd
(memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide) yesterday marking
the launch of the lawsuit on murder of Armenian officer Gurgen
Margarian. Organizers of the march consider Gurgen Margarian a victim
of genocide and thatâ~@~Ys why they made their way to Tsitsernakaberd.

“The process of the trial should leave no Armenian
indifferent. Armenian officer became a victim of an unprecedented
slaughter only because of his nationality. Axe of the villain
instructed in Turkey was directed against every Armenian, against the
historic justice. Despite admitting all the meanness of the heinous
crime, Azerbaijan tries to justify the criminal”, an appeal of Gurgen
Margarian NGO reads.

President of the Writersâ~@~Y Union of Armenia Levon Ananian
underscored the importance of the program carried out by the youth:
“We are in a kind of a slumber today. Diplomacy does not respond
accordingly, society seems to be indifferent. But the march showed
that the youth understands that it is the bearer of national ideology
and national issues”. Levon Ananian also noted that the Genocide
of 1915 did not get an appropriate response ninety years ago and
today we try to draw worldâ~@~Ys attention to that fact. Today when
another act of vandalism was carried out in the center of Europe,
we have no right to waste time. “Time passes by but the Turksâ~@~Y
essence does not change, deep inside they are still vandals, cynics
and swindlers. Azerbaijan takes steps to protect the criminal. We
see here the same handwriting of Ottoman Turks”, Ananian said.

The multitude was composed mainly of students of Yerevanâ~@~Ys
universities. On their way to Tsitsernakaberd students stopped before
the embassies of Great Britain and the USA.

BY Tamar Minasian

–Boundary_(ID_eLm8posuW53dp1UA9p89Jw)–