Stepanakert, December 19.  President Arkady Ghoukasian and Foreign Minister Naira Melkumian held separate meetings with a group of journalists representing Turkish newspapers Hurriyet (Ferai Tinc), Cumhurriyet (Leyla Tavsanoglu), Turkish Daily News (Yusuf Kanli) and Haber Turk news agency (Cengiz Cendar).  The Yerevan Press Club organized the visit of the journalists to Nagorno Karabagh.  President Ghoukasian reiterated that Nagorno Karabagh was never a part of independent Azerbaijan, but rather a part of the Soviet Union along with Azerbaijan.  Nagorno Karabagh Republic proclaimed its independence and defended its independence on the battlefield.  Ghoukasian underscored that the peace treaty would be acceptable only if Nagorno Karabagh participates

in the process of negotiations as an equal party to the conflict and signs the final agreement.  Ghoukasian concluded the meeting by saying that he hoped such media visits to Karabagh would become more frequent.
"We have to establish an atmosphere of trust and cooperation in the region", - Melkumian told the Turkish journalists.  According to Melkumian there are a number of measures, which could contribute to the establishment of trust between the Armenians and the Azeries.  Among them are Karabagh's proposals to share water resources with Azerbaijani border regions for irrigation purposes.  Unfortunately, official Azerbaijan rejected that proposal.   

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Karin Tak, January 29.  Ten years ago on this day the residents of Karin Tak village of Shushi province heroically defended themselves from an overwhelming attack by the Azeri army.  On the tenth anniversary of the battle, President Arkady Ghoukasian presented orders and medals to the participants of the defense.  In his address Ghoukasian stressed that the battle of Karin Tak heightened the combat spirit of the emerging Self Defense Army and predetermined the outcome of the war. 
To recap, out of forty Karin Tak defenders, twenty-two lost their lives in the battle with overwhelming enemy forces. Azeri casualties were significantly larger.  The then Azeri Defense Minister General Tajaddin Mehdiyev, who recently re-appeared on the Azerbaijani political stage to argue a new war against Nagorno Karabagh, was blamed for this debacle and sacked.