Month: April 2007

JOURNALISTS’ RIGHTS WORSEN IN AZERBAIJAN: NGO

Agence France Presse — English
April 27, 2007 Friday 10:43 AM GMT

Press freedom is deteriorating in Azerbaijan with five journalists
jailed in the past 10 months, Human Rights Watch warned, citing a
new case of an editor jailed for libel and "insult."

"The steady rise of politically motivated defamation charges and
violent attacks against critical journalists is clearly aimed at
silencing critical voices in Azerbaijan," said Holly Cartner, the
group’s director for Europe and Central Asia, in a statement Thursday.

A court in Baku on April 20 jailed Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the
independent newspapers Realni Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan,
for "criminal libel" and "insult," the New York-based group (HRW) said.

Fatullayev denied the charges, which were based on an Internet
posting in which he was alleged to have blamed Azerbaijanis for a
1992 massacre in a village in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region disputed by
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The two countries fought a war over the territory in the early 1990s
that claimed an estimated 35,000 lives and caused about a million
people on both sides to flee their homes.

The person bringing the charges "alleged that the statement defamed
the village’s residents."

"Fatullayev’s prosecution was politically motivated, and he should be
immediately released from custody," Cartner said. The journalist is
known for his criticism of Azeri officials and for exposing government
corruption.

According to official Azerbaijani statistics, more than 600 people
were killed in February 1992 when ethnic Armenian forces stormed the
predominantly Azeri village of Khojali.

Fatullayev is the fifth journalist to be imprisoned in Azerbaijan in
the last 10 months, HRW said. Unknown assailants also attacked and
seriously injured one of his colleagues.

A fellow editor and friend was murdered in March 2005, and kidnappers
last year seized his father and threatened to kill him and Fatullayev
if he continued publishing newspapers.

High-ranking officials have also brought defamation charges against
him and other independent journalists.

"If this crackdown on the media continues, it will be nearly impossible
for Azerbaijan to hold free and fair presidential elections next year,"
Cartner said.

The European Union’s special representative to Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia, Peter Semneby, said this week in Baku: "The provisions
on libel should be removed from Azerbaijan’s criminal code to help
solve the problem of pressure being put on journalists."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SOIREE ARMENIE A BALIZY

La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest
27 avril 2007 vendredi
Edition DEUX SEVRES

Ce soir, a 20 h 30, dans le cadre de l’annee de l’Armenieen France,
le Radio-club " Presence radioamateurs " presente " Armenie, Terre
de culture et d’emotions " a la salle Balizy.

La projection d’un film sur ce pays, realise par Marie-Dominique Massol
pour Cap-Monde, sera presentee par elle-meme ainsi que par Daniel
Barot, qui a effectue plusieurs voyages après le tremblement de terre
de Gumri. Après le film, le public pourra debattre avec la realisatrice
et M. Barot, sur ce pays a la beaute sauvage, après genocide et
seismes, qui se reconstruit grâce au courage des populations.

Saint-Maixent-l’Ecole, vendredi 27 avril a 20 h 30, salle Balizy.

Tarif : 5 pour les adultes et demi-tarif pour les scolaires.

–Boundary_(ID_LYWnf2ihK91zQzA4djetKQ) —

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KHACHATRYAN, VIOLONISTE PRODIGIEUX

Le Monde, France
27 avril 2007 vendredi

Le 27 avril, le jeune soliste armenien donnera un recital avec sa
soeur Lusine, au Theâtre des Champs-Elysees

Pas le moindre trouble sur le visage concentre du jeune violoniste
qui entre sur la scène du fameux Konzerthaus de Vienne, ce mercredi
18 avril. Sobre d’allure jusqu’a l’ascetisme – continuum de chemise
noire sur pantalon noir. Sergey Khachatryan a 22 ans. Il est ne en
1985 a Erevan, en Armenie, avant d’emigrer six ans plus tard avec sa
famille musicienne a Francfort. Il joue pour la première fois dans
la capitale autrichienne, où fut cree le Concerto pour violon de
Beethoven, son prefere avec ceux de Chostakovitch, qu’il interprète
ce soir avec l’Orchestre philharmonique de la BBC sous l’excellente
direction de l’Italien Gianandrea Noseda. Le 27 avril, il sera a Paris,
au Theâtre des Champs-Elysees.

