ARMENIA’S AIRPORT HAS NEW VIP HALL
news.am
March 05, 2012 | 14:46
YEREVAN.- Opening ceremony of Armenian international airport Zvartnots’
new VIP hall took place on Monday.
“We ended putting into operation the new terminal by opening the
new VIP hall,” Armenia International Airports CJSC General Manager
Marcelo Wende said adding it cost over $160 million.
The hall has wi-fi, TV, Flight Information Display system (FIDS),
and its tariff is about $ 77 (AMD 30,000).
ACTIVISTS’ GROUP KEEPS CALLING FOR ALTERNATIVE GOVERMENT
Tert.am
05.03.12
Hopeless to expect a fair and transparent election in May, the
activists of Sardarapat Movement insist on their proposal to create
an alternative government in Armenia.
Speaking at a discussion at the Union of Political Analysts earlier
today, a member of the group, Garegin Chugaszyan, said expecting new
prospects of the coming parliamentary polls would not be a serious
approach.
“Our country’s prospects are diminishing gradually as we are entering
a period of an economic, as well as a systemic crisis. Our national
boat is roaming about without any goal,” he said.
Chugaszyan added that the proposal does not aim to boycott the
election in the classical sense of the word, but rather – create an
alternative platform.
Zhirayr Sefilyan, another member of the group, said the political arena
in Armenia has turned into a quagmire because of what he characterized
servile political figures.
“The political hierarchy and the force considered to be its opposition
are subordinated to one person whose name is Serzh Sargsyan,” he noted.
The activist said it is time to think about a generation change to
create a legitimate government.
TURKISH FM PAID COURTESY VISIT TO THE ARMENIAN DEPUTY PATRIARCH OF TURKEY
armradio.am
05.03.2012 11:46
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu paid courtesy visits to
religious leaders in Istanbul to contribute to the continuation of
religious peace in the Balkans, Middle East and elsewhere.
Within this frame Davutoglu also paid visits to Armenian Deputy
Patriarch of Turkey Aram Ateshyan. Davutoglu said that in the future
all prejudices will be left beyond, and a stable peace will be
established both in Turkey and in the Caucasus.
Davutoglu stated that one of the main elements is to establish mutual
understanding among religious communities and to transfer this to
the political sphere.
Patriarch Ateshyan said that until the ruling Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) came to power in Turkey, no ministers or deputies
in the country knew the way to the Patriarchate.
Representing the Armenian community living in Turkey as an integral
part of the country, Ateshyan said, “If Armenians are deported from
Turkey, one of Turkey’s two legs will be crippled.”
SARGSYAN CONGRATULATES PUTIN, INVITES HIM TO ARMENIA FOR A STATE VISIT
armradio.am
05.03.2012 13:25
President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to Vladimir
Putin on his election as President of the Russian Federation,
President’s Press Office reported. The message reads:
“Dear Mr. President, On behalf of the people of Armenia and on my own
behalf I cordially congratulate you on being elected as President of
the Russian Federation.
Your impressive victory in the presidential elections is an evidence
of the wide support of Russians to your policy targeted at the
comprehensive development of Russia, the reformation and modernization
of the country, the rise of its role and influence on global processes.
Armenia and Russia are tied by allied relations based on friendship of
the two brotherly peoples, who managed to withstand the test of time.
I’m confident that the further development of bilateral strategic
partnership will continue to contribute to the reinforcement of peace,
security and stability in the South Caucasus, will allow to implement
long-term projects in the fields of economy and inter-regional
cooperation, and reveal new opportunities of cooperation.
Dear Mr. President, as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of
establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Armenia
and the Russian Federation, I invite you to Armenia for a state visit.
Undoubtedly, your visit will give new impetus to the development of
Armenian-Russian allied relations for the benefit of our peoples.
I wish you robust health and new achievements in this high position. I
also wish prosperity and wellbeing to the brotherly people of Russia.”
Azerbaijan’s Leaders Yield After a Rare Public Protest
The New Yrok Times
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
March 1, 2012
MOSCOW – In a rare outbreak of civil unrest in Azerbaijan a crowd of
angry protesters massed outside the home of a provincial governor on
Thursday, demanding his ouster as the house was consumed in flames,
apparently the result of an arson attack. The national government
responded by dismissing the governor.
,
Azerbaijanis took to Quba’s streets on Thursday. By day’s end, the governor
had been dismissed.
Street protests are closely watched in Azerbaijan, as in other former
Soviet republics, out of concern that the unrest that swept through
countries in the Middle East could spread.
The trouble started when the governor, Rauf Gabibov, said in a televised
interview that residents of the Quba district in northern Azerbaijan were
`sell-outs,’ in reference to sales of houses in a mountain resort area.
Local media reports said the insult touched off the protest.
Observers of Azerbaijani politics said, though, that the insult was little
more than a pretext for residents to vent the anger they already felt over
corruption and their resentment of some personalities in the local
leadership, who are appointed, not elected.
Street protests are closely watched in Azerbaijan, as in other former
Soviet republics, out of concern that the unrest that swept through
authoritarian countries in the Middle East could spread. Azerbaijan is one
of the six former Soviet states with a predominantly Muslim population.
The country has been led since 1993 by Heydar Aliyev, a former Soviet
Politburo member, and later by his son Ilham Aliyev. It is a major oil
producer on the Caspian Sea and has good relations with the United States,
acting as a way station for military supplies bound for Afghanistan.
Rasim Musabayov, an independent member of the Azerbaijan Parliament, said
in a telephone interview from Baku, the capital, that the unrest on
Thursday was local in nature and unlikely to spread. Protesters demanded
only that Mr. Gabibov be dismissed, he said; they did not criticize Mr.
Aliyev.
Mr. Musabayov said that resentment had been building against Mr. Gabibov,
and that the insulting remark was merely a spark. In Azerbaijan, he said,
`not every careless word leads to a riot.’
The country is worried about any unrest taking hold. The police routinely
disperse even small street demonstrations, and the last major public show
of dissent was seen in 2003, when the younger Mr. Aliyev succeeded his
father, and in a subsequent parliamentary election.
Moving quickly to head off trouble this time, the central government
announced the dismissal of Mr. Gabibov on Thursday evening, and several
demonstrators detained earlier in the day were quickly released.
Videos posted online appear to show about a thousand men milling outside
the burning governor’s mansion in Quba, which borders the Dagestan district
of Russia. Dagestan has been beset with a low-level Islamic insurgency and
ethnic conflict for some time.
The government sent armored vehicles to the area of the mansion on
Thursday, according to news reports, and by late in the day the crowd was
said to have mostly dispersed.
In December, protests and strikes in Zhanaozen, an oil town in western
Kazakhstan, across the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan, ended with at least 17
deaths and scores of injuries after the police opened fire on a crowd.
Protesters there burned down the City Hall and the headquarters of a
subsidiary of the Kazakh national oil company.
A version of this article appeared in print on March 2, 2012, on
page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Azerbaijan’s
Leaders Yield After a Rare Public Protest.
Georgian president to visit Baku
15:25 – 03.03.12
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashili is visitng Baku in Sunday, March 4.
According to the Azerbaijani news agency APA, he is scheduled to meet
with the country’s president, Iham Aliyev and other officials.
Tert.am
Baku Demands Russia to Pay $300 Mln for Radar Lease
11:36 – 29.02.12
Azerbaijan has demanded Russia pay $300 million instead of the
previously agreed $7 million for the lease of a Soviet-era
anti-missile radar in the Azeri town of Gabala, the Russian news
agency RIA Novosti said, citing reports.
Russia has been in talks with Azerbaijan to extend its lease of the
radar, which it has operated in line with a 2002 deal, until 2025. The
current agreement is due to expire on December 24.
Russia had expected to finalize talks by June this year, because a new
agreement has to be signed at least six month before the existing one
expires, the newspaper said. But the talks have been strained since
the Azeri authorities asked Moscow to pay almost 43 times more for the
lease than it used to, the report said.
`This sum of money is unreasonably large,’ the paper quoted a Defense
Ministry source as saying. `We will push for it to be significantly
lowered. We still hope to reach an agreement.’
Another high-ranking source told the paper that Russia may stop
operating the radar `if Baku does not limit its financial appetite.’
According to the report, Foreign Ministry officials have described the
Azeri demands as `agenda-driven.’
On Monday, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev called for a Russian
air base in the country to be closed, accusing Moscow of failing to
pay the $15 million debt for its lease and saying neither Russia nor
Kyrgyzstan needed the base.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov promised later in the day
to repay the debt by the end of February.
Tert.am
Iran asks Azerbaijan to explain Israeli arms deal
By JPOST.COM STAFF
02/28/2012 23:27
Following news of an arms deal between Azerbaijan and Israel, Iran
demanded an official explanation from Azerbaijani ambassador to Tehran
Javanshi Akhundov, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported Tuesday.
Israeli officials confirmed on Sunday a deal to sell defense equipment
to Azerbaijan to the tune of $1.6 billion.
According to the officials, Israeli Aerospace Industries will supply
the formerly soviet country with unmanned aerial vehicles and missile
defense systems.
The ambassador said that the equipment purchased from Israel was to be
used only “to free occupied territory of the Azerbaijan Republic,”
according to IRNA. He stressed that the government would not use these
arms against another country, particularly not Iran, and emphasized
his country’s will to develop relations between the two countries,
according to the report.
Johan Backtane contributed to this report
L’Humanité, France
Jeudi 1 Mars 2012
Le génocide arménien et la France
Avant-hier, le Conseil constitutionnel de la République française a
annulé la mesure législative qui avait criminalisé la négation du
génocide arménien. En tout cas, nous respectons la loi de la France et
la volonté de son peuple.
Ce qui est arrivé à la nation arménienne en 1915 a été plus qu’un
génocide, plus qu’un holocauste. Il ne s’agissait pas seulement de la
prise préméditée de vies humaines, mais de l’effacement d’une nation,
d’une culture, d’une civilisation, et, d’une certaine façon, de toute
vie dans cette région.
Les écoles, églises, hôpitaux, académies, institutions, des propriétés
publiques et privées, ayant appartenu aux Arméniens depuis des
millénaires, ont été rayés de la carte, détruits, détournés, ou
réappropriés par d’autres. Le génocide arménien fut la dépossession
complète et violente, sans précédent dans son mal et son effet, de la
nation arménienne par le jeune régime turc.
Il s’est agi du meurtre d’une patrie.
La réconciliation entre les nations États turque et arménienne est en
marche. Mais elle ne peut avoir lieu que sur la base du triomphe de la
vérité, aussi terrible soit-elle à assumer, et sur l’assurance de la
justice ancrée dans un repentir sincère, une restitution significative
et une reconnexion garantie entre le peuple arménien et son
patrimoine.
À cette fin, nous nous souvenons de nos martyrs, nous saluons tous
ceux qui luttent contre les crimes contre l’humanité ou les punissent,
et nous attendons la véritable rédemption de la Turquie.
Par Raffi Hovannisian, ancien Ministre des Affaires Étrangères de l’Arménie.
lll Comment résister aux pressions turques?
AberdeenNews.com, South Dakota
March 4 2012
Soprano puts her heritage proudly on display in wide-ranging song recital
by John von Rhein, Classical music critic
7:45 a.m. CST, March 4, 2012
Isabel Bayrakdarian has been a much-admired fixture of the Lyric Opera
roster over the last decade, having sung roles ranging from Mozart’s
Susanna and Zerlina, to Catherine in William Bolcom’s “A View from the
Bridge,” to Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the
Carmelites,” her most recent assumption here, in 2007.
Oddly enough, no local concert impresario during that time saw fit to
present the Canadian-based soprano in recital, despite the warm
reception she has won elsewhere in the song medium. The University of
Chicago Presents series made amends Friday night in Mandel Hall, where
Bayrakdarian, along with her husband and pianist, Serouj Kradjian,
presented a song recital that well displayed the breadth of her vocal
and interpretive accomplishment.
Bayrakdarian and Kradjian both are of Armenian descent, and the main
item on the second half of her interestingly offbeat program found
them honoring their heritage with four Armenian folk song arrangements
by the composer revered in his homeland as, simply, Gomidas.
A priest, conductor, singer and ethnomusicologist, Gomidas (or Komitas
Vardepet, as the New Grove Dictionary spells his name) collected and
arranged countless Armenian folk songs around the turn of the 20th
century, before his career and sanity were shattered by the massacre
of Armenians in Turkey in 1915. Although he managed to escape the
genocide, he spent the final 20 years of his life in a mental hospital
outside Paris.
Bayrakdarian’s Gomidas sampler varied from patriotic songs to love
songs, all touched with lingering melancholy, even the dulcet lullaby,
“Oror,” which the soprano said she often sings to the couple’s young
son, Ari. Her close identification with the emotions behind the simple
modal melodies brought her warmest singing of the evening. The softly
sustained final notes of “Apricot Tree” made a particularly haunting
effect.
Alluring in a ruffled black taffeta gown (the first of two designer
dresses she wore for this recital), the singer began with Liszt’s “The
Three Gypsies” and two Petrarch sonnets. These were the least
successful entries of the evening, not because Bayrakdarian is a poor
storyteller but because she seemed to misjudge the carrying power of
her voice. Her bright sound took on a hard, penetrating edge that
faded once the voice had warmed and the singer had grown accustomed to
the acoustics.
Bayrakdarian closed the first portion of her program with three
selections inspired by Shakespeare’s Ophelia. She brought a luminous,
floating vocal quality to Chausson’s “Chanson perpetuelle” that suited
the wistful setting of a Charles Cros poem about a betrayed woman who
contemplates an Ophelia-like suicide by drowning. Delicate melancholy
also characterizes Berlioz’s “La mort d’Ophelie,” for which the
singer’s rapt, dreamy treatment felt just right.
Jake Heggie’s lyrical and accessible “Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia”
(1999), based on poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, benefited from
Bayrakdarian’s wide range of expressive shadings and the crystalline
clarity of her English diction. Indeed, her enunciation throughout the
program, whether the language was French, German, Italian or Spanish,
was exemplary.
Singer and pianist got to figuratively kick up their heels – not to
mention click imaginary castanets – in the concluding Spanish group.
There were four songs by Fernando Obradors, including the well-known
“El Vito,” delivered with abundant charm and an earthier tonal palette
than Bayrakdarian allowed herself earlier in the program.
Kradjian attacked with gusto the driving rhythms of Osvaldo Golijov’s
“Levante” before joining his wife for a spicy assortment of
tango-songs by Carlos Gardel and Astor Piazzolla. The former
composer’s “El Dia que me quieras” Bayrakdarian brought to life with
plenty of temperament as she alternately sang and spoke the verses.
Piazzolla’s cabaret song “Che tango che,” its down-and-dirty
word-play, punctuated by percussive effects from the pianist, made for
a fun finish.
Bayrakdarian kept things in the Latin vein for the first of two
encores, Ernesto Lecuona’s “Malaguena,” before signing off with a bit
of connubial one-upmanship in an amusing rendition of Rossini’s “Cat
Duet,” complete with muted “meows” from her spouse.
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