Month: November 2009

AN EVENT ON INCREASING

Azat Artsakh Newspaper NKR
Published on November 20, 2009

…THE AWARENESS OF NKR TAKEN PLACE IN THE USA The organization
Americans for Artsakh held, at the Armenian Embassy to Washington, an
event on increasing the awareness of the events in Armenia and
Artsakh. NKR Permanent Representative to the USA Robert Avetisian
introduced the history of the Karabakh conflict and the current
situation in the Republic. It was noted at the event that the
Caucasus occupies a significant place in the international political
life and it is extremely important to thoroughly inform the public
about Artsakh in order to help it maintain its power and identity.
Executive Director of the Americans for Artsakh Sara Ludwig informed
the attendants about the organization’s projects, noting, in
particular, that corresponding trainings were planned in NKR for
governmental structures’ employees, young leaders, and other groups.

TO REMOVE THE HEAD, NOT THE GUARD

Azat Artsakh Newspaper NKR
Published on November 25, 2009

On november 22, the next meeting of armenian and azeri presidents
took place. OSCE MG co-chairs prepared this meeting during their
recent visit to the region.The presidents of beligerent states agreed
to continue negotiations for final resolvement of basic principles of
Karabakh problem.By the way, we must confess, that co-chairs, by
tradition, decided not to make optimistic statements, as it was
before. We suppose there is no any ground for optimism. Nevertheless,
french co-chair Mr. Bernard Fassier stated that there is «important
progress» in Munich meeting, though it’s hard to believe in this fact.
But we must confess that the success was the agreement of two
presidents to meet again. The point is that for reaching not only
middle- term, but also long term decisions, the sides must show both
political will and realistic views for developed situation and
prospects for resolving the conflict. Alas, the absence of realistic
understanding continues to dominate in the mind of azeri president.
Azerbaijan continues to blame Armenia of destructiveness and
postponement of conflict settlement terms. As concerns to
settlement terms, it will be silliness to think that the conflict will
be resolved in near future.If it’s worth for two armenian states to
hurry in solving Karabakh problem, when Azerbaijan absolutely lost the
sense of reality and claims all, moreover it’s done in dictative form
towards mediators and armenian side? «We see three stages of
Karabakh conflict settlement. First, the withdrawal of armenian
troops,second, the return of all refugees to their native lands. And
after this we can talk about the status of Nagorno Karabakh,- azeri
foreign minister E. Mammadyarov said before Munich meeting.Press
secretary to azeri foreign minister Elhan Poluhov added to the words
of his boss that after liberation of occupied territories, armenian
and azeri communities will decide the status of Nagorno Karabakh
within territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Generalizing above
mentioned passages, we must cite the following words of azeri
president Ilham Aliyev «The guard’s tired to wait», and as usual he
seasoned his words with the threat to begin war actions. It’s not
difficult to notice that all prejudices of azeri official position
have no basis and simple logic, and for this cause they are
infulfilable.Let’s analyze the situation. Azeri side persistently
declares that now the withdrawal of armenian troops from seven
provinces is in the agenda of the talks. With this persistence
armenian side declares that this question was not discussed by them
and the status of Nagorno Karabakh is the topic of the talks. We can
trust the second position, because without finding mutually accepted
settlement of Karabakh conflict, where the main is the future
political status of Karabakh, it’s senseless to speak about refugees
and territories. We can not find any leader in armenian society who
will dare to make such a step, which will be equal to political
suicide. As concerns to azeri views on Karabakh status, which is
stubbornly forced on mediators and two armenian sides, we must
dirrectly say, in response to their views, according to international
law and particularly the declaration of the principles of
international law, Conclusion Act of Helsinki, all the nations have
the right freely WITHOUT EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE determinate their
political status, and by own will carry out their political, economic,
social, cultural development. We can not name such position of
Azerbaijan otherwise, than amateur work, claiming revision of one of
the basic principles of international law, for this cause, it’s
extremely dangerous. But official Baku, as it’s noticable, will not
secede such a position. Losing one of the levers of influence,namely,
armenian-turkish closed border, official Baku perhaps is losing the
soil under its foot and it’s unable to find any adequate substitute
for its exhausted policy. In addition to everything, the fact of
unableness of influencing on normalisation process between Yerevan and
Ankara, causes rage in the behaviour of azeri president. «I am
sure, we’ll get what we wish. But I want to get it as soon as
possible.»,- I. Aliyev said. Wishing is harmful in this case,
because judging from above mentioned threats, with such a
potential,which is far from reality, the settlement of the problem can
be postponed. It’s obvious that the «guard» must wait long. But,
we confess, we shall wait not for the guard, but for guard head’s
policy change. Until he realizes inperspectiveness of the position
based on illusions of frightening and incomparable predominance.

Leonid Martirosyan

NEW MEETINGS OF THE PRIME MINISTER IN AMERICAN ARMENIAN COMMUNITY

Azat Artsakh Newspaper NKR
Published on November 26, 2009

On November 23, the NKR Prime minister Ara Harutyunyan had a
meeting with the members of Central Committee of Western America’s ARF
by the head of the CC representative Avetik Izmirlyan. Questions
refering to azeri-karabakh conflict settlement, armenian-turkish
relations, Homeland-Diaspora collaboration were discussed at the
meeting. The head of the republic’s government underlined, that
Artsakh’s continuous development was one of the most important bases
of armenian statehood’s strengthening, and in this process all the
pieces of armenian people should be united. From this point of view
Ara Harutyunyan attached importance to restoration of Shushi, which in
its turn is one of the main components of Artsakh’s intensification.
The primate of Artsakh’s Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church Pargev
archbishop Martirosyan, the chief of the main administration of
information of NKR President’s stuff David Babayan, NKR permanent
representative in the USA Robert Avetisyan were present at the
meeting. The same day the delegation headed by the Prime minister
visited Vahan and Anush national college and met with teachers’ stuff
and pupils of the college. Ara Harutyunyan estimated highly the
role of the institution in the work of armenian education of young
generation, underlining, that nation’s future was created just in
school. The Prime minister attached importance also to the
long-term relation of the college with the school of Ashan,
considering it a bright example of Homeland-Diaspora collaboration.
On November 23, Ara Harutyunyan visited also the primacy of North
America’s Western Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church and met with
the primate of the Diocese Hovnan archbishop Terteryan, parish council
and representatives of armenian community. The Prime minister
acquainted the presents with NKR socio-economical situation, the
present stage of azeri-karabakh conflict settlement and the process of
realizing various programs in Shushi. Speaking about
Homeland-Diaspora relations, Ara Harutyunyan underlined the role of
Armenian Apostolic Church in the work of future development and
broadening of these relations. The same day the Prime minister had
also a meeting with the benefactor Isahak Vardanyan. Questions
connected with the programs being realized in the sphere of
construction in Artsakh were discussed at the meeting. Ara
Harutyunyan expressed gratitude to Isahak Vardanyan for assisting
Artsakh and hoped, that the active collaboration would continue also
in future.

