Miscellaneous

NATO assists in clearance of unexploded ordnance from 7000 sq km
On 28 April 2003, the presentation of a Project on the Clearance and Utilization (destruction) of Unexploded Ordnances (UXO), on the territory of a former soviet military warehouse in Saloqlu village, Aqstafa District, took place during the Regular Meeting of Political-military Steering Committee of the NATO PFP (Partnership for Peace) Trust Fund Project at NATO HQ in Brussels. The disregard of the few results in enormous work for the many.
Over the past 10 years local specialists have been dealing with the consequences of deliberately destroying the ammo dump by the Soviet Military machine.
To get detailed information on  the existing issues to be tackled with, Azernews interviewed Nazim Ismayilov, director of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA).

The military ammunition warehouse located in the Aqstafa region and consisting of 138 bunkers, was the largest soviet warehouse in the Caucasus region. This warehouse was supposed to provide three Caucasian republics - Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia- with ammunition and ordnance.
In 1991, when Azerbaijan gained the status of an independent republic, the base was destroyed by the soviet army before it departed from the region. As a result of the explosion, thousands of pieces of UXO were spread over a large area surrounded the warehouse. To date 87 people have been injured 28 of them killed in UXO incidents. The last incident took place quite recently. On 3 May 2003, Latif Mammadov, a 28 year old  father of 3 and resident of Dag Kasaman village, died as a result of a UXO explosion. And this happened despite the fact that 2 weeks before the incident, Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) officers, conducted Mine Risk Education and rules of safe conduct activities in this area. 
The warehouse and close area with remaining ammunition pose a great threat to the population of Aqstafa and adjacent regions. 
A threat coming from the former warehouse and UXOs scattered to the territory, became widely known during a survey on identification of minefields and battle areas in 2001. Survey was conducted by "Eurasia Press Fund" - a national NGO, according to a task given by ANAMA. As a result of survey, about 6,755,000 sqm of contaminated area was identified in Saloglu village of Aqstafa district.
In December 2001, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed ANAMA about NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) dealing with ammunitions utilization operations in some countries. Due to an active initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Azerbaijan Republic Mission to NATO, the attempt to involve NAMSA in the Saloglu problem had a success. 
During a meeting in July 2002, the Turkey was assigned as a leading country on this issue and already in October 2002 representative from NAMSA visited Saloglu village of Azerbaijan and provided preliminary evaluation on the situation to the NAMSA. 
In January 2003, representatives from NATO, the Government of Turkey and NAMSA visited Azerbaijan to conduct the assessment mission. The mission has been sponsored by the Turkish Government, with additional contributions from Greece and Germany, through a Trust Fund established by NATO called the "Partnership for Peace" Fund.
However, after the incident in October 2002, when 3 people were injured, the Government of Azerbaijan tasked ANAMA to immediately start operations designed to reduce UXO threats.
From the beginning of ANAMA operations in January 2003, about 638 different type of UXOs were found in the area of 1,2 mln sqm immediately outside the former warehouse. Already on 11 May 2003, UXO destruction operations took place and 453 UXOs were destroyed.   
Immediate work on Saloglu project, using the information gathered by ANAMA specialists, was initiated after a group of experts from the Agency and "Partnership for Peace" Trust Fund visited Azerbaijan.  
The Project was approved by NATO, which allowed initiation of the fund raising process and subsequent realization of the project itself.
In April 2003, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Brussels between the Government of Azerbaijan and NAMSA.
However, the course of events and the last incident indicates the necessity of making extraordinary efforts to speed up the fund raising process, to continue operations within current capacity and to provide safety arrangements.
We believe the upcoming visit to Azerbaijan by the NATO Secretary General will give an impetus to speeded realisation of the project, thereby bringing the number of UXO victims down.

Project Harmony opens computer centres
A new Computer Centre has opened at Secondary School 20 in Baku, through financial support of the Project-Harmony - Azerbaijan organisation.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Director of the Organisation Kerry Kasbi said the centre would greatly contribute to improving the education process and help schoolchildren to get in touch with schools in foreign countries via the Internet.
Program Co-ordinator Gulsan Karimova told AssA-Irada free computer courses will be arranged for schoolchildren at the centre. Besides, practical lessons will be given and information about the history, culture and literature of Azerbaijan will be placed in a special site.
She noted that 17 similar centres have opened in Baku, Mingacevir, Ganca and Saki; the number of centres is set to reach 25 by the end of this year. The Project-Harmony - Azerbaijan organisation is planning to open several computer centres each worth of $8,000, in refugee camps.

Azercell concludes roaming contract with another Russian operator
Azercell Telecom JV has expanded its roaming area in Russia by concluding bilateral a contract with Far Eastern Cellular Systems.
Thus far, Azercell has got roaming contracts with  25 operators from the CIS nations, including Byelorussia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzia, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan and the Ukraine.
With its 12 mobile operators having contracts with Azercell, Russia holds a special place in this list. In general, Azercell has roaming contracts with 147 carriers from 72 countries worldwide.

New NOKIA phone demonstrated
Nokia and its local distributor partners, Cen-Telekom and Mobitel, held a ceremony of presentation of NOKIA 2100, a new model of the Finnish mobile handsets manufacturer, at the Park Hyatt hotel on Wednesday.
Addressing the ceremony, NOKIA Representative for Azerbaijan Kari Xirvonen noted that the company's products are in demand in more than 130 countries all over the world. Informing the audience of the advantages of the new model, he said that it [handset] has been designed as first in an innovative line of handsets . According to him, the settings and capabilities of the model meet all parameters of NOKIA sample products, while  electromagnetic radiation of the fitted aerial is in line with European safety standards.  
NOKIA's Marketing Co-ordinator Natalya Kaytanen said that Cen-Telekom and Mobitel, as the company's distributors on the Azerbaijani market, will launch an advertising campaign for the new model on May 15.
According to him, everyone buying NOKIA 2100 during the drive to last by June 29 will have an opportunity to get accompanying prizes (such as TV sets, combined audio-video recorders, etc.,) and tickets for a two-person trip to the Turkish Mediterranean resort Antalya. The new model will cost 130 euros ($150), per handset during the drive.

German week
German week began in Baku on Tuesday lasting until May 16th.
The event is designed to expose the Azerbaijani people to German culture, as well as help to raise the level of professional skill of German language teachers.
Zaur Qasimov, head of the press service of the German embassy told AssA-Irada that the event includes exhibitions at the Kapelhaus and Qiz Qalasi art gallery, as well as a concert programme by the children's musical company of the Wiedergeburt culture centre of Azerbaijani Germans.
The film, A girl with lighters, will be shown at the Kapelhaus during the undertaking, which is arranged for the fourth time.
At an event held at the Institute of pedagogical staff and retraining in Baku on Tuesday the German Ambassador Klaus Grevlich spoke of the centuries old German-Azerbaijan ties, noting that once a man of German nationality was mayor of Baku. He went on to say that everything has been prepared to arrange Azerbaijan days in Germany next year.
At the meeting, teachers from six higher and secondary educational institutions were presented with a document testifying their participation in refresher courses in Germany. Workshops, organized within the German week program, are arranged for German language teachers.

Fast-track customs clearance for business
On Monday, the Grand Hotel Europe hosted a discussion on the implementation of Automated System of Customs Clearance and Control with local and foreign entrepreneurs within the framework of the third phase of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the State Customs Committee joint project entitled Capacity Building and Data Transmission Network Implementation for the State Customs Committee of the Azerbaijani Republic. Opening the event, first deputy chairman of the State Customs Committee Aydin Aliyev said the roundtable aims to inform businessmen about advantages and working principles of the new system. Head of the Customs Committee's department for statistics and information technologies Arif Aliyev said the new program ensures transparency in customs clearance for businesses and strengthens control over this process. This program is to allow entrepreneurs to control import and export operations via the Internet at offices thereby saving time. Moreover, they will not face red-tape and bureaucracy.
Later, committee employees answered questions from entrepreneurs. Local company Sinam-Invest provides technical support for the program.

Kaspar to get new ship
The lavish ceremony on the occasion of the launching of a ship, Prof. Aziz Aliyev, was held at the Nizhniy-Novgorod based Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard, the project contractor on order of the Caspian Shipping Company, or Kaspar, on May 8.
The press office of Kaspar told Assa-Irada that attending the ceremony
Nizhniy-Novgorod city executives and Rafael Rahmanov, a deputy at Kaspar, said of the necessity to further friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, following a thaw between the two countries. The ship is the second in turn built for Azerbaijan over the past year after the Maestro Niyazi made launching debut in May 2002.
By the end of the year, the shipyard is to build two tankers, each with a deadweight capacity of 8,000 tons. Two more tankers, each with a deadweight capacity of 12,000 tons, will be launched and set out for Azerbaijan next year.

Donor actions to be organized for talasemiacs
A news conference was held at the Baku Press Club marking the international Talasemia day, on May 8.  Head of the Talasemia Patients Association Savab dunyasi, Nazim Zaliyev said more than 2,000 people suffer from the illness in Azerbaijan. He added that regular blood provision for talasemiac people still remains problematic noting that blood donating events organized with mosques in Baku. That is why, they decided to organize a donor action every month. According to him, the association will strengthen talasemia awareness in rural areas, organize competitions for selection of talented children suffering from talasemia and hold exhibitions to display their drawings.
At the end of the conference, chairman of the Islam-Ittihad society Hajji Ilqar Ibrahimoglu awarded staff reporters of the AssA-Irada news agency, Exo and Zerkalo newspapers, Space and STV television companies with honorary diplomas for highlighting problems concerning talasemia patients.

3,000 entrants contest 40 Turkish university places
Around 3,000 applicants for 40 seats at Turkish universities took admission exams on April 27. Chairman of the State Committee on Students Admission, Maleyka Abbaszada, told AssA-Irada that the results of testing will be announced late next month. The exams were held simultaneously in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tatarstan and other Turkic republics and entities. Working groups sent by the Turkish government to hold the exams have already delivered the test answers to Ankara. Upon consideration, the results of exams will be sent to every country in mid-June," Abbaszada said.