Author: Emil Lazarian

Trapped, scared and begging to come home

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
July 16 2006

Young Australians trapped in the siege of Lebanon have made a desperate
plea for the Government to bring them home as the Hezbollah Islamist
guerilla group declared "open war" on Israel.

More than 50 teenage dancers and their families, among 2200 Australians
travelling in Lebanon, were last night holed up in a hotel in downtown
Beirut listening to an escalation in the Israeli bombardment of
the city.

The leaders of the Armenian Sydney Dance Company said they were afraid
and running out of money to pay for food.

"We need help to get out of this country. Please, before it gets
worse," said Maggie Kasparian, one of the parents leading the troupe.

Worried relatives in Sydney called on the Government to "pull their
fingers out" and bring them home.

A number of other Australians tried to drive to Syria to catch
flights to Bahrain, but they were being refused entry. They also
risked Israeli air attacks on the Beirut-Damascus highway.

Other countries have started evacuating citizens. In response to the
dramatic spike in violence yesterday, the US used marines to move
Americans to Cyprus.

At least nine civilians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli
attacks yesterday, raising the death toll to 73 since the start of
the offensive.

An Israeli navy ship was set ablaze off the coast of Beirut and four
Israeli troops were missing after being struck by an unmanned drone
packed with explosives.

Three Sydney men holidaying in Lebanon face being conscripted into
the Lebanese army and forced to fight on the frontline if Lebanon
decides to defend itself against the Israeli attacks.

Ziad Adasi, 25, Anthony El Fanj, 22, and his friend Nabil Saray Eldin,
22, could be forced to perform six months’ compulsory military service
because they hold dual citizenship.

"The Government should do something about this," Ms Kasparian said.
"We are very tired – and we want to go home."

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Department said yesterday: "The
Government is looking at possible options for evacuation if the
security situation allows.

"At this stage the best advice is to remain in secure locations
indoors, monitor the media and follow the instructions of local
authorities."

The Australian embassy in Beirut reopened yesterday. Families in
Australia who could not make contact with loved ones in Lebanon can
phone 1800 002 214.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd called on Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer to marshall every available bureaucrat to
help Australians caught up in the turmoil.

Prime Minister John Howard backed Israel in its "war" with Lebanon
and said it was clear Hezbollah started the conflict. "I do believe
Israel is justified in defending herself," Mr Howard said yesterday.

Fears the conflict could expand into a region-wide war grew when
Syria declared its support for Lebanon.

There is no end to the conflict in sight with the United Nations
Security Council failing to act on Beirut’s demand for an immediate
end to Israeli attacks on its territory.

WAR OF WORDS

"You wanted open war. We are going to open war."

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (left) after his apartment
building in Beirut was destroyed by an Israeli air strike.

"The Syrian people are ready to extend full support to the Lebanese
people and their heroic resistance to remain steadfast and confront
the barbaric Israeli aggression and its crimes."

Communique from Syria’s ruling Baath party.

"I do believe Israel is justified in defending herself."

Prime Minister John Howard.

"I call on him to make sure that his department has all hands on deck
to provide consular support to these tens of thousands of Australians."

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd urges Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer to act to assist Australian citizens.

"No. The President is not going to make military decisions for
Israel." White House spokesman Tony Snow when asked whether US
President George Bush had agreed to a request from Lebanon to rein
in the Israelis.

"We are being asked to stop Hezbollah, but no one is putting the
necessary pressure on Israel to stop the problem."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Director chronicles wife’s return

BBC News
July 15 2006

Atom Egoyan’s The Citadel is only receiving a limited release
Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan has taken a major departure
from his intense and often controversial dramas in his new film –
a documentary in which he follows his wife on her first return to
Lebanon in 28 years.

The director is best-known for making the sexually explicit Hollywood
drama Where The Truth Lies – which starred Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon
– and the controversial film Ararat, which explored the real-life
massacre of ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman Empire over four years
from 1915.

The Citadel, however, is a much more personal project, in which he
follows his actress wife returning to her home in Lebanon after a 28
year absence.

"I remembered this footage that I shot on this family vacation to
Beirut – and suddenly I put that into my computer, and I started
playing around with it," Egoyan told BBC World Service’s The Ticket
programme.

"I came up with this idea of having it as a voiceover, and constructing
a letter to our son – talking about his parents’ relationship –
as a sort of time capsule, something he might watch in 10 years or so.

"So it’s an examination of a number of relationships – parent to child
and husband to wife – but also about a woman returning to a city she
had to leave 28 years ago in the midst of the civil war."

Exciting technology

Egoyan admitted The Citadel is an "odd piece" – and that originally
he had not imagined it would be shown to anyone else.

He explained that he has been filming his wife on and off for 20 years
– and that one of the things he hoped The Citadel would explain to
his son is this "strange relationship."

I think if this technology was available when Beckett was alive, it
is something he certainly would have played with

Atom Egoyan "It’s also an opportunity in some ways to look at what
the dynamics of that relationship are – where one part of the couple
is being watched with such a degree of scrutiny all the time," he said.

"That can be very affectionate – as I think it is – but through the
device of the voiceover I’m able to analyse my own motivation for
doing that."

He admitted, however, that his wife is not often very comfortable with
being filmed, and this is one of the reasons the film will receive
only a limited distribution.

Meanwhile, Egoyan explained that The Citadel was one of a number of
documentaries he feels are changing modern cinema, in particular in
contrast with formulaic mainstream content.

"It’s such an exciting time, because of the technology and the fact
that people can record things so easily," he said.

"There was such mystification over how images are made – which is one
of the secrets Hollywood was able to guard for so long. But now you
can have colour, and synchronised, Dolby sound, with a consumer camera.

"The Citadel was shot on mini-DV with a handheld camera, and the
quality is astounding."

Love of Beckett

He has similarly employed this love of new technology in a new
version of the Samuel Beckett play Eh Joe, originally written for
BBC television in 1958.

The play consists of a single camera shot in which a man is alone in
a room. The camera draws ever closer to his face over 30 minutes,
as a woman in the background is heard chastising him with the idea
that he could forget her.

"I loved this piece from the moment I read it in my teens – and most
people don’t know the text, so I thought there had to be a way of
bringing it back to a new public," Egoyan said.

"It’s possible with the new technologies that you could have a live
actor, on stage, behind a scrim – a material that can hold an image
and yet allows you to see through it.

"If you have a camera with a long lens in the wings, observe Beckett’s
specific instructions – but you simultaneously project that on the
scrim. I think if this technology was available when Beckett was alive,
it is something he certainly would have played with."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NATO PA Not Going to Substitute OSCE Format

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.07.2006 16:01 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "If Pierre Lellouche expresses his thoughts we
are ready to discuss them, but it will not mean that the NATO PA
wishes to substitute the OSCE MG format," Armenian Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian said when commenting on the information that NATO
Parliamentary Assembly President Pierre Lellouche has organized
proposals on Karabakh settlement for the Armenian and Azerbaijani
Presidents. "It makes no sense speaking of replacement of the OSCE
Minsk Group," he said adding that though Nagorno Karabakh doesn’t
immediately participate in the talks the NKR authorities are completely
aware of all the moves taken on the issue.

Referring to Baku’s statements on arsons on the territories around
Nagorno Karabakh allegedly set by the Armenian side, the RA FM said,
" We will not play their game. An international organization, I will
not name it, requested us to clarify the situation and I replied
rather strictly that we have no time to react to statements of the
kind and play Baku’s game. A monitoring was conducted and it showed
the real state of things," Vartan Oskanian said, reported IA Regnum.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ANPP Discontented from Power System Today

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.07.2006 16:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant was disconnected
from the power system this morning. This did not cause any deflection
from the norms of nuclear and radioactive security, said the head
of the RA State Atomic Energy Commission Ashot Martirosyan. He
confirmed that a breakdown took place in the Armenian energy system
today. "It has not been clarified yet whether the ANPP disconnected
over a breakdown or the breakdown was caused by the disconnection
of the plant from the power system," he said adding that there is no
emergency situation and the technical security is ensured.

To note, this morning the center of Yerevan was de-energized and a
number of enterprises suspended work.

Armenian Officers Carried Out Great Deal of Work for Rescuer 2006 Preparation

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.07.2006 19:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Armenian officers carried out a great deal of work
for the preparation of Rescuer 2006 exercise," U.S. Ambassador John
Evans said at the ceremony marking the opening of the exercise. He
thanked the exercise participants and noted the importance of
international cooperation in the field of disaster response
and humanitarian assistance. Ambassador Evans stated that the
NATO-Armenian cooperation was continuing to strengthen and deepen,
and expressed hope that Armenia and NATO’s Partnership for Peace
program would continue such valuable collaboration in the future.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #132, 15/07/2006

Presidential Sitting

RA PRESIDENT HOLDS FIRST SITTING OF COMMISSION FOR
COORDINATING COOPERATION WITH EUROPEAN STRUCTURES

Today, RA President Robert Kocharian held the first sitting of
the Commission for Coordinating Cooperation with the European
Structures. The Press Service of RA President informed that Tigran
Torosian, Speaker of RA National Assembly, Serge Sargsian, RA
Defence Minister, Vartan Oskanian, RA Foreign Minister, and Karen
Tchshmaritian, RA Trade and Economic Development Minister, participated
in the sitting. Opening the sitting, Mr. Kocharian stated that on the
path of implementing the commitments Armenia undertook before EU,
CE and NATO, there occurred the necessity to coordinate the steps
that our country is to take.

In his turn, Mr. Torosian emphasized that the adoption of the laws
conditioned by the new points in RA Constitution is a priority issue
for Armenia. Mr.

Oskanian and Mr. Sargsian represented the results of their recent
visit to Brussels where they discussed the Armenian IPAP within the
framework of cooperation with NATO.

Mr. Kocharian instructed the working group to elaborate the a concrete
program and the schedule for the arrangements for implementation of
Armenia’s commitments to the European structures.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #132, 15/07/2006

Economic Cooperation

MICHAEL WEINSTEIN: IN 2006 EUROPEAN BANK FOR
RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT TO DOUBLE CREDIT
ALLOCATIONS FOR ARMENIA

In 2006, the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development will allocate EURO 40 million of credit to
Armenia, against EURO 20 million allocated last year.

Michael Weinstein, Head of EBRD Office in Yerevan,
stated at today’s press conference.

He said that till now, excluding the $28 millions of
credit allocated for the renovation works of
"Zvartnots" airport, the bank has allocated additional
EURO 28 million for implementation of 9 new projects.

Earlier, ERBD had allocated 11 new projects in the
private sector of Armenia.

Armenia began cooperating with EBRD in 1992. As of
June 2006, the volume of the allocated credits made
EURO 102 million.

By Ara Martirosian

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Hezbollah Leader Declared "Full-Scale War" to Israel

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.07.2006 13:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah
Lebanese radical grouping, has promised a "full-scale war" to
Israel. He said, "You wanted open war, you will get it." He also
emphasized, "neither rules, nor agreements are in effect any more,"
reports EuroNews. This statement followed after Arab TV channels
broadcasting the Israeli aircraft bombing of Hezbollah headquarters
in Beirut past Friday.

After the air attack Hezbollah supporters erected their flag on
handrails of a bridge situated near the headquarters and also destroyed
by Israelis. Some 70 persons on the Lebanese side and over 10 on the
Israeli one fell victim of the conflict, which broke out 3 days ago.

Israel had launched a military operation after fighters of Hezbollah,
which controls south Lebanon, kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Israeli
PM Ehud Olmert viewed this act as declaration of war. Israeli aircraft,
battleships and artillery have bombed Beirut international airport
and two military airdromes, bridges and roads in the south of Lebanon,
military objects of Hezbollah. Lebanon is practically fully isolated.

EU Envoy for South Caucasus to Arrive in Armenia July 24

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.07.2006 15:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus
Peter Semneby told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter he will be visiting
Armenia July 24-25. The main purpose of the visit is to discuss the
EU-Armenia cooperation within the European Neighborhood Policy.

To note, July 21 Mr Semneby will pay a call to Azerbaijan on the
same purpose.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

YEREVAN IS FOR FAST ARMISTICE AND RESUMPTION OF TALKS

Lragir.am
14 July 06

Official Yerevan is worried about Israel’s offensive on Lebanon.
Vardan Oskanyan told news reporters July 14 that this question was
discussed with the foreign minister of Lebanon visiting Armenia on
July 13. The foreign minister of Lebanon was in Armenia when the
Israeli tanks crossed the border of his country. The minister was
to fly home late at night by a direct Yerevan-Beirut flight but the
Israeli forces bombed the airport of Beirut, and the minister had to
stay in Yerevan. He left Armenia only early in the morning of July
14 but not for home.

"Early in the morning he left for Vienna, then he must leave for Cairo,
where the meeting of the foreign ministers of the countries of the Arab
League will take place. Yesterday we discussed this question with the
minister rather long. It is highly concerning, and we condemn every
act of violence, be it taking hostages, use of force, especially that
this use of force is not adequate for the existing situation. Moreover,
when this force is used to destroy infrastructure, which takes a lot
of victims," says the foreign minister of Armenia.

Vardan Oskanyan assures that Armenia wants restraints in this region,
"because this is a fragile region." According to the foreign minister
of Armenia, official Yerevan is for a fast armistice and resumption
of talks as soon as possible.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress