Author: Chakrian Hovsep

REVIEW: VIOLINIST LIGHTS A FIRE WITH KHACHATURIAN CONCERTO AT OAKLAND
By Cheryl North

San Jose Mercury News
4264468
01/25/2010 12:40:52 PM PST

Siberian-Armenian violinist Mikhail Simonyan will play Aram
Khatchaturian’s Violin Concerto with…

Armenian-Siberian violinist Mikhail Simonyan strode onto Oakland’s
Paramount Theatre stage last Friday evening, tucked his violin under
his chin, and proceeded unabashedly to win over his capacity audience
with his exposition of the fascinating beauty and intensity of the
music of Armenia.

The 23-year-old, who looks like a younger version of the Russian
Federation president, Dmitri Medvedev, played with the flair of
a 19th-century virtuoso idol – the sort that habituated the great
stages of Europe.

But instead of St. Petersberg’s Mariinsky Theater, Vienna’s Musik
Verein Hall, or some princely palace in Prague, Simonyan temporarily
ruled over the stage of the Paramount movie palace during the Oakland
East Bay Symphony’s "Notes from Armenia" concert. Michael Morgan
conducted with his usual warmth and elan – and as though he too had
a bit of Armenian blood in his veins.

Simply put, Simonyan produced one of the most seductive string tones
I’ve ever heard as he wielded a steady bowing arm artfully over the
strings of his 1769 Giuseppe Gagliano violin. His was a tone that
seemed to resonate with all the colors and gradations of the sonic
rainbow. Whether at pianissimo levels or racing through cascades of
virtuosic double-stops and cadenza passages, it penetrated through
the hall with laser clarity.

Reaping the benefit of all this vaunted versatility was the D major
Violin Concerto composed by Armenia’s Aram Khachaturian in 1940.

IFC ON INVESTMENTS

Messenger.ge
Tuesday, January 26

A study published by IFC, the International Finance Corporation,
which is a daughter company of the World Bank, shows that the most
attractive of the former Soviet republics for making investments in are
Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Armenia. Georgia, Azerbaijan, Estonia
and Uzbekistan are the next most attractive, then Ukraine, Kazakhstan
and Tajikistan, with Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Belarus at the bottom of
the list. The list has been drawn up by assessing the activities of
Governments and different institutions in the various countries.

Georgia has budgeted to receive USD 2 billion in Foreign Direct
Investment in 2010. This is an optimistic assessment, think independent
analysts. They point out that in 2009 a similar sum was expected but
only around one quarter of this arrived.

Economic analyst Solomon Pavliashvili thinks that at least USD 1
billion in FDI is needed to guarantee economic growth in Georgia. The
2010 Georgian budget projects growth of 2%.

WILL THE GAS PRICES RISE?
Hasmik Dilanyan

"Radiolur"
25.01.2010 15:42

The ArmRosGazprom Company applied to the Public Services Regulatory
Commission on January 22 to raise the price of natural gas in Armenia.

The latter has to consider and announce a decision within 90 days. In
case of a positive conclusion, the gas prices will raise in Armenia
from April 1st.

Despite forecasts that the fee for electric energy would also rise
the same day, Head of the PR and Media Relations Department of the
Electric Networks of Armenia Natalya Sarajyan told "Radiolur" that
"the company has not applied and is not going to apply to the Public
Services Regulatory Commission in the near future."

How much will consumers pay for gas starting from April 1?

"Those who consume up to 1 000 cubic meters of gas, will pay 136
thousand AMD instead of the current 96 thousand. The fee will rise
to $256 for those who consume more than 1 000 cubic meters monthly,"
Spokesperson for the ArmRosGazprom Company Shushan Sardaryan said.

SERGEY LAVROV: PREAMBLE OF THE DOCUMENT HAS BEEN AGREED UPON

armradio.am
25.01.2010 16:53

"Armenia and Azerbaijan will present their proposals regarding the
document on the Karabakh conflict settlement; the preamble of the
document has already been agreed upon," Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov told journalists in Sochi following the trilateral
meeting of the Presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan.

"There is a common understanding on the preamble of the document,"
Lavrov said.

"The main achievement of today’s talks was the agreement that although
the parties have not agreed on some parts of the document, they will
submit their concrete ideas, concrete formulations, which will be
applied to the text," the Russian Foreign Minister stated.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE: ARMENIA TO OBTAIN MEANS OF ANTI-CRISIS FUND FOR FUNDING OF FIVE PROGRAMS

ARKA
Jan 25, 2010

YEREVAN, January 25. / ARKA /. Armenia introduced five policy
proposals for obtaining funds from the Anti-Crisis Fund Eurasian
Economic Community, Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan said at a
press briefing on Saturday.

"We have already presented to the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund about
five policy proposals from various sectors, particularly energy,
mining sector, metallurgy, information technology and chemistry,
which will be discussed to provide funding," the Minister said.

Treaty establishing the EurAsEC anti-crisis fund was signed in Moscow
on June 9 2009 by six countries – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Belarus and Uzbekistan with the participation of Armenia.

The head of the Armenian Ministry of Finance reminded that the EurAsEC
Anti-Crisis Fund has about $ 10 billion, and the fund is provided to
develop in two directions.

The first, as the minister noted is the issue of stable or sovereign
loans to member countries of the fund.

The second focus of the Anti Crisis Fund, which is more interesting for
Armenia is the issue of so-called investment loans for large projects.

Davtyan recalled that at the suggestion of Armenia such loans may
be issued not only by government guarantees, but also directly to
companies.

"In the near future in Yerevan, there will be a branch of the Eurasian
Development Bank, which manages the fund," the Minister informed.

Davtyan believes that the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund will enable the
states and companies to obtain additional funding without increasing
its debt burden.

EurAsEC is an international economic organization, with functions
related to the formation of common external customs borders of
its member countries, the elaboration of unified foreign economic
policies, tariffs, prices and other components of the functioning of
the Common Market.

It has been established in 2000.

Currently, the organization includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and the observer countries are
Armenia and Moldova.

Kazakhstan attaches major importance to conflict settlement
23.01.2010 16:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During their visit to Astana, the Co-Chairs of OSCE
Minsk Group met with Secretary of State – Foreign Minister of
Kazakhstan, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Kanat Saudabaev.

`Within the framework of preparation for the OSCE Chairmanship in
2010, delegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of
Kazakhstan participated in the meeting of heads of OSCE field missions
in South Caucasus on September 24-25, 2009. The focus of the forum was
on political, economic and humanitarian issues of the region, as well
as its main issue – Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,’ says the release
posted on Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry website.

Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in OSCE attaches major importance to
settlement of unresolved conflicts on OSCE area and focuses special
importance on ensuring security and stability in the South Caucasus,
Kazakh Foreign Minister said during the meeting.

`We are hopeful that during Mr. Saudabaev’s upcoming tour we’ll be
able to approximate the positions of the mediators and the Chairman,’
said OSCE MG Russian Co-Chair Yuri Merzlyakov.

The Artsakh ( Nagorno Karabakh) Republic (NKR) is a de facto
independent republic located in the South Caucasus, bordering by
Azerbaijan to the north and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to
the west.

After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923 it
formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the
Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan
launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that
was fought from 1991 to 1994.

Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several
regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the
control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated by
the OSCE Minsk Group.

The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security
and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, now Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated
resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The Minsk Group is headed by a Co-Chairmanship consisting of France,
Russia and the United States. Furthermore, the Minsk Group also
includes the following participating States: Belarus, Germany, Italy,
Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Turkey as well as Armenia
and Azerbaijan. Current Co-chairmen of the Minsk Group are: Ambassador
Bernard Fassier of France, Ambassador Yuri Merzlyakov of the Russian
Federation and Ambassador Robert Bradtke of the United States.

The main objectives of the Minsk Process are as follows: Providing an
appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of assuring
the negotiation process supported by the Minsk Group; Obtaining
conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation of the
armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk
Conference; Promoting the peace process by deploying OSCE
multinational peacekeeping forces.

The Minsk Process can be considered to be successfully concluded if
the objectives referred to above are fully met.

Representatives of the three traditional Armenian parties come
together to discuss the CC ruling
23.01.2010 13:36

Armen Dilanyan
`Radiolur’
Glendale

Representatives of the three traditional Armenian parties came
together at the Armenian Press Club in Los Angeles to discuss the
Armenian Constitutional Court ruling on the Armenian-Turkish
protocols.

Participants of the meeting underlined that the very fact that
representatives of the traditional parties gathered around one table
was already unprecedented. It should be said, however, that this
became possible because the parties do not diverge on the
Armenian-Turkish protocols: the three oppose the recognition of the
existing Turkish border, the three are confident that the protocols as
they are do not reflect our national interests.

Representatives of the three traditional parties consider that it’s
necessary to do everything to prevent the ratification of the
protocols by the Armenian National Assembly. Although they see some
positive elements in the decision of the Constitutional Court, the
overall political assessment doesn’t change. The fact remains that
event though the Court pointed to certain threats in the protocols, it
ruled that they conform to the Armenian Constitution.

news.az, Azerbaijan
Jan 23 2010

I expect Armenia to be constructive at Sochi presidential meeting, MP
Sat 23 January 2010 | 06:42 GMT Text size:

Anar Mammadkhanov News.Az interviews Anar Mammadkhanov, Azerbaijani MP.

The next round of talks between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and
Armenian Serzh Sargsyan will be held under Russia’s Dmitri Medvedev’s
mediation in Sochi soon. What do you expect from this meeting?

I expect Armenia to demonstrate constructivism. It must understand
that childish games have already ended. The things Armenia has
recently been dealing with resemble a game in a sander. I think if the
Russian president is trying to be a mediator for the second time, some
results are possible.

Armenian FM Edward Nalbandyan said he does not expect any significant
progress in the Karabakh conflict settlement in 2010. What can you say
about this statement considering the fact that it was voiced in
anticipation of the presidential meeting?

I can say that such a statement gives negative characteristics to
Nalbandyan, as the foreign minister. He seems to be willing to be a
minister for long and not to do anything like his forerunner Vardan
Oskanyan and then to tell people about his heroism.

Doesn’t this statement by the Armenian foreign minister make the Sochi
presidential meeting senseless?

First of all, in any case we should demonstrate the nonconstructivism
of the Armenian side to the world. Second, I think Nalbandyan’s
statement does not make the Sochi meeting senseless as it was
seemingly done for the inner audience to keep it relaxed. But if the
Armenian leaders have self-respect, they must understand that the
Azerbaijani side will not stand this for another year.

The chairmanship in OSCE has passed to Kazakhstan this year. Can this
fact have any impact on the Karabakh conflict settlement?

I hope so. I hope Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in OSCE will promote the
positive settlement of the conflict. But I cannot state this for sure.

Armenia is threatening to frustrate the negotiation process with
Turkey on normalization of relations complaining about Ankara’s
nonconstructiveness. Who do you think will lose more in the result?

Well, let them frustrate it. This normalization is necessary more to
Armenia than to Turkey. Armenia is a geographical deadlock, therefore,
it is more interested in normalization. Turkey has access to three
seas and it does not need Armenia. Turkey has made a great favor by
initiating negotiations with Armenians while Armenia started a
dishonest game in the style peculiar of it. It is playing blatantly to
one’s face. By doing so, Armenians have again astonished the world by
their disrespect to their own signatures. I think Armenians understand
that they are not worthy of anything as a state. Therefore, I think
they can state whatever they want. The fact is that Turkey is a big
and economically, politically and militarily strong country and to
play with it one should be as dull-witted as the ruling elite of
Armenia. In this case, I think the supreme leadership of Armenia acts
at least foolishly.

Ankara has accused Yerevan that the decision of the Constitutional
Court of Armenia on the Armenian-Turkish protocols contains
prerequisites. Are these accusations substantiated considering the
fact that some experts view the Turkish claims as aimed at protracting
the ratification of these protocols in their parliament?

I think Turkey is absolutely right in this cause. Armenians have
started to interpret the text of the protocols differently in the
Constitutional Court. How else could Turkey react to it? The protocols
were not to be considered in the Constitutional Court. The
Constitutional Court has nothing to do with a political decision.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court has started to interpret
everything in its own way. Imagine that the Constitutional Court of
Russia and the US Supreme Court give their conclusions on the treaty
to cut nuclear armament. This is an absurd.

Leyla Tagiyeva
News.Az

"STUDY OF ARMENIAN ARCHITECTURE" ORGANIZATION ISSUES POSTERS ON 3 HISTORIC ARMENIAN REGIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2010 17:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Study of Armenian Architecture" organization issued
posters on 3 historic Armenian regions: Moks, Karin and Hayots Dzor.

The posters were distributed in schools of Armenia and Karabakh with
the assistance of RA Education Ministry.

As "Study of Armenian Architecture" organization head, architecture
historian Samvel Karapetyan said at today’s news conference, the
initiative aims at increasing Armenian youth’s awareness of national
history and heritage.

SWEDEN’S FOREIGN MINISTRY LOOKS FORWARD TO SPEEDY RATIFICATION OF PROTOCOLS

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2010 19:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Switzerland has been making it its general policy
to abstain from any comments on the normalization process between
Turkey and Armenia, according to Erik Reumann, a spokesman at Swedish
Foreign Ministry.

"We are committed to assisting the parties in their ongoing efforts.

We are looking forward to the ratification process being completed
as soon as possible, thus opening the way for the implementation of
the Protocols," he told PanARMENIAN.Net, commenting upon recent media
reports on Sweden’s allegedly disapproving RA Constitutional Court’s
decision over Armenia-Turkey Protocols.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation.

Swedish Foreign Ministry: Switzerland has been making it its general
policy to abstain from any comments on the normalization process
between Turkey and Armenia.