" Je suis hante. L’Azur, l’Azur, l’Azur, l’Azur ! " Ce vers seul de
Mallarme vient a l’esprit, qui donne l’idee du vertige que produit
le violon de Sergey Khachatryan. Vertige du son : une perfection de
timbre, de couleur, de justesse, qui est un miracle en soi. Vertige
d’une musicalite proprement inouïe – c’est la terrible sagesse de
l’Enfant devant les docteurs du Temple. Sergey Khachatryan joue yeux
mi-clos, la tete penchee au-dessus d’un mysterieux miroir d’eau. La
musique sourd de lui comme le sang des grandes blessures d’amour
mystique. Elle est pure, elle est fraîche, elle est puissante.

Khachatryan n’est pas de ces violonistes diables qui incendient les
corps et transforment les salles en lupanars, de ces violonistes
polaires qui glacent les corps pour mieux rechauffer l’intelligence.

Il joue dans un total abandon de soi et des autres, ne cherche ni
a donner ni a prendre. Quasi immobile jusque sous l’assaut virtuose
qui lui barre la joue d’une balafre maxillaire, tandis qu’au plisse
du front et des sourcils semble defiler une invisible partition.

CONCERTO NOUVEAU-NE

Il joue l’ancestral Concerto de Beethoven vieux de deux cents ans,
cheval de bataille des violonistes, tellement entendu, caresse,
aime, tellement contusionne, parfois magistralement aime, parfois
magistralement contusionne. Il joue un concerto nouveau-ne, sans
cheval ni bataille. Le garcon aime la suspension entre ciel et terre,
c’est la qu’il se tient, dans les courants funambules de la musique.

La delicatesse, Khachatryan la pousse parfois jusqu’a la souffrance,
phrase retenu a l’ultime du souffle, archet au bord du rien. Son
violon est d’une onction extreme. Jamais entendu un deuxième mouvement
aussi beau et lumineux, l’orchestre deployant un choral fervent, que
le violon ornemente de traits d’anges enlumines. Les poètes encore
sont convoques. Le dernier sera Nerval. Le violon de Khachatryan est
aussi celui d’El Desdichado, tenebreux, veuf, inconsole. " Il n’a
besoin de personne en Harley Davidson " – le Huggins 1708 (c’est le
nom du stradivarius que lui a prete la Fondation japonaise pour la
musique après qu’il a remporte en 2005 le Concours Reine Elisabeth
de Belgique).

L’Orchestre philharmonique de la BBC dirige par l’excellent Gianandrea
Noseda semble stupefie du resultat, tout comme le public reuni dans le
Konzerthaus. Ce dernier aura, en revanche, bien du mal a " s’enquiller
" en deuxième partie la roborative mais definitivement trop bruyante
Faust Symphonie de Liszt. Ensuite, il ira retrouver, dans le hall
d’entree, le violoniste descendu sur terre pour signer ses disques –
un recital Brahms, Bach, Chausson (EMI), les concertos de Sibelius
et de Khachaturian (Naïve Classique) et les Concertos nos 1 et 2 de
Chostakovitch, avec l’Orchestre national de France sous la direction
de Kurt Masur (Naïve Classique).

De quoi tenir en attendant la Chaconne de Bach et les sonates de Franck
et de Chostakovitch que Sergey Khachatryan donnera en compagnie de sa
soeur la pianiste Lusine, au Theâtre des Champs-Elysees, le 27 avril.

Marie-Aude Roux

Sergey Khachatryan (violon),avec le BBC Philharmonic Orchestra,
Gianandrea Noseda (dir.), le 18 avril a 19 h 30 au Konzerthaus de
Vienne.Prochains concerts a Paris, le 27 avril a 20 heures au Theâtre
des Champs-Elysees, 15, avenue Montaigne, Paris-8e. M° Alma-Marceau.

Tel. : 01-49-52-50-50. De 5 ¤ a 62 ¤. Le 11 juin a 20 heures, Concerto
de Beethoven, avec l’Orchestre du Gewandhaus de Leipzig, Riccardo
Chailly (dir.), a la Salle Pleyel, 252, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honore,
Paris-8e. Tel. : 01-42-56-13-13. De 10 ¤ a 85 ¤.

–Boundary_(ID_H3GDZvnktODPMUDQEzYWxg)–

L’ARMENIE, SUJET BRûLANT
Par Yves Bourdillon

Les Echos, France
27 avril 2007 vendredi

" Soi-disant genocide ".

Difficile d’imaginer en Turquie un sujet plus sensible que le
genocide armenien. Selon un sondage, 80 % des Turcs prefereraient
renoncer a l’adhesion a l’Union europeenne plutôt que de se resoudre
a reconnaître, selon l’expression consacree ici, ce " soi-disant
genocide ". Pour avoir evoque ces massacres, occultes dans les manuels
scolaires jusqu’a recemment, qui auraient fait en 1915-1917 environ 1,5
million de victimes, soit les deux tiers de la population armenienne
de l’epoque, le prix Nobel de litterature Orhan Pamuk a ete poursuivi
en justice pour " insulte a l’identite turque " aux termes du fameux
article 301 de la loi sur la liberte d’expression.

Le directeur d’un journal turco-armenien, Hrant Dink, a ete tue en
janvier dernier par un jeune nationaliste, Ogun Samast, après avoir
ete designe a la vindicte populaire par des poursuites menees au nom du
meme article 301. Après que 100.000 personnes ont manifeste a Istanbul
au chant de " nous sommes tous des Hrant Dink ", des supporters d’un
club de football ont replique " nous sommes tous des Ogun Samast "…

Après neuf decennies, on pourrait penser qu’Ankara saurait affronter
son passe. Ce serait oublier que la negation du genocide est au
coeur de l’identite nationale de la Turquie moderne inventee par
Mustafa Kemal en 1923. Ce dernier s’est inspire d’une ideologie
nationaliste-reformatrice incarnee par le parti CUP des Jeunes-Turcs
au pouvoir depuis 1909 avec un agenda de purification ethnique.

Reconnaître le genocide serait admettre que l’Etat turc fut fonde
sur des bases criminelles.

–Boundary_(ID_U3JEG5MkQ8M/Y0iHw/f1q w)–

COAL INSPIRED LIFELONG LOVE OF READING
Clive McFarlane

Worcester Telegram, Massachussettes
April 27 2007

Fifth-grade teacher ‘was the breakthrough’

She had black eyes and black hair and her teachers would often gush
over them.

"Come over here, Vicky," they would say. "Look at those eyes," they
would say. "Look at that hair."

One of her teachers had a fondness for white gloves, and would usually
send her on errands to the nearby dry cleaning shop to drop off or
pick up her gloves.

In all cases, little Victoria Hagopian would oblige, smiling, feeling
loved, feeling needed.

But those moments did little to soothe her building frustration of
not being able to read. Her parents were Armenian and that was the
language spoken at home.

At every grade, after entering Canterbury Street School as a
kindergartener, she would be told that she had two weeks or so to
demonstrate she could do the work, or she would be held back.

So she learned how to cheat, but wasn’t really good at it.

In the third grade, the teacher divided the class into two groups,
giving each a different assignment. She copied from both groups and
they marched her back to the second grade.

She bawled her black eyes red, until they took her back to third grade
and told her she had one more chance. She made it through that year
by the "skin of my teeth."

It helped that she had fallen in love with the cutest boy in class
and couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from him.

It wasn’t getting any easier, though. The written word kept eluding
her like an unfair hide-and-seek partner.

Then one day in the fifth grade, it happened. She was sitting, staring
and listening intently as her teacher read a book on anthracite,
how it was dug out of the ground and how it was called coal.

Coal? Her dad had just bought some for the house, and she had watched
him store it in the cellar. "So that is where it came from," she
thought. She couldn’t contain herself. She wanted to grab the book
from the teacher.

Just as how heat and pressure over a long period can turn vegetable
matter into coal, perhaps her mind had been steadily sorting the jigsaw
puzzle of the lessons she had tried to learn in school up to that
point, and "coal" was the piece that finally brought understanding.

Whatever the explanation, the moment was magical.

"That was the day I became a student," she said. "That was the day
things began to get interesting, when I found out what we can learn
from books."

She was a three-times-a-week regular at the library after that.

Mystery stories became her favorite genre, and her father would often
find her late at night, her feet close to the stove, reading.

"I know," he would say to her. "You are only going to read one more
chapter."

When she left Canterbury after the eighth grade, she wrote a "prophesy"
story in which she predicted what her classmates would do for a
living. It was a funny piece that was circulated in the school long
after she was gone.

She had wanted to be stenographer, but she had to put those ambitions
on hold when her mother died shortly after Victoria had enrolled at
Commerce High School. She quit high school to help her father raise
her four younger siblings. (She eventually got her diploma in 1976
by attending night school.)

"Playing mummy," as she called it, was a tough life, but she always
had her mystery stories.

"The girls at the library would look out for me," she said. "If they
find a book that they think I would like, they would save it for me."

Victoria is now 91 years old. Her eyes are failing her, so she doesn’t
read as often as she would like to.

And of all the memories that she has compiled in her years, the
one that is her constant companion these days is the one of her
fifth-grade teacher at Canterbury, Ms. Willie R. Higginbotham, who
passed away last year at the age of 108.

"I can still see her in front of me," Victoria said. "She was the
breakthrough. She opened the door."

ROMANIAN EX-PRESIDENT: NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT SHOULD BE SOLVED IN THE FRAMEWORK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

Azeri Press Agency
April 27 2007

"During the meeting with President Ilham Aliyev, I concerned
myself with the current negotiations for peaceful resolution of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The President informed me about the
latest meetings between the parties. I think the parties have certain
positive approaches to the problem," former Romanian President Ion
Iliescu told journalists in Baku, APA reports.

He said that international community should help the solution of
such conflicts.

Mr. Iliescu commenting on the GUAM countries’ efforts to discuss their
"frozen conflicts" in the UN General Assembly stated that the problem
should be solved through democratic mechanisms.

"The only way of solving these issues in Europe is democratic
methods. Such difficult issues should be solved in the framework of
international legislation," he underscored.

ARMENIA HOSTS MAJOR NATO MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS EXERCISE

RIA Novosti, Russia
April 27 2007

YEREVAN, April 27 (RIA Novosti) – Armenia is hosting part of a
13-day NATO exercise that involves more than a thousand military
communications specialists from 42 nations, a spokesman for the
Defense Ministry said Friday.

Combined Endeavor 2007 is a U.S. European Command-sponsored
exercise that brings NATO, Partnership for Peace (PfP) and other
nations together to practice interoperability of command, control,
communications and computer systems from participating nations
in preparation for future combined humanitarian, peacekeeping and
disaster relief operations.

"This year, Armenia, as a primary operational zone, is hosting
[military] delegations from Croatia, France, Russia, Georgia and the
United States," Seiran Shaksuvaryan said, adding that the rest of
the participants will operate from Baumholder, Germany.

Armenia has been a full participant in the exercises for the last
five years and will become the main host country for Combined Endeavor
starting in 2008, the official said.

"Cooperation between Armenia’s Defense Ministry and U.S. European
Command is developing successfully under several programs," Armenian
Defense Minister Michael Arutyunyan said at the Combined Endeavor
opening ceremony Friday.

He said Armenia and NATO had reached a preliminary agreement to
conduct joint military maneuvers on the country’s territory in 2008.

Combined Endeavor began in 1995 as a simple effort to bring NATO and
former Warsaw-pact countries together under the auspices of Partnership
for Peace, and has been held annually since then.

The current war games will be held from April 27 until May 10.

NORDIC BOURSE OPERATOR OMX IN DEAL TO BUY ARMENIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
April 27 2007

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Stock exchange operator OMX AB, the largest bourse
in the Nordic region, said Friday it has agreed to buy the Armenian
bourse and the Central Depositary of Armenia.

It did not disclose the financial terms of the letter of intent it
signed with Armenia’s government and central bank.

OMX – the result of seven merged Nordic stock exchanges in the past
three years – said that even though the Armenian market is quite small,
it sees good opportunities for growth in the next few years.

This will come from the country’s pension reform, changes to the
legal framework and more focus on the equity market, it said.

Chief Executive Magnus Bocker said the acquisition "is an opportunity
to leverage our experience from developing emerging markets in other
countries" and the "ambition is to use the Armenian case as a benchmark
to enter other emerging capital markets."

The acquisition will require approvals from relevant authorities.

The global stock exchange industry is in the midst of consolidation –
with U.S. bourses showing particular interest in Europe, including
the New York Stock Exchange’s acquisition of Euronext and Nasdaq’s
failed bid to take control of the London Stock Exchange.

Like many other bourses, OMX has been the subject of market speculation
about what role it may play. When OMX reported its first-quarter
results this week – posting a 14.3 percent rise in sales – it
declined to specify its intentions but said it is keeping an eye on
consolidation within the industry and will keep on evaluating its
strategic opportunities.

In December, OMX launched a [email protected] million (US$5.71 million) bid for
the Ljubljana Stock Exchange in Slovenia, but when the offer expired
in January, the Ljubljana bourse owners had not yet taken on a final
position.

NKR PRESIDENT AND PHILANTHROPISTS FROM FRANCE DISCUSSED IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAMS IN KARABAGH

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
April 27 2007

The issues referring to activating cultural, educational and sport
life in the Nagorno-Karabagh were discussed in the course of the
Nagorno-Karabagh Republic President Arkady Ghoukassian’s meeting with
a philanthropist from France, Chairman of the Union for Assistance
to Karabagh Karpis Nikoghosian.

According to the information DE FACTO received at the NKR President’s
Press Office, the interlocutors had discussed current and outlook
programs Armenian Diaspora, in part, the Nikoghosian family,
implemented in France.

The meeting’s participants mentioned importance of expanding and
deepening cooperation between the Diaspora and the Nagorno-Karabagh
in developing the Republic’s secondary education.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY BACKS AZERBAIJAN

Baku Sun, Azerbaijan
April 27 2007

BAKU – A top Turkish security official on Wednesday said the unresolved
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan was a major
threat to regional peace and stability.

Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu, who was visiting Baku for
talks on security cooperation, said the continuing Armenian occupation
of Azerbaijani territories was unacceptable.

"We think this conflict should be resolved within the framework of
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity," Aksu told a joint press conference
with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ramil Usubov. "We believe that the
conflict can be resolved peacefully."

Armenian troops captured Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region along
with seven surrounding districts in early 1990s, displacing hundreds
of thousands of civilians. Nagorno-Karabakh – a predominantly
ethnic-Armenian populated region that enjoyed autonomy within
Azerbaijan under the Soviet Union – and the seven occupied districts
account for nearly 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s internationally
recognized territory.

Aksu reiterated Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan on the settlement
of the conflict. He said Turkey’s security agencies were closely
cooperating with Azerbaijan’s law-enforcement bodies in the fight on
terrorism and human trafficking.

Azerbaijani Interior Minister Ramil Usubov said the two countries’
interior ministries had reached agreement on exchange of information.

Usubov said the interior ministries of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia
would meet in a few months to discuss the joint fight against organized
crime, terrorism and trans-national crimes.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress