Author: Chmshkian Vicken

Zaman, Turkey
April 15 2005
Important Messages from Erdogan
By Zaman
Published: Friday 15, 2005
zaman.com
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Zaman’s editors
yesterday April 14 with some of his cabinet members and his advisers.
Erdogan conveyed important messages about the issues on the agenda.
About terrorist leader Abdullah Ocalan, Erdogan said, “Everyone wants
to have their say,” and explained the government’s approach: “The
validity of verdicts by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is
determined in our Constitution. Nothing is official yet and I have
made no announcements. It is up to the judiciary what should be done
after the ECHR verdict. If we trust in the Turkish judicial system,
why should we create tension in the country?”
Describing incidents of flag burning in Mersin and its reflections in
Trabzon as “provocative events”, the Prime Minister disclosed that
they know the names behind the provocations, but will not declare
them as it might cause difficulties over measures to be taken against
them.
When asked about problems of religious high schools and the headscarf
ban, Erdogan replied: “We don’t speak about the headscarf problem, we
live it.” Expressing that the problem could be solved by social
consensus, Erdogan clarified: “I don’t mean a consensus at the
people’s level. There is already such a consensus. What we need is a
consensus in parliament. Mr. Deniz Baykal should accept that
parliament does not reflect the will of the people.” The Prime
Minister expressed that if the government and the opposition worked
together on this issue as they are on the Armenian issue, they could
find a solution.
Speaking of economic successes, Erdogan emphasized that they can not
expect much for the sale of the media holdings of the Turkish Savings
and Insurance Deposits Fund (TMSF). Erdogan told Zaman: “If the
article that envisions sales to foreigners had not been rejected by
Cankaya, the sale would have been realized imemdiately. If we attempt
to evaluate this within our own internal market, it is impossible to
reach the expected amount. Despite objections, our national interests
require them to be opened to the rest of the world.” Saying that they
will implement a limit on sales of media to foreigners, Erdogan said
that sales to foreign media groups would be limited to 25 percent of
the Turkish market, though they would be able to buy an entire
channel within this limit.
Erdogan also addressed criticisms in the media: “We would benefit if
criticisms are conducted in a polite manner because the press and the
media live in the middle of daily events. Turkish people cannot
tolerate impolite and unethical criticisms.”

Watertown TAB & Press, MA
April 15 2005
Plant a tree, grow hope
The Armenia Tree Project is looking for people to adopt one of 90,000
they hope to plant in Armenia this spring – 1,000 trees for each year
that has passed since the Armenian Genocide – as part of its “Trees
of Hope” campaign.

“ATP is inviting Armenians all over the world to join us as we
remember the past and embrace the future by planting Trees of Hope
all across the Armenian homeland,” said Jeff Masarjian, executive
director of ATP, which is based in Watertown. “These memorial trees
are not only an inspiring way to honor our lost ancestors, but also a
very practical way to preserve the precious Armenian homeland,
restoring its environmental integrity and scenic beauty.”

The project’s goal is to grow thousands of trees to maturity by
the Genocide’s 100th anniversary commemoration, Masarjian said.

Those who adopt Trees of Hope may participate with gifts
starting at $15, which covers the propagating, planting and
care-taking of one tree. In addition to a single commemorative tree,
they can adopt a four-tree cluster, an eight-tree grove, a 35-tree
arbor, a 100-tree woodland or a 335-tree forest. Participants can opt
to receive a personalized Trees of Hope certificate as a keepsake.

Donations may be made by mail, phone or online. For more
information, call 617-926-8733 or log on to

A1plus
| 19:30:30 | 13-04-2005 | Sports |
8TH PLACE WITH THE RESULT OF THE 2ND
The chess international tournament in Dubai was finished. In the last round
Ashot Anastasyan played a draw with Viorel Jordanesku and gaining 6.5 points
together with 10 other players took the 2nd place. But with the
supplementary indices he was given the 8th place.
Gabriel Sargsyan and Artashes Minasyan having 5.5 points each took the 38th
and 40th places respectively. And Elina Danielyan gaining 4.5 points was
only the 76th in about 150 players.

