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IDEX Online, Israel
June 28 2005
Armenia Rejects Claims of Financing War with Diamonds
(June 28, '05, 6:39 Edahn Golan)
In a letter to the Chair of the Kimberley Process, Armenian Minister
of Trade and Economic Development, Karen Chshmaritian, has rejected
claims that his country is financing its conflict against neighboring
Azerbaijan by selling rough diamonds outside the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme.
The claim, made recently in a report by the Civil Research Council in
Russia, says growing illegal trade between Armenia, Russia and the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is financing military hardware purchasers
by the Government of Armenia.
Calling the report "scurrilous", Chshmaritian said the Armenian
government "carefully scrutinizes any requests for the issuance of
Kimberly Certificates for the exportation of rough, and is rigorous
in policing the importation and manufacturing of rough diamonds within
its boundaries."
He went on to categorically deny "defamatory rumors" in the report
and criticized "politically patterned researches directed to the
discrediting [of] both businesses and Governments, but also Kimberly
Process in the whole."
June 28 2005
Armenia Rejects Claims of Financing War with Diamonds
(June 28, '05, 6:39 Edahn Golan)
In a letter to the Chair of the Kimberley Process, Armenian Minister
of Trade and Economic Development, Karen Chshmaritian, has rejected
claims that his country is financing its conflict against neighboring
Azerbaijan by selling rough diamonds outside the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme.
The claim, made recently in a report by the Civil Research Council in
Russia, says growing illegal trade between Armenia, Russia and the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is financing military hardware purchasers
by the Government of Armenia.
Calling the report "scurrilous", Chshmaritian said the Armenian
government "carefully scrutinizes any requests for the issuance of
Kimberly Certificates for the exportation of rough, and is rigorous
in policing the importation and manufacturing of rough diamonds within
its boundaries."
He went on to categorically deny "defamatory rumors" in the report
and criticized "politically patterned researches directed to the
discrediting [of] both businesses and Governments, but also Kimberly
Process in the whole."