Author: Talalian Arpi

NEW APPOINTMENTS IN RA GOVERNMENT

DeFacto Agency
June 3 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 03.06.08. DE FACTO. According to a decree the RA President
Serge Sargsian signed on June 2, three ministers were relieved of
their positions – Aghvan Vardanian was relieved of the position of
Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Levon Mkrtchian was released
from position of Minister of Education and Science, David Lokian from
the position of Minister of Agriculture.

According to the RA President’s another decree Arsen Hambartsumian has
been appointed Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Spartac Seyranian
– Minister of Education and Science, and Aramais Grigorian – Minister
of Agriculture.

To note, earlier Aghvan Vardanian, Levon Mkrtchian and David Lokian,
the members of Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun),
filed resignation in connection with their election to ARFD Bureau.

ARMENIA RECEIVES 2,786,200 TONS OF HUMNAITARIAN AID IN JAN-APRIL 2008

ARKA
June 2, 2008

YEREVAN, June 2. /ARKA/. 2,786,200 tons of humanitarian aid of
5,599.mln drams or $18.1mln worth arrived in Armenia in January-April
2008, which is by 35.9% less as compared to the corresponding period
of last year, RA National Statistical Service reported referring to
the government-affiliated State Customs Committee.

34.7% in the whole volume of humanitarian aid was the share of chemical
and other related products, 16.9% – devices and apparatus, 12.4% –
natural products, 7.6%- textile products, and 28.4% – other products.

The key donor countries are USA (58.5%), Switzerland (8.7%), Italy
(3.5%), and Russia (1%).

Amnesty International: "There were persistent reports of the use of
torture or other ill-treatment by law enforcement officials"

30 May 2008 [10:42] – Today.Az

Today.Az offers you the full text of the report of Amnesty
International "The state of the world’s human rights – 2008" on
Azerbaijan.

Freedoms of expression and assembly continued to be widely restricted.
Independent and opposition journalists faced imprisonment on libel
charges, harassment by law enforcement officials and, in some cases,
physical assault. Two widely read opposition newspapers were shut down;
five journalists were pardoned and released at the end of the year.
Three teenagers were imprisoned for 10 years without investigation into
allegations that they had confessed under torture. Human rights
activists were intimidated. An ethnic Azeri activist was extradited to
Iran despite risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Internally
displaced people were prevented from fully exercising their social and
economic rights.
Freedom of expression – journalists

The right to freedom of expression, particularly for journalists
reporting on corruption, other abuses of public office or
socio-economic problems, continued to be routinely restricted. One
journalist was severely beaten by unknown men; two journalists were
reportedly beaten by law enforcement officials. Editions of opposition
newspapers carrying politically sensitive reporting were confiscated or
banned from sale by local government bodies. No progress was made in
investigations into the 2005 murder of newspaper editor Elmar Hüseynov
or serious assaults perpetrated against journalists in 2006 by unknown
men.

* A persistent campaign targeting Eynulla Fetullayev, outspