Pravda, Russia
July 20 2004
Russian gas concern to take part in building Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline
President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and a delegation of the Russian
Gazprom gas concern headed by deputy chairman of the board Alexander
Ryazanov discussed on Monday the building of Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline.
The press service of the Armenian president reported that the sides
also discussed the current state of gas supply to Armenia and the
promising programes in this sphere.
Kocharyan expressed satisfaction over the present level of Armenia’s
cooperation with Gazprom.
It was pointed out that the ArmRosgazprom company intensifies its
activity from year to year, and the gasification rates and the number
of clients are growing in the republic.
The Armenian-Russian enterprise ArmRosgazprom is the only supplier of
the Russian natural gas to Armenia. The company was created in 1997
by Gazprom and the Armenian energy ministry which have 45% of shares
each, and the international group of companies ITERA (10% of shares.)
The authorized capital of ArmRosgazprom is $270 million. In 2003 the
ArmRosgazprom had 186,000 clients.
After his meeting with the Armenian president Ryazanov told
journalists that the construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline
will cost $140 million.
“It is now necessary,” he said, “to choose the sources of financing,
and if they are determined no problem will appear in connection with
the building of this pipeline.”
Ryazanov also pointed out that they can be either state credits or
the means of Gazprom.
At the same time the deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom ruled
out the possibility of the transit of the Russian gas via the
territory of Armenia to third countries since “Armenia is not a
transit country but a consumer, and the Iranian gas pipeline will
satisfy Armenia’s gas requirements for energy and transport needs.”
On May 13, 2004 Armenia and Iran signed a treaty on deliveries of
Iranian gas to Armenia for 20 years. During this period of time the
republicwill receive from Iran 36 billion cubic metres of gas in
exchange for the Armenian energy.

Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
July 20 2004
Turkey’s EU entry still long way off: France
(Reuters)
PARIS – Turkey is making progress towards European Union membership
but its entry is still a long way off, France said before talks on
Tuesday between Turkey’s prime minister and French President Jacques
Chirac.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan held a breakfast meeting with French
business leaders ahead of lunch with Chirac at the Elysee Palace
where they were set to discuss Turkey’s EU drive.
`We have to be truthful — Turkey is not going to enter the European
Union tomorrow,’ French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told Europe 1
radio.
`The road is still long, but it is on this path and has been making
progress for some time.’
EU leaders will decide in December whether to open entry talks with
Ankara. France is seen as the only large EU member state still with
reservations about admitting Turkey.
Erdogan briefed French officials on Monday about Turkey’s drive to
bring its laws into line with EU rules. French Prime Minister
Jean-Pierre Raffarin said afterwards an EU Commission report this
October on Turkey’s readiness would be key.
Barnier said even if the Commission gave the green light for entry
talks, full Turkish membership was not imminent: ‘Afterwards, there
will be a certain delay (before entry).’
France’s political class is deeply divided over admitting its NATO
ally to the European Union, with critics citing Turkey’s poverty and
human rights record as barriers.
Chirac, who told a NATO summit in Istanbul in June that Turkey’s EU
drive was `irreversible’, faces opposition on Turkish entry from
within his governing conservatives.
Alain Juppe, a close Chirac ally and former head of the conservative
UMP party, has said the entry of a Muslim nation of 70 million would
distort the 25-nation European Union.
The opposition Socialists support Turkish membership in principle,
but party chief Francois Hollande has linked the start of entry talks
to Ankara’s recognition of the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman
forces as genocide.
France is home to a significant Armenian population. Pro-Armenian
groups were to demonstrate in Paris later on Tuesday against
Erdogan’s three-day visit.
TRADE AND REFORM
Erdogan, who is accompanied by a trade delegation, met top French
employers’ association, MEDEF, on Tuesday morning.
During his visit he is expected to discuss the possible purchase of
jets from Airbus EADS.PA for the national carrier Turkish Airlines
THYAO.IS.
The state-run airline, which is slated for privatisation, has said it
is talking to both European-based Airbus and to US rival Boeing Co.
BA.N amid a boom in Turkish air travel.
Turkey’s ruling centre-right AKP party, which has its roots in
political Islam, has introduced a flurry of liberal political and
economic reforms ahead of December’s decision.
A top Turkish diplomat told CNN Turk television only two major pieces
of EU-linked legislation still awaited parliament’s approval — a
revised penal code bringing criminal law closer to EU norms and a law
easing limits on freedom of association.
The diplomat, Murat Sungar, said he hoped parliament would approve
them at a special session in September.
Turkish financial markets are closely watching the run-up to
December, fearful that a ‘no’ could trigger a fresh economic crisis,
unseat the government and perhaps reverse some reforms.
Britain, Germany, Italy and Greece have pledged strong support for
Turkey’s EU bid. Diplomats expect negotiations to start in 2005 but
say full membership is a decade away.

News24, South Africa
July 20 2004
‘Mercenaries’ saga: Key dates

Harare – A group of 70 suspected mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe
four months ago on charges of plotting a coup in oil-rich Equatorial
Guinea go on trial on Wednesday.
Here are some of the key events leading up to the trial of the
“Harare 70”.
March 7:
Zimbabwe authorities announce the arrest of 70 suspected mercenaries.
67 of the men were on board a Boeing private jet that had landed at
Harare international airport from South Africa to pick up weapons.
The three other men, including the alleged leader Simon Mann, were
already in Zimbabwe and waiting for their arrival at the airport.
Zimbabwe maintains that the men were en route to join 15 others in
Equatorial Guinea to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
March 9:
Obiang announces the arrest in Malabo of 15 men he says were plotting
to overthrow him and accuses opposition leader Severo Moto, who is
living in exile in Madrid, of being behind the attempted coup.
A man identified as South African Nick du Toit, 48, the alleged
leader of the group of 15, appears on television in Equatorial
Guinea, saying the mercenaries were on a mission to abduct Obiang and
force him into exile.
March 13:
Obiang says the 15 suspected mercenaries face the death penalty,
adding: “If we have to kill them, we will kill them.”
March 18:
South Africa denies a report in Spain’s El Pais newspaper that the
alleged leader of the mercenary force, Nick du Toit, had died from
torture in Malabo’s notorious Black Beach prison.
Malabo announces that one of the men, German national Gerhard Eugen
Nershz, had died from cerebral malaria.
The newspaper also says that one of the South Africans in the group,
that also includes Armenians and Angolans, was working for the
president’s security detail.
March 23:
At their first court appearance in the Chikurubi maximum security
prison on the outskirts of Harare, the 70 suspected mercenaries are
formally charged with illegal possession and purchase of weapons, and
with violations of firearms, immigration and civil aviation
legislation.
April 7:
Equatorial Guinea’s interior minister says the alleged mercenaries
planned to kill the president and his entire family.
April 8:
Zimbabwe’s justice minister says he will investigate allegations by
some of the 70 detained men that they were beaten in prison.
April 13:
The 70 suspected mercenaries make another court appearance in
Chikurubi.
April 27:
Lawyers representing the 70 suspected mercenaries request that they
be released and produce a witness who testifies that the men were on
their way to the Democratic Republic of Congo to guard a diamond
mine.
April 29:
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe agrees to extradite the 70 men to
face trial in Equatorial Guinea following talks with Obiang in
Bulawayo, a reliable source reveals.
May 12:
Zimbabwe prosecutors claim that the alleged leader of the group of 70
men, Simon Mann, had signed a contract with opposition leader Severo
Moto to topple the regime in Equatorial Guinea.
June 9:
The Pretoria High court rejects a request by the families of the 70
mercenaries held in Zimbabwe to force President Thabo Mbeki’s
government to seek their extradition to South Africa.
June 23:
Trial date for the 70 mercenaries is set for July 19.
July 9:
Equatorial Guinea files complaints in Britain and Spain, citing
opposition leader Severo Moto and businessman Elie Calil of Lebanese
origin, management consultant Greg Wales and Simon Mann for being
behind the alleged coup plot.
July 10:
The trial of the 70 mercenaries is postponed to July 21.
July 13:
Trial of 12 prison guards charged with beating some of the 70
suspected mercenaries is postponed to July 27.
July 19:
South Africa’s constitutional court hears appeal from families of
suspected mercenaries who want to force President Thabo Mbeki’s
government to seek the extradition of the men from Zimbabwe.
Edited by Duane Heath

ABC Net, Australia
July 20 2004
Court considers Pileggi appeal
Dumped weightlifter Caroline Pileggi will know by Thursday whether
her appeal to the Federal Court has been upheld.
Although nominations to the Athens Organising Committee close
tomorrow, there is a chance Pileggi can still compete if her appeals
are upheld.
She was dropped from the Olympic team after fleeing drug testers in
Fiji last month.
Her lawyer Sam Titaka told the court the absolute deadline was August
6 but that Pileggi was also due to leave for a training camp in
Armenia next Monday.
The Federal Court has agreed to sit beyond normal hours tomorrow to
reach a decision.
From: Baghdasarian

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
July 20 2004
Groups to fight bill blockade
Armenian Americans want Congressional Republicans to back off
opposition to bill that would recognize the Armenian Genocide.

By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press
DOWNTOWN GLENDALE – While more than 30,000 people marveled at classic
cars and grooved to Dick Dale’s guitar licks, Armen Carapetian did
what he could to make sure Congress continued to acknowledge the
Armenian Genocide.
At Glendale’s Cruise Night on Saturday, Carapetian and other members
of the Armenian National Committee circulated petitions encouraging
the Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives to
back off of its objection to recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
The White House also opposes the bill.
And so begins the fight to save the Schiff Amendment to a foreign aid
bill.
On Thursday, the House approved an amendment to the Foreign
Operations Appropriations Bill sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff
(D-Glendale) that would prevent Turkey from using foreign aid funds
to lobby against a House resolution that would recognize the Armenian
Genocide from 1915 to 1923.
The amendment is more symbolic than substantive. Foreign countries
are not allowed to use such funds to lobby Congress for anything. But
by proposing the vote in a late session Thursday, Schiff brought a
genocide-related vote to the House floor for the first time.
“Something should be done,” said George Asaker, sitting outside at a
Brand Boulevard coffee shop. “They recognized the Jewish [Holocaust],
they should recognize the Armenian Genocide and anything else.”
>From 1915 to 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman
Turks. Turkish officials claim the number of deaths is overstated,
and that the deaths were not the result of genocide. Because Turkey
is a military ally, the United States has never acknowledged it as a
genocide.
Bush Administration officials immediately began fighting Schiff’s
amendment. The State Department, Speaker of the House J. Dennis
Hastert (R-Ill.), House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and House
Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) all issued statements condemning
Schiff’s amendment and promising to remove the amendment from the
final version of the bill. The Senate must approve its version of the
bill, and then a joint Senate-House committee will piece together the
final version.
In Glendale, Carapetian and others began circulating their petitions,
hoping enough support could persuade the Republicans to back off.
They collected 1,500 in the Glendale area. Through the Armenian
National Committee’s website, another 10,000 people signed online
petitions, which were faxed directly to the offices of Hastert, DeLay
and Blunt.
“The House leadership and the president, unfortunately, don’t see
this as an important issue,” said Carapetian, the government
relations director for the Armenian National Committee’s Western
Region. “They are willing to disrespect over a million of their own
citizens and residents of this country for the sake of relations with
a country that is really not a true ally of the U.S.
“We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls. We’ve gathered hopefully
hundred of signatures here. The public outcry has been focused on the
congressional leaders.”

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
July 20 2004
MUTUAL VISITS EVEN MORE TO STRENGTHEN RELATIONS
[July 20, 2004, 11:26:45]
On July 19, Chairman of Milli Majlis Murtuz Alaskarov has received
the delegation headed by the head of group of friendship of Grand
National Assembly of Turkey with parliament of Azerbaijan Haluk Ipek.
Warmly having welcomed visitors, Mr. Alaskarov has told: `WE have
good relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Due to purposeful
policy of the heads of our states our relations have reached a level
of brotherhood. As our national leader Heydar Aliyev said, `we are
one nation, two states’. Our parliaments should cooperate and, having
taken for a basis the told, it is even more to expand our
connections. I hope, that similar visits will play important role in
the even greater development and strengthening of our relations.
Then, Chairman of Milli Majlis has told about principles of
development of our inter-parliamentary contacts, has in detail
informed on the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict. He has
stated that Azerbaijan would give nobody a span of its land and by
all means would release the occupied territories.
Mr. Haluk Ipek has told: `The purpose of visit of delegation to
Azerbaijan is even more to develop inter-parliamentary links. The
majority of members of delegation are women-deputies. Their basic
purpose also consists in adjustment of cooperation with the women
deputies represented in Milli Majlis. We hope, that we shall reach an
object in view. As if to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, in this
question Turkey always near to Azerbaijan, and the policy remain
constant irrespective of the fact which party will come to power.
Then, at the meeting, the parties exchange opinions on a number of
other questions representing mutual interest.

Waiting in pain
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has left families of missing
soldiers in agonies of uncertainty, reports Nick Paton Walsh
The Guardian
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Gammadin Mamedov has endured nearly twelve years of pain, living with
the belief that his young conscript son, Ikhtiyar, who disappeared in
1993, is still alive.
Clutching a picture of him, he says: “I have seen a Red Cross list of
prisoners who are still alive, and he is on it.”
A decade after a fragile ceasefire was implemented, the uncertainty over
the destiny of people like Ikhtiyar is fuelling tensions in the
long-running conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Daily skirmishes
have haunted the border between the two countries, on the edge of a
disputed territory known as Nagorno-Karabakh.
When the open warfare that claimed 25,000 lives and uprooted 600,000
Azeris was at its peak, Ikhtiyar was 18 and serving in the relative
safety of the Baku unit 126, guarding the capital city’s key sites. Yet
suddenly, on February 13, he was drafted to the frontline. Six days
later, his unit found itself caught up in some of the fiercest fighting
of the war, at Agdara. Ikhtiyar, the unit’s radio operator, got
separated from the other soldiers. “They did what they could to find
him,” says Gammadin, “but they lost 13 men that day. It was messy.”
In the days after their disappearance, the parents of the 13 men
searched the battled-scarred hills for their sons to no avail. “We heard
nothing about him,” Gammadin says under the shady bows of a tree outside
his house in the border village of Shukubayli. “But a year later one of
the thirteen missing troops was released. He showed me photos of
Ikhtiyar, working at a bakery in the town of Shusha [in Nagorno-Karabakh].”
The appearance of Ikhtiyar’s name on the lists of prisoners from the
Azerbaijani state commission for the missing feeds Gammadin’s hopes.
“The Red Cross list was last updated in February,” he says. “I am just a
poor person, not a minister, and do not know if we should make war
again. Our wounds from the last war are still healing. I am just a
father who wants his son back.”
The fate of the so-called “NK missing” has helped keep the two
countries’ knives at each other’s throats. Azerbaijan claims there are
4,959 people “missing” since the war and charges that 783 are still
being held captive by Armenia. Armenia claims 600 are missing.
Azerbaijan says the Armenian claims they have only held 50 or 60
prisoners at a time are nonsense, as they released 1,086 people between
1993 and 2000.
International observers say that most of these people are dead. “It’s
pretty expensive and hard to conceal if an impoverished state keeps 800
people prisoner for twelve years,” says one. They accept there are a few
exceptions, although details are sketchy and often mired in the secrecy
that surrounds this sensitive issue. Arzu Abdullayeva, a human rights
worker from the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly who specialises in the
missing, says the last release was this year in January but does not
provide further details.
Armenia was the de facto victor in the war, Nagorno-Karabakh – a large
slice of former Azerbaijani territory – seized during two years of open
warfare. Armenia, a predominantly Christian state, considers
Nagorno-Karabakh within its ancient borders, first demarcated in 782BC.
Yet Azerbaijan, most of whose people are Shia Muslims, says the
territory was part of the old kingdom of Albania, from whose Alban
people Azerbaijan claims ancestry going back 10,000 years.
Fighting first began under the Soviets in 1988 and 11,000 extra Russian
troops could not stop the fighting from escalating a year after the two
states got independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Over 1.4 million
refugees were created by the conflict.
Azerbaijan labels the Armenian-backed government of Karabakh, whose
territory is not internationally recognised, as “terrorists”. Irascible,
they even threatened to take away the BBC’s right to broadcast their
Azeri language service in the country because of coverage of the
conflict they considered “biased”.
Inter-governmental bickering only sours Gammadin further. “This was not
a real war, but one of special interests: the poor died and the rich got
richer. I am ready to give my house up to buy him back, or my life.
Today would have been his 30th birthday,” he says, his silent rage
turning his wife Roza to tears.
Around the village, there are several families feeling the same sense of
bewilderment and loss as the Mamedovs. Yet, despite such raw wounds, the
new Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliev, said recently that, if
negotiations failed, he would retake the disputed territory “at any cost”.
Playing to those critics who feared he would use the conflict to unite
the impoverished and frustrated Azerbaijani people, he added: “Our army
is capable of freeing occupied territory at any moment. Azerbaijan is in
a condition of war.”
A few hundred metres down the road from Gammadin’s windowless house,
built for him by the Red Cross, this war is very real. A ramshackle
gaggle of conscripts mill around a dishevelled farmhouse that is about
300 metres from the front line, marked by a gaggle of white buildings in
the distance, off limits to reporters.
“You could get shot at any moment,” says the lieutenant in charge of the
unit. As well as the danger of snipers, there are the snakes. The grass
of the hot and dusty plains has been burned away around some key
buildings, the sooty, charred turf less hospitable to snakes whose venom
can only be treated in the central hospital, too often an expensive
drive away. The young men, many wearing only tatty flip-flops, chase the
water truck with their empty tin mugs as it drives up to the base.
A week ago today, the war claimed its last publicised casualty.
Azerbaijan announced that Private Elnur Aliyev, 19, died from a gunshot
wound in his chest at the village of Agdam, on the border. He was the
fourth soldier whose death was admitted by the ministry of defence.
Three civilians have also died from fighting and 11 from the landmines
that pepper the borders.
International monitors say the number of clashes along the border has
this year been at its highest since the ceasefire began. While most
observers say neither side is sufficiently well-equipped to want to
start a proper war, there are fears the clashes may spiral out of
control and a slow, open war of attrition may break out, specifically
over the water and hydroelectric interests in the disputed, dry region.
But to Vugar, a conscript who has moved his metal bed out of the parched
squalor of the barracks to set up a makeshift dormitory with three
friends beneath the endless blue sky on a nearby, arid hill, the clashes
are just something else to survive. “One of our friends was shot in the
head by a sniper last month,” he says. “And then they shot a shepherd
and his two sons as well. All I want to do is live.”

Armenian arrested for “hooliganism” in Azeri capital
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
20 Jul 04

[Presenter Etibar Mammadov] An Armenian has been detained in Baku. It
became known that Igor Bagiyan, who had received years in prison for
misappropriating state property, lived in the capital under the
patronage of [Director of the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan] Eldar
Zeynalov who is famous for protecting the rights of Armenians.
Zeynalov supplied Bagiyan with money and even helped him to obtain his
ID.
[Correspondent over video of beach and streets of Baku] Employees of
the Azizbayov district police department [Baku] have arrested an
Armenian for hooliganism on the Mardakan beach [suburbs of Baku]. The
Baku City Main Police Department reports that ethnic Armenian Igor
Rubenovich Bagiyan had brawled with ethnic Russian Ivan Borisovich
Demin on the beach. A resident of Sabuncu district [Baku], Elcin
Eldarov, intervened in their dispute and was stabbed by Demin.
The investigation found out that Bagiyan had been jailed for
misappropriating state property in the past. After his release, he
lived in a house bought for him at Basir Safaroglu Street in Yasamal
District [Baku]. Another interesting detail was revealed as
well. Eldar Zeynalov created conditions for Bagiyan to live in
Azerbaijan. He protected Bagiyan’s rights when he was in prison.
Eldar Zeynalov helped him to get his ID with an Armenian name and
surname. Zeynalov constantly supplied Bagiyan with money after his
release from prison.
Legal proceedings have been instituted against Bagiyan and Demin at
the moment. The law-enforcement agencies will examine the reasons why
Zeynalov protects Bagiyan.
Fuzuli Hasanli for “Son Xabar”.

Armenian opposition bloc denies rumours of disagreement
Arminfo
20 Jul 04
YEREVAN
The existence of different approaches to one or another issue cannot
be regarded as disagreement in the Armenian opposition camp. There are
no fundamental disagreements on important issues between the National
Unity Party [NUP] and the Justice bloc, Koryun Arakelyan, deputy
chairman of the NUP, told an Arminfo correspondent while commenting on
some media reports.
The political forces within the united Armenian opposition can have
different views on the tactics of their further actions, which is an
absolutely normal phenomenon, he said. “The development of the
situation will bring answers to the questions that have been raised,”
Arakelyan said.
“Constant attempts have lately been made to cause discord in the ranks
of the Armenian opposition. We understand very well who is doing this
and why, however, there is no point in looking for something that does
not exist,” Ruzanna Khachatryan, press secretary of the Justice bloc,
told Arminfo.
The existence of several different approaches to some tactical issues
cannot be a reason for disagreements between the Justice bloc and the
NUP, she said.
[Passage omitted: reiterating the same views]

Armenian foreign minister welcomes CIS leaders’ criticism of OSCE
Arminfo
20 Jul 04
YEREVAN
The statement by the heads of CIS countries regarding the activities
of the OSCE has been issued in time, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan has told Armenian Public Television.
He said although the statement contains criticism, it would be wrong
to describe it as criticism. Analysts who believe that Armenia’s
support for the statement will produce negative consequences are
probably not keeping abreast of the current processes inside the OSCE,
the Armenian foreign minister thinks.
He said that the timeliness of the CIS leaders’ statement is explained
by the fact that serious debates are under way in the OSCE. “The task
is to make this organization transparent, effective and successful.
The aim of the statement is to help reforms,” the minister said.
The minister also expressed discontent with the opinion that the
criticism of the OSCE could reflect on the negotiations on the
Nagornyy Karabakh settlement. “There is no link here,” the Armenian
foreign minister stressed.
In conclusion, the minister said that it was also necessary for
Armenia to contribute to the reformation of the organization. At the
same time, the minister pointed out that the biggest task is to
reconsider the well-established tradition of taking decisions behind
the scenes on some issues which are not put on the agenda of plenary
sessions and for all to hear. The voices of small countries get lost
during this process.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress