Author: Chatinian Lara

STAFF OF FOOTBALL NATIONAL TEAM OF ARMENIA LEAVING FOR GERMANY STILL NOT DEFINED
Noyan Tapan
Mar 07 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 21, the national team of
Armenia will held an unofficial match with the German youth national
team at the city of Ahlen, Germany. Henk Vismann, the Chief Trainer
of the national team of Armenia is going to invite Gevorg Kasparov,
Armando Hambardzumian, Edgar Gasparian, Sargis Hovsepian, Alexander
Tadevosian, Robert Arzumanian, Aghvan Lazarian, Valeri Alexandrian,
Artash Baghdasarian, Hamlet Mkhitarian, Romik Khachatrian, Armen
Tigranian, Levon Pachajian, Artur Voskanian, Samvel Melkonian, Romeo
Jenebian, Hovhannes Grigorian, Suren Sargsian, Arman Karamian, Aram
Hakobian, Edgar Manucharian, Davit Grigorian and Tigran Gharabakhtsian
into team.
As Noyan Tapan was informed from the Press Secretariate of the Football
Federation of Armenia, the technical administration of the national
teams of the Football Federation of Armenia applied to the clubs of
the mentioned football players. Taking into account that the 21th of
March is not a day for unofficial match, and the national championships
start in a number of countries, it is possible, that some football
players will not be able to take part in the meeting. The final staff
of the team leaving for Germany will be defined later.

US SEEKS TO WORK WITH RUSSIA TO END POST-SOVIET CONFLICTS
Armenpress
Mar 09 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, ARMENPRESS: Daniel Fried, US Assistant Secretary for
European and Eurasian Affairs said during a March 8 Testimony before
the House International Relations Committee Subcommittee on Europe that
U.S. relations with Russia’s neighbors and other countries in Eurasia
seem to be viewed by some in Russia in zero-sum terms, a model that
‘we have both publicly and privately told the Russians is false.’
“We seek to work with Russia and others to resolve dangerous and
debilitating conflicts in places like South Ossetia, Transnistria,
Abkhazia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. We hope that Russia will take
advantage of Georgia’s proposals for a peaceful settlement of the
South Ossetia conflict and work toward a solution that respects both
Georgia’s territorial integrity and the interests of the people of
South Ossetia,” he said.
He also said the US urges the Armenian and Azeri leaderships to seize
the moment and help bring the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to a close.

ANCA WELCOMES END TO U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT’S THREE-MONTH SILENCE ON AZERBAIJAN’S DESTRUCTION OF HISTORIC DJULFA CEMETERY
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 09 2006
WASHINGTON, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “We welcome the
end to the State Department’s long silence on Djulfa, but regret that
it took three months and sustained international protest before our
government summoned the will to utter its first public condemnation of
a clear cut and thoroughly documented case of cultural desecration,”
said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian, commenting on the
statement made by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew
Bryza at the press conference in Yerevan on March 7. Responding to
reporters’ questions by describing the destruction as a “tragedy,”
Matthew Bryza noted that, “it’s awful what happened in Djulfa. But
the United States cannot take steps to stop it as it is happening on
foreign soil. We continually raise this issue at meetings with Azeri
officials. We are hopeful that the guilty will justly be punished. We
are hopeful that in no other state of the region such things will
happen again, as there are great historic monuments in the Caucasus
and, frankly speaking, in all three states they are endangered.” In
December of 2005, approximately 200 Azerbaijani forces were videotaped
using sledgehammers to demolish the Armenian cemetery in Djulfa, a
sacred site of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The cemetery dates back
to the 7th Century and once was home to as many as 10,000 khatchkars
(stone-crosses).

Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE)

March 10 2006

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to prepare
their respective publics “for peace, not for war”

/noticias.info/ WASHINGTON, D.C., 9 March 2006 – The three Co-Chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, which deals with the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, have issued a statement regretting the lack of
forward movement in the recent negotiations and calling upon Armenia
and Azerbaijan to “work vigorously” to achieve a result in 2006.
Their statement reads:
“The Co-Chairs of the OSCE’s Minsk Group, Ambassadors Yuri Merzlyakov
of Russia, Steven Mann of the United States, and Bernard Fassier of
France, joined by Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal
Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, met in Washington on 7
and 8 March to discuss the latest developments regarding the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and to assess the future direction of
mediation efforts.
The Co-Chairs reviewed the discussions that took place in Rambouillet
on 10 and 11 February and expressed again their gratitude to the
President of the French Republic for making that meeting between
President Robert Kocharian and President Ilham Aliyev possible.
Assessing the current state of affairs in the region, the Co-Chairs
reaffirmed their belief that a great deal of progress has been
achieved in the past year and a half. They regret that the process
has not moved forward in recent weeks though, despite ample
opportunity to do so. They urged both parties to build on the basic
principles for a future settlement that have already been developed
in order to achieve an agreement in 2006. Referring to their joint
statement at the OSCE Permanent Council on 2 March, the Co-Chairs
continue to believe that objective conditions make 2006 a highly
favourable year for substantial progress, and they call upon the
Governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan to work vigorously to achieve
this result. The Co-Chairs further call upon the Government of each
country to take steps with their publics to prepare them for peace,
and not for war.
The Co-Chairs will decide on their next trip to the region after
further assessment of the readiness of the parties. Their next
meeting is planned for 20 March in Istanbul.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 10 2006
UN sanctions against Iran could affect S. Caucasus
14:23 | 10/ 03/ 2006

YEREVAN, March 10 (RIA Novosti) – International sanctions that could
be imposed against Iran over its controversial nuclear research
program would increase tensions in the neighboring South Caucasus
region, an Armenian expert said Friday.
“Possible sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council against Iran
will further aggravate tension in the South Caucasus region … which
is involved in ambitious economic projects with Iran,” said Stepan
Grigoryan, head of an Armenian think-tank on globalization and
regional cooperation.
The South Caucasus region includes the former Soviet republics of
Armenia and Azerbaijan, which border on Iran, and Georgia. As UN
member states, the three republics will be obliged to follow the
decisions of the UN Security Council, Grigoryan said.
If the UN Security Council does opt for sanctions, they will most
likely be economic and diplomatic, which will entail a ban on visas
for senior officials of the Islamic Republic and a resolution to
freeze their bank accounts, he said.
Iran risks coming under international sanctions after it resumed
uranium enrichment – a process that can be used to generate energy
and create weapons-grade material – after a two-year hiatus, arousing
particular concerns in the West and in neighboring Israel.
However, Grigoryan said, the worst possible scenario would be if the
United States and its supporters in the UN decide to form an
anti-Iranian coalition, similar to the one against Iraq, and start a
unilateral campaign, including a military operation.
“This will require political decisions from the leaderships of
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia on whether they will join the
U.S.-led coalition, and provide air space or their territories” for
the operation, Grigoryan said.
He said the leaders of the three republics would inevitably have
different answers to these questions, which “is highly likely to
result in harsher confrontation between the countries of the region.”

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 10 2006
Garabagh mediators’ meeting not elaborated

Baku, March 9, AssA-Irada
The OSCE mediators brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh have completed their talks in
Washington.
At a meeting attended by the OSCE chairman’s special envoy Andzhei
Kaspshik, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group looked into the
results of the talks held by the two presidents in the French town of
Rambouillet in February and outlined further steps. The specific
issues discussed during the three-day meeting of the intermediaries
are not elaborated.
The co-chairs are expected to inform official Baku, Yerevan and the
OSCE about the outcomes of the discussions soon.*

