Azeri official critical of chief cleric’s plans to start political career
Assa-Irada, Baku
16 Dec 04
Baku, 16 December: The state has reacted sharply to a recent statement
by the chairman of the Board of the Muslims of the Caucasus, Allahsukur
Pasazada, saying that he will be actively involved in politics. Rafiq
Aliyev, head of the State Committee for Work with Religious Structures,
told our Assa-Irada correspondent that the sheikh ul-Islam’s idea
to be involved in politics contradicts the country’s constitution
and legislation.
He said that according to the current legislation, religion is
separated from the state in Azerbaijan. In addition, the law on freedom
of conscience also bans religious figures from involvement in politics.
Rafiq Aliyev recalled the recent past and said that the establishment
of a democratic, civil and independent state was one of the main
principles of the late President Heydar Aliyev. People involved in
religious activities cannot be involved in politics, nor can they stand
in elections to legislative bodies. I suppose that the leadership of
the Board of the Muslims of the Caucasus is aware of all this.
However, in order to be like Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin or
Georgian Patriarch Ilia II, it is not enough just to wish this. This
wish should also be in line with the requirements of the law.

Senior Iranian cleric urges Iraqis to participate in elections
Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran
17 Dec 04
Secretary of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told
worshippers at Tehran Friday prayers that if Iraqis want to get
rid of oppression and dictatorship, “they should participate in the
elections” and “vote in ample numbers to those who care for the Iraqi
people”. The following are excerpts from the sermon, broadcast live
by Iranian radio on 17 December:
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Passage omitted:
on religious matters
What can we say about the Ahvaz festival? Of whom should we complain?
However, it is clear who those people are. Have we got to the point
that we should import dancers from abroad? Haven’t we reached
self-sufficiency yet? Should we import dancers from Armenia and
elsewhere? What is going on in this country?
This is not the first time. The same has happened in other festivals
and they did not listen to the objections made. Similar banal scenes
have been there in ten-day dawn festivals ceremonies celebrating the
anniversary of Iran’s Revolution . I would like to warn them right
now since we have the ten-day dawn ceremonies ahead of ourselves,
it you want to do the same, you should know that the people will
encounter you.
Ethical deviation and banality is one issue. There has as well been
a lot of waste of public wealth. This is the money that should have
been spent on those who are homeless and sleep in the streets. I hope
that the statistics on those who sleep in the streets on the cartons
and die of cold is not true. The money that should be spent on those
people the homeless is being spent on them dancers . This is just one
issue, while there are plenty of such wastes. If there were not such
wastes, there would have not been even one homeless.
They officials would have made a place for them the homeless to sleep
and not to die on the streets.
God helps us if one day we open the dams in the name of freedom, but
fail to fortify the dikes. The water will wash everything away. If
the dams’ gates are to be opened, the dikes should be fortified to
prevent the water’s destruction. Let me not explain any further. We
hope that God would save us all from ignorance. Passage omitted:
on Hajj pilgrimage and ongoing reconstruction following Bam earthquake
And my last point is about Iraq. You know that the elections are
imminent and the American crimes are ever-increasing. They drop 250 kg
bombs on the people. I do not really know what they want to do with
these people. What sin they have committed that their women, men,
children, elderly, sick and healthy should all be burnt and killed
under bombings. Slogans chanted by the worshippers: “Death to America”
At any rate, we expect the noble and Muslim people of Iraq to be
mindful of clear realities. They should know that America is facing
Islam rather than the Shi’is, Sunnis, Kurds or Arabs and it will
indiscriminately repress all. They should also know that if they want
to have a relatively promising future they should participate in the
elections. They should vote in ample numbers to those who care for
the Iraqi people and not others. The oppressed Iraqi people who got
rid of the former dictator, just to face a worse dictator.
If they the Iraqi people would not be able to fend for themselves,
the result would be the dominance of dictators, as it is now. The way
out is to create a popular power in the form of a strong parliament to
take the fate of the country into its hands. However, the religious
scholars have a substantial role to play in this regard. They should
have a comprehensive supervision over the elections.
A lot of cheating and vote riggings may take place. Things may be
done to prevent the people from achieving their optimal result. They
should therefore be ready for what may come. Passage omitted: on
final prayer of the sermon

TALKS WITHOUT KARABAKH
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
17 Dec 04
The foreign minister of Armenia returned from the 12th meeting of
the OSCE Ministerial Council in Bulgaria. On December 14 the foreign
minister met with journalists and commented on his visits to Sofia
and Brussels. In Sofia the meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council
and in Brussels the meeting of foreign minister of Euro-Atlantic
Partnership took place. Vardan Oskanian said four main topics were
discussed during the meetings: the question of the OSCE reforms,
EU â~@~S Armenia relationships within the framework of the program
â~@~New Neighboursâ~@~] , initiation of the negotiations for
Turkeyâ~@~Ys membership to the EU and the problems connected
with Armenia, and finally the regulation of the Nagorni Karabakh
conflict. During the press conference Vardan Oskanian dwelled on the
latter two. In reference to the process of regulation of the Karabakh
conflict the minister of foreign affairs of Armenia emphasized that
the decision of the OSCE ministers on the regulation of the Nagorni
Karabakh conflict was the only one in reference to which a consensus
was reached. Assessing the current situation with â~@~careful
optimismâ~@~] Vardan Oskanian said, â~@~Owing to the effective
intervention of the Minsk Group and cooperation with Azerbaijan
we managed to eliminate the obstacles for negotiations resulting
from the Prague process.â~@~] After the meetings of the foreign
ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Sofia and Brussels actually
it was decided to resume the meetings in Prague but the minister
could not answer when exactly the next meeting would take place.
â~@~It is difficult to mention a definite time but probably at
the beginning of the upcoming year we will start a new round of
negotiations in Prague on the level of foreign ministers.â~@~] Vardan
Oskanian did not give a definite answer whether the negotiations will
be resumed at the point where they were stopped. He mentioned that
the standpoint of Armenia did not change. â~@~What we have today in
the common framework is enough to continue the talks.â~@~] According
to him, the talks will continue without the participation of Nagorni
Karabakh. One of the journalists asked whether Vardan Oskanian denied
the news circulated by the Azerbaijani press that the Nagorni Karabakh
issue will be settled stage by stage and the foreign minister again
gave an evasive answer. According to him, the negotiations are held
in two directions: the one is what goes on in fact and the other is
what is presented to public. â~@~I do not want to pay attention to
what the Azerbaijani side offers to public. All that is discussed
creates a common framework for continuing the negotiations. Today
there are two processes going on: the real negotiations and what
public is told about them. I prefer focusing on the content of the
talks,â~@~] said the foreign minister of Armenia. During the press
conference Vardan Oskanian mentioned the important role of press in
the regulation process and particularly complained of the Armenian
press. According to him, today it is difficult to guess whether the
Armenian society supports the gradual, package or even a third type
of solution. Therefore the minister suggests looking for the golden
middle from the point of view of the question settlement. Presently,
according to the foreign minister, â~@~all of us are seeking for a
settlement which will not damage our national interests, weaken Armenia
and waste the achievements of NKR. We must see which settlement is
in accordance with our interests, which is possible and what is not,
what we lose or win, which the golden middle is.â~@~] He especially
pointed out that correct, balanced approaches may be born only in the
result of healthy debates, which will be of help for our government.
CHRISTINE MNATSAKANIAN.
17-12-2004
–Boundary_(ID_IpqdalDmq0DAw7nUb9XPQQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU divided over whether it’s time to talk Turkey
Irish Independent
Dec 17, 2004
THE vote this week of the European Parliament in favour of starting
membership talks with Turkey should presage a decision by the EU
leaders today to start the whole process rolling.
One says “should” partly because one can never be quite certain in
Europe that its leaders will do what is required of them – witness the
extraordinary about-turns over the European constitution and the rows
over keeping to the rules of the economic stability pact. The major
players, including French President Chirac, with important caveats,
and German Chancellor Schroder and British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
more enthusiastically, have all said that they will give it the green
light. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is fully supporting the membership bid.
But there’s a lot of bad politics about the Turkish application at the
moment, especially in Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands
where the right-wing anti-immigration parties are rearing their
head. Even Chirac has had to promise a referendum to let the French
people decide when negotiations finally come to fruition.
Such hesitations are understandable, but miss the urgency and
importance of the moment. To say no at this stage, or to fob Turkey off
with a “country membership” or something less than full conjunction
would be an act of religious prejudice and historic recidivism of
the worst and most parochial sort. Europe has an opportunity to reach
out to a whole new world of a bigger, wider and more diverse Europe.
All the objections and the last-minute hurdles being put forward
against Turkey – the demands that it admit to the Armenian genocide,
the imposition of additional rules on labour movement, the proposal
for a “privileged partnership” instead of membership – are little
more than masks for a much more fundamental fear and dislike, and
that is of Turkey as a Muslim state.
If anything, Europe should be wanting Turkey in precisely because it
is a liberal, modernising country of Muslims (officially it is still
a secular state, although it is now headed by an Islamic party).
In that sense Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minster, is quite
right to insist that Turkey will not accept second-best, special
requirements, lesser membership or anything other than the straight
road to membership that every other country has followed. Anything
less would be an insult, not least to all those in Turkey which have
pushed, harried and argued for the huge changes that have been needed
to get Turkey to this point of even beginning serious negotiations. Of
course Turkey has a long way to go. Anyone who knows Turkey also knows
how very far it is from properly integrating its Kurdish minority,
accepting even a minimum standard for its workers and instituting the
kind of law that would bring it into line with Western Europe. We
are not talking here of a neat homogenous country like Sweden, but
a largely Islamic nation developed through four centuries of empire
and then dramatically wrenched away from imperial habit to modern
national state by Ataturk after the First World War.
The benefit of that change is to produce a formally secular state
which, at least among the elite, feels its future looking westwards
and its place in Europe. The price has been a state that is fiercely
nationalistic, with an army at the centre of its constitution and an
attitude to its Kurdish minority and to human rights that has more
in common with Moscow than Brussels.
Far from that being a bar to full membership, however, it is the
very reason we should be insisting on it. Joining Europe brings
with it stringent obligations in a whole host of fields, from equal
opportunities to civil rights and financial disciplines. Lock Turkey
in those negotiations, and keep absolutely firm on their requirements,
and you help all those in Turkey wanting modernisation. Accept it as
something less than an equal European and you accept it as a basically
different country with lesser standards for its own people. Which is
why so many Kurds and even Armenians want the negotiations to go ahead.
Voting today for negotiations to start does not mean immediate
membership. Talks could last a decade and there is no reason why
the EU should compromise its own principles. But there is equally no
reason to make Turkey a special case in negative terms, forcing on
it special obligations which are not true of everyone.
Of course politicians have to take note of their domestic opinion. At
a time when a leading Dutch documentary director has been murdered in
the Netherlands, 191 have been killed in the Madrid bombing and the
police forces of almost every European country are issuing warnings
about the dangers of attacks from Islamic extremists, now is not a good
time to talk of Turkey’s potential contribution to multiculturalism
in the Union.
But politics has to be about the promotion of causes in inconvenient
times as well as propitious ones. The Muslim aspect to Turkey’s
membership is important, not only because to turn it down would
be to send such hostile messages to Muslims within Europe as well
as its neighbours outside. Yet in some ways one can exaggerate this
aspect. Turkey has its own history and ethnic background which make it
quite separate from the Arabs and Iranians around it, or the Pakistani,
North African and Bangladeshi Muslims populations within Europe.
More profoundly, Turkey is important because it represents a whole
new leap towards regional integration in Europe. It brings with it not
just an Islamic background but a military force in Nato, a reserve of
labour and interconnections that spread out to Central Asia and beyond.
This year’s enlargement of the Union from 15 to 25 members was meant
to be the end of the story for the time being. But everywhere round
Europe – in Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey and now Romania – the older order
is collapsing and new democratic governments are coming to power who
see in the EU both a path to the future and a means of consolidating
change. Belarus and even some Arab states around the Mediterranean
could well follow in the coming years.
It’s a development most European politicians have been slow to grasp
and fearful of embracing. The EU was desperately slow to respond
to Viktor Yuschenko’s call for EU partnership, and to the change
in government in Bucharest. Even though they know that existing
enlargement has changed forever the tight, inward-looking club of
Western Europe, the instinctive response of EU governments is to look
inwards and backwards. In the nervy and uncertain days before the fall
of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, Chancellor Kohl
liked to quote Otto Von Bismark’s statement about clutching the cloak
of history (God, as he called it) as He swept by. Kohl took the chance,
and he was no Bismark. Today’s European leaders are arguably even less
statesmen than Kohl. But history is passing by and over the coming
months in Central Europe, they have the chance to touch its cloak.
Adrian Hamilton

Georgian president addresses interior ministry staff
Imedi TV, Tbilisi
16 Dec 04
Mikheil Saakashvili has said that the new police and public order
ministry will be a well-funded and well equipped, European-style
agency. In an address to the staff of the merging State Security and
Interior ministries, broadcast by Georgian Imedi TV on 16 December,
Saakashvili said that the new agency, together with the Defence
Ministry, should discourage those who humiliated and trampled on
Georgia in Abkhazia in the beginning of 1990s. Saakashvili said that
the personnel quality in regional police units and the army was not
adequate and called on talented but unemployed people to join the
police force and the armed forces. The following is an excerpt from
report by Imedi TV; subheadings have been inserted editorially:
[Presenter] The Georgian president introduced minister-designate Vano
Merabishvili to the staff of the newly established police and public
security ministry [also described as police and public order ministry]
a short while ago.
Speaking at the new agency, [Mikheil] Saakashvili once again, for
a second time today, stressed the importance of strengthening the
state’s security and combat readiness. Georgia should be strong enough
to defend itself against foreign aggression.
As regards the police, reforms should speed up and, more importantly,
the public should realize that cooperation with law enforcers is the
main guarantor of their security.
Commenting on personnel issues in the merging State Security and
Interior ministries, the president said that professionals would not
be made redundant.
Speaking about the new minister, Saakashvili said that Merabishvili
lived up to expectations as state security minister and would surely
do well in the new job as well.
Restoration of territorial integrity political process
[Saakashvili, addressing staff, with Merabishvili and Defence
Minister-designate Irakli Okruashvili by his sides] I would like to
welcome you all on this very important day. Today we are not only
introducing the new minister to you but also announcing the setting
up of practically a new ministry.
For the second time since gaining independence [as heard] – this
time in a more serious fashion – we are transforming [an existing
agency] into a European-style body. The State Security Ministry
is being transformed into counter-intelligence and [foreign]
intelligence units. I want to stress that this will be a very
strong counter-intelligence unit. It will be much better funded,
equipped and trained. It will be a European-style body, operating
within the constitutional framework. The State Security Ministry’s
anti-crime department will be merged with the Interior Ministry’s
anti-crime department. Both agencies have traditionally had very good
professionals in this area.
After introducing Irakli [Okruashvili] as minister-designate at
the Defence Ministry yesterday, I spoke about the restoration of
territorial integrity. Some people interpreted my statement as an
order to Irakli Okruashvili and the Defence Ministry to restore
[Georgia’s] territorial integrity. I want to say categorically that
the strengthening of Georgia and the restoration of its territorial
integrity is not a military process and should not be done by the
Defence Ministry alone. The restoration of Georgia’s territorial
integrity is a political process.
Aggressors to be met by Okruashvili
Current events in the world, including the events that have taken
place in Ukraine and other countries and the events taking place
throughout the post-Soviet space, are significantly limiting the area
of application of imperialist and aggressive policies and increasing
opportunities for Georgia and the people of Georgia to resolve their
problems peacefully.
We do not intend to use any military force to settle domestic issues.
However, we will build a modern army so that those forces which
incited a conflict in Abkhazia at the time, taking advantage of a weak
Georgia, know full well that if there is another large-scale aggression
against Georgia they will be met by Okruashvili and much more modern,
European-style, combat-ready and civilized Georgian armed forces,
built according to NATO standards.
This will not, under any circumstances, apply to the people of Georgia.
Stability inside the country and the solving of political issues is
a task for the whole of society and the entire government to work
on. Every Georgian citizen, every ethnic Azerbaijani, Armenian, as
well people of other ethnic backgrounds, should know that we should
work day and night to at last put Georgia back on its feet.
Former junior officials should no longer fear arrest
We have done many things at the Interior Ministry from this point of
view. The public like the patrol force. Today over 70 per cent of
the people trust the police, compared to just 6 per cent one year
ago. People like the patrol force and so do we. Therefore, their
minimum wage will be 450 lari, not 400 lari as it has been this
year. Salaries will gradually increase in other departments as well
because those who work well will be paid better. [Passage omitted]
We often hear people saying that arrests should end, that revolution
should end. We do not want this any more, stop arresting people,
they say. By the way, I think that we should not go after former
petty officials because the bigwigs are already either wanted or
under investigation, or in jail, with courts considering their
cases. I do not think that we will go after every single former
customs department official who did something wrong three years ago,
every single former deputy head of a local administration, every former
petty official. This time has passed. We should fight corruption today,
among the present-day officials, in the present-day customs department,
in the present-day prosecutor’s office.
When we are told to end arrests, I say that theft and bribe-taking
should end first. If this happens, arrests will end as well. If there
is theft and corruption, there will be arrests, because Georgian
law, just as every proper state’s law, requires this. In short,
arbitrariness will never return to Georgia. Let every one of us
realize this.
We will set up a very effective agency here. We will equip it very
well. Its financing will improve significantly next year and will be
at an even higher level in the subsequent years. The most important
thing is that the people should feel that you work for them. People
should feel that they can trust you. [Passage omitted]
Public must cooperate with police
I want to say directly that because the human rights situation in
Tbilisi has improved significantly and because society does not
cooperate as much as it should with the police, street crime has
also increased sharply. We will never allow you to extract evidence
by beating up a person or planting narcotics on him. This will not
happen in Georgia again. However, I want to ask society to help us
in eradicating crime in their neighbourhoods, in their surroundings
and among their acquaintances. Please, cooperate with the police when
a crime has been committed so that it is solved. Please, cooperate
with our law-enforcement agency.
New ministries should deter aggressors
It is a fact that those forces who are fed up with us have stepped
up intelligence operations against Georgia. Articles about us are
published every day; programmes about us are broadcast every day. They
meddle in our internal affairs, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, every
day. These forces have stepped up their work inside Georgia. We have
to work against these forces in a different way. They should know
that this no longer is a Bantustan where everyone can be recruited,
everyone can be paid and bought. Everyone must know that cooperation
with the enemies of Georgia is treason and is severely punished under
the law. We will find these people.
Everyone should know that we are ready to cooperate with everyone in
the fight against terrorism, with the Russians, Americans, Europeans,
but we will not allow anyone to create disorder inside Georgia or
muddy the waters as in the 1990s. Did they not smack us on the head
in 1992 and 1993? Did they not humiliate and trample us into the mud
and kick us around? Did they not tell us that we were nobody, that
they could come back whenever they pleased and smack us on the head
again? You and us, the Defence Ministry and others, should behave so
that no scum of the earth, no international opportunist, no matter
how strong they are, how much money they have and how strong their
army is, ever again has a desire and capability to do this.
There is no such thing as a small nation. There are nations who have
a desire to fight for their independence, pride and dignity, and there
are nations who do not have this capability. We are building a nation
which has the capability to defend itself, to defend itself against
intelligence operations, defend itself against foreign aggression,
if it happens, – may God spare us from such a thing – defend itself
against domestic crime and defend itself against people who do not
care about the interests of society.
Trusts his ministers
I count on our police, I count on our counter-intelligence
[department], I count on our small but effective intelligence
department, which is also being set up, and I very much hope that
under the very competent new minister we will be able to improve
the situation.
You know that Okruashvili was a good prosecutor-general. He was a
much better interior minister. He will do even better as defence
minister. This man [Merabishvili] was a very good secretary of the
National Security Council, but he was a much better state security
minister. Now he will be an even better police and public order
minister, or [police and] public security [ministry], whatever
parliament decides to call it.
Until these ministries have merged, we will put them together at the
Interior Ministry. They will be formally merged later as parliament
has to approve constitutional changes. However, this does not stand
in our way and we can start work. It will be called the Ministry of
Internal Affairs for the next month, or a month and a half, whatever
it is. Vano Merabishvili will be the minister. In reality, however,
two ministries will be merged. Then parliament will change the name.
I want you to know one thing, that not a single professional will leave
the system. We will do everything to keep these professionals. We do
not have extra people. Whoever had to be sacked, has been sacked. Now
we need to train these people, facilitate their work, provide them
with equipment, bring in new people and find new people.
Patrol force, army need better personnel
For example, the quality of patrol force in the regions is low. I have
told Batoni [polite form or referring to a man] Irakli [Okruashvili]
to go to universities in Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Gori and speak to the
young people, explain the importance of these institutions so that
the best people go to the police. This is not the police force they
knew. This is a police force serving the people.
The same is true about the army. We are recruiting people under the
train and equip programme, but the people do not know about it and
are not enlisting. We are telling them to demonstrate to the people
that this is a different army, with different barracks, different
conditions, different duties and different responsibilities towards
the country. We need people there as well. Of course, people are
going to the army but the quality of the personnel often is not as
good as we need. We have many unemployed but talented people who have
opportunities to serve their country and people.
I want to call on these people again. I repeat that we are moving
towards modern, European-style agencies. This does not mean that
we do not value professionals. A professional is a professional in
every system. We have idealists and we have new people. I want to
ask everyone to work in a new way.
Thank you very much for your attention.
You can ask questions later, when we are outside.

Azeri leader criticizes Armenia for being Russia’s outpost in Caucasus
ANS TV, Baku
17 Dec 04
[Presenter] President Ilham Aliyev voted together with his family
today in the local government elections at polling station No 6
of Sabayil electoral constituency No 29. After casting his vote,
President Ilham Aliyev made important statements concerning the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict.
[Aliyev speaking to journalists] If we take a look at the history of
these talks, we will see that a certain new framework has appeared
in the past year. In particular, there is already a process called
the Prague process, and OSCE documents also mention the Prague process.
[Passage omitted: details]
But I also want to draw your attention to one issue. As you know,
the chairman of the Russian State Duma visited Armenia recently. He
said that Armenia is Russia’s outpost in the South Caucasus. For this
reason, we do not know now – we have always thought that Armenia was
a state. It turns out now that it is an outpost. Now should we hold
talks with the outpost or the master of the outpost? If this issue
becomes clear in Armenia, there will be a better situation for the
successful conduct of the talks.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian refugees sue Azerbaijan in European Court of Human Rights
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
16 Dec 04
[Presenter] Four families who were forcibly deported from Shaumyan
[Azerbaijan’s Goranboy District] and Getashen [Azerbaijan’s Caykand
village] have filed a lawsuit against Azerbaijan with the European
Court of Human Rights.
They have filed the suit in connection with the violation of the
property and housing rights of people who lived there and were
forcibly deported.
The Shaumyan-Getashen Union of Patriots, which has initiated this
action, expressed its readiness to defend the interests of thousands
of Armenian families that suffered from the aggression unleashed by
Azerbaijan in 1990.

Armenia urges EU summit to consider Turkey accession demands
Mediamax news agency
17 Dec 04
Yerevan, 17 December: Armenia “welcomes the decision of the European
Parliament calling on the European Commission and the European Union
(EU) to demand that the Turkish authorities recognize the historical
fact of the genocide of Armenians and immediately open its border
with Armenia,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement
circulated in the evening of 16 December in Yerevan.
“Turkey’s EU membership can be beneficial for Armenia and have a
positive impact on the region, if Ankara entirely complies with all
EU demands,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry statement says.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry recalled that Turkey was unilaterally
keeping its border with Armenia closed, had introduced criminal
responsibility for the use of the term “genocide” and was also putting
forward unacceptable preliminary conditions for the normalization of
relations with Armenia.
“Judging by the European Parliament’s decision, the European community
shares Armenia’s concern over the current unacceptable state of
Armenian-Turkish relations,” the statement says. “With all of its
uncertainty this situation is a serious danger for the development
of the South Caucasus as well as European prospects,” the Armenian
Foreign Ministry statement says.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry also said it wished for “the EU summit
to take into account with all seriousness and responsibility the call
of the European Parliament”. Yerevan “is convinced that if Turkey
listens to the calls of the European community, this will make it
easier to overcome all obstacles and ensure lasting stability and
the development of the region”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Russian border guards in Armenia to pay more attention to Iranian border
Mediamax news agency
17 Dec 04
Yerevan, 17 December: This year officers of the border department of
the Russian Federal Security Service in Armenia detained 119 violators
of the state border – 30 people more than in 2003.
Mediamax reports that Lt-Gen Sergey Bondarev, chief of the border
department, said today in Yerevan that the Russian border guards
are to pay special attention to the Iranian section of the border
in connection with the growth in trade turnover, the start of the
construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline and the implementation
of a number of other joint economic projects.
Sergey Bondarev also noted a possible increase in the flow of Armenian
refugees from Iraq and Iran, as well as of Kurds form Turkey if the
situation in those countries deteriorates.

Young Armenians against Turkey’s entry into EU
Mediamax news agency
17 Dec 04
Yerevan, 17 December: Several dozens of members of the youth
organization of the Dashnaktsutyun Party held a protest action today
outside the Yerevan office of the delegation of the European Commission
in Georgia and Armenia.
Mediamax news agency reports that the action was timed to coincide with
the summit of the leaders of European Union countries in Brussels,
which is to adopt an official decision to start talks on Turkey’s
accession to the EU.
The participants in the protest action also sent a letter to all the
EU embassies in Yerevan. The letter says:
“Turkey is conducting an extremely hostile policy with regard to
our country, repeatedly violating the principles of international
law. Turkey is destroying Armenia’s cultural heritage. Armenian
youth are worried that human rights violations and restrictions on
freedom of speech are taking place in Turkey. The European Union is a
model for the protection of human rights and main freedoms. However,
the start of the negotiating process on Turkey’s accession to the EU
casts a shadow on this image of the EU. Young Armenians hope that the
EU leaders will deny Turkey accession until that country recognizes
the 1915 genocide of Armenians.”