Author: Andres-Papazian

AN INTRICATE HOBBY: PROFESSIONAL WOOD CARVER’S WORK EARNS HIM A TRIP TO SWITZERLAND TO TRAIN WITH A MASTER
Joyce Rudolph

Glendale News Press
,0,6005202.story
Aug 24 2010
CA

Upon first glance, the block of wood looked like it had been covered
with tangled pieces of plastic. But upon closer observation, the
intricate grapes and graceful vines take form. And when the artist
lifts back the top, an empty compartment is revealed.

The pear wood jewelry box was created by Glendale woodcarver Nairi
Safaryan and won top honors in the Woodcraft and Pfeil Carving Artistry
Contest in April. The prize was a four-day, three-night trip to Brienz,
Switzerland, and private carving training with master carver Paul Fuchs
at the Kantonale Schnizlerschule Brienz woodcarving school. Safaryan
and another winner took the trip in June.

“The Fuchs family has had four generations of woodcarvers,” Safaryan
said. “We had a half day of training each day, and then they took us
to see museums the other half of the day.”

Safaryan is a world-class carver, Lori Milner, marketing manager for
contest sponsor Woodcraft, said in an e-mail.

“The ornate pear wood jewelry box he entered into the Woodcraft &
Pfeil Carving Artistry Contest is incredibly unique and extremely
well done,” she said. “He is an artist that is able to translate his
vision through his hands and carving ability.”

Safaryan has several contemporary works in the del Mano Gallery in
Los Angeles, said Ray Leier, gallery partner. There are three major
works and a half-dozen or more smaller pieces on display.

“I think his work is fabulous,” Leier said. “He’s really got his own
style. Some of his pieces are downright sexy.”

The 24-inch-high pieces depict women in gowns, he said.

“They are dressed to the nines and carved out of one piece of wood,
and that’s what I mean by being downright sexy,” Leier said. “It’s
sensual, not erotic. You know how you get a gesture when someone
stands or looks a certain way? It’s very alluring and beautiful.”

Safaryan also carves 8- to 10-inch-high, single figures that look
like they are emanating from a high heel.

“It goes into a woman’s form that is just beautiful,” Leier said.

Safaryan has been carving since he was a child.

“I carved things out of the chalk used on the blackboard at school,”
he said. “I mostly carved faces.”

His parents wanted to encourage his talent and gave him his first
saw at age 4.

“The first time I used the saw, I cut off the wood supports under
our dinner table,” he said. “My parents just shrugged and said
‘He’s learning.'”

Safaryan was an electrical engineer in Armenia until the fall of the
Soviet Union when the company he worked for dropped from 120 employees
to 20, he said.

He decided to switch to his hobby of woodcarving and was able to make
a living at it, he said.

The catalyst for his intricate style of carving was a visit to a folk
museum in Armenia, where he saw several items carved with grapes,
vines and leaves.

While those works were made up of many wood pieces, Safaryan instead
uses one block of wood and carves several layers deep into it.

“I use power tools, and 90% of the time I use a hand chisel,” he said.

He met an American visiting Armenia who liked his work and started
selling his carvings in the United States. In 2002, the owners of a
gallery in Las Vegas invited Safaryan to live in their home while he
taught his style of carving at a nearby training center.

“They would take me to other galleries,” he said. “They provided me
with a place to live and food for free.”

They also brought him to galleries in California and encouraged him
to submit his wood carvings in the annual show sponsored by Smoky
Hollow Carvers, Chapter 45, in La Crescenta Park. He won the Best of
Show and the People’s Choice Award in 2002.

“He’s basically a professional carver, which makes him stand out
from the amateurs who usually enter our shows,” said George Smith,
the group’s president. “His work is quite unique, and that in itself
makes him stand out over other people.”

From: A. Papazian

THINK AGAIN: UNDERCURRENT OF HATRED

Glendale News Press
,0,7107741.story
Aug 24 2010
CA

A few weeks ago someone decided to get a sledgehammer and begin
destroying a monument outside St. Mary’s Armenian Church. This
“monument” is known in Armenian as a “Khachkar,” or stone cross.

The Khachkar has special meaning in the Armenian culture dating back
thousands of years during which Armenians shed a lot of blood defending
their right to practice Christianity. All over present-day Armenia
and historical western Armenia (today’s Turkey and Azerbaijan),
one can find thousands of these centuries-old Khachkars that have
tremendous historical significance. The carvings on each Khachkar are
unique and tell their own story, sometimes to memorialize a death,
to celebrate a new church or to honor someone living.

Over the years, as part of Turkey’s campaign of denying the
Armenian Genocide, the government has encouraged and organized the
destruction of this archeological evidence of Armenians. They have
also systematically destroyed Armenian churches that are centuries
old with the military using them for target practice.

One of the more recent acts of cultural genocide was committed
by Azerbaijan, Armenia’s neighbor to the east. In the Azerbaijani
enclave of Nakhchivan, across the border, there was a cemetery with
hundreds of historical Khachkars. Azerbaijan’s Army was videotaped as
a platoon of soldiers took sledgehammers and destroyed these Khachkars
while the rubble was put into dump trucks and hauled away. An entire
community’s history was eradicated in an instant.

Despite an international outcry, including by the United Nations,
the Azerbaijani government continued to the end.

You can imagine the shock in the Armenian American community when the
news broke in Glendale. When I heard about the St. Mary’s incident,
it brought back memories of the video I have of the Azerbaijani
soldiers committing the same hate crime on a grander scale.

I can’t forget those images, which make me sad and angry. The first
time I saw that video it brought tears to my eyes, as it reminded me
of my own family’s experience with genocide.

I can’t control what a government like Turkey and Azerbaijan do, but I
hope I can have an impact in my city and community. I was disappointed
by the silence in our city when this incident happened, including when
the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office initially failed to
categorize it as a hate crime. They have since changed their position,
and I appreciate their effort to look further into this case.

What I fear is that the overall silence is an indication of an
undercurrent, albeit I believe a minority one, that wishes Armenians
had never come to Glendale and blames Armenians for all the ills. I
recently read such a comment on the Glendale News-Press website, and
certainly there is no shortage of letters to the editor that hint at
such a discriminatory attitude. In Glendale, the target is Armenians;
in other cities it is Latinos; in others it is the Chinese, Jews,
African Americans, and the list goes on.

If we truly believe in our American values, then the majority must
speak up against these types of hate crimes and discriminatory
attitudes to send a clear message that we don’t accept this kind of
behavior, especially in our city. On this issue we must show our
common bond as Americans and speak up loudly against hate crime,
regardless of the victim.

Some may ask, if this were not an attack on an Armenian monument, would
I have written this column? I think this is a legitimate question and
one that I too have been thinking about in the last couple of weeks.

It has caused me to reflect and recommit myself to speak up against
such incidents whether they are an attack on a synagogue, an Armenian
church or any other act of hate against any group. An assault on
any specific group is an assault on our American values, and that is
something I’m not willing to accept.

ZANKU ARMENIAN is a Glendale resident and a corporate communications
professional. He can be reached at [email protected].

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN MILITARY REPORTS ANOTHER DEADLY SHOOTING

Armenialiberty.org
Aug 24 2010

The Armenian military confirmed on Tuesday reports of yet another
non-combat shooting within its ranks that left one soldier dead.

In a written statement, Armenia’s Defense Ministry said Sergeant
Arsen Chobanian, 26, was shot dead by a fellow serviceman last
week at an army outpost guarding an unspecified section of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. It said the suspected shooter, Harutiun
Vartanian, was arrested and charged with premeditated murder.

“A criminal investigation into the case is continuing,” the statement
added. It gave no further details, saying only that the two soldiers
are natives of the northeastern Tavush region bordering western
Azerbaijan.

According to Armenian media reports they served in an army corps
stationed in Tavush on a contractual basis.

The military unit was already rocked late last month by the mysterious
shooting of Lieutenant Artak Nazarian. His relatives believe that
the 30-year-old was killed by fellow servicemen.

Military investigators insist, however, that Nazarian committed
suicide after being badly ill-treated by a deputy commander of his
battalion and three soldiers. All four men are now under arrest
pending investigation.

Nazarian was found dead the day before another officer and five
soldiers serving at an army unit in Nagorno-Karabakh were shot dead
in still unclear circumstances. Military investigators say one of
those soldiers went on a shooting spree and killed himself after a
bitter dispute with the officer.

The deadly incidents cast a renewed spotlight on chronic abuse,
corruption and mismanagement within Armenia’s Armed Forces. Eight
senior and mid-level officers were dismissed and more than a dozen
others demoted as a result.

Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian discussed the deaths at an emergency
meeting with the top army brass and senior Defense Ministry officials
earlier this month. He ordered them to “meticulously analyze what
happened” and “take steps to strengthen discipline in the troops.”

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION PARTY CONCERNED ABOUT NEW DEAL WITH RUSSIA
Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenialiberty.org
Aug 24 2010

A major Armenian opposition party expressed concern on Tuesday over
Armenia’s new military accord with Russia, saying that it has raised
serious questions relating to the country’s national security.

Leaders of the Zharangutyun (Heritage) party questioned Armenian
officials’ claims that the deal commits Russia to openly siding
with Armenia in the event of another war with Azerbaijan. They also
denounced Moscow’s reported plans to sell sophisticated anti-aircraft
missiles to Azerbaijan.

“The mechanisms for how Artsakh (Karabakh) can be protected with this
agreement are totally unclear,” said Ruben Hakobian, Zharangutyun’s
deputy chairman. “Maybe there are mechanisms we don’t know of yet.

Maybe the authorities know them but won’t tells us for the moment.”

“But as things stand now, the document signed by the [Russian and
Armenian] presidents does not answer this question,” he told a news
conference, referring to amendments to a 1995 treaty regulating the
presence of a Russian military base in Armenia.

Under those amendments, the base will remain in Armenian territory
for 24 more years, until 2044, and play a more important role in the
country’s security. According to top representatives of President
Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party, this means the Russians would join
Armenia in fighting back a possible Azerbaijani attack on Azerbaijan.

Russian leaders have made no public statements to that effect,
however. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that the new
agreement does not envisage a serious change in the mission of the
Russian troops stationed in Armenia.

Hakobian and Zharangutyun’s parliamentary leader, Stepan Safarian,
also questioned the rationale for extending the lease on the Russian
base, which was due to expire in 2020, now. “This is not in Armenia’s
interests,” said Safarian. Hakobian, for his part, spoke of mutual
distrust between Moscow and Yerevan.

The Armenian National Congress (HAK), a larger and more influential
opposition force, likewise claimed on Monday that the Kremlin had
Russian military presence in Armenia extended because it does not
regard the Sarkisian administration as a “long-term and reliable
partner.” Nonetheless, the HAK’s reaction to the Russian-Armenian
deal was largely positive.

Like the HAK, the Zharangutyun leaders expressed serious concern at
reports about the planned sale of Russian S-300 air-defense systems
to Azerbaijan. They said Armenia should consider pulling out of the
Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) if the
deal goes through.

“If Russia really completes this sale to Azerbaijan, then it itself
will place Armenia out of the field of strategic partnership and the
CSTO,” Safarian told journalists.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA RECORDS FURTHER GROWTH IN TOURISM
Hovannes Shoghikian

Armenialiberty.org
Aug 24 2010

The number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia increased by more
than 10 percent to 230,000 in the first half of this year, according
to government data publicized on Tuesday.

The National Statistical Service (NSS) reported earlier that the
country received some 575,000 visitors in the course of last year. The
Armenian government expects the figure to surpass 620,000 in 2010.

The credibility of official tourism data has long been questioned by
private tour operators and other tourism experts. They say it takes
account of all individuals entering the country, including scores of
Armenians working abroad and spending holidays in their homeland.

In a recent interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Ara Vartanian,
the chairman of the Armenian Trade and Industry Chamber, said that
the number of foreigners staying in Armenian hotels is a far more
objective indicator of the tourist influx into the country. The NSS
data shows that there were only 65,000 such visitors in 2009.

Tourism experts acknowledge that that the number of tourists coming
to Armenia has been steadily rising. But many of them believe that
the sector’s development is not fast enough.

“To say that there is strong growth [in the sector] is wrong,” Robert
Minasian of the Armenian Union of Tour Operators told journalists
on Tuesday. “The number and quality of [tourism] services does not
change.”

“The growing number of visitors which we see each year is not enough,”
agreed Pegor Papazian, director of the National Competitiveness
Foundation. “We need to achieve faster growth.”

The Armenian authorities declared the development of the local tourism
industry a top economic priority a decade ago. Just how effective
government efforts to boost the sector have been is a matter of
contention. Travel agencies argue that the cost of air travel to
and accommodation in Armenia remains disproportionately high by
international standards.

“One of the main reasons why prices in Armenia are high is a lack
of supply,” said Papazian. “So if the number of well-heeled foreign
tourists coming to Armenia drastically rises, both the number of
hotels and competition among them will increase.”

From: A. Papazian

THE BIG PICTURE: ARMENIA THROUGH NON-ARMENIAN EYES
Liana Aghajanian

ianyan magazine
Aug 24 2010

Boston.com’s the Big Picture is one of the most awe-inspiring and
breathtaking photo series on the web. So when the site recently
publishing an amazing look at Russia in color, a century ago, by
19th century photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii,
we were tempted to do our own reoccurring photo show.

Below you will find various photography that captures the life and
times of Armenia found through Flickr, all using a Creative Commons
license. It is interesting to note, that only one of these photographs
was taken by an Armenian photographer, making up a nice collection
of shots of the country and giving Armenia a little more variety than
a series of century old churches or mountains.

While you look through the photos, be sure to join our group on Flickr
and add your photos to the pool – based on submissions, photographs
from the pool will be featured on the site.

From: A. Papazian

BAKU LOOKS INTO REPORTS OF ‘KARABAKH’ SAMBO VICTORY

news.az
Aug 24 2010
Azerbaijan

Armenian reports of the victory of “Nagorno-Karabakh republic
citizen” Ashot Danielyan in a sambo contest in Kazakhstan are being
investigated.

The Azerbaijani embassy in Kazakhstan is looking into the reports on
the sambo competition in Uralsk.

The embassy said that, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture
of Kazakhstan, Ashot Danielyan represented Armenia in the contest.

The regional website also lists Ashot Danielyan as
competing for Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh is legally part of Azerbaijan, so sportsmen cannot
represent the region as a separate country.

Sambo is a martial art and combat sport, developed by the Red Army.

From: A. Papazian

TOROSYAN: ARTSAKH SECURITY IS IMPORTANT FOR CSTO

Aysor
Aug 24 2010
Armenia

“I think Armenia’s and Artsakh’s security are interrelated and CSTO
will not stay indifferent if Karabakh’s security is endangered,”
director of the CSTO office in Armenia Nver Torosyan said in response
to a correspondent’s question about CSTO position in case Azerbaijan
attacks Artsakh.

He reiterated that the Republic of Armenia is the guarantor of NKR
security.

From: A. Papazian

RUSSIAN PATRIARCH TO HELP WITH RETURN OF AZERBAIJANI SOLDIER’S REMAINS

news.az
Aug 24 2010
Azerbaijan

Patriarch Kirill Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will
help to secure the return of the body of Azerbaijani warrant officer
Mubariz Ibrahimov.

The warrant officer, posthumously declared a National Hero, killed
several Armenian soldiers in a clash in June on the contact line
separating Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. His body remained on the
Armenian side of the line and has yet to be returned to Azerbaijan.

Talking to the press after meeting the chairman of the Caucasus Muslims
Department, Allashukur Pashazade, in Moscow today, Patriarch Kirill
said: “I received a letter from the esteemed Sheikh ul-Islam and will
do what is required of me. But this issue is not decided on one side;
several consultations are required. Let’s see what the result will be.”

Asked whether a further meeting of the Patriarch, Sheikh and Catholicos
of All Armenians was planned to help settle the Karabakh issue, the
Patriarch replied: “We have never stopped; these meetings take place
regularly. There was a meeting not long ago in Baku.”

A meeting is not planned at present, he said, but “if the need arises,
I think the three leaders will be happy to meet in order to help
tackle the existing problems”.

During their meeting today, Pashazade, who is a co-chairman of the
CIS Inter-Religious Council alongside the Russian Church leader,
welcomed the international role of Patriarch Kirill.

“I will say openly that you are starting a new page in Azerbaijan’s
history and in the life of Azerbaijani Muslims, because it is with
your assistance that the Catholicos of All Armenians and other world
religious leaders came to Baku to attend the inter-faith summit
[in April] and we are grateful for your work,” the Sheikh said.

He also thanked the Patriarch for his support for Azerbaijan’s
initiative on a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict:
“It is very significant for our nation and for all Muslims. The
Patriarch enjoys great authority not only in the Orthodox world,
but in the entire Islamic world too.”

For his part, Patriarch Kirill praised Pashazade’s work.

“I would like to thank you for the enormous amount of work you have
done for many, many years as the supreme Islamic leader in the
Caucasus and as someone with very great authority in the Islamic
world,” Kirill said.

“The inter-faith world in Azerbaijan and the huge CIS area greatly
depends” on the words and actions of the Sheikh, the Patriarch said.

April’s inter-faith summit in Baku “had a great positive impact on
the work of the CIS Inter-religious Council and moved inter-religious
dialogue from a purely religious matter to the state religious level”,
the primate said.

From: A. Papazian

RUSSIA’S STEPS DIVIDE THE REGION, SAYS SAFARIAN

Aysor
Aug 24 2010
Armenia

“Extension of terms of deployment of the Russian military units in
Armenia, Ukraine (Sevastopol), and Abkhazia shows the geopolitical
deal as West’s response to this wasn’t adequate. May be, Russia does
its best to expand its influence and to extend its presence,” told
media leader of the Heritage party, Stepan Safarian.

He said that after signing the protocols, Ukraine and Armenia’s steps
in sense of foreign policy will remain predictable for a long time.

However, Russia’s this step is fraught with danger of dividing
the region.

Safarian also said that the international media actively discuss the
agreement signed between Turkey and Azerbaijan on mutual strategic
support.

“By this, Ankara and Baku tried to give a well-balanced response to
the Armenian-Russian agreement,” he added.

From: A. Papazian