“MULTI-NATIONAL GEORGIA” NOVEMENT AND “NOR SERUND” UNION ASK TO CARRY OUT OBJECTIVE EXAMINATION OF INCIDENT IN TSALKA
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 13 2006
TBILISI, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On the occasion of
the March 9 events in Tsalka, the “Civil Movement “Multi-National
Georgia” union and the “Nor Serund” (New Generation) union of the
Georgian Armenians made a statement in which they turn to the
Government of Georgia with a request to carry out an objective
examination of the incident in Tsalka, to punish those guilty in
the way envisaged by the legislation, as well as to make publicity
to what had happened. The organizations aks the civil society of
Georgia, the Government and President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili
to refer to the problems appeared in Tsalka with the upmost attention
for to avoid a regular interethnic conflict in the territory of
Georgia. “Multi-National Georgia” and “Nor Serund” expressed their
condolence to the family of died Gevorg Gevorkian. To recap, an armed
attack on a group of young people of the Armenian origin took place
on March 9 in the very center of the city of Tsalka (regional center
of the Tsalka region of the Kvemo-Kartli region, Georgia). According
to both witnesses and one of victims, there were about 15 attacking
people and many of them were armed with side-arms. As a result of
knife injuries, Gevorg Gevorkian of 23 years old was killed, he died
at the place, V.Saakian of 25 years old was injured at the foot,
and K.Baloyan of 25 years old was taken in 7 hours to the Tbilisi
city hospital No1 with a serious injury.

CONCERT VARIANT OF MOZART’S THE MAGIC FLUTE OPERA TO BE PERFORMED ON YEREVAN NATIONAL OPERA STAGE FOR THE FIRST TIME
Noyan Tapan
Mar 14 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The 250th jubilee of Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart will be celebrated by the performance of the concert
variant of the composer’s “The Magic Flute” opera on March 17 and
18 at the Yerevan National Opera and Ballet Academic Theater after
Alexander Spendiarian. The concert performance of “The Magic Flute”
on the Yerevan stage will be headed by Swiss famous conductor Facundo
Agudin. The premierre of the opera performance will also take place
under his head in May-June.
As Gegham Grigorian, the Artistic Head of the National Opera and
Ballet Academic Theater stated at the march 14 press-conference,
director of “The Magic Flute” opera Michael Locher is from Germany,
Sean MacAllister from Italy is the lighting designer, and the clothes
designer is Ann Spinelli from Switzerland.
According to Gegham Grigorian, entrance of one of the Yerevan
performances will be free for children and booklets dedicated to Mozart
and “The Magic Flute” will be published specially for that purpose.
Besides that, the performance will be released by DVDs as well as will
be broadcast in Armenia and a number of European countries. Spanish
journalist and photographer Rodrigo Carrizo Couto who is in Armenia
during these days will cover the concert for press of Spain,
Switzerland, France and Argentina.
Conductor Facundo Agudin’s cooperation with the National Opera and
Ballet Academic Theater started still in 2005 when the famous conductor
arrived in Armenia to participate in the premierre of composer David
Halajian’s “Stephan Elmas” piano concert.
“I’m very glad to be in Armenia. It’s an excellent opportunity for
me to work with the staff of the National Opera and Ballet Theater,”
the Swiss director mentioned. According to him, it seldom happens
that both orchestra and choir and soloists work at the theater so
jointly. “A wonderful working atmosphere is created here. I’m very
glad that I put on the stage that great work of Mozart just in this
theater,” Facundo Agudin emphasized.
Gegham Grigorian mentioned that a Mozart was for the last time put
on the Armenian stage 30 years ago. The Artistic Head of the theater
is sure that they will again put on the stage “Don Juan” as well as
the composer’s other works as the theater today has that potential.

National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: Day to Day 4:00 AM EST NPR
October 11, 2005 Tuesday
Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s controversial Faulkner
ANCHORS: MADELEINE BRAND
REPORTERS: FRANK BROWNING
This is DAY TO DAY. I’m Madeleine Brand.
Turkey is trying to become part of the European Union, but Europe is
ambivalent and so for that matter are the citizens of Turkey. The
country’s bittersweet romance with the West permeates the work of
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk. His books have been promoted on
billboards in Istanbul and translated into more than 30 languages.
Yet now he is being prosecuted for defaming Turkish honor. Frank
Browning went to Istanbul to talk with Orhan Pamuk and brought back
this report.
Mr. ORHAN PAMUK (Author): This is Orhan Pamuk. We are in Istanbul at
my office overlooking the entrance of Bosphorus. So many people come
here and visit me, and each time I’m embarrassed to have which I
sometimes call the best audio studio in the world.
FRANK BROWNING reporting:
It’s late morning. The eternal mist of the Bosphorus nearly burnt
away, the constant rumble of diesel-driven ferries echoing up the
slopes. Soon the muazzin will launch his call to prayer from the
mosque of Sangir(ph), built 450 years ago by Suleyman the
Magnificent. This ancient landscape forms the terrain of Orhan
Pamuk’s work.
Mr. PAMUK: From my desk, I can see inside the Topkapi Palace, various
buildings. I know all these buildings by heart. Next to it is Saint
Sophia.
BROWNING: Orhan Pamuk’s latest book is called “Istanbul.” It’s a love
letter to the great melancholic city, but now it’s no longer clear
that he will be able to continue living in Istanbul.
Ms. MAUREEN FREELY (Journalist and Novelist): He was declared a
traitor in a number of newspapers.
BROWNING: Journalist and novelist Maureen Freely has known Orhan
Pamuk since they were in high school in Istanbul.
Ms. FREELY: There were death threats. There were invitations on Web
sites for somebody to silence this person forever, that kind of
thing. And so he was forced to leave the country and he had to stay
more or less in hiding for several months.
BROWNING: Pamuk’s offense was an offhand, almost incidental remark
made last spring to a Swiss newspaper.
Mr. PAMUK: I just made a statement about one of our great taboos:
What happened to Ottoman Empire’s Armenians in 1915? This is a taboo
we still cannot discuss.
BROWNING: The next day, his reference to the most contentious issue
in Turkish history, the massacre of Armenians during World War I,
made headlines across the country. It also brought the denunciations
that eventually led a prosecutor to charge Pamuk with defaming
Turkish national honor. Again Maureen Freely, Pamuk’s friend and
translator.
Mr. FREELY: He can’t imagine living anywhere but Istanbul. So he’s
trying to stay and defend his right to stay and also defend his
country because the irony about this is that he’s a patriot.
BROWNING: Few believe Pamuk will go to prison, but the sentiments
beneath the case cut to the deeper themes he explores in his memoir.
The Istanbul of his childhood in the 1950s and ’60s was bathed in a
heavy atmosphere of melancholy.
Mr. PAMUK: From a very young age, I suspected there was more to my
world than I could see. Somewhere in the streets of Istanbul in a
house resembling ours there lived another Orhan, so much like me that
he could pass for my twin, even my double. I can’t remember where I
got this idea or how it came to me. It must have emerged from a web
of rumors, misunderstandings, illusions and fears, but in one of my
earliest memories, it is already clear how I’ve come to feel about my
ghostly other.
BROWNING: It’s a collective sadness born of the city’s history.
Mr. PAMUK: All the riches of Middle East and Balkans came to this
town and the Ottoman Empire fell apart. And this glorious empyreal
city went into ruins. I spent my childhood in that ruins and I wrote
about how beautiful it is, something to do with what the Japanese
call nobility of failure, the willing embrace of failure.
BROWNING: For a nation struggling to be a modern European partner and
a city determined to reclaim its metropolitan glamour, any talk of
failure these days, and worse of guilt, provokes jitters even among
liberal Western-orientated Turks like Tharia(ph), an independent tour
operator on a busy street near the ancient Hagia Sophia mosque.
Tharia credits Pamuk as a great writer, but…
THARIA: Mr. Pamuk, he say one million Armenian killed, Turkish people
killed them. And we didn’t like his word because at the moment we
want to be one hand. You understand what I mean? We feel we have to
be a legal nation at least at the moment especially.
BROWNING: Others like Ebrahem(ph), who runs a Turkish sauna in a
crowded cafe district near Taksim Square, told me in French that he
views Orhan Pamuk as a sort of tool of the Europeans.
EBRAHEM: (French spoken)
BROWNING: `Here in Turkey,’ he said, `there are a few left-wing
intellectuals who are very well organized and connected to the media
who operate more or less like the Masonic societies. Well, Orhan
Pamuk said we killed the Armenians because the Europeans, they wanted
someone who would say that the Turks killed the Armenians.
EBRAHEM: (French spoken)
BROWNING: Both Ebrahem and Tharia are torn by deep Turkish patriotism
and their yearning for a democratic Turkey that respects free speech
and human rights. Yet they’re also afraid that too much
European-style criticism could provoke internal separatists and the
hard-lines. These are the tensions that course Orhan Pamuk’s
melancholy prose.
Mr. PAMUK: This fight is going through the souls of all the people in
this country. It’s not a fight between good people and bad people.
It’s a fight between two spirits of the same person. And the
popularity of my books in just five years is due to the fact that
Turkey’s problems between east and west, between modernity and
traditional Islam turn out to be the…
(Soundbite of call to prayer)
BROWNING: Just then, the muazzin at the Sangir mosque(ph) sounds the
midday call to prayer.
(Soundbite of call to prayer)
BROWNING: Though neither Pamuk nor his family were ever religious,
he’s not opposed to religion. In fact, Islam’s imprint, he says,
persists on everything from art and science to war and politics, and
the dance between Islam and secularism generates the stuff of
literature. The history feeds the melancholy and the melancholy
nourishes the revenue of moods that fill his journals, his essays and
his novels.
Mr. PAMUK: If one writes honestly about one’s moods, I think, then
one knows about not oneself but all humanity, and that we are all
made up of so many moods which continuously deceive us.
BROWNING: Deceive us?
Mr. PAMUK: Mm-hmm. In, say, for three hours, a bit sad, and for
another four years, you’re OK. And in another five hours, I may be
angry. Getting down your sentiments is the essential reflex of an
inborn order, I think.
BROWNING: Orhan Pamuk hopes he’ll be able to continue penning down
and writing about those sentiments in his home in Istanbul. His
hearing on charges of defaming Turkish honor is set for December
16th. For DAY TO DAY, I’m Frank Browning.
BRAND: NPR’s DAY TO DAY continues. I’m Madeleine Brand.

EBRD THINKS TO INCREASE NUMBER OF PROGRAMS IMPLEMENTED IN ARMENIA
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 14 2005
YEREVAN, October 14. /ARKA/. EBRD is going to increase the number of
programs implemented in Armenia, as it was mentioned at the meeting
of the members of the Board of the EBRD with the RA Premier Andranik
Margaryan, according to the RA Government’s Press Service Department.
The members of the Board congratulated Margaryan on high economic
indicators of the past years, achieved due to consistent policy pursued
by the government. Noting that a favorable investment environment is
important for any country, the members of the delegation discussed
with the Premier the activities done in the republic in that direction
as well as further plans.
In his turn Margaryan highly appreciated the work of the EBRD in
Armenia. According to Margaryan, the programs implemented by the EBRD
in the banking, energy and insurance sectors, as well as work with
entrepreneurs of the private sector had a positive influence on the
economy of the country. Margaryan attached importance to further
development of cooperation in those directions, suggesting the
possibility of long-term crediting with low interest rate in further
programs that would develop the private sector. The premier introduced
to guests the process of privatization in the republic, as well as
steps done to stimulate export, implement the strategic program on
poverty reduction and anticorruption strategy, introduce reforms in
the customs and improve legislative field to develop economy.
The delegation of the Board of the EBRD that visited Armenia includes
Terens Braun, Michael Neumaer, Gonzalo Ramos, Zhohe Veiga de Masedo,
Scot Clark, Igor Podolev, Pier Stanchina, regional director Michael
Davy, Head of EBRD Yerevan Office Michael Winstin.