Portland Press Herald (Maine)
April 24, 2004 Saturday, FINAL Edition
Mass, procession will mark Armenian genocide
The Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul in Portland will commemorate the
Armenian holocaust at a High Mass at 10 a.m. Sunday.
After the Mass at the cathedral at 279 Congress St., a procession
will go to the Armenian Community Memorial on Cumberland Avenue.
A reception will be held in St. Paul’s Parish Hall after the
procession. All are welcome.
More than 1.5 million Armenians died during the genocide by the
Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. A memorial was dedicated last
year to the Armenian community in Portland, which dates back to the
late 19th century.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Washington Post
April 25, 2004 Sunday
Final Edition
An Expanding Europe, in Decline;
The EU Is an Economic Laggard. If You Want Growth, Kazakhstan’s the
Ticket
by Anders Aslund
Next Saturday, the European Union (EU) will admit 10 states, eight of
them former communist countries. This is a moment to celebrate: In
the 12 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, these countries have
become fully democratic and are now, to varying degrees, integrated
into the West.
But it is also a moment of economic concern. For the past five years,
the new Central European members — Poland, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Hungary — have had a mediocre economic growth rate of 3
percent a year. Those four countries constitute almost 90 percent of
the population of the entering states. (The other six — Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus — are mini-states,
with only 10 million people among them.)
The EU has many advantages, but economic dynamism is no longer one of
them. In order to qualify, the applicant countries had to adopt all
the bureaucratic EU regulations, including the most moribund of them,
known as the Common Agricultural Policy — a system of subsidies paid
to EU farmers. As a result, the Central Europeans should expect their
growth to slow: This year, the 15 preexpansion EU members were
expected to post an economic growth rate of less than 2 percent. By
contrast, the U.S. economy and that of the world as a whole are set
to expand by 4.5 percent.
Admittedly, the new Central European members have benefited from
generous access to EU markets. The entering states already trade more
with the EU than the old members did with one another. But the
Central Europeans have achieved everything they can gain from EU
membership, and they will stagnate if they do not liberate themselves
from the petrifying EU model.
Meanwhile, in a development that has gotten little notice amid the EU
expansion hoopla, the post-Soviet countries further to the east have
been booming since 1999. The nine market economies in the former
Soviet Union (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) have on average grown annually
by no less than 7 percent for the last five years. The new tigers are
Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine — far more so than Poland, Hungary or
the Czech Republic. The three Baltic countries are doing
significantly better than the Central Europeans, but not as well as
their eastern neighbors.
This is a dramatic turnaround.
During the first decade of economic transformation after communism,
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic seemed to do everything right
— swiftly building normal market economies, privatizing state
enterprises and establishing proper democracies — and sound economic
growth ensued. Most of the former Soviet Union, by contrast,
undertook only gradual reform, privatized slowly and did little to
develop democracy or the rule of law. Output slumped until 1998, when
the Russian financial crash passed a severe judgment on partial
reforms.
To be sure, Russia has benefited from high oil prices and
devaluation. Yet growth in the post-Soviet region is accelerating,
while only Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are oil exporters.
Clearly, something else is going on. The post-Soviet countries have
returned to growth because their market reforms are finally
succeeding. They have privatized most state enterprises and put their
public finances in order.
Why are the post-Soviet market economies doing so much better than
the Central European ones? Part of the explanation is that the
post-Soviet countries were poorer and far less developed in the first
place, and poorer countries tend to grow faster than rich ones if all
else is equal. But this explains only a small part of the difference.
The truth, which may shock you, is that the post-Soviet countries
have a more efficient economic model than the Central European ones
because they are free from the harmful influences of the EU. This is
most evident in public finances.
In Central Europe, public expenditures amount to no less than 46
percent of GDP, as in Western Europe. Consequently, taxes are high
and social transfers excessive. The Hungarian economist Janos Kornai
has labeled the Central European countries “premature welfare
states.” Worse still, the Central European countries have maintained
an unsustainable average budget deficit of 7 percent of GDP for the
last three years. They seem reassured that the EU will bail them out.
By contrast, the Russian financial crash forced the former Soviet
republics to cut public expenditures sharply, to no more than 26
percent of GDP — that is, just over half the level in Central
Europe. Taxes also have been slashed. Russia and Ukraine have adopted
a 13 percent flat personal income tax. Kazakhstan has undertaken a
Chilean-style pension reform, privatizing its social security system.
Even so, these countries have nearly balanced budgets.
Low public expenditures and high growth go together in most former
communist countries. Communism bred corruption, and the longer it
lasted, the worse the corruption, so the post-Soviet countries were
and are more corrupt than the Central European states. The best cure
for a pervasively corrupt state is naturally to cut public
expenditures and revenues.
Another major difference between the Central European and former
Soviet countries is that the Central Europeans have much more
regulated labor markets and higher taxes on labor, because Central
Europe has adopted Western Europe’s strict regulations. As a result,
Poland has an unemployment rate of more than 20 percent compared with
Russia’s 8 percent. Regulations might be intimidating also in the
former Soviet countries as well, but most are circumvented.
Thus, the economic dynamism in Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine is in
no way sheer luck. Their new economic model is reminiscent of East
Asia’s. Japan took off after World War II, and it was imitated by
four East Asian tigers: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.
China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia followed suit two decades
ago. India has risen in the last decade, and now the nine former
Soviet economies mentioned above have benefited from the same model
of open markets and limited state intervention. Kazakhstan’s
President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin
seem to see Singapore or South Korea as their economic ideals. The
post-Soviet countries are facing stiff protectionism in Europe, so
they export the steel and chemicals that the EU does not want to East
Asia instead, notably to China’s insatiable market.
Nor is the poor economic performance of Central Europe an accident.
Slovakia’s Minister of Finance Ivan Miklos put it bluntly: “Europe is
hindered by labor market inflexibility, heavy tax burdens, bloated
public sectors and other competitive constraints, and the gap between
the United States and Europe continues to widen rather than shrink.”
This is not to whitewash the post-Soviet countries. They are both
corrupt and authoritarian, while Central Europe is eminently
democratic and richer. Some draw the dubious conclusion that
democracy is bad for economic development, but this holds true for
Central Europe as much as it does for the rest of the world, which is
to say not at all.
The point, rather, is that the EU model generates stable democracy
but little economic growth. Today, Russian economists no longer look
to Poland for a desirable model but to the thriving free markets of
Kazakhstan, Singapore, South Korea and Chile. To them, Europe is both
inhospitable and stagnant.
Democracy advocates face the new challenge of clarifying that Central
Europe’s sluggish growth is an effect not of democracy but of EU
regulations. The EU needs to liberalize its economy and reduce its
fiscal profligacy, not only for its own benefit, but also for the
reputation of democracy. Countries such as Ukraine should not have to
choose between democracy and growth.
Rather than requiring its new members to adopt every regulation in
its 80,000 pages of common economic legislation, the EU should have
used this opportunity to do away with its most harmful regulations,
such as the Common Agricultural Policy. With 25 members and no
effective political institutions, the new EU appears set to be stuck
in economic stagnation for the foreseeable future.
Author’s e-mail: mailto:[email protected]
Anders Aslund is director of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace’s Russian and Eurasian program, and author of
“Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc”
(Cambridge University Press).

Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)
April 22, 2004 Thursday
50 years and a 90th birthday party
Inside Retail Charlotte Balcomb Lane Of the Journal
A landmark Downtown store is celebrating an unusual milestone —
Knadjian’s Oriental Rugs is celebrating 50 years in business at the
same time as its owner, Bill Knadjian, celebrates his 90th birthday.
Knadjian’s birthday was April 16, which he celebrated in Las Vegas,
Nev., with family.
The business is celebrating its anniversary with a sale lasting
through April.
In 1954, Knadjian and his older brother, Jack Knadjian, opened the
store at 1418 E. Central, selling carpets, draperies and Oriental
rugs. The brothers, who had emigrated from Armenia, had sold rugs in
New Mexico for about 20 years before settling down in the location
east of Downtown near Presbyterian Hospital.
After Jack died in 1976, Knadjian’s dropped draperies and carpets to
concentrate on Oriental rugs. The store also repairs and cleans
Oriental rugs.
Knadjian is still active in the business. He recently told the
Journal he chooses every rug for the store. He buys only
hand-knotted, all-wool rugs. He said that, after 70 years in the
business, he can easily tell good merchandise from bad.
When asked recently if he wanted to retire, Knadjian said he would
stay in the business as long as his health remained good.
“There’s so much skulduggery in this business, I’d like to stay in it
and take care of my customers,” said Knadjian.
The telephone number of Knadjian’s Oriental Rugs is 247-0195.
OFFICE DEPOT ON CUTLER: A new neighborhood-size Office Depot is under
construction at 5001 Cutler NE, near the San Mateo Pavilions. It
should be open for business by early September, said the property
owner, Carolyn Mason of Carroll Ventures.
This office supply store will be about 13,046 square feet and is
being built on just one acre of land for about $920,000. The average
Office Depot is about 20,000 square feet, a company spokeswoman said.
The land was left over from the construction of the Home Office
Plaza, which was developed in the 1970s. Carolyn Mason and her
husband, architect Stan Mason, bought the Home Office Plaza complex
and excess land in 1983. They worked with Anthony Johnson, vice
president of Sedberry & Associates, to lease the property to Office
Depot.
Jaynes Corp. is the contractor and the architect is Gould, Evans,
Goodman of Kansas City, Mo.
Carroll Ventures specializes in urban infill development. The company
is also developing a 45,000-square-foot distribution warehouse in the
1000 block of First Street Downtown.
Carroll Ventures was founded in 1949 by Carolyn Mason’s father, Bill
Carroll, who is still chairman and semi-retired.
MORE AUTO SERVICES ON JUAN TABO: A new Meineke Car Care Center opened
early this week on Juan Tabo, in an area flush with car care and tire
businesses.
The new Meineke is at 1812 Juan Tabo NE and is the second location
belonging to John Rastegari, who also operates the Meineke Car Care
Center at 5705 N. Fourth. He has owned that franchise for 15 years,
he said.
The 4,120-square-foot building was built by Albuquerque Building &
Development Co.
Meineke does many types of automobile repairs, including exhaust
work, oil changes and tire rotation, brake and suspension work. The
business will employ three, said Rastegari.
NEW HOME FOR CHILI PEPPER: After 21 years in Winrock Center, The
Chili Pepper Emporium is moving to the Rio Grande Plaza.
The new address is 901 Rio Grande NW, next door to Starbucks.
The store, which specializes in products and gifts with a chile
theme, is closing in the mall Saturday and reopening in its new
location on May 1.
“We’re doubling our square footage and reducing our rent,” said Pat
Tenorio, who owns the store with his wife, Sherrie Tenorio.
The Tenorios bought the business in 1998.
Jane Pilger, Tim With and John Ransom of Grubb & Ellis New Mexico
handled the lease.
Know of a new store or restaurant or are you opening a business? Call
Charlotte Balcomb Lane at 823-3820 or e-mail
mailto:[email protected].
GRAPHIC: PHOTO BY:MARLA BROSE/JOURNAL PHOTO: Color Bill Knadjian,
owner of Knadjian’s Oriental Rugs, celebrated his 90th birthday last
week and is celebrating the business’ 50th anniversary this month.

Fresno Bee (California)
April 22, 2004, Thursday FINAL EDITION
Fresno, say hello to Carol Channing
by Donald Munro THE FRESNO BEE
She offers a scoop of trademark gravel with her first cheery greeting
over the phone.
That voice — recognizable to generations of Broadway musical-comedy
fans, along with a sizable contingent of 1970s-era television
watchers who never quite figured out why she kept popping up on “The
Love Boat” — is raspy.
It’s distinctive. It’s endearing. It’s like taking a shower in
itty-bitty pebbles. It’s an aural national landmark, as much a part
of the cultural consciousness as Ethel Merman belting out “There’s No
Business Like Show Business” or Richard Nixon croaking “I am not a
crook.”
And today, over the phone, that voice is preoccupied at the moment
with Carol Channing’s new favorite topic: reuniting with her first
love.
“I always liked the sound of my name,” the 83-year-old Channing says
in that chirpy, gravelly growl. “But I think Carol Kullijian is just
as euphonious.”
She isn’t giving up the Channing moniker, of course. But these days
she also considers herself Mrs. Harry Kullijian.
Last year she married Kullijian, 84, her sweetheart from junior high
school. They’d lost touch for a whopping 67 years.
If that isn’t a story that would make Dolly Levi — the czarina of
all the matchmakers and the character that molded Channing into a
cultural icon — oh-so-proud, then what would?
It’s also a story that explains why Channing is coming to the Tower
Theatre on Sunday for two performances of “Hello, Fresno” to benefit
the Armenian Home for the Aged.
Kullijian’s sister, Lucille Pilibos, lives in Fresno. Kullijian has
long been involved in charitable Armenian causes.
Channing fondly recalls her early teen years with Kullijian at Aptos
Middle School in San Francisco.
But they lost touch when he went off to a military academy and she, a
precocious young talent determined for a career in show business,
went to Bennington College in Vermont at the age of 16.
She says she often thought of him, particularly during those tough
early times in her career when she was looking for jobs in New York.
“I often thought that if I could have just talked to Harry, he’d have
me straightened out,” she says.
But she managed just fine on her own, it turns out. A lot happened in
the nearly seven decades it took for them to reconnect.
She starred in two of Broadway’s biggest smashes (“Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes” and “Hello, Dolly!”) and many other plays, cabaret shows,
recordings and movies.
She played opposite Clint Eastwood in her first movie, 1956’s “The
First Traveling Saleslady,” and later would receive an Oscar
nomination for 1967’s “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
She hobnobbed with hundreds of show-biz greats, from Ethel Merman and
Tallulah Bankhead to George Burns and Yul Brenner. She met Queen
Elizabeth. She was married three times and became a cancer survivor.
He, in the meantime, got married, became a prominent Modesto
real-estate entrepreneur, was elected city council member and became
a widower.
After so many years, they each thought the other was dead.
But then came “Just Lucky, I Guess,” Channing’s amiable memoir heavy
on breezy show-biz anecdotes and light on the celebrity dirt that
usually sells such books.
(She does dish a little at Barbra Streisand for stealing her “baby,”
the starring role in the movie version of “Hello, Dolly!”)
In it, she wrote fondly of Kullijian.
“Everyone writes about their first love,” she says. “I wrote absolute
poetry about him. I thought he was gone by then.”
But he wasn’t gone. Far from it.
One of his friends, Mervin Morris (of Mervyn’s department stores)
read the book and urged him to call Channing.
They arranged a meeting at her condominium in Rancho Mirage.
“He walked through my front gate, and we just continued the
conversation we’d started nearly 70 years ago,” Channing says. “Two
weeks later, we were engaged.”
They were married at Morris’ Atherton home. The couple is one month
shy of their one-year anniversary.
Her marriage coincided with something of a career renaissance that
was sparked by her memoir.
Kullijian is handling her business affairs now, booking her new show
in venues across the country. (It most recently played at San
Francisco’s Geary Theatre over Easter weekend.)
The ultimate goal: a regular run in New York.
“We never stop,” Kullijian says. “But we’re having a ball. I’m so
pleased with the resurgence of her career, even if we are busy. You
know, if I was an old, old guy, I don’t think I could handle this.”
The show she’s bringing to Fresno is mostly ad-libbed.
“I get to talk as myself,” she says. “If you’re lucky enough to be in
two smash-hit shows, the traffic of the world goes through your
dressing room. I might tell what it was like to know Yul Brenner and
Lena Horne, Sophie Tucker, Gertrude Lawrence.”
Also scheduled is a cameo appearance by Fresno native Mike Connors,
with whom Channing has had a long friendship.
When she performed the show in New York for a trial run as part of
the Singular Sensations series at the Village Theater, she did
imitations of Merman, Tucker and Ann Miller.
She also sang what she calls her “Battle Hymn of the Republic” — the
anthem “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” the signature number
performed by Lorelei Lee, the gold digger from Little Rock, Ark., in
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
In an enthusiastic New York Times review of the show in November,
Margo Jefferson wrote: “Let’s hope she just goes on talking — and
singing — anytime, anyplace and everywhere.”
Channing might have “retired” from Broadway in the 1990s with a last
revival of “Hello Dolly!” after more than 5,000 performances.
But she isn’t annoyed when people identify her so closely with that
show’s meddling, assertive, kind-hearted, take-charge character.
The play is about a woman making a conscious decision to change her
life.
There’s no doubt she did that, she says, when she hooked up again
with Kullijian.
She told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that her favorite part of
“Dolly” every night was Dolly talking to her late husband Ephraim,
telling him she plans to marry Horace Vandergelder.
Dolly asks Ephraim to let her go. She’s waited long enough.
“And God knows I waited a long time for Harry,” Channing says.
In her new life in Modesto, she lives in an Armenian farmhouse
surrounded by orchards of black figs, white figs, peaches and
apricots.
“For a person who spent her whole life going from a hotel room to a
backstage dressing room, it’s unbelievable to be able to live in a
farmhouse,” she says.
She even got talked into joining the Modesto Chamber of Commerce,
though she says it’s hard to make the meetings because of her busy
schedule.
There’s a wistful lilt to her voice now on the phone. (Jefferson, the
critic writing in the Times, describes her impeccable enunciation:
“She handles each vowel, each consonant, each syllable with the care
and relentless glee Lorelei bestows on diamonds.”) When Channing
talks about getting a second chance at love, you can’t help but feel
as if the very telephone lines are tingling just a little more than
normal.
In any of the cities to which her show travels, you’ll get a big dose
of show-business memories. But the Fresno show will be special
because, well, it’ll be like family.
“I fell in love with Armenians when I was 12 years old and met
Harry,” Channing says. “Now after marrying him all these years later,
all of a sudden I have 32 Armenian cousins in Fresno. All these
relatives — I can’t tell you what it means to me at my age.”
The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559)
441-6373.
INFOBOX
IF YOU GO
What: Carol Channing in “Hello, Fresno.”
When: 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Tower Theatre.
Tickets: $40 matinee, $45 evening.
Info: Patrick’s Music, (559) 224-7287; Tower Theatre, (559) 485-9050.
Channing will make a special appearance at Gottschalks at Manchester
Center at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. She will answer questions and sign
autographs.
GRAPHIC: Carol Channing
ASSOCIATED PRESS Carol Channing appears in “Hello, Dolly!” — a
musical that’s part of the entertainer’s legend. Her memoir spurred a
recent career renaissance.

Fresno Bee (California)
April 20, 2004, Tuesday FINAL EDITION
Armenian flag to rise in Fresno
by Vanessa Colon THE FRESNO BEE
For the first time, the community will witness the raising of the
Armenian flag next to the flags of the United States and California.
The 10- by 15-foot Armenian flag will go up at 10 a.m. Saturday at
Fresno City Hall as part of observation of the Armenian genocide.
Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered at the
hand of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey, which sprang from the empire,
does not recognize the Armenian genocide.
On Friday, state Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno, is scheduled to
speak at noon. A film and a candlelight vigil will follow at 7 p.m.
at McLane Hall at California State University, Fresno.
Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church will hold the Armenian Martyrs
Day Commemoration Ecumenical Service at 7 p.m. Saturday. Ararat Masis
cemetery will hold another commemoration at 1 p.m. Sunday at Soghomon
Tehlirian’s monument.
For more information on the flag ceremony, call 486-1918; for
Friday’s event, call 278-2669; and to reach Holy Trinity Armenian
Apostolic Church, call 486-1141.
The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or 441-6313.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US ENVOY URGES PROGRESS IN TURKISH-ARMENIAN BORDER OPENING
Arminfo
22 Apr 04
YEREVAN
“We hope that progress will be reached in lifting the blockade of the
Armenian border by Turkey,” US ambassador to Armenia John Ordway told
a press conference today, commenting on numerous reports about the
possibility of lifting the blockade in the run-up to a NATO summit in
Istanbul in June.
A lot of work has to be done to prepare for the summit and for US
President George Bush’s visit to Turkey, Ordway said. “We have a very
busy agenda to discuss with the Turkish government. Progress in the
opening of the Armenian border and establishment of relations between
Turkey and Armenia will be one of those issues,” he said.

ETHNIC AZERIS, ARMENIANS CLASH IN IRANIAN CAPITAL, 40 ARRESTED – AZERI TV
ANS TV, Baku
25 Apr 04
Ethnic Armenians in Tehran have staged a march dedicated to their
false genocide claims from the Armenian church located at the
Karimkhan cemetery to the Turkish embassy on Ferdowsi Street and the
UN office. In the process, they clashed with Azeris. Forty Azeris were
arrested and 20 were seriously injured.
The head of the Baku office of the National Revival Movement of
Southern Azerbaijan, Huseyn Turkel, said that the names of those
arrested and injured are known. Some of the injured are in hospital
and some in prison. He said that three of the injured were in a
critical condition. One of them was stabbed six times.
To recap, the Armenians were chanting “Death to Turks!” and “Damn the
Turks!”. The Armenians and Azeris clashed when the latter tried to
prevent the Armenians from setting fire to a Turkish flag outside the
Turkish embassy.

ARMENIAN OFFICIAL REJECTS COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S RALLY LAW REMARKS AS
“UNACCEPTABLE”
Arminfo
22 Apr 04
YEREVAN
The draft law “On conducting gatherings, rallies, marches and
demonstrations” is a far cry from European standards and does not
conform to Point 2 of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human
Rights, Natalya Vutova, special representative of the PACE
(Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) secretary-general,
said presenting the opinion of experts of the Venice Commission during
the discussion of the draft law today.
The Venice Commission’s final assessment will be ready by the end of
June, she said. The experts of the commission studied the draft law
both before some changes were made to it and after.
For now, it can be said that the amendments are structural in nature
and by and large of no major impact. The draft law provides too much
detail as to how rallies and demonstrations should be organized thus
making the organizers dependent on bureaucracy, Vutova said. The
experts reckon that the restrictions should be brought to a
minimum. Moreover, the draft law practically bans “spontaneous
gatherings” which must not be the case in a democratic society, Vutova
said.
Vukova’s remarks angered the deputy speaker of parliament (and deputy
chairman of the Republican Party), Tigran Torosyan, who attended the
meeting. “We have always respected the views and work of the Venice
Commission, and I regard such harsh wording as strange, to say the
least,” he said. “In addition, proposals are being made at working
meetings and a completely different stance is being taken at public
meetings. This is also very strange and attests to political subtext,”
Torosyan said.
If there are any reservations about some sections of the draft law,
they must be discussed, he said. However, the statement that the draft
does not conform to Article 11 of the European convention is, Torosyan
said, ” unacceptable, at least”.
(Passage omitted: more than 100 amendments were taken into account and
minor details of the bill)

ARMENIAN LEADER ACCUSES OPPOSITION OF “TREACHERY” AS HE LEAVES FOR FRANCE
Interfax news agency
25 Apr 04
YEREVAN
Before leaving for Paris on Sunday (25 April), Armenian President
Robert Kocharyan accused the opposition, which intends to hold a mass
rally in Yerevan on 27 April demanding that the government be
replaced, of “treachery”.
Kocharyan said he intends to meet his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev in Warsaw on 27 April to discuss a settlement of the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict.
“At the second stage of such negotiations, the organization of such
events in the country by the opposition is treachery, to put it
mildly,” Kocharyan said. If the opposition does not come to reason, it
could be called “a political crime”, he said.

CHECHENS TO SUPPORT AZERIS IN CASE OF KARABAKH WAR, RIGHTS ACTIVIST SAYS
Yeni Musavat, Baku
25 Apr 04
Text of R. Kazimli report by Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat on 25
April headlined “Any method can be used to liberate Karabakh” and
subheaded “Mayrbek Taramov reckons that any action taken against an
aggressor does not run counter to international norms”
We have reported that 22 Azerbaijanis were arrested (in August 2003)
for wishing to fight on the side of Chechens. Those people were led by
Rovsan Badalov and wanted to wage a guerrilla warfare in Karabakh.
One may wonder as to why they were arrested. Azerbaijan’s lands have
long been occupied by the Armenians and the authorities always talk a
lot about liberating them. Perhaps guerrilla warfare is now considered
illegal by international law?
We decided to go to Chechens who are fighting a bloody war for their
rights with this question. The director of the Chechen Rights Centre
and independent journalist, Mayrbek Taramov, said that the entire
world has come to accept that the war in Chechnya as the national
liberation movement of the Chechens.
“All the events unfolding in Chechnya, the assassination of (former
Chechen president) Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and Russia’s persecution of
Chechens shows that Russia resorts to terrorist methods. Therefore,
the entire world has to help Chechnya. As for the imprisonment of the
Azerbaijanis, there is no evidence to support their arrest. It is said
that they wanted to fight for the Chechens. At the time one judge
told me, avoiding eye contact, that he understood everything but could
not do otherwise. We have to admit that a person cannot be convicted
of plans to do something. Regrettably, this kind of thing is possible
only in Azerbaijan.”
Taramov recalled that Chechen leaders, for instance Shamil Basayev,
used to say that they were ready to assist Azerbaijan in re-taking
Karabakh. The Chechens are ready to keep their word, Taramov
said. “The Chechens have once proven that and they are ready to help
the Azerbaijani people for a second or third time. The Chechen
mojahedin consider this their holy duty.”
What is Taramov’s stance on the decision of an Azerbaijani citizen to
start a guerrilla war in Karabakh? It is a fact that Azerbaijan’s
lands have been occupied, Taramov said. “Neither international
organizations, nor the UN charter rules out any of the possible
methods of countering aggression. My subjective standpoint is that the
OSCE Minsk Group and other international organizations are interested
in maintaining the status quo. Had they wanted to, they would have
resolved the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict long ago. It is Azerbaijan and
its people who are suffering and nobody will deem it abnormal if any
measures are taken to free Karabakh. By waging a guerrilla warfare in
your own territory, you will not be violating any international
norms.”
So, we see that representatives of the Chechen nation fighting against
the Russian empire are on the side of the patriotic Azerbaijanis. We
can conclude from their comments that we should no longer postpone the
time when we open fire at the Armenians. In other words, instead of
putting in prisons those who want to fight a guerrilla war against the
invaders, we should create opportunities and conditions for them to
realize their intentions.