Author: Karakhanian Suren

Parliamentary candidates in Karabakh get free airtime on Public TV
Artsakh Public TV, Stepanakert
13 May 05
[Presenter over video of meeting] The NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh Republic]
Central Electoral Commission held a meeting on 13 May dedicated to the
19 June parliamentary elections.
The commission checked the lists of candidates for deputies of the
National Assembly. The commission registered the party lists of six
parties and a bloc of two parties. The commission also registered the
list of candidates under the first-past-the-post system while it
refused to register two candidates.
The commission also made a decision to provide the candidates with
free and paid time on Artsakh Public TV and radio. The broadcast time
for candidates should not exceed 60 minutes of free time and 90
minutes of paid time. Candidates running under the of
first-past-the-post system will only have paid time, which should not
exceed 10 minutes.
The Central Electoral Commission also adopted decisions on conducting
elections to local government bodies in some villages of the NKR on 19
June.
Representatives of political parties participated in the meeting.

AZG Armenian Daily #087, 14/05/2005
Culture
ARMINE AHARONIAN’S CONCERT IN KARLOVI VARI
Armine Aharonian, young musician, who was awarded the first prize in
international competition in Dubai, performed a brilliant concert together
with the symphonic Orchestra of Karlovi Vari. After the competition it was
decided to let her perform a concert with the Czech Symphonic Orchestra. The
young musician displayed all the talent during the concert. Armine Aharonian
is a student at Yerevan Conservatoire after Komitas. She participated in
many international competitions and performed in many concerts abroad
together with other young musicians within the framework of “New Names.”
program.

New York Times, NY
May 12 2005
Critic’s Notebook
>From Punk to Rap, the Varied Guises of the Hard-Rock Sound

By KELEFA SANNEH
Published: May 12, 2005
Contract disputes usually aren’t much fun to eavesdrop on, but an
exception must be made for Linkin Park, the deceptively mild-mannered
rap-rock band that’s feuding with its record company, the Warner
Music Group.
Enlarge This Image

Judith Schlieper for The New York Times
The protest-metal band System of a Down performed this week at Irving
Plaza in New York.

Excerpts of Songs by System of a Down and Limp Bizkit

Forum: Popular Music
Last week the Firm, Linkin Park’s management company, issued an
entertaining press release. Among other things, the statement said
that Warner Music Group’s stock offering might weaken the company’s
ability to “market and promote Linkin Park.” This was a neat
reversal, since the usual complaint about major labels is the exact
opposite: they spend too much money marketing and promoting bands
like Linkin Park.
Even more startling was the group’s casual claim that they were
Warner Music Group’s “biggest act,” a claim that echoes one made by
the Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr., who has described the
group as “the biggest rock band in the world.” Really? Linkin Park?
Those rather anonymous-looking guys who recently did time as Jay-Z’s
backup band? How did that happen?
The answer is that Linkin Park triumphed mainly by not messing up.
Less flamboyant and less mediagenic than their rap-rock
contemporaries, the members surpassed the competition by working hard
and keeping relatively low profiles. The band’s second and most
recent full-length album, “Meteora,” has sold more than 10 million
copies, even though Chester Bennington (the lead singer) and Mike
Shinoda (the lead rapper) are hardly household names.
By contrast, look what happened to Limp Bizkit, once one of
rap-rock’s best-selling acts. After a string of hits, the lead barker
Fred Durst became better known as a celebrity punch line than as a
rap-rock frontman. More people probably remember his rumored fling
with Britney Spears or that disastrous Chicago concert (the band was
reportedly run off the stage; some fans later sued over the shortened
set) than remember the group’s 2003 album, “Results May Vary.”
Indeed, things have gotten so dire for Limp Bizkit that the band has
now embraced precisely the situation that Linkin Park says it is
worried about. The new Limp Bizkit mini-album, “The Unquestionable
Truth (Part 1),” released by Geffen, snuck into stores last week with
virtually no marketing or promotion. This wasn’t just a quiet release
but a secret one: the band has made no mention of the CD in recent
interviews, and many fans (yes, some remain) were doubtless surprised
to stroll into record stores on May 3 and find a new Limp Bizkit
release on the racks.
While Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit have been busy with (respectively)
high-profile press releases and low-profile CDs, an unlikely
contender has emerged as the country’s favorite heavy rock band of
the moment. The hyper-quirky Armenian-American protest-metal act,
System of a Down, is in the middle of a whirlwind promotional tour
that has included an appearance on “Saturday Night Live” and a
so-called “guerrilla tour” (because the band is playing small venues)
that came to Irving Plaza on Monday night. All of this is intended to
ensure that the band’s new CD, “Mezmerize” (American/Columbia), will
enjoy one of the year’s biggest debuts when it’s released on Tuesday.
It’s hard to imagine better evidence of the topsy-turvy state of loud
rock. While Limp Bizkit bashes out chest-pounding rap-rock on an
underground EP, System of a Down is on “Saturday Night Live” playing
an antiwar song called, “BYOB,” which has singer Serj Tankian
exclaiming, “My God is of Bible blood with pointed ears.”
The strange thing about Limp Bizkit is that Mr. Durst has always been
at pains to portray himself as an underdog, even when his band seemed
like a corporate-rock juggernaut. If he were a better lyricist (or a
more likable celebrity), his self-pity might have been easier to
swallow. As it was, you often had to ignore him in order to enjoy his
band’s surprisingly propulsive riffs.
The new Limp Bizkit mini-album marks the band’s reunion with its
adventurous guitarist, Wes Borland, and the songs are as loud and
raucous as any Bizkit fan could hope for, full of gluey bass lines
and exploding backbeats. Unfortunately, Mr. Durst’s rants are as
unpalatable as ever: his take on evil priests (“The Priest”) falls
particularly flat.
Still, System of a Down fans shouldn’t be too quick to hop aboard the
anti-Durst bandwagon: Mr. Tankian is hardly immune to awkward
polemics. In fact, the two singers sometimes write surprisingly
similar lyrics. One of these bands has a song that includes the
words, “Crying freedom/ Handed to obsoletion/ Still you feed us lies
>From the tablecloth.” One has a song that includes the words,
“Rebellious at heart all along/ Is your leader a voice?/ Somehow
you’ve replaced all your gain with a debt.” Can you guess which is
which?
If nothing else, the diverging tales of System of a Down and Limp
Bizkit show just how quickly hard-rock paradigms can shift: at a time
when the Latino post-punk noisemakers in Mars Volta seem poised to
outsell the rap-rock dinosaurs in Korn, Mr. Tankian’s self-conscious
weirdness seems a lot fresher than Mr. Durst’s red-hatted rage. So if
the members of “the biggest rock band in the world” seem surprisingly
nervous about their maintaining their stature, maybe they have good
reason. All rock bands love pretending to be underdogs, but as Mr.
Durst can attest, it’s not always fun to become one.

Forward, NY
May 11 2005
Genocidal Threats Demand More Than Just Memorializing
By Yehuda Bauer
May 13, 2005
The recent opening of Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of
Europe and of Yad Vashem’s new museum in Jerusalem are important and
welcome developments. But we must go beyond our singular focus on
memorializing the Holocaust. We must help people realize that
genocidal violence is a threat to all people. We must demand of the
political world – in our own interest, and the interest of the wider
community – to finally put actions behind its pledge to “never
forget.”
Any examination of the Holocaust must involve an examination of the
general phenomenon of genocide. The internationally recognized legal
definition delineated by the Genocide Convention of 1948 is
unsatisfactory, but any attempt to change it is all but politically
impossible. This is the definition of genocide with which we must
work, but every effort should be made to expand our understanding of
what it should imply.
Political mass murder, ethnic cleansing designed to annihilate a
group and global genocidal ideologies such as radical Islam very
much fit the concept of genocide, in spirit if not in letter. These
are genocidal threats, and as such they should be added to the
convention’s definition that genocide is the intent to annihilate
ethnic, national, racial and religious groups. The genocide of the
Jewish people – inaccurately known as the Holocaust – is, as far as
we know, the most extreme case of genocide to date.
Each and every genocide has targeted a specific group of people. In
order to understand genocide, therefore, one has to deal with the
specific group targeted. Jews were not transported to extermination
camps because they were humans; humans were transported because they
were Jews. The Young Turks did not randomly kill masses of humans;
they killed Armenians. The same is true for the Tutsi in Rwanda, and
for the ethnic Africans being murdered in Darfur by Arab Janjaweed
militias.
Each genocide is different, but it would be a mistake to dismiss the
similarities. Foremost among them is the suffering of the victims.
There is no better or worse genocide, just as there is no better or
worse murder, no better or worse torture. There is no scale to
measure suffering. Jews, Armenians or Poles who were martyred and
murdered all suffered the same. Another characteristic common to all
genocides is that the “civilized” world was unable to prevent them,
or to make a serious effort to stop them. There are, tragically, few
exceptions.
The argument that the Holocaust was the most extreme form of genocide
is based on the fact that a modern nation state committed itself to
the total and universal annihilation of individuals belonging to a
particular group of humans. The Nazi ideology that motivated the
murder was unprecedented in its lack of pragmatism: The Nazis
murdered Jewish slave workers while they produced materials essential
for the German war effort, and killed experts whom they could have
used. Nazi ideology related to the Jews as mythical beings – Satans
or supposed rulers of the world that had to be destroyed – a marked
contrast to other genocides that were motivated by economic or
political considerations. True, Jewish property was confiscated and
used – but that was not the reason for persecuting and murdering the
Jews; it was the result.
The Holocaust was not unique, because that would mean that it could
never happen again, to anyone, Jewish or otherwise. This is simply
not true. The Holocaust was perpetrated by humans, for human reasons,
and anything done by humans can be repeated – not in exactly the same
form, but in similar or parallel ways.
>From 1900 to 1987, according to Rudolph Rummel, an estimated 169
million civilians were murdered by governments and by other political
bodies. Of that number, some 38 million of these victims were
murdered in genocides as defined by the convention. Today, Darfur is
the scene of genocide, and again the international community has, so
far, proved itself unable to stop the killing. To be fair, more is
now being written about genocidal threats, and more people and even
politicians seem to care about genocide than before. Nonetheless, the
killing continues.
Today, genocidal threats are present everywhere. For the Jewish
people, the main genocidal threat does not lie with European
antisemitism, but with the radical Islamist version. It is a serious
error to view the murderous language of radical Islamists as mere
talk: We have learned that when people are ideologically committed to
murderous action, they will act accordingly if given the chance.
Therefore, Jews should be actively involved in all attempts to
prevent genocidal murders of any kind. In most cases, including the
radical Islamic one, it is largely from within the group that
potential perpetrators are recruited. In the effort to combat the
genocidal threat, then, Jews and others must seek out allies in the
nonradical Islamic world, which still makes up the vast majority of
Islam’s 1.3 billion adherents. That means that we must view Muslims
as brothers, as equals, as potential allies and as bearers of one of
the great civilizations of the world – and as those who are the first
to be threatened by the radicals in their midst.
Yehuda Bauer is the scientific adviser to Yad Vashem, a professor of
Holocaust studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a member of the
Israel Academy of Science and the author of “Rethinking the
Holocaust” (Yale University Press, 2001).

A1plus
| 17:28:27 | 10-05-2005 | Politics |
NEW TIMES ARE COMING FOR NEW TIMES PARTY
The New Times party is losing its territories. Today the party branch has to
free the office situated in the Malatia-Sebastia community.
According to the agreement, the party was renting the territory belonging to
Bayazeti Tun LTD. Chairman of the Malatia-Sebastia branch Arsen Amirkhanyan
stated that the agreement is valid till 2006. However the administration of
the Byazeti Tun LTD forced to free the territory due to repair works
allegedly to be carried out. According to Amirkhanyan, not long ago police
collected information about the party members and activities of the party
branch.
To remind, New Times party is being deprived of the territories after the
events in the town of Sevan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Embassy of The United States
Yerevan, Armenia
May 10,2005
President Bush’s May 10 Speech in Tbilisi
Freedom Square
Tbilisi, Georgia
1:27 P.M. (Local)
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you for that introduction. Citizens of
a free Georgia, Laura and I were in the neighborhood — we thought we’d
swing by and say gamarjoba. (Applause.)
I am proud to stand beside a President who has shown such spirit,
determination, and leadership in the cause of freedom. (Applause.) And Laura
and I are proud to stand with the courageous people of Georgia, in this
place that has earned a proud name — Freedom Square. (Applause.)
When Georgians gathered here 16 years ago, this square had a different name.
Under Lenin’s steely gaze, thousands of Georgians prayed and sang, and
demanded their independence. The Soviet army crushed that day of protest,
but they could not crush the spirit of the Georgian people. (Applause.)
The following year, Georgians returned to this square and pulled down the
statue of Lenin. And on April 9th, 1991, you declared to the world that
Soviet Georgia was no more, and that the independent nation of Georgia was
born. (Applause.) On that historic day, you reclaimed your sovereignty, but
the hopeful start you made was not fulfilled. So 18 months ago, Georgians
returned to this square to complete the task you began in 1989. You gathered
here armed with nothing but roses and the power of your convictions, and you
claimed your liberty. And because you acted, Georgia is today both sovereign
and free, and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world. (Applause.)
The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not travel it
alone. Americans respect your courageous choice for liberty. And as you
build a free and democratic Georgia, the American people will stand with
you. (Applause.)
You are building a free future for your children and grandchildren, and you
are helping other nations to do the same. When the Afghan people defied
terrorists to vote in that nation’s first free presidential elections,
Georgian soldiers were there to provide security. (Applause.) And last
year — and last year, when terrorist violence in Iraq was escalating,
Georgia showed her courage. You increased your troop commitment in Iraq
fivefold. The Iraqi people are grateful, and so are your American and
coalition allies. (Applause.)
You are making many important contributions to freedom’s cause, but your
most important contribution is your example. In recent months, the world has
marveled at the hopeful changes taking place from Baghdad to Beirut to
Bishkek. But before there was a Purple Revolution in Iraq, or an Orange
Revolution in Ukraine, or a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, there was the Rose
Revolution in Georgia. (Applause.) Your courage is inspiring democratic
reformers and sending a message that echos across the world: Freedom will be
the future of every nation and every people on Earth. (Applause.)
Building a free society is the work of generations. It took nearly 15 years
of struggle before liberty and justice fully took root in this country. Many
of the students and workers who gathered here on this square 18 months ago
were too young to remember the protests of 1989, but they took up freedom’s
cause and finished the work that their parents had begun. (Applause.)
Now, across the Caucasus, in Central Asia and the broader Middle East, we
see the same desire for liberty burning in the hearts of young people. They
are demanding their freedom — and they will have it. (Applause.)
As free nations, the United States and Georgia have great responsibilities,
and together, we will do our duty. Free societies are peaceful societies.
And by extending liberty to millions who have not known it, we will advance
the cause of freedom, and we will advance the cause of peace. (Applause.)
In this global struggle for liberty, our duties begin at home. While
peaceful revolutions can bring down repressive regimes, the real changes and
the real challenge is to build up free institutions in their place. This is
difficult work, and you are undertaking it with dignity and determination.
(Applause.) You have taken tough steps to reform your economy and to crack
down on corruption. You are building a democratic society where the rights
of minorities are respected, where a free press flourishes, a vigorous
opposition is welcome, and unity is achieved through peace. In this new
Georgia, the rule of law will prevail, and freedom will be the birthright of
every citizen. (Applause.)
This was a dream of your late Prime Minister Zhvania who once said, “It is
not by mere chance that we have adopted two very important ideas as our
watch words: freedom and responsibility.” Today, we pay tribute to this
Georgian patriot who became a great leader of the global democratic
revolution. In building a free and responsible society, you honor his memory
and you carry on his legacy. (Applause.)
As you build free institutions at home, the ties that bind our nations will
grow deeper, as well. We respect Georgia’s desire to join the institutions
of Europe. We encourage your closer cooperation with NATO. Georgia’s leaders
know that the peaceful resolution of conflict is essential to your
integration into the transatlantic community. At the same time, the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected — the
territorial [sic] and sovereignty of Georgia must be respected by all
nations. (Applause.)
We are living in historic times when freedom is advancing, from the Black
Sea to the Caspian, and to the Persian Gulf and beyond. As you watch free
people gathering in squares like this across the world, waving their
nations’ flags and demanding their God-given rights, you can take pride in
this fact: They have been inspired by your example and they take hope in
your success. (Applause.)
As you build freedom in this country, you must know that the seeds of
liberty you are planting in Georgian soil are flowering across the globe.
(Applause.) I have come here to thank you for your courage. The American
people value your friendship, and admire your determination. On behalf of
all Americans, thank you, God bless you. Sakartvelos gaumarjos. (Applause.)

Jerusalem woes
Kathimerini, Greece
May 7 2005
Over its long history, the Orthodox Church has frequently been plagued
by internal strife, for which it has sometimes paid a high price.
That is why the current crisis within the Jerusalem Patriarchate should
be resolved as quickly as possible. It is self-evident that any cleric
with a modicum of respect both for himself and his vocation should
put the sacred institution he serves above all personal interest.
It is true that the problems in this particularly sensitive sector
have not arisen since Irinaios became patriarch, but have their roots
in the reign of the late Diodoros.
Yet even if the current patriarch believes that he is at least
partly in the right, his duty at this time is to facilitate matters
by providing a way out of the crisis.
The important thing is to avoid provoking irreparable damage to the
Greek Orthodox Church’s presence in the Holy City.
Although Irinaios received a warning from the Greek government at
an early date, he chose to ignore it and instead to cling to the
patriarchal throne.
Besides being unlikely to help his own position, this tactic has also
managed to deepen the rift within the Holy Sepulchre Brotherhood,
to the extent of opening up an even more dangerous front. At this
stage, quite a number of officials feel strongly tempted to exploit
the crisis as a means of putting forward their own claims or at least
making their own mark.
What is largely at stake here is the prominent position held by the
Greek Orthodox at the heart of the Christian pilgrimage site.
Not only the Catholics and Armenians but the Russian Orthodox Church
too have all made known their ambitions, which could be fueled by the
latest unpleasant events within the Jerusalem Patriarchate and could
also create problems elsewhere. For years the Ecumenical Patriarchate
in Istanbul has been under great pressure from the Turkish state;
then there is the Alexandria Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Church
of Albania.
It is precisely for these reasons that all those concerned should
assume their responsibilities and facilitate matters.
It is of crucial importance that the solution should come from
within the Orthodox Church itself, and not be the result of political
intervention by foreign governments.
That would create an extremely negative precedent which could prove
to be a destabilizing factor in future.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

COURT NOT APPENDIX TO EXECUTIVE POWER
A1plus
| 13:32:13 | 07-05-2005 | Politics |
The Armenian courts should not be formed as it is dome now, chairman
Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan considers.
“It is not very hard to find the mechanisms to divide the power and
make the courts independent”, de says. Should the courts be elected? It
is not a necessary condition for an independent juridical power. There
are many states where the courts are independent though they were not
elected. Avetik Ishkhanyan is not against if the judges were elected
by the President under the condition that he should not possess
super-authority of the executive power. According to Ishkhanyan there
exist other mechanisms providing for the independence of the courts,
for example their welfare.
The Constitution should first of all provide for the independence of
a judge and fix the authority courts are empowered with. The rest can
be settled with a law. The most important thing is that the Justice
Council should not be guided by the executive power but should be a
self-regulating body.

ROBERT KOCHARIAN TO DEPART FOR MOSCOW MAY 7
Pan Armenian News
06.05.2005 07:36
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ May 7 Armenian President Robert Kocharian will
depart for Moscow on a working visit, RA President’s press service
reported. In the Russian capital Robert Kocharian will take part in
the events dedicated to the 60-th anniversary of the victory in the
Great Patriotic War. The delegation headed by the RA President will
return to Armenia on May 9.

TURKISH PRESIDENT CRITICIZED GERMANY’S POSITION ON ARMENIAN ISSUE
06.05.2005 06:25
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish President Ahmed Necdet Sezer criticized German’s
position on the Armenian issue. In his words, the resolution on the Armenian
Genocide considered in Bundestag is incompatible with the Turkish-German
friendship.”If Ahmed Necdet Sezer had a conversation with Gerhard Schroeder
he would make him worr”, Milliyet Turkish newspaper writes.