Armenia welcomes handover of power to Iraqi government
Arminfo
2 Jul 04
YEREVAN
The Armenian Foreign Ministry’s position on the formation and handover
of power to the interim Iraqi government remains unchanged – Armenia
welcomes these processes, a spokesman for the Armenian Foreign
Ministry, Gamlet Gasparyan, told our Arminfo correspondent, commenting
on the handover of power in Iraq to the interim government on 30
June. The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman also confirmed the
permanence of Armenia’s position on the reconstruction of Iraq.
To recap, the Armenian Foreign Ministry had earlier made a statement
which welcomed the formation of a government in Iraq. “We hope that
the new Iraqi government will succeed in creating conditions that will
promote the implementation of democratic reforms and will ensure free
and fair elections in January 2005,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesman said.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Ruben Shugaryan had earlier announced
that Armenia is ready to take an active part in the postwar
reconstruction of Iraq.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeris ask Red Cross to help release captured soldier
ANS TV, Baku
2 Jul 04
The state commission of the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry for
POWs, hostages and missing persons has officially appealed to the Baku
office of the International Committee of the Red Cross to help release
Aydin Salman oglu Huseynov, a soldier of the national army, who was
captured by Armenians in Agdam District of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
front line on 30 June. The commission also asked the Red Cross to
register him as a prisoner of war.
Negotiations are under way with the Armenian side to get Huseynov
released.
To recap, Aydin Huseynov, 19, was serving in military unit No 161 in
the village of Erki of Agcabadi District.

Azerbaijan court upholds jailing of Nagorno-Karabakh activists
AP Online
Jul 02, 2004
Azerbaijan’s Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a lower court’s
decision to jail five activists who disrupted a NATO forum here last
month to protest the involvement of two Armenian officers, their
lawyer said.
The protest, which briefly disrupted the NATO forum, highlighted the
still simmering tensions between the neighboring ex-Soviet republics
of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
territory.
Akif Nagi, head of the Organization of Karabakh Freedom, and five
other group members pushed through police cordons, broke glass doors
and stormed into a conference hall in Baku’s Europe hotel on June
22. The protesters and hotel security guards suffered minor injuries
in the incident in the hotel and the meeting resumed in several
minutes.
They were accused of hooliganism and ordered by the Nasimi regional
court in Baku to be held for two months. Azerbaijan’s appeals court
upheld the ruling Friday, said Elchin Gambarov, the defendants’
lawyer.
“Such decisions in relation to the Organization of Karabakh Freedom
bring no honor to our people or to our nation,” he said.
Armenian-backed forces won control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a largely
ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, after a 1988-94 war. More than
30,000 people were killed and a million driven from their homes during
the conflict.
Despite a 1994 cease-fire, the two countries continue to face off
across a heavily fortified no man’s land, and no final settlement has
been reached.
Interior Minister Ramil Usubov said he thought the court decision was
“correct.”
“The Armenians didn’t come here independently, but in connection with
a NATO event being held in Azerbaijan and the actions of those who
were arrested, aimed at disrupting this event, were illegal,” he said.
Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan are NATO members, but both participate
in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program.

Russian interior minister arrives in Armenia to discuss joint crime
prevention
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
1 Jul 04
[Presenter] Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has arrived in
Armenia on a one-day visit. He will participate in an annual meeting
of the Armenian-Russian law-enforcement bodies. The meeting should
have taken place on 24 June, but was postponed because of the recent
Ingush events.
[Rashid Nurgaliyev, shown speaking at airport in Russian] We will
discuss the economic security of our states. Our main task is to
develop the joint legal basis of the two states. Only through joint
efforts, we will be able to tackle the problem of organized crime
which has become transnational and is now widely spread.

Russia, Armenia join forces to catch money forgers
Centre TV, Moscow
2 Jul 04
[Presenter] The Russian and Armenian police have conducted a major
joint operation. Over two years the police tracked an international
gang of money forgers. As a result, 22 members of the well-organized
criminal organization have been arrested.
The underground printing press was found in an ordinary Moscow Region
flat. The forgeries were made by citizens of Russia and Armenia. They
had a well-organized network of middlemen through which the false
R1,000 and R500 notes were distributed across Russia.
In total, the initial investigation has recorded 192 instances of
forged money being sold in 48 Russian regions.
[C/r 1216-1253; video shows sheets of forged R500 notes, computer
equipment, banknotes being printed off.]

The west should invest in central Asia
By Jean Lemierre
FT.com site
Jul 01, 2004
A worrisome disparity is developing between countries that spent
decades together behind the Iron Curtain. On one side of the emerging
divide are the eight countries of central Europe and the Baltic region
that joined the European Union on May 1 – hard-won recognition of
their economic and political transformation. But further east, beyond
the new borders of the EU, economic and political transition in the
seven poorest countries emerging from the command economy system has
been slower; half the population still lives below the poverty line.
In many parts of central Asia and the Caucasus, poverty, ethnic
tensions, the slow pace of reform and high indebtedness combine to
pose a threat to regional and global security. This is particularly
true in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Geographically and ideologically, these seven countries were closer
than the new EU members to the heart of the former Soviet Union and it
is taking them much longer to emerge from its long shadow. They have
not had the offer of EU membership to encourage them through arduous
and often unpopular reforms. Widening the embrace of the EU to
include eight new central European and Baltic states will only go so
far to stabilise the post-cold-war situation, if, over the horizon,
trouble is brewing. Pent-up social frustration born of a lack of
opportunity in these seven nations may heighten tensions, even
extremism. In the long run, private-sector growth and job creation
coupled with political reform are the only means to defuse tensions.
Of course, if economic transition were easy to accomplish in these
states, it would have happened already. The publicly owned European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development was created in 1991 to foster
such transition in 27 countries of the former Soviet sphere and the
bank is the largest single investor there. But, in spite of our
expertise, local presence and mandated interest in doing business in
the seven poorest countries, we have had difficulty raising the level
of our investment there. Given the challenges of doing business in
these countries, it is easy to understand why private-sector investors
shy away.
Yet the EBRD’s local offices see many promising investment
opportunities. These range from big oil, gas and mining deals to
family-owned bakeries, middle-sized lumber businesses, small-scale
hydro-power producers, dairies and growing textile mills.
Unfortunately, opportunity is not enough. The slow and uneven pace of
economic and political reform in these countries discourages foreign
investors and local businesses alike. There remain too many vestiges
of the command economy system and big government, and there is not
enough commitment to improving commercial law, the functioning of
courts and regulatory bodies, and fighting corruption.
The least painful path to economic growth is to cut red tape and then
get out of entrepreneurs’ way. At the EBRD annual meeting last year,
one Kyrgyz entrepreneur reported that 160 permits were needed to start
a small business in her country; that was an improvement on the old
days when 193 permits were required. A year later, the situation has
not changed much. Both local business growth and foreign investment
would be encouraged if governments cut through the thicket of
restrictions on foreign currency exchange and on cross-border trade
and travel.
Trade depends on transport and here we have seen many encouraging
signs of greater regional co-operation. The upgrading of the ancient
Silk Road linking the Caucasus and central Asia is an example of
national governments, donors and international lenders working
together on regionally important infrastructure. The
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline has built better relations between
Azerbaijan and Georgia and introduced more than a dozen top
international banks to those countries.
A new EBRD initiative aims to promote greater investment and
accelerate economic reform in these seven still-poor countries by
accepting higher risk to make investments, improving banking services
for small and medium-sized businesses, encouraging small-scale
infrastructure projects, and promoting legal reform and regional
trade.
As every euro invested in a project by the EBRD typically attracts two
more from other sources, we expect this initiative will increase
private investment. The expansion of the EU’s borders has brought
Europe closer to the Caucasus and central Asia. There is no better
time to promote economic development there, increase prosperity and
underpin stability for the region, and beyond.
The writer is the EBRD’s president

Ten CIS leaders gather for informal summit in Moscow
ITAR-TASS news agency
2 Jul 04
MOSCOW
The presidents of Azerbaijan [Ilham Aliyev], Armenia [Robert
Kocharyan], Uzbekistan [Islam Karimov], Moldova [Vladimir Voronin],
Ukraine [Leonid Kuchma], Kyrgyzstan [Askar Akayev], Georgia [Mikheil
Saakashvili], Belarus [Alyaksandr Lukashenka] and Kazakhstan
[Nursultan Nazarbayev] are to visit Moscow on 2-3 July at the
invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the press service of
the Russian head of state has said.
The heads of state will exchange views on preparing a CIS summit in
[Kazakh capital] Astana scheduled for September, other issues of
mutual interest as well as joint celebrations marking the 60th
anniversary of World War II.

AsiaNews.it, Italy
July 2, 2004
ARMENIA
Government plan against poverty

Everan (AsiaNews) – President Robert Kocharian has announced a
12-year-plan to tackle poverty in his country. The decision arrives
after the World Bank voiced its decision to loan 210 million euros by
November 1st, for the construction of schools, roadways and irrigation
systems in Armenia.
The World Bank is the greatest creditor of Armenia, a country of 3.2
million, which is also expecting funds from the US Millennium Challenge
Account to accomplish similar projects. Kocharian depends on such
financial assistance for the continuation of his government. Securing
these funds will allow him to enhance the life of the country’s
residents. More than half of Armenia’s citizens live below the poverty
line; the annual per capita income is just above 500 euros.
The situation is very serious in suburban regions, but also in Everan,
where only half the population enjoys running water 24 hours a day,
and electricity is constantly interrupted.
The scourge of corruption torments the economy, once one of the most
flourishing republics of the Soviet Union.
In this year’s international report on political transparency, Armenia
came in 78th (from 133 countries). The main areas of the economy are
monopolized by groups connected with the political leadership.
Protests of the people in last months seem to have done brought about a
change in the government’s tactics.
Vartan Khachatrian, the Finance and Economy Minister, affirmed that
structural reforms, necessary to transition to a free market, were
`almost complete’.
According to analysts, the hurry of the government to show reforms and
its fight against poverty is an attempt to cool social tensions.
(F.C.)

Interfax
July 2, 2004
Baku concerned over U.S. planned aid for Nagorno-Karabakh
Baku. (Interfax-Azerbaijan) – The Azerbaijani authorities are concerned
over U.S. plans to provide the self-proclaimed republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh with financial assistance.
“It is not ruled out that this money will be spent on house
construction projects in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories as part of
Armenia’s illegal policy aimed at providing its people with
accommodation in the seized Azerbaijani districts,” reads an
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry press release.
“Azerbaijan would like to know how the United States is going to ensure
that these funds are spent on exclusively humanitarian projects and in
compliance with international law,” the document says.
The U.S. Congress has recently approved an initiative submitted by its
sub-committee responsible for providing international assistance to
allocate $5 million for Nagorno-Karabakh as part of its aid program for
the 2005 budget year.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister fears that this assistance might have
a negative effect on settling the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and another seven
neighboring districts as a result of a 1990s conflict with Armenia over
ownership of Nagorno-Karabakh. The OSCE Minsk Group, comprising the
United States, Russia, and France, has been helping the two countries
put an end to their disputes.

Interfax
July 2, 2004
Armenian police target sex slave trade
Yerevan. (Interfax) – Two people are under arrest following a joint
operation undertaken by Russian Interior Ministry and the Armenian
police service, aimed at curbing the activities of criminal groups
involved in selling girls in Armenia into sex slavery in the United
Arab Emirates.
“After the abduction the girls were moved to Russia where documents
were made to move them to the United Arab Emirates to be exploited as
sex laborers,” Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told a news
conference in Yerevan on Friday.
Two Russian citizens have been arrested one of whom was in charge of
sending the girls on their way from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport and the
other rented “decent apartments” in Moscow where they were kept before
flying to their destination.
Nearly 100 cases of abduction have been documented, he said.
Asked about the so-called Armenian Mafia, Nurgaliyev said that it would
be wrong to believe that just one ethnic group is involved in criminal
activities. But he admitted Armenians are in command of about five
criminal mobs in Russia. The work aimed at stopping them is being
carried out with the aid of the Armenian police, he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress