Author: Khondkarian Raffi

MGM sets Dec. 17 meeting for merger vote
Reuters/VNU
11/19/04 21:39 ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Inc. has set Dec. 17 as the date for a shareholder meeting to vote
on the $4.8 billion merger with an investor group led by Sony Corp
of America, MGM said in a federal filing Friday.
The meeting will be held at MGM’s headquarters in Los Angeles at 10
a.m. local time, and stockholders of record as of the end of business
on Nov. 5 are eligible to vote, according to an MGM proxy filed with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
MGM’s board of directors has recommended approval of the merger in
which shareholders will receive $12 per share in cash. The investment
companies controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, which own 69
percent of MGM’s common shares, have already agreed to support
the merger.
Sony’s partners are Comcast Studio Investments Inc, a unit of Cable TV
company Comcast Corp., and affiliates of Providence Equity Partners
Inc., Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. Sony
Corp of America is a unit of Japanese electronics company Sony Corp..
The merger agreement was announced in September and calls for the
Sony-led group to pay roughly $2.85 billion in cash for MGM and assume
about $2 billion in debt.

Los Angeles Times
November 19, 2004 Friday
Home Edition
Movies; REVIEW ;
Life and comedy bloom in the ashes
by Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer
Hiner Saleem’s droll comedy “Vodka Lemon” reveals a beguiling gift
for making things happen in a place where nothing much is going on.
It is set in what looks to be the middle of nowhere — a tiny village
in a vast snow-covered valley in rural Armenia. The nearest post
office is in a town a bus ride away. This scattering of rough-hewn
roadside cabins in the deep of winter resembles a near-abandoned
mining town in the Old West.
In a post-Soviet present as harsh as the climate, the inhabitants in
fact feel abandoned themselves. One neighbor remarks that democracy
has given the people freedom, but his friend points out that the
Communists gave them everything else. Now everyone has to pay for
gas, electricity and oil while the community hovers near a bare
subsistence level. Except for a passing shepherd and his flock, no
one seems to be working, nor do there seem to be any job
opportunities whatsoever. Clearly, the younger generation is fleeing
— and much of it has already fled.
That includes one of the sons of Hamo Isko (Romen Avinian), who has
sought a better life in Paris. (Another is off in Samarkand,
Uzbekistan, and the other stays home and drinks.) Hamo is a striking
patriarchal figure, a ruggedly handsome, silver-haired, bearded man
of military bearing; he looks to be a fit 70 or thereabouts. His
service pension is the equivalent of $7 a month, and some of the
film’s rueful humor derives from him selling by the roadside his
three absolutely nonessential possessions: a country-style armoire
with folk art decorations that in many other places would fetch a
fancy sum but yields only $10 for Hamo; an old TV, which may or may
not work; and Hamo’s military camouflage uniform. (The sale of the
armoire to a passing couple triggers a comic sequence worthy of the
classic silent comedians.)
With nothing much to do, Hamo spends a lot of time visiting the
cemetery where his recently deceased wife is buried. He notices that
an attractive woman, Nina (Lala Sarkissian), visits the grave of her
late husband with much frequency. Gradually they take note of each
other. The attraction is mutual, but Hamo is beset by the feeling
that he must be loyal to his wife’s memory, and Nina is overcome even
more strongly by shyness. As Saleem, a long-exiled Iraqi Kurd, wends
his way through amusing incidents and various subplots, he generates
hope that romance may find a way to blossom between two people who
have so little in life outside of, potentially, each other.
“Vodka Lemon” is an appealingly wry little film that is as appetizing
as its title, which is the name of a roadside liquor stand where Nina
works. Saleem, whose fourth film this is, ends on a note of inspired
whimsy that has aptly been compared to a magical image by Marc
Chagall.
*
‘Vodka Lemon’
MPAA rating: Unrated
Times guidelines: Suitable for older children
Romen Avinian…Hamo
Lala Sarkissian…Nina
Ivan Franek…Dilovan
Ruzan Mesropyan…Zine
A New Yorker Films release. Writer-director Hiner Saleem. Producer
Fabrice Guez. Executive producer Michel Loro. Cinematographer
Christophe Pollock. Editor Dora Mantzorou. Music Michel Korb.
Production designer Albert Hamarsh. In Armenian, Russian and Kurdish,
with English subtitles.
Exclusively at the Fairfax Cinemas, 7907 Beverly Blvd. (at Faifax
Avenue), (323) 655-4010; and the One Colorado, 42 Miller Alley (at
Colorado Boulevard), Pasadena, (626) 844-6500.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: POOR CASH FLOW: Hamo, played by Romen Avinian, tries
to sell his armoire by the road in his post-Soviet Armenia village.
PHOTOGRAPHER: New Yorker Films

Agence France Presse
18 novembre 2004 jeudi 4:42 PM GMT
Kotcharian déplore la “brimade” d’Ankara à l’égard de l’Arménie
BERLIN
Le président arménien Robert Kotcharian a qualifié de “brimade” la
fermeture de la frontière de l’Arménie avec la Turquie, en accusant
Ankara de chercher à “bloquer” son pays, tout en indiquant qu’Erevan
ne posait pas de conditions à une normalisation des relations.
Dans une interview au quotidien Die Welt à paraître vendredi, le chef
de l’Etat arménien, de passage à Berlin pour une conférence
économique, explique le maintien de la fermeture par Ankara de sa
frontière depuis 1993 par un réflexe de solidarité avec
l’Azerbaïdjan.
L’Arménie est en effet en litige avec l’Azerbaïdjan proche par sa
population de la Turquie. La province azerbaïdjanaise du Haut
Karabakh, à majorité arménienne, est passée sous contrôle arménien.
“La Turquie bloque l’Arménie, on ne peut définir cela que comme une
brimade”, déplore le président arménien.
M. Kotcharian assure qu’il n’y a pas de conditions de l’Arménie à une
normalisation entre la Turquie et l’Arménie: “pour nous, la
reconnaissance du génocide de 1915 perpétré contre les Arméniens par
les Turcs est très importante, mais cela ne sera jamais une condition
pour le développement de relations bilatérales”, a déclaré M.
Kotcharian. Cependant, observe-t-il, ce fait est indéniable, et “si
Ankara devait le reconnaître, cela représenterait un grand pas en
direction d’une normalisation”.
Les massacres et déportations d’Arméniens sous l’Empire ottoman de
1915 à 1917 ont fait 1,5 million de morts, selon l’Arménie, et entre
250.000 et 500.000, selon la Turquie.

Estonian president pledges to help Armenia’s EU ties
Mediamax news agency
15 Nov 04
YEREVAN
Estonian President Arnold Ruutel said in Yerevan today that his
country’s membership of the European Union “is creating fresh
prerequisites for developing relations with Armenia”.
Arnold Ruutel told a briefing in Yerevan that “if we can be useful to
Armenia, then Estonia is ready to offer any possible help”, Mediamax
news agency reports.
In turn, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said that Estonia’s
membership of the EU sets up “a fresh vector of cooperation”.
He recalled that the South Caucasus countries were incorporated into
the EU’s Wider Europe: New Neighbourhood programme in June this
year. “It is important for us that the new relations be filled with
specific content,” Robert Kocharyan said. He said that Estonia could
play its role in this process.

Armenia’s squad for World Cup qualifier against Romania
Agence France Presse — English
November 12, 2004
YEREVAN Nov 12 — Armenia’s national coach Bernard Casoni on Friday
named the following 18-man squad for the 2006 World Cup qualifier
against Romania here on November 17:
Goalkeepers: Armen Ambartsumyan (Slavia Sofia/BUL), Edel Bete
(Pyunik Yerevan)
Defenders: Sarkis Ovsepyan, Alexander Tatevosyan (both Pyunik Yerevan),
Karen Dokhoyan (Samara/RUS), Arutyun Vardanyan (Arau/SWI), Artur
Mkrtchan (Darida Minsk/BLR)
Midfielders: Rafael Nazaryan (Darida Minsk/BLR), David Grigoryan
(Mika Astarak), Karen Aleskanyan, Agvan Mkrtchan (both Pyunik
Yerevan), Gamlet Mkhitaryan (MTZ Minsk/BLR), Artavazd Karamyan
(Rapid Bucharest/ROM)
Strikers: Armen Shakhgeldyan (Mika Ashtarak), Edgar Manucharyan
(Pyunik Yerevan), Andrei Mevsesyan (FC Moscow/RUS), Ara Akopyan
(Stahl Donetsk/UKR), Arman Karamyan (Rapid Bucharest/ROM)

Armenia: Internet providers protest at government’s decision
Yerkir web site
12 Nov 04
November
Yerevan, 11 November: About 100 Internet providers went on a token
strike at 1700 [1300 gmt] today.
The Internet providers took this decision following the Armenian
government’s resolution adopted at an extraordinary cabinet meeting on
3 November. In line with the resolution, the exclusive rights of the
Internet providers will belong to the ArmenTel joint-stock company
from now on.

Earthquake in store for Yerevan?
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Nov 10 2004
There have been reports in Armenian mass media since Monday saying
that an earthquake is expected to hit Yerevan.
The country’s educational and industrial institutions have suspended
their activities for two days through head of the Armenian national
seismic service Alvaro Antonian refuted the reports on Tuesday.*

IN HISTORY AND BEYOND HISTORY
Azg/arm
11 Nov 04
Armenians and Turks: a Thousand Years of Relations Venice, Island of
San Giorgio Maggiore 28, 29, 30 October 2004
The Institute for Venice and Europe of the Giorgio Cini Foundation
has conceived and organised an international conference involving
historians, philosophers, jurists, psychoanalysts, and experts on
politics and human rights from Europe, the United States, Armenia,
Israel and Turkey.
The conference analysed the relations between Armenians and Turks from
the Middle Ages to the tragedy of the Armenian genocide in the early
20th century and beyond. The analysis focused on general aspects
and theoretical issues (philosophical, legal, historiographical,
and psychoanalytical), but at the same time some specific historical
cases also were presented.
The following scholars took part in the Conference: from the
United States Taner Akçam (University of Minnesota) and Rouben
Adalian (Armenian Assembly of America); from Canada Frank Chalk
(Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Studies); from France
Raymond H. Kévorkian (Director of the Noubarian Library of Paris),
Hélène Piralian-Simonyan (psychoanalyst), Yves Ternon (physician
and historian); from Germany Hermann Goltz (Director of the Lepsius
Archives, University of Halle-Wittenberg), from Israel: Israel Charny
(Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide of Jerusalem,
Hebrew University of Jerusalem), from Turkey Murat Belge (Bilgi
University), Ferhat Kentel (Bilgi University), Halil Berktay (Sabanci
University), Baskin Oran (Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara),
Ragip Zarakolu (writer and publisher, “Belge” Publications), from
Armenia Vladimir Margarian (jurist, counsellor at the Constitutional
Court), Ruben Safrastyan (Director of the Institute of Turkology of the
National Academy of Sciences), from Italy Antonia Arslan (University
of Padua), Giampiero Bellingeri (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice),
Mauro Bussani (University of Trieste), Aldo Ferrari (responsible of
the research programme Caucasia-Asia at ISPI in Milan, ex-lecturer
at the Universities of Trieste, Gorizia and Venice), Gianclaudio
Macchiarella (Ca’ Foscari, ex-attaché culturel at the Embassies of
Italy in Washington, Athens, Teheran and Ankara), Pier Paolo Portinaro
(University of Turin), and the members of the Scientific Council of the
Conference Prof.s Antonio Rigo (Ca’ Foscari, Director of the Institute
“Venezia e l’Europa” of Fondazione Cini) and Boghos Levon Zekiyan
(Ca’ Foscari).
The conference had five sessions in which the following topics were
made object of discussion: the notion and typologies of “genocide”
(Portinaro, Charny, Chalk), its psychological repercussions
(Piralian), the demographic question (Kévorkian), the state of
archives’ research (Adalian), negationism (Ternon), relations between
Armenians and Turks from the Seljuk Age through the Ottoman Empire to
the Republican Period (Safrastyan), the complicity of Imperial Germany
(Goltz), the ittihadist solution and Turkish republican identity
(Akçam), the relation between discourse, reality, and Turkish
national imagination (Berktay), interethnic relations in Anatolia
from the Ottoman period on (Zarakolu), the situation of Armenians
today in Turkey (Kentel), the “Armenian question” and human rights
(Belge), the bases of international legal responsibility (Margarian),
the roots of taboos and relapses (Oran), the acknowledgement of the
Armenian Genocide by the European States (Ferrari), and various other
questions as the placement of the Armenian case in the frame of the
Genocides of the 20th century, the sense of guiltiness, the problem
how to explain to Turkish public opinion the Armenian Genocide after
decades of amnesia and negationism, its importance in the frame of
contemporary European history, etc.
At the end of the conference there was a round table as a moment to sum
up the proceedings and establish a starting point for future studies.
The idea of such a conference was originated from the awareness
of the current stalemate due to denialism and the impossibility of
dialogue. The new historical perspective, adopted by the conference,
viewing Armenian-Turkish relations in their centuries-long and
multifarious aspects, combined with the tools provided by a long-term
interdisciplinary approach, invites us and may help to go beyond the
separate analysis of specific cases to overcome the obstacles still
hindering an effective approach to the topic.
Fondazione Giorgio Cini onlus, Istituto Venezia e l’Europa
–Boundary_(ID_h9Fb3Fe/N5IWmJiJQEMIFg)–

Armenian Chief of Staff meets US military officials in Washington
Mediamax news agency
9 Nov 04
Yerevan, 9 November: The chief of the General Staff of the Armenian
armed forces, Col-Gen Mikael Arutyunyan, has met the chairman of the US
Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Richard Myers, in Washington.
The Armenian Defence Ministry’s information department has told
Mediamax news agency that Mikael Arutyunyan was on a visit to the
USA between 31 October and 5 November at Richard Myers’ invitation.
During the visit, the chief of the General Staff of the Armenian armed
forces held meetings at the US Combined Forces Command, the US Central
Command in Tampa and NATO’s Supreme Allied Command Transformation
in Norfolk.
Military cooperation, peacekeeping, Armenia’s participation in events
within the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme were
discussed at the meetings.

In interview with VOA, Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, calls
his country ‘dynamic & fast-growing’
Voice of America, DC
Nov 10 2004
In the interview, conducted on 9 Nov., the President declared that
“in the last year, nearly 100 thousand new jobs have been created,
and the production of oil has gone up by 2.4 percent.”
Aliyev also addressed the Azeri-Armenian conflict and the participation
of Armenian delegates in the forthcoming annual conference of NATO’s
Parliamentary Assembly in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku. “We cannot
isolate ourselves,” he said. “We want international events – seminars,
conferences – to be held in Azerbaijan.”
More details from the interview will be available at
and