ARMENIAN INSPECTION FOR NATURE PROTECTION REVEALS ILLEGAL SUBSOIL USE
BY 32 TRANSACTION UNITS
YEREVAN, APRIL 13. ARMINFO. As a result of check-ups conducted in
Jan-Mar 2005, Armenia’s Inspection for nature protection revealed
facts of illegal subsoil use by 32 transaction units, informed
Minister for nature protection Vardan Ayvazyan at today’s
press-conference.
He noted that at present the worst situation of a fertile stratum of
soil is observed in the territory of Kajaran copper-molybdenum
industrial complex which does not fulfil mine reclamation. Ayvazyan
stated that the same situation of arbitrary subsoil use is also
observed in the other mines. Takings given from subsoil users will be
returned to themselves by their agreement when guaranteeing to fulfil
reclamation works. Otherwise, the Ministry will announce a tender for
conducting these works around the mines which will allow to use the
fertile stratum of soil in future. -r-
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

–Boundary_(ID_vnWjuVJxAeGY2Hk+uBacsg)
Content-typ e: message/rfc822
From: Darwin Jamgochian
Subject: ‘CNN Traveller’ Introduces Armenia to a Vast Audience
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1; reply-type=original
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Yerevan, April 12
‘CNN Traveller’ Introduces Armenia to a Vast Audience
(LONDON) CNN Traveller magazine, one of the world’s leading travel magazines
with a worldwide readership of more than 800,000, features Armenia’s ecology
in its current (April) issue.
This is the highest-circulation travel magazine to ever feature Armenia in
its pages, and it is the most widely-circulated magazine feature on Armenia
in the United Kingdom, where CNN Traveller is published. The story thus
introduces Armenia to a vast audience.
The feature describes the current state of the environment in Armenia, as
measured by the health and biological diversity of its bird population-a
marker that scientists believe is one reliable measure of a region’s
ecological health.
Armenia has a “disproportionately large number of bird species within its
modest geographic area,” write the story’s authors Robert Kurkjian and
Matthew Karanian, and this explains part of the attraction that the country
has to ornithologists and other scientists, they say.
Kurkjian and Karanian are experts on the Armenian environment. Kurkjian is
an environmental scientist with a Ph D from the University of California.
Karanian is an attorney who teaches environmental law at the American
University of Armenia. They are also professional photographers, and their
images illustrate the CNN story, as well as dozens of other magazine stories
they have co-authored about Armenia and Karabagh.
Their CNN story is an account of a birding expedition that had been
organized by the American University of Armenia’s “Birds of Armenia”
research project. The project, which is funded by the Armenian-American
philanthropist and conservationist Sarkis Acopian, has been working for the
past decade to raise environmental awareness in Armenia.
The magazine story’s authors, Karanian and Kurkjian, are also the authors
and photographers who created the recently-released country guide, “The
Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and Karabagh.” Their book includes a chapter
on Armenia’s conservation efforts.
The editors of CNN Traveller write that it is “the first stand-alone guide
to this often forgotten part of the world.” At 304-pages, “The Stone Garden
Guide to Armenia and Karabagh” is also the most comprehensive country guide
for the region, and it features 75 stunning color photographs and 25
detailed maps.
–Boundary_(ID_vnWjuVJxAeGY2Hk+uBacsg)–

ARMENIAN KHACHKARS TO BE DISPLAYED IN LOUVRE
Arminfo
YEREVAN, APRIL 8. ARMINFO. Armenian khachkars (cross-stones) will be
displayed in Louvre within the framework of the Year of Armenia in
France, which will be held in 2006-2007.
France’s Ambassador to Armenia Henry Cuny informed ARMINFO,
French experts of the famous museum arrived in Yerevan recently,
who must select Khachkars from the funds of a number of museums of
Armenia for the Louvre. Numerous cultural arrangements, as well as
trade exhibitions of food and other products made in Armenia will be
organized within the framework of the Year of Armenia in France. The
ambassador mentioned that the apricot will become the main fruit symbol
of Armenia, as Armenian apricots are famous for its flavouring quality
already all over the world. Henry Cuny mentioned that the holding
of the Year will help to present wide sections of the population of
France with rich culture of Armenia, which, in its turn, will attract
the interest of the French to visit Armenia. “Armenia is one of the
most stable countries of the world”, the ambassador mentioned.

The Vatican
APOSTOLIC VOYAGE IN ARMENIA
FAREWELL CEREMONY
ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II
Zvartnotz International Airport
Yerevan, 27 September 2001
Your Excellency President Kocharian,
Your Holiness,
Dear Armenian Friends,
1. The time has come to say farewell and to thank you, Mr President,
and the members of the Government for the wonderful hospitality I
have found in Armenia. I am grateful to everyone, authorities and
collaborators, civil and military, the men and women of the media, to
all who have given their time and skills to make this visit a success.
With deep emotion I express my thanks to you, Your Holiness, Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos, and to the hierarchy and faithful of
the Armenian Apostolic Church for the spirit of brotherly love and
communion which we have shared in these days.
2. Farewell to you, dear Archbishop Nerses, Archbishop Vartan, Bishop
Giuseppe, and to the priests, men and women religious, and laity of
the Catholic Church. With intense joy we have celebrated together
the mystery of our faith, and I have experienced at first hand your
desire to work with all your fellow citizens for greater justice and
a better life for all Armenians. The Pope keeps you in his heart, and
God himself will give you strength to meet the challenges before you.
I express once more my esteem for the representatives of all the
Churches and Ecclesial Communities who have taken part in the events of
my visit. May all the followers of Christ grow in trust and ecumenical
friendship as we move into the Third Millennium and travel the path
of ever closer union and cooperation!
3. Thank you, people of Armenia, for the warmth of your friendship,
for the prayer we have shared, for your yearning for Christian
unity. Thank you most of all for the witness of your faith, a faith
you have not abandoned in dark times, a faith which remains deeply
rooted in your families and in your national life.
Throughout history, Mount Ararat has been a symbol of stability and
a source of confidence for the Armenian people. Yet time and again
that stability and confidence were sorely tested by violence and
persecution. The Armenian people have paid dearly for their frontier
existence, so much so that the words “holiness” and “martyrdom” have
become almost identical in your vocabulary. The terrible events at
the beginning of the last century which brought your people “to the
brink of annihilation”, the long years of totalitarian oppression,
the devastation of a disastrous earthquake: none of these has been
able to prevent the Armenian soul from regaining courage and recovering
its great dignity.
4. It is true, these are difficult years, and your heart is sometimes
weary and unsure. Many of your young people have left the land of their
birth; there is not enough work and poverty persists; it is hard to
keep striving for the common good. But, dear Armenian Friends, hold
on to hope! Remember that you have put your trust in Christ and said
yes to him for ever. Supported by your Armenian brothers and sisters
throughout the world you are committed to the task of rebuilding in
freedom your country and your society.
The time is ripe for your nation to gather its cultural resources
and spiritual energies in a great concerted effort to develop and
prosper on the basis of the fundamental truths of your Christian
heritage: the dignity of every human being, the centrality of the
person in every relationship and situation, the moral imperative
of equal justice for all, and solidarity with the weak and the less
fortunate. I pray to the Lord that the leaders of Armenia and of the
other peoples of the region will have the wisdom and perseverance
to move forward courageously on the path of peace, for without peace
there can be no genuine development and prosperity.
5. In saying farewell, I am filled with confidence, for I have seen
your resilience and the nobility of your aspirations. May Armenian
hearts ever repeat the words of your great poet Hovhannès Tumaniàn
about the homeland:
“But still you live, standing erect in spite of all your wounds
on the mysterious journey of time, past and present,
still standing, wise and pensive, and sad, with your God . . .
And the dawn of life’s happiness will come,
its light at last in thousands upon thousands of souls;
and on the sacred slopes of your Mount Ararat
will shine forth at last the flame of the time to come.
Then, with the dawn, new songs and new poems
will be on the lips of the poets”.
May Saint Gregory the Illuminator and the great host of Armenian
Martyrs and Saints watch over you now and in the future! And may the
Mother of Christ, Ark of the New Covenant, guide Armenia to the peace
which lies beyond the great flood, the peace of God who has set his
bow in the clouds as a sign of his everlasting love (cf. Gen 9:13).
Thank you, Mr President! Thank you, dear Brother Karekin! Thank
you all!
–Boundary_(ID_rj71TLnORnxiNEgbUQCOfQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

JAZZ HAS MANY COLORS
A1plus
| 14:15:46 | 08-04-2005 | Culture |
What is the color of jazz? «Jazz has so many colors that it is
factually colorless. And today it depends on the music that will
sound», says Vardan Ayvazyan, student of the Yerevan Art Institute
after Terlemezyan. He is one of the 15 participants of the competition
of artists «Colors of Jazz» which started today in the Artist’s
House.
Students of the Yerevan State Art Academy and Art Institute after
Terlemezyan take part in the competition. Serine Avagyan, student of
the Yerevan State Art Academy, thinks that «Jazz color is red as it
is the music of aggression, craziness». The exhibition was organized
by the American Embassy to Armenia and the Artists’ Union.
Cooperating with the Smithson National Museum, the USA has announced
April the Month of Jazz starting from 2002. Days of Jazz are being
organized in Armenia fro the 4th time already. Concerts will be
organized in different halls of Yerevan. Except the ball «Swing»
on April 9 the entrance of all the other concerts will be free.
–Boundary_(ID_QDEIrajCebn2C5SJSQb6PA)–

Ma, ensemble improvise in a lively musical tour
MUSIC REVIEW
The Boston Globe
April 7, 2005
By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble gave a large and enthusiastic
audience a 2½-hour multicultural hootenanny in Symphony Hall last night.
An ensemble of 14 virtuoso musicians from many lands joined the cellist
for a program that presented four kinds of music: authentic folk music
from countries along the Silk Road; modern arrangements of folk music
for mixtures of Eastern and Western instruments; contemporary composed
music with deep roots in national and folk cultures; and cheerful
crosscultural improvisations.
Although Ma founded the Silk Road Project, it has grown and developed in
surprising ways because he has never made it all about himself. For most
of the evening, he was an ensemble player, emerging for only one solo,
”Habil-Sayagy,” a substantial piece for cello and prepared piano by
Franghiz Ali-Zadeh. This is an amazing piece to have been composed by a
woman in Baku in 1979. The innards of the piano were atmospherically
plucked and struck by Joel Fan, while Ma used his instrument in an
improvisational recitative-and-aria style based on the sound and
traditional repertory of the kamancheh, an instrument from Azberaijan.
Wu Man, virtuoso of the Chinese pipa, made herself completely at home in
Romanian gypsy music; in these exciting and smoochy tunes, violinists
Colin Jacobsen and Jonathan Gandelsman vied with each other in speed and
altitude. Gevorg Dabaghyan proved the expressive master of the Armenian
duduk, a small instrument with a large, plaintive sound resembling a
combination of clarinet, oboe, and saxophone. Sandeep Das, playing the
tabla from India, joined three Western drummers to create waves of
rhythm. The astonishing vocalist Alim Qasimov from Azberaijan boasts a
tenor so high that high C was a note to play in the midst of volatile
cascades of expressive coloratura.
Percussionist Shane Shanahan announced the last encore by saying this is
what the party would have sounded like if all the musicians had
simultaneously pulled into the same oasis on the Silk Road centuries
ago; it was great fun to join them there.
–Boundary_(ID_PZVE/FZVFNcZ65PO/j8oCA)–

GAZPROM COMPANY RUSSIAN SPECIALISTS ARRIVED IN YEREVAN
07.04.2005 07:27
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Gazprom company Russian specialists have arrived in
Yerevan to study the Armenian part of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline
route. In the words of Gazprom Deputy head Alexander Ryazanov, a
capital of $140 million is necessary to realize the Armenian part of
the project in question, Regnum news agency reported. Three parties
will take part in the pipeline building – Iran, the Armenian Government
and Russia represented by RAO UES of Russia. ArmRosgazprom has already
set about the building of Meghri-Kajaran segment. According to
the basic Armenian-Iranian agreement, the gas pipeline will be put
into operation January 1, 2007. Within the following 20 years Iran
will provide 36 billion cubic meters of gas to Armenia. The blue
fuel will be processed here into electric power, which is subject to
export back to Iran. Sanir Iranian company is the project contractor,
while ArmRosgazprom is the sub-contractor (Gazprom and the Armenian
Government hold 45% of the company shares each and Itera group of
companies possess the remaining 10%). The project is estimated to
cost $200-250 million, $30 million out of it being the cost of the
first part of the Armenian segment of the pipeline making 41km – from
Meghri town near the Iranian border to Kajaran – are already provided
by the Export and Development Bank of Iran. Realization of that stage
will allow Armenia receiving 1.5 million cubic meters of gas daily.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress