Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
March 23 2004
REGULAR MONITORING TO BE HELD ON TROOPS’ CONTACT LINE
[March 23, 2004, 15:28:40]
In accordance with the mandate of the OSCE acting Chairman’s personal
envoy, a regular monitoring of the armed forces of Azerbaijan and
Armenia on the contact line in the west of Borsunlu village of
Geranboy region of Azerbaijan Republic will be conducted on March 23.
According to the Defense Ministry’s press service, the monitoring on
the Azerbaijan side will be conducted by field assistants of the OSCE
acting Chairman’s personal envoy Jurgen Schmidt and Imre Palatinus.
On the opposite side of the contact line, the job will be done by
OSCE acting Chairman’s personal envoy Andzey Kaspshik and his field
assistants Kenneth Pickles and Gennadiy Korzh.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
March 23 2004
ENLARGED MEETING OF THE PRESIDENTS OF AZERBAIJAN AND UZBEKISTAN
[March 23, 2004, 20:55:08]
After the private meeting on 23 March, at the conference hall of
`Durmen’ residence, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and of
Uzbekistan Islam Karimov held an enlarged meeting, AzerTAj
correspondents reported.
President Islam Karimov said he was pleased with the visit of
Azerbaijan President and that it would be a new phase in development
of the bilateral relations between the two countries. President Islam
Karimov also stressed that he was pleased with continuation of the
policy of the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev. Thanks to
the efforts of President Heydar Aliyev, bilateral relations of the
two countries – both political and cultural relations – have reached
a high level, he underlined.
President of Uzbekistan reminded that the economic relations between
the two countries have developed enough, so that goods turnover in
the two months of current year made up $18 million.
This is not satisfactory, but, however, it has exceeded the 2003
figures.
Touching the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, President Islam Karimov
stated that Armenia should release the occupied lands and territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan be restored.
Noting the historical traditions, cultural commonness between the two
countries that set ground for future development of the relations
between the two peoples and states, President Islam Karimov once
again welcomed president of Azerbaijan and wished success in his
state visit.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated that this visit is of
great significance for him and he would not spare himself for further
strengthening of bilateral relations founded by the national leader
of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev and President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov
between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Head of the Azerbaijani state said
that the two countries are friends and brothers, reminded the
successful cooperation of the countries in the frame of international
projects to improve welfare of the two peoples. Evidence to that are
the Great Silk Road and TRACECA projects.
Head of Azerbaijani state stressed the necessity of strengthening of
economic links, increasing volume of goods turnover and expressed his
confidence that Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan would reach greater
achievements in economic cooperation.
Reminding that recently Azerbaijan purchased two aircrafts in
Tashkent said that this is the start of strengthening of economic
cooperation and stated that Azerbaijan stands ready for larger co-op
in joint projects.
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Pravda, Russia
March 23 2004
Japan sends financial aid to promote stability of South Caucasus
The Armenian agriculture minister, David Lozhan, and an adviser to
the economic section of the Japanese embassy in Russia, Masataka
Esidzave, on Monday signed an agreement for the transfer to Armenia
of a Japanese grant worth USD 1.8 million.
As reported by a Rosbalt correspondent, the grant would be used to
buy fertilizer and agricultural equipment for Armenian farmers.
According to Masataka Esidzave, Japan considers the South Caucasus to
be an extremely important region, both politically and economically.
‘It is important to us that the South Caucasus be stable,’ he said,
noting that Japanese financial aid was intended specifically to
promote stability in the region. In 1997, Japan granted Armenia
financial assistance worth more than USD 19 million.

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 23 2004
ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJAN NEGOTIATIONS ON KARABAKH WILL BE CONTINUED
YEREVAN, March 23, 2004. (RIA Novosti) – Since Azerbaijan has
recognised the fact of the agreements in Key West (USA), Armenia
hopes that in the near future the negotiations on the Nagorny
Karabakh problem will be continued from the point at which they
stopped, not from scratch, says the information of the Armenian
Foreign Minister’s press secretary Gamlet Gasparyan.
“We are glad that the Azerbaijan Foreign Minister, Vilayat Guliyev,
has recognised at last that there is a written document, though not
signed, on the agreements which were achieved at the negotiations in
Paris and Key West. We were constantly saying that there is such a
document and that it was prepared by the OSCE Minsk Group for
settling the Nagorny Karabakh conflict on the basis of negotiations
with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the document says.
“As to Guliyev’s statements that if the document was not signed it
does not exist, I would like to say that if it was signed, the
Nagorny Karabakh conflict would be settled today,” the press
secretary’s information says.
Earlier the Azerbaijan Foreign Minister said that Baku considered it
possible to start negotiations with Yerevan on Nagorny Karabakh from
scratch, because up till now not a single agreement on this problem
has been reached.

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 23 2004
UKRAINE’S PARLIAMENT CONSIDERING REINSTITUTING DEPORTED PEOPLES’
RIGHTS
KIEV, March 23, 2004 (RIA Novosti) – On Tuesday, Ukraine’s parliament
passed a bill, in a first reading, re-instituting the rights of
people deported from Ukraine for ethnic reasons. The bill was
supported by 324 MPs, while 226 votes were necessary to pass the
document.
This government-sponsored bill defines deported persons’ status.
“The state guarantees that the deported persons, who will return to
the places where they had lived before being deported, should enjoy
Ukrainian nationals’ rights stipulated in the Constitution. The state
shall also ensure conditions for settling down, i.e. housing,
employment, education, and conditions for ethnic, cultural and
religious development,” reads the document.
Moreover, the bill says that the authorities must promote deported
persons’ return, their adaptation and integration into Ukrainian
society.
The bill is yet to be adopted in the second reading and signed into
law by the president.
More than 50,000 ethnic Germans were deported from the Crimea in
1941. Over 200,000 Tatars, some 38,000 Armenians, Bulgarians and
Greeks were ousted from the peninsula in 1944. They were deported to
Siberia, Central Asia or Kazakhstan. Around 260,000 Tatars and a few
thousand of people of a different ethnic origin have already returned
to the Crimea.

ArmenPress
March 23 2004
US DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE TO VISIT ARMENIA
WASHINGTON, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage will travel to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine this
week, the State Department announced Monday. He will leave Washington
March 24 for the three-day trip to the three states. Armitage will
travel first to the Ukraine capital Kiev and then continue on to
Yerevan, Armenia and Baku, Azerbaijan.
He will meet with senior government officials and other political
leaders and groups that promote democracy and civil society, the
department said. All three countries are members of the former Soviet
Union and are situated in an area with both strategic and economic
interest for the United States. In Yerevan he will meet with
president Kocharian and foreign minister Oskanian to discuss, among
other issues, also the safety of Armenian nuclear power plant in
Metsamor, for which the US government has released $1 million.

ArmenPress
March 23 2004
AZERI, ARMENIAN FM MINISTERS TO MEET WITH MINSK GROUP ON MARCH 29
YEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS: Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers, Vartan Oskanian and Vilayat Quliyev will meet on March 29
in Prague with the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs from USA, France and
Russia.
Though the agenda of the meeting is not specified, but according
to an Armenian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamlet Gasparian, “the
Minsk group is supposed to convene the meeting to specify some issues
between the ministers and co-chairs.” He said the frames of to be
discussed questions will be clear only after the meeting.

ArmenPress
March 23 2004
BAGHDASARIAN GETS READY FOR A TRAVEL TO ITALY
YEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS: Armenian parliament chairman,
Arthur Baghdasarian, met today with Italy’s ambassador to Yerevan,
Marco Clemente, to discuss the details of his upcoming visit to
Italy. Mr. Clemente was quoted by parliament press office as saying
that a great deal of preparation work has been done to welcome
Baghdasarian and that a parliamentary Italy-Armenia friendship group
is being formed at the initiative of its lower chamber’s chairman.
Baghdasarian is scheduled to have a series of meetings with senior
Italian officials t discuss the entire scope of bilateral relations.
The Armenian delegation will visit, as part of its itinerary, Toscana
and Friuli Julia Venezia provinces.

Armenian leader, new Danish envoy discuss developing ties
Noyan Tapan news agency
23 Mar 04
YEREVAN
The Danish ambassador to Armenia, Christian Faber-rod, submitted his
credentials to Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today.
This is the second time that Faber-rod has been appointed ambassador
to Armenia. His first tenure was in 1992-1996. Hence, there are
grounds for making a comparison, Kocharyan said.
Viewing Europe as a priority in Armenia’s foreign policy, Kocharyan
noted in this context the significance of developing both bilateral
and multilateral relations with Denmark. The level of bilateral
cooperation is still low and a lot needs to be done, he
said. Encouraging economic partnership is the foremost task, the sides
said and noted the intensification of ties between the business
circles of the two countries.
There was also an exchange of views on pressing international issues,
the Armenian president’s press service told Noyan Tapan news agency.

Italian envoy, Armenian speaker discuss upcoming visit
Noyan Tapan news agency
23 Mar 04

YEREVAN
During a meeting on 23 March, the Italian ambassador to Armenia, Marco
Clemente, discussed with Artur Bagdasaryan, chairman of the Armenian
National Assembly, his upcoming official visit to Italy.
Clemente said that Italy had a lot of interest in the visit and
preparatory work was under way. By the proposal of Pier Ferdinando
Casini, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, a deputy group for
Italian-Armenian friendship is being set up in the chamber. Meetings
are scheduled with Italian officials to discuss political, cultural,
scientific and economic ties.