Month: November 2006

Merrimack River Current, MA
Nov 3 2006
Chamber Ensemble
By J. C. Lockwood
Friday, November 3, 2006
Interested?
You can’t bundle up the 17 short compositions that make up
“VOCE,” the debut release of the Vardan Ovsepian Chamber Ensemble,
into a self-contained little package and describe the work as a whole
– other than advancing Gunther Schuller’s third stream theories –
essentially a fusing of classical and jazz.
No, this music is a world unto itself and, because of the
ensemble’s instrumentation – which includes Celtic harp and duduk, an
ancient Armenian instrument that looks like a recorder and sounds
like a cross between cello and human voice – it is a big world
indeed. The nine-piece ensemble weaves together improvisational jazz
that is equally informed by traditional classical music, 12-tone
serial composition and European art songs.
All that being said, perhaps the best way to understand these
pieces is to lift them completely out of their musical context. The
compositions are like poems, short films or, more accurately, like
paintings – appropriate because in its premiere performance this year
at the Firehouse Center for the Performing Arts, the ensemble, in
abbreviated form, played a series of compositions inspired by
paintings by Newburyport painter Gordon Przybyla, around which
swirled a multimedia show and dancers.
Yet, despite all of Ovsepian’s apparent compositional
adventurousness, there is a cohesiveness to the album that is
intuitive and structural. It has to do with the underlying sound as
well as the shape or character of the compositions – and that, says
the composer, is crucial.
“The instrumentation allows us to go to some very different
places,” says Ovsepian. “I love that. But if there were no underlying
unity to the pieces, it would be a bad collection of different songs.
It would be a failure. The last thing I want to have is a bunch of
songs that are different from each other.”
Assembling the band
Ovsepian started playing piano at age 5. In the early ’90s, he
studied music theory at Melikyan Music College and classical
composition at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, both in his native
Armenia. After studying contemporary composition at the Estonian
Music Academy, he jumped across the Gulf of Finland to attend the
Helsinki Jazz Conservatory and, from there, across the Atlantic for a
gig studying piano performance at Berklee College of Music.
Since graduating from Berklee in May 2000, he has been teaching
at The Musical Suite in Newburyport, and performing solo as well as
in groups with artists such as George Garzone, Mick Goodrick, Tim
Miller and others. He’s released three albums with the
Barcelona-based Fresh Sound- New Talent label: “Abandoned Wheel,” his
2001 solo piano project; “Sketch Book,” a 2002 release that features
future VOCE bassist Joshua Davis and percussionist Take Toriyama in
his quartet; and, in 2004, “Akunc,” a new project that features the
quartet and cellist Agnieszka Dziubak.
Chamber Ensemble
By J. C. Lockwood
Friday, November 3, 2006
Interested?
You can’t bundle up the 17 short compositions that make up
“VOCE,” the debut release of the Vardan Ovsepian Chamber Ensemble,
into a self-contained little package and describe the work as a whole
– other than advancing Gunther Schuller’s third stream theories –
essentially a fusing of classical and jazz.
No, this music is a world unto itself and, because of the
ensemble’s instrumentation – which includes Celtic harp and duduk, an
ancient Armenian instrument that looks like a recorder and sounds
like a cross between cello and human voice – it is a big world
indeed. The nine-piece ensemble weaves together improvisational jazz
that is equally informed by traditional classical music, 12-tone
serial composition and European art songs.
All that being said, perhaps the best way to understand these
pieces is to lift them completely out of their musical context. The
compositions are like poems, short films or, more accurately, like
paintings – appropriate because in its premiere performance this year
at the Firehouse Center for the Performing Arts, the ensemble, in
abbreviated form, played a series of compositions inspired by
paintings by Newburyport painter Gordon Przybyla, around which
swirled a multimedia show and dancers.
Yet, despite all of Ovsepian’s apparent compositional
adventurousness, there is a cohesiveness to the album that is
intuitive and structural. It has to do with the underlying sound as
well as the shape or character of the compositions – and that, says
the composer, is crucial.
“The instrumentation allows us to go to some very different
places,” says Ovsepian. “I love that. But if there were no underlying
unity to the pieces, it would be a bad collection of different songs.
It would be a failure. The last thing I want to have is a bunch of
songs that are different from each other.”
Assembling the band
Ovsepian started playing piano at age 5. In the early ’90s, he
studied music theory at Melikyan Music College and classical
composition at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, both in his native
Armenia. After studying contemporary composition at the Estonian
Music Academy, he jumped across the Gulf of Finland to attend the
Helsinki Jazz Conservatory and, from there, across the Atlantic for a
gig studying piano performance at Berklee College of Music.
Since graduating from Berklee in May 2000, he has been teaching
at The Musical Suite in Newburyport, and performing solo as well as
in groups with artists such as George Garzone, Mick Goodrick, Tim
Miller and others. He’s released three albums with the
Barcelona-based Fresh Sound- New Talent label: “Abandoned Wheel,” his
2001 solo piano project; “Sketch Book,” a 2002 release that features
future VOCE bassist Joshua Davis and percussionist Take Toriyama in
his quartet; and, in 2004, “Akunc,” a new project that features the
quartet and cellist Agnieszka Dziubak.
VOCE, which has members spread across three states and has performed
as a unit only two times before, came together quickly after Megumi
Sasaki, a violinist who teaches with Ovsepian at The Musical Suite,
brought up the idea in an off-hand way in October 2005.
“Everything started with her,” says Ovsepian.
He started collecting musicians, and by January he had a complete
band, starting with Sasaki and then signing on quartet members Davis
and Toriyama, then adding Andrew Eng on violin, Fabrizzio Mazzetta on
cello, Yulia Musayelyan on flute, Maeve Gilchrist on Celtic harp and
Martin Haroutunian on duduk.
Band in place, the pianist started writing and, within three
months, just about the time of VOCE’s Firehouse performance, had
penned most of the tunes for the new album. But he didn’t stop there.
In rehearsal, he kept getting ideas and kept writing. The musicians
in the ensemble “were very patient with me,” Ovsepian said. The
inspiration came “so massively,” that the 17 songs on the disc
represent only about 30 percent of the creative output.
The ensemble performed for the second time at Rutman’s Violins in
Boston, just a week before the album was recorded in May at PBS
Studio in Westwood and released, albeit unofficially, this week. The
disc features a series of energetic, evocative photographs by Hanayo
Takai at the Rutman’s performance. Her work became a part of the
performance, a last-minute improvisation that felt right. On stage
during the show, getting up close to the musicians, sometimes
blocking the sight lines of the audience, she looked like part of the
ensemble, almost like a dancer – recalling the “Stories as One”
performance. “It felt not like a nine-piece but a 10-piece ensemble,”
says Ovsepian. “It was an important part of the performance. It
affected everybody.”
Tight discipline
On “VOCE,” labels fall away. Songs feel and sound both modern and
ancient, are beautiful and sad, are moody and contemplative. Many
flow into each other. Titles like “Elegant Madness,” “Dew,” and
“Dreaming Paris” invoke a landscape, attitude or presence, but,
ultimately it’s a world left to the listener. The role of
improvisation is an important part of “third stream” compositions,
but on the VOCE debut, Ovsepian maintains a tight discipline over the
material, limiting the improvisational impulse – hinting, teasing.
This stance is most apparent on “Earth.” The three-minute piece opens
with achingly beautiful violin and cello lines and then, led by piano
and flute, swerves in a completely different, happier, direction.
And, as the song builds to what should be a spot for the pianist to
stretch out, the song fades out.
Ovsepian says he is trying to capture a mood, or palette of
colors – all of which would get lost in an avalanche of soloing, no
matter how inspired.
“You listen to music and have a certain image in your head,” he
says. “They have a certain character or presence. That would be swept
away by the ‘improv.’ I try to capture that mood and leave it there.
I don’t want to change or lose the mood or the color of the pieces.”
In other settings, in concert, he says, “the ‘improv’ will take care
of itself.”
Ultimately, the collection is held together by the sound of the band,
and the color and structure of the compositions, as Ovsepian says,
but, perhaps as important, is the emotional immediacy, the
insistency, of the pieces.
The release party for “VOCE” will be a loose event – not a
traditional record release party, not exactly a concert. The ensemble
will perform, they’ll shmooze a little, they’ll play a little more,
they’ll sell a few CDs. A formal release party will be scheduled
later this year.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 3 2006
Azerbaijan National Security Ministry Received Deputy Director of
Canadian Security and Investigation Service
Source: Trend
Author: E.Javadova
03.11.2006
On November 3, the Azerbaijani Minister of National Security,
Lieutenant-General Eldar Mahmudov received the Deputy Director of the
Canadian Security and Investigation Service Jack Chuner who is in
Baku on an official visit, Trend reports with reference to the Public
Relations Center of the Azerbaijani Ministry of National Secutiry.
During the meeting, Mahmudov assessed the first meeting with the
representative of Special Service Body of Canada as a significant
step in establishing co-operation between the relevant bodies of the
two countries.
Mahmudov informed the guest about the processes happening in the
region, as well as Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
its effects. The minister said that the strengthening of the
international terrorism, illegal turnover of drugs, illegal migration
and other kinds of the transnational organized criminalities imposes
serious concerns all over the world. In addition, information was
presented regarding the relevant measures held by the National
Security Ministry against new threats and their concrete results.
In his turn, Chuner underlined that he is satisfied with the visit to
Baku, including results of discussions regarding actual questions in
the sphere of ensuring the security interests of Azerbaijan and
Canada. In addition, during the meeting, the sides exchanged views on
other issues of mutual interest.

RUSSIA CEMENTS CONTROL OF ARMENIA’S ENERGY SYSTEM
By Vladimir Socor
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Nov 3 2006
Friday, November 3, 2006
President Robert Kocharian President Robert Kocharian’s October
30-November 1 working visit to the Kremlin sealed arrangements to
deepen Russian control of Armenia’s gas and electricity supply systems.
Under these arrangements, Gazprom is de facto taking over the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, even as Tehran and Yerevan are about to
complete the pipeline’s construction under an earlier bilateral
agreement. Moreover, Gazprom has now raised its stake in the
Russian-Armenian company ArmRosGazprom from 45% to 58% by approving
an additional issue of shares worth $119 million. That amount is to
cover the acquisition of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline and of the
Hrazdan electricity generating plant’s fifth power bloc (Hrazdan-5),
the leading unit in the country, by ArmRosGazprom.
The Armenian government’s stake in ArmRosGazprom, hitherto 45%,
is said to decline correspondingly to Gazprom’s increase, thus
apparently leaving Armenia with 32%. Gazprom’s old offshoot Itera
owns the remaining 10%.
The basis for these Armenian handovers had been laid in March-April
of this year as part of a deal for low-priced Russian gas. Under the
supply agreement signed in April, Gazprom raised the price of gas to
Armenia from the traditional, “fraternal” $54 to a still preferential
$110 per 1,000 cubic meters, which is to remain in force until January
1, 2009. In return for this short-term relief, official Yerevan seems
content to accept the long-term monopolization of Armenia’s energy
systems by Russian interests.
Armenia had earlier attempted to diversify energy supply sources
and infrastructure away from full Russian control. The Iran-Armenia
agreement, signed in May 2004, envisaged the construction of a gas
pipeline from the joint border to Yerevan and potentially to the
Armenia-Georgia border, as well as the completion of the Hrazdan-5
power bloc, with mainly Iranian funding. Armenia was to consume most
of the electricity generated with Iranian gas at Hrazdan and also to
use part of that electricity to repay Iran during the first years of
the 20-year project. Hrazdan-5 is due to be completed in mid-2008 at
a cost of $180 million.
>>From the start of the project, official Yerevan accepted Moscow’s
demand to limit the Iran-Armenia pipeline’s diameter to 700
millimeters, instead of the 1,420 millimeters in the original design.
Thus, Moscow and its allies in Yerevan precluded the possibility
of this pipeline being used for transit of Iranian gas via Armenia
to Georgia and potentially to Ukraine via the Black Sea. Last year,
the Ukrainian government of Yulia Tymoshenko showed keen interest in
an Armenian transit route for Iranian gas. However, this pipeline,
with an initial capacity 300 to 400 million cubic meters per year,
can only meet the needs of a part of Armenia’s internal market. The
Iranian-Armenian project had envisaged 1.1 billion cubic meters
annually in the first stage
The pipeline’s 40 kilometer first section, from Kajaran on the
Iran-Armenia border to Meghri, is set to be commissioned on schedule
at the end of December. The second section is planned to reach
Armenia’s Ararat district, there to connect with the existing gas
supply system under ArmRosGazprom. Thus, instead of a jointly owned
Iranian-Armenian pipeline dedicated to Iranian gas, the new line
becomes a Gazprom-controlled link from Iran to the Gazprom-controlled
pipeline system within Armenia. As one Yerevan commentator noted when
the outline of the deal emerged, “The pipeline goes to ArmRosGaz in
appearance only. In reality, the pipeline is packaged in ArmRosGaz
and given to Gazprom” (Lragir, October 27).
Attempting to rationalize this decision, Prime Minister Andranik
Markarian argues that separate ownership of the Iran-Armenia supply
pipeline would be “illogical,” since Gazprom already controls Armenia’s
gas transport and distribution systems, thereby controlling also
the access of Iranian gas to Armenian consumers. European countries
consenting to monopolistic long-term contracts with Gazprom might look
at the situation described by Markarian as a harbinger for their own
countries, if that trend persists.
Armenia’s gas market is small and not lucrative for Russia.
ArmRosGazprom expects only $3.75 million in profits in 2006,
partly because tariffs to household consumers in Armenia are
state-controlled. However, Moscow wants to control for Armenia’s gas
market for geopolitical reasons. Such control enables it to foreclose
a possible route for Iranian or Turkmen gas via Armenia to Georgia,
Ukraine, and potentially European Union territory, where such gas
could compete with and indeed out compete Gazprom’s.
With Iran supplying part of Armenia’s needs, Russia can redirect
corresponding volumes of Russian gas to Europe at more than double
the price it charges to Armenia. At the same time, Gazprom retains
discretionary control of the Armenian gas market through control of
the distribution system in the country.
(Noyan Tapan, Mediamax, Armenpress, October 29-November 2; RFE/RL
Armenia Report, October 31)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Nagorno-Karabakh sets constitutional referendum for December
International Herald Tribune, France
Nov 3 2006
The Associated PressPublished: November 3, 2006
YEREVAN, Armenia: The leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed
Armenian-controlled territory in Azerbaijan, on Friday ordered a
constitutional referendum to be held next month.
President Arkady Gukasian set the referendum for Dec. 10, his office
said. The draft constitution says that Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,
also called the Republic of Artsakh, is a sovereign democratic nation.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a region in Azerbaijan that has been under the
control of Armenian and ethnic-Armenian Karabakh forces since a 1994
cease-fire ended a six-year separatist war that killed about 30,000
people and drove about 1 million from their homes.
The region’s final status has not been worked out, and years of
talks under the auspices of international mediators have brought few
visible results.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 3 2006
British State Minister States on UK’s Recognition of Territorial
Integrity of Azerbaijan
Source: Trend
Author: A.Mammadova
03.11.2006
Mr. Geoff Hoon, the British Minister of State for Europe, Foreign &
Commonwealth, stated that the UK recognizes the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan to include Nagorno-Karabakh. He
made the statement at a meeting of British parliament, Trend reports.
The statement testifies UK’s unambiguous attitude towards belligerent
Armenia’s separatist actions against Azerbaijan.
We also support the efforts of the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe Minsk Group to find a negotiated settlement of
the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh
(NK).
He also commented on other conflicts in the region. The UK recognizes
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia to include South
Ossetia and Abkhazia. “We do not recognize the claims to independence
of the separatist movements in these regions. The UK supports the
peaceful resolution of the conflicts in these regions and is working
to address the recent tension between Georgia and Russia. We
co-sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 1716 extending the
mandate of the UN Observer Mission in Abkhiazia. The EU issued a
statement on 17 October calling on Georgia and Russia to resume
dialogue and focus on reaching a peaceful resolution of the conflicts
in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, with full respect for Georgia’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The UK also recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
the Russian Federation to include all of the republics of the North
Caucasus, including Chechnya.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 3 2006
Ceasefire Regime was not Broken in Result of Monitoring Held on
Frontline of Armenian and Azerbaijan Armed Forces
Source: Trend
Author: S.Ilhamgizi
03.11.2006
The ceasefire regime was not broken in result of the monitoring held
on the frontline of the Armenian and Azerbaijan armed forces, the
Head of the Press-Service of the Azerbaijani Defense Minister Ramiz
Melikov told Trend.
In accordance with the mandate of the special representative of the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the monitoring was held near the
Fizuli-Horadiz road. The monitoring from the Azerbaijani side was
held by the field assistant of the special representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Miroslav Vimetal and Peter Ki, and from Armenian
side – Gunter Folk and Imre Palatinus.

An Alchemist’s Pilgrimage: Best-Selling Author Paulo Coelho’s Journey Among
the Armenians
By Khatchig Mouradian
“The Armenian Weekly”
October 28, 2006
“This book, telling the story of a shepherd boy named Santiago, is about
following your dreams,” said my Chinese friend.
“Its message is powerful and simple: If you really believe in something, the
whole universe conspires with you to achieve it. Take it to Beirut with you
and read it,” she continued.
Thousands of miles away from home, I was being offered a book I had on my
own bookshelf, but had never read. Thus, on September 10, 2000, in Shenyang,
China, my story with The Alchemist had begun.
As I was reading the book on the plane on my way back, I felt I could easily
relate to the message of the novel: We had to go to far away lands,
sometimes, to find treasures hidden in our backyard.
“I will translate this book to Armenian one day,” I thought, as the captain
was announcing our arrival at the Beirut International Airport.
In October 2003, I started interviewing writers, artists and academics from
around the world for the Lebanese-Armenian daily newspaper Aztag. “My first
interviewee ought to be the author of The Alchemist,” I thought.
I emailed the author’s literary agency requesting an interview and, much to
my surprise, I received a positive response. One of the top best-selling
authors of the world had agreed to share his thoughts with a small community
newspaper in Beirut.
The last question I asked Paulo Coelho was whether there were plans to
translate his book, The Alchemist, to Armenian. Already translated into 54
languages, I felt it was time Armenians read the book in their mother
tongue. He expressed hope that a publishing house would be interested in
such an endeavor.
On October 30, the interview appeared in Aztag. A few days later, I received
a phone call from the Hamazkayin publishing house in Beirut. “We would love
to have The Alchemist translated to Armenian. Would you be interested in
translating it?” asked the voice on the other side.
I remembered my Chinese friend, Paulo Coelho’s quote about wanting
something, and the wish I had expressed on my flight to Beirut. When we
obtained the rights from Coelho’s literary agency, the shepherd boy Santiago
in me was thrilled.
A year later, I was holding the first copy of my translation of The
Alchemist. I flipped to page 5 where the Translator’s Foreword appeared,
titled “the 55th [translation].” There, I had told my story with the book,
without knowing it was not yet over. In a few hours, I had a plane to catch
to Yerevan, where I would be joined by Paulo Coelho himself for a series of
book events.
The Pilgrimage
A large crowd of journalist, photographers and cameramen had gathered right
outside the VIP Lounge at the Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan. “Where is
Khatchig?” asked the man in dark clothes coming out of the VIP room. As I
approached and we embraced, he made his first statement to the media: “He is
too young to be a translator.”
“And too old to be Santiago,” I thought.
“The Pilgrim has arrived to the land of Pilgrimages: to yerkir Hayastan,”
wrote the daily Hayastani Hanrapetudyun a few days later.
As Armenia was bracing for the greatest literary events in its history,
Coelho had other things in mind. He had an Armenian driver, he went to
Armenian restaurants in Paris, he had met many Armenians in the Diaspora and
heard so much about their heritage and their country, and now, he was on a
pilgrimage to discover both, first-hand.
We strolled in the streets of Yerevan that night. The following day, when he
was asked about his impressions of the city, he said that the buildings and
streets are almost the same everywhere around the world. “It is the people
that make the difference, and my best impression was the people,” he added.
Weeks before his arrival, as we were preparing the program of his week-long
visit, Coelho’s literary agency stressed that the author wanted to spend
time with the people, with his readers, and that official meetings had to be
minimal. We ended up including lunch with the president of Armenia Robert
Kocharian at the Parajanov Museum, a visit to the Catholicos of All
Armenians Karekin II at Etchmiadzin, and a meeting with the Minister of
Culture Hovig Hoveyan in the program.
On October 6, 2004, the book-launching event dedicated to the translation
into Armenian of The Alchemist took place at the Writers’ Union Great Hall.
Organized by Hamazkayin and the Writers’ Union of Armenia, the event was a
huge success. The hall was packed with people hours before the event, and
hundreds of latecomers waited outside, pushing at the gates that were closed
because the hall couldn’t handle any more people.
In my introductory speech, I told my story with The Alchemist, beginning, as
always, in China. I said, “Just like Paulo, I, too, believe we have to go to
far away lands, sometimes, to find treasures hidden in our backyard. And for
us, Diaspora Armenians, whose grandparents had to walk through deserts in
much harsher conditions than Santiago did in his quest, the real treasures
are hidden here, in Armenia, whether we realize it or not.”
In his speech, Coelho, who Publishing Trends had declared the number one
best-selling author a year before, also alluded to the Armenian Diaspora
saying he believed that one day, Diaspora Armenians would return, like rain,
to the land of their ancestors, bringing with them all that they have
learned and accomplished.
“At the Writers’ Union Hall there was no room to cast a needle,” wrote the
weekly Yerkir in its coverage of the event. “We cannot recall any other time
when that hall was packed like that.” In its history, the Writers’ Union had
witnessed such an event only once, and that was during the visit of William
Saroyan to Yerevan, wrote Grakan Tert.
Coelho’s second meeting with Armenian readers came two days later in the
Tcharents Hall at Yerevan State University. Some 900 people packed the hall,
with many sitting on the floor or leaning against the walls. Coelho said he
did not want to give a speech and, instead, invited 10 students to the
podium and gave them each a chance to ask a question.
I was translating Paulo’s answers to Armenian. At one point, replying to a
question on his most recent novel Eleven Minutes, Paulo started talking
about sex. While I was having difficulty translating words like
“masturbation,” “orgasm”, “penis” and “vagina,” and blushing every now and
then, the audience was having a blast. Rarely, if ever, had a speaker talked
so openly about sex on that podium.
Asked whether at some point he would write a novel on Armenia, Coelho said
he never plans in advance what to write about. He compared himself to a
sailor who sets out without having a specific destination. “I do not know if
I will write a novel about Armenia,” he said. “But Armenia wrote a novel in
my heart.”
A day later, the daily Azg wrote: “From the meetings of Paulo Coelho with
the public in Yerevan, it became clear that it is not true to say the
Armenian reader has became indifferent towards literature.”
In the following days, Coelho lay wreaths at the Armenian Genocide memorial,
visited the Genocide Museum, and planted a tree at the memorial garden in
Dzidzernagapert. He also went to Oshagan on Holy Translators’ Day, and lay a
flower on the tomb of Mesrob Mashdots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet.
He was particularly impressed by the fact that the Armenians sanctified
their translators, who enlightened their people after the alphabet was
discovered. He said he had toured the world and had never encountered such a
practice. Coelho later wrote an article, syndicated in newspapers around the
world, on his visit to Armenia and specifically his impressions from the
Holy Translators’ Day.
It was impossible to walk even a few steps on the streets in Yerevan without
encountering an admirer of Coelho’s work asking for an autograph. He
patiently autographed books for everyone. The utmost respect and love he
showed to each and every reader was heartwarming indeed.
Once, when we were visiting the vernissage, the open-air art market in
Yerevan, a painter in his 70s approached and hugged the author, giving him a
painting as a gift. “Tell the world we love life, and we will prevail in the
face of economic and political difficulties,” said the painter. His words,
full of determination, reminded me of Paulo’s literary style: simple, but
powerful, inspiring and heartwarming.
Before we knew it, we were at the Zvartnots Airport again. “Partir, c’est
mourir un peu” (Leaving is a bit like dying), say the French. “Heratsman
mech el ga mi veratarts” (There is a return in every departure), says an
Armenian song. I believe in the latter.
***
Recently, I asked Paulo to send an email and wish a happy birthday to a
female friend of mine, who is a great fan of his.
“A man in love asks, and a man who respects love obeys,” he wrote her a day
later. “Happy Birthday!” As always, Pablo had found the best way to reach
the heart of his reader.

Referendum on Nagorno-Karabakh constitution to be held on December 10
Interfax. Russia
Nov 3 2006
STEPANAKERT. Nov 3 (Interfax) – President of the breakaway republic
of Nagorno-Karabakh Arkady Gukasian has signed a decree on holding
a referendum on the Nagorno-Karabakh draft constitution, which is
scheduled to take place on December 10, the administration of the
Nagorno-Karabakh president told Interfax.
In an earlier referendum on December 10, 1991, 99.9% of voters cast
their ballots in favor of independence.

PeaceJournalism.com, Nepal
Nov 3 2006
Reflections on Turks and Armenians, Nations and Society
Editorial Opinion Posted On: 2006-11-03 18:07:55
By: Greg Somerville Unsettled
It is unsettling to think about some matter after we have learned
that the words we were going to use are themselves in question, and
that we had best avoid them in order to speak truly. But it is a
constant possibility we must acknowledge.
In speaking about peoples located here and there, banded together as
nations, yet sharing across today’s borders most of the features
which enable us to recognize society and culture, we use words like
‘French’ or ‘British’ or ‘Irish’ or ‘German’ without much worry. You
have to start somewhere. But then you look a bit more deeply at
history and at conflict and you begin to wonder whether the conflict
has been misconceived, even by its participants. Nagging doubts begin
to complicate your life. Who shall we say was fighting? Who were
these people and what sort of a fight was that? And who should say?
Elizabeth Kolbert has written a short piece in the November 6, 2006,
edition of The New Yorker, describing the Armenians and the Turks and
a new history of this conflict by Taner Akcam, “A Shameful Act: The
Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility.”
Kolbert can be forgiven for starting somewhere and for writing a book
review rather than a tome. But it is all food for thought on the
table of life.
Who are these “Turks”? I will leave the corollary question regarding
Armenians aside for later delectation, anyway less pressing while we
address this course of our historical feast. The sentences of
Kolbert’s which piqued my interest are these, where she makes a claim
unremarkable among all the notions we entertain as facts concerning
the early twentieth century:
“As the rulers of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks had been fighting
against history; they had spent more than a century trying – often
unsuccessfully – to fend off nationalist movements in the regions
they controlled. Now, in defeat, they adopted the cause as their own.
In the spring of 1920,”…
And Kolbert goes on to sketch the establishment of the Ankara
government and their work to reject the Treaty of Sevres, just drawn
up by the Allies in 1920, and replace it in 1923 with the Treaty of
Lausanne recognizing the Republic of Turkey. And Kolbert draws our
attention to the pertinence of 1915 actions for the competing
treaties of five and eight years later. When a million Armenians lost
their lives at Ottoman hands in April of 1915, Kolbert (with Akcam,
we must presume) observes that it “changed the demographics of
eastern Anatolia; then, on the basis of these changed demographics,
the Turks used the logic of self-determination to deprive of a home
the very people they had decimated.” Thus a war crime is made
foundational as to boundaries of a nation and self-organization of a
people.
But what people are we talking about? Kolbert and many others when
describing the legal adventures of Orhan Pamuk bring up the Turkish
penal code which outlaws “insulting Turkishness” and I think most of
us wince or smile chidingly at such bald defensiveness inscribed into
criminal sanction. And when we hear that Kurds are routinely called
“mountain Turks” so as to avoid their right name, we roll our eyes at
stubborn, willful racism ill-suited to a civilized modern
understanding.
Our own context frames a beginning, maybe, for diluting our disdain
with modest realism, for stepping back from such easy superiority as
leads us to mock the Turks for foolishness. In her final paragraph,
Kolbert leans this way, pointing to the forty million indigenous
people living in the Americas before Europeans came and fewer than
ten million visible by 1650. Racism in the United States is marked,
certainly, by no less confusion and argument over the proper naming
of people than our conventional reading of Turkish history and
custom.
But if we step back from the fog of the Great War and perform the
slightest of reality checks, we will find that empire and nation and
people and ethnic identification are far from simple, and Turkey is a
wonderful place to start. We should look at Turkey through two
lenses: composition of empire and bonds between people. That is to
say, from the top down and the bottom up, we will try to answer the
question of how society organizes, and how it ought to organize, with
Turkey as our focus. Let me announce my findings right off the bat.
We are all amateur humans; there are no professional social
practitioners; there is no agreement as to how we form society.
Alexander the Great swept eastward signally, momentously. In making
his conquered lands Greek, he Hellenized their people. Language is
implicated mightily in identifying one people or another, and has
become the lasting tool of historians, albeit ethnicity and
nationality cannot quite conform to its marker. But language can be
rejected, secret, disused, forbidden or broken: like memory, of which
it is one token, one treasury. One primary fact we can state with
certainty is that none of Alexander’s conquered peoples spoke such an
Altaic language as Turkish is. That family, standing apart from
Indo-European, lurked behind mountains north of Alexander’s route and
of Ashoka’s after him, reversing some of the Hellenic conquests.
Kabul would come to hear both the Mongolian and the Turkic branches
of the Altaic family spoken, and so would Jerusalem. So would the
Viking princes who followed the Huns in Ukraine. But it took some
time for Constantine’s city to lose its Greek accent, and much
Western European connivance. Turkic tribes moved through, and named,
Turkistan over long, disputatious migrations strikingly similar to
the uncoordinated arrivals of Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians on
Britain’s coast. Like those Germanic speakers we now call English,
Turks displaced a number of indigenous inhabitants along the way.
Romans had already laid claim to Celtic lands both in southern
Britain and in central Anatolia, fielding first pagan, and later
Christian legions. Very few descendants of Celtic Britons persisted
as landowners outside Wales, learning Old English, but Galatians
sheltered within the Roman Empire, a subject kingdom where Paul would
preach and which even Jerome found flourishing.
So, when Seljuk tribes encroached ever more successfully upon the
well-trodden soil of Anatolia, Greek-speaking inheritors of
Alexandrine and Roman imperial tenure resisted militarily and
demographically, leaving an ethnic crazy-quilt more brightly colored
than even Byzantium sported. China, Christendom, Islam and Tibet were
all predecessor empires to the Ottoman establishment which made
Istanbul its capital, and all diverse.
Armenians, Kurds, Arabs, Jews and Bosnians retained their identity
within the Ottoman framework, along with many other minoritarian
ethnicities. While Ottoman rule consolidated its bicontinental
holdings, Persia to its east recovered national integrity. This was
Europe’s Renaissance as well, and it birthed new commercial economies
under Italian, Spanish, Dutch and English leadership. Which way was
history trending? When did the winner become clear, if there was a
race to organize best?
Frankly, I think the organization of society is no more a settled
matter than the organization of business enterprises. My own
experience has been that in any large business, there are a certain
number of quite obvious operational chores to be done. And if we
leave that bottom-up reality and adopt the perspective of the chief
executives, there is a clear mission: make money. In between, middle
management struggles constantly to find synergistic arrangements of
medium-sized blocs of staff and function. Corporate history is
littered with unsuccessful efforts at this sort of integration. So is
the history of our social arrangements. If you study the changes in
political maps, over time, you will see that there is no optimal size
or shape for national definition. Even the definition of nationalism
flaps in the wind of experience.
Ottoman forces suffered major defeat at Russian hands. Some Armenians
participated actively, helping Russians resist a siege of Baku. New
“Bolshevik” Russia was not invited to Paris, where President Wilson
checked them and Turkish self-determination by proposing that
generous terms of Allied settlement be granted all Armenian subjects,
Russian and Ottoman. Sevres extended exceptional generosity to the
Kurds as well, declared sovereign in their mountain passes for only
the second interval in their national existence. In all this the
Greeks were surely complicit, receiving for themselves large
Anatolian territories to rule with a sovereignty which they must have
viewed as an acknowledgement of their undisputed historic tenure, in
such places as the port of Smyrna. And the bitterness of Greeks at
the eviction codified in Lausanne is with us still. Is that, too, a
historical trend? But what of those who intermarried down the years,
submerging an original ethnicity and learning languages they never
heard in the cradle? Are they trendy or traitorous?
No matter what mixture of ethnic extraction today’s Turkish citizens
enjoy, and what ancestral languages war has bloodied with bad
memories, people in Asia Minor and everywhere else must hope that
human efforts to build society do it peacefully.
hp?article_id=1136

Business Wire (press release), CA
Nov 3 2006
Dr. Yervant Zorian Wins IEEE’s Hans Karlsson Award for Technical
Leadership and Achievement Through Collaboration
Virage Logic Chief Scientist Recognized for Leadership, Outstanding
Diplomacy, Team Facilitation, and Joint Achievement in the Computer
Industry
FREMONT, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dr. Yervant Zorian, vice president
and chief scientist at Virage Logic Corporation (Nasdaq: VIRL), a
pioneer in Silicon Aware IP~Y and leading provider of semiconductor
intellectual property (IP) platforms, has garnered numerous awards
for his leadership and technology innovation in embedded test and
repair of semiconductor IP. Adding to his list of honors, Dr. Zorian
this week received the Hans Karlsson Award for Technical Leadership
and Achievement Through Collaboration from the IEEE (Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Computer Society in recognition
of outstanding skills and dedication to diplomacy, and joint
achievement.
The award was presented on November 1, 2006, in Southern California,
at a special banquet. Deborah Cooper, president of the IEEE Computer
Society, presented Dr. Zorian with the award and noted, “I am pleased
to present this award to Dr. Yervant Zorian, whose seminal work in
shaping the semiconductor industry honors Hans Karlsson’s memory. At
the core of the Hans Karlsson Award is recognition of technical
leadership, diplomacy, and joint achievement. Dr. Zorian’s work as a
founder, leader, and advocate of IEEE Standard 1500 put to the test
his honed diplomatic skills. His outstanding achievement working with
a highly diverse team is testament to his exemplary leadership
skills. We are fortunate to have Yervant as a leader, a colleague and
friend of the IEEE Computer Society.”
The IEEE Computer Society’s selection committee, comprising
distinguished professionals in the computer industry, selected Dr.
Zorian based on nominations and recommendations from his peers. The
Hans Karlsson Award recognizes teamwork in areas of the computer
industry where individual aspirations, corporate, and organizational
rivalry can hinder collaboration. Since its inception in 1992, the
award has only been given six times.
“Yervant is a recognized visionary in the industry and a key member
of the Virage Logic executive team. His contributions in the area of
embedded memory test and repair helped Virage Logic define a new
class of IP that we call ‘Silicon Aware IP’,” said Adam Kablanian,
president and CEO at Virage Logic. “The benefits this IP provides in
terms of yield optimization and cost savings have helped to further
establish Virage Logic as the industry’s trusted IP partner.”
Dr. Zorian joined Virage Logic in 2000 and became an immediate
catalyst for collaboration and teamwork. Dr. Zorian’s work was key in
Virage Logic’s development of a new class of IP called Silicon Aware
IPTM. Silicon Aware IP is Physical IP, such as memories, logic and
I/Os, designed with embedded Infrastructure IP for test, diagnostics,
repair, and yield enhancements. The result is IP that is high
yielding and enables rapid time-to-volume at advanced process nodes.
In addition, Silicon Aware IP results in much higher test quality and
reliability. Today, Virage Logic believes it is the leading
commercial IP provider to offer Silicon Aware IP, an example of which
is its Self-Test and Repair (STAR) Memory SystemTM.
“I am honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Dr. Zorian, in
his acceptance speech. “I feel fortunate to work closely with so many
talented and forward-thinking individuals in the semiconductor
industry. Our teamwork has fostered system-on-chip test
interoperability throughout the industry, and allowed us at Virage
Logic to leverage it and extend it further to achieve self-repair in
our Silicon Aware IP, and thus create innovative and exceptional
results that I am extremely proud of.”
A photo of Yervant Zorian is available upon request.
About Dr. Zorian
Dr. Zorian joined Virage Logic in 2000 as chief scientist. Prior to
joining Virage Logic, he served as chief technology advisor at
LogicVision and as a distinguished member of technical staff at AT&T
Bell Labs. His responsibilities included developing and disseminating
embedded test and repair solutions for IP cores, chips, boards and
systems. Dr. Zorian also serves on the Board of Directors of several
public and privately owned companies.
Dr. Zorian served as the IEEE Computer Society Vice President for
Conferences and Tutorials as well as the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of
the IEEE Design & Test of Computers. He also participates in
editorial advisory boards of IEEE Spectrum and JETTA. He has chaired
numerous conferences, symposia, workshops, and the IEEE Test
Technology Technical Council. He founded and chairs the IEEE 1500
Standard Working Group, and the IEEE Infrastructure IP Workshop and
Design-for-Manufacturability & Yield Workshop.
Dr. Zorian has authored over 300 papers and four books, received
several best paper awards, and holds fourteen U.S. patents. He is a
Golden Core Member of IEEE Computer Society, Honorary Doctor of the
National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, and a Fellow of IEEE. He was
the 2005 recipient of the prestigious IEEE Industrial Pioneer Award.
He was also selected by Electrical Engineering Times (EE Times) among
the top 13 influencers on the semiconductor industry. Dr. Zorian
received his master’s degree in Computer Engineering from the
University of Southern California, a doctorate in Electrical
Engineering from McGill University and an executive master’s degree
in Business Administration from Wharton School of Business,
University of Pennsylvania.
About the Hans Karlsson Award
This award, given by the IEEE Computer Society, was established in
1992 in memory of Hans Karlsson, chairman and father of the IEEE 1301
family of standards. The award is presented in recognition of
outstanding technical skills and dedication to diplomacy, team
facilitation and joint achievement, in areas of the computer industry
where individual aspirations, corporate and organizational rivalry
could otherwise be counter to the common good.
About the IEEE Computer Society
IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading association of computing
professionals with 100,000 members in over 140 countries. Founded in
1946 and today the largest society within the IEEE, this
not-for-profit organization is the authoritative provider of
technical information and services for computing communities
worldwide. It offers a full range of career enhancing products and
services through its 124,000-article digital library, 20+
peer-reviewed print publications, distance learning courseware,
online technical books, 150 technical conferences, standards
development, 32 technical committees, certification for software
professionals, 200 local society chapters, awards and scholarships,
and much more. Visit IEEE Computer Society at
About Virage Logic Corporation
Founded in 1996, Virage Logic Corporation (Nasdaq:VIRL) rapidly
established itself as a technology and market leader in providing
advanced embedded memory intellectual property (IP) for the design of
complex integrated circuits. Now, as the company celebrates its 10th
anniversary, it is a global leader in semiconductor IP platforms
comprising embedded memories, logic, and I/Os and is pioneering the
development of a new class of IP called Silicon Aware IP(TM). Silicon
Aware IP tightly integrates Physical IP (memory, logic and I/Os) with
the embedded test, diagnostic, and repair capabilities of
Infrastructure IP to help ensure manufacturability and optimized
yield at the advanced process nodes. Virage Logic’s highly
differentiated product portfolio provides higher performance, lower
power, higher density and optimal yield to foundries, integrated
device manufacturers (IDMs) and fabless customers who develop
products for the consumer, communications and networking, hand-held
and portable, and computer and graphics markets. The company uses its
FirstPass-Silicon(TM) Characterization Lab for certain products to
help ensure high quality, reliable IP across a wide range of
foundries and process technologies. The company also prides itself on
providing superior customer support and was recently named Customer
Service Leader of the Year in the Semiconductor IP Market by Frost &
Sullivan. Headquartered in Fremont, California, Virage Logic has R&D,
sales and support offices worldwide. For more information, visit
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT FOR VIRAGE LOGIC UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES
LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995:
Statements made in this news release, other than statements of
historical fact, are forward-looking statements, including, for
example, statements relating to industry and company trends, business
outlook and products. Forward-looking statements are subject to a
number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which might
cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include
Virage Logic’s ability to improve its operations; its ability to
forecast its business, including its revenue, income and order flow
outlook; Virage Logic’s ability to execute on its strategy to become
a provider of semiconductor IP platforms; Virage Logic’s ability to
continue to develop new products and maintain and develop new
relationships with third-party foundries and integrated device
manufacturers; adoption of Virage Logic’s technologies by
semiconductor companies and increases or fluctuations in the demand
for their products; the company’s ability to overcome the challenges
associated with establishing licensing relationships with
semiconductor companies; the company’s ability to obtain royalty
revenues from customers in addition to license fees, to receive
accurate information necessary for calculating royalty revenues and
to collect royalty revenues from customers; business and economic
conditions generally and in the semiconductor industry in particular;
competition in the market for semiconductor IP platforms; and other
risks including those described in the company’s Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the period ended September 30, 2005, and in Virage
Logic’s other periodic reports filed with the SEC, all of which are
available from Virage Logic’s website () or from
the SEC’s website (), and in news releases and other
communications. Virage Logic disclaims any intention or duty to
update any forward-looking statements made in this news release.
Contacts
Virage Logic Corporation
Sabina Burns, 510-743-8115
[email protected]
or
McCle nahan Bruer Communications
Venera Cushman, 503-546-1035
[email protected]