Akhtamar News

ONLY THE FIRST STAGE OF THE KARABAKH WAR HAS ENDED:
ILHAM ALIYEV
Tert.am
07.10.10

The war over the Nagorno Karabakh has not ended but rather the first
stage of that war, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said during
the opening of a school in Nakhichevan.

According to him, "the war will end as soon as a peace agreement
is signed, and the peace agreement will be possible to sign, when
Azerbaijan's occupied territories are returned."

"Today Azerbaijan can solve any issue by any means. We had neither
army nor leadership at the beginning of the 90s. A treachery had taken
place. Had Heydar Aliyev [Ilham Aliyev's father] not returned to power
in Azerbaijan, we would have had more misfortunes. Azerbaijan would
have completely fallen, and we would have lost our independence,"
Mr Aliyev was reported by Azerbaijani media as saying.

RFE/RL Report
Karabakh To Reopen Airport
Nagorno-Karabakh -- The new airport terminal constructed near
Stepanakert, 5Oct 2010.
Lusine Musayelian

The authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh are pressing ahead with plans to
reopen the disputed territory's sole civilian airport that was shut
down nearly two decades ago.


Flights to and from the airport, located 8 kilometers east of
Stepanakert, had been discontinued in 1991 amid intensifying armed
clashes in and around Karabakh that degenerated into a full-scale
Armenian-Azerbaijani war. Transport communication between the
territory and the outside world has since been carried out only by
land, via Armenia.

The Karabakh government decided last year to reopen the airport,
severely damaged during the 1991-1992 war, and raised about 1 billion
drams ($2.8 million) for its reconstruction from unspecified
`charitable sources.' It began building a new airport terminal and
repairing the runway shortly afterwards

Government officials said earlier this year that a flight service
between Stepanakert and Yerevan could be launched already in
mid-October. However, Bako Sahakian, the president of the unrecognized
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), made clear that this will not happen
before the end of this year as he inspected the under-construction
facility on Tuesday.

According to NKR Urban Development Minister Karen Shahramanian, work
on the terminal building will be completed in November. He told
RFE/RL's Armenian service that air navigation equipment is now being
installed at the airport.

It is expected that Karabakh will have a regular flight service only
with Armenia, at least in the near future. Its unresolved status makes
direct air communication with other countries all but impossible.

It is not yet clear whether the Stepanakert-Yerevan flights will be
carried out by Armenia's national airline Armavia. Officials have said
only that a one-way air ticket to the Armenian capital will cost
16,000 drams ($45).

By comparison, the current fare for a minibus trip from Stepanakert to
Yerevan, which takes between six and seven hours, is 5,000 drams per
person.

A random street poll of Stepanakert residents conducted by RFE/RL
suggested that many locals will be willing to pay a higher price for
much shorter and more convenient travel. `We won't be tired of long
trips,' said one man. `It should be interesting,' noted another.


ARMENIAN CAPTIVE 'COMMITS SUICIDE' IN AZERBAIJAN
Tert.am
16:37 05.10.10

The controversial death of an Armenian citizen held in captivity
in Azerbaijan has sparked more uncertainty as to the cause of and
circumstances of the death.

Citing a statement by Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry and Military
Prosecutor's Office, Azerbaijani news website 1news.az reports that
Manvel Saribekyan, whom the source represents as a "diversionist,"
has committed "suicide" at 3 a.m. on 5 October in Baku.

Manvel Saribekyan is a young Armenian shepherd, who had lost his way
in search of his lost cattle, had crossed the Azeri border and been
seized by Azerbaijani armed forces.

He had since this summer been held in captivity.

Earlier Armenia's Defense Ministry dismissed Azerbaijani reports
about Saribekyan being a 'diversionist.'

Following his seizure Azerbaijani state-sponsored media showed a video
footage in which Saribekyan said normally treated in Azerbaijan and
confessed having passed a special training in Armenia allegedly to
conduct terror acts in Azerbaijan.

But Saribekyan was seen with a swollen face covered by
carefully-treated bruises - something indicative of his being harassed
before making a forced confession.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry statement also says that a forensic
team has gone to the scene and has already examined the body. It
has concluded that Saribekyan has hung himself using his own clothes
and linen.

"The forensic medicine has found no signs of violence on his body,"
says the statement, adding that an investigation is underway.


HALF OF MONTHLY NORM OF RAINFALL OVER A DAY IN YEREVAN
ArmInfo
2010-10-05 12:29:00

ArmInfo. Half of the monthly norm of rainfall fell in Yerevan on 4
October, representative of Armhydrometeorology Centre Zarui Petrosyan
said at today's press-conference.

But Yerevan residents may calm down as rainfall will continue today and
tomorrow and a cloudy weather without rainfall will be established in
Yerevan and the regions after 8 October. Rainfall will still continue
only in Tavush and Lori regions for several days.

'Today and tomorrow in Yerevan and the valley regions of Armenia the
air temperature will be +19-+21 degrees, and +23-+24 on 8-10 October.

Thus, the temperature will be within the average monthly norm +21
degree', - Petrosyan said and added that this tendency will be
preserved over the whole October.


RFE/RL Report
Armenia To Step Up Vital Lake Cleanup
08.10.2010
Hovannes Shoghikian

The Armenian government has announced plans to spend 44 billion drams
($122 million) in the next few years on addressing the environmental
fallout from the rising water level of the country's ecologically
vital Lake Sevan.


The government engineered the dramatic rise in 2000 in response to a
dangerous shrinkage of Armenia's main water reservoir that had begun
in the 1950s. Environmentalists had long warned that Sevan's
enlargement is the only way of saving its endangered ecosystem.

The picturesque lake, which has a total area of almost 1,000 square
kilometers, has since been mainly swollen by two underground tunnels
pumping water from mountain rivers. The government's decision to cut
back on use of Sevan's waters for power generation and irrigation has
been a major factor.

The lake's level has soared by at least three meters over the past
decade and currently stands at just over 1,900 meters above the sea
level. About half of the surge has occurred in the last three years.

Under the government's long-term rehabilitation program, Sevan is to
rise by another 3.5 meters by 2029. It envisages that further growth
will be less drastic and average roughly 20 centimeters per annum.