ARMENIAN CHESS MASTER IN FIRST PLACE
Panorama.am
19:09 27/08/2007
Armenian grandmaster Karen Movsisyan has won first place in 8th
international open competition of chess in the Spanish city of
Tarragon. As informed by the Armenian chess federation, the Armenian
chess player earned 8 out of a possible 9 points, leaving behind 132
participants from six different countries.
We would like to point out that sportsmen from Bulgaria, Sweden,
Israel, France, Argentina, and Spain participated.
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 22 2007
Armenians of Javakhk oppose return of Meskheti Turks to region
YEREVAN, August 22. /ARKA/. Armenians of Javakhk (region of Georgia
populated by Armenians) strongly oppose return of Meskheti Turks to
the region, Chairman of `Javakhk’ Association MP Shirak Torosian told
ARKA agency. According to him, return of Meskheti Turks may aggravate
the situation in the region.
`Georgian Government is not very happy either for their return but
they are ready to do it due to the obligations to the Council of
Europe,’ Torosian said.
According to the MP, the Georgian Government intends to resettle
Meskheti Turks to Javakhk bearing in mind the low prices for land and
housing in the region.
`On whose territories and in whose houses they are going to live?
Everybody is aware of the problems existing in communication between
Armenian and Turkish population,’ Torosian said.
`As of now, no single Meskheti Turk is resettled in Javakhk, and, I
strongly believe, will not do it,’ he said.
On July 11 the Georgian Parliament passed the law about repatriation
of persons forcedly resettled from Georgia in 1940ies by the Soviet
authorities. No particular discussions were held while passing the
law.
Under the law, Meskheti Muslims called also Meskheti Turks are to
return to Georgia. The law envisages the procedure of the return,
submission of required documents and receiving of the repatriate
status and citizenship. Under the law, the deadline for the
applications to return to Georgia is January 1 2009.
According to the obligations to the Council of Europe, Georgia needs
to solve the issue by the end of 2011.
About 300,000 so-called Meskheti Turks (Muslim Georgians) living in
the south-eastern region of Georgia – Meskhetia – at the border with
Turkey, were resettled to the Central Asia in the mid 1940ies by the
order of the Soviet leadership. The Soviet authorities considered it
dangerous to have Muslim Georgians living at the Soviet-Turkish
border. Currently descendants of the forced re-settlers live in
Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey. N.V. -0–
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 22 2007
Political situation in Armenia faces genre crisis, NDP Leader says
YEREVAN, August 22. /ARKA/. The current political situation in
Armenia faces a genre crisis, sad Shavarsh Kocharian, Leader of the
National Democratic Party (NDP).
He believes the reason for the crisis is that means and goals have
changed their places.
`It is known that power is only a means of implementing programs and
ideas, whereas for our authorities, power is an end in itself,’
Kocharian said.
According to him, the situation is the same both in the coalition and
opposition camps, as the coalition by all means tries to hold power,
while the opposition tries to assume it.
`As a result, programs and ideas stay in the background and become
inaccessible to the public which does not see any difference between
the programs and ideas of the coalition and opposition,’ he said.
According to Kocharian, this is the reason why the layers of the
society cannot see any alternative to the current authorities. This
creates an atmosphere of distrust and ignorance to the political
processes in the country, he said.
Kocharian is apt to think that Armenia’s political machinery opposes
to people.
As a result, a new kind of pragmatism has become apparent: private
interests, which have nothing to do with public interests, are
gaining ground. Z. Sh. -0–
RA MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO VISIT SLOVENIA ON AUGUST 26-27
Noyan Tapan
Aug 24, 2007
YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, NOYAN TAPAN. Vardan Oskanian, the RA Minister of
Foreign Affairs, will be in Slovenia on an official visit, where he
will take part in the forum titled "EU 2020: expansion and integration"
to be held in the city of Bled.
It is envisaged that Mikhail Saakashvili, the President of Georgia,
Ivo Sanader, the Prime Minister of Croatia, Gediminas Kirkilas, the
Prime Minister of Lithuania, Nikola Gruevski, the Prime Minister
of the Republic of Macedonia, Marti Ahtisaari, the Special Envoy
of the United Naitons’ Secretary General for the settlement of
the future status of Kosovo, prime ministers, political figures,
EU officials, and representatives of analytical centres and
non-governmental organizations of a number of countries, who will
conduct discussions on the challenges set before Europe, will take
part in this conference. Discussions of issues concerning the European
integration are also scheduled by the agenda.
Vardan Oskanian is envisaged to make a speech during the discussion
titled "Economical and political directions of South Caucasus
and Central Asia: the role of the European Union and OSCE." Giorgi
Baramidze, the Vice Prime Minister of Georgia and the Georgian State
Minister of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Vagif Sadikov, the
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, and Peter Semnebi,
the EU Special Envoy for South Caucasus, will also take part in the
above-mentioned discussion.
According to the information provided to Noyan Tapan by the Press
and Information Department of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Vardan Oskanian will also have bilateral meetings in Bled.
On the invitation of Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Commissioner
for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, Vardan
Oskanian will take part in the meeting of the prime ministers of the
member countries of the European New Neighborhood Policy, on September
3-4, which will proceed under the title "To strengthen the European
Neighborhood Policy by working together."
The aim of the discussions to be conducted during the meeting,
at which the prime ministers of the 16 countries taking part in
the European Neighborhood Policy will be present, is to develop the
cooperation within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy
in the directions of trade liberalization, energetic security, and
challenges of climate changes.
During his visit to Brussels the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs will
meet with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Secretary General of NATO.
PRESS RELEASE
Date: August 21, 2007
Armenian National Committee of America
Eastern Region, US
P.O. Box 419, New York, NY 10108
Contact: Karine Birazian
Tel: 917-428-1918
ANCA ER DIRECTOR VISITS WITH SEVERAL ARMENIAN ACTIVISTS AND
CONGRESSIONAL OFFICES THROUGHOUT FLORIDA
Florida- Expanding Armenian activism in South & Central Florida,
Armenian National Committee of America, Eastern Region (ANCA ER)
Director Karine Birazian spent a week visiting several
Congressional offices, as well as meeting with several new Armenian
activists. Meetings with the Florida delegation included Kathy
Castor (D-11), Ric Keller (R-8), Ron Klein (D-22), Ileana Ros-
Lehtinen (R-18), and Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D-20), reported the
Armenian National Committee.
Birazian began her trip in the Fort Lauderdale area and had an
opportunity to meet with the Armenian National Committee of South
Florida team as well as the local Armenian community. Birazian also
spent time in Tampa, Orlando, and Miami where there has been a
steady growth in the Armenian population.
Traveling 180 miles north to Orlando, Birazian met with activists
and updated them on the current activities undertaken by the ANCA.
Birazian, Vagan Mikaelian, 2006 ANCA Leo Sarkisian Intern and Vice
President of the Ocala Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Chapter, and
Armenian activist John Shahinian visited Congressman Ric Keller’s
office. The 30-minute meeting provided the office with pertinent
information regarding the genocide legislation as well as the
growing Armenian community in the Orlando area. Following the
meeting, Mikaelian commented: "After having gone through the ANCA
Leo Sarkisian Internship and the plethora of congressional meetings
associated with it, I was thoroughly prepared to not only meet with
Congressman Keller, but to successfully interact with him on a
level previously unknown to me."
Traveling 90 miles Southeast to Armenia Ave. in Tampa, FL, Birazian
met with activist Dikran Kalaydjian, constituent of Congresswoman
Castor. There they met with both the District Director and
Outreach Director to discuss H. Res 106, the ongoing genocide in
Darfur, and other current issues regarding Armenia. Kalaydjian
also talked about the exhibit about the Armenian genocide at the
Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Fl. Birazian had been working
with Kalayjian for the past few months and had met with him during
her first fieldwork trip to Florida this past January.
