Inauguration of Azerbaijan-Israel Friendship Alley in Baku postponed

Inauguration of Friendship Alley in Baku, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Israeli state and planned to be held on May 8, has been postponed, the Israeli Embassy in Baku told APA.

The Embassy has not clarified the reasons of postponement and has not specified any date for the event.

The Alley has been established in Zarifa Aliyeva Park in the territory of the 6th micro district of Baku as a symbol of Azerbaijan-Israel friendship.

Organization for Liberation of Karabakh (QAT) and Azerbaijan Islamic Party issued a statement condemning any holiday arrangement on May 8, the day of occupation of Shusha. QAT said they would take all measures to prevent the event.

Does Azerbaijan deny the US assistance in holding election?

Does Azerbaijan deny the US assistance in holding election?

Baku does not seem willing or does not want to
understand that one cannot fool the entire world with
numbers and fake reports.
06.05.2008 GMT+04:00

On the first sight Azerbaijan's behavior in its
foreign political scene becomes more and more
unpredictable. Here the statement of Ramiz Mekhtiev;
the Head of the Executive Personnel of the President,
would be appropriate to mention. "The allocation of
the US funds for holding democratic election in
Azerbaijan is interference in the internal affairs of
the country," he had said in a press-conference in
Baku.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yet, this is not as interesting as
the further statements of Makhtiev: "the words of the
US Secretary General Condoleezza Rice in address to
Azerbaijan are extremely unfounded. This means that in
Georgia and in Armenia the public-political situation
and other issues are very well solved, and Azerbaijan
is considered the only backward country in the
region." Baku does not seem willing or does not want
to understand that one cannot fool the entire world
with numbers and fake reports: the journalists do not
move, there is no opposition in the country, and the
Azeri delegation in PACE remembers about the human
rights factor only when they are reminded to do so.
The truth is though that even in this case it acts in
the habitual methods: "you are the fool". "Fool" of
course refers to the Armenians. But this is already a
different story; however, Baku has lately started to
simply force the Armenian party to answer back to
their insinuation filling the entire Azeri press. Is
it possible that the Personnel of Ilham Aliyev and the
president himself are so naïve that they think that
the whole world including the USA will consider their
opinion only because at this moment Azerbaijan is of
some importance to the big powers? Yet, there may be
another interpretation to Mekhtiev's words, i.e. three
million is not
enough, give us some more.

The US Embassy in Baku did not fail to response to the
statements made by Ramiz Mekhtiev. Azerbaijan, having
been mentioned by Bush, as one of the countries where
the number of the convicted journalists is the
highest, and this numbers are concrete and true. These
numbers concern the year of 2007. By the end of the
year half of the journalists have been released and
now the situation is a bit different. That is why the
numbers given by the US President for the year of 2007
are correct," said the Head of the Department for
Public Affairs Jonathan Hennik. "There is no need to
search for something blameworthy in the allocation of
the $ 3 million that the USA has assigned for holding
democratic election in Azerbaijan. This money is meant
to ensure democratic election, and give chance to all
the organizations to
carry monitoring of the election. This is not a
financial support to certain political organizations,
but assistance to the entire process of
democratization of the country," he said.

Each country chooses its destiny regardless whether it
has adopted the democratic or any other from of
government. But each country must respect the
international community and not impose its rules. Yet,
these rules are not for Baku. Having adopted the
historical anti-Armenian propaganda, which is of
course encouraged by Turkey, and receiving big money,
the Azeri elite wants the whole world obeys them. For
example the 90% of the information disseminated by the
Azeri press if is not a mere lie, is quite close to
it. This particularly concerns various comments and
opinions, which are made by the foreign experts. And
perhaps it has never occurred to them that their
words, being torn away from the context, will be
delivered like ideas of foreign experts "who are
exceptionally for the territorial integrity of
Azerbajian". Anyway, this is the topic that has been
discussed too much, that it does not interest anyone
any more. There is something else, which is of more
danger: the neighboring countries which have to play
with the rules set by Baku, will participate in the
dirty game. and then, the ruin of the region is
inevitable. Maybe the USA needs this to keep all the
three
countries of South Caucasus in its control. However,
it should not be forgotten that the future President
of the USA may be democrat. The basic trends of the
American foreign policy will not change, but the world
will be viewed differently. There are no doubts that
Azerbaijan will adjust to the new conditions as well,
but will it have enough oil and power, is a quite
different question.
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department

OSCE to hold monitoring on contact front line of Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces in Aghdam direction

A monitoring will be held on the contact front line of Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces in line with the mandate of the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office on May 7.

The due information was provided by the press service for Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense.

As is reported, the monitoring is to be held near Efetli village of Aghdam.

Azerbaijani side will be represented by field assistants of the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office Peter Ki and Antal Herdich.

The occupied lands of Azerbaijan will be represented by the field assistants of the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office Imre Palatinus and Irje Aberle.

Azerbaijan to Release Russian Nuclear Shipment to Iran Soon

Azerbaijan says it will release a shipment of Russian nuclear equipment destined for Iran after holding it about a month.

Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister, Araz Azimov, said Wednesday his government will resolve the issue soon. He did not say when the shipment will be released.

On Tuesday, Azimov told Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan the issue is a technical, rather than a political matter. Iran has demanded that Azerbaijan release the Russian cargo.

Russia's embassy in Azerbaijan says the shipment contains heat insulation material for a nuclear power plant that Russia is building in the Iranian city of Bushehr.

Azerbaijani customs officers stopped the cargo on the country's border with Iran on March 29, saying they wanted to make sure it did not violate U.N. sanctions against Iran.

Meanwhile, Russian security officials met Wednesday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran to discuss international and regional issues, including Iran's nuclear program.

A Russian news agency reported that a Russian official, Valentin Sobolev, forwarded a message from his president, Vladimir Putin, to Mr. Ahmadinejad. The message said Russia plans to continue its relations with Iran despite upcoming political changes.

Mr. Putin's successor, Dmitry Medvedev, will be sworn in this May as president.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. That process can be used for civilian purposes and for making nuclear weapons.

On Friday, London will host talks on Iran's nuclear program with Germany and the five permanent members of the Security Council - the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China.

Baku to iran: N-cargo seizure Moscow's fault

Azerbaijan says the nuclear shipment from Russia to Iran would be released as soon as Baku gets 'the required documents' from Moscow, PressTV reported.

"We are expecting for the documents of cargo Russia sent to the Iranian Bushehr nuclear power plant," said Khazar Ibrahim, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Monday.

"If Azerbaijan gets due document, it will undertake due steps on the basis of the national legislation and international rules. The information about whom the cargo belong to and where it is supplied, is not complete information about the cargo," said Ibrahim.

Ibrahim voiced confidence that Baku will get complete information about the cargo and this issue will be settled.

He said Russian side should provide due information via its embassy in Azerbaijan, as Azerbaijan appealed to Russia through this embassy.

The comments confirm what Iran's ambassador to Baku Nasser Hamidi-Zare's said on Friday that the blockade was due to a problem with customs procedures, adding that the Russia's state-run Atomstroiexport Corporation as the supplier is responsible for that.