News

According to Gevorg Yazychan, a historian from Syria, real panic has started in Armenian settlements in Arabian countries today. Armenians in Iraq are transferring their children from Armenian schools to other Christian schools apprehending acts of retribution.

"The sentence passed on seven leaders of opposition political parties has political motives, and the convicts themselves are political prisoners," said director of the Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan Eldar Zeinalov.

On April 8, 2004, the Russian air force bombarded the mountain village of Rigakhoi, Chechnya's Vedeno district. A young woman and her 5 children, the oldest of whom was 7, were killed by an air strike.

In his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent, chairman of the Musavat Party Isa Gambar stated that "today's statement has proved one more time there is no independent judicial system in Azerbaijan, and they [judges] depend on the will of the executive power, which chartered this shameful trial."

Kadyrov did not imparted concrete sources from which this information was obtained.

Such a policy implemented by Armenia has a negative effect on the process of resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict by peaceful means, Metin Mirza, head of the Foreign Ministry's press service, said.

Co-chairman of the Azerbaijan-Russian inter-parliamentary commission Arif Ragimzade expressed a protest against accusations heard in Russia sometimes that Azerbaijan gives terrorists an opportunity to develop their activity in the country.

Attacks against federal soldiers and officers of local security agencies, which have become more frequent lately, are no more than rebels' try to show their abilities, Interior Ministry officials and Russian military men believe.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili announced yesterday, October 20, that a few days ago, officers of special services conducted an operation to detain saboteurs who had blown up a pier of a high-tension line in the Kaspsky district, bordering on South Osetia.

In his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent, a representative of the US Embassy to Azerbaijan, who observed the election and asked not to mention his name, called the voting procedure "a parody of the election".

Sulkhan Molashvili and David Mirtskhulava are in pre-trial detention. They are charged with exceeding their commission and damaging the state budget.

As reported by the Chechenpress agency, Azerbaijan special services conducted "unexampled mass arrests" among Chechens living in Baku at the end of the last week.

Not only the Armenian community in Iraq but Armenian communities in other Arabian countries worry about possible consequences of the Armenian servicemen's sending to Iraq, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian said.

The process of receiving citizens' applications to compensate for housing and property lost in the course of military operations in Chechnya has lasted for two years, and almost everyone eligible for compensation has already filed required documents.

"Six years ago we weren't able to allow ourselves even to dream of Karabakh's being outside Azerbaijan, but today we speak about it freely," Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said.

The sitting of the Supreme Court set for today did not take place because a representative of the Central Election Commission (CEC) was absent.

On October 12-14, Russian soldiers conducted a large-scale purge with arrests of people and general searches in houses of locals in the village of Noviye Atagi, Chechnya's Shali district.

The Georgian Interior Ministry is known to have issued a statement it is ready to give Russia lists of Chechen refugees living in the Pankissi Gorge. Chechen refuges are ready to stage mass rallies and turn to the European Court of Human Rights in case the Azerbaijan authorities follow Georgia?s example, human rights activist Mairbek Taramov said.

Two alternative meetings were held in the center of Sukhum today. One of them was staged by people supporting Sergey Bagapsh, the presidential candidate for the opposition, and the other one was in favor of Raul Khadzhimba, the presidential candidate backed up by the present authorities.

The experts are expected to examine the Azerbaijan side's honoring the fourth paragraph of the IMF agreement, stipulating obligations concerning the monetary regime and general obligations of the IMF member countries, and to discuss forecasts concerning Azerbaijan's 2005 state budget and the issue of the rise in home prices for energy resources.