In the heart of the ANC of S. Florida, Armenian activists Siran Der
Bedrossian and Hasmig Eskandarian, along with ANC Chairman Albert
Mazmanian and 2004 ANCA Leo Sarkisian Intern Mike Toumayan met with
District Director Felicia Goldstein of Congressman Klein’s office.
There, constituents Eskandarian and Der Bedrossian had an
opportunity to raise awareness of the pressing issues facing the
Armenian community. Der Bedrossian shared letters she received
from Klein regarding H. Res. 106, and urged that he sign on to the
legislation and take a stand in recognizing genocide. "It is
vitally important that Congressman Klein takes a stand and co-
sponsors the legislation. As a co-chair of the newly created Anti-
Semitism task force, we’re hoping that the Congressman will also
address the rising issue with the National ADL Headquarters and
urge them to push for legislation recognizing the Armenian
genocide," commented Der Bedrossian.
Kevin Epranian-Burgoyne, a constituent of Congresswoman Wasserman
Shultz had recently gotten in touch with the ANCA to take action on
H. Res 106. Following the meeting with her District Director, Jodi
Davidson Burgoyne commented: "I really appreciated the opportunity
to meet with Jodi in Congresswoman Wasserman Shultz’s office.
Having the chance to talk in length about the Armenian genocide
legislation and other concerns we have in the district opened the
doors to creating a stronger relationship with the Congresswoman."
Interested in becoming more involved, Burgoyne was in contact with
Birazian prior to the meeting, and plans to continue working on
issues important to the Armenian community.
Birazian and Toumayan also met with Sandra Lalaian, an Armenian
activist and constituent of Congresswoman Ros Lehtinen, Ranking
Member on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. There they met
with Chief of Staff Art Estopinan in the Miami office. Lalaian had
an opportunity to thank the office for the Congresswoman’s
continued support on human rights issues, and further discuss her
support for the legislation. Birazian was in contact with Lalaian
after she responded to the first ANCA call in day that took place
earlier this year on June 27th. The call in day generated thousands
of phone calls into Congressional offices urging their support of
H. Res 106.
"Overall I view this trip to be a huge success. This trip allowed
the ANCA to build relationships with so many new American Armenian
activists and further advance the Armenian cause. We will continue
to work to strengthen Florida and build Congressional support,"
reflected Birazian following the weeklong outreach.
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest
and most influential Armenian American grassroots political
organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters, and supporters throughout the United States and
affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA actively
advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad
range of issues.
####
Photo Captions:
Left to Right: Keri Eisenbeis, Outreach Director for Rep. Castor,
Chloe Coney, District Director for Rep. Castor, ANCA ER Exec.
Director Karine Birazian, Dikran Kalaydjian
Left to Right: Kevin Epranian-Burgoyne, Jodi Davidson, District
Director for Rep. Wasserman Shultz, ANCA ER Exec. Director Karine
Birazian, ANC of S. Fl activist Mike Toumayan
Left to Right: Art Estopinan, Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Ros
Lehtinen, ANCA ER Exec. Director Karine Birazian, ANC of S. Florida
activist Sandra Lalaian, and Mike Toumayan
ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT OFFERED PROPOSAL TO GEORGIA
Lragir
Aug 17 2007
Armenia
Armenia proposes founding an Armenian-Georgian university in
Javakheti, stated the minister of education and science Levon
Mkrtichyan in a news conference on August 17. He said they offered
this proposal to the Georgian government and they expect to make
arrangements during the visit of the Georgian minister of education
to Armenia in fall. Levon Mkrtichyan says Armenia had offered to
open a branch of an Armenian university in Georgia but the Georgian
party refused. Afterwards the Armenian party offered to found an
Armenian-Georgian university. According to the Armenian minister
of education and science, this practice is spread and accepted
in the world, and if Javakheti is viewed as a bridge between the
Armenian and Georgian relations, Georgia has no reason to reject
this proposal because similar universities are a form of expressing
friendly relations.
"If Georgia rejects this proposal, we have the right to ask why the
idea of an Armenian-Georgian university is rejected," says Levon
Mkrtichyan. During the visit of the Georgian minister of education
another issue will be raised – the problem of providing guidelines
on entrance to Armenian universities to Javakheti. Levon Mkrtichyan
says the Armenian government will finance, and only the consent of
the Georgian government if needed.
To facilitate the entrance exams for students from Javakheti,
the Armenian ministry of education and science has modified the
regulations of entrance exams for Diasporan students, eliminating
exams in Armenian.
SWINGING ADDIS
Rachel Aspden
New Statesman, UK
Aug 16 2007
Ethiopian pop was killed off by dictatorship, but left a rich and
eccentric legacy.
Ethiopian pop was born not in a smoky downtown nightclub, but in
the unpromisingly austere corridors of an Orthodox monastery. On
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1924, Ras Tafari – soon to become
the emperor Haile Selassie, King of Kings and Lion of Judah – met
a marching band of young Armenians orphaned in the recent Ottoman
massacres. After a brief consultation with the Armenian Patriarch,
he shipped the "Arba Lijoch" ("Forty Kids") back to Addis Ababa and
installed them as the imperial band. Trumpets, trombones and military
music arrived, colliding with the traditional krar (lyre) and begena
(King David’s harp).
Unlike its West African cousins, the weird, haunted music that
resulted has remained largely unknown in the west. In the 1960s and
1970s, while Accra, Bamako and Dakar were turning out perfect R’n’B
pop songs, soul ballads and full-on psychedelia (collected on the
recent Luaka Bop CD Love’s a Real Thing: the Funky Fuzzy Sounds of
West Africa), Addis musicians were playing downbeat jazz overlaid
with the snake-charmer discordancies of traditional Ethiopian vocals.
The music’s eccentricity may have saved it from "nomad chic" or
"global fusion". Now, its undeserved obscurity is challenged by The
Very Best of Ethiopiques, the French collector Francis Falceto’s pick
of what was originally a 22-CD series of 1960s and 1970s Ethiopiana.
The story – or myth – traced on Ethiopiques is partly one of historical
accident. Mountainous, anciently Christian, fiercely insular and the
only nation in Africa to escape colonisation, Ethiopia has little in
common with its neighbours. Its adoption of 20th-century saxophone,
trumpet and guitar intruders was slow and suspicious. Independent
western-style groups were banned, but the emperor’s favourite Armenians
were allowed to train approved (and salaried) institutional ensembles:
the Imperial Bodyguard Band, the Army Band, the Police Band, the
Municipality Band and the Haile Selassie Theatre Band.
But not even Selassie could fend off American jazz, R’n’B and pop. By
the 1950s, the Imperial Bodyguard Band was moonlighting as a dapper,
tuxedo-clad, Glen Miller-style set-up. Then, in the mid-1960s, 6,000
US Peace Corps volunteers arrived bearing (besides more essential gear)
flares, miniskirts, guitars and Stax and Motown records.
Soldiers from the US army base at Asmara, now the capital of Eritrea,
lent out their records and played jazz in bars around town. As the
ageing emperor’s grip on power weakened, institutional musicians
skipped off after work to play new-style jazz, funk and soul in
the nightclubs of Addis. For a few years, for a few Ethiopians,
their capital swung. Then, in 1974, the Derg military dictatorship
closed the clubs, instituted a curfew that lasted 17 years, and killed
Ethiopian pop stone dead.
Ethiopiques’s tale of the rise and fall of Swinging Addis is an
exercise in nostalgia – a mind- set so Ethiopian, that it has given
its name to the country’s own version of the blues, tezeta. Mulatu
Astatqe’s "Tezeta", "Yekermo Sew", "Yekatit" and "Gubelye" are
tezeta with a jazz twist: slinky, skewed instrumentals punctuated
by mournful sax solos. Astatqe was the first Ethiopian musician to
train in the west (in New York, where he played in Harlem clubs),
and his "Ethiojazz" is the most polished and cinematic music of this
collection. It is also – uncoincidentally – the best known in the
west, after Jim Jarmusch used it on the soundtrack to his 2005 study
of one man and his past, Broken Flowers.
But the nostalgia of Ethiopiques is not simply atmospheric. Having
struggled their way out of the imperial-era institutional bands, the
country’s big stars faced, from the mid-1970s, censorship, intimidation
and exile. Falceto’s liner notes make sad reading: Girma Beyene "sank
into the limbo of the anonymous Ethiopian diaspora"; Bahta Gebre-Heywet
"gave up singing to become an accountant at the Ambassador Cinema" in
Addis; Ayalew Mesfin "left some years ago to try his luck in the USA";
Tewelde Redda "lives as a refugee in the Netherlands"; Muluqen Mellesse
"emigrated to the United States and abandoned his career to embrace
Pentecostalism". A few still scrape a living by playing at weddings
or the Ethiopian restaurants around Washington, DC, a shadow-world
described in Dinaw Mengestu’s recent novel Children of the Revolution.
The musical remains of their "golden age" (which Falceto estimates
consists of "500 seven inches and 30 LPs") are eccentrically varied.
Typically recorded with a couple of microphones in the clubs, they are
also rougher-edged than Astatqe’s urbane arabesques. Mahmoud Ahmed’s
"Atawurulegn Lela", "Fetsum Denq Ledj Nesh", "Metche New" and "Ere
Mela Mela" – the first Ethiopian song that Falceto released, in 1986
– are nasal, powerfully sung anthems. Alemayehu Eshete borrows his
grunts, snarls and chuckles from James Brown, while Getatchew Mekurya
translates old war cries into manically over blown saxophone solos on
"Shellela".
These are defiantly urban styles, but there are also traces of
Ethiopia’s traditional music, largely played by azmari, the slightly
disreputable minstrel class famed for its satirical wordplay and
skill with the krar. One of the best tracks on Ethiopiques is Tewelde
Redda’s Eritrean independence song "Milenu", a mesmeric mix of loping,
hitching beat, blurred bassline and a tangle of lyre and guitar. It’s
sunny and surprising, and a reminder that Ethiopia’s answer to western
music was more than picturesque melancholy.
"The Very Best of Ethiopiques" (Union Square/ Manteca) is out now.
IRAN TO LEAD CENTRAL ASIA
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Aug 15 2007
This week, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad kicks off a tour of
neighboring states in South and Central Asia with a trip that begins
in Kabul and ends in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in time to attend the next
summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Asia Times
Online reported.
With the security deterioration in Afghanistan, openly admitted to by
that country’s President Hamid Karzai on his recent trip to Washington,
and rising Islamic militancy in the region and in China’s western
autonomous region of Xinjiang, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a
key regional player that can be counted on by the SCO member states,
irrespective of China’s recent misgivings about Iran’s inclusion as
a full member.
In Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad will reiterate Iran’s good-neighborly
policy, perhaps much to the chagrin of US President George W Bush,
who openly disagreed with Karzai’s pro-Iran comments at their recent
joint press conference. With their porous 936-kilometer border, Iran
and Afghanistan are grappling with a growing menace of drug traffic
that exacts the lives of hundreds of Iranian law-enforcement agents
annually, in addition to the deadly resurgence of the Taliban who,
having regrouped in Pakistan, have stepped up their attacks on the
Afghan government and US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces
stationed in the war-ravaged country.
In Turkmenistan, the country’s new leader, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov,
is playing a balancing act between Iran and Russia, in contrast to his
predecessor, Sapamurat Niyazov, who was closely aligned with Iran and
signed a (hitherto undisclosed) military pact. Considered a welcome
departure from Niyazov’s cultic brand of politics, Berdimuhamedov
is keen on not antagonizing Moscow, tantalizing it with offers of
marketing his country’s abundant gas resources through a pipeline to
Russia. Already, Turkmenistan has entered an agreement with Iran for
the transit of its gas to Turkey and Europe.
Iran and Turkmenistan have similar perspectives on the hitherto
inconclusive marathon discussions on the division of the Caspian Sea.
Iran is weary of any undue shift in Turkmenistan’s foreign policy in
Russia’s favor at a delicate time when Iran-Russia relations have hit
a new low as a result of the nuclear row and Russia’s appeasement
of Washington’s demand to link the fate of the Russian-made power
plant in Bushehr to the nuclear crisis. With President Vladimir Putin
beginning to flex Russian military muscle on Georgia, and through
a joint military exercise with China, Iran’s concerns about a new
Russian militarism are unmistakable.
In Uzbekistan, home to a US military base, Iran seeks to enhance
economic cooperation in part by improving the transportation
corridor between the two countries. According to Iran’s ambassador
to Uzbekistan, trade between Iran and Uzbekistan in the first nine
months of 2006 reached US$450 million. About 70 joint ventures and
representative offices of big Iranian companies are operating in the
various sectors of the Uzbek economy. Iran is soliciting Tashkent’s
support on Iran’s nuclear program, and that is only one of several
reasons Tehran, always considering Uzbekistan a regional middleweight,
is keen on cultivating relations.
In the "near neighbor" Tajikistan, considered close to Iran’s heart
because of various cultural and historical connections, Tehran’s aim is
to build on the progress made as a result of the January visit by the
Tajik President Imomali Rahmonov, which paved the way for an expansion
of bilateral ties, eg agreements providing for Iranian assistance for
several Tajik infrastructure projects, including construction of the
Sangtuda-2 hydroelectric power station and the Shahristan Tunnel.
In light of the continuing tensions between and among the Central
Asian states of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan over scarce
water and arable land, Iran is a suitable mediator with a rather
shining record, seeing how it successfully brokered peace among the
Tajik warring factions during the mid-1990s. Unfortunately, to this
date, Iran’s conflict-management role, both in Tajikistan and in the
Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, have remained
largely unnoticed in the Western media’s coverage of Iran.
In Kazakhstan, Iran seeks to boost its oil and trade relations and to
do so partly by arranging sub-national, ie, region-to-region relations
through its Caspian provinces. Kazakhstan has an oil-swap agreement
with Iran, whereby every year some 1.2 million barrels of oil are
exported from Aktau, Kazakhstan, to Iran, which then transports this
oil to the Arab states of the Persian Gulf region.
Iran’s oil companies are active in Kazakh oil activities in the
Caspian Sea and, barring unforeseen developments, the two countries
can expand their trade even beyond the US$2 billion reported for 2006.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has expressed support for Iran’s
peaceful nuclear program and may even push aggressively for Iran’s
inclusion in the SCO, given Kazakhstan’s close yet not too close
relations with both China and Russia. Kazakhstan is averse toward
SCO’s evolution as a Warsaw Treaty-like organization, which is why
it has "sent a signal to Washington" by not allowing the Chinese
soldiers participating in the joint exercise to travel to Russia
through its territory.
In Kyrgyzstan, after a recent trip by Iran’s finance minister promising
the allocation of Iran’s 50 million euros ($66.67 million) credit for
joint development and industrial projects in Bishkek, Iran is looking
to expand ties in all domains, as part and parcel of it broader Central
Asian policy that includes the ambitious plans for a "new Silk Road"
connecting Iran and China through the region.
All five Central Asian states and Afghanistan are members of the
regional Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which has been a
forum for discussion among these states for trade and transportation
linkages among them. By more organically connecting Afghanistan to
Central Asia within the scope of its regionalist approach, Iran hopes
to see a certain geopolitical dividend emerge that may, in fact,
influence the SCO’s approach toward it.
A timely boost to the hitherto neglected aspect of Ahmadinejad’s
foreign policy, which has been understandably more preoccupied with
the volatile Persian Gulf and Iraq, his tour of the region will not
only reinforce Iran’s image as a pillar of cooperation and stability,
it will also indirectly help Iran’s Persian Gulf strategy, which has
met the resistance of Saudi Arabia (boycotting last week’s security
meeting on Iraq held in Damascus).
After all, Iran can also play transit route for the Arab states of
Persian Gulf seeking trade and investment in the landlocked Central
Asian states. That aside, geostrategically speaking, Iran eases
pressure on itself by getting more breathing space in this newly
independent region still grappling with the problems of state-making.
FIRE BRIGADE DISCOVERS BURNT FOOD AFTER EMERGENCY CALL
Panorama.am
15:28 14/08/2007
Fire started at a nearby gorge of Hrazdan stadium of Yerevan at night
today. One fire brigade left for the place of the accident after the
emergency call. The fire was put out at 02:39 a.m. The grass on the
space of two hundred square meters was burnt down. Another fire started
at 4th massive of Nor Nork community today resulting in extermination
of twenty square meters of garbage. Rescue Service say five fire
brigades were needed to put out the fire set out on the roof of 63
Movses Khornatsy 4th Lane. The brigade managed to put out the fire in
two hours. The fire destroyed 200 square meters of space on the roof.
Sixty outmoded tires burned by fire in the vicinity of 12/1 Tadevosyan
Street. Another emergency call was received on that fire started in
one of the apartments at Aigestan 9th street. The fire brigade found
out at the place of the incident that food left carelessly on the
gas oven was on fire.
RA PRESIDENT’S OPTIMISM "HAS TURNED MORE CAUTIOUS"
armradio.am
13.08.2007 16:57
RA President’s Spokesman Viktor Soghomonyan said in an interview
with Mediamax that the Armenian President’s optimism regarding the
perspectives of the Karabakh conflict solution "has become more
cautious."
Commenting on the current stage of negotiations and the statements
of official Baku that the process has entered a deadlock, Viktor
Soghomonyan noted, "In reality, it is very difficult to give a definite
evaluation to the current state of negotiations. I would prefer to
keep away from harsh formulations, especially considering that, as
a rule, the evaluations of the negotiation process by conflicting
sides are often subjective."
"In any case, the reality is that the talks have not yielded any
results thus far. For us the reasons of this situation are clear. It
is the destructive position of the Azerbaijani side, the illusions
that time can be turned back, history can be edited and there can be
a return to the situation of 1988.
The existence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic is an irrefutable
fact and it cannot be a matter of dispute. For that very reason,
taking into consideration Azerbaijan’s obviously destructive way of
action, President Kocharyan has declared many times that he looks at
the perspectives of solution with cautious optimism. Unfortunately,
it seems that the President’s optimism has turned more cautious today,"
Viktor Soghomonyan said.
The President’s Spokesman also turned to the statements Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev made in the resent interview with "Express"
and "K" newspapers of Kazakhstan.
Ilham Aliyev had said, in part, that "the Armenian side is not sincere
in the negotiations, it tries to gain time and deceives the mediators"
and "if Armenia stops its occupation policy, our relations can improve,
and the Armenian people will get more from the cooperation with us
than the alms from abroad."
"Unfortunately, Aliyev’s political will and courage sufficed to come
forth with the recurrent tactless expressions only. Naturally, I’m
not going to comment on all of this. I will only say that there are
people who will take care of the future of Armenia and the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic.
Let Mr. Aliyev mind his own problems," Viktor Soghomonyan said.