Author: Kalashian Nyrie

IRNA, Iran
January 25, 2005 Tuesday 1:23 PM EST
Rafsanjani underlines Tehran-Baku cooperation
Tehran
Chairman of the Expediency Council (EC) Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and
visiting Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday underlined the firm
determination of Tehran and Baku to upgrade the level of mutual
cooperation.
At the meeting, Rafsanjani referred to amicable relations between
Iran and Azerbaijan during the tenure of the former Azeri president,
late Heidar Aliyev, expressing hope that bilateral relations would
further expand in the future.
He underlined Tehran-Baku close relations given cultural and
religious commonalties between the two nations, citing Iran`s
assistance to the Azeri nation during the Karabakh crisis and the
relief aid donated by the Azeri nation to quake-stricken people in
the cities of Bam and Roudbar as good examples of mutual cooperation.
A violent earthquake measuring 7.7 on Richter scale rocked the
northern city of Roudbar and neighboring areas in Gilan province on
June 20, 1990, killing and wounding more than 77,000 people and
almost razed the city to the ground.
A quake measuring 6.8 on Richter scale shocked the ancient city of
Bam in southeastern province of Kerman on December 26, 2003, killing
tens of thousands and flattening the city to the ground.
The most ancient mud-brick citadel of the world, Arg-e Bam, was
almost destroyed.
The EC chairman called for expansion of mutual cooperation in
economic, transit and trade areas and expressed hope that the
agreements in energy fields would be seriously followed.
He also expressed hopes that the Karabakh crisis would be settled at
the earliest time.
President Aliyev, for his part, termed as appropriate the level of
relations between Iran and Azerbaijan, saying that the two countries
can play more effective role in the region by strengthening mutual
relations.
He stressed that his visit to Iran is aimed at promoting relations in
political, economic and defense areas.
He appreciated Iran`s positive stance towards the Karabakh crisis,
expressing hope that peace and stability would return to the region
after the rights of the Azeri people are vindicated.
The Republic of Azerbaijan also includes the Nagorno-Karabakh
Autonomous Oblast which is largely populated by Armenians but does
not legally constitute part of Armenia.
Following the dissolution of the USSR, hostilities intensified in
Nagorny Karabakh in 1990s.
. Aliyev arrived here Monday morning for an official three-day visit,
his first since taking office.
He and his delegation were welcomed at Mehrabad International Airport
by Iranian Minister of Cooperatives Ali Soufi.
An official welcome for the Azerbaijan president was held at Sa`dabad
Cultural Complex Monday evening.
Azerbaijan`s ministers of foreign affairs, industries, education,
health and development are accompanying Aliyev in this visit.
President Aliyev, since his arrival here yesterday, has held talks
with Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali
Khamenei, his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Khatami, and other senior
officials including Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel.
Talks between the two sides have focused on bilateral relations as
well as regional and international developments.
Iran and Azerbaijan during President Aliyev`s stay will sign several
documents for expansion of bilateral cooperation in the economic,
cultural, and health fields as well as on border security.

