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09/15/2004
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1) Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia Meet to Discuss Karabagh
2) New US Ambassador Speaks to Press on Variety of Issues
3) ARS Sponsors HIV/AIDS Education Seminar at UN Conference
4) Turkey Rejects Adultery Ban after EU, Women Protest
5) Georgia Seeks EU Assistance in Conflict Settlement
6) Glendale Voters Approve Americana at Brand Project
7) Strong Ties Bind Russia, Armenia at Karabagh Talks

1) Presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia Meet to Discuss Karabagh

ASTANA (Combined Sources)–During a tripartite meeting on Wednesday, held on
the sidelines of the CIS heads of state summit in Astana, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin met with his counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan,
stressing
the necessity for continued dialogue on Mountainous Karabagh. “Whatever you
may
agree on today, leaders’ personal meetings always come as a stride
forward,” he
pointed out.
Highlighting President Robert Kocharian’s and Ilham Aliyev’s determination for
resolution, Putin said reassuringly, “I know this conference will not be
fruitless, and will promote conflict settlement.”
Itar-Tass news agency quoted a source in the Kremlin as saying that it was
Moscow’s initiative to organize the meeting and that both presidents responded
positively to the proposal. “In Moscow’s view, the three-way format has
justified itself,” the source said, adding that Moscow has always believed
that
the Armenian and Azeri sides should themselves seek for a solution, while
Moscow is ready to help them achieve a mutually acceptable peace formula.
No further details are yet available from the Wednesday meeting, also attended
by the three co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group tasked with finding a
resolution to the Karabagh conflict.

2) New US Ambassador Speaks to Press on Variety of Issues

YEREVAN (Interfax/RFE-RL)–John Evans, the new US ambassador to Armenia, said
stability and security, economic growth, and development of democratic
institutions are the main focus of US activity in South Caucasus, and Armenia
has attained certain success in these areas.
Evans told a press conference in the Armenian capital on Wednesday, that
certain stability and security concerns exist because the Mountainous Karabagh
conflict remains unresolved. Evans stressed the conflicting parties must
formulate a final solution–along with the mediating efforts of the US,
Russia,
and France as the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group.
He said the focus of US attention is to work on opening the Armenian-Turkish
border, so as to benefit both Yerevan and Ankara.
The envoy also reaffirmed US approval of the last-minute cancellation of
NATO-led military exercises which were scheduled to begin in Azerbaijan on
Monday. The NATO leadership pointed to Baku’s refusal to Armenia’s
participation in the maneuvers.
“We do believe that the NATO authorities made the right decision to cancel
this
exercise,” Evans said. But he was quick to indicate that the move should
not be
seen as a diplomatic victory for Armenia, saying that it hurt both parties to
the Mountainous Karabagh conflict.
He commended plans for Armenia to join the US “coalition of the willing” in
Iraq with a small unit of non-combat troops.
“We salute Armenia for its announced intention to send a transportation unit
along with de-miners and some medical personnel to Iraq.”
The planned deployment, which requires parliament approval, is stirring up
debate in Armenia.
Evans said Washington welcomes a public debate on the issue in Armenia.
Evans, who arrived in Armenia a month ago, is a 56-year-old career
diplomat. He
previously headed the Office of Russian Affairs in the Bureau of European and
Eurasian Affairs of the US State Department.

3) ARS Sponsors HIV/AIDS Education Seminar at UN Conference

ARS representatives take front row at September 9 session on Strategies to
Overcome MDG Obstacles

NEW YORK (ARS)–More than 27 members of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) from
throughout the United States, Canada, and Lebanon, participated in the 57th
Annual United Nations DPI/NGO (Department of Public
Information/Non-Governmental Organizations) Conference held at United Nations
Headquarters in New York, September 8 -10. The three-day conference, Millenium
Development Goals: Civil Society Takes Action, attracted more than 2,700
representatives from 90 countries to discuss issues relating to millennium
development goals.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the conference in the General Assembly
Hall. In addition to five plenary panels and 30 mid-day NGO Interactive
Workshops, the Conference featured speakers including Executive Coordinator of
UN Millennium Development Goals Campaign Eveline Herfkins, Jeffrey Sachs,
Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals,
and Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the UN Development Program (UNDP),
among others.
At the Millennium Summit in 2000, 189 member states adopted a Declaration that
synthesized the priorities of the international agenda and reflected those
commitments painstakingly negotiated during the previous decade of world
conferences. The Millennium Declaration, and the eight goals it identified,
have become a road map for tackling poverty, instability, HIV/AIDS, gender
inequality, and violence in virtually all parts of the world.
The ARS, Inc., along with two other NGOs–Committee on Child’s Rights and the
NGO Committee on HIV/AIDS, sponsored the workshop–“Interactive Workshop on
HIV/AIDS Education, Prevention and Care; an Emphasis on Engaging Boys and Men
as Full Partners of Women and Children.”
More than 160 participants discussed HIV/AIDS education models and means to
address obstacles such as denial, stigmatization, and the undue burden women
and children face in most societies. Carol Bova, Assistant Professor, Graduate
School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts, spoke of the AIDS crisis in
Armenia and her work educating the population about the disease. ARS, Inc.
sponsors and assists Dr. Bova in her endeavors.
For more information, visit
<;

4) Turkey Rejects Adultery Ban after EU, Women Protest

ANKARA (AP)–Turkey’s government backed off its plan to outlaw adultery after
criticism within the European Union (EU) and a march on parliament Tuesday by
hundreds of outraged Turkish women.
Government leaders had proposed an adultery ban as part of a major overhaul of
the mostly Muslim country’s 78-year-old penal code, which comes as the 25 EU
states prepare to decide whether to begin talks on Turkey’s appeal for
membership.
Turkey’s leader has argued an adultery law would protect the family and women
who have been wronged. But women’s groups counter that such a law would be
used
against women–who they say could be imprisoned and lose custody of their
children. They say the measure would encourage “honor killings.”

5) Georgia Seeks EU Assistance in Conflict Settlement

BRUSSELS (Itar-Tass/Civil Georgia)–Georgia has appealed to the European Union
to help resolve conflicts in its defiant provinces of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, Georgian state minister for conflict settlement Georgy Khaindrava,
told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
Khaindrava is part of a delegation, led by Foreign Minister Salome
Zurabishvili, attending a session of the EU-Georgian Cooperation Council in
Brussels.
According to Khaindrava, the current session of the Council has
concentrated on
conflicts with the self-proclaimed entities on Georgian territory. At a
meeting
with the Head of European Union Foreign Affairs Javier Solana, the Georgian
delegation brought up the issue of the “internationalization” of these
conflicts.
“The meeting was very encouraging because it noted our point of view on how
the
conflicts could be solved,” the minister said.
“The presence of European observers and a wide presence of the European
community on the whole would be of help,” the minister added.
He added that the problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be solved
within the existing frameworks of the OSCE; however, he believes its role
should be more active.
“They must not remain outside observers, but should directly influence the
situation,” the Georgian state minister said.
Meanwhile, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said in a live interview to
the
Moscow-based radio station Echo Moskvy on September 15 that the will of the
people living in South Ossetia should become a decisive factor in the
discussion of a future political status of the republic, emphasizing that
“reintegration into Georgia is out of question.”
According to him, “mechanisms of security and guarantees of implementing
future
agreements should be primarily discussed in order to resolve the issue of a
future status of the republic.”
“We are ready to use any methods of the negotiating process to stabilize the
situation in the region,” the South Ossetian leader added. Kokoity also noted
that he considers Georgia “a brotherly people and South Ossetia is ready to
have good neighborly relations with it.”
Kokoity said that South Ossetia should join Russia’s North Ossetia.
“It is high time to stop dividing Ossetia into North and South. There is one
big, unified Ossetia and Alexander Dzasokhov [the President of Russia’s North
Ossetian Republic] should be elected as President of Ossetia. I do not aspire
for leadership. Simply, I want to live in the united Ossetia,” he said.
The South Ossetian de facto President has applied several times to merge South
Ossetia into the Russian Federation. Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that such a
merger is illegal without Georgia’s consent.

6) Glendale Voters Approve Americana at Brand Project

GLENDALE–Glendale voters on Tuesday approved three measures associated with
developer Rick Curuso’s proposed Americana at Brand project. The three
measures, A, B, and C, were approved during a special election held on
Tuesday,
November 14. The $264 million project would be bounded by Colorado Street,
Brand Boulevard, Central Avenue, and the Glendale Galleria.
“The people have spoken, ” says Glendale Mayor Bob Yousefian. “However, there
are still a number of lawsuits associated with the project that must be
resolved before the project can move forward.” Lawsuits challenging the
project’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and related issues will be
heard in
January of 2005.
The election was in response to three referendum petitions that were filed
this
past summer challenging three ordinances. The ordinances would adopt the
Glendale Town Center Specific Plan; rezone property associated with the
specific plan; and approve a Development Agreement between the City and Caruso
Affiliated Holdings.
Over 29,500 residents cast ballots Tuesday. 51.8% (15,304 votes) were in favor
of Measure A; 51.3% (15,140 votes) voted for Measure B; and Measure C passed
with 50.9% (15,016 votes).

7) Strong Ties Bind Russia, Armenia at Karabagh Talks
 
Azerbaijan appears to view Russia, the region’s heavyweight, as an influential
counterweight to the OSCE, whose peacekeeping efforts in the Mountainous
Karabagh conflict have been the subject of much criticism in Baku.

By Sergei Blagov for EurasiaNet

As Armenia and Azerbaijan began Wednesday’s presidential summit on Mountainous
Karabagh, Russia has emphasized its own ties with Yerevan, prompting Baku to
question the Kremlin’s role as an objective mediator for the conflict.
Chances for a genuine breakthrough during the September 15 talks at the
Confederation of Independent States (CIS) conference in Astana, Kazakhstan are
doubtful, but both Azerbaijan and Armenia are already touting their respective
inclinations for peace.
On September 2, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev told reporters in the province of
Nakhichevan, near the Armenian border, that “[t]he fact that I have not yet
abandoned negotiations on Mountainous Karabagh means that I believe in their
productivity,” Interfax reported.
In turn, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian announced at an August 30
meeting in Prague with Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov that the two
sides had made progress in laying “the foundation” for the September talks,
according to Interfax.
But that foundation is one that Baku believes should include Russia. In
August,
Azerbaijan called on the Kremlin to step up its own contributions to a
Karabagh
peace deal. Russia, long the region’s heavyweight, appears to be seen by Baku
as a potentially influential counterweight to the Organization for Security
and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), whose own peacemaking efforts via the tripartite
Minsk Group have been the subject of much criticism from Azeri
parliamentarians
and government officials.

Russia as mediator and guarantor?

When Moscow’s response to Baku’s demand came, however, it took place at a
meeting with Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian–the sixth such in the past
year. At an August 20 summit in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin
announced that “Russia is ready to play a role of mediator and guarantor” in
the Karabagh conflict, but noted that “[t]here have been no breakthrough
decisions.”
A show of Russian support could stand Armenia in good stead at the CIS talks.
Speculation has recently mounted that Kocharian is prepared to return the
seven
Azeri territories it occupies in exchange for a peace deal on
Armenian-controlled Karabagh. According to one recent opinion poll, that would
place Kocharian at variance with nearly half of Armenia’s population–a
delicate situation for a leader who withstood weeks of opposition protests
earlier this spring.
In a June 25 poll by the Armenian Center for National and International
Studies, 45.5 per cent of Armenians stated that they believe that territories
seized during the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan should remain under Armenian
control.

Russia ready to use its influence

Meanwhile, Moscow appears ready to assist. Russia’s longtime influence in the
Caucasus is already under political pressure from the US in Georgia and
Azerbaijan and also under increasing economic pressure in both Georgia and
Armenia from outside energy players like Iran. Even while expressing no
official concern at reported US plans to establish a base in Azerbaijan,
Moscow
has been busy reinforcing its traditionally strong ties with Armenia. Recent
military exercises between the two longtime allies appear to have sparked the
sharpest concern in Baku.
At a training base not far from Yerevan on August 24-28, 1,900 Armenian and
Russian troops fought back an imaginary invasion and assault on Russia’s 102nd
military base at Gyumri. Despite assurances from Armenia’s army that the
maneuvers are not directed against a third country, Azerbaijan’s Defense
Ministry has taken a different view. Voicing concern that Russia had held war
games with “an aggressor state,” Defense Ministry spokesman Ramiz Melikov has
stated that the operations contradicted Russia’s role as a mediator in the
Mountainous Karabagh conflict.
In November 2003, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov described Armenia as
Russia’s “only ally in the South.” The Russian military presence in Armenia
has
deep roots. A 1995 treaty gives Russia’s military base a 25-year-long presence
in Armenia, while a 1997 friendship treaty provides for mutual assistance in
the event of a military threat to either country. Currently, there are 2,500
Russian military personnel stationed in the country. Recent military materiel
shipped to Armenia includes MiG-29 jetfighters and S300 PMU1 air defense
batteries, an advanced version of the SA-10C Grumble air defense missile.
Russia’s Federal Border Guard Service is also deployed to guard Armenia’s
borders with Turkey and Iran.

Economic ties fuel Azeri fears

Economic ties could also fuel Azeri fears of favoritism toward its longtime
rival. Armenia is heavily dependent on Russia for its natural gas and nuclear
fuel supplies. In 2002, Russia wrote off 100 million US dollars of Armenia’s
external debt in return for control of five state-run Armenian enterprises,
including the Razdan thermal power plant. Russia’s state-run Unified Energy
Systems power monopoly also controls Armenia’s Metsamor nuclear power station
and hydropower plants under a similar debt repayment arrangement–a deal that
has placed 90 percent of Armenia’s energy system in Russian hands.
At the same time, however, divergent interests have begun to emerge, most
notably with Armenia’s aspiration to limit its dependence on Russian energy
supplies by building a $120 million, 141-kilometer gas pipeline from Iran to
Europe. Iran reportedly has agreed to supply 36 billion cubic meters of
natural
gas to Armenia from 2007-2027, a plan that could undercut Russian energy
companies’ own position in the Caucasus. The plan has yet to be finalized.
Such
a situation would appear likely to push Russia to forge even closer links with
Armenia to protect its own energy interests. If so, the bid to promote Moscow
as an objective mediator could be fraught with additional difficulties.
In the meantime, the Kremlin is playing its own cards carefully. Azeri Foreign
Minister Mammedyarov had little to show after an August 19 trip to Moscow to
discuss Mountainous-Karabagh other than an official statement that the Kremlin
recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Kocharian was treated to
similarly circumspect language at his Sochi summit with Putin. Wedged between
foes Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Russian leader said, is in “a very
difficult geopolitical situation”.

Sergei Blagov is a Moscow-based specialist in CIS political affairs.

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Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
Sept 15 2004

AZERBAIJAN: NATO RELATIONS UNDER STRAIN

Heightening of anti-Armenian sentiments appears to have put paid to
partnership for peace operation.

By Mamed Suleimanov and Shahin Rzayev in Baku

Relations between NATO and Baku may have been damaged after the
alliance was this week forced to cancel a military exercise in
Azerbaijan this week, commentators here warn.

The alliance called off Cooperative Best Effort 2004 following
Azerbaijan’s change of mind about the scheduled involvement of three
Armenian officers in the partnership for peace operation.

The authorities’ move seems to have been a response to a heightening
of public hostility towards Yerevan in the wake of the unexpectedly
harsh jail sentences handed down to a group of Azerbaijani veterans
who protested against a recent visit by Armenians to a NATO conference
in Baku.

Visiting the town of Barda on September 11, President Ilham Aliev spoke
out against the Armenian officers coming to Baku. On the previous day,
the Azerbaijani parliament passed a resolution appealing to the NATO
Secretary General to stop the visit.

On September 13, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia were

invited to NATO headquarters in Brussels to discuss the issue.
Following the meeting, the alliance issued a press release saying,
“We regret that the principle of inclusiveness could not be upheld
in this case, leading to the cancellation of the exercise.”

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed similar
sentiments in comments to Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanian.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are members of NATO’s partnership for
peace programme, which works on the principle that all parties who
wish to take part in an exercise must be allowed to do so. So the Baku
authorities knew that by refusing to receive the Armenian delegation
under pressure from the public, they were running into direct conflict
with the alliance.

A group of parliamentary deputies have said the cancellation of
the exercises is a “victory for the Azerbaijani people”, while
other commentators have warned it has badly damaged the country’s
relationship with NATO.

Anti-Armenian propaganda in Azerbaijan has reached unprecedented
levels recently and was strengthened by the jail sentences given to
the leaders of the Karabakh Liberation Organisation.

Six members of the KLO, including its chairman Akif Nagi, were
sentenced on August 30 after they had protested the participation
of two Armenian officers in a NATO preparatory conference in the
Evropa Hotel in Baku on June 21. The activists attempted to disrupt
the meeting, with security staff apprehending them only at the last
moment after they had broken glass panes in the doors of the conference
room. No one was hurt in the attack.

Nagi and his organisation are well known for their extremely negative

stance on any contacts with Armenians, while the Nagorny Karabakh
problem remains unresolved. Since it was created in 2000, the KLO has

called for a military solution to the Karabakh issue and condemned
the peace talks sponsored by the international Minsk Group.

Last year, KLO members organised violent protests in front of the
offices of two human rights organisations – the Human Rights Centre
of Azerbaijan (headed by Eldar Zeinalov) and Institute for Peace and
Democracy (headed by Leila Yunus), whom they accused of maintaining
close ties with Armenian colleagues.

After it was announced that Armenian officers were to come to Baku,
Nagi told IWPR in an interview on December 19, 2003, that his
organisation would do everything in its power to foil the visit.
“This visit will turn out to be a tragedy and blood for them,” he said.

Many thought that the trial of the activists would be a formality and

the defendants would walk free from the courtroom with suspended
sentences. Nagi was jailed for five years – his colleagues were handed
slightly shorter terms.

On September 2, the president criticised the court’s decision –
unprecedented in the history of independent Azerbaijan – saying it was
“too severe a punishment”.

“As president I cannot and do not wish to interfere with the decision

of the court,” he said. “But as a citizen I believe that the punishment
passed by the court is disproportionate to the defendants’

actions. As a citizen I cannot support this decision.” The president
advised the offenders to apply to the court of appeal.

In Armenia the sentencing of the KLO activists received
mixed reviews. The head of the Democratic Party of Armenia,
Aram Sarkisian, said, “I am convinced that the KLO protest was a
result of the anti-Armenian hysteria launched by the authorities in
Azerbaijan. And this court sentence is a result of their domestic
policy and propaganda.”

David Shakhnazarian, a former government member who advocates closer
contacts with Azerbaijan, welcomed the sentences. He told IWPR, “I
hope that this helps lead to a decline in anti-Armenian propaganda in

Azerbaijan. Knowing well that in Azerbaijan, just as in Armenia,
the courts are not independent, I see it as an impulse coming from
the current authorities of Azerbaijan. I hope that this will not just
be a one-off case.”

In Baku, Eldar Zeynalov, director of the Human Rights Centre of
Azerbaijan, called the court verdict an example of double standards.
“After the same people had trashed our office last May the case against
them was closed shortly afterwards,” he said. “So the government
actively encourages pogroms against human rights defenders. And now
they turned this trial into a political show. I am sure that very
soon the

appeal court will reduce the punishment for the KLO activists and
free them all. The authorities will find more use for these lads…”

The events of recent weeks have succeeded in uniting both government
and opposition in a rare show of unanimity. Rasim Musabekov, an
executive committee member of opposition party Musavat, told IWPR,
“Of course, the image of our country was damaged by our failure to
observe our NATO commitments. However, we demonstrated that Azerbaijan
is capable of standing its ground on national questions, refusing to
compromise. And that is more important.”

Mamed Suleimanov is a correspondent for the Regnum news agency in
Azerbaijan. Shahin Rzayev is IWPR’s Azerbaijan coordinator. Regnum
correspondent Vigen Hakobian in Yerevan contributed to this report.

ISN, Switzerland
Sept 15 2004

Azerbaijan far from NATO after exercise cancelation 15.09.2004

Certainly, the prediction by one Western analyst that “Azerbaijan
will enter NATO by 2005”, which made headlines in the Azeri press in
July 2002, now seems overly optimistic.

By Liz Fuller for RFE/RL

NATO’s Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises, scheduled to take place
in Azerbaijan on 14-27 September, have been canceled, according to
a NATO press release of 13 September. “We regret that the principle
of inclusiveness could not be upheld in this case,” the press release
stated, without elaborating. But Lieutenant-Colonel Ludger Terbrueggen,
who is a spokesman for NATO military command, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service the same day that “the reason…is that Azerbaijan did not
grant visas to soldiers and officers of Armenia.” Since January, Baku
has sought repeatedly to thwart the planned Armenian presence at this
year’s Cooperative Best Effort maneuvers. Three Armenian military
officers who tried to travel to Baku in early January first from
Turkey and then from Georgia to attend a planning conference for the
maneuvers were prevented from doing so. In June, members of the radical
Karabakh Liberation Organization (QAT) picketed, and then forced their
way into, a Baku hotel where two Armenian officers were attending
a second planning conference in preparation for the exercises. Five
of those QAT activists were arrested and sentenced in late August to
between three and five years’ imprisonment on charges of hooliganism,
violating public order, and obstructing government officials. Those
verdicts triggered protests from across the political spectrum,
fueling public opposition to the Armenians’ anticipated arrival.

Lost opportunity

In April, Azeri President Ilham Aliev assured Deputy Commander of the
US European Command General Charles Wald that there were no obstacles
to the Armenian participation in the September war games. Other
visiting US officials also sought to impress on Azerbaijan the
importance of allowing the Armenian contingent to attend. But in recent
weeks, the Azeri government has made increasingly clear its hostility
to the planned Armenian participation. On 27 July, the independent
ANS TV quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov as saying that Baku
has stipulated that only non-combat personnel – military journalists,
public-relations officials, and military doctors – would be permitted
to attend, and that the number of Armenian participants would be
limited to three. On 4 September, however, Armenian Deputy Defense
Minister Major General Artur Aghabekian said seven Armenian officers
would take part in the exercises, while the number denied visas by the
Azerbaijani Embassy in Tbilisi was given as five. The opposition daily
Azadlig on 10 September quoted Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov as
saying that Azerbaijan would not grant visas to the Armenians. And on
10 September, the Azeri parliament adopted an appeal to NATO Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to retract the invitation extended to the
Armenian side, citing what it termed Armenia’s aggression and policy
of ethnic cleansing. The parliamentarians argued that the presence
in Baku of Armenian military personnel could aggravate tensions in
the region. President Aliev stated while visiting the Barda region
on 11 September, “I do not want the Armenians to come to Azerbaijan”.

NATO’s double standards?

In an apparent last-ditch effort to persuade Baku to abandon its
obstructionist approach, de Hoop Scheffer met with Azeri Foreign
Minister Mammadyarov and his Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanian in
Brussels on 13 September for talks. Oskanian subsequently praised the
NATO decision to call off the exercises, adding at the same time that
he regrets the “lost opportunity for regional cooperation”. Armenia
hosted the NATO Cooperative Best Effort-2003 exercises, in which
some 400 troops from 19 countries, including the US, Britain,
Russia, Georgia, and Turkey practiced routine peacekeeping
exercises. Azerbaijan declined to participate. In February 2004,
a junior Azeri officer attending a NATO-sponsored English language
course in Budapest hacked a sleeping Armenian fellow student to
death with an axe. The full impact of Azerbaijan’s violation of
NATO’s “principle of inclusiveness” and of NATO’s ensuing decision
to cancel the planned exercises is difficult to predict. The move
is likely to corroborate many Azeris’ conviction that NATO is guilty
of double standards and bias towards Armenia. It may also give rise
to a certain coolness between Brussels and Washington, in light of
persistent rumors that the US is considering Azerbaijan as a possible
location for a rapid-reaction force. Certainly, the prediction by one
Western analyst that “Azerbaijan will enter NATO by 2005”, which made
headlines in the Azeri press in July 2002, now seems overly optimistic.

Azerbaijan, Armenia Hold Talks On Nagorno-Karabakh

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Sept 16 2004

15 September 2004 — The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan held talks
today on the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham
Aliyev held two-way talks before joining Russian President Vladimir
Putin to discuss the ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan over which
the two neighboring states fought a five-year war in the early 1990s.

The talks were held on the sidelines of a meeting of leaders of
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member countries in the
Kazakh capital Astana.

The OSCE Minsk Group, which is co-chaired by Russia, France, and the
United States, has been mediating between Armenia and Azerbaijan in
the past decade.

Some 35,000 people were killed and about 1 million displaced by the
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which erupted during the breakup of
the Soviet Union.

Khatami calls three-nation tour, ECO summit positive

Tehran Times, Iran
Sept 16 2004

TEHRAN (IRNA) — President Mohammad Khatami here Tuesday evening
assessed the outcomes of his visit to Armenia, Belarus and Tajikistan
and his presence at the ECO summit as positive.

Talking to reporters at Mehrabad International Airport upon his
arrival, Khatami said the three countries are Iran’s friends which
have had good relations with Tehran since their independence.

“Attempts have been made that ties with the three states be directed
towards progress and development with more speed,” he said.

He added during his visit to Armenia, which took place at the
invitation of his Armenian counterpart, the two countries signed seven
documents for cooperation, adding the document on transfer of Iran’s
gas to Armenia was the most important one.

In the visit to Armenia, the sides discussed bilateral, regional and
international issues, the president noted.

Pointing to natural and industrial resources of Belarus, he said
Tehran and Minsk inked five documents.

Khatami said the commission of Iran’s potentials in Belarus will be
set up, adding a factory will also be established in Belarus for joint
production of paper. He referred to the deep-rooted cultural ties
with Tajikistan and said, “Iran’s trade exchanges with Tajikistan
have been increased during recent years by three times but there
still exist some potentials for further promotion of ties.”

Khatami noted that Iran and Tajikistan signed six documents, including
construction of Anzab tunnel and Sangtudeh power plant in participation
of Iran, Russia and Tajikistan.

Pointing to the ECO summit, held in Tajikistan on Tuesday,
the president stated that in today’s complicated world regional
organizations can play an effective role, adding regarding potentials
of the region and common history and culture of ECO nations, the
Economic Cooperation Organization can take many useful measures.

He stressed that Iran’s two proposals on reforming the trend of ECO
decision-making and establishing ECO free trade zone were approved
during the organization’s summit.

It is expected that the ECO would achieve its goal regarding the
setting up of the free trade zone by 2015, Khatami said.

He added that he held separate meetings with his Tajik, Afghan and
Kyrgyz counterparts as well as the prime ministers of Pakistan and
Turkey on the sidelines of the ECO summit.

President Mohammad Khatami arrived in Tehran on Tuesday evening,
ending his three-nation tour which took him to Armenia, Belarus
and Tajikistan.

Russian president praises Armenian, Azeri leaders’ optimism

ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
15 Sep 04

Astana, 15 September: Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it is
important to maintain the dialogue on the Nagornyy Karabakh problem
between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“No matter what you agree on today, personal meetings between leaders
is always a step forward,” Vladimir Putin said opening a trilateral
meeting of the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents.

Vladimir Putin noted Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan’s enthusiasm
to continue the dialogue to resolve the Karabakh problem.

“I am pleased to note that despite the difficulty of the problem,
you are continuing the dialogue,” the Russian leader said. He stressed
that he considered “it is important that the dialogue and negotiations
at the highest level are being maintained”.

The Russian president expressed confidence that “the meeting will not
be worthless and will contribute to the settlement of the problem”. He
thanked the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan for their readiness
to hold today’s meeting. “We understand that expectations are high
and the problem is an extremely difficult one,” Putin said. “I am
pleased to note that you remain optimistic and have the desire to
resolve the problem.”

The Russian leader stressed that “today’s meeting was part of efforts
of the OSCE Minsk Group”. He stressed that today, before the trilateral
meeting, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan had held a one-to-one
meeting and before that a meeting with the co-chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk Group. “All the people involved in this process (the Karabakh
settlement) sincerely sympathize with you,” Putin said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he wanted “peace to come
to our region soon”. Ilham Aliyev thanked Vladimir Putin for his
involvement in the settlement of the Karabakh problem. “Thank you
for the involvement in this issue. As our neighbour and a co-chair
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia plays a very important role in the
settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict,” he said. “I am
grateful to you for your participation and involvement,” he added.

In turn, Robert Kocharyan said that he had “interesting talks with
the Azerbaijani president”. Kocharyan said that it was his third
meeting with Ilham Aliyev. “We had three meetings, one of them
was a familiarization one, the second one was more detailed,” he
said. Kocharyan believes that “the work was more effective at the
ministerial level” when preparations were made for the presidents’
meeting.
From: Baghdasarian

BizReport
Sept 15 2004

Kerkorian and MGM, Off Again

On Monday, Kirk Kerkorian sold Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. for the third
time. As a Hollywood reconciliation story, that means Kerkorian has
bought and sold the venerable movie studio more times than Elizabeth
Taylor married Richard Burton.

by Frank Ahrens

The 87-year-old billionaire has been many things in his life:
streetwise boyhood sharpie, wiry pug boxer, daring World War II
pilot, airline chief, Las Vegas casino owner, friend of Hollywood’s
Rat Pack and movie studio mogul. Now, he returns his full attention
to Vegas, where he is merging his MGM Mirage casino with Mandalay
Resort Group in a $7.9 billion deal, giving him control of half of
the action on the Strip.

Kirk Kerkorian is listed by Forbes magazine as the 65th-richest
person in the world. (Mike Mergen — Bloomberg News)

Why has he lobbed the MGM back and forth like a tennis ball in his
beloved game, which he still plays often and at which he beats
younger opponents? It has less to do with sentimentality and more to
do with situational dealmaking and targets of opportunity, which have
defined Kerkorian’s career, say those who have worked with him.

Asked to explain his on-again, off-again love affair with the studio
known for its roaring lion logo, Terry N. Christensen — who met
Kerkorian when he was buying MGM for the first time in 1969 and has
been his personal lawyer for many years since — paused, laughed and
said, “You could ask me a lot of questions, but that’s one I can’t
answer.”

Is it the storied history of the studio, which produced the “The
Wizard of Oz,” “Ben-Hur” and the “Tarzan” films? Unlikely, since MGM
held a fire sale on Kerkorian’s watch in 1970, selling its studio lot
and many props, including Dorothy’s ruby slippers.

Is it the access to Hollywood’s glam life? Probably not. He is known
for his lack of pretense. When MGM’s “A Fish Called Wanda” came out,
Kerkorian told studio head Alan Ladd Jr. that he enjoyed the movie
even though he was twice turned away from sold-out theaters. “Kirk,
we’d show it to you anytime you want to see it,” a flabbergasted Ladd
told Kerkorian. “Oh, no, no. I wouldn’t do that,” Ladd said Kerkorian
replied.

Instead, Kerkorian has treated the famous studio as he has every
other property he’s owned — as a business asset he buys low with the
intention of building, but will sell high at the right price.

Kerkorian acquired the studio for the third time at auction in 1996,
when it was hemorrhaging millions. He transferred Alex Yemenidjian —
who was buying and selling companies for Tracinda Corp., Kerkorian’s
holding company — from Las Vegas to Hollywood and told him to fix
MGM. Yemenidjian hired Christopher J. McGurk from Universal Pictures
to run the finances.

Kerkorian picked the right time to re-enter the movie business. The
media sector was surging. By 1999, MGM reported its first profit in
11 years. Time Inc. and Warner Bros. merged. In 2000, AOL bought Time
Warner Inc. Shortly after, Vivendi and Universal combined. Kerkorian
and Yemenidjian expanded MGM, adding distribution and co-production
deals with other studios, buying a piece of a cable company,
launching cable television channels overseas and hitting Broadway
with shows featuring MGM characters.

One year ago, MGM thought it was about to add the missing piece to
its plan — Universal’s movie and television studios and cable
channels, which failing conglomerate Vivendi Universal SA was selling
off. But at the last minute, General Electric Co.’s NBC swooped in
and stole the prize.

Stifled in their attempt to grow big enough to rival giants such as
Time Warner and the Walt Disney Co., Kerkorian and Yemenidjian looked
elsewhere. “We found ourselves with the ability to do an acquisition,
but there was nothing to buy,” Yemenidjian said.

MGM’s high-cash bid for Universal, a sign of its solvency, was like
bait for other companies. Time Warner, Sony Corp. and NBC all
expressed interest in the studio and its 4,000-film library, the
industry’s largest, a perpetual treasure trove of DVD sales, which
includes the James Bond and Pink Panther series. Kerkorian wasn’t
looking to sell, Yemenidjian and others said, but the time was
propitious and he recognized it.

So Kerkorian put MGM on the market, and Sony snatched it for $2.9
billion. Kerkorian’s team paid $1.3 billion for the studio in 1996;
his cut alone from the Sony sale is worth more than $1.7 billion.

He now turns his attention back to Vegas, which he discovered in
1947, ferrying California celebrities and gamblers back and forth to
Los Angeles on his self-funded Los Angeles Air Service. Kerkorian is
revered in aviation circles; he flew bombers from Canada to Europe
during World War II and hunted salvage planes and resold them after
the war. In 1965, he took his growing airline public; a few years
later, he sold to TransAmerica Corp. for $100 million. He began
building casinos, becoming a friend of Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin and other Vegas headliners.

Kerkorian’s scrappy business style — honed from a variety of jobs as
a poor Los Angeles youth, up through his career as a bouncer and
boxer — is described as simple and straightforward.

“He is utterly stand-up,” said Barry Diller, chairman of
IAC/InterActiveCorp and a director of The Washington Post Co. “I
would take a commitment from him without a piece of paper and truly
count on it.”

If he has a blind spot in his business acumen, however, it may be
expecting the same from those he has employed.

“I think he does give discretion and leeway to senior management,”
said Christensen. “If you’re not micromanaging those people, they do
have the opportunity to take advantage of you. . . . These things
happen in Hollywood.”

Poor MGM performance during Kerkorian’s second run, from 1986-90,
spurred his decision to sell the studio for a second time and buy a
big chunk of Chrysler.

Though Kerkorian lives in Beverly Hills, Vegas may be his spiritual
home.

Kerkorian does not gamble in his casinos, but when he wagers
elsewhere, he tends to be a one-off gambler, say those who have seen
him but declined to be identified so not to draw the billionaire’s
ire. They say he will not sit at a blackjack or craps table for
hours. Instead, he will walk by a gaming table, place one large bet
and, win or lose, walk away.

As he has for more than three decades, Kerkorian declined to comment.
The world’s 65th-richest person — worth $6 billion, according to
Forbes magazine — is not reclusive but private, say friends and
associates.

“What does he need the press for?” asked Jerry Weintraub, MGM’s chief
executive in the mid-1980s and now a producer. “Me, I need the press.
I sell product.” Weintraub said he called Kerkorian to ask permission
to be interviewed for this story; even though Kerkorian will not
speak on the record, he is not uninvolved in the formation of his
public image.

When Variety editor Peter Bart was finishing his manuscript of “Fade
Out: The Calamitous Final Days of MGM,” which came out in 1990, he
received a call during an island vacation. It was Kerkorian on the
line. Though Kerkorian would not be quoted for the book, he told Bart
that he would be happy to review the manuscript and offer
suggestions, which he did, Bart said, relating the story last summer
in Los Angeles.

Kerkorian’s aversion to the press hasn’t kept his private life
completely out of the public eye. In 1999, he went through a
nasty-even-by-Hollywood-standards divorce from his third wife, Lisa
Bonder, a former tennis pro 49 years his junior. (His first marriage
lasted 10 years; his second, to a Vegas showgirl, lasted 29 and
produced two children, Tracy and Linda, whose names he combined to
create his company name — Tracinda. His charity is called the Lincy
Foundation.)

Details of the marriage played out publicly through thousands of
pages of court filings and testimony, offering up irresistible and
embarrassing details that included sperm counts, a child Bonder
falsely claimed Kerkorian fathered and her demands for child support
— $320,000 per month. Kerkorian settled with Bonder for $50,000 a
month in child support.

Less public is his charitable work. Following the devastating 1988
earthquake in Armenia, where Kerkorian’s parents were born, he began
sending one cargo jet per month of medical and other supplies, a
practice he continues. His foundation recently gave a $200 million
grant to repair infrastructure in the capital city of Yerevan and
build 3,800 homes. He refuses to have his foundation’s recipients
name buildings for him.

Kerkorian can be personally generous, as well, Ladd said.

“He’ll tip the maitre d’ $100 for a check that was $50,” said Ladd,
who is suing MGM for a percentage of the adjusted gross income of the
three most recent Bond films.

Now Kerkorian is focused on Vegas. But is it too much of a young
man’s town for an 87-year-old? Doubtful, Yemenidjian said.

“I think his genes are better than yours or mine,” he said.

Al-Jazeera, Qatar
Sept 15 2004

Beirut to host Arab film festival
By Nurah Tape

The festival addresses several issues affecting Middle-East

More than 100 films and documentaries showcasing the work of young
and independent filmmakers from across the Middle-East are to be
screened at the third bi-annual Ayyam Beirut al-Cinemaiya Arab film
festival.

Providing an overview of Arab film production in the past two years,
the festival, which begins on Wednesday, will run from 15 to 26
September in the Lebanese capital.

“We tried to select quality films that were representative of what’s
happening in the region’s cinema,” Elaine Rahib, co-director of the
festival, which is organised by Beirut Development and Cinema (BDC),
is quoted as saying.

BDC is a cultural cooperative association, established in 1999, which
promotes and defends independent Arab cinema.

Rahib said more than 300 films were viewed before the final 130 were
selected for screening.

Thirteen features, 40 documentaries, 45 short films, video art as
well as experimental and student films will be showcased.

Rahib said the documentary is “the genre that’s shaping the identity
of Arabic cinema right now”.

‘Crisis’

“Filmmakers in this region are in a crisis now …They see the
Western media representing the people of the Middle East as heroes,
victims or terrorists and it is impossible to ignore”

Elaine Rahib,
Co-director of the festival

Egyptian director Yusri Nasr Allah’s film, Bab al-Shams (Door of the
Sun), which focuses upon the experiences of a group of refugees
fleeing from Palestine to Lebanon, will be screened on the opening
night of the festival. The film, an adaptation of the novel by Ilyas
Khury, was screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

“Filmmakers in this region are in a crisis now”, Rahib is quoted as
saying.

“They see the Western media representing the people of the Middle
East as heroes, victims or terrorists and it is impossible to ignore.
If they take up these topics themselves it’s because they’re trying
to position themselves relative to these issues. They’re in a crisis,
but trying to find a solution.”

Palestine

As in the past, Palestine is a recurring feature of the festival.

More than 20 films on the subject, directed by Palestinian, Arab and
foreign filmmakers will be screened. These include Suraida – A Woman
>>From Palestine, by Tahani Rashid, Writers on the Borders by Samir Abd
Allah, Ijtia by Nizar Hasan, Like Twenty Impossibilities by
Anne-Marie Jacir, In the Ninth Month by Ali Nasar and Private
Investigation by Ula Tabari.

The Sabra and Shatila massacres
are highlighted in one of the films

Bab al-Shams, in memory of the Sabra and Shatila massacres, will also
be showcased in the Shatila refugee camp in an open-air screening on
the opening night.

Another director of the festival, Hania Mroue said the independent
films that have been chosen are “films that have been made relatively
free of the constraints of distributors and producers”.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival is a special section of
foreign films, which take a look at the Arab world.

An example is a film called 2000 Terrorists, about four of the
plaintiffs living in Sabra and Shatila, who filed a lawsuit against
Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon in a Belgium.

Alternating images of their daily lives in the refugee camps and the
tribunal in Brussels on the other, the film is a story about the
never ending struggle for justice.

Vodka Lemon, a film set in Armenia by Iraqi Kurd Hinner Selim, is
another.

Discussions

Apart from discussions taking place after each film, several
roundtables and debates are scheduled for the festival. One
discussion will focus on identity as shown in the Arab cinema today.

Some films focus on women as well, such as Women beyond borders, by
Lebanese documentary veteran Jean Chamun and When Women Sing by
Mustafa Hasnawi and Hala Galal’s Women Chat.

While not being competitive, the festival will award a prize to the
best Lebanese film (short or documentary) based on audience votes, to
enourage the winning director to produce a second film.

For further information, email: [email protected]

Nuncio says poverty, resources, instability make Caucasus volatile
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service
Sept 15 2004

ROME (CNS) — The poverty, political instability and major energy
resources found in the Caucasus region have combined to make it a
potential “powder keg” for violence on an international scale, said
the nuncio to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Ethnic and religious differences, independence movements and the fight
for territorial control have sparked “a confrontation without limits
and without morality,” said Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, the nuncio.

An interview the archbishop gave to a Catholic newspaper in Trent,
Italy, was republished in early September by SIR, the news agency of
the Italian bishops’ conference.

He spoke after the deaths of more than 300 children and adults in a
school in Beslan in Russia’s North Ossetia province.

The main suspects were from the neighboring province of Chechnya,
where battles have raged in a fight for independence from Russia. On a
smaller scale, South Ossetia, which is part of Georgia, has experienced
violence by residents fighting for independence or for reunification
with Russia.

The Caucasus region, Archbishop Gugerotti said, is a mix of East and
West and has vast gas and petroleum reserves. It generally includes
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and parts of southern Russia.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990, he said, “instability
generated poverty, which was aggravated by a series of population
shifts and an influx of refugees, which make the Caucasus an ideal
basin for terrorism and subversion in general.”

“To avoid letting this transform into a situation like that of
the Balkans (in the early 1990s), it is indispensable that the
international community not abandon us. Not even Russia, acting
alone, can get out of this crisis because the hotspots of tensions
are infinite,” Archbishop Gugerotti said.

The archbishop said that the old communist structures that provided
security have eroded and there has been difficulty in establishing
new structures throughout the region.

Many of the region’s people “do not feel protected by any functioning
system,” he said. “Then there also is the painful perception that
people find themselves facing an almost inevitable escalation” of
insecurity and danger.

A political solution is needed to resolve the conflicting aspirations
of the various communities present in the region, the archbishop said.

“New formulas to pacify the region” must be found, he said; otherwise
there is risk of “a generalized explosion.”

Archbishop Gugerotti said religious leaders in the region have
a serious responsibility to educate their communities for peace,
dialogue and respect for others.

“The situation requires a movement of contact between religious leaders
to reinforce positive values … and curb the risks of manipulating
religion, which some try to do, finding easy success amid ignorance
and poverty,” he said.

Azeri ruling party official criticizes NATO for cancelling Baku war games

Sarq, Baku
15 Sep 04

Text of Yadigar’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Sarq on 15 September
headlined “NATO has shown disrespect for the Azerbaijani public” and
subheaded “Ali Ahmadov: The cancellation of exercises is a glaring
example of the fact that NATO practices double standards”

The executive secretary of the NAP [ruling New Azerbaijan Party], MP
Ali Ahmadov, has described as disrespect for the Azerbaijani public
the cancellation of the NATO exercises, which were scheduled to take
place in Azerbaijan, because of Armenian servicemen.

“One would think that as a body interested in cooperation with
Azerbaijan and simultaneously in maintaining peace and security in
the world, NATO would decide to hold this event without Armenian
officers showing respect for the opinion of the Azerbaijani
people. Unfortunately, a different thing happened.”

Ahmadov thinks that this is a glaring example showing that NATO sticks
to double standards. As for this decision’s great damages to the sides,
Ahmadov said that “NATO is expanding its borders and undoubtedly this
body is interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan”.

“Azerbaijan is also interested in cooperation with NATO. I think
there was no need to take hasty steps to prevent cooperation built
up on the basis of mutual interests. Truly, NATO has repeatedly
stated that Azerbaijan expects certain assistance from NATO in the
Nagornyy Karabakh settlement. This might be linked to NATO’s internal
regulations and tasks. But I would like to clarify one issue. If an
act of aggression takes place and any organization, including NATO,
does not mention this and name the aggressor country, then this means
to some extent support for aggression and the aggressor. Unfortunately,
NATO has demonstrated that it does not want to play an active role in
the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement and does not admit who the aggressor
is. This means support for the aggressor,” he said.

The MP thinks that the future will show whether the taken step was
correct.

“However, I do not believe that this step will seriously influence
ties between NATO and Azerbaijan. I assume that the arising situation
will be investigated by the sides and the necessary steps will be
taken to develop cooperation.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress