Estonia’s UN envoy to become new Defense Minister

AP Worldstream
Nov 12, 2004

Estonia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Jaak Joeruut, is set to
become the country’s defense minister, the Reform Party said Friday.

Joeruut, 56, a career diplomat, will take over from Margus Hanson
pending approval of his nomination by President Arnold Ruutel who
will return to the country next week from a state visit to Armenia.

Party spokesmen said the approval was a formality because under a
deal between the coalition government parties, the Defense Ministry
portfolio belongs to the Reform Party.

Hanson said he would resign earlier this week after Estonian security
police began an investigation into theft of his briefcase from his
home while he slept.

The content of the stolen documents wasn’t revealed, but Estonia
recently joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and has 45
troops in Iraq. As a basic principle, the most classified defense
ministry papers can only be taken out of the ministry under the
protection of an armed guard.

Under Estonian law, the punishment for unintentional negligence in
handling state secrets ranges from minor charges to a year in prison
in more severe cases. The intentional negligence of state secrets
could result in a sentence of five years in prison.

Foreign ministers of CIS security organization start meeting in Moscow

ITAR-TASS news agency
12 Nov 04

Moscow. 12 November: Countering international terrorism will be the
central issue at the meeting of foreign ministers of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization [CSTO], which began in Moscow today. The
organization comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan.

According to Aleksandr Yakovenko, official spokesman of the Russian
Foreign Minister, “this issue, along with fight against extremism,
the illegal circulation of narcotics, illegal migration and organized
crime is becoming increasingly prominent in the CSTO.”

“The organization is open to cooperation and interaction with the UN
and other international organizations, including NATO,” the diplomat
noted. “Proposals for building dialogue and cooperation are being
considered by the leadership of the alliance.” Yakovenko thinks that a
no less important direction of work is “creating a single information
field, which should facilitate the effective functioning of the system
of collective security”. “The first step,” he noted, “was the holding
of the International Antiterrorist Media Forum in April”.

“The unanimous approval of a draft resolution on giving the
organization the status of an observer at the UN General Assembly,”
the diplomat stressed, “attests to the growing prestige of the CSTO”.

Azeri pressure group warns rights activists against “serving” Armenians

Azadliq, Baku
12 Nov 04

Text of unattributed report by Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq on
12 November headlined “The KLO blames human rights activists for
serving Armenians”

The Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) has started fighting
numerous human rights organizations. KLO chairman Akif Nagi has
accused some human rights organizations, including the head of the
[Azerbaijani] National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly,
Arzu Abdullayeva, of serving the Armenians and has issued a final
warning to them.

“Abdullayeva, who is carrying out Armenians’ political task in
Azerbaijan, should leave the country. From now on, she is responsible
for any unpleasant incident that happens to her. There are people
who assist her in this issue. Arzu Abdullayeva, Zardust Alizada,
Eldar Zeynalov and Avaz Hasanov are dealing a blow to the country’s
interests in order to get grants.”

Nagi said that they had sent letters to these human rights activists,
demanding that they stop their activities.

“The KLO will take more radical steps if they do not satisfy our
demand. We will make their life and work unbearable.”

Arzu Abdullayeva said that she will not fulfil the KLO’s demands. As
far as her departure from the country is concerned, she said that
she had done nothing wrong to be expelled from the country by Nagi.

[In Tbilisi, Azerbaijani, Georgian and Armenian human rights activists
reached an agreement to set up a consortium of NGOs aimed at restoring
peace in the South Caucasus; Abdullayeva is a member of the group
of South Caucasus human rights activists who plan to organize peace
classes for Karabakh war victims.]

MP says US military presence could facilitate solution to Azerbaijan’s
problems

Zerkalo, Baku
11 Nov 04

An Azerbaijani MP has blamed Russia for instability in the South
Caucasus and said it was time to ask other countries for help
in bringing back peace to the region. In his comments to Zerkalo
newspaper, Alimammad Nuriyev said he was “genuinely” interested in the
stationing of US military bases in Azerbaijan which, he said, could
facilitate a solution to some of Azerbaijan’s domestic problems. The
following is an excerpt from report by C. Sumarinli and C. Bayramova
in the Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo on 11 November headlined
“NATO forces could be stationed in Fuzuli District” and sub-headed
“Russian media claim that the USA pushes Azerbaijan into an abysm of
chaos”. Subheadings have been inserted editorially.

Russia’s concerns

In an effort to thwart Russia’s initiative of building the strategic
Moscow-Yerevan-Tehran vector, the USA and Turkey are cherishing some
kind of a plan. Namely, as [Russian] Gazeta SNG reports, the two
countries, without the unnecessary hue and cry, intend to launch a
programme of assistance to the Azerbaijani Armed Forces similar to
the Train and Equip programme apparently finishing in Georgia.

“Back in July 2002, the information came in that soon after the arrival
of several hundred US commandos in Georgia, about 40 US servicemen
came to Azerbaijan, apparently for training purposes as well. It is
hard to say how many US servicemen there are in Azerbaijan now,” says
the author of the article and adds that these countries have chosen
the zone of the Karabakh conflict (Fuzuli District) to implement
their training programmes.

The author says that it is not at all necessary to be in an immediate
vicinity of the contact line to provide training – there are also
firing ranges in the rear which have been generously scattered on the
entire territory of Azerbaijan ever since the Soviet times. However,
the article contains a pointed hint that the USA is interested in
destabilizing the situation in the region. “The lessons the US military
taught to Georgian servicemen are manifesting themselves. The central
role in instability in Abkhazia and South Ossetia is played by the
very Georgian commandos trained by the Americans. If the USA manages
to break the `Russian chain’ in the Caucasus and, following Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, destabilize the zone of the Karabakh conflict, a
`US-controlled chaos’ will be in store for the region.”

“Azerbaijan’s priority – integration into Euro-Atlantic area”

The head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry,
Ramiz Malikov, says he has no information about the training of our
servicemen by that of the USA. He described the reports as being wide
of the mark.

Contrary to this, a member of the standing parliamentary commission
on defence and security, Alimammad Nuriyev, says: “It sounds quite
realistic that US servicemen may train ours. And I can’t rule out
that this may be so in the near future. The concern of the Russian
side over the possible stationing of the US forces in Azerbaijan is
understandable. However, we shouldn’t forget that cooperation between
the USA and Azerbaijan, which are allies, may develop in different
spheres. While up until now this cooperation mainly centred on the
political and economic fields, now these relations may expand in the
military sphere as well,” Nuriyev said.

In principle, Azerbaijan should treat quite normally the possible
stationing of US mobile forces and the establishment of training
centres on its territory, at least because our country is part of the
antiterror coalition. At the same time, the MP said that Azerbaijan’s
priority is integration into the Euro-Atlantic security system. This
implies that the process of army building in Azerbaijan must be in
line with the NATO standards. And this necessitates the opening of
such training centres.

The MP added that “it wasn’t by chance that during his recent visit
to Baku NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer assigned the
`homework’ of ensuring the involvement of US top brass in the training
of Azerbaijani servicemen”.

Time to ask for help in restoring stability in South Caucasus

At the same time, Nuriyev said that the opening of the US training
centres on the territory of Azerbaijan can to some degree facilitate
the solution to the country’s problems. “This first of all holds true
for the Karabakh problem. Our commandos trained by the US servicemen
may play a major role in liberating our occupied territories,”
he said. The MP welcomed the idea of a US military presence in
Azerbaijan. “While I do not have credible information about the
presence of US military bases here, I would genuinely like that to
happen. Why don’t we use the NATO security systems for our integration
into the Euro-Atlantic area when the Qabala radar station being used
by Russia can easily operate in our country?”

At the same time, the MP does not believe that the American presence
in the region can destabilize the situation. “Instability has been
an inherent part of this region since 1990 and this is `thanks’ to
an active involvement of the Russian armed forces and their support
for the Armenian side. It is common knowledge that Russia could have
turned the South Caucasus into a stable region. But it chose not
to. Therefore, to stabilize the situation it is necessary to resort
to the assistance of other countries,” the MP said.

[Passage omitted: opinion of an independent expert]

NKR PRESIDENT LEFT FOR USA

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
12 Nov 04

On November 11 the president of the Republic of Nagorni Karabakh left
for the United States of America. He will participate in the November
25 telethon to be held in the USA to raise money for the construction
of the road “North – South” which has a strategic role for NKR. Within
the framework of the preparation works for the telethon the president
will meet with the representatives of the business, political, public
and religious circles of the Armenian community of the USA.

AA. 12-11-2004

NIKOLAY BAGHDASSARIAN

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
12 Nov 04

In the past several years the Armenians of Artsakh had considerable
progress in the economy of the country, in particular development
of certain infrastructures, creation of jobs, certain growth of the
quality of life of the population. On November 9 the 14 km section
of the road connecting the villages of Saroushen and Karmir Shuka
was opened. At the ceremony of opening were present NKR president
Arkady Ghukassian, president of the Republic of Armenia Robert
Kocharian, prime minister Anoushavan Danielian, defence minister of
Armenia Serge Sarghissian, members of parliament of NKR, members of
the NKR government, representatives of the pan-Armenian foundation
“Hayastan”. The total cost of building works implemented by the chief
contractor of the construction of the section Saroushen – Karmir Shuka
“Karavan” Ltd. was 849 million drams. The head of the company Hakob
Hakobian said the specialists of the pan-Armenian foundation “Hayastan”
and the institute of engineering tested the road for quality.

AA.
12-11-2004

Russia’s Gazprom Plans to Switch Attention From Iran to Armenia, Georgia

MOSNEWS, Russia
Nov 12 2004

MosNews

Russia’s natural gas monopoly has cancelled plans to take part in a
tender to construct facilities at the Iranian South Pars field, the
Itar-Tass news agency reports. The agency quoted Sergey Kuznets, an
official from Gazprom’s legal department, as saying that the company
“held preliminary talks and looked at the project’s economics and
decided not to send a binding application to take part in the tender”.

However, Kuznets said that Gazprom was interested in Armenian energy
projects. Gazprom is looking at the possibility of taking part in
the construction of a gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia and in the
privatization of Georgian pipelines linking Russia and Armenia.

Kuznets said that if privatization conditions in Georgia suit Gazprom,
the company will consider participation in the privatization of a
main gas pipeline and gas distribution organization as promising. For
Gazprom “this is important as these gas pipelines link Russia to
Armenia”.

Armenian Speaker to attend Arafat’s funeral

Mediamax news agency
12 Nov 04

Yerevan, 12 November: The Armenian delegation headed by Armenian
Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan will leave for Cairo today to bid farewell
to the leader of the Palestinian Autonomy, Yasir Arafat.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Ruben Shugaryan will also be included
in the delegation, Mediamax reports.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian PM surprised with dropping 1999 parliamentary shooting case

Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
11 Nov 04

Interview with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan.

[Correspondent] Mr Prime Minister, what is your assessment of a
decision by the board of the Armenian Prosecutor-General’s’ Office
to drop an investigation into the selected part of the 27 October
case [on possible organizers of the terrorist act in the Armenian
parliament in 1999]?

[Markaryan] I have learned about this decision from the press and it
surprised me. The board of the Prosecutor-General’s office does not
discuss its decisions with the government. From legal point of view,
they themselves decide whether there are grounds to drop the cases or
not. For this reason, I cannot give the juridical assessment because
I do not have information they have. Only if the Prosecutor-General’s
Office makes this information public, I can say if there are grounds to
drop the case or not. As for my doubts, they have not been dispelled.

[Correspondent] A resignation of the chief of the National Security
Service has become a surprise for many people. Are you aware of the
true reason of his resignation?

[Markaryan] The chief of the National Security Service has tendered
his resignation and the president of the republic has considered and
endorsed it. But Mr General [Karlos Petrosyan] has not told me the
reason of his resignation.

[Correspondent] According to rumours, a reshuffle is expected in some
structures of the government by the end of this week.

[Markaryan] The government never reports reshuffles in advance.

[Correspondent] At the press conference after its supreme body’s
meeting, [ARFD – Armenian Revolutionary Federation] Dashnaktsutyun has
said that the priority issues stipulated in the [ruling] coalition’s
memorandum have not been fulfilled, and if the coalition fails to
fulfil them, the party will leave the coalition.

[Markaryan] I will try to clarify from my Dashnak colleagues what
exactly the coalition government has not fulfilled as the government
consists of not only the Republican Party. It is the first time that
I hear from the ARFD that the priority issues stipulated in the
memorandum have not been fulfilled. The main priority issues have
been fulfilled.

[Correspondent] The ARFD regards as a breach of the memorandum the
fact that the Electoral Code has not been amended in favour of the
proportional representation system.

[Markaryan] As a whole, I do not accept ultimatum suggestions. The
problem raised by them should be resolved jointly, and they should
not present it in the form of an ultimatum.

[Passage omitted: details of disagreements]

[Correspondent] Mr Prime Minister, what can you say about the night
tender conducted by the government commission as a result of which
K-Telekom [subsidiary of Karabakh telecom company] has been recognized
as the second operator of the mobile communications in Armenia?

[Markaryan] The government has not breached any law, everything was
held within the framework of the law because the government has the
right to conduct this type of competition in the urgent situation.

[Passage omitted: Markaryan shied away from commenting on bribery
accusations]

Cooperation with NATO “key component” of Armenian national security

Azg, Yerevan
11 Nov 04

NATO membership is not on Armenia’s agenda at present, although
cooperation with the alliance remains a key component of national
security, Samvel Lazarian, Armenia’s ambassador to NATO, has said. He
told Armenian newspaper Azg that Armenia is planning to complete a
draft of its Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO by the end
of the year. He said that Armenia and NATO at present cooperate on
monitoring emergencies, researching river pollution and the Virtual
Silk Road project, which will improve Internet access for Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia. The following is the text of Tatul Akopyan’s
interview with Samvel Lazarian in Azg on 11 November headlined
“Our cooperation with NATO a key component of national security”;
subheadings inserted editorially:

An interview with the Armenian ambassador to NATO, Samvel Lazarian.

After his meeting with President Robert Kocharyan NATO
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer referred to Armenia-NATO
cooperation within an Individual Partnership Action Plan [IPAP]. What
kind of plan is this? And how far have Yerevan-Brussels relations
gone? The Armenian ambassador to NATO, Samvel Lazarian, answers
these questions in an interview to Azg daily.

Armenian to complete IPAP draft by end of year

[Azg correspondent] Cooperation with international structures generally
starts with applying what is called the “blanket approach” principle,
when an institution carries out a similar policy for all the states of
a region. At a certain stage of cooperation the institution needs to
specify the framework and content of cooperation. Certainly, not all
countries agree on the terms and demands of some programmes. And NATO
has collaborated on a new programme for cooperation and partnership,
which is called an Individual Partnership Action Plan. Now every state
engaged in the Partnership for Peace initiative within the framework of
an IPAP may put forward its suggestions. That means that a state sets
its priorities, evaluates its abilities and in accordance with them
creates its own work programme. If the opposite party approves the
programme, it may be put into action. We are thinking of preparing a
draft of our programme by the end of this year and presenting it to
NATO, after which it will be approved and implemented.

NATO membership still not on agenda

[Correspondent] Mr Lazarian, Armenia’s accession to NATO is
viewed as very probable in the near future, especially after the
secretary-general’s visit. Is it possible that Armenia will some
day declare, like neighbouring Azerbaijan and Georgia, its desire to
join NATO?

[Lazarian] In our political statements we have always been clear
and realistic, as opposed to others, and now we declare that NATO
membership is not on our political agenda now. We are keeping
to the chosen line in developing our relations with NATO. How
far our relations will go – that is another issue. But we do not
yet consider NATO membership a priority, because we are realistic
about the geopolitical issues facing our region. We also take into
consideration our readiness and the organization’s willingness to see
us as a member. Today NATO too is not longing for Armenia’s membership.

[Correspondent] Do you mean Armenia is not meeting NATO’s standards
today? Is that the reason why Armenia does not talk about joining NATO?

[Lazarian] No, that is not what I mean. It is a very subtle issue. Our
cooperation with NATO is a key component of national security, but here
we also have Russia and the Collective Security Treaty supporting us,
as well as individual states such as the USA with which we cooperate
in the defence sphere.

Armenia and NATO cooperating on emergencies, science, research

[Correspondent] As an ambassador you are going to represent Armenia’s
interests in Brussels. What aims does Armenia pursue in NATO?

[Lazarian] NATO is a multifaceted organization. Today Armenia and NATO
cooperate in monitoring extreme situations. We are also developing
our relations in the sphere of science. NATO is implementing two
very important projects in our region. The first is researching
rivers of the region and Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia will watch
that the rivers are not polluted. The second is the Virtual Silk
Road project through which the three states will gain access to the
Internet. Another primary issue is to secure the region’s security
with the help of NATO. The organization itself talks about this
function and it becomes a precondition for future development and
prosperity. The development and deepening of our cooperation will
largely depend on the success of the IPAP.

[Correspondent] Senior NATO officials have been speaking well of
Armenia lately. What is the reason for NATO’s optimism?

[Lazarian] NATO representatives assess Armenia’s abilities and
accuracy very highly. To be honest, NATO is interested in developing
relations with us, as our cooperation is rather loose. Certainly,
there are limits to our abilities, stemming from the general situation
in the region, including the unresolved Karabakh conflict, that holds
us back from taking further steps. But our cooperation within the
frameworks possible is efficient and that attracts both us and NATO.