Author: Chakrian Hovsep

IRAN, ARMENIA SIGN MOU ON ELECTRICITY COOPERATION
Asia Pulse; Jun 13, 2005
TEHRAN, June 13 Asia Pulse – Iran and Armenia signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) here to bolster bilateral cooperation in the
field of electricity.
The MoU was signed by Iran’s Energy Minister Habibollah Bitaraf and
his Armenian counterpart Armen Movsisyan.
Under the MoU, Iran and Armenia reached consensus to implement the
third 400-kw two-circuit transmission line project, valued at US$90
million.
The two countries are also slated to implement the second phase
of Iran-Armenia pipeline project, worth US$130 million and the
complementary project of the fifth unit of Hrazdan thermal power plant.
Under the framework of the agreement, Iranian companies of the Iran
Power Plant Projects Management Company (MAPNA) and Sanir are due to
add a new unit of gas power plant – capable to be transformed into
combined cycle – to Armenia. The project is worth US$150 million.
Based on the accord, the implementation of the said project should
be finalized in 2007.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
June 12, 2005, Sunday
Strange power
BY Ben Thompson
System of a Down Smog
Imagine Jimi Hendrix has been magically brought back to life and you
are taking him on a voyage of discovery to find out how far rock ‘n’
roll has come (or, more accurately, not come) in the 35 years since
his tragically early demise. There is probably only one band in the
world at the moment with the power to make the great man scratch his
head in appreciative bewilderment and wonder “How on earth did that
happen?” That band is System of a Down.
On Sunday, at the third of three sold-out shows at the Brixton
Academy, this maverick Armenian-American heavy-rock quartet scales
improbable heights of frenetic precision. Playing in front of
fairground distorting mirrors which intensify the already
hallucinogenic vigour of their performance, they take a series of
disparate musical ingredients – Armenian folk styles, elements of
electro-pop, funk and rap (with the occasional Dire Straits or Wham
cover thrown in, just to keep the crowd on their toes) – and mix them
together in a very large and very metallic cauldron. The sound that
results is utterly, savagely distinctive.
Shaven-headed drummer John Dolmoyan blurs the line between human
beat-keeper and well-oiled piece of industrial machinery. His partner
in rhythm, the excellently named Shavo Odadjian, plays bass-lines as
fluid and sinuous as the plaited beard which stretches down from his
chin to his midriff. But it’s the very human entanglement of two
contrasting front-people which – as with Lennon and McCartney, Page
and Plant or Peters & Lee – makes System of a Down truly special.
Singer Serj Tankian cultivates the demeanour of an Old Testament
prophet and looks like Antony Sher playing the lead in a Frank Zappa
biopic. With his thinning hair, slightly bulging eyes and undying
admiration for the early works of Iron Maiden, guitarist Daron
Malakian initially seems a rather less imposing character, but he is
hugely talented. Not only can he play the guitar like five or six
different people at once, he also writes songs that have tunes. And
good ones, too; the kind that 4,000 people are happy to sing along
with, even though Mezmerize, the album they’re taken from, has only
been out for a couple of weeks.
Lyrics such as “What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of
human suffering?” or “Eloquence belongs to the conqueror” may not be
conventional karaoke material, but that doesn’t seem to bother anyone
in this crowd. And by the time this performance reaches a thunderous
climax with “Toxicity”, the band’s signature 2001 eco-anthem (sample
lyric: “Eating seeds is a pastime/activity”), System of a Down’s
battle cry – “Somewhere between sacred silence and sleep, Disorder!
Disorder! Disorder!” – makes an irresistible kind of sense.
THOUGH HIS records have yet to sell in quite the seven-figure
quantities that System of a Down’s do, any list of America’s five
greatest living songwriters which didn’t include Smog’s Bill Callahan
would be based on a fundamental misconception. This master of the
lugubrious aperu takes to the Islington Academy stage on Thursday
night with the brittle assurance of a first-year student in an Ivy
League tutorial. As opening figures of speech go, Callahan’s “With
the grace of a corpse in a rip-tide…” certainly puts down a marker.
And before the main body of his set concludes with a much loved
earlier song about “letting himself be held like a big old baby”, he
and his band have ambled the gamut from death to life, from the rush
of a tidal race to the stillness of sleeping horses.

Pan Armenian News
ARMENIA AND ESTONIA TO SIGN MEMORANDUM ON MILITARY COOPERATION
09.06.2005 09:28
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian government approved the proposal on signing
the Memorandum on Military Cooperation between the Defense Ministries of the
Republic of Armenia and Republic of Estonia. The decision was taken during
the sitting of the Armenian government held by RA President Robert Kocharian
on May 9, IA Regnum reported.

Harvest Gallery
938 North Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA
818.546.1000

Press Release
June 7, 2005

HARVEST GALLERY presents Garen Bedrosian
Artist Reception: June 17, 2005 – 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Exhibition Dates: June 17 through June 30, 2005
Harvest Gallery: 938 North Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA

Glendale, CA (June 7) – Harvest Gallery is proud to present the solo
exhibition of Garen Bedrossian from Friday, June 17 through Thursday,
June 30, 2005 in Glendale, California.
Showcasing both oils and sculptures, Bedrossian’s art links the
structure of the abstract with figurative and expressionistic
elements. `The deeply felt psychological statements permeating his
creative production are Bedrossian’s significant contribution to the
domain of contemporary art,’ said Leo Rosshandler, I.A.A.C.
Born in Armenia in 1952, Bedrosian is a graduate of the Fine Arts
College of Yerevan and the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg,
Russia. He currently lives and works in Montreal, Canada. Bedrosian
has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout
the world including in Canada, Germany, Japan, Poland, Russia and the
US.
Bedrossian’s work will be on display from Friday, June 17 through
Thursday, June 30. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Sunday from 11:00 am to
7:00 pm. For general information about the exhibit, please call
Harvest Gallery at 818.546.1000 or visit
###050525
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Frankfurter Rundschau
07. Juni 2005
Äquatorial-Guinea ; Präsident begnadigt armenische “Putschisten”
Nairobi · 6. Juni · cli · Der Präsident von Äquatorial-Guinea,
Teodoro Obiang Nguema, hat an seinem 63. Geburtstag die Begnadigung
und Freilassung von sechs armenischen Häftlingen verfügt.
Sie waren in einem nach internationalen Standards unfairen
Gerichtsverfahren in der Hauptstadt Malabo zu Haftstrafen von 14 bis
24 Jahren verurteilt worden, weil sie im März 2004 bei einem in
Südafrika eingefädelten Putschversuch gegen Nguema beteiligt gewesen
sein sollen. Die sechs Armenier beteuerten stets ihre Unschuld.
Fünf Südafrikaner, darunter der angebliche Rädelsführer der
Putschistengruppe, Nick du Toit, müssen ihre Strafe weiter absitzen.
Du Toit war zu 34 Jahren Haft verurteilt worden war.
Auch Simbabwe hat angebliche Putschisten freigelassen. In dem Land
war eine Gruppe von Südafrikanern bei einer Zwischenlandung auf dem
Weg nach Äquatorial-Guinea verhaftet worden. Sie wurden wegen
Verschwörungsplänen verurteilt. 61 Häftlinge wurden Mitte Mai in
Harare freigelassen und nach Südafrika abgeschoben. Mark Thatcher,
Sohn der ehemaligen britischen Premierministerin, erhielt eine
Bewährungsstrafe.
Äquatorial-Guineas Staatspräsident Nguema regiert sein Land mit
äußerster Härte und unterdrückt jede Opposition.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918 Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]
PRESS RELEASE: Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Contact: Armen Carapetian
Tel: (818) 500-1918
ANC-PN TO HOLD INFORMATION SESSION FOR TRIP TO ARMENIA
What: Final information session about the ANC-PN Armenia 2005 Summer Trip
Where: Wednesday, June 8 at 7:00 p.m.
When: Armenian National Committee – Western Region Map Room
104 N. Belmont, 2nd floor, Glendale, CA 91206
Details: The Armenian National Committee – Professional Network
(ANC-PN) is hosting a final information session for interested
individuals about its Armenia 2005 Summer Trip on June 8 beginning at
7:00 pm. The session will take place at the ANC-WR’s Map Room. The
Armenia 2005 Summer Trip will be from August 11 to August 22. Light
refreshments will be served.
Additional details about the trip can be found at
For additional information contact (818) 500-1918.

ARMENIAN ECOLOGISTS PREPARING COUNTER-ATTACK ON ISSUE OF LAYING
HIGHWAY VIA SHIKAHOGH PRESERVE
YEREVAN, JUNE 6. ARMINFO. Armenian ecologists will be thoroughly
prepared for the public hearings of the issue for laying a highway
Armenia-Iran via Shikahogh preserve, say a number of ecological NGOs.
President of the Association for Sustainable Human Development Karine
Daniyelyan says that today there is nothing more important than the
protection of the preserve. The very idea of laying a road via the
preserve is unacceptable. The Armenian government cannot lay a road
at nature’s detriment even if it is strategically important. There
have been many examples of the authorities damaging nature for the
sake of declared national and economic interests. “But officials
inhale the same air as ordinary people do,” says Daniyelyan. He also
quotes UN as reporting that in Armenia forests are in 8 times worse
state than worldwide while with the above highway to cause a 6 bln AMD
damage to Shikahogh.
NOTE: opened in 1958 Shikahogh preserves rare species of flora and
fauna – over 1,100 species of plants with 70 of them on the verge of
extinction.

News24, South Africa
June 5 2005
EG pardons 6 ‘coup plotters’
05/06/2005 18:19 – (SA)
Malabo – Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on Sunday
pardoned six Armenian pilots who were sentenced to prison for their
alleged roles in an attempted coup last year, according to a decree
read on national radio.
The “total pardon” is for “the Armenian nationals being held at
Malabo’s central prison,” the decree dated June 4 said.
The president granted the pardon as a “humanitarian gesture” on the
occasion of his 63rd birthday.
The six Armenians, who have always claimed their innocence, are to be
immediately released and handed over to “competent authorities” who
will see that they are repatriated to Armenia, according to the decree.
The Armenian pilots were sentenced with others in November in
Equatorial Guinea.
They were accused of taking part in a plot to overthrow Nguema which
also involved suspected mercenaries who were arrested in Zimbabwe
for alleging picking up weapons there to use in the coup attempt.
British businessman Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime
minister Margaret Thatcher, was accused of partly financing the
alleged plot and pleaded guilty in South Africa to violating its
anti-mercenary law and paid a R3m fine in January.
Edited by Elmarie Jack

AN ATTEMPT OF PROVOCATION DURING THE MEETING THE JUSTICE BLOC
A1plus
| 21:05:05 | 03-06-2005 | Politics |
Today the long-expected meeting of the representatives of the Justice
bloc and the residents of Vanadzor took place. From the member-parties
of the bloc only Viktor Dallakyan and deputies of the People’s Party
had arrived in Vanadzor. Especially Viktor Dallakyan was warmly
greeted by the people. But the impression was not such for a long time.
A woman who had come to the hall with the secretary of the mayor
who is member of the Republican Party, realized the planned scene,
“We, residents of Kirovakan live well enough. What do you want,
Viktor? Our streets are well lit, and I am mother of a dead soldier,
I do not want change of authorities so that there will be no war”. She
had not finished her speech yet when a wave of discontent passed
through the hall and the women left the hall.
Dallakyan said in his speech that “Armenia has become a country
of prostitution and begging. Today the most defenseless person in
Armenia is the Defender of Human Rights upon whom the methods of 1937
are implemented. The authorities will soon appear in the Noubarashen
isolation ward in striped clothes”.
The deputies referred to the fuel problems, “A1+”, the return of
the deposits, the Karabakh conflict, mentioning that there can be
no conversation about compromise when Azerbaijan says that they will
give no land to Armenia, and that Nagorno Karabakh is the inseparable
part of Azerbaijan. Deputy Grigor Haroutyunyan said that “They say
everything is fine in Armenia and they force people to go to the
round dance. Nothing is fine in Armenia.
“In Armenia the change of authorities is the most urgent problem in
the agenda”, announced the members of Justice. The people applauded
and the meeting finished.

FIRST FLIGHT FROM MUNICH ARRIVED IN YEREVAN
Pan Armenian News
03.06.2005 06:13
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ June 3 the first flight from Munich launched by
Lufthansa Airline arrived at the Yerevan International Airport of
Zvartnots. As Regional Director for Russia and CIS Gunther Ott said
during a press conference in Yerevan, the company will exercise three
Munich-Yerevan-Munich flights every week. The flights from Munich to
Yerevan are scheduled for Monday, Thursday and Sunday, flights from
Yerevan – on Monday, Thursday and Friday. As it was reported earlier,
Lufthansa offered special prices for the passengers departing form
Yerevan to Europe, North America and Africa. Starting with June 3,
2005 the passengers will have the opportunity to leave Yerevan for
any German city (Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Dresden, etc.) for $229,
for any European city for $349, for Africa and North America for $559.
According to the source, the special offer is in power June 3-October
24. Tickets can be booked till June 30, 2005, IA Regnum reported.