Sinhala one of the world’s most creative scripts

RANDOM THOUGHTS By Neville de Silva

Sunday Times
11.29.2009

Unknown to the media and most in Sri Lanka the Sinhala language has
won international recognition.
More precisely, it is the Sinhala script rather than the language
itself that has been named as one of the world’s 16 most creative
alphabets
among today’s functioning languages, some of them among the oldest
in the world. Though the elevation of the Sinhala script to this
position of significance happened early last month it has gone unsung
and unhonoured
even by scholars and academics, leave alone the average Sri Lankan who
seems to have more mundane matters to think about than the esoteric
intricacies of script and sound.
The individual responsible for gaining the Sinhala alphabet this
eminence among the written scripts of the world is J.B. Disanayaka, a
former Professor of Sinhala at the University of Colombo who made an
irrefutable case for
placing the Sinhala alphabet among the world’s most creative ones.
The nine international scholars who acted as judges at the first World
Character Conference in Seoul, South Korea last month could not but
agree with
Disanayaka, currently Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Thailand, and
recognize some unique features in the Sinhala alphabet and so place it
on the world list.
It is significant that of the 16 alphabets listed as the most creative
in the world, 13 are what could be called Asian languages in that they
originated in what is geographically the Asian continent. The three
European languages are Greek, Italian (Roman) and Armenian. The Asian
languages are Arabic, Burmese (Myanmar), Cambodian, Chinese, Hebrew,
Indian Devanagari, Indian
Tamil, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Mongolian and Thai. The fact that in
such a galaxy of Asian languages, some of the oldest languages still
in use, the Sinhala script should find recognition speaks for its
uniqueness. So Sinhala and Tamil, the two main languages in use in Sri
Lanka, find themselves
in the distilled list of scripts considered the most creative in the
world.
The founder of this World Character Conference is a Korean academic
Soon Jick Bae who spent nearly 25 years travelling the world trying to
identify countries that have created their own alphabets. He narrowed
it down to 16 that included Sri Lanka. It was during his travels that
he went to the Sri Lanka diplomatic mission in Chennai (Madras) last
year to get a visa to go to Colombo and met Deputy high commissioner
P.M. Amza.
Amza suggested that instead of going to Colombo in search of an expert
in the subject he should go to Bangkok and talk to Sri Lanka’s
ambassador there J.B. Disanayaka which he did. That is how Ambassador
Disanayaka, still pursuing his love for linguistics and scholarship,
found himself centre stage defending before the nine-judge
international panel of scholars, Korean Soon Jick Bae’s instinctive
appreciation that Sinhala deserved a place among the select group of
scripts.
Once Soon Jick Bae identified what he thought were distinctive
scripts, he
had his impressions confirmed by scholars. He then invited the chosen
scholars to attend the conference and convince the judges of the
uniqueness of the respective scripts. Disanayaka in his presentation
said that Sinhala has been in continuous use for 2500 years at
least. Genetically Sinhala is related to classical Indian languages
such as Sanskrit and Pali. Sinhala occupies a unique position within
the Indo-Aryan family of languages.
The official introduction of the script by the Buddhist monk Mahinda
who brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka, goes back to the mid- 3rd century
BC. That script was known as the Brahmi script and was one of the two
ancient scripts used in India at the time. Historical and
archaeological evidence points to
the fact that writing existed in Sri Lanka before the introduction of
the Brahmi script. Evidence of this is the discovery of several
symbols in the earliest Brahmi inscriptions found here that do not
rightly belong to the Brahmi script. For well over two millennia this
Brahmi script passed through
the evolutionary process leading to the eventual birth of the modern
Sinhala script.
The latest Sinhala alphabet is that which has been approved by the
International Standards Organisation (ISO) and consists of 61 letters
(though only
58 are in use), a process in which Disanayaka played a leading role at
a conference in Greece.
So what is it that makes the Sinhala script unique and deserving of a
place among the most creative alphabets in the world?
Disanayaka in presenting the case in Seoul identified two unique
features.

Unfortunately limited space and my computer keyboard inhibit me from
reproducing these particular Sinhala characters which would have shown
more clearly the uniqueness. Suffice it to say that while the English
letter =80=9Ca’ stands for both the short `a’ (as in at) and
the long `a’ (as in ass), the Sinhala alphabet has two sets of special
characters to represent these two vowel sounds.
As for the five consonant letters, they are not found in any other
Indo-European or Dravidian language. But they are found in the
Maldivian language Divehi which is an off-shoot of the Old Sinhala.
The significance of the evolution of the Sinhala script is that it has
a complete set of visual symbols to represent sounds. Apart from the
fact that
Sinhala has created its own alphabet, it has helped the evolution of
other
languages such as Thai. It happened in the 11th century during the
Sukhothai period when Sri Lankan Buddhist monks resident in the then
Thai capital city inspired the creation of the Thai script by King
Ramkhamhaeng.
It seems a curious coincidence that the Sri Lanka ambassador to
Thailand is also accredited to Cambodia and Laos for the languages of
all four countries are now recognized as among the most creative in
the world.

An emotional link to a nation’s past

The Boston Globe
November 29, 2009

Armenian composer’s powerful music brings trio of collaborators together
By David Weininger, Globe Correspondent | November 29, 2009
The violist Kim Kashkashian has been a muse for several important
composers, having worked with and elicited new music from Luciano
Berio, György Kurtág, and Arvo Pärt, among many others. But her
bond with Tigran Mansurian is different. They are marking more than
two decades of collaboration with a rare series of American concerts
with percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky. The brief tour – in which
Mansurian will play piano and sing – begins Tuesday at Jordan Hall.
Their program includes music by Mansurian as well as his arrangements
of songs by Komitas Vartabed, the composer and musicologist who is
widely regarded as a pivotal figure in Armenian classical
music. Before he was arrested
and deported in 1915, Komitas (the name is sometimes written Gomidas)
spent years traveling the countryside, notating and arranging
thousands of the folk and religious songs he heard. Both Kashkashian
and Mansurian are of Armenian descent, and it was those songs – an
invaluable link to the country’s history – that brought the two
together.
Speaking by phone, Kashkashian recalls playing some arrangements of
Komitas’s songs in the late 1980s; to get what she calls `a more or
less original take on them,” she traveled to Armenia to
hear Mansurian play and sing them. The encounter was transformative.
`I was so entranced by what he was doing,” she says. `It was so
powerful, so potent that I took a little tape recording of the event
with me to Munich,” the home of ECM Records, Kashkashian’s
label. There she played the tape for two colleagues: Manfred Eicher,
ECM’s founder, and Schulkowsky, with whom Kashkashian worked
frequently.
`And we sat there, all of us, with tears in our eyes,” the violist
remembers. `Because it was so spectacular and for us something
intimate and powerful and unique. And at that time we said,
`We’ve got to do something about this.’ ”
What resulted was a 2003 recording called `Hayren,” in which the trio
played Komitas’s arrangements and Mansurian’s own works. On the
recording, Mansurian’s voice sounds raw and almost painfully
constricted, a world away from what you would expect from a trained
singer. It’s unusual enough that in the program he’s credited with
`vocals” instead of =80=9Csinging.” But the appeal, says
Kashkashian, lies in
something deeper.
`The rawness which you hear, and the unpracticed quality, really let
through the incredible depth of emotion and knowledge of the people,
of the land, of the circumstances of the nation – its blood,”
she says. `I really believe that it’s something that needs
to be heard.”
What Komitas did was to bring the ancient past into a form that modern
Armenians – and Westerners – could understand and embrace. In a way,
Kashkashian says, Mansurian’s own music does the same thing. `We talk
about him as a contemporary European-trained composer with all those
techniques at his disposal,” she explains. `But we’re also talking
about him as being rooted in the Armenian church and
folk music of the past. So when I hear a piece of Tigran’s, I get both
things. It’s like a red thread that goes through all his music.”
Tuesday’s concert opens with three Taghs, ancient religious chants
that Mansurian has fashioned for viola and percussion. Also on the
program
are two groups of Komitas’s songs, four of Mansurian’s own
songs transcribed for viola and piano, and a lengthy duet for
Kashkashian and Schulkowsky. `You notice how everything feeds on
everything else,” Kashkashian says. `You definitely sense the flavor
of the nation, the flavor of the geography, both emotional and
physical, in all the works – in the ones that were written two years
ago as well as the ones that were a couple centuries ago.”
If that’s the case, it will be due not only to Komitas and Mansurian
but also to Kashkashian’s unique voice. Over the course of her career
she has created an uncommonly expressive tone – shadowy yet lyrical –
from the most introverted of string instruments. It’s most clearly
evident in her two most recent recordings: `Asturiana,” a 2007
collection of song transcriptions with Robert Levin, and
=80=9CNeharot,” a diverse, darkly beautiful collection of
orchestral and chamber music released earlier this year.
Asked about her tone, Kashkashian is modest to a fault, preferring to
frame her explanation in universal terms.
`The thing that any musician is trying to do is to take the expressive
tool offered them and say something that is, on the one hand, as true
to the composer as possible, and on the other, that expresses the
deepest, innermost regions of their own hearts. It just takes a great
deal of objectivity and an unbelievable amount of vulnerability and
courage to open yourself. And to do those two things together, and to
keep some truth in the affair – it’s not easy. But I think that’s what
all of us are striving for.”
Information:

© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

009/11/29/trio_to_perform_armenian_composers_works ?mode=3DPF

Russia’s Europe security pact draft offers mutual military assistance

MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti)

A draft treaty on European security prepared by Russia allows
signatory states to provide military assistance to each other, the
Kremlin said Sunday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev put forward the initiative to work
out a treaty on European security on June 5, 2008, proposing that the
principle of indivisible security be legally sealed in international
law, preventing any state or organization from strengthening their
security at the expense of others.

"…every Party shall be entitled to consider an armed attack against
any other Party an armed attack against itself," says the draft
published on the Kremlin website.

"In exercising its right of self-defense under Article 51 of the
Charter of the United Nations, it shall be entitled to render the
attacked Party, subject to its consent, the necessary assistance,
including the military one, until the UN Security Council has taken
measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.

"Information on measures taken by Parties to the Treaty in exercise of
their right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the UN
Security Council," it says.

The UN Charter’s Article 51 that Russia’s draft refers to says:
"Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of
individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs
against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has
taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and
security."

The draft also says: "… the Party which has been attacked or
threatened with an armed attack shall bring that to the attention of
the Depositary which shall immediately convene an Extraordinary
Conference of the Parties to decide on necessary collective measures."

"The Extraordinary Conference of the Parties shall be effective if it
is attended by at least four fifths of the Parties to the Treaty," it
says, adding that decisions made by the Conference would be binding.

"If an armed attack is carried out by, or a threat of such attack
originates from a Party to the Treaty, the vote of that Party shall
not be included in the total number of votes of the Parties in
adopting a decision," it says.

The draft is open for signing "by all states of the Euro-Atlantic and
Eurasian space from Vancouver to Vladivostok" as well as by the EU,
NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the
post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The draft says the Parties shall not "assume international obligations
incompatible with the Treaty" but adds that the document "shall not
affect the right of any Party to neutrality."

The Parties will also have the right to withdraw from the treaty.

Medvedev has sent copies of the draft to heads of state and chief
executives of NATO, the EU, the CSTO, CIS and OSCE.

The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Russia’s security strategy until 2020
approved by Medvedev envisions the CSTO as "a key mechanism to counter
regional military challenges and threats."

President re-elected to the post of RPA Chair
28.11.2009 20:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the 12th session of the Republican Party of
Armenia (RPA), Head of returning board Hrachya Muradyan introduced the
results of participants’ voting. Thus, President Serzh Sargsyan was
re-elected to the post of RPA Chair, having received 1669 votes out of
possible 1738. Premier Tigran Sargsyan and Yerevan Mayor Gagik
Beglaryan became executive body members.

At the end of the session, President Sargsyan delivered a speech.
Congratulating the party, Armenian leader reiterated the 3 principal
trends of authorities’ policy: developing Armenia, normalizing ties
with Turkey and settling Karabakh conflict.

El Mundo: Turkey attaches much significance to Nagorno Karabakh’s future
29.11.2009 15:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The future of Nagorno Karabakh is of much
significance for Turkey, and hence – for the European Union, Spanish
El Mundo reports. According to the newspaper analyst, EU is competing
with Russia for gaining access to the gas and oil reserves of the
Caspian Basin, while Azerbaijan is searching for means to resolve
Karabakh conflict, its principal political problem. `Azerbaijan’s
rapprochement with Russia is conditioned by the lack of Turkey, EU and
United States’ support to Karabakh process,’ the newspaper quotes
Turkish expert Guner Ozkan as saying.

The author of the publication also refers to the statement of RA
President’s Spokesman who announced that nothing prevents Armenia from
recognizing Nagorno Karabakh’s independence in case of Azerbaijan’s
refraining from military operations. `The statement was made after
Armenian and Azeri Presidents’ recent meeting last week-end. Before
the meeting, Aliyev announced that `in case hopes for negotiations
vanish’, Azerbaijan will consider itself entitled to resort to
military operations to liberate the country. Two years ago, OSCE
confirmed the so-called Madrid Principles which offer Armenia to
withdraw its forces from the frontier regions of Karabakh in return
for the recognition of the enclave. However, the document has not been
recognized by either Baku or Yerevan, Both parties differ in their
views on refugees’ return and the sovereignty of Lachin corridor,’ the
Spanish newspaper reports.

Multinational Georgia celebrates its 10th jubilee
29.11.2009 15:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Multinational Georgia NGO is celebrating its 10th
jubilee. The organization unites representatives of all ethnic,
religious and language group residing in Georgia. It also contributes
to ethnic groups’ active involvement in processes both on central and
regional level.

Multinational Georgia is an EU partner organization. On this occasion,
Tbilisi will host celebrations to be attended by international and
local NGO representatives, governmental organizations, as well as
diplomatic representations accredited to Georgia, Civil.ge reports.

Turkish people spend nearly 138 million USD for guns
29.11.2009 15:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the last seven years, MKEK sold 99,109 handguns,
reaching an income of nearly 138 million USD. 21,969 of them were
imported from several countries while the rest was made in Turkey.

Turkey’s Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK) has sold
10,302 handguns since the beginning of the year. While 8,225 of those
handguns were made in Turkey, the remaining 2,077 were imported from
different countries. The sale of handguns amounted to nearly 16
million USD.

MKEK sells different types of handguns from 25 companies including 15
foreign companies such as Beretta, Bernardelli, Browning, Glock, CZ
Strojirna, CZ Zbrojovka, Heckler&Koch, HS 2000, Jericho, Sig Sauer,
Smith&Wesson, Steyr, Tanfoglio, Walther and ZVI-Kevin. Prices of
handguns ranges from 450 USD to 7 thousand USD, AA reported.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress