Author: Ekmekjian Janet

ASPIRING OPERA SINGER SHOWCASED
Langley Advance

Canwest News Service
January 29, 2010 Friday 03:54 PM EST
Canada

Two Langley girls take centre stage in a symphony concert on Saturday.

At 16 years of age, Tamar Simon’s passion for music is opening doors
this aspiring opera singer never expected.

The Grade 11 Langley Fine Arts School soprano will be demonstrating
her vocal range on the stage at the Chief Seapass Theatre in Fort
Langley this Saturday, the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium on Sunday,
then the St. Gregory Church in Vancouver the following weekend.

Tamar is one of two Langley musicians taking part in a special Fraser
Valley Symphony (FVS) presentation this weekend.

FVS presents The Magical Moldau and More in a set of concerts featuring
a few up-and-coming soloists from the Valley – including Tamar,
explained publicity director Greg Johnson.

The concert will feature selections from Smetana’s Ma Vlast (My
Fatherland), including the famous Moldau, and the Mystical from
Bohemia’s Forests and Meadows.

"I am excited to do this show because it’s giving me the opportunity
to perform with a great orchestra near my hometown," Tamar told the
Langley Advance.

"I am currently working towards upcoming festivals and competitions.

Last year, I travelled to Prince Rupert and I was the intermediate
winner (classsical voice) at the BC Festival of the Arts, and was
honoured to sing as a soloist for the singalong Handel’s Messiah at
the Orpheum (music director Bruce Pullan) for the second year."

She is also a member of the children’s UBC opera ensemble under
the direction of Nancy Hermiston, and currently in the process of
completing Grade 10 voice level with the Royal Conservatory, where
she’s also studying piano and music theory.

As a Canadian Armenian, she has been invited to sing at the 100th
anniversary commemorating Komitas (a celebrated Armenian composer)
during a special concert in Vancouver Feb. 5.

"Opera is my favourite genre of music to perform," Tamar said. "After
obtaining a degree in music, I hope to become an opera singer."

Tamar is joined by fellow Langleyite Aisa Sayama, a pianist who
attends Brookswood Secondary.

Born in Japan in 1994, Aisa started playing piano at age five.

She has a passion for playing chamber music, which has won countless
competitions through the years, including taking first place in
the junior category of the B.C. Provincial Performing Arts Festival
last June.

The local concert is being held Saturday, Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m. at Chief
Sepass Theatre, 9096 Trattle St. in Fort Langley.

Tickets – $15/adults, $12/seniors, and $6/children – are available at
Wired Monk in Murrayville, Wendel’s Books and Cafe in Fort Langley,
and at the door if available.

ARMENIA, UAE TO SIGN AGREEMENT ON SCIENTIFIC-TECHNICAL COOPERATION

Panorama.am
13:52 04/02/2010

Armenian Government approved at a sitting the suggestion over
signing an agreement on "Scientific-technical cooperation between the
Governments of the Republic of Armenia and the United Arab Emirates".

According to the government’s information and PR department, the
document will contribute to the implementation of joint-financed
scientific, scientific-technical and social-economic plans and
projects, and scientific exchange.

GLENDALE ANC VOICES CONCERN ON OFFICERS’ DISCRIMINATION SUIT

Asbarez
Feb 3rd, 2010

GLENDALE, CA-Leaders and activists from the Armenian National Committee
of Glendale on Tuesday attended a session of the Glendale City
council where they voiced concern over the city police department’s
discrimination and harassment of five Armenian police officers. Below
is the statement they read to the five-person city council.

On January 20, 2010, four current and one former sworn officers of
the Glendale Police Department Filed a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit
in Federal Court alleging Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation
on the basis of National Origin and Ancestry. The allegations made in
the complaint are both disturbing and appalling. Even if a fraction of
these allegations in the complaint are established in a court of law,
the City of Glendale has a long way to go on the way to becoming the
city that we all envision and deserve.

The Armenian National Committee of Glendale is gravely concerned about
the statement made by the City Attorney, Mr. Scott Howard, immediately
following the filing of the Complaint. According to the Glendale News
Press article of January 25, 2010, City Attorney Scott Howard stated,
"There are many allegations in the complaint, which are absolutely,
utterly false." We would expect that the City Attorney’s office at
the very least, conduct a preliminary investigation before opining
about the merits of serious allegations such as those contained in
the complaint.

The Glendale Police Department has a track record of lawsuits stemming
from discrimination and improper conduct by its officers, many of
which have resulted in settlements or jury verdicts against the City,
and even punitive damages against individual police officers. The 2009
jury verdict and $1.58 million judgment, including attorney fees,
in the Ovasapian v. City of Glendale case, is the latest example in
this now long list of cases resulting in adverse court decisions.

The City’s inability and unwillingness to conduct meaningful and
objective investigations into the merits of such complaints and
police misconduct in the past, have resulted in many millions of
dollars which Glendale residents have been forced to bear.

In fact, even after an adverse judgment in the Ovasapian case, the
City Council, during public session, made a statement absolving the
Police Officers and the Department of any wrong doing and assuming
the $150,000 punitive damages award against the individual officers.

Despite the finding of malice by the Federal Court and jury, the
Glendale City Council released the following statement during its
October 27, 2009 meeting "We recognize that this was a very unfortunate
incident, however… we find that the officers acted in good faith,
without actual malice and an apparent best interest of the city of
Glendale." In effect, the City Council condoned the wrongful acts
of these police officers. Not surprisingly, both officers are named
defendants in the current law suit.

In the months to come, the judicial process will be guided by a
Federal District Court Judge and the outcome decided by a jury. In the
meantime, It is very important that officials of the City of Glendale
and the Glendale Police Department refrain from drawing conclusions
about this lawsuit, until there is a full investigation and due
process. It is also very important that as the judicial process runs
its course, the police officers presenting these charges be shielded
from any direct or indirect workplace harassment or retaliation. The
Armenian National Committee of Glendale will be closely monitoring
this case with the expectation that there will be full transparency
in the investigation, and the confidence that the judicial system
will reveal the facts and lead to an ultimate fair outcome.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION BENEFICIAL FOR TURKEY, SAYS AZERBAIJANI MP

Tert.am
16:54 ~U 04.02.10

The recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the US Congress will be
beneficial for Turkey, said Azerbaijani MP Gudrat Hasanguliev in an
interview with Day.az.

"The US Congress always blackmails Ankara for the Armenian Genocide.

In that way, they want to take Turkey’s foreign policy under control.

Naturally, it is not excluded that the Congress may pass such a
resolution, but that is less likely as it would put an end to the
Turkish-American strategic cooperation," said Hasanguliev, who thinks
that Turkey will be released from American control completely, should
Congress recognize the Genocide.

"I think Turkey will be released from Washington’s blackmails and
will be able to pursue a freer foreign policy, should the Congress
recognize the Genocide," said Hasanguliev.

TURKEY TO SEEK SWISS, US SUPPORT IN ARMENIA ROW

Hurriyet
Feb 3 2010
Turkey

Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, left,
with Turkish ambassador to Washington Namik Tan.

A top Turkish diplomat will travel to Switzerland and the United
States to seek their support over an Armenian court ruling that
Ankara says threatens historic reconciliation deals with Yerevan,
a foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

Feridun Sinirlioglu, undersecretary at the ministry, "will visit
these two countries in the coming days to express our concern"
over the ruling last month by the Armenian constitutional court,
spokesman Burak Ozugergin told reporters.

After months of Swiss-mediation and U.S. encouragement, Turkey and
Armenia signed two protocols in October to establish diplomatic ties
and reopen their shared border, in a historic step toward ending
decades of hostility stemming from World War I-era killings of
Armenians under Ottoman Turks.

But the process hit the rocks after the Armenian court upheld
the legality of the protocols, but underlined that they could not
contradict Yerevan’s official position that the Armenian mass killings
constituted genocide — a label fiercely rejected by Ankara.

Turkey accused Armenia of trying to re-write and set new conditions
on the deals, while Yerevan warned that the rapprochement was under
threat of collapse.

Ozugergin said Ankara maintained its desire to build better ties with
its eastern neighbor.

"There is no problem in Turkey’s Armenian opening. But Armenia has
a problem with its Turkey opening," he added.

The reconciliation process is also complicated by Ankara’s insistence
that normalizing Turkish-Armenian ties depend on progress between
Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute —
a link that Yerevan rejects.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
Azerbaijan after ethnic Armenian forces wrested Nagorno-Karabakh from
Baku’s control in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

DAVUTOGLU RULES OUT TALIBAN-PKK COMPARISON IN LONDON

Today’s Zaman
29 January 2010, Friday

Foreign Minister Davutoglu had a brief meeting with US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton over Ankara’s uneasiness with the reasoning of
the Armenian Constitutional Court’s decision.

Foreign Minister Davutoglu had a brief meeting with US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton over Ankara’s uneasiness with the reasoning of
the Armenian Constitutional Court’s decision.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has reacted strongly to comparisons
between Taliban fighters in war-torn Afghanistan and the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which took up arms in 1984 to fight
for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.

Davutoglu arrived in London on Wednesday evening to represent Turkey
at a 60-nation conference on Afghanistan held on Thursday. The
conference followed a regional conference on Afghanistan which took
place in Ä°stanbul on Tuesday. In Ä°stanbul, in a joint statement
issued after the conference, Afghanistan’s neighbors and Turkey backed
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s plan to offer incentives to Taliban
fighters to make them lay down their arms.

"We … support the Afghan national process of reconciliation and
reintegration in accordance with the constitution of Afghanistan in
a way that is Afghan-led and driven," the statement said.

Davutoglu, speaking with reporters en route to London, emphasized
the importance of reaching national reconciliation in Afghanistan.

Recalling Karzai’s recent remarks in which he said he would make a
statement at the London conference asking for Taliban names to be
removed from a UN blacklist, Davutoglu said Turkey’s approach to this
idea was positive.

"We will do everything for national reconciliation," Davutoglu said
but did not elaborate further when asked whether Turkey had been
involved in talking with the Taliban to persuade them to disarm.

In response to a question which appeared to put Taliban fighters in
Afghanistan and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization
by a large majority of the international community, on the same page,
Davutoglu reacted harshly.

Everybody in Turkey is free to be involved in the political process,
Davutoglu said, adding: "There is a political system in Turkey
which functions healthily. In Afghanistan, there is an extraordinary
situation. There is public order in Turkey."

In early 2008, the Turkish military conducted a major operation
against the PKK in northern Iraq, and Turkish warplanes have since
carried out regular cross-border bombing raids against targets in
the mountainous region.

In Washington, US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
Philip J. Crowley praised Turkey’s efforts in Afghanistan, in reply
to a question on a trilateral summit with Afghanistan and Pakistan
on Monday in Ä°stanbul ahead of the regional conference.

Turkey, as a key member of NATO and the NATO-led International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, has been playing a
unique and significant role, Crowley said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, at the US Department of Defense on the same day, Pentagon
Press Secretary Geoff Morrell announced that US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates will pay a visit to Turkey next week, to attend an
informal meeting of NATO defense ministers in Ä°stanbul on Feb. 4 and
5. Gates will later proceed to Ankara to meet with Turkish officials,
Morrell added.

Talks with Clinton on Armenia

Upon his arrival in London on Wednesday evening, Davutoglu had a
brief meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, once more
explaining Ankara’s uneasiness with the reasoning of the Armenian
constitutional court’s decision on Jan. 12, which found the protocols
signed on Oct. 10 of last year in Zurich in conformity with the
Armenian Constitution.

Ankara believes that "the decision contains preconditions and
restrictive provisions which impair the letter and spirit of the
protocols." Ankara is expecting to receive a written guarantee from the
Yerevan administration reaffirming that the detailed reasoning by the
Armenian constitutional court will not have an impact on the process
of normalization of bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey.

SAAKASHVILI OFFERS U.S. TO SUPPLY ARMS THROUGH GEORGIA

News.am
12:35 / 01/29/2010

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili offers U.S. to use Georgian
territory and transport infrastructure as a transfer station for
supplying military cargo to Afghanistan.

In his interview with Associated Press, Saakashvili underlined that
Georgia is ready to open up opportunities for Western warships to
use Black Sea ports and allow military transport aircrafts to land
in local airports for refueling.

According to the agency, the idea will not be to Russia’s liking and
Obama administration will hardly accept Georgian president’s offer.

Currently, the main supply route of U.S. lies through Pakistan,
Russia and Central Asia.

TURKEY DEMANDS LEGAL GUARANTEES FROM ARMENIA, WARNS US ON GENOCIDE BILL

Asbarez
Jan 27th, 2010

ANKARA-Despite assurances from Armenia that the Constitutional
Court ruling will not affect the Turkey-Armenia protocols process,
Turkey is demanding written legal guarantee from Yerevan, while,
at the same time, sending a warning to the US on the passage of the
pending Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress, reported the Turkish
Today’s Zaman newspaper on Tuesday.

The newspaper added that the Turkish Foreign Ministry already has
begun drafting such a document that delineates the Turkish position
on what it calls the "incompatibilities" of Armenia’s Constitutional
Court ruling.

Ankara is hoping to get the US and Switzerland to join this process
and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is planning to discuss
the matter with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during an upcoming
scheduled meeting in London later this month. Ankara also plans to
apply to the OSCE Minsk Group and European Union.

The newspaper reported that Davutoglu has told his Armenian counterpart
Eduard Nalbandian that Turkey would not ratify the protocols without
legal guarantees from Yerevan.

Armenia’s high court, on January 12, ruled that the Armenia-Protocols
were in line with Armenia’s Constitution, but highlighted that the
protocols had no link to the Karabakh conflict, and could not hinder
Armenia’s efforts to garner international recognition for the Armenian
Genocide as outlined in Armenia’s Declaration of Independence.

Turkey reacted last week, with its foreign ministry saying that the
Constitutional Court ruling amounted to preconditions being set by
Armenia. Since the beginning of the protocols process, Turkey has
publicly and on numerous occasions said that the normalization of
Armenia-Turkey relations would not move forward without a Karabakh
conflict resolution, which favors Azerbaijan.

In an interview with the Turkish NTV channel, Davutoglu also warned
that if the Armenian Genocide resolution were to be discussed or passed
by the Congress, the Armenia-Turkey rapprochement would break down.

12 MINORS DIE, 123 RECEIVE INJURIES IN AUTOMOBILE-PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS IN ARMENIA IN 2009

Noyan Tapan
Jan 26, 2010

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. 129 automobile-pedestrian accidents,
in which minors were involved, were recorded in Armenia in 2009, as
a result of which 12 minors died and 123 received injuries. In 2008,
there were 121 such accidents in Armenia, as a result of which 9
minors died and 119 received injuries.

The RA Police reported that in the period of January 1-25, 39 cases
of fraud were recorded in Armenia, 37 cases were disclosed. In the
same period of last year, the number of recorded and disclosed cases
of fraud made 40 and 38, respectively.

DELEGATION HEADED BY ITALIAN DEPUTY MINISTER OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PAOLO ROMANI ARRIVES IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Jan 26, 2010

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. At the invitation of Armenian
Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsian, a delegation headed by Italian
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Paolo Romani came on a
two-day visit to Armenia on January 26. The delegation is composed of
representatives of Italian television companies, experts in television
and radio digitalization, broadband Internet, and postal services
(in particular, representatives of Italy’s largest company Elsag
Datamat of Finmeccanica).

The opportunities of cooperation between the two countries in the
digitalization of television and radio broadcasting, the IT industry,
and postal services will be discussed during the visit.

The delegation will meet with Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan,
Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsian, Minister of Transport and
Communication Gurgen Sargsyan, Chairman of the RA Public Services
Regulatory Commission Robert Nazarian, Deputy Head of the RA
Presidential Staff Mikael Minasian.

The press service of the RA Ministry of Economy reports that on the
second day of the visit, the delegation will go to Gyumri where the
delegation members will familiarize themselves with the prospects of
developing the IT sector and the broadband Internet network as well
as with the Gyumri Technopark project.