Ethnic Armenian MPs gather in Yerevan to discuss national problems

Noyan Tapan news agency, Yerevan
18 Jun 04

Seventy deputies of Armenian origin from 25 countries have arrived
in Yerevan to attend the first session of the Armenian Parliamentary
Assembly of Friendship, Noyan Tapan news agency said on 18 June.

The session whose sole aim is to “join the efforts of the Armenian
National Assembly and MPs of Armenian origin from abroad” is discussing
“ways of resolving all-Armenian problems and expanding relations
between parliaments”, the agency said.

Armenian Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan, Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan,
the chairman of the Karabakh parliament, Oleg Yesayan, and Armenian
Prime Minister Vardan Oskanyan addressed the session and noted the
need to “maintain the assembly’s effective work” and regularly to
gather to discuss national issues.

Armenian assembly promotes cooperation with diaspora, supporters abroad

AP Online
Jun 18, 2004

Armenian lawmakers met with ethnic Armenian and other colleagues from
foreign legislatures on Friday for the first plenary session of a
group called the Armenian Parliamentary Assembly of Friendship.

About 70 delegates from countries including the United States, Russia,
France, Canada, Georgia, Ukraine, Cyprus, Argentina, Brazil and Iran
took part, reflecting the global reach of the diaspora from this small,
economically struggling Caucasus Mountain nation.

The stated goal of the assembly is to join forces to improve democracy
in Armenia _ where the opposition says President Robert Kocharian
won a second term last years in fraud-marred elections _ to solve
problems facing the country and Armenians abroad.

“We have accumulated great experience in work with the diaspora and
with those countries where there are Armenian communities, and we are
interested in deepening and enriching it in all ways,” Kocharian told
the group.

Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said lawmakers should work to develop
the economy and democracy in Armenia, achieve international recognition
of what Armenians call a genocide of up to 1.5 million Armenians by
Turks in 1915-1923, and settle the conflict with Azerbaijan over the
disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The assembly is expected to hold plenary sessions twice a year in
the capital, Yerevan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Ex-Soviet Republics to Boost Cooperation
By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA

The Associated Press
06/18/04 17:16 EDT

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders
of several former Soviet republics agreed Friday to step up economic
ties and expand military cooperation, restoring some of the links
severed by the Soviet collapse.

Russia has been seeking closer military and security ties with several
Central Asian nations, apparently in response to the deployment of
U.S. troops in the region to back Washington’s anti-terror campaign
in neighboring Afghanistan.

“We are creating real instruments of integration. It’s not just talk,”
Putin said after summits of the Russia-dominated Collective Security
Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Community.

Putin and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan discussed regional security and agreed to intensify
military contacts, increasing the Collective Security Treaty’s rapid
reaction forces, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.

The alliance now has nine battalions based in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Kazakhstan and Russia and plans by 2010 to form a mobile force intended
to quickly respond to security threats to its members.

Nazarbayev said they also agreed on a mechanism for participation in
international U.N.-led peacekeeping efforts. He said it was “a new
area of cooperation,” but did not give details.

Last year, Russia opened a military base in Kyrgyzstan under
the Collective Security Treaty to provide air support for future
anti-terrorist operations.

The leaders of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
also signed agreements on adopting unified laws, circulation
of securities and regulating banking activity among the Eurasian
Economic Community.

The group was created in 2000 to restore lost economic ties after
the 1991 Soviet collapse. Members plan to form a customs union by
2006 and are working on creating unified transport and energy systems.

The countries also agreed Friday to set unified railway tariffs
on transportation of grain and other goods through one another’s
territory.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Russia provided
information on its negotiations to enter the World Trade Organization,
breaking its silence on the issue – which would aid other countries
in their talks to enter the trade body.

Kyrgyzstan is already a member of the WTO, which regulates
international trade rules. Russia has sought WTO membership for years.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Karabakh minister hails Armenian diaspora’s role in Karabakh settlement

Mediamax news agency
18 Jun 04

Yerevan, 18 June: The authorities of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic
[NKR] are ready to participate in negotiations in any format and
search for ways to resolve the conflict without damaging the vital
interests of the Karabakh people.

The NKR foreign minister, Ashot Gulyan, told a meeting in Stepanakert
[Xankandi] with a group of young Armenian specialists from the USA,
the press service of the NKR Foreign Ministry has reported.

Gulyan highly assessed the role of the Armenian diaspora in maintaining
Karabakh’s interests, including in the postwar restoration of the
republic. Saying that the Karabakh leadership is facing major tasks
for the socioeconomic development of the NKR, the minister expressed
his confidence in the further support of the Armenian diaspora in
these issues.

Armenian political representatives from parliaments abroad meet in Yerevan

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
17 Jun 04

The Armenian MPs of 25 counties’ parliaments around the world and their
colleagues from other nationalities assembled in the Armenian capital
[on 17 June]. A session of the Armenian Assembly of [Deputy] Friendship
will be held for the first time in Armenia, on Friday [18 June].

President Robert Kocharyan received the MPs who had arrived from
abroad at his residence on Thursday [17 June]. He expressed the hope
that this event will continue.

We have gained a working experience with those countries where there
is an Armenian Diaspora and have many friends there. We are interested
in consolidation of friendly relations and will enrich them by various
means. The participants of the Yerevan assembly are sure, irrespective
of the results, that the assembly itself is a significant start for
Armenia-Diaspora political relations.

[Video showed the meeting.]

Armenian servicemen yet to apply for visas for Baku NATO conference

Noyan Tapan news agency
18 Jun 04

Yerevan, 18 June: The Armenian servicemen will apply for entry visas to
Azerbaijan at its embassy in Tbilisi on 21 June, in order to leave for
Baku the next day, to take part in the [22 June] planning conference
of the NATO Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises, a spokesman for
the Armenian Defence Ministry, Seyran Shakhsuvaryan told a Noyan
Tapan correspondent.

Previously Mr Shakhsuvaryan said that the Armenian officers must apply
to the Azerbaijani embassy in Georgia on 16 June. He said that similar
information was obtained from the NATO leadership, which ensured the
visas for the Armenians.

Col Shakhsuvaryan could not answer the question of whether the
Armenian servicemen will succeed in getting to Baku this time. To
recap, the Armenian military delegation could not participate in the
previous conference.

The Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho, quoting the Azerbaijani embassy in
Georgia, wrote that two to three days are necessary to obtain visas,
but in exceptional cases it is possible to do it within one day.

Armenian foreign minister says Turkey wants to open its border

Mediamax news agency
18 Jun 04

Yerevan, 18 June: The political dialogue between Armenia and Turkey
is continuing, however, it has not resulted in a positive improvement
yet, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan told reporters in
Yerevan today.

He added that the programme of the Armenian delegation which will
participate in NATO’s Istanbul summit does not envisage a meeting
with his Turkish opposite number Abdullah Gul.

Vardan Oskanyan said that no great importance should be attached to
various reports about the impending opening of the Armenian-Turkish
border. At the same time, the minister noted the importance of this
problem for Armenia and did not rule out that the opening of the
border was also “Turkey’s desire”.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian president welcomes CIS security body’ cooperation with NATO

Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty
18 Jun 04

Astana, 18 June: The member states of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO) [Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Russia] may actively cooperate with NATO in a bilateral
and multilateral format, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan believes.

“The organization reacts to this calmly and positively assesses
the possibility for cooperation between the states (of CSTO –
Interfax-Kazakhstan) and NATO, as well as in the NATO-CSTO format,”
Kocharyan said, answering questions from journalists at a news
conference in Astana today, which was given jointly by the leaders
of all the CSTO member states.

Kocharyan also noted that on the same day the CSTO member states
signed a basic document regulating partnership with NATO on a wide
range of issues, specifically, on the fight against terrorism, drug
trafficking and WMD proliferation.

Kocharyan stressed that the document provided for specific mechanisms
for cooperation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian official upbeat on fight against human trafficking

Ayots Ashkhar, Yerevan
17 Jun 04

An interview with the head of the Armenian government’s Migration
and Refugees Department, Gagik Yeganyan. He comments on the Armenian
section of the latest annual US State Department report on human
trafficking.

[Gagik Yeganyan] The fact that according to the US State Department,
Armenia is among the countries of the second group is satisfactory. It
is also good for Armenia that the report said if Armenia continues
its fight against trafficking in the same way and with the same
consistency, it cannot be ruled out that the country may be included
in the first group in the future. The countries which fight this
phenomenon with all their possible means are included in this group.

[Passage omitted: Details of the report]

[Ayots Ashkhar correspondent] Mr Yeganyan, what kind of work has been
launched in Armenia to organize a fight against human trafficking?

[Yeganyan] In the report drawn up four years ago, our country was in
the third group. This assessment of Armenia was like a cold shower,
as their approach was very strict and unexpected. In any case, we
were not disappointed ending up in such a situation, but were given
an incentive and concentrated all our efforts on making the fight
against trafficking more organized. The point is that inclusion in
this or that group is not determined by the volume of trafficking. The
assessment depends on the effectiveness of steps taken against this
evil. Slave trade was annihilated in the previous century. This is
why isolated cases of this phenomenon are considered to be a slap in
the face of all mankind.

In Armenia, the fight against human trafficking started with the
formation of an interdepartmental group on an instruction from
the prime minister. The group was instructed to develop a national
strategic programme of the fight against trafficking. The document was
ready this January and was approved by the government. Systematized
approaches form the basis of the fight, which makes it possible
not only to eliminate the consequences of trafficking, but also to
stamp it out, to take relevant retaliatory steps and to rule out the
conditions that generate it.

It is clear to the world that in Armenia, not only do we understand
the importance of fighting trafficking, we also take certain effective
steps. Naturally, in parallel with our country’s integration into
European structures, progress will become more evident, which is why
doubts about its irreversibility may not be well-founded.

[Correspondent] What are the signs of human trafficking in Armenia?

[Yeganyan] About 600,000-800,000 people are involved in the trafficking
process in the world every year. Human trafficking is aimed mainly at
the sexual exploitation of women and children. Only isolated cases
have been registered in Armenia. In fact, in our country there is
no stratum or a group which would use the results of trafficking. In
our country, there is no stratum of people who would want to pay for
such services. Just two cases of trafficking have been registered
in our country: a group of Uzbek women using false passports tried
to cross the border of the United Arab Emirates from Armenia. They
did not manage to do this and decided to work as prostitutes in our
country. The second group was also from Uzbekistan – young girls
decided to work as prostitutes in our country. Fortunately, Armenia
is not the best country for such activities. Three years ago, the
International Organization for Migration carried out research and
discovered 58 cases when Armenians were trafficked mainly in Arab
countries and Turkey. I am sure that not all the registered cases may
be regarded as human trafficking. Many people understand why they
go there. Simply people involved in such conditions, when they are
exposed, present the situation as trafficking.

Armenian army reportedly seizes Azeri village road, residents evacuated

ANS TV, Baku
17 Jun 04

War is continuing on the contact line of the armed forces [of Armenia
and Azerbaijan]. Quoting Qazax residents [western Azerbaijan] as
saying, the Ganca bureau of ANS TV reports that the Armenian army
took control of a road leading to the village of Mazam last night.

The village has come under intensive fire. Our regional correspondent
reports that Mazam residents are being moved to safer areas. Our
correspondent Sahla Abdinova is on the scene and we are trying to
contact her.