Interfax
April 28 2004
Azerbaijan hopes to include Kazakhstan in BTC in 2004
Astana. (Interfax) – Azerbaijan hopes that Kazakhstan will become a
participant in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project in 2004, Azerbaijani
Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said at the forum Caspian:
Politics, Economics, Business in Astana on Wednesday.
“At the moment 34 companies from 16 countries are participating in
transport projects in the Caspian region. Azerbaijan considers the
Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline projects to be
the main ones,” he said.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum projects are
“necessary conditions” for the economic development of the Caspian
region and will strengthen its energy security,” he said.
He said that Azerbaijan shares the position of Kazakhstan regarding
the laying of pipelines along the Caspian seabed.
Kazakh First Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Abuseitov said at the
forum that Kazakhstan is against having to agree laying underwater
communications and pipeline in the Caspian with all of the littoral
states. These issues should be agreed with the Caspian states through
whose sectors they pass, and not with all states in the region, he
said.
Khalafov also said that the implementation of oil and gas transport
projects in the region might be hindered by the unresolved
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and the unstable political situation in
Georgia.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project will cost $3.6 billion. The future
pipeline will stretch 1,767 kilometers (443 km through Azerbaijan,
248 km through Georgia and 1,076 km through Turkey) and will have a
capacity of 50 million tonnes of oil per annum
Participants in the BTC project are: British Petroleum (30.1%), SOCAR
(25%), Unocal (8.9%), Statoil (8.71%), TPAO (6.53%), ENI (5%), Itochu
(3.4%), ConocoPhillips (2.5%), Inpex (2.5%), TotalFinaElf (5%), and
Amerada Hess (2.36%).
Kazakhstan hopes to transport 10 million – 20 million tonnes of oil
per year through the pipeline. The republic produced over 51.3
million tonnes of oil and condensate in 2003.
Construction of the 690-km Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline should begin
in the third quarter 2004. The pipeline will transport gas from the
Shah Deniz field, which has reserves of 625 billion cubic meters of
gas and 101 million tonnes of condensate.

BBC News
Last Updated: Tuesday, 13 April, 2004, 10:05 GMT 11:05 UK
Timeline: Armenia
A chronology of key events:
1915 – 1917 – Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians are massacred or
deported from their homeland in Anatolia to present-day Syria. The Ottoman
government had suspected them of harbouring pro-Russian sympathies.
1916 – Armenia is conquered by tsarist Russia. Joins alliance with Georgia
and Azerbaijan. YEREVAN
Capital’s history stretches back more than 2,500 years
1920: Became capital of Armenian republic
Population: 1.2 million
1918 – Armenia becomes an independent republic.
1920 – Armenia is invaded by Turkey and Bolshevik Russia. An agreement with
the Bolsheviks leads to Armenia proclaiming itself a socialist republic.
1922 – Armenia is incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
USSR.
1930s – Armenians suffer under Stalin’s purges, but the country also
experiences industrial development.
The modern period
1988 – Encouraged by the new policy of openness (“glasnost”), Armenians
begin to campaign for Nagorno-Karabakh, a region with a predominantly
Armenian population in the neighbouring Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, to be
united with Armenia.
1988 December – Earthquake in northern Armenia kills 25,000 and leaves
hundreds of thousands homeless. The relief effort is slow and chaotic.
Armenians say 1.5 million died in last years of Ottoman Empire
2001: Bitter history of Armenian genocide row
Correspondent: Armenians say US failed them
1989 – Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh begins. It lasts intermittently for
five years. Many Azeri citizens are forced to flee their homes.
1990 – Armenian nationalists win parliamentary elections. Independence is
declared, but ignored by Moscow.
1991 September – A referendum sees 94% vote for secession from the Soviet
Union.
1991 October – Levon Ter-Petrossian elected president.
1991 December – Armenia joins the Commonwealth of Independent States, the
successor to the Soviet Union. Armenia recognised as independent by the US.
Internal unrest
1992 – Armenia joins the United Nations. A trade and energy embargo is
imposed by Azerbaijan. The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh continues.
1994 – Demonstrations in Yerevan over shortages of food and energy. A
Russian-brokered ceasefire ends the Nagorno-Karabakh fighting. The region is
left a self-proclaimed republic, with ethnic Armenian forces in control of
Azerbaijani territory surrounding Karabakh. NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Feuding over enclave has claimed thousands of lives
2001: Age-old enmity in the Caucasus
2000: Tug-of-war for Nagorno-Karabakh
1995 – The government launches privatisation and price liberalisation
programme. Parliamentary elections return the ruling party. The powers of
the president are widened.
1996 – Ter-Petrossian is re-elected president. Tanks are deployed on the
streets of Yerevan to quell protests over alleged electoral fraud.
1998 – Ter-Petrossian resigns over opposition to his efforts to find a
compromise with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Nationalist Robert
Kocharyan is elected president.
1999 – Gunmen, led by a local journalist Nairi Hunanyan, open fire in the
Armenian parliament. The prime minister, parliamentary speaker and six other
officials are killed. The gunmen accuse the government of leading Armenia
into political and economic ruin. They say the desperate plight of the
people is the reason for the killings.
2000 – Prime Minister Andranik Markarian admits that – 12 years on – those
affected by the 1988 earthquake are still living in a disaster zone.
PARLIAMENT STORMED
Prime minister and speaker were amongst those killed by gunmen
1999: In pictures – Armenia’s grief
2003: Armenia parliament killers jailed
BBC’s Tigran Hizmalyan describes storming
2001 January – Becomes full member of Council of Europe.
France ignores Turkish objections and introduces a law stating that Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915.
Armenia celebrates the 1,700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity.
2001 September – Vladimir Putin becomes first Russian president to visit
Armenia since independence.
Pope John Paul II pays his first visit; most Armenians pledge allegiance to
Armenian Apostolic Church which broke away from Vatican in sixth century.
Kocharyan re-elected
2003 March – President Robert Kocharyan wins further term in second round of
presidential elections. Election monitors complain of ballot-stuffing.
2003 May – European observers find parliamentary elections in which
pro-presidential candidates win majority of seats fall short of
international standards.
Referendum rejects constitutional amendments concerning role of parliament.
2003 August – Death penalty abolished; President Kocharyan commutes
sentences of 42 death row prisoners to life.
2003 December – Six sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles in 1999
parliament shootings in which prime minister, speaker and other officials
were killed.
2004 April – Thousands of opposition supporters march against president.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 28 2004
European economic summit discusses effects of EU enlargement

WARSAW, April 28 (Itar-Tass) – The European economic summit 2004,
organized in Davos by the World Economic Forum as its regional
gathering, has opened in Warsaw.
The summit with the motto `Europe – Enlargement and Beyond’ is
devoted to the current challenges that the European Union faces:
economic, political, constitutional and cultural that will result
from the enlargement of the Union on May 1, when ten Central and East
European countries are to become its members.
Around 700 participants, representing the economic and political
elites of 45 nations, including the presidents, premiers and
ministers from 31 countries, are to hold 40 roundtable discussions,
plenary sessions and workshops that will center around the impact of
an expanded union on the European business and its competitiveness,
enlargement of Europe’s single currency zone, new demands of European
consumers, the development of financial markets and transatlantic
relations.
The Wednesday plenary session is dealing with `Europe: Hopes and
Concerns’. As regards the roundtable discussions, they will focus on
relations between Europe and Russia, the developments in the
Caucasus, South-East Europe and Turkey.
Russia has delegated to the summit President Vladimir Putin’s special
spokesman on the development of relations with the European Union
Sergey Yastrzhembsky and a group of politicians and business leaders.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Premier Leszek Miller, Foreign
Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz and Minister of the economy, labor
and social policy Jerzy Hausner represent Poland.
Some other high-rank participants are Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, Malta’s Prime Minister Tonio Berg, Lithuanian Prime Minister
Algirdas Brazauskas, Romanian President Ion Iliescu, Armenian
President Robert Kocharian, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma,
President Svetozar Marovic of Serbia and Montenegro, German President
Johannes Rau, Georgian President Mikhai Saakashvili, Slovak President
Rudolf Schuster, and Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin.
An alternative economic forum is planned at the time of the European
Economic Summit to discuss the negative impact of transnational
corporations on the world community, global environment and national
cultures. Polish anarchists, green movement activists and radical
youth organizations are expected to take part in the alternative
events along with Polish alterglobalists who will criticize current
economic trends and propose radical alternatives to them.
The protesters are acting beyond the boundaries of the security zone
around the building in which the European Economic Summit is working.
Their main demonstration calling for an end to globalization of
exploitation, poverty and war is scheduled for Thursday, April 29,
and although its organizers declare that the action will be peaceful,
police prepares tough security measures. Armored vehicle-mounted
water canons have already been placed at the Sofitel Victoria Hotel.
No excesses have been registered so far, a Warsaw police source said.
But the center of Warsaw is unusually quiet and empty. The shutters
are down in the windows of shops and cafes, as well as of ground
floor and first-floor apartments, in central Warsaw.

Interfax
April 28 2004
CIS Defense Ministers Council to hold next session in Armenia
Moscow. April 28 (Interfax-AVN) – The CIS Council of Defense
Ministers will hold its next session in the capital of Armenia on May
21, Colonel Alexander Nekrasov, chief of the council’s secretariat,
said on Wednesday.
“The next session of the CIS Defense Ministers Council, to be held in
Yerevan on May 21 under the chairmanship of Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Ivanov, will address more than 20 issues related to further
CIS integration in the military sphere,” Nekrasov told
Interfax-Military News Agency.
The session will focus on military and military-technical cooperation
in the CIS framework. “In particular, participants in the session
will consider the draft purpose-oriented program of comprehensive
counteraction of CIS armed forces to aerial assault forces and
assets, as well as implementation of the CIS Military- Technical
Cooperation Program,” the colonel stressed.
According to him, reports at the session will be delivered by Ivanov,
Colonel General Alexei Moskovsky, Russia’s chief of armament and
deputy defense minister, Army General Vladimir Mikhailov, Russian Air
Force commander-in-chief, Army General Vladimir Yakovlev, chief of
the CIS Military Cooperation Coordination Headquarters, and other
military leaders.

BBC News
Last Updated: Wednesday, 21 April, 2004, 15:34 GMT 16:34 UK
Country profile: Armenia
A landlocked republic with Turkey to the west and Georgia to the north,
Armenia has seen great changes since the break-up of the Soviet Union in
1991.
Once dubbed the Soviet ‘silicon valley’, Armenia’s economy collapsed when
its old markets disappeared.
OVERVIEW
It has since recovered significantly, but job creation and poverty reduction
have not kept pace with growth. Armenia also suffers from a trade blockade,
imposed by neighbouring Turkey and Azerbaijan since the dispute over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The conflict over the predominantly Armenian-populated region in Azerbaijan
overshadowed Armenia’s return to independence in 1991. Full-scale war broke
out the same year as ethnic Armenians in Karabakh fought for independence,
supported by troops and resources from Armenia proper. A ceasefire in place
since 1994 has failed to deliver any lasting solution.
Armenia has always experienced waves of emigration, but the present exodus
is causing much alarm. It is estimated that Armenia has lost 20% of its
population in recent years, as young families leave for what they hope will
be a better life abroad. The negative consequences for the economy have been
widespread.
Around 50% of Armenians live below the poverty line. Corruption and
political killings add to the sense of a society under threat.
Gunmen who stormed the Yerevan parliament in 1999, killing the prime
minister and other politicians, said the plight of the Armenian people was
the reason for the bloodshed. Analysts believe that there were more complex
political factors involved as well.
The government is trying to promote tourism and technology parks. But
foreign investors are reported to be extremely wary.
FACTS
Population: 3.1 million (UN, 2003)
Capital: Yerevan
Major languages: Armenian, Russian
Major religion: Christianity
Life expectancy: 69 years (men), 75 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 dram = 100 lumas
Main exports: Processed and unprocessed diamonds, machinery, metal products,
foodstuffs
GNI per capita: US $570 (World Bank, 2001)
Internet domain: .am
International dialling code: +374
LEADERS
President: Robert Kocharyan
President Kocharyan
President Kocharyan is a former president of the self-proclaimed
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. He became Armenian prime minister in 1997 and was
elected president the following year on a platform of ensuring the existence
of Karabakh and boosting the Armenian economy.
Mr Kocharyan’s reelection as president in 2003 was followed by widespread
allegations of ballot-rigging.
He went on to propose controversial constitutional amendments on the role of
parliament. These were rejected in a referendum the following May at the
same time as parliamentary elections which left Mr Kocharyan’s party in a
very powerful position in parliament.
There were mounting calls for Mr Kocharyan’s resignation in early 2004 with
thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets in support of demands for a
referendum of confidence in him.
A Communist Party official in Soviet times, Mr Kocharyan is no longer a
member of any political party.
The Armenian president has said he wants to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh
question and has held meetings with his Azerbaijani counterpart. But while
he acknowledges the importance to peace of compromise on both sides, he
insists that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh must be guaranteed the right to
exist within safe borders and that a link with Armenia must be maintained.
Mr Kocharyan was born in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1954 and trained as an
electrical engineer in Yerevan.
Prime minister: Andranik Markaryan
Foreign minister: Vardan Oskanyan
Defence minister: Serzh Sarkisyan
MEDIA
Armenia’s government oversees national TV and radio. The national public TV
service can also be seen in many districts of neighbouring Azerbaijan. The
main Russian TV channels are widely available.
Libel and defamation are punishable by prison terms and journalists have
been sentenced under these laws. All print and broadcast media must register
with the Justice Ministry.
In 2003 the US-based NGO Freedom House downgraded its assessment of the
media climate in Armenia from “partly free” to “not free”, citing the use of
security and libel laws to silence criticism and the closure of a private TV
station in 2002.
The press
Aravot – private
Ayots Ashkar – private
Ayastani Anrapetutyun – founded by Armenian parliament
Aykakan Zhanamak – founded by opposition Democratic Homeland Party
Azg – founded by Liberal Democratic Party
Golos Armenii – private
Iravunk – founded by Union of Constitutional Law party
Respublika Armenia – founded by Armenian Presidential Executive Staff,
parliament and government
Yerkir – founded by Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun
Television
Public TV of Armenia – national, state-run
Armenia TV – national, commercial
Prometheus TV – national, commercial
Radio
Public Radio of Armenia – national, state-run
Hai FM – first private radio station
Hit FM – private, Yerevan FM station
Radio Alfa – private, Yerevan FM station
Radio Van – private, Yerevan FM station
News agencies
Arka – private
Armenpress – state-run
Noyan Tapan – private
Mediamax – private
Arminfo – private

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
April 28 2004
Azerbaijani, Armenian Presidents Meet
28 April 2004 — The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan today met on
the sidelines of a European economic summit in Warsaw and discussed
their countries’ dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
AFP quoted an unidentified diplomat as saying that Azerbaijan’s
President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian
had a “constructive” discussion on the issue, and agreed to hold
further talks. However, no date was set for those talks.
Armenian-backed forces drove Azerbaijan’s army out of the ethnic
Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s, in a war
that killed 30,000 people and left about 1 million homeless. A
cease-fire was signed in 1994, but no agreement has been reached on
the territory’s final status.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Eurasianet Organization
April 28 2004
GEORGIA STRIVES TO BURNISH IMAGE AMID AJARIA CRISIS
Alex van Oss: 4/28/04
Amid a constitutional crisis involving the renegade region of Ajaria,
Georgian leaders have waged a diplomatic offensive to bolster
Georgia’s international image. In the United States, Georgian Prime
Minister Zurab Zhvania has touted his government as “one of the most
competent” in the former Soviet Union. Meanwhile, President Mikheil
Saakashvili was promoting trade ties during a tour of Ukraine and
Poland.
Since the Soviet collapse in 1991, Georgia has been riven by civil
strife and economic dysfunction. [For additional information see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. At a public appearance in Washington on
April 26, Zhvania emphasized that with Saakashvili’s reform-minded
administration in place, Georgia should no longer be viewed as a
“failed state.” Since January, Georgia has made great strides in
curbing corruption, long seen as the single most daunting obstacle to
Georgia’s stabilization, Zhvania maintained.
“Formerly untouchable gangsters are now in prison, so people now have
physical security. This is just a beginning,” Zhvania said during the
appearance, sponsored by the Center for International and Strategic
Studies. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. “The
Minister of Finance [Zurab Nogaideli] has put an end to absolute
chaos…and, for the first time in Georgia’s history, is paying
refugees their pensions without a single day of delay – though, of
course, these pensions are still miserably low.”
Progress in the battle against corruption is making Georgia a safer
investment risk, Zhvania contended.
“Georgia’s energy sector was unbelievably corrupt,” he said. “They
[energy-sector officials] had ways of seizing money that were almost
state-of-the-art. … Our current interior minister [Giorgi
Baramidze], though only 29, is the most competent we’ve ever had.
Already, he has a 16-month plan in place to reconstruct and make the
energy sector more attractive for investment.”
Zhvania suggested that Georgia was now in position to promote
stabilization in the broader Caucasus region, adding that Tbilisi
could potentially help foster the normalization of relations between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. He added that during recent visits to
Azerbaijan and Armenia, Saakashvili had been “inspired by the
increased pragmatism” shown by the leaders of those nations, along
with a new sense that “all three countries live in one region.” There
had even been requests, Zhvania said, for Georgia to serve as a venue
for regular discussions on improving regional cooperation.
The uncertainty surrounding the Ajaria issue clouded Zhvania’s
generally sunny assessment of Georgian stabilization efforts.
Saakashvili’s efforts to restore the central government’s authority
in all of the country’s constituent entities have brought Tbilisi to
the brink of armed confrontation with Ajaria on several occasions in
recent months. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Tbilisi-Batumi tension is once again spiking. On April 28, Ajarian
leader Aslan Abashidze confirmed that armed forces loyal to his
regional authority had been mobilized to repel a potential attack by
Tbilisi. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Zhvania said the Ajaria issue was “not a dispute between Georgia’s
central and regional governments, or between Saakashvili and
Abashidze. It is Georgia’s attempt to restore democracy.” He insisted
that Abashidze has steadfastly refused to act within Georgia’s new
democratic framework, going on to recount a conversation he had with
Abashidze earlier in April. “I offered to [Abashidze] that if he
began a general disarmament, he could keep a small force for personal
security and stay in office to the end of his elected term. But he
must stop attacking people and journalists,” Zhvania said. “He
refused even to talk about it.”
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Saakashvili indicated that the Ajaria issue
would be resolved quickly. “Aslan Abashidze has no chance,” Imedi TV
quoted Saakashvili as saying April 27. “The time for such people is
over. I think that gradually – not gradually but very soon –
everything will be settled.”
Saakashvili has been away from Georgia during most of the recent
crisis. On April 28 he arrived in Poland, following a three-day stay
in Ukraine. His tour has so far been devoted to boosting commerce. In
Kiev, Saakashvili took action to encourage free trade between Georgia
and Ukraine.
Georgian officials insist that they have no plans to use force to
resolve the Ajaria standoff. In Washington, Zhvania called on the
United States and Russia to exert pressure on Abashidze to
“compromise.” According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, US
President George W. Bush discussed Georgian domestic developments
with Russian leader Vladimir Putin during an April 26 conversation.
Russian leaders have tended to view Saakashvili’s administration as
the aggressor in the Tbilisi-Batumi standoff. On April 28, the
Russian Duma adopted a statement that expressed concern over the
recent escalation of tension, the Civil Georgia web site reported.
“We have all reasons to suppose that Tbilisi plans to use force for
the conflict resolution,” the Duma statement said. It went on to
recognize that the Ajaria matter was an “internal affair,” but it
stressed that the issue had the potential to adversely impact Russian
national security.
During face-to-face discussions April 27, top Bush administration
officials reportedly pressed Zhvania for assurances that Tbilisi
would do everything possible to avoid violence in Ajaria, Civil
Georgia reported. “Everybody understands that presence of illegal
armed groups in one of Georgia’s regions is inadmissible and the
problem should be solved once and forever through peaceful means,”
Zurab Zhvania told Georgian reporters just before holding talks with
US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Editor’s Note: Alex van Oss is a freelance journalist based in
Washington, DC.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
April 28 2004
PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN ILHAM ALIYEV AND PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA ROBERT
KOCHARYAN MEET IN PRIVATE
[April 28, 2004, 22:56:36]
A one-on-one meeting between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and
President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan was held at `Parkiva’ State
Residence in Warsaw on April 28, AzerTAj correspondent reports.
OSCE Minsk group U.S., French and Russian co-Chairs initially
attended the meeting. Later, the heads of state talked in private.
The 2-hour meeting was focused on ways of peaceful settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
After the meeting, the Presidents made statements for mass media.
STATEMENT OF AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV
The meeting was of constructive character. We last met in December.
It has been some time since then; there have been co-Chairs’ visits
and meetings with them, Foreign Ministers have recently met as well,
and today’s meeting is a continuation of the peace process. The
negotiations are continuing; there is a mutual aspiration for
constructive dialogue. The problems have been discussed. Azerbaijan
wants to settle this problem; Armenia’s wish to do so is also felt.
So, we can advance if there is mutual desire to find way of the
conflict’s resolution.
STATEMENT OF ARMENIAN PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARYAN
I share the opinion expressed by the Azerbaijan President. We have
agreed that meetings between ministers would be continued. The next
one will be held in May. We will try to promote their more active
involvement in the negotiation process. Of course, we will also use
the possibilities of multilateral meetings. We cannot boast of a
result, but I think the atmosphere of the talk was favorable.

ArmenPress
April 28 2004
EUROPEAN ECONOMIC SUMMIT OPENS IN WARSAW
WARSAW, APRIL 28, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
is among some 20 presidents and prime minister, along with 600 other
ministers, central bankers, representatives from the EU and other
international organizations, and 50 companies from 45 countries who
have gathered in the Polish capital at the start of a three-day
European Economic summit devoted to the economic impact of the
European Union’s May 1 enlargement.
Organized by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, the summit has
been held every year in Salzburg, Austria, since 1996. This year, as
an exception, the meeting is being held in Poland, the biggest of the
10 mainly former communist bloc countries set to join the EU on May
1, along with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia. The summit is taking place
amid tight security, due to the expected presence of thousands of
anti-globalization demonstrators. On the sidelines of the summit
presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Robert
Kocharian Armenia will discuss ways of settling the Nagorno-Karabagh
conflict today. The meeting is expected to last two-hours today
evening. Both presidents may also meet with co-chairmen of the OSCE
Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabagh from the US, Russia and France.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
April 28 2004
AUTHORITIES IN KARABAGH SAY MAY 8 MARCH AIMS TO STIR UP PROVOCATIONS
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 28, ARMENPRESS: Authorities in Nagorno Karabagh
responded on Tuesday to purported plans of so-called Azerbaijani
organization Karabagh Liberation Organization (KLO) to march to
Karabagh on May 8, the date of the “occupation” of the second-largest
town of Shushi by Armenian troops.
A statement issued by Karabagh foreign ministry says the march,
portrayed in Azerbaijan as a public initiative, is a propaganda and
populist idea, designed by top authorities of that country. The
statement says this initiative could have been be assessed as a move
aimed at building the climate of confidence should not it have been
plotted by KLO leader Akif Naghi, who has won a notoriety by his
anti-Armenian and racist announcements. The statement also says there
is no doubt that the “peaceful march” has been designed to instigate
provocations on the line of contact between Azeri and Armenian
troops.
Earlier Akif Naghi was quoted by Azeri news media as saying that
the Turkish embassy in Baku and some political parties were
indifferent towards his plans. Naghi said the KLO was going to
determine the route of their planned march. He said 7,150 people are
expected to start action from the Martyrs’ Alley in Baku on May 8 “to
let the world community know about the real truths of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.”