Author: Hakobian Adrine

IRAN TO HOLD 11TH COMMERCIAL EXHIBITION IN ARMENIA

Moj News Agency
April 27, 2009 Monday
Iran

Iran-Armenia Joint Chamber of Commerce will organize the eleventh
exhibition of Iran in Armenia to expand non-oil exports and economic
ties between the two countries, head of the chamber Leon Aharonian
said. The 5-day event will be held from July 4-8 in Yerevan, he
said. According to Aharonian, Iranian companies will show case
their recent achievements in various fields including industrial,
technological and technical products and capabilities as well
as foodstuffs, construction materials, industrial equipments,
detergents, home appliances, clothes, bags and shows and agricultural
inputs. Iran-Armenia 2008 trade valued at $230 million, he said
adding that the two countries are planned to increase the figure to
$1 billion in near future.

BALLET’S ‘JEWELS’ SPARKLE, GLITTER
By: Janos Gereben

The San Francisco Examiner
April 29 2009
CA

Tina LeBlanc and Pascal Molat perform in Balanchine’s "Rubies."

Four decades after its creation, George Balanchine’s "Jewels" still
creates a gasp every time the curtain goes up, quite independently
from the ovations when the curtain comes down.

That opening reaction is a combination of "ohhhh!" and "awwww!" It
happens three times: first when the green costumes and backdrop of
"Emeralds" are revealed, then in registering the red glow of "Rubies,"
and finally, at the dazzling white of "Diamonds."

In San Francisco Ballet’s Program 7 presentation, Tony Walton’s scenic
design and Karinska’s costumes (in Haydee Morales’ new realization)
create a fitting companion to the glorious music and choreography
that follow. At the same time, they set the mood for some of the most
elegant and beautiful events in all performing arts.

Usually, the individual gems of "Jewels" are performed separately,
as parts of a repertory program; San Francisco didn’t see the entire
work until 2002, 35 years after the world premiere in New York.

The reason, I think, is the slow, quiet, understated choreography of
"Emeralds."

Using Gabriel Fauré’s graceful music (mostly from "Pelléas et
Mélisande"), Balanchine created a meditative, elegant piece, just
about the opposite of Stravinsky’s rhythmic excitement for "Rubies,"
and quite different from the "typical ballet music" of Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 3 excerpts for "Diamonds."

To the credit of the company’s brilliant principal dancers (a corps de
ballet performing with a discipline worthy of Balanchine’s standards),
Martin West’s orchestra (Michael McGraw as soloist in the Stravinsky
"Capriccio") and coaching by some of stars of the original production,
San Francisco Ballet is offering very different pieces, each in an
authentic fashion. The three coalesce into a superb evening-length
experience.

Preparations for "Jewels" have been extraordinary.

Balanchine star and Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson has invited Elyse
Borne, herself a Balanchine veteran of renown, to stage the work, with
assistance from three great ballerinas from the original production:
Violette Verdy, Mimi Paul and Suzanne Farrell.

For balletomanes, that list alone should produce a gasp similar to
the audience reaction to the staging.

At the Sunday matinee, Maria Kochetkova and Frances Chung realized the
graceful solos of "Emeralds" with elegance and unpretentious dignity.

Pascal Molat partnered Tina LeBlanc and Sofiane Sylve in "Rubies"
with brilliance creating its own gasps and, at one time, incredulous
laughter.

Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan made not only those of Armenian
descent proud everywhere, but their "Diamonds" pas de deux seemed
to stop time itself, as they alternated fluid passages with quick
exhibitions of bravura.

These dancers were equal to those in Saturday premiere. Principal roles
in the opening night cast went to Yuan Yuan Tan and Chung; Zahorian,
Molat and Elana Altman; and Sylve and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba.

DANCE REVIEW San Francisco Ballet Program 7

Where: War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
When: 7:30 p.m. today; 8 p.m. Friday, Tuesday and May 7; 2 p.m. May
9-10 Tickets: $15 to $250 Contact: (415) 865-2000,

‘MEDS YEGHERN’
SUAT KINIKLIOLU

Today’s Zaman
April 27 2009
Turkey

US President Barack Obama did the anticipated and avoided using the
term "genocide" when referring to the events of 1915 in the midst of
World War I in eastern Anatolia. Yet, no one is happy about it.

Neither the Armenians nor the Turks thought the statement appropriately
reflected how to describe the complicated events of 1915. However,
the statement actually attempts to find a middle path between Obama’s
election promises and the realities on the ground. What is troubling
from the Turkish perspective is the persistence in interpreting
the events of 1915 solely from one perspective, namely the Armenian
one. There is an abundance of evidence about the hundreds of thousands
of Muslim losses during the time span in question. However, this is
not what this piece intends to accentuate. Instead, I want to look
into the possibility of whether the term "Meds Yeghern" could offer
a new opening for a common narrative between Turks and Armenians.

Obama’s statement is interesting from a variety of perspectives,
and I believe it is worth examining whether the term "Meds Yeghern"
has the potential to become a mutually acceptable term for both sides
to commemorate the events in question. As is now commonly known,
"Meds Yeghern" denotes "Great Calamity/Great Disaster" in the Armenian
language. Although I am not in a position to fully comprehend the
context in which this term is being used in Armenian, I am willing
to venture into the following.

I believe the events of World War I constituted a Great Calamity for
Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Anatolian Greeks and probably other peoples
of the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, it was a great trauma for the Turks,
who saw their great empire collapse in front of their own eyes and
who saw a multitude of peoples rebel against the state and side
with the invading enemies of the time. It was a Great Calamity to
the Armenians who had to be relocated during harsh war conditions
and subsequently suffered immensely. It was a disaster for them as
they left behind their homes and memories, similar to the millions of
Turks who were chased out of the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle
East. It was a Great Calamity for the Turks and the Kurds fighting
on the eastern front against the invading Russian armies, who were
intent on grabbing the eastern part of the remaining territories of
the Ottoman realm. It was a true disaster for all involved as the
war time conditions of eastern Anatolia were brutal and certainly
far from being hospitable to any of the struggling sides. Famine,
disease and misery were the order of the day.

Yet, as President Abdullah Gul said in response to Obama’s statement,
we need to look forward and see whether the Turks and the Armenians
will be able to normalize relations in the coming months and
years. Therefore, the term "Meds Yeghern" should not be chided right
away because it is an Armenian term. I think it harbors the potential
to bring all of the aggrieved parties together. "Meds Yeghern" could
become the cornerstone of a positive language about the events of
1915, one which signifies the calamity that the competition over
the Ottoman realms between the imperial powers brought about, which
ultimately led to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and the
loss of the Armenian population. It also resulted in the loss of the
empire’s Greek subjects. We Turks built a new nation-state from the
ashes of the empire, but one consequence of these historic events was
the loss of the richness and diversity of the Ottoman days and the
change in the social fabric of these lands. Could it be possible to
utilize this term as a base around which all of us could mourn the
losses we all incurred during the fateful days of World War I?

All interested in the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations
should look into the potential of whether the term "Meds Yeghern"
could be applied to the wider pain and disaster that occurred in
eastern Anatolia during World War I and thus could pave the way for
a common language on this painful chapter of history.

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs coordinate meeting of Azerbaijani and
Armenian presidents

2009-04-25 15:00:00

ArmInfo. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs coordinated meeting of
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents during a visit to Baku. The
presidents will meet in Prague on May 7, OSCE Minsk Group Russian
Co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov told reporters in Baku on April 25, Trend
reported. The meeting will focus on the uncoordinated issues,
Merzlyakov said in Baku before leaving for Yerevan. Summit of the EU
member states and partners will be held in Prague in early May. The
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents can meet as a part of the summit to
discuss resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. OSCE Minks Group
co-chairs discussed resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with
foreign minister and president of Azerbaijan during the visit to the
country. The co-chairs will leave Baku for Yerevan on April 25. They
will head for Karabakh. The co-chairs are expected to meet with
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan after they return from Karabakh to
Yerevan on April 27.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM TO NESTLE CLOSE TO WHITE HOUSE

Top News
m-nestle-close-white-house-2155579
April 24 2009
India

Washington – The US Armenian community plans to open the Armenian
Genocide Museum of America just a block and a half from the White
House in less than two years.

In the pecking order of specially themed museums in Washington,
the building will be far closer to the seat of US executive power
than those dedicated to the Jewish Holocaust, African Art or the
American Indian.

Whether that will bring Armenian-Americans any closer to presidential
recognition of what they regard as genocide remains to be seen.

The museum will document the killing of 1.5 million Armenians at the
hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915-23.

The community is hoping that US President Barack Obama will follow
through on Friday – the 94th anniversary of the start of the killings
– on his pledge during last year’s election campaign to affirm the
killings as genocide.

Among Obama’s predecessors, only the late president Ronald Reagan in
1981 ever called the killings genocide while in office.

Turkey refuses to acknowledge the mass killings as a genocide, places
the death toll much lower – at about 600,000 – and attributes the
deaths to consequences of World War I.

Unlike the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which was built with federal as
well as private money as part of the quasi-governmental Smithsonian
complex, the Armenian genocide museum is being built with only
private donations.

In fact, the Armenian genocide gets only scant mention in the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum, partly because of opposition from
Turkey. Turkey used its leverage as an important US military ally
to nix inclusion, according to Edward T Linenthal, who wrote a book
about the museum’s evolution, Preserving Memory.

The planners of the Armenian genocide museum, who began working in
1996, will be free of such pressures as a private enterprise.

Museum planners are coordinating with the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial
Complex in Yerevan, Armenia. The Washington project will be an
"important educational" tool of testimony to the "facts of the
Armenian genocide," said Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the
Armenian Assembly of America.

The museum will occupy the historic, long-vacant National Bank of
Washington building, constructed in 1925 at the corner of 14th and
G Streets. (dpa)

PRICELESS OBAMA CAMPAIGN VID: SAMANTHA POWER TELLS ARMENIANS TO TAKE HER WORD FOR IT

The weekly Standard
FP/2009/04/priceless_obama_campaign_vid_s.asp
Apri l 25 2009

Ben Smith digs up an amazing video from the Obama archives: Samantha
Power appealing to the Armenian community on behalf of her candidate
in February 2008. Power praises Obama’s "forthright statement" on
the Armenian genocide, tells us he’s never afraid to "call a spade
a spade" and assures us that that Barack Obama is "a person who can
actually be trusted."

"Take my word for it," Power says as she personally vouches that he
will follow through on his pledge.

SEPARATE INDEXES OF NKR’S MATERIAL PRODUCTION IN JANUARY-MARCH 2009

NKR National Statistic Service
April 22, 2009

Industry: in January-March 2009, industrial production at the factual
cost of 5677.0 mln drams was made. In comparison with January-March the
index of physical volume of industrial production formed 120.1 percent.

The structure of produced industrial goods according to main types
of economic activities is as following: mining industry 28.2 percent,
reprocessing industry 34.0 percent, electrical energy, gas, and water
production and distribution 37.8 percent.

Volume of consumer goods during the accounting period formed 1181.1
mln drams against 943.8 mln drams or 125.1 percent during the same
period in the previous year.

In January-March 2009, realization of ready-made goods at factual
acting prices formed 5663.4 mln drams, and the realization level
formed 99.8 percent.

Agriculture: In January-March 2009, 643.7 tones (live weight) of
animal and bird meat were realized, 7243.6 tones of milk and 4372.9
thousand eggs were produced.

Construction: In January-March 2009 construction at the cost of 4816.4
mln drams were carried out against 2386.7 mln drams in January-March
2008.

ARF CONDEMNS TURKISH-ARMENIAN AGREEMENT

Asbarez
/2009_1
Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation on Thursday strongly condemned
an agreement announced by Ankara and Yerevan and said it could pull
out of Armenia’s governing coalition in protest. Armenia’s main
opposition forces also gave a highly negative assessment of the deal.

The party issued the following announcement:

"The pivotal issue on Armenia’s political and the national agenda in
recent months has been the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation has declared, time and again,
that good-neighborly relations between the two countries can only be
established after the recognition by Turkey of the Armenian Genocide
and the restoration of the rights of the Armenian people. The lifting
of the blockade and the establishment of diplomatic relations,
without preconditions, can only serve as first steps on this path. It
is absolutely unacceptable for us that relations with Turkey be
normalized at the expense of Armenia’s sovereignty, the viability of
its existence, or the national and state rights of future Armenian
generations.

Deeply committed to these principles, we find unacceptable and condemn
the signing, by Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the April
22 joint statement with Turkey.

The statement comes on the eve of the commemoration, on April 24,
of the greatest tragedy of the Armenian people. The leaders of Turkey
have recently made anti-Armenian announcements in general and on the
Artsakh issue in particular, and have restated preconditions for the
normalization of relations. The release of the statement at this time
and in these circumstances is a blow to the interests of Armenia and
the Armenian people.

Noting that this process implies a negative change in the direction of
Armenia’s foreign policy, the ARF will, in the coming days, discuss the
expediency of its continued participation in the governing coalition."

The ARF Bureau’s Political Director, Giro Manoyan told RFE/RL that
party leaders plan to meet and demand explanations from Sarkisian after
he returns from a visit to Moscow. The issue is likely to be on the
agenda of Saturday’s meeting of Armenia’s National Security Council
as well. ARF Supreme Council of Armenia Chairman Armen Rustamian is
a member of that presidential body.

The ARF’s announcement came the day after the party’s top leader,
Hrant Markarian, publicly lambasted Sarkisian’s year-long diplomatic
overtures to Turkey, saying that they have seriously damaged Armenia’s
national interests. He said that Yerevan has made major concessions
to Ankara while failing to secure the lifting the of the Turkish
economic blockade of Armenia.

"When you draw up a roadmap for negotiations, you plan for a long, very
long period," said Manoyan. "This contradicts the notion that these
negotiations must be quick and productive and that they will otherwise
be meaningless," speaking to the hasty timing of the announcement.

ARTUR BAGHDASARYAN- EAGLE OF MOUNTAINOUS ARMENIA

LRAGIR.AM
13:46:54 – 23/04/2009

As the press service of the National Security Council informs, today,
in accordance with the decision of the general meeting of the youth
organization "Syunyats Artsivner" ("Eagles of Syunik"), the Security
Council Secretary Artur Baghdasaryan was awarded a gold commemorative
medal "Mountainous Armenia Eagle" "for exceptional contribution
to the construction of the statehood of the Republic of Armenia,
national security protection and patriotic upbringing of youth ".

Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918
Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

April 23, 2009
Contact: Andrew Kzirian

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Hosts Armenian Genocide Commemoration

Los Angeles, CA – The Armenian National Committee – Western Region
(ANC-WR) joined representatives of the Western Prelacy of the Armenian
Apostolic Church of America at a special session of the Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors commemorating the 94th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide on April 21, 2008. The event was hosted by Fifth
District Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael B. Antonovich, with the
presentation taking place at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administrations
in Los Angeles.

ANC-WR Board Member Aida Dimejian addressed the County Board, tying
denial of the Armenian Genocide to the horrors taking place in Darfur
today. `As a community deeply affected by genocide, we must keep
commemorating because of the current genocide in Darfur and send the
signal to perpetrators of this crime that we will speak out.’

`We are proud to participate in this commemoration,’ stated ANC-WR
Board Member Pattyl Aposhian-Kasparian. `Supervisor Antonovich has
long been a principled leader when it comes to recognition of the
Armenian Genocide. We look forward to his continued involvement in the
county in the years to come,’ she added.

Consul General of the Republic of Armenia Grigor Hovhannissian also
addressed the Board of Supervisors thanking them for their commitment
and consistency in helping to raise awareness of the Armenian
Genocide.