Copley News Service
January 23, 2005 Sunday
A countdown for the daring and the distinctive
By George Varga
With more than 30,000 albums released each year, just getting heard –
let alone making an impact – is a daunting challenge. This holds even
more true for bold, uncompromising artists outside the mainstream.
In a just world, these performers would be household names. For now,
they remain hidden treasures whose work should be savored, shared and
savored again.
So let the countdown begin (record company Web sites are provided for
each album):
10. “Skeleton Key Orchestra,” Nathan Hubbard
()
A tour de force from this drum dynamo, whose dazzling fusion of avant
jazz, electronica, Afro-Cuban and more is showcased on this two-CD
set by a talent-rich group that numbers up to 28 members.
9. Jenny Scheinman, “Shalagaster” ()
This New York violinist bills her music as “modern folk jazz,” but
that hardly does justice to her daring blend of classical, tango,
klezmer, blues and Middle Eastern music.
8. David Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters, featuring Pharoah Sanders,
“Gwotet” ()
On which the two saxophone masters create a propulsive, multicultural
gumbo of funk, zouk and jazz with musicians from Guadeloupe, Cuba and
the United States.
7. Karan Casey, “Distant Shore” ()
The former lead singer in Ireland’s Solas shines on this often
hushed, but consistently enchanting, collection of Celtic ballads,
stirring laments and bluegrass-tinged reveries.
6. World Saxophone Quartet, “Experience” ()
Jimi Hendrix’s music is saluted and reinvented by this heady,
guitar-free group, which has long been noted for its ability to
eviscerate, not merely push, musical envelopes.
5. Rokia Traore, “Bowmboi” ()
The third album by this charismatic singer-songwriter from Mali finds
her celebrating and extending the traditions of the griot, the
singing, kora-playing oral historians of West Africa that helped lay
the foundation for rap 600 or so years ago.
4. Hem, “Eveningland” ()
A treasure-trove of finely crafted music, topped by Sally Ellyson’s
heavenly vocals, which suggests an alt-country chamber group
performing down-home yet urbane art songs.
3. Youssou N’Dour, “Egypt” ()
Accompanied by a 15-piece Egyptian orchestra and a West African vocal
and percussion group, this Senegalese vocal star has rarely sounded
so intimate or impassioned as on this stunning homage to Sufism,
Arabic culture and the timeless power of love.
2. Jerry Gonzales y Los Piratas del Flamenco, “Los Piratas del
Flamenco” ()
The marriage of flamenco and jazz takes on new life as expatriate New
York trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez and his Madrid-based group inject new
vigor into both idioms. Their mesmerizing synthesis indicates what
might have happened had Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk been Spanish.
1. Diamanda Galas, “Defixiones: Will and Testament” and “La Serpenta
Canta” ()
These two double albums by vocal master Diamanda Galas couldn’t be
more different. But each is as rewarding as it is provocative, and
both are utterly distinct from the work of any other artist working
in any idiom.
At once wrenching and cathartic, “Defixiones” was inspired by the
still-controversial Greek, Armenian and Assyrian genocides of the
early 1920s.
It finds Galas using her four-octave voice to expertly perform lyrics
in six languages, including Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. With them she
creates an earthy yet otherworldly palette of richly textured music
that explores emotional extremes in a manner simultaneously horrific
and strangely beautiful. Only by embracing the darkness, she
suggests, can we move to the light beyond, and “Defixiones” succeeds
on both counts.
The comparatively inviting “Serpenta” features Galas performing
wonderfully original versions of songs by John Lee Hooker, Hank
Williams, Ornette Coleman and other American roots-music icons, along
with her own “Baby’s Insane,” a jaunty music-hall ballad from hell
that begins with her singing: “I was covered in blood, the war has
begun / Hide the straight razor, because baby’s insane,” and later
finds her quipping: “It’s very pretty, don’t you think?”
The two-CD set is a showcase not only for her expressive singing, but
for her incisive piano work.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 21 2005
Opposition complains to Americans
As the Armenian newspaper Aravot (Morning) reports, experts of the
U.S.-based Marshal Fund met with the representatives of the political
and economic circles of Armenia. Within the framework of the Marshal
Fund program, a delegation of U.S. political experts is Armenia on a
fact-finding visit.
Late last week, the members of the delegation held several meetings.
As the paper writes, “If pro-imperial MPs stated during the meeting
that Armenia is the most democratic country in the Caucasus region,
than the opposition MPs expressed the opposite views, pointing at the
violation of elementary democratic norms.”
The only thing in which the sides agreed, the paper states, is that
the United States and the West should pay more serious attention to
the region, particularly, to the democratic processes in the South
Caucasus republics.
The representatives of the Marshal Fund were interested in two
issues, the paper states, the democratic situation in Armenia and the
attitude of Armenian opposition toward the introduction of European
and Western value systems in the country.
Opposition representatives assessed the level of the democracy in
Armenia as “very low”. The representatives of the “Marshal Fund” were
also interested in the supporter of which valuable system is Armenian
opposition. As for the relations with Iran, according to the
opposition representatives, this is neighboring country of Armenia
and that it is necessary to have some normal deal with them.

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 19 2005
Dr. ROSHAL EUROPEAN OF THE YEAR
MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) – Leonid Roshal, illustrious Russian
children’s doctor, received today a European of the Year award,
established by the popular magazine, Reader’s Digest.
Editors-in-chief of eighteen European-based versions of the magazine
approved this nomination.
Dr. Roshal is the best possible embodiment of contemporary European
values and traditions, Conrad Kishel, Reader’s Digest director of
overseas publications, said at the awarding gala in Moscow.
The laureate donated the 5,000 Euro that came with the prize to
children who suffered in a recent Southeast Asian calamity.
Leonid Roshal heads the Moscow Research Institute of Urgent Pediatric
Surgery and Traumatology. He established an international
organization for aid to children in a plight.
Dr. Roshal visited the sites of more than twenty major disasters in
four continents. Among them were the first Gulf War, wars in
Yugoslavia and Karabakh, the Romanian revolution, and earthquakes in
the USA, Egypt, Japan, Afghanistan, Turkey, India, Algeria and
Armenia. In his home country, he was active in hostage rescue at
Moscow’s theatre in Dubrovka, and at the Beslan school in North
Ossetia.
The European of the Year award was established ten years ago. There
are foremost notables among its previous winners-suffice it to
mention Peter Eigen, founder of the organization against corruption;
Simon Panek, People in Trouble foundation founder; Justice Eva Jolie;
Paul van Beitenen of the European Parliament; and Linus Thorwalds,
who invented the Linux operation system.

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
Martedì, Il 18 Gennaio 2005
PAPA: DOMANI INAUGURA NUOVA STATUA SUL LATO ESTERNO S.PIETRO
CITTA’ DEL VATICANO
(ANSA) – CITTA’ DEL VATICANO, 18 GEN – Domani, prima
dell’udienza generale, Giovanni Paolo II inaugurera’ una nuova
statua, che rappresenta San Gregorio l’Illuminatore, collocata
in una delle nicchie di sinistra della basilica vaticana. Il
papa, come di consueto, benedira’ la statua, commissionata dal
collegio Armeno di Roma: e’ di marmo bianco di Carrara, alta
5,64 metri e pesa circa 20 tonnellate. E’ opera dello scultore
armeno Kazan Khatechik

Gregorio l’Illuminatore e’ l’apostolo degli Armeni, nazione
che si converti’ al cristianesimo nel 301. Nato nel 260 circa,
sopravvisse ad una strage della sua famiglia e venne educato
alla fede cristiana dalla nutrice.

Vicino al re Tridate, si rifiuto’ di sacrificare agli dei
pagani, come richiesto dal sovrano. Per questo fu imprigionato,
ma rilasciato in un secondo tempo dallo stesso Tridate ammalato.
La sua liberazione coincise con la guarigione del re: da questo
episodio deriva l’origine cristiana degli armeni, un popolo che
anche recentemente ha molto sofferto in persecuzioni e stragi, a
causa della fede.

Alcune reliquie del santo sono nella chiesa di San Gregorio
Armeno a Napoli, altre a Nardo’ e Costantinopoli. La piu
importante e’ il braccio destro, con cui in Armenia si benedice
il nuovo Katholikos. (ANSA).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
Jan 13 2005
ARMENIANS TO MARK THIS YEAR THE 1,600-TH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR
ALPHABET
YEREVAN, JANUARY 13, ARMENPRESS; The government of Armenia is
planning to hold an extensive range of events this year to mark the
1600-th anniversary of invention of Armenian alphabet. A special
commission was set up, chaired by prime minister Andranik Margarian,
to steer the preparation of events.
The events will include, particulalry, a theater performance
showing Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the scripts and his
disciples’ return from Syria where they worked to create the first
Armenian alphabet.
The origins of the Armenian alphabet were derived after the
official adoption of Christianity by King Tiridates III in 301 AD.
The difficult task of inventing the alphabet was assigned to Mesrop
Mashtots whom the Armenian Church reveres among her saints.
St. Mesrop was born in the year 361 in the village of Hatzekatz in
the province of Taron, now in Turkey. In his early years, he learned
both Greek and Persian and served in the Armenian Royal Court. Later,
he decided to enter the ranks of the clergy and with some other young
men, he went to preach in the province of Goghtn around 395 A.D.
During this period he felt the great need of the Armenian people for
an “Alphabet” of their own so he petitioned the Catholicos Sahak and
together they requested the aid of King Vramshapouh.
After receiving the approval of Catholicos Sahak, the saintly head
of the Armenian Church and himself a scholar, Mesrop set out on this
enormous undertaking at a time when Armenian religious and cultural
integrity was threatened by the Persian regime to assimilate the
Armenian population.
Mesrop determined a need of 36 characters for the alphabet and
decided to write the characters from left to right as in Greek. He
retained a number of Greek letters and altered others to fit in with
the aesthetic pattern that they had adopted, thereby retaining the
order of the Greek alphabet as much as possible. Three letters were
added in the 10th-12th cc, for a total of 39 letters.
After much research and many travels, Mesrop was able to come up
with the skeleton of an alphabet. However, it did not meet the needs
of the Armenian language. According to tradition, while meditating in
a cave near the village of Palu, the saint had a vision in which,
“the hand of God wrote the alphabet in letters of fire”.
Upon his return to the Catholicos and King, the saint was received
with great honors and much joy. Mesrop completed the Armenian
alphabet in 405 AD.
The original Armenian alphabet was written in large capital
letters of a monumental character and size. Though nowadays written
in modern cursive script, the Armenian alphabet has continued in use
to the present day with the original set of characters.

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Jan 8 2005
RFE/RL Caucasus Services Launch New Regional Discussion Program

(Washington/Prague–January 7, 2005) The Armenian, Azerbaijani and
Georgian broadcast services of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) are launching a new jointly produced, regional program
designed to help bridge the divisions that exist among the several
nations living in the South Caucasus.
The 20-minute program will be heard as part of RFE/RL’s regular
programming every Saturday at 6:00PM (local time) on Georgian State
Radio and at 5:15PM and 11:15PM (local time) on Azerbaijan’s
Teleradio network, and on Sunday evenings at 7:00PM on Armenian State
Radio. The broadcasts will be available on RFE/RL’s local private
affiliates as well as on the Internet and via shortwave and
direct-to-home satellite broadcast (see for more
schedule information).
Every other week, the program will be made up of a live roundtable,
moderated from Prague, but conducted either from RFE/RL’s studios in
Tbilisi, Georgia or via phone with guests located in each of the
three capitals — Tbilisi, Yerevan, Armenia and Baku, Azerbaijan.
Programs for those weeks when a roundtable will not be broadcast
(including the first broadcast January 8) will be prerecorded by
local journalists in Tbilisi, Yerevan and Baku and packaged by RFE/RL
editors in Prague. Editorial control of the program will remain with
RFE/RL.
According to RFE/RL Associate Director of Broadcasting Nenad Pejic,
the topics addressed on the program will “concentrate on the future
and on issues that citizens in the region share as common problems,”
in an effort to counteract the general practice in the Caucasus of
using mass media to perpetuate negative images of adversaries and to
promote one-dimensional views of the various conflicts that divide
the residents of all three countries. “Our aim is to engage
communities in a dialogue that will show how much they share rather
than repeat how much divides them,” Pejic said. As a result, while
not shying away from sensitive political issues such as the region’s
foreign policy orientation, upcoming programs will address such
issues of broad concern in all three countries as health care reform,
education reform, energy and pipeline policy, and transport and
communications issues.
The new program is being produced in cooperation with the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the
German Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GTZ, German
Technical Cooperation).
RFE/RL’s Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Services broadcast a
combined 12 hours of programming a day to the South Caucasus,
produced in Prague and in local bureaus in Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi
and transmitted to listeners via satellite, shortwave and AM, FM, UKV
and cable signals provided by local affiliate stations. Programming
aired by all three services is also available via the Internet, at
and at the respective service websites:
, , and

Armenia offers blankets in aid to Tsunami victims
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
5 Jan 05
[Presenter] Today Armenians said prayers in churches for the 150,000
victims of the Asian earthquake and tsunami disaster and Europeans
observed a three-minute’ silence to remember those killed by the
tsunami.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry today once again confirmed that there
was no information about any Armenians affected by the natural
disaster.
Within the next few days, Armenia will send warm blankets and
appliances to countries affected by the Asian tsunami. The State
Directorate for Emergency Situations received an appropriate
instruction from the [Armenian] government.
[Nikolay Grigoryan, adviser to the head of the State Directorate for
Emergency Situations under the Armenian government, captioned] The
government instructed the State Directorate for Emergency Situations
to send aid. We shall send warm blankets and appliances. Within the
next few days, the aid will be shipped to regions hit by the
earthquake.

Gerard Cafesjian and Kirk Kirkoryan have been awarded with great
humanitarian, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Fridtjoff Nansen medal.
Armenia TV
January 6, 2005
Prominent American-Armenian benefactor Gerard Cafesjian has been awarded
with the Fridtjoff Nansen medal for his active socio-political
participation, establishment of humanitarian principles, investments in
the motherland, namely for reconstruction of the ”Cascade” museum,
and for his active participation in all nation-wide projects. Fridtjoff
Nansen Fund’s chairman also delivered that . another prominent
Armenian-American benefactor and businessman Kirk Kirkoryan has also
been awarded with the same medal for reconstruction of the Armenian
economy and desaster zone, for reconstruction of cultural objects, for
unprecedented number of highway-construction projects and for financing
a great deal of other humanitarian initiatives. ”This once again
testifies that nothing is left unnoticable by people who live in
Armenia.” Said Felix Bakhchinyan, chairman of the ” Fridtjoff Nansen
Fund”. The fund functions for about ten years. During this period it
has awarded with medals several prominent people: among them, grandson
of the great humanitarian, architect Aidil Nansen, Russian
ex-prime-minister Nikolay Rijkov, president of the Norwegian National
Academy Bjarne Vaaler, presidendts of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, the
prime-minister of Armenia, defense ministers of Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh, writers Eduartas Majelaitis, Silva Kaputikyan, Zori Balayan,
president of the Natioanal Academy of RA Fadey Sarkissyan and so
forth. Chairman of the Fridtjoff Nansen Fund congratulates the great
patriots on the occasion of beeing awarded with the medal of the Nobel
Price recipient Fridtjoff Nansen. Felix Bakhchinyan also congratulates
them both on the occasion of the New Year and Christmas. Please, find
underneath the texts of the certificates, which were awared to Gerard
Cafesjian and Kirk Kirkoryan.
Honorable Mr Gerard Cafesjian, for your fruitfull activities conducted
towards establishing of social-political and humanitarian principles, as
well as for your unforgettable merit put within development of the
republic’s economy and for your most active participation in all
nation-wide projects, you are being granted with the comemorative medal
of the great humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize recepient Fridtjoff
Nansen.
Honorable Mr Kirk Kirkoryan, for your fruitfull activities conducted
towards establishing of social-political and humanitarian principles, as
well as for your unforgettable merit in the motherland’s development,
reconstruction of the desaster zone, road-construction and renovation of
cultural centers, you are being granted with the comemorative medal of
the great humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize recepient Fridtjoff Nansen.
High Comissioner of the League of Natioans, recipient the Nobel Peace
Prize, National Hero of Norway, physician, polar explorer and great
friend of the Armenian people Fridtjoff Nansen encountered numbers of
Armenian refugees, who escaped the Great Genocide committed by the
Turks. He also has implemented a prolific work in introducing the
Armenian problem to the world. It is well-known that Nansen has given
passports with his own signature to those Armenians who had no
documents. And those passports were accepted in many countries. n those
times the great humanitarian helped the people of Povoljie to escape
starvation. He sent to Russia 4000 trains packed with food, as a result
of which, 7 million people escaped death. Today one in every 5 Russians
is the generation of those who once were saved by Fridtjoff Nansen. In
1925 Nansen visited Armenia in order to learn personally the refugees’
situation. He understood that the super-powers and the League of Nations
once again have deceived Armenians and himself. After this, he left for
the United States, hoping to collect donations. Nansen delivered
lectures in all Universities, receiving money in return. And in the
end, in the streets of big cities, the citizen of the world, Fridtjoff
Nansen, began to ask for money for Armenian refugees.

Armenian peacekeeping not to affect Baghdad’s position on Karabakh – envoy
Trend news agency
3 Jan 05
Baku, 3 January: Trend correspondent A. Raufoglu: “The participation
of Armenian peacekeepers will not affect official Baghdad’s position
on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict,” the Iraqi ambassador to
Azerbaijan, Umar Ismai’l, told Trend news agency while commenting on
the Armenian parliament’s decision to send a military contingent to
Iraq.
“Many peacekeepers can come to our country, but this will not affect
our general policy,” the ambassador said.
To recap, the Armenian parliament recently adopted a decision to send
50 peacekeepers to Iraq. “This decision was adopted after military
operations and Armenia wishes to participate only in the current
process of restoring peace. There is a sura in the Koran saying that
‘those who declared jihad during the conquest of Mecca are above those
who took this step afterwards’. I do not believe that those who joined
the struggle for the salvation of Iraq and those who did so afterwards
will be perceived equally. In any case, those who arrived first are
more important for us,” the ambassador said.
The diplomat pointed out that Iraq has always supported Baku’s
position on the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement. Official Baghdad is in
favour of solving this issue only within the framework of Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity, the ambassador said.
“During the latest UN discussions, we voted for the draft resolution
prepared by the Azerbaijani side,” the ambassador recalled. “At the
same time, we also announced that the Armenian forces must pull out of
Karabakh and adjacent districts. This policy will be continued in the
future as well,” he said.
It must be remembered that there is still no Iraqi embassy in
Yerevan. “This is a very important aspect and Azerbaijan should take
it into consideration. Sincere tendencies and our friends’ interests
are an important factor in our foreign policy,” Umar Ismai’l said.