-Caveat Lector- From http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/301099/detFOR06.htm {{<Begin>}} Armenia assassinations: Control of Caspian oil behind attack? Moscow, October 29 (Fred Weir) THE STRUGGLE for control of a hoped-for Caspian oil bonanza has been touching off violence in the volatile post-Soviet Caucasus for a decade, and might have been a factor in the terrorist attack that killed eight top lawmakers in Armenia's Parliament this week, analysts say. Five gunmen who burst into a Parliamentary question-and-answer session and opened fire, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian and seven others, surendered on Thursday after a night-long standoff with special troops in Yerevan. There are still no clear answers as to why they carried out the bloody and apparently senseless act of terror. But the attack came just as Armenia appeared ready to settle its political differences with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno Karabakh. A war between the two post-Soviet states ended in 1994 with de facto Armenian control over the disputed territory, but peace has yet to be concluded. For Armenian nationalists, Karabakh has for years been the central cause and rallying cry. Any move toward compromise with Baku is seen by them as national betrayal. Coincidentally, US Under-Secretary of State Strobe Talbott held talks with Armenian President Kocharyan and the now-deceased Prime Minister on Wednesday, and left Yerevan just hours before the attack on Parliament. High on Mr. Talbott's agenda was an American-authored plan that would attach Karabakh to Azerbaijan as an "autonomous republic" with its own army and currency. The US is a co-chair, along with France and Russia, of the "Minsk Group" which has been attempting for years to mediate the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Analysts say the outlines of breakthrough in the process were clearly forming "Every time there is an attempt to settle the Karabakh problem through negotiations with Azerbaijan, something happens," says Alexei Malashenko, a Caucasus expert with the Carnegie Endowment in Moscow. "President Kocharyan - who is a native of Karabakh himself - and even Prime Minister Sarkisyan were ready to sign on to the deal," he says. "It's not at all unlikely that the mentally unbalanced people who attacked Parliament were being manipulated by powerful forces". Closely connected with this, some analysts say, is the battle for control of the anticipated oil flows from the recently-discovered Caspian shelf. Experts say it has proven reserves of about 40B barrels, with potentially 200B more - which would make it the Saudi Arabia of the coming century. Output of Caspian oil has so far been disappointing. Also, the welter of ethnic conflicts in the post-Soviet Caucasus has profoundly discouraged both investors from backing capital-intensive uplift. {{<End>}} A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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