By empty (11/29/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In his annual report on the activities of the National Assembly, parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian on 24 November appealed to opposition deputies to abandon their boycott of legislative proceedings. Opposition deputies walked out of the parliament chamber nine months ago to protest the majority\'s refusal to debate a draft constitutional amendment that would have allowed a national referendum on the question of confidence in President Robert Kocharian. Baghdasarian argued that \"real participation\" by the opposition is critical to the ongoing discussions about planned reforms to the electoral code and the constitutional and judicial systems.

By empty (11/29/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Two Armenian parliamentarians, Defense and Security Committee Chairman Mher Shahgeldian (Orinats Yerkir) and Aleksan Karapetian of the opposition National Unity Party, cancelled on 25 November their participation in a three-day NATO seminar on security issues in the South Caucasus that opened in Baku that day, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Shahgeldian told journalists that Orinats Yerkir Chairman and parliament speaker Baghdasarian had written to his Azerbaijani counterpart Murtuz Alesqerov to request guarantees of protection for the two Armenian delegates, but did not receive a response to that request. The unofficial Azerbaijani Karabakh Liberation Organization (QAT) staged repeated protests in Baku last week against the Armenians\' anticipated arrival; police forcibly dispersed a QAT protest on 25 November outside the hotel where the seminar was taking place and detained 10 of the protest participants.

By empty (11/29/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Opposition legislators Azimbek Beknazarov and Alevtina Pronenko announced at a 25 November press conference in Bishkek that they will join the People\'s Patriotic Movement\'s petition drive to remove Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev from office if rights activist Tursunbek Akun is not found, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported. Demonstrations continued in support of Akun, who has not been seen since 16 November, including a protest in the Aksy Raion that drew 2,000 people. Meanwhile, the Bishkek office of Freedom House announced in a 26 November press release that it is beginning an independent investigation into Akun\'s disappearance, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported.