Armenia, Iran to sign gas pipeline agreement
Interfax
May 13 2004
Yerevan. (Interfax) – Armenia and Iran will sign an agreement
in Yerevan on Thursday on the construction of a gas pipeline,
Artashes Tumanian, who is co-chairman of the Armenian-Iranian
Intergovernmental Economic Commission and head of the Armenian
presidential administration, told the press.
He made the statement after negotiations with Iranian Petroleum
Minister Bijan Namdar-Zanganeh.
The project will upgrade political and economic relations, Tumanian
said. It is also important for the energy security of Armenia.
Tumanian did not say how much Iranian gas would cost, but noted that
the supplies would be repaid with Armenian electricity.
It is planned to build the pipeline within 1.5 years, Tumanian said,
without specifying the project cost or supply amounts. He said that
companies from third countries might be financially or technically
involved in the project.
As for laying a gas pipeline to Europe across Armenia, Tumanian said
the current task is to provide Armenia with natural gas, and further
developments will depend on political factors.

Protest march to Garabagh ends on frontline
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
May 13 2004
On Saturday, about two hundred members of the Garabagh Liberation
Organization (GLO) organized a protest march to the Garabagh region on
the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijan’s
historic city, Shusha.
According to a correspondent of the AssA-Irada news agency who
also joined the protest, the marchers reached the contact line of
the Azerbaijani and Armenian military troops in Tazakand village of
Aghdam District. However, local police and military didn’t allow the
protesters to pass to the occupied lands. After GLO chairman Akif Naghi
said that the march was successful, the protesters returned to Baku.
Underlining that all political parties in the country, except the
ruling New Azerbaijan Party, have expressed their attitudes towards
the protest action, the GLO chairman said that representatives from
the foreign embassies in Baku did not observe the march. No incidents
were reported during the protest action which attracted one hundred
more people in the regions.
Protest in Moscow The Movement for Azerbaijan (MA) organized a picket
outside the Armenian embassy in Moscow to protest the occupation
of Shusha. Chairman of the MA Ilgar Gasimov told journalists
that during the 2-hour action about 50 protesters demanded
that the Armenian aggressors withdraw from the occupied lands of
Azerbaijan. The picketers also protested against the destruction of
Azerbaijani cultural and historical monuments in Shusha and against the
international organizations’ double standard approach to the issue. A
petition was forwarded to the Armenian embassy. The MA plans to hold
another picket on May 28, Independence Day, to protest against the
Armenian aggression. Azerbaijanis living in Moscow held the first ever
sanctioned protest action outside the Armenian embassy on February 27,
2004 on the occasion of the Khojaly massacre.

Business wire
May 13 2004
Colombo Yogurt – First U.S. Yogurt Brand – Celebrates 75 Years;
Colombo Takes Yogurt from a Small Kitchen in Andover, Mass., to
Kitchens across America
MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 13, 2004–Just a glance at the
yogurt case in any grocery store and it’s easy to see how significant
the business of yogurt has become in America. As Colombo Yogurt
celebrates its 75th anniversary this month, Colombo also celebrates
75 years since the introduction of yogurt to America.
Although yogurt had been enjoyed for centuries in the Middle East, it
made its American debut through an immigrant family business on a
small Massachusetts farm in 1929. In the years since, yogurt has
since become a staple in households nationwide. In fact, according to
a recent survey conducted by Colombo Yogurt, nearly three in four
American adults eats yogurt at least once per week.
The introduction of Colombo Yogurt in 1929 gave Americans their first
taste of yogurt and 75 years later, the popularity of yogurt
continues to grow. In the last three years alone, the yogurt category
has grown 31 percent(1) and in 2003, 72 percent of households
purchased yogurt(2).
“In the last few years people have been discovering that yogurt isn’t
just a breakfast food or a snack, it’s a versatile ingredient that
can take a leading or supporting roll in any meal — any time of
day,” said TV celebrity chef and James Beard Award-winning cookbook
author Alton Brown.
The $2.7 billion(3) American yogurt industry started over a
wood-burning stove at the Andover home of Rose and Sarkis
Colombosian. Soon, as Colombo & Sons Creamery, the Colombosians along
with sons Bob and John were hand-filling Rose’s Armenian family
recipe into 8-ounce glass jars and distributing their product
throughout the Northeast in a horse-drawn wagon.
Remaining relatively small until the early 1960s when the health
benefits of yogurt gained a larger following, Colombo & Sons grew
from a family business to a leader in the yogurt industry. Modern
machinery replaced the old wood stove, and a fleet of refrigerated
trucks replaced the horse-drawn wagon. Though changes were made, what
has not changed in 75 years is Colombo Yogurt’s quality, delicious
flavor assortment and 8-ounce serving size.
“For 75 years our loyal customers have confidently shared Colombo
Yogurt with future generations because it has stayed true to its
original quality even when we added new varieties,” said Bob
Colombosian, member of Colombo’s founding family. “I wish my parents
were still around to see the incredible growth of Colombo Yogurt and
what we have achieved in 75 years – I know they would be proud.”
Purchased by General Mills in 1993, Colombo continues to be a leader
in the American yogurt industry.
“We have the utmost respect for the Colombosian family and the rich
heritage of Colombo Yogurt,” said Doug Pritchard, marketing manager
for Colombo Yogurt at General Mills. “Starting in 1929, Colombo set
the standard for what consumers expect from American yogurt and we’re
pleased to mark this exciting milestone to celebrate how far Colombo
has come and what it means to the families that enjoy it.”
Today, Colombo Yogurt comes in two varieties, Colombo Classic and
Colombo Light, a wide range of flavors, and two packaging
configurations, the most popular of which is Colombo’s original
8-ounce container. The recent survey commissioned by Colombo about
yogurt preferences confirmed that the majority of yogurt-buying
consumers prefer Colombo’s 8-ounce serving size rather than the
6-ounce size produced by most yogurt manufacturers.
In honor of its 75th anniversary, Colombo has created new television
advertising featuring Bob Colombosian and his wife, Alice,
spokespeople for the brand since 2001. The ads will run in select
markets in the Northeast starting in June.
About Colombo Yogurt
In 1929, Sarkis and Rose Colombosian made the first batch of Colombo
Yogurt in their Andover kitchen using a family recipe. Soon, they
were selling it across the Northeast, making Colombo the first yogurt
sold in America. Now, 75 years later, Colombo is still selling yogurt
throughout the Northeast and takes pride in its Massachusetts
heritage. Colombo offers both 8-ounce cups and 32-ounce containers
and is owned by Minnesota-based General Mills. Visit
for more information.
Underwritten by Colombo Yogurt, Opinion Research Corporation
conducted the yogurt consumption survey by telephone from March
12-15, 2004, interviewing a national probability sample of 1,024
adults 18 years of age and older, living in private households in the
continental United States. The margin of error is plus or minus three
percentage points for the entire sample and four percentage points
for yogurt consumers.
(1) AC Nielsen, US 2MM+, 2000-2003
(2) AC Nielsen Panel Facts, Total US, 2000-2003
(3) AC Nielsen, US 2MM+, 52 weeks ending 3/27/04, excluding Wal-Mart
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 13 2004
CONDOLEEZZA RICE TO DISCUSS IN MOSCOW THE ISSUES OF SETTLEMENT OF
NAGORNY KARABAKH CONFLICT
[May 13, 2004, 18:11:09]
As correspondent of AzerTAj informs, in the weekend, Ms. Condoleezza
Rice, the US President Aide for National Security will make a visit
to Russia and Germany. At the briefing which has been carried out
before the trip, Ms. Rice informed, that the question of settlement
of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict also would be
in the focus during dialogue between the USA and Russia. Answering
question of the correspondent of AzerTAj, she has emphasized, that
this delayed conflict renders negative influence on political and
economic development of both countries – Azerbaijan and Armenia,
as a whole, creates obstacles to progress of region. C. Rice has
told: “All of us regretted concerning uncertainly of the Nagorny
Karabakh conflict. Some time back we believed, that we are on a way
of settlement. We worked above it much. The meeting has taken place
in Florida. It was visible, that work is carried out in a correct
direction. On negotiations with the Russian side we would like to
carry out discussions how us again to return to the given direction.”
The USA is going to continue serious dialogue with Russia, Ms. Rice
has stated. The summons of negotiations will consist not only of
the questions interesting both sides. Also exchange of opinions
on development of process of peace talks on the Near East, joint
efforts in antiterrorist struggle, construction of democratic Iraq
will be carried out. Despite of presence in the past of disagreements
between us in the question of Iraq, now the basic purpose consists
in achievement of success in this area. Stable and democratic Iraq
is equitable to interests of all.
The most part of dialogue with Russia will be devoted to power
questions. By words of Condoleezza Rice, in the name of the future
of economic it is necessary to think of reliable sources of energy.

49er Online, California State University, Long Beach
May 13 2004
Senate approves Beach Pride resolution
By Gerry Wachovsky
On-line Forty-Niner
The final A.S. Senate meeting of the semester saw an approval of a
resolution authorizing a new agreement on the distribution of student
fees.
Executive director of Associated Students Inc., Richard Haller,
detailed the plan to the Senate and broke down how, exactly, the
funds would be distributed. The sports operating budgets, according
to Haller, were reduced 5 percent, and he also said that A.S.I. will
be responsible for annually auditing the sports, athletics and
recreation department’s agreement with the new terms. Haller said he
believes this will create more student involvement within S.A.R.
In other news, A.S.I. President Danny Vivian, in his weekly report to
the Senate, discussed the deal that Charles Reed, chancellor of the
Cal State University system, California Education Secretary Richard
Riordan and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came to regarding the
budget crisis and its relation to higher education.
According to Vivian, they agreed not to increase the General Fund
this year and they will not cut the Educational Opportunity Program.
Vivian also noted that while undergraduate fees could go up by 14
percent and graduate fees by 20 percent, next Wednesday the board of
trustees would be meeting to vote to further increase the fees.
Vivian urged the Senate body to “Support the legislators that are
[angry] about this,” and to fight to preserve quality higher
education.
While several of the Senate members will be returning next year to
continue representing the students, certain senators will be moving
on in their professional lives. Over the course of the year, the
Senate intent on many conflicts and enacted numerous resolutions that
affect a myriad of students on campus. It also resolved what proved
to be a controversial issue brought forth by the Armenian Student
Association alleging Turkish involvement in the genocide of
Armenians. In the end, the two groups “agreed to disagree” and the
Senate diffused what might have become a sticky situation. In
addition, they debated about issues relating to fees students have to
pay, and fought for campus organizations.
The senators collectively agreed that they accomplished a large
amount this year and a number of members expressed how honored they
are to have served on the Senate.

Palestine Chronicle
May 13 2004
An Evening with Bernard Lewis: Terrorists, Tea and Hatred
“The only solution, Lewis concludes, is the Western recolonization of
the Arab world, starting with Iraq ..”
By Sarah Whalen
The Palestine Chronicle
I wonder.
What is a terrorist?
Saudis, Wahhabis, Muslims who follow the shariah, and suicide
bombers, Orientalist Bernard Lewis told a rapt audience of mostly
Jewish Americans in New Orleans last week.
Lewis, a British Jew who studied law but failed to finish, apparently
hates the sharia only slightly less than he hates Saudi Arabia
generally and Wahhabism specifically. “A lunatic fringe in a marginal
country,” he sneers. The West’s present troubles, Lewis avers, arise
from “an unholy combination of two events:” the creation of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the discovery of oil there.
The audience titters at the word “unholy.”
Encouraged, Lewis warms to his subject. “Imagine,” he offers, “if the
Ku Klux Klan obtained the oil wells of Texas, and had all that
money…a pale approximation” of what happened with Saudi Arabia.
“Imagine,” Lewis urges, “that the KKK used all this money to
establish a network of well-endowed schools and colleges all over
Christendom, peddling their particular brand of Christianity.”
The audience gasps and shudders at the thought of Christianity being
spread. Or is it a “KKK” brand of Christianity? Or Islam? Lewis is
unclear, but on a roll.
Suicide bombing also has Islamic origins, Lewis insists. He admits
Islam “clearly forbids suicide.” But this doesn’t stop Muslims from
doing it, says Lewis, who shifts to the Assassins, spinning lurid
tales of the dagger-wielding, supposedly hashish-smoking Ismaili
sect’s practices in the 11th and 12th centuries that terrorized
Crusaders and most of “Persia and Palestine.” The Assassins, Lewis
claims, were “eventually suppressed” only to “reappear in the late
19th and early 20th centuries.”
And their heirs, ignoble, modern suicide bombers, Lewis warns, may
soon become a metaphor for the whole Middle East, locked into “a
downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and
oppression.”
The only solution, Lewis concludes, is the Western recolonization of
the Arab world, starting with Iraq.
But why stop there?
An American-Israeli Ottoman empire awaits.
The audience wildly applauds.
Lewis takes questions from lesser beings, all of whom bask in his
genial but insulting answers. Then, the audience storms the table
laden with The Crisis of Islam, and What Went Wrong, manifestos that
made Lewis the Bush Administration’s chief neocon ideologue.
Lewis graciously signs purchases.
I stand in line and wonder: Do these new Lewis fans, many of whom
descend from Holocaust victims and survivors, know that a French
court once fined him for denying the Armenian genocide? Do they know
that today’s date–April 24–marks the Armenian genocide’s 89th
anniversary?
It is my turn: “You claim the Ismaili Assassins are the precursors of
modern Palestinian suicide bombers. I wanted to ask about Masada–”
Lewis jumps, as though poked with a pin. “Masada!” he says
emphatically. “Damn! I meant to say something about that.”
I nod.
“I wonder whether this tradition actually started much earlier in
Palestine with the Jewish tradition of the Sicarii.”
Lewis’s eyes narrow suspiciously. The Sicarii, Lewis knows, were
Jewish Zealot assassins specializing in murder by “sicae,” small
daggers.
During the 66 CE Jewish rebellion, some Sicarii fled to Masada, King
Herod’s fortress, slaughtered the Roman garrison stationed there, and
plundered nearby settlements, including Jewish villages. The Masada
group eventually numbered 960 men, women, and children.
In 72 CE, the Roman governor Silva besieged Masada with the 10th
Legion. Jewish historian Josephus recorded the testimony of two
Jewish women and five Jewish children, the sole survivors of what
happened next, on Passover Eve, 73 CE, when the
Sicarii announced that rather than surrender, the Jewish men would
murder their wives and children, then “cast lots to choose ten men to
dispatch the remainder,” with the lone surviving Jew then running
“his sword entirely through himself.”
This they did.
Lewis glares. “Well,” he says, “Judaism so abhors suicide that there
is not a word about Masada in any Jewish history or rabbinical period
text, only by Josephus.” And he chuckles and remarks that in writing
down the truth, Josephus became a despised Roman collaborator.
I nod. But I ask: “Why do we ignore murder-suicide’s place in ancient
Israeli-Palestinian culture? Modern Israelis made murder-suicide into
a national shrine at Masada. But there’s nothing heroic about
murdering your wives and children and all your male friends, and then
killing yourself, which is what the Sicarii did. So why glorify them,
as Israel does?”
Lewis does not blink.
So I press on.
“Israeli Army recruits take oaths of allegiance at Masada. And since
every Israeli serves some time in the armed forces, they’re all
indoctrinated into this view. Zionist youth groups hike to Masada,
there promising to support the Israeli state unto death. How can you
blame 11th century Ismaili Assassins for inventing suicide bombings,
when the Sicarii predated Islam by hundreds of years?”
“At least,” Lewis snaps, “the Jews only killed themselves at Masada,
and not anyone else.”
But surviving Sicarii groups fled to Alexandria and Thebes. Scholars
say Ismaili fringe traditions originated out of Egypt. And Egypt is
the home of the Muslim Brotherhood. So who taught who how to be a
suicide bomber?
Is recolonizing Israel an option?
Lewis turns away.
I wonder.
From: Baghdasarian

No need in new deals on truce in Nagorno Karabakh – Aliyev
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 13 2004
NAKHICHEVAN (Azerbaijan), May 13 (Itar-Tass) – Azerbaijani President
Ilkham Aliyev believes “there is no need in the signing of new
documents on the maintaining of truce in the zone of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict”.
President Aliyev told reporters that the truce, introduced in the
mostly Armenian populated Azerbaijani enclave on May 12, 1994,
“continues and is observed by the sides”.
Speaking at a parliamentary session in the southwestern autonomous
republic of Nakhichevan, Aliyev expressed hope that the sides in the
conflict will reach a peaceful agreement, based on the principles of
“justice and international law”.
He also stressed that Azerbaijan “sticks to several principles”
in the solution of the Karabakh conflict, “and will never renounce
them”. “Territorial integrity must be restored, and refugees must
get back to their homes,” Aliyev stressed.
“We can conduct negotiations basing on those principles, but
no peaceful agreement is possible outside their framework,” the
Azerbaijani president emphasized.

Festival celebrates Armenia
La Cañada Valley Sun, CA
May 13 2004
Armenian Relief Society SHOWCASING CULTURE – A trio plays traditional
Armenian music during the Armenian Relief Society’s 93rd anniversary
festivities in 2003.
The Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Western Regional Executive will
launch its third annual festival in celebration of the organization’s
94th anniversary at the Glendale Civic Auditorium on May 15 and 16.
The festival will bring Armenian music, art, dance, history and
culinary heritage under one roof.
Be transported to an era when women sewed their own clothing and
household items. See what they prepared before their weddings. Enjoy
traditional wedding festivities and an Armenian costume show. Have
your picture taken in traditional Armenian costume. Dance to Armenian
music with a group of beginners. Learn how to make string cheese or
other culinary delicacies. Listen to lively stories with a group
of children. Enjoy roaming around exhibits of local and Armenian
products such as books, arts and crafts, drinks and food. Listen and
dance to live music. Meet old friends and make new ones. Let your
children spare no energy in the kid’s zone.
ARS was founded in New York in 1910. The establishment of the first
two chapters in the Western Region (west of the Mississippi) followed
in Fresno (1915) and Hollywood (1918).
The Western Region has held a weekend festival to celebrate ARS’s
anniversary during the last two years at the Glendale Civic Auditorium.
In 2003, the cultural festival attracted 10,000 visitors. Encouraged
by the increasing interest by Armenians and non-Armenians alike, this
year’s program and exhibits will be expanded in order to accommodate
even more visitors and greater variety of activities.
“We intend to create a little Armenia in Glendale with expanded
programming for children and interesting exhibits for adults,” said
Nova Hindoyan, president of the ARS Western Regional Executive.
The proceeds of the weekend event will be used to fund ARS activities
including counseling the youth, awarding scholarships, supporting
orphans, helping the aged, and providing other social and educational
services to local communities. The ARS Child Youth and Family Guidance
Center is an example of the multidisciplinary approach to help find
solutions to complex family situations.
The ARS is an independent, non-governmental and non-sectarian
organization, which serves the humanitarian needs of the Armenian
people and seeks to preserve the cultural identity of the Armenian
nation. The Western Regional was founded 20 years ago and has 27
chapters, with 16 of the chapters located in Southern California.
The Glendale Civic Auditorium is located at 1401 N. Verdugo Road in
Glendale. Admission is $5 for the public (children admitted free).
Those interested in participating or sponsoring the program, may
contact the ARS regional executive at 500-1343.

Cape Codder, MA
May 13 2004
Coming to America
By Bill Barnes / [email protected]
Artist seeks asylum in West Yarmouth
Stuck in the middle of Europe, wedged amidst Poland, Lithuania and
Russia is a little country called Belarus, just 10 million people in a
place the size of Kansas. It is one of the Soviet republics that won
independence after the collapse, but as is the case in many of the
former republics, independence for the country did not mean freedom
for its people.
The State Department’s annual human rights report on Belarus are
dismal. Human Rights Watch is constantly documenting cases of abuse.
Last year, The Committee to Protect Journalists cited Belarus with
a place on its list of the 10 “worst places to be a journalist.”
The way Alexandr Lukashenka, president since 1994, runs Belarus
reminds many of Stalin and people who don’t like that tend to wind
up in jail, or, in some cases, simply disappear. Elections are a
mockery. Dissenting newspapers are shut down.
Out of that climate comes Kseniya Kudrashova, a 23-year-old artist and
former university student. She expressed her views through her art,
on canvases that were sold clandestinely and in cartoons that were
published in an opposition paper.
She demonstrated with her fellow students from the University
in Minsk. She was hauled in by the police and threatened with
worse. Her apartment was raided and all her paintings were seized. She
disappeared, but she disappeared voluntarily.
Last June she escaped to Cape Cod, where she lives in a small house
in West Yarmouth with the man she plans to marry. She is not here
legally anymore, but she says she has nothing to go back to but fear.
With the help of friends she hopes to persuade the U.S. government
to grant her asylum.
On a recent evening, in the company of friends Vahan Hambardzumanyan
and Sergei Mahtesyan, she met with a reporter in a coffee shop in
the Cape Cod Mall to tell her story.
The young men are both from Armenia, legal residents working as
building contractors. Mahtesyan came to Starbucks to translate.
Hambardzumanyan is her fiance. They too come from a former republic
of the USSR, so Russian is their common language.
Kudrashova is an ethnic Russian who moved to the White Russian SSR,
now Belarus, with her parents as a baby. Her father was in the Soviet
military and had been ordered to work in a military aviation factory
in the republic. After the breakup the family became Belarus citizens
and lost the right to return to Russia, as did many others in their
situation.
In her hometown, an hour north of Minsk, Kudrashova studied painting
at the local academy and regularly showed her works in home-town
shows. When she went on to university in Minsk, where she studied
economics, she kept painting.
“In my free time I painted. I had regular customers who bought my
paintings. That is how I paid for my education and living expenses,”
she said. Along with the abstracts and the landscapes, there were
political paintings as well.
She also worked as an artist for the opposition newspaper Shag (meaning
“step”) and she was also involved with a group of young people called
the Youth Front who opposed the president. She did posters for the
demonstrations they held.
On April 14, 2003, she joined the Youth Front in a demonstration
which was broken up by police swinging batons. “They fractured her
collarbone when police were beating the crowd to get them into the
vans,” according to Mahtesyan. The medical papers from the hospital
are part of the evidence she will be putting into her application
for asylum.
Kudrashova could be considered one of the lucky ones that day. Forty
of the demonstrators were tried and sentenced to prison terms. Others
were expelled from the university. She was released without charges,
but the secret police soon visited her apartment.
“They warned me that if I do anything more against the president I
would have big problems. They confiscated all my paintings, including
those not concerned with politics,” she said, adding it was not her
role in the demonstrations that bothered the police as much as her
cartoons in Shag.
Last June, she did what so many Eastern Europeans have been doing
and joined the “Work and Travel USA” program to come to the United
States to work for the summer. She had no idea of where she was going,
but another girl on the plane suggested Cape Cod and she wound up
working at a McDonald’s in Hyannis.
Under the program, she was supposed to return in October, she said,
“but because so many students had escaped this way, the government
said that anyone who had not returned by Sept. 4 would be excluded
from the university.” She did not comply.
Over the summer the government shut down the newspaper Shag.
Since October, Kudrashova has been out of work. She spent a month
in New York trying to hook up with the arts community, but couldn’t
afford to stay. She has joined Belarusian dissident groups in the
United States and has been invited to submit cartoons for an exile
paper in New York.
According to Mahtesyan, she spends most of her time at home, monitoring
Belarusian affairs on the Internet and painting. She says she has
made no contacts with the arts community here and has no outlets for
her work, so the paintings are rapidly piling up.
They are an odd collection of protest and beauty. One of Minsk’s
main square enclosed in a prison cell faces a painting of a Cape
Cod lighthouse.
“Being in Cape Cod, I can freely create. Besides American freedom,
Cape Cod is a good environment for an artist,” she says. “I get a
lot of emotions from Cape Cod to put on canvas.”
Now she an the two Armenians are hard at work putting together her
application for asylum. Mahtesyan says the application is only three
pages, but the instructions are a book. They have no lawyer to help,
and the documentation is sometimes hard to get.
The rules for the granting asylum are strict and more are denied than
are accepted. But she and her friends are convinced it’s worth a try.
I have nothing to go back to. If I continued what I was doing there,
my family would be in trouble,” Kudrashova says.

PanArmenian News
May 13 2004
PRAGUE, WARSAW, STRASBURG…
Next round of Karabakh talks may be more important.
The second meeting of the FMs of Armenia and Azerbaijan took place in
Strasbourg within the frames of the session of Foreign Ministers of
the Council of Europe member-countries. No information available
about the results of the meeting.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ We shall remind that the Azeri Minister said
recently that the most important issue to be discussed in Strasburg
was the possibility of exchange of territories for communications.
The matter concerns an idea according to which the Armenian forces
will cede to Azerbaijan seven regions that make a security zone
around the NKR, in exchange Baku removes the blockade. It should be
clarified that the activation of the communications is more important
for Azerbaijan and not so much for Armenia because the railway
passing via Meghri is the only way to have links with the enclave of
Nakhichevan. Thus, proposing such an interesting ”exchange”, in
Baku they should not expect any result.
However, President Aliyev confirmed on the eve of the meeting that
the idea would be discussed in Strasburg. The Russian co-chair of the
OSCE Minsk group Yuri Merzlyakov clarified the issue. He said that
the agenda of the meeting would be ”free”. Parties and co-chairs
may propose everything they want, according to him. However, if
Mamedyarov proposes the idea of the security zone in exchange for
restoration of railway communications, it does not mean that the
discussion will take place. The Armenian party has always stated it
is not going to discuss such proposals. The issue will be closed as
soon as Vartan Oskanyan voices the official position of the Armenian
party. So, there is an impression that Mamedyarov’s statement was
supposed only for the local audience.
And what was discussed in Strasburg? We shall remind that according
to Merzlyakov, the ideas proposed by mediators during the Paris
meeting of Ministers and discussed further on by Kocharian and Aliyev
were the subject of discussion. He said only that it was an attempt
to find a ”compromise variant between the package and stage-by-stage
versions” of the conflict settlement.
The approaches of the parties to the proposed ideas may become clear
during the next round of high level talks. And if a progress is
achieved, Kocharian and Aliyev will commission their delegates, Tatul
Margaryan and Araz Azimov, to continue the negotiations. By the way,
according to the press, the delegates did not meet separately in
Strasburg which means that the parties are not sure that Margaryan
and Azimov will have to continue the interrupted contacts.