Author: Dabaghian Diana

NATO SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE SATISFIED WITH NEGOTIATIONS IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24. ARMINFO. Robert Simmons, NATO Secretary
General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, is
satisfied with the negotiations in Yerevan. He declared during the
news conference in Yerevan, Thursday.
According to him, during the present visit to Yerevan he has met with
representatives of the leadership of the Republic of Armenia. During
these meetings the special representative has informed about the
results of NATO summit in Brussels and discussion of the theme of
Iran, meeting with the President of the Ukraine Victor Yushchenko, the
relations Russia-NATO and other partners of the organization. Robert
SImmons also introduced with the NATO Officer of Relations Romualds
Razuks. Mentioning Armenia’s cooperation with NATO within framework of
different events, the special representative especially stressed
Armenia’s participation in peacekeeping missions to Kosovo and
Iraq. Answering a question of journalists, Robert Simmons said that
the theme of Armenian-Turkish relations were not discussed during the
meetings. “Here I represent NATO as a whole, not going to the hearth
of the relations of Armenia with separate members of the
organization”, he mentioned. Returning Brussels he intends to report
on the good negotiations with the leadership of Armenia, said Robert
Simmons.

Lexington Winchester Star, MA
Feb 24 2005
Business helps Armenian artisans from afar
By Christopher Rocchio/ Staff Writer
Gail O’Reilly, a Winchester resident since 1979, has served the
community in a variety of ways over the years. She is a member, and
former president, of the Winchester League of Women Voters. She was
also a Town Meeting member from 1985 to 2003.

Her memberships, O’Reilly said, are an outlet for her sense of
civic duty and she has enjoyed the experiences and people. But while
she was busy serving the community, her father asked a question that
impacted her life: Why don’t you do something for your own people? he
said to her.

O’Reilly took her father’s advice, and in 2000, began Made in
Armenia Direct, a business that brings authentic treasures made by
Armenia’s most skilled artisans to the U.S. She said the business
idea originated when she made her first trip to Armenia in 1991.
There she took pleasure strolling through a local park. On weekends,
she said many Armenian artisans would gather to peddle their goods,
but appeared to be having a tough time supporting themselves.

“It broke my heart,” said O’Reilly. “There were very few
tourists, so I was concerned the artisans would leave the country,
which in turn would then lose the skill.”

After another trip in 2000, she decided expose the artisans and
their goods to an American market. The operation began as a Web site.
At the time, she said, Armenians who had lived under communism their
whole lives had no idea about accountability and quality control.
O’Reilly said the artisans never thought of being entrepreneurs, and
she was unsure what could be delivered, in what quantity and how
fast. Now she knows, and the system has grown smoother.

“One of my goals is to be in as many retail stores in the U.S.
as possible,” she said.

Made in Armenia Direct currently works with about 50 artisans
and three cooperatives. Goods include handmade jewelry (pendants,
earrings and bracelets), leisure items (toys, games, dolls, musical
instruments, postcards and books), home decor items (wall hangings,
paintings, decorative plates, vases, candleholders and tableware),
apparel and accessories (scarves, ties, bags, hats and capes) and
holiday specialties.

Currently, Made in Armenia Direct goods are sold in 12 retail
stores across the nation, with some as close as Arlington and others
as far as Wisconsin. While she doesn’t mind the Web-based business,
she said the work attracts more attention if sold in retail stores.

“Every artisan is an independent agent,” she said. “They’re not
employed by me.”

O’Reilly said she is very cognizant of child labor laws, and
none of the goods she sells are produced in sweat shops. Also, she
doesn’t negotiate with the artisans, and generally pays them what
they ask. If the product does not sell because the cost is too high,
she believes the craftspeople will understand why she doesn’t order
from them anymore.

“I don’t want to compete with third-world countries for goods,”
said O’Reilly.

When the business first began, she found artisans by walking
through the park that gave her the idea for the business, and
approaching them to ask if she could market for them. She also knows
a few Armenian Americans who have since moved back to Armenia, and
help her identify certain gifted artisans. Mostly, her search for
craftspeople passes from word-of-mouth, and she almost never returns
to the park that sparked the idea.

“Some artisans who used to sell their goods in the park aren’t
there anymore,” said O’Reilly. “It’s because I’m giving them enough
business.”

O’Reilly showed off examples of several of the goods that Made
in Armenia Direct sells. She said hand-sewn cards, available only in
retail store locations, were made in an orphanage. O’Reilly said this
may sound like a sweat shop, but explained the children who live in
the orphanage are trained with a skill at 16 years so they will be
prepared to enter the world once they turn 18. The cards are made by
teen-agers preparing to leave the orphanage.

“It fits nicely with one of my goals to keep the artisans in
Armenia, but allow them to work and live with dignity,” she said.

Also, O’Reilly said she worked with college-aged students at a
design school in Armenia to design and create a cape. While the
student’s work was terrific, O’Reilly said the project hit a snag
when she realized the students did not have “American taste” and were
unsure what colors, fabrics and patterns to incorporate in the
design. From now on, O’Reilly brings American catalogs with her
whenever she travels to Armenia to show the artisans the type of
things people in this country have a desire for.

“It was a lot of work designing the cape but we all did it
together,” she said.

While she travels a lot with her husband, O’Reilly said they had
never been to Armenia before 1991 when they accompanied the Armenian
Assembly of America. She said a devastating earthquake hit Armenia in
1988, and the assembly and U.S. government raised a total of $7
million for relief efforts. Specifically, she said the money was used
to build a housing manufacturing plant to help more than 500,000
displaced Armenians.

“Attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the factory is what
brought me to Armenia, and the trip changed my life,” she said.

O’Reilly tells all the Armenian Americans she meets if they
visit their home country – they will not return the same. She saw
many impoverished people, thought of her grandparents and felt how
fortunate she was.

“I felt for those people and thought it was my responsibility to
take care of my homeland,” she said.

Made in Armenia Direct products can be purchased at Artwear or
Crossroads Trade, both located on Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington.
They can also be found via the Web site

ArmenPress
Feb 22 2005
ARTASHES GEGHAMIAN SET TO BREAK BOYCOTT OF PARLIAMENT WORK
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS: One of the two major Armenian
opposition parties indicated last Saturday it is set to backpedal on
its promises to continue the boycott of the parliament. The deputy
chairman of the National Unity of Artashes Geghamian told a meeting
of its activists the party will show up in the parliament when it
starts debates on a number of “vital” issues.
Geghamian for his part denounced the other major opposition force,
the Ardarutyun alliance, led by Stepan Demirchian, for being jealous
of its attempts to rally the people. Geghamian’s deputy argued also
there is no a force in Armenia that could assume the governance of
the country and went as far as to accuse other opposition forces of
“executing the orders of the authorities.”

CENTRAL BANK LAUNCHES DEPOSIT COMPENSATION FUND
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Central Bank called a
special news conference on Friday to announce the inception of a
special bank fund that will recompense individual clients’ deposits in
case a bank goes bankrupt. The fund’s board of trustees comprises two
deputy finance and economy ministers, Central Bank chairman, a member
of the Union of Banks, as well as a parliament member. A competition
will be announced for the position of the fund’s executive manager.
Central Bank chairman Tigran Sarkisian said the fund is established
to raise the reliability of deposits’ return.
The fund will have a special account in the Central Bank and each
of commercial banks will have to contribute to it a sum equal to 0.2
percent of all its deposits. If a bank goes bankrupt the fund will
compensate all dram accounts not exceeding 2 million and also accounts
in US Dollar equal to 1 million drams. The difference is to foster
clients to keep their deposits in the national currency.
At present the fund has on its account 2 million US Dollar worth
drams and another 3.5 million euros are expected to come from the
government of Germany.
The aggregate amount of individual deposits in all commercial banks
amounts now to 110 billion drams, the majority of accounts-95
percent-are in US Dollars.

ARMENIAN PRELACY OF CANADA AGAINST SAME-SEX MARRIAGES
PanArmenian News
Feb 16 2005
16.02.2005 14:34
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ His Eminence, Archbishop Khajag Hagopian,
Prelate, issues a communiqué on the stance taken by the Canadian
Armenian Prelacy and the Armenian Apostolic Church with regards
to the Canadian government’s current attempts to table a same-sex
marriage bill. In the communiqué, the Prelate expresses his worries
towards this bill, which, if it were to pass, would render same-sex
marriages as a legal and officially recognized union by the Canadian
government. The legalizing of this union in turn, does not reflect but
distorts the understanding of the proper structure of the Christian
family. Although, the Armenian Apostolic Church understands that
homosexuality may be innate or a consequence of psychological and
social environments, it cannot acknowledge same-sex marriages as
a natural and blessed union. The Armenian Prelacy’s opposition to
same-sex marriages is not meant to discriminate against homosexuals,
and the Prelacy believes that all creatures of God deserve our love
and respect and in no way should be subjected to hate or intolerance.
–Boundary_(ID_EMLEEjOIN6NWvkPjKWfzAA)–

Christian Today
Feb 15 2005
WCC Central Committee Meeting Focuses on Reconciliation & Healing
Catholicos Aram I, Lebanon (Left) and WCC General Secretary Rev. Dr.
Samuel Kobia (Peter Williams / WCC)
Opening Worship (Peter Williams / WCC)
Opening actions: Introduction, consensus procedures (Peter Williams /
WCC)
The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee meeting opens
on 15th February and will continue until February 22. The meeting
aims to prepare for the ninth assembly of the Council, which meets in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, in February 2006, with the theme “God, in your
grace, transform the world”.
The WCC central committee this year gathers under the overall theme
of “Healing and reconciliation”. On 15th February, the Moderator,
Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, called on the worldwide
church to rediscover healing as a comprehensive ministry that
transforms, empowers and reconciles.
Citing the tragedy that happened ninety years ago when the Ottoman
empire began to kill the Armenians within its borders, a million and
a half Armenian lives were claimed, Catholicos Aram urged the church
worldwide to take responsibility for recovering the history.
“The past haunts the victims,” Aram I said, “We cannot free ourselves
from the past unless that past is duly recognised.”
“God’s mission calls for a healing church in the midst of a broken,
fragmented and alienated world,” he continued.
According to Aram I, this reconciliation is something more than
political issue, “It is a change of consciousness, transformation of
attitudes, healing of memories.”
As churches reconcile with God, it also means reconciling with one
another and the whole creation, building bridges across religious,
social and cultural divides.
In addition, he emphasised the importance of confession in the
process of reconciliation. “Guilt must be admitted; truth must be
told”, Aram I said. Recognition and confession open the way to
forgiveness.
Through recognition, confession and forgiveness, both victim and
perpetrator can “liberate themselves from the bitterness of the past”
and, by looking for “restorative and transformative justice”, commit
themselves to “life together in peace with justice”.
In conclusion, six tasks were outlined as continuing priorities for
the ecumenical movement and the WCC in the years ahead:
– exploring what it means to “be church”;
– caring for life in all its forms;
– addressing contemporary ethical issues;
– viewing ecology as a moral, theological, and spiritual question;
– promoting reconciliation as a key element in mission; and
– challenging the dominant concepts and practices of power.
“God’s healing power transforms the ambiguity of human power, moving
the world from power that is absolute, centralised, violent and
self-sufficient to power that is vulnerable, accountable, non-violent
and shared,” said Arma I.
Eunice K. Y. Or

Boston Globe, MA
Feb 13 2005
Nominees have ties to Boston and the past
Up for Grammys: local artists and music with roots
By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff
The nominations for classical Grammys used to be predictable — big
stars performing standard repertoire for the megalabels. For several
years, however, they have reflected changes in the industry: Now you
are as likely to see nominees that feature little-known repertoire
on independent or budget labels, played by exemplary musicians who
aren’t necessarily celebrities.
The current nominations draw attention to releases the general
music-loving public might not have encountered. That is certainly
true of two discs with strong Boston connections that appear
alongside Andre Previn’s Violin Concerto “Anne-Sophie” with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer and featuring his wife,
Anne-Sophie Mutter, as superstar soloist.
A Naxos disc in the Milken Archive series of American Jewish music,
“The Mirror,” which contains music by Boston composer Yehudi Wyner,
was nominated in two categories, producer of the year (David Frost)
and best small ensemble. In the producer category, Frost is up against
Manfred Eicher, founder of ECM records, and one of the records that won
him his nomination was a two-CD set, “Monodia,” music by the Armenian
composer Tigran Mansurian. “Monodia” was also nominated in the best
instrumental soloist category, where New England Conservatory faculty
violist Kim Kashkashian finds herself competing against Mutter. The
recording also chalked up a third nomination, in best classical
composition, where it is up against Previn’s concerto. Small world.
Wyner, 75, whose piano concerto receives its world premiere at the
Boston Symphony Orchestra on Feb. 17, is the son of Lazar Weiner,
the preeminent composer of Yiddish art song. The Naxos disc collects
three of his works on specifically Jewish subjects.
The title piece, “The Mirror,” comes from incidental music that
Wyner wrote in 1973 for a Yale Repertory Theatre production of a
play by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The play is about village life in
one of the small Jewish communities in Eastern Europe more than a
century ago. It is not an exercise in nostalgia for a vanished world,
though; it concerns institutionalized sexual repression, fantasy, and
demonology. The 13 short movements, arranged for concert performance,
are scored for a traditional Yiddish theater ensemble of four players;
there are also some songs, one of them charmingly sung by the composer,
as well as a bit of spoken narration.
This is appealing “roots” music, surveying idioms of the play’s
time and place, but not reproducing them. Singer’s play comes
from a deliberately skewed point of view, from a different time
and place. In his music, Wyner achieves a complementary tone and
texture: affectionate, critical, mystified, funny, and a little
terrifying. The klezmer clarinet part is played with virtuoso
abandon by Richard Stoltzman, and the prominent violin part is in
the capable and idiomatic hands of Daniel Stepner; Robert Schulz is
the percussionist. They are all prominent Boston-based players.
The disc is completed by “Passover Offering” (1959) and, from 1981,
“Tants un Maysele” (“Dance and Little Story”), both of them works
without irony or commentary, using traditional gestures but stretched
into a more contemporary harmonic language. The excellent performers
come from all over; the locals include cellist Ronald Thomas,
clarinetist Bruce Creditor, and, at the piano, the composer himself.
Mansurian, 66, is a leading Armenian composer. Like Wyner’s, his
is roots music, and Mansurian writes, “I’ve always tried to compose
works I myself can love.”
Mansurian has enjoyed a long association with Kashkashian, which
resulted in an earlier ECM CD (“Hayren”), and in the three works
composed for her on this disc: the concerto for viola and strings “.
. . and then I was in time again” (1995), “Lachrymae” (1999), and
“Confessing With Faith” (1998).
The work specifically nominated for the Grammy is the concerto;
the title comes from a phrase in William Faulkner’s novel “The
Sound and the Fury.” The 20-minute piece flowers out of an opening
gesture of five repeated notes. The music is melancholy, meditative,
and haunting; the style suggests the timelessness of Arvo Paert,
but with more density, intensity, and depth. There is dialogue of
several kinds between soloist and ensemble, but the viola dominates,
because to the soloist Mansurian entrusts highly personal questioning,
exploration, and reflection. Kashkashian plays with total instrumental
mastery and a harrowing emotional involvement. Christoph Poppen leads
the Munich Chamber Orchestra.
“Lachrymae” (“Tears”) is an eloquent duet for viola and saxophone,
instruments that share range with complementary timbres (Jan
Garbarek is the sophisticated saxophonist). “Confessing With Faith”
is a setting of seven prayers by a 12th-century Armenian saint,
Nerses. The Hilliard Ensemble intones them with simplicity and
sophistication; the viola part is both an extra, wide-ranging voice in
the ensemble, and a narrator/commentator like the Evangelist in a Bach
Passion. Filling out the disc is an earlier concerto for violin (1981)
that is more traditional; Leonidas Kavakosis the assured soloist.
Whether either of these recordings wins a Grammy or whether they
knock each other out of contention doesn’t really matter. Those who
discover them will find a bit of themselves there, for in exploring
the roots of others we gain new perspectives on our own.

Armenia’s K-Telecom buys 100 mln euros of equipment
Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
February 11, 2005
YEREVAN, Feb 11 (Prime-Tass) — K-Telecom, Armenia’s second-largest
mobile operator, has bought equipment worth 100 million euros,
Andranik Manukyan, Armenia’s Transport and Telecommunications Minister,
said Friday.
The equipment is expected to be shipped to Armenia in the near future,
he said.
Currently, K-Telecom has been holding negotiations with Armenian
national telecom company ArmenTel regarding cooperation on Armenia’s
mobile market, he said, adding that ArmenTel uses the 25 MHz frequency,
which is expected to be divided between the operators.
Starting May, K-Telecom is expected to start providing services in
Yerevan, he said.
In November 2004, the Armenian government had awarded a license
to K-Telecom to become the country’s second mobile operator, after
removing ArmenTel’s exclusive right to provide GSM, mobile satellite
and mobile radio communication services by amending the company’s
license. End

AzerTag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Feb 11 2005
OFFICIAL VISIT OF FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN TO TURKEY CONTINUES
[February 11, 2005, 19:37:05]
On February 10, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov, having arrived in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
(GNAT), has met with Chairman Bulent Arinc.
Minister E. Mammadyarov has expressed to Bulent Arinc gratitude for
active support by the Turkish deputies of the position of Azerbaijan
during adoption at PACE session of the resolution specifying that
Armenia is a state-aggressor and that the Armenians of
Nagorno-Karabakh are separatist forces.
Chairman of GNAT Mr. Bulent Arinc told about the program of his visit
to Baku, realized on the invitation of Chairman of the Milli Majlis
of Azerbaijan Murtuz Alaskarov, has emphasized, that his meeting with
the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has passed very fruitfully.
He has asked E. Mammadyarov to convey his gratitude to President
Ilham Aliyev, Chairman of Azerbaijan Parliament Murtuz Alaskarov for
rendered high attention and care.
At the meeting, also were focused the Azerbaijani-Turkish
inter-parliamentary links, held exchange of views on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, construction of the
oil and gas pipelines of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, the railroad line Baku-Tbilisi-Kars.

Pan Armenian Network
ACCORDING TO US AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN LEADERS MUST ACTIVATE THEIR EFFORTS
IN KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT
11.02.2005 18:53
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ According to the US, leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia
must activate their efforts in settlement of the conflict, US Ambassador to
Azerbaijan Rino Harnish said at a press conference. The Ambassador gave a
positive assessment of the activity of OSCE Minsk Group and expressed
opinion that the visit of OSCE mission to the region testified to the
efforts and interests of OSCE in the fair and long-term resolution of the
conflict. He came out for peaceful resolution of the conflict in the nearest
future, giving a positive assessment of US’s role and efforts in the given
issue, which would contribute to establishing peace and stability in the
region. At the same time, Ambassador Harnish noted that the resolution does
not depend only on the USA or any other country.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress