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AAA: Armenia This Week - 02/01/2005

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  • AAA: Armenia This Week - 02/01/2005

    ARMENIA THIS WEEK

    Monday, February 1, 2005


    In this issue:

    NKR hosts international monitors

    Kocharian meets Pope John Paul II, Italian leaders

    Armenian leaders take part in Auschwitz commemoration


    NKR HOSTS INTERNATIONAL MONITORS



    French, Russian and U.S. envoys who have led the Karabakh mediation
    efforts joined by officials from four other Organization for Security
    and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) states, arrived in the region over the
    weekend to inspect areas that have served as a security buffer for
    Karabakh since 1993. The monitoring mission, proposed by the mediators
    and agreed to by the conflicting parties last year, seeks to determine
    the number and nature of Armenian settlements in formerly Azeri areas
    under Armenian control.



    Meeting with the delegation, Karabakh's President Arkady Ghoukasian
    welcomed their mission, suggesting that it could finally put to rest the
    many Azeri claims about Karabakh. Azeri officials had refused to endorse
    of similar monitoring in the past. The mission was agreed to last
    November after Azerbaijan, succumbing to international pressure, agreed
    not to press for a pro-Azeri United Nations resolution with support from
    members of the Organization of Islamic Conference.



    Azerbaijan has backed off serious negotiations over Karabakh's status,
    with its President Ilham Aliyev saying last year that he was not "in a
    hurry" to settle the conflict. Instead Aliyev has called for
    intensification of what his officials have described as "information
    war" against Armenians in all international venues. The Azeri president
    has also significantly boosted spending for the country's military
    forces, long plagued by under-funding and disarray, in an effort to
    substantiate his frequent threats to unleash a new war in Karabakh.



    Karabakh Defense Army Commander General Seyran Ohanian said last week
    that judging by military intelligence reports, "Azerbaijan is not
    prepared to start hostilities." Nevertheless, his command was taking
    Azeri threats seriously. Ohanian told a press conference that his forces
    made significant progress in improving their defense posture and were
    prepared to undertake retaliatory operations should fighting resume.
    (Sources: Armenia This Week 11-1; Mediamax 1-26; RFE/RL Armenia Report
    1-26; Noyan Tapan 1-27)



    PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN VISITS WITH POPE JOHN PAUL II, ITALIAN LEADERS

    Armenia's President Robert Kocharian completed a three-day official
    visit to Italy and the Vatican last week. Meeting with Kocharian, Pope
    John Paul II underscored "friendly and respectful relations between the
    Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church." Armenia, having
    adopted Christianity in 301 AD, some years before Rome, has had an
    independent church since 451 AD. Relations between the two churches have
    grown closer since a 1996 joint declaration that addressed theological
    differences. Earlier this month, Pope John Paul II blessed the statue of
    the Armenian Church founder, St. Gregory the Illuminator, that has been
    placed among the founding saints that surround the exterior of St.
    Peter's Basilica in Rome. John Paul II, who visited both Armenia and
    Azerbaijan in recent years, also expressed hope that "true and lasting
    peace" comes to Nagorno Karabakh.



    Kocharian also held talks with Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
    and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, discussing ways to expand
    bilateral economic relations. Armenia's trade with European Union member
    countries has increased substantially in recent years and it now makes
    up the largest share of Armenia's overall foreign trade, but bilateral
    trade with Italy stood at just $68 million last year. Kocharian was
    accompanied by Trade and Agriculture ministers who met with Italian
    businessmen and encouraged them to invest in Armenia. (Sources: Armenia
    This Week 10-5-01, 9-6-02; Arminfo 1-28, 2-1; Zenit.org 1-28)



    SENIOR ARMENIAN OFFICIALS TAKE PART IN AUSCHWITZ COMMEMORATION


    Prime Minister Andranik Margarian and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
    last week traveled to Poland and New York, respectively, to pay respect
    to victims of the Holocaust. Margarian took part in ceremonies at the
    site of what was the largest Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, in
    present-day southern Poland, and subsequent conference on the theme in
    Krakow. Last week marked the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation
    by Soviet forces towards the end of World War II. Up to 6 million
    civilians, most of them Jews, but also Russians, Poles, Gypsies and
    homosexuals, died in the Holocaust, up to 1.5 million at Auschwitz
    alone.



    Oskanian joined counterparts from Germany, Israel and several other
    states at the United Nations special session on the liberation of
    Auschwitz. The U.S. was represented at the UN by Deputy Defense
    Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who lost most of his extended family in the
    Holocaust, and by Vice-President Dick Cheney in Poland. At the UN,
    Oskanian, himself a descendant of Genocide survivors, urged the
    international community not to turn a blind eye to continued ethnic
    persecution around the world and to undertake immediate action to stop
    the ongoing genocidal campaign in Darfur. Speaking of the Holocaust, the
    Armenian Genocide and other crimes against humanity, Oskanian stressed
    the need for both the victims and perpetrators to transcend the trauma
    by renouncing such evils and summoning the good will to forgive.
    (Sources: Armenian Foreign Ministry 1-24; Reuters 1-25; Mediamax 1-31)

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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