TRIAL ON MURDER OF ARMENIAN OFFICER BY AZERI SERVICEMAN TO RESUME IN BUDAPEST TODAY
PanArmenian News
Feb 8 2005
08.02.2005 13:22
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Trial on murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian
by Azeri serviceman Ramil Safarov will resume in Budapest today,
Armenpress news agency reported. In the course of the sitting the
second Azeri serviceman and a Lithuanian officer, who lived in
the same room with Armenian officer Hayk Makuchian, as well as a
psychologist physician and experts will testify. Lawyer Gabriela
Caspar will represent the interests of the plaintiff. Along with
lawyer Nazeli Vardanian representative of a specially formed group
on the case Hayk Demoyan has left for Hungary.

Iranian envoy hails ties with Azerbaijan
Turan news agency
8 Feb 05
Baku, 8 February: Relations between Iran and Azerbaijan are developing
successfully in all directions and are based on mutual confidence and
a solid contractual basis. Bilateral agreements envisage cooperation
in the political, security, economic and cultural fields, the
Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Afshar Soleymani [Mowla-Yusef],
told today’s press conference to mark the 26th anniversary of the
Islamic revolution.
Soleymani believes that Iran spares no effort to achieve stability
in the region. “Iran’s foreign policy is based on justice. Iran does
not accept pressure and does not resort to it,” the ambassador said.
Soleymani also expressed his attitude towards the latest statements of
US officials on Iran. “The Islamic revolution is 26 years old. Since
the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, not a single Iranian
citizen has been arrested on charges of involvement in terror
attacks. However, citizens of America were detained for involvement
in terrorism,” Soleymani added.
He believes that a US military operation against Iran is unreal. The
ambassador assumes that no country supports the US policy against
Iran. “Until now the Americans have failed to maintain peace in Iraq
and Afghanistan,” Soleymani said.
Speaking on Iranian-Armenian relations, the ambassador said that among
Iran’s neighbours, Azerbaijan is the closest country. The security
of Iran and Azerbaijan is closely connected. “As for some trade
relations between Iran and Armenia, they are not against Azerbaijan,”
the ambassador said.
The ambassador played down reports on displaying the Azerbaijani
national flag upside down during Ilham Aliyev’s visit to Iran [on
24-26 January 2005]. He thinks that some forces are interpreting
“negatively” the Azerbaijani president’s “fruitful” visit to Iran.
Soleymani described an agreement on cooperation in the field
of railways as an important outcome of the visit. A meeting of
representatives of the Azerbaijani, Iranian and Russian railways
will take place in Baku on 9 February to set up a consortium for the
building of a junction of the Astara-Rasht-Qazvin railway, which will
link the railways of the three countries.
Iran is also for the repeal of the visa regime between the two
countries. An agreement has been achieved providing for four visa-free
visits to the territories of the two countries within the limit of
45 km. He also said that negotiations on Baku-Tabriz flights were
under way.

Education: Anxiety in the UK: Serious complaints by overseas students are
unjustified, says their university
The Guardian – United Kingdom
Feb 08, 2005
HSIAO-HUNG PAI REPORTS
About 400 students from east Asia have enrolled for programmes this
year at Royal Holloway, University of London. They are paying at
least three times the fees of UK students, but came because they
regarded it as a prestigious place to study. But following a series
of what appear to be racially motivated assaults, several students at
the campus in Egham, Surrey, have expressed concerns about security,
accommodation, and what they describe as a culture of isolation within
the college. These claims are vociferously denied by Royal Holloway.
A Korean female postgraduate exchange student was attacked by three
youths – one man and two women – inside a college laundry room at
the main campus in November, 2004. They verbally abused her and hit
her continuously for half an hour, till she fell on the floor. Then
they started kicking her. She was left with bad injuries and bruises
all over her face.
“There is no security system at this university,” said Mr Jin,
president of the Korean society, who asked us not to publish his first
name. The incident provoked great anger among east Asian students
and overseas students in general. The Korean society, along with the
Chinese society, Japanese society, Taiwanese society and the Indian
society, presented a petition with 400 signatures to the college,
demanding that a satisfactory security system be installed, with
better lighting on campus and an increased patrol.
“In the first two weeks, patrolling increased. But things got back to
usual after that,” said a Korean student who doesn’t want to be named.
Two months later, on January 28, a Chinese-German student was attacked
by 10 youths at the south gate, outside the college grounds. On the
same night, an Indian student was attacked.
“The college could have done better on informing students about the
attacks,” said Zepyur Batikyar, an Armenian MA student. “We got to
hear of them mostly from other students.”
“We feel extremely excluded by our skin colour,” said Yu-Jen Bai,
a postgraduate business student from Taiwan, “We almost feel we can
only be protected by the presence of a white student.”
Royal Holloway emphatically denied it had responded inadequately to
the attacks. All the students have been offered support and counselling
since the attacks, a spokeswoman said.
“The incident involving a Korean student was taken very seriously,
and subjected to a full investigation in collaboration with Korea
University, [the] students’ union, the local community and local
police. The college has also provided ongoing support for the student
involved.
“The student support officer, who has been working closely with the
Korean student involved in this incident, has received much gratitude
for the care and support, and we understand the student is hoping to
return to Royal Holloway for further study.”
After the November attack, the spokeswoman said, a bulletin was issued
by the students’ union alerting students. “Lighting systems throughout
the campus were reviewed and the level of patrol by security officers
was increased to cover additional areas on the campus, in particular,
those close to halls of residences, and arrangements for these patrols
were continued through the vacation period. In addition, the college
is working closely with the local community and police to seek ways
to ensure that all members of the community continue to work and live
in a safe and secure environment.”
It was “totally inaccurate” to say the college had no security
system. “Each of the halls of residence has a resident warden to
support students and the college operates 24-hour security presence.”
Students, particularly east Asian students, feel fearful of these
attacks and are deeply concerned that something should be done. But,
according to Jin, they have no proper channels of complaint and are
worried that too much noise would have a negative effect on their
status at college.
“There is practically no means of communication between overseas
students and the college authorities,” said a Taiwanese MBA student.
Royal Holloway’s spokeswoman said: “This could not be further from
the truth. The college prides itself on its level of pastoral care.”
Yuki Yanagi, a 22-year-old postgraduate student from Japan, says that
the attack in November “is not just a Korean issue. To the eyes of
locals, we look similar and I feel the same thing could happen to me
or my friends.
“I have become very cautious. Nowadays I only do shopping in the
daytime and in British, male company.” My parents are worried
about me.”
Safety has, in fact, been a long-term concern. “Incidents of attacks
and harassment have been going on here for at least two years. MBA
students who studied here in 2003/04 warned me about safety the first
day I got here,” said Yu-Jen Bai. “There should have been stronger
action from the students themselves. I never imagined safety to be
a problem at London University.
“The problem is our student societies are only interested in organising
social events. They aren’t interested in fighting for our rights. I
guess it’s because they are run by younger people, undergraduates,
who aren’t very aware.”
The students suffer from being both separate and visible. “Life
is isolated and lonely here,” says Sangseuk Park. Like many other
east Asian students, Park chose to study at Holloway because of its
excellent international reputation. “And the campus looks so nice,”
he said. He is self-funded and pays a tuition fee of pounds 8,500
for a one-year course.
Park finds language a barrier. He only socialises with east Asian
students. “It’s not so easy to interact with local students. Perhaps
it’s cultural differences.”
“It isn’t always language that is the barrier,” says Zepyur Batikyar.
“Self-blame was my initial reaction when I experienced distance from
the local environment. But I understood it wasn’t me at all when I
began to interact so well with other overseas students.”
“We don’t go out much. Our weekend entertainment is going to the
cinema in Staines with other Chinese students,” says Gu Chen, 24,
a Chinese postgraduate in Business Information Systems.
Yuki Yanagi came to this college for its reputation in women’s
studies. She’s eager to be socially active and learn about local
culture. She joined the women’s football team where there are hardly
any Asian players, and went to watch the football in the local pub.
“But the best time of my stay in Royal Holloway was when I met east
Asian students. We socialise a lot and I feel things are getting
better and better.”
She’s disappointed with the level of interaction between overseas
and local students. “I often have racially abusive jokes thrown at
me by fellow students, and some of the sexually harassing behaviour
really disgusts me.”
Pei-Ling Lu, a business postgraduate from Taiwan, says: “We didn’t
really know that much about the course structure or the environment
before we came, because all the information was provided by agencies
at home, who gave us nothing but college brochures.”
All the east Asian students we spoke to talked about the administrative
inefficiency of the college. “Our requests are often ignored or
delayed,” one said.
Accommodation is also one of the biggest concerns among overseas
students here. “There is a large difference in the types of
accommodation we get, and the criteria of housing distribution seems
arbitrary,” said one student.
“There’s no support for overseas students here,” said Gu Chen. “We
believe that overseas students tend to be given poorer-facilitated
housing. The course is also very different from what I had
expected. It’s loosely organised, and the teaching hours are too
short – only two days a week.”
The postgraduates on the business courses seem particularly unhappy
with what they get in return for the high tuition fees. “The college
facilities are commercialised,” one MBA student said. “There are
bars run by outside companies, which charge higher prices than local
pubs. But there aren’t enough academic resources, such as a good
library. This is only geared towards undergraduate interests.”
The college denied these charges. “International students are given
priority in securing accommodation within halls of residence. In
the case of a large group of students, such as those from Korea
University, we also work to accommodate them across the campus, to
enable them to integrate more fully within the campus community,”
said the spokeswoman.
“We consider our accommodation standards to be high – situated in a
135-acre parkland campus. Royal Holloway opened a brand new pounds
23m state-of-the-art halls development in September 2004. Many
international students are within these halls. Indeed, we have a
collaborative venture with Korea University, and a section of the
halls have been named in honour of a Korean industrialist.”
She added: “We have many channels in operation to receive feedback
from students. Standards of teaching at the college are frequently
praised by students, and the college’s record demonstrates our high
commitment to teaching and research.”

OSCE completes mission in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave
Associated Press Worldstream
February 7, 2005 Monday
BAKU, Azerbaijan — Officials from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe left the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave Monday after
completing a fact-finding mission as part of efforts to resolve the
territory’s status and end a long-running dispute between Armenia
and Azerbaijan.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Metin Mirza said the mission from the
so-called Minsk Group would report back to the main body of the OSCE
before a final report is issued.
The four-day OSCE mission was investigating, among other things,
whether ethnic Armenians are settling in occupied territories around
the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s has been
trying to help the two countries reach a settlement for enclave,
which since the mid-1990s has been under the control of ethnic
Armenian forces. The forces also occupy some territory adjacent to
Nagorno-Karabakh proper.
A cease-fire in the conflict was reached in 1994, but
Nagorno-Karabakh’s political status remains unsettled. Its ethnic
Armenian government is not recognized internationally, and Baku
insists it must remain part of Azerbaijan.
Mirza also said Azerbaijan would again seek to the have the U.N.
General Assembly discuss the status of the enclave.
Meanwhile, in Nagorno-Karabakh, officials said the mission met in the
enclave’s main city, Stepanakert, with Armenian refugees who were
driven out of Azerbaijan during the six-year war in the 1990s that
killed some 30,000 people and sent 1 million fleeing from their homes.

Armenian minister chides Turkish premier for remarks on territorial claim
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
8 Feb 05
[Presenter] A seminar on Armenian-Turkish relations was held at the
department of international relations of Yerevan State University
today. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan talked to students
about Armenia’s approach to this issue.
Oskanyan has expressed his attitude towards the latest allegation
of the neighbouring state [Turkey]. Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said that since allegedly Armenia did not recognize
the Kars Treaty, Armenian-Turkish relations had no future. Thus, it
means that Armenia has territorial claims to Turkey. Oskanyan said
that this was yet another attempt to distort the reality.
Armenian diplomats have commented on Erdogan’s statement. Now both the
Armenian and Turkish people and the international community know that
Armenia has not changed its position as regards relations with Turkey.
[Oskanyan] The Turkish prime minister voiced some speculations
recently. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin put forward the issue of
normalizing ties with Armenia at a meeting with him. They discussed
this issue. Asked about the results of this discussion on his return
from Moscow, Erdogan told a news conference that there were several
problems. One of them is that Armenia has territorial claims to
Turkey because it [Armenia] does not recognize the Kars Treaty. I
told him that we are the inheritors of the Soviet Union and that
the decisions made in that period are still valid since we have not
expressed our attitude towards them or replaced them with others. That
was my answer. But this excuse by Erdogan is simply unacceptable.

NOVRUZ MAMEDOV: NO AGREEMENT WAS MADE ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT IN PARIS AND KEY WEST
PanArmenian News
Feb 8 2005
08.02.2005 18:21
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Head of the Department of International Relations
of the Azeri President’s staff Novruz Mamedov assures that no
agreement on settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict was made in
Paris and Key West. In his words, no talks with the Armenian
delegation were held in Key West at all: only a short familiarization
meeting with the participation of the US State Secretary took place.
Mamedov stated that last year the Azeri party made important steps to
solve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. “In the course of a whole year
the Azeri diplomacy launched an attack and completed the year
successfully as a result,” he added. “We work with states and
international organizations individually. The goal is to win the
total support of the international community for solving the
conflict,” Mamedov added.

ARMENIA SHOULD TAKE STEPS TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS WITH TURKEY, TURKISH FM CONSIDERS
PanArmenian News
Feb 8 2005
08.02.2005 13:51
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia should take steps to normalize relations
with Turkey. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul stated it when
answering a question on relations with Armenia asked by US State
Secretary Condoleezza Rice, being in Turkey on visit. “I met both with
the Armenian FM and my Azeri colleague. This question has acquired
a chronic character. However, Armenia has to undertake certain steps
and if it is the case it will see reply actions,” Abdullah Gul said.

PM receives Armenian Parliament Speaker
Bahrain News Agency
February 8, 2005 Tuesday 11:51 AM EST
Manama, Feb.8 ( BNA ) Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al
Khalifa received Tuesday morning Chairman of the Representative
Council, Mr.
Khalifa Al Dharani who introduced to the Armenian Parliament Speaker
Mr.Artur Paghdasarian and his accompanying delegation who conveyed
greetings of President and the Prime Minister of Armenia and to the
Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister welcomed the Armenian delegation saying that
Bahrain looks forward for bilateral cooperation between the two
countries particularly that an agreement of cooperation has been
signed between the parliaments of both countries.The Prime Minister
also stressed Bahrain’s support to the Arab Culture Center to be
established in Armenia as it will contribute to recognizing and
spreading the Arab culture.
The Prime Minister discussed with the Armenian Parliament Speaker
means of boosting further the bilateral cooperation on various
fields.

Shura council chairman meets Armenian Parliament speaker
Bahrain News Agency
February 8, 2005 Tuesday
Manama, Feb.8 ( BNA ) Chairman of the Shura Council Dr. Faissal Al
Moussawi met Tuesday Chairman of the Armenian Parliament, Mr. Artur
Paghdasarian and the accompanying delegation.
The Armenian official lauded the representative, legislative and
monitoring role of the Shura Council, expressing hope for further
cooperation and coordination between the two councils.

Iran, Armenia review mutual cooperation, regional developments
IRNA, Iran
February 8, 2005 Tuesday 4:40 PM EST
Tehran, February 08 — Visiting Armenian National Security Council
Secretary Serzh Sarkisian conferred here Tuesday with the Chairman
of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on issues of
mutual interests.
According to the Public Relations Department of the Expediency Council,
at the meeting, Rafsanjani underlined the importance of North-South
Corridor and said the highway will play a key role in expansion of
ties among Iran`s northern neighbors.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is willing to broaden ties with
neighboring countries, he pointed out.
Iran is determined to mediate to find a solution to the issues of
Karabakh through peaceful means, he said.
Rafsanjani called for expediting the project on gas transfer to
Armenia.
Armenia seeks expansion of cooperation with the Islamic Republic of
Iran, Sarkisian said.
The existing economic, educational and cultural cooperation between
the two countries will become more consolidated than before, ,
he underlined.
Foreign forces seek to interfere in regional issues, but `we try to
deal with the issues through peaceful means and negotiations`, he said.
He expressed his country`s determination to seriously pursue the
project for the transfer of Iranian gas to Armenia and added that
Yerevan calls for further expansion of all-out cooperation with the
Islamic Republic of Iran.