Turan: The extremely tense situation in Armenia is a result of an ill-conceived policy of this country’s government,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said, addressing residents of the city of Naftalan in western Azerbaijan.
He believes that the current situation is a logical result of wrong and aggressive policy of Armenia, which has isolated itself from the rest of the region and lacks normal development. The stability is connected with the development and vice versa, Aliyev said.

“Gul’s congratulation generates discontent of historians”, This is what Azerbayjan’s Azadliq Newspaper wrote on 24 of February.
The newspaper wrote: “Views expressed in the letter are inappropriate”.
more…

Economist starts its report on Armenian election with this “ELECTIONS in former Soviet republics rarely yield surprises. The incumbent wins; the opposition cries foul; it takes to the streets.”
more…

The frozen Azeri-Armenian conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is one of the most fiercely debated issues in the campaign for Tuesday’s presidential election in Armenia, the BBC’s Matthew Collin reports from Yerevan.

Kosovo is an independent country now, not still recognized by any country but I am sure, some will start that very soon,starting from United States to European Union. Russia opposes the move furiously,Georgia too and Azerbaijan too. Armenia may welcome that,though i am not sure since Armenia buys weapons from Serbia and that for sure will upset Serbs.
more…

It seems Turkish lobby has succeeded to have the backing of 8 former U.S secretary of states. These secretaries served both democrat and republican governments and names such as Madeline Allbright and henry Kissinger and Collin Powell are among them. This time Armenian foreign ministry also came forward and criticized the move. The battle on the congress resolution on Armenian genocide is heating up more and more. you can read the story here.

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Wow! Now that’s becoming scarry:

BAKU, AZERPRESS - (May 1, 2007) The head of national NGO Forum, MP Azay Guliyev, has initiated development of a law that bans local NGOs to contact Armenian NGOs.

“A group of local NGOs plans to visit Armenia for cooperation. We have no mechanisms available to bar them from traveling to Armenia. Therefore, I suggest tabling the matter in parliament who could debate a law banning our NGOs to contact the Armenian side,” Guliyev stated at today’s plenary session in parliament.

It is interesting to see the explanation of the MP as to why such visits should be banned:

“It is our land: nothing is bad, that representatives of our NGOs visit Upland Karabag and converse with Azerbaijan nationals of Armenian origin, they are separatists though. But Armenia, taking the first opportunity, will tell the world community that Azerbaijan NGOs enter Upland Karabag without restriction.”

Hmm, is this total paranoia or what?!

The world is made of 200 different situations, and if you do something here, doesn’t necessarily apply to everywhere else. This is what The Rt Hon Lord Hurd of Westwell CH CBE PC told us today in his speech on “Britain and the World”. This comment was while answering to the questions: why the invasion in Iraq wasn’t followed by an invasion in North Korea, and on what will the Kosovo precedent mean for the Nagorno-Karabakh, Sth. Ossetian, Abkhazian, etc. conflicts (the second question asked by me naturally ). more…

As the latest developments in the UN are showing, Azerbaijan is shifting its attention towards forming bigger alliances and burying the essence of the Karabakh problem under the global contradictions around energy security, anti-Russian moods and ducking behind the scandalous image of Mikhail Saakashvili, the president of Georgia.
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http://www.blogrel.com/wp-content/CiliciaHacked.jpg

It makes me sad to see how angry, gullible and misguided tech savvy Azeri youth spend their time hacking at one of the only few “positive” Armenian web portals.

The title explains it all, and unfortunately that’s about all I can tell you ! The meeting was held for over 4 hours, and the two Presidents ( both with very, very stern expressions!) emerged from the meeting room. The Azeri journalists bombarded Kocharyan with questions, and he answered that due to agreements not to discuss matters with the press he was unable to comment. The journalists did not even bother asking Aliyev when he emerged, after a bodyguard made one shaking head movement.

So it looks like we will have to wait a while longer before any reports appear about the state of the discussion, but personally I am not hopeful that this would have heeded any result. After all it does seem to have hit a deadlock over the last couple of years, and I believe that something major needs to change ( perhaps a change of leadership on either side? ) before any serious progress is reached. What is important is that Artsakh is currently a relatively stable and emerging nation.

Generally I don’t cover every article that comes up about an NK settlement, but C.J. Chivers at the New York Times has written an excellent summary of the situation and prospects for the Kocharyan-Aliyev meeting next weekend in France.

Highlights:

- All this week OSCE reps are meeting with leaders in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
- “several diplomats said there was potential for agreement.”
- “Several people familiar with the talks, however, said a document summarizing the core issues has become the basis for proposing a two-stage process: first an agreement in principle, then work on details.”
- www.hetq.am was cited by the New York Times! Yay!

It is tough for me to think about a solution right now, as I am writing a paper on the legal issues surrounding a settlement. Thinking about things actually starting to get settled is really strange when all I’ve been doing lately is reading reports about stumbling blocks. As such, I’m not going to get my hopes up, but it does sound like things have been pretty positive as of late. We can only hope for the best and that both sides are ready to talk, compromise and negotiate.

Here’s an interesting report on the ongoing destruction of the Armenian heritage in Nakhichevan (parts of this appeared in ArmeniaNow.com last year, I think).

Here’s an excerpt of a conversation the author had with the Nakhichevan law enforcement in September 2005:

They asked me why I thought that there was a church in Shorut.
“Because a book had told me”, I said.
“It is wrong, it is lying to you. It is an Armenian book, yes?”
“Yes” I replied.
“You see, Armenians are always lying – they are lying to everyone”.
I couldn’t resist pointing out to them that there were photographs of the Shurut church in the book. To
this they responded by saying “Armenians, they came here and took photographs of Shurut village and
then they went back to Armenia and put into them photographs of a church in Armenia.”
“It is all just Armenian lies. They are lying to you! There never were any Armenian churches anywhere
in Naxçivan. There were no Armenians ever living here - so how could there have been churches here?
There never was a church in Abrakunis, there never was a church in Shurut, there never was a church
in Julfa!”

“Conciliation Resources” published in its Accord magazine an entire issue on Nagorno Karabakh conflict, called “The limits of leadership: Elites and societies in the Nagorny Karabakh peace process.” As is usual, they present ‘both sides of the story’ with submissions from Armenian and Azeri sides.

It’s a good resource, all in all.

One issue with Thomas de Waal’s entry is his repeated but unproven assertion about Sumgait’s being predated by expulsion of Azeris from southern Armenia. It first appeared in his Black Garden book, single sourced to a person unrelated to refugees in Azerbaijan, and neither he nor any organization have found any evidence for that (ICG in its report declined to endorse these claims for the same reason). Yet, it travels from one report to another.

It just shows how difficult it is for third-party observers to remain fully neutral in conflicts like this, when two sides of the story differ so dramatically.

Liz Fuller, as always, delivers an insightful analysis of the upcoming Presidential summit in France between Kocharian and Aliev.

…Even if the two presidents succeed during the coming year in finalizing a set of “general principles” intended to serve as the blueprint for a more detailed peace plan, there is still no guarantee that one side or the other will not find it expedient to renege on them at some future date. The so-called “Paris Principles” agreed on in the spring of 2001 were elaborated on in further talks in Florida in April 2001 and during subsequent meetings between Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev’s father and predecessor, Heydar Aliyev. US diplomat Rudolf Perina, who served as the US Minsk Group co-chairman during those talks, later revealed that in 2002 the two sides came “incredibly close” to hammering out a peace agreement. But Armenian officials say Baku reneged on that deal shortly before a planned summit between Kocharian and Heydar Aliyev in June 2002 that was cancelled at the last minute.

Okay, so this NGO International Crisis Group puts out press releases on NK occasionally.

Their website says:

Crisis Group’s approach is grounded in field research. Teams of political analysts are located within or close by countries at risk of outbreak, escalation or recurrence of violent conflict. Based on information and assessments from the field, Crisis Group produces regular analytical reports containing practical recommendations targeted at key international decision-takers. Crisis Group also publishes CrisisWatch, a 12-page monthly bulletin, providing a succinct regular update on the state of play in all the most significant situations of conflict or potential conflict around the world.

Crisis Group’s reports and briefing papers are distributed widely by email and printed copy to officials in foreign ministries and international organisations and made generally available at the same time via the organisation’s Internet site, www.crisisgroup.org. Crisis Group works closely with governments and those who influence them, including the media, to highlight its crisis analyses and to generate support for its policy prescriptions.

And, more importantly, here’s what Wikipedia says:

Crisis Group is chaired by former British politician and European Commissioner for External Affairs, Chris Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes). Its President and Chief Executive since January 2000 has been former Foreign Minister of Australia, Gareth Evans.

Crisis Group is funded through donations by western governments, various foundations and organisations (many based in the US), corporations, and individuals.

So far, doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Well, defacto.am reports in ICG today:

From the very beginning the Group’s representatives have behaved very cool. For a short period of time they managed to “deal” with an ancient bloody conflict and presented a report with their recommendations. Moreover, the ICG representatives’ reports are becoming more and more imperative, categorical and even provocative. What kind of organization is International Crisis Group that it actually speaks on behalf of RA government?

What’s the crime in being cool? When has it spoken on behalf of the Armenian government?

MORTON ABRAMOVITS, one of the founders of ICG: former Assistant of the U. S. State Secretary, the U. S. ex Ambassador to Turkey. Morton Abramovits visited Ankara as a member of International Crisis Group. A quotation from an article published in Hurriet:”Till Turkish soldiers are in Cyprus violation is ruled out there”.

So what? That quote sounds badly translated. It doesn’t even make sense.

ZBIGNEV BZHEZINSKI, former National Security Adviser to the U. S. President, a member of American – Azeri Trade House Honorable Board.

Okay, worth noting, but not worth freaking out about.

STEFEN SOLARTS is also one of the founders and ICG vice President. He is one of the most influential lobbyists in the U.S., actively defends Turkish interests.

Never heard the name. I’d need to see a reference to this information.

Then there are some people who work on Turkish EU groups… not a big deal.

WILLIAM SHOWCROSS – his name is mentioned among those who unleashed a war in Iraq.

So what does that have to do with NK?

KENNETH ADELMAN – a member of American Committee for Peace in Chechnya. Isn’t it strange for the organization positioned itself as a peacemaking one?

Who cares?

Levon Ter – Petrosyan’s former press secretary is International Crisis Group representative in Armenia.

I’m glad s/he has a job!

Defacto says “due to the newspaper space’s limited character we do not make a reference to the information’s primary sources” — well, publish them on the internet then!

I’m not trying to defend the ICG, rather, question the reporting of defacto. If they’d show sources, I’d be a-okay, but not showing sources? What the heck?

The Georgian Messenger reports that there is some trade between Armenia and Azerbaijan going through Georgian hands.

Armen Avestinian, the Chairman of the Armenian Customs Office Committee, states that the amount of trade carried out between Armenia and Azerbaijan totaled USD 1,770 in 2005 [mostly food like caviar]… while exported products from Armenia to Azerbaijan totaled USD 220.

The article also has some information on the legal side of trade between the two countries.

It would be interesting to know how much unofficial trading occurs closer to the border.

On Friday, January 20, Armenian “Pyunik” and Azeri “Neftchi” football (soccer) teams were supposed to be playing in Moscow for the CIS Cup Semifinals. According to RFE/RL and other sources,

Armenia’s leading football club on Thursday refused to play against a team from Azerbaijan in the semi-final of an annual soccer tournament held in Moscow, citing organizers’ failure to guarantee the security of its players and fans. FC Pyunik Yerevan, which has won the Armenian football championships for the past four years, and the Baku side Neftchi were scheduled to face off in the CIS Cup on Saturday for the second consecutive time in just over a year. Their previous game, won by Neftchi, was marred by brawls between rival players and fans. “Failing to receive appropriate written guarantees, the management of the Pyunik club decided not to participate in the game in order not to politicize it and to avoid any provocations with unpredictable and dangerous consequences for fans, players and members of the Armenian community,” the club said in a statement.

I think the FC Pyunik officials made a blunder in refusing to play. There was no shame in losing to Neftchi, as the Azeris are sending their professional players and only junior players are playing for Pyunik. Having refused to play, the Armenian players came across as cowards. This must be a terrible blow to the morale of the young football players in Pyunik. And it is a terrible blow to the football fans in Armenia. I hope the Pyunik owners get rid of their incompetent, gutless, spineless management team.

Also: Groong

Go Jemma Go!

Dr. Jemma Hasratian works as President for the Armenian Association of Women with University Education / AAWUE Center for Gender Studies and holds a Ph.D. in Education. She works also for the Armenian National Committee of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) .

Jemma Hasratyan’s engagement in peace building activities was triggered by the Karabakh conflict. Aware of the need for armed hostilities to stop, she became active in women’s dialogue and in a women’s association that was one of the first women’s NGOs established after Armenia gained independence. Within this framework, Jemma persevered in carrying out a dialogue with Azeri women. This took place during the most difficult years of military hostility, when all and any dialogue-oriented efforts seemed to be unrealistic and even dangerous.

Jemma was nominated, with 999 other women, for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Here was the idea:

Millions of women work day in day out to promote peace. They care for survivors, help with reconstruction and initiate a new culture of peace. To represent these millions, it is our aim that in the year 2005 a thousand women shall collectively receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in pursuit of peace. This political prize will show that the work they do is valuable and exemplary.

I know this is old news, but it popped up in a blog search today and I wanted to share.

State’s Burns Outlines U.S. Trans-Atlantic Agenda for 2006

A senior State Department official says the U.S. agenda for the trans-Atlantic relationship in 2006 is to broaden NATO’s mandate and extend its global reach; to advance democracy in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia; and to cooperate with Europe in every region of the world through political, economic and security partnerships.

Thanks US… advancing democracy.

The Caucasus and Central Asia: We remain committed to pursuing the Freedom Agenda in Russia and Ukraine. We must encourage Ukraine, Georgia to seek NATO and EU ties, push for reform in the Caucasus and for an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In Central Asia, we must engage Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and demand reform from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

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