Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Armenian Teen Clarinetist Narek Arutyunian Dazzles at Armenian Night at Pops

Arts | June 15, 2012 10:48 am

By Tom Vartabedian

BOSTON – Armenian clarinet prodigy Narek Arutyunian refused to become
intimidated by one of the world’s leading orchestras.
The 19-year-old stood firm and tall at Boston’s Symphony Hall and was
embraced by a crowd attending the 61st annual rendition of Armenian
Night at the Pops on June 8. Of the 2,400 in attendance, some 450 were
Armenians, looking forward to getting their first look at the rising
star. He did not disappoint.

`Best 18 minutes I could have ever performed,’ he told observers at a
post-reception. `Playing next to conductor Keith Lockhart was the
ultimate experience. I shall treasure this moment forever.’

>From the time he walked onto the stage fol- lowing the traditional
Hayr Mer to the time he was embraced by the conductor, Arutyunian
displayed his talents with obvious passion and conviction.

He opened with a rather spirited number called Czardas written by
Monti, then present- ed a somber rendition of Krounk (The Crane) by
Komitas for solo clarinet.

The finale was a jazzy Concerto for Clarinet written by the great
Artie Shaw, which had the

crowd swaying in their seats. When it came to the Armenian piece,
Lockhart silenced his ensemble, stepped to one side and gave his guest
artist complete autonomy. The two often made eye contact and exchanged
smiles.

Lockhart lauded Arutyunian as `an Armenian musician of considerable
talent.’ With a `Paree Yegak,’ Lockhart extended his arms to the
Armenian crowd, several of whom were children accompanying parents. He
then presented a brief but worthy synopsis of the newly-opened
Armenian Heritage Park at the Rose Kennedy Greenway, reading from
notes he was provided.

`It is a tribute to both the immigrants and martyrs who overcame
tremendous obstacles,’ he noted. `Armenians are a people to be
admired.’

The crowd applauded loudly, acknowledging the unexpected gesture.

Echoing his sentiments was Ara Arakelian, president of the Friends of
Armenian Culture Society (FACS), which sponsors the annual event.
`We’re here tonight not only to celebrate a new Boston landmark but to
pay tribute to our national musical heritage,’ he said. `The credit
goes to our many supporters and volunteers who have made Armenian
Night at the Pops so invigorating over the past six decades.’

A week before his 20th birthday, Arutyunian has built up quite a musi-
cal portfolio and it is only getting bet- ter. He represented the
third youngest Armenian performer at the Pops, following noted diva
Hasmik Papian, who enthralled the crowd with her operatic voice a year
ago.

When asked if this was the high- light of his young life, Arutyunian
pondered a moment, then replied `no.’

Nothing quite compares to the first prize he won at age 16 in the
International Young Musicians Competition in Prague or the Musical
Youth of the Planet Competition in Moscow the year

before. He would also have a difficult time negating the prize he was
awarded and conductor Yuri Bashmet to perform concerts and record the
Weber Concertino for Clarinet with the State

Symphony Orchestra of New Russia. Born in Gumri, Armenia, Arutyunian’s
family moved to Moscow when he was 3. He graduated from Moscow State
Conservatory where he worked with Evgeny Petrov. He currently lives in
New York and works with Charles Neidich at the Juilliard School of
Music.

In addition to the Pops concert, Arutyunian is appearing in recitals
at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Washington Center
for the Performing Arts and Music for Youth and Buffalo Chamber Music
Society.

In case Bostonians missed it, he will be at the Gardner Museum on September 21.

Following his interlude on stage, Arutyunian came off stage for
intermission and took a seat in the audience for the remainder of the
evening, which also included a tribute to Cole Porter and works by
Gershwin and Richard Rodgers. The encore featured Sousa’s Stars &
Stripes Forever, a Pops standard.

As with any Armenian Pops production, socialization was a vital part
of the evening. People gathered inside the lobby and in the aisles,
exchanging pleasantries. It was a night on the town, fashionable and
festive.

A post-concert reception took place at the Colonnade Hotel, attended
by more than 200 guests, where Arakelian welcomed the gathering and
applauded the star attraction. Arutyunian spent the interim signing
programs and chatting with well-wishers about his young- yet-brilliant
career.

On a personal note, Aram Khachaturian is probably the greatest
Armenian exponent of the instrument by virtue of his exquisite
Clarinet Trio. Likewise, Tigran Mansurian (in his Double Concerto for
Clarinet and Cello), Alexander Arutunian, Alan Hovhaness, Eduard
Baghtasaryan, Gagik Hovunts and Geghuni Chirchiyan have all added
significant works to the international clarinet repertoire, not to
mention Hachig Kazarian, perhaps the greatest when it comes to popular
Armenian band music.

APA, Azerbaijan
June 15 2012

Great Britain FM: We support Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity

[ 15 Jun 2012 17:51 ]

Baku. Victoria Dementieva – APA. Azerbaijani Embassy in Great Britain
has sent a letter to British Foreign Office on information about
holding of separatists of Nagorno Karabagh in the parliament of this
country spread by Armenian media, said the press secretary of
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Elman Abdullayev.

According to him, along with this, the embassy held several meetings
and stressed the inconvenience on participation of separatists at the
meeting of Armenia-Britain friendship group.

Great Britain’s Foreign Ministry noted in their letter to Azerbaijani
Embassy that, they supported Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. The
letter says that, the parliamentary group is a non-formal group of
interests and does not reflect the official position of British
government and parliament: `This means that, Armenian media again
distorts the facts. Their information is only sabotage’.

As a result of researches of Azerbaijani Embassy in Great Britain,
presence of Nagorno Karabagh separatists at the meeting of
Armenia-Britain friendship group was the personal initiative of
baroness Caroline Cocks.

Note that, some of Armenian media spread information about visit of
delegation of Nagorno Karabagh separatists to London. According to
claim, the delegation held meetings in the House of Lords,
participated in the annual meeting of Armenia-Britain friendship
group. Azerbaijan FM gave task to Embassy to research this
information.

Armenia, Bulgaria interested in the expansion of mutually beneficial
cooperation

armradio.am
15.06.2012 18:12

The newly appointed Ambassador of Bulgaria to Armenia Georgy
Karastamatov presented the copies of his credentials to Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Congratulating the Ambassador on appointment, Minister Nalbandian
underlined the bilateral cooperation between Armenia and Bulgaria has
considerably developed ever since the establishment of diplomatic
relations 20 years ago. He voiced hope that the newly appointed
Ambassador would contribute to the further reinforcement and expansion
of friendly cooperation.

Speaking about the friendship between the two peoples, the Armenian
Foreign Minister underlined that the historic destinies of the
Armenian and Bulgarian peoples and they are ties by millennia-long
deep historic ties.

Ambassador Karastamatov assured he would do his best to develop the
mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation.

The interlocutors discussed issues related to the expansion of
Armenia-EU cooperation, promotion of trade-economic,
scientific-educational and cultural relations.

Criminal case regarding “civilitas” foundation scares potential donors
from Diaspora

arminfo
Friday, June 15, 17:29

I don’t know who is the orderer of the criminal case against the
“Civilitas” foundation, but there is no doubt that many people do not
like our independent activity, director of the foundation, Salbi
Kazaryan, told journalists today.

“The gifted young people with creative mentality have been working in
the foundation. They raise social, political and economic problems of
the country which are still relevant today. It is very much possible
that such courage and independence of the foundation does not please
some persons. And if this criminal case is a way to hinder our
activity, it is the worst and the most senseless way”, – Kazaryan
said.

She thinks it is strange that before calling them to the National
Security Service, representatives of the foundation did not receive
any request from the State Revenues Committee, if we take into account
that in the statement of the NSS they said about tax abuses. “It is
strange that NSS has started investigating this case. This makes us
think that the process was fabricated”, – she said when replying to
ArmInfo correspondent’s question.

The criminal case against the Civilitas Foundation concerns the $2mln
transaction for the sale of Huntsman Building Products, an
Armenia-based company owned by US-based Polymer Materials and Huntsman
International, says the National Security Service of Armenia.

“As a result of some inaccuracies in the contract, the transaction was
not submitted to the tax authorities and therefore left untaxed. Of
the charity funds left in Armenia according to the wish of the
American side, as much as $1,135,000 was not spent for charity but was
transferred to accounts opened by the founder and president of the
Civilitas Foundation Vartan Oskanian and the Foundation’s trustee
Tigran Karapetyan, with part of the money used for personal needs. In
its turn, contrary to its own charter, the Civilitas Foundation failed
to report on the taxation of the $2mln provided to Polymer Materials
and Huntsman International for charity,” says the NSS, adding that the
case stipulates tax inspections, trade analyses, interrogations.

In response to the NSS’s report, Vartan Oskanian has repeated that the
case is clearly politically motivated. “I want to say the following:
money laundering, Oskanian, Huntsman are words that cannot be placed
together in one sentence. In order for there to be money laundering,
there must first be dirty money. In this case, the source of the funds
are known, the buyer is known, the transfer of the funds to me and to
Civilitas according to the donor’s wishes have been transparent and
electronic. The attorneys have said that no tax obligation was created
as a result of the transaction. And the donor’s funds “shall be
considered as a donation and the Recipient has the right to use in its
discretion and for the implementation of its statutory objectives.
Only those with political motivations will attempt to reduce a good
man’s good work to political currency,” says Oskanian.

Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to give concert in Armenia

18:00, 15 June, 2012

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS: `Yerevan Perspectives’ festival will
continue amazing the Armenian art-loving society. General Manager of
the festival Sona Hovhannisyan told Armenpress that in September the
festival will host world famous Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin. That
will be the prominent pianist’s first concert in the modern history of
Armenia. `Thereafter we will try to achieve Maxim Vengerov’s concert
as violinist and not conductor,’ she said. And the climax, according
to Sona Hovhannisyan, will be the performance of Amsterdam’s Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra in Armenia. `This is truly a great
achievement, as this orchestra’s concert is usually planned 4-5 years
ahead.’ `We have a splendid audience, which raises jealousy in many
countries. Even European musicians prove about that. They say world’s
spiritual renaissance is to begin from our land,’ Sona Hovhannisyan
said. She considers it positive that a lot of festivals are conducted
in Armenia. `We are open to cooperation,’ Sona Hovhannisyan stressed.

Armenia-made drone presented at DigiTech Business Expo 2012

NEWS.AM
June 15, 2012 | 17:07

YEREVAN.- Unmanned aerial vehicles were presented at DigiTech Business
Expo 2012 business forum held in Yerevan.

One of them is designed by the students of Military Aviation
Institute. One of the developers Edgar Movsisyan told the Armenian
News-NEWS.am reporter that drones had been designed and constructed in
Armenia. UAVs are being operated for peaceful purposes (e.g. taking
photos of roads) and for defense.

UAV can be managed online from the distance of 40 kilometers. It is
made of a special material not visible for radars. The drone presented
at the exhibition is intended for monitoring.

`Bogey’ Of Hot War

Siranuysh Papyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 15:22:55 – 15/06/2012

Interview with Ashot Manucharyan, member of Karabakh committee

Mr Manucharyan, rumors on possible resumption of hostilities have
become quite often. It is mostly stated that there will be no
large-scale war. Do you think the war resumption is possible?

The military actions and signs of war have increased in the last
months. By the way, the information on the possible resumption of
hostilities was published by not only the Armenian and Azerbaijani
press, but also Russian, American and European. We also need to answer
what the objective was and who benefited. It may seem from outside
that the escalation really recalls war. But there have already been
two sober opinions: ex-minister of defense of Armenia Vagharshak
Harutyunyan said there are no signs of war because the balance of
forces does not allow it. I can add that the possibility of war has
sharply decreased because the level of arming of the parties has
increased (it is different when you get armed with rifles or with
rockets) and if reached a peak, and the parties acquired nuclear
weapons, then the probability of war would arrive to zero, because the
nuclear weapon states don’t war with each other.

The second sober opinion was issued by Wafa Guluzade, Azeri political
scientist, who recalled that the Russian tanks are located 400 km from
Baku, hence pointing out to the nail of the geopolitical situation in
the region.

So the problem lies in Russia?

The geopolitical fight has become tenser in the region. Small
countries in the region also have something to share with each other,
they threaten each other, but the geopolitical leverage has long been
taken away from us. We cannot decide any question of peace or war, and
the dictates of superpowers says that the war should not happen.
Rumors also go about a new stage of bargaining.

Yet, there are many victims in the result of Azerbaijani diversions.

Superpowers don’t take interest in minor issues. Several hundred
thousand of lives in Iraq, Afganistan, Syria and Armenia – all this is
trifles when geopolitical issues are solved. This is the culture of
today’s policy and we need to understand that we need to care for the
life of our soldiers and we need to be literate to prevent such
situations.

We know what war threat give to Armenia. We didn’t know for long its
consequences in Azerbaijan. But the recent events have showed that a
colossal panic started in Azerbaijan, information appeared that
Armenian groups broke through the defense and were moving deep into
the country and the official agencies were forced to reject this
information.

Relations between Russia and the U.S. also sharpened, including in our
region. Russia tried to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
within its ideas. In fact, for Russia the only solution of the
conflict is the Madrid principles and the introduction of troops, only
Russian. Any other move will cause a strong reaction in Moscow.

The fall in oil prices aggravates the economic situation in Russia,
where there are also serious internal problems. In these
circumstances, Russia only needs a victory like the one in Georgia in
2008. So think the U.S. trying to take up their own process that would
keep the parties in an entirely different mood.

There is a global war, and the superpowers use in it the `bogey’ of
the hot war to compel the parties to the right decisions.

But wars are not only hot, but also alternative. This is disruption
and obligation to surrender without a fight out of fear. This method
is used now, Americans are using the Chinese method who don’t engage
in war, but achieve their goals. And now, Armenia is coerced into
obedience.

Dram-Dollar Relations: Union head predicts rate of 520 AMD-$1 by 2014

Economy | 15.06.12 | 13:43

NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow

By Gohar Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

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The steady and dynamic increase of US dollar value and depreciation of
the Armenian dram observed over the past few weeks remains news in
Armenia, and has one union chief predicting the highest dollar rate in
more than a decade.

According to Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) figures, during the past
month the dollar-drum rate in Armenia went from 395 drams per dollar
to 415 drams, and even 416 at some exchange points.

Some economists condition the dollar appreciation against the dram by
international market developments, namely dollar-euro fluctuations,
drop of oil tariffs, etc. Others assure that `the culprit’ is the May
6 parliamentary election, during which `huge amounts of election
bribes were given out and as a result a great amount of cash has
entered circulation’, causing the value of the dram to plummet.

While the majority of economists are reluctant to make predictions,
Gagik Makaryan, head of the Republican Union of Employers, said during
his Thursday meeting with the press, that `the US dollar will keep
getting stronger, as in the nearest future Armenia will have a dollar
deficit’.

`The total value of import for last year made $4.1 billion, to which
$1 billion is added for paying back the foreign debt in the next two
years. We need an extra $500 million per year. We can’t get that 500
million by increasing export and remittances as no such drastic
increase is possible,’ says Makaryan, adding that if that half a
billion is divided by general demand, the dollar demand will increase
by 10-11 percent.

`If dollar demand goes up and the volume isn’t increased, then the
price goes up. This means that in 2013 the dollar rate will go up to
460, and will reach 520 drams in 2014,’ predicts Makaryan.

He says that the appreciation of US dollar against the Armenian dram
is favorable for those exporters who get their financing from abroad.
On the other hand, when the dollar keeps getting stronger, the prices
for imported commodities grow respectively.

Hakob Bagdasaryan, director of Akcern, a major real estate agency in
Armenia, says the dram depreciation will have its impact on the real
estate market as well. Meanwhile, he says, `the situation is steadily
heavy in Armenia’ in this market.

According to him, there is drop of demand for real estate in Armenia,
which nonetheless does not have any tangible impact on the prices, as
the price fluctuations range from 0.5 to 1 percent.

`The situation today is worse in provinces of Armenia than in Yerevan,
because of the number of productions focused in the capital,’ says
Baghdasaryan, adding that in Yerevan the prices for one square meter
in a residential building begin from $3,000, and commercial premises
cost $500-8,000 per sq m.

U.S. Envoy Concerned About Civilitas

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 10:15:16 – 15/06/2012

U.S. Ambassador John Heffern on Thursday expressed concern at criminal
proceedings launched against Vartan Oskanian and the Civilitas
Foundation.

`The timing of it is troubling. The fact that this would happen at
this time in the political calendar is troubling,’ Heffern told
RFE/RL’s Armenian service, referring to the money laundering case
brought by Armenia’s National Security Service. The Civilitas is a
very important partner for us, and we think it’s really important for
Armenia politically and for the media,’ he said. `So we are very
interested in the case and we are following it very carefully.

`I don’t know the facts about who did what to whom and who is accused
of doing what, which money went where,’ Heffern said. `So I can’t
comment on the substance of it.’

The U.S. envoy added that he hopes to hear more details of the case
when he visits Civilitas and meets with its management later in the
day.

RPA members, including Shushan Petrosyan, given guidance – paper

June 15, 2012 – 12:58 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – According to Yerkir daily, members of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia resolved to have a good rest in summer, in
view of hard work they’ll have to face at parliament upon their
return.

According to Yerkir, the MPs are seriously concerned. `The MPs realize
that despite being in parliamentary majority, serious issues may occur
during enactment of bills. After internal calculations at RPA, it
became clear that 39% of the party members are in the habit of
shirking parliamentary sittings.

At present, RPA leadership is developing mechanisms to force MPs into
attending the sittings. `A separate conversation was held with singer
Shushan Petrosyan, who was instructed to forget about lengthy tours,
which the songstress clearly didn’t like,’ the daily said.