News digest

MP PROPOSES TURKEY-AZERBAIJAN-GEORGIA MILITARY ALLIANCE

MP Mais Safarli proposed to set up a military alliance of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia in a meeting with speaker of the Great National Assembly of Turkey Omar Izghi as part of the parliamentary group of Azeri-Turkish friendship Friday. He thinks that the alliance would balance Russia's growing military interests in South Caucasus and bring about security in the region.

Commenting on the initiative, O. Izghi said the number of the weaponry Russia has supplied to Armenia actually surpasses its population. According to him, with the help of Turkish military education system, Azerbaijan will become the most powerful military nation in the region.

UKRAINIAN COMPANY LOBBIES FOR NEW CASPIAN OIL OPTION

A delegation of Ukrainian Ukrtransneft joint stock company, which was in Baku on a three-day visit last week, negotiated with SOCAR and foreign oil companies in Azerbaijan over transportation of Caspian oil through the Odessa-Brody pipeline. Leading the delegation was member of the Ukrtransneft management board Yevgeniy Babich.

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Odessa-Brody routes are not rivals, as they run to various markets, Ukrainian ambassador Borix Alexenko said, commenting on the issue.

ALLEGED POLITICAL PRISONERS TO BE RETRIED

Court hearings were held in the Gobustan penitentiary Wednesday following the protest of the Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov on reconsideration of the cases of ex-interior minister Isgandar Hamidov and former defense minister Rahim Gaziyev. Journalists and onlookers were denied entry.

The lawyer for I. Hamidov told AssA-Irada that the protest has been upheld and the Court of Appeals is expected to consider the cases of the two inmates.

IBD TO GRANT AZERBAIJAN 200,000 ISLAMIC DINARS

The Islamic Bank for Development (IBD) may allot Azerbaijan a grant and a loan in 2002, a Cabinet source said Monday. The bank is planning to help its 44 members with a total of $8 million, $200,00 Islamic dinars each (an Islamic dinar is 1.3 US dollars). It also intends to allocate interest-free loans for a period of 16 years. The priority for the grants will be agriculture, the source reported.

BAKU, SUMGAYIT TO GET QUALITY WATER

Baku and Sumgayit are expected to use water meeting World Health Organization standards as soon as early March. This will be possible thanks to the project "Reconstruction of water supplying to Baku", underway since 1996.

Italian Termomechanica and Turkish ATAK NTG are completing work in water treatment facilities in the river Kur and the Jeyranbatan water reservoir, the Absheron Regional Water company said.

The project costs $94.9 million.

CONCERTS OF MODERN AZERI, GERMAN MUSIC

The Center for Modern Music Initiative SoNor in cooperation with the German embassy in Baku and the German-Azerbaijani Culture Center Kapelhaus is implementing a SoNor project. The art executive of the project is Elmir Mirzayev and the conductor is renowned German musician Bernhard Wulf. Its goal is to study the problems of contemporary music and possibilities of establishing musical contacts between Azeri and German musicians.

The project includes two concerts: one of works by German composers at the Kapelhaus with conductor Elmir Mirzayev on February 14 and the other of works by Azeri composers with Bernhard Wulf as conductor at the Camera and Organ Music Hall on February 17.

The entry is free to the concerts.

NEW MUSICAL INSTRUMENT INVENTED

Resident of Zagatala province Zahid Mustafayev has invented a new musical instrument producing 600 different sounds. It combines the sounds of a flute, a tar and a guitar with the effects of camera and organ music, director of the State Museum of Musical Culture Alla Bayramova told AssA-Irada Monday.

The instrument made of a mulberry resembles a guitar, she said. The invention of the string instrument has interested specialists from other countries.

AZERBAIJAN SIGNS OLYMPIC CONVENTION

Azeri foreign minister Vilayat Guliyev attached his signature to a declaration on suspension of all conflicts and wars during the Olympic Games in Greece in 2004 Monday. The document had been initiated by his Greek counterpart, who proposes to announce 2004 the Year of Conciliation.

The declaration was delivered to Baku by the visiting special envoy of the Greek Foreign Ministry, MP Sofia Kalantzakos.

The Azeri minister highly appreciated the visit by S. Kalantzakos, declaring Azerbaijan's taking up the initiative.

Mrs. Kalantazakos told a news conference at the Greek embassy in Baku Monday that she had been to Yerevan, which also joined the declaration, before traveling to the Azeri capital. On Greece's position towards the Garabagh conflict, she said her country favored a soonest solution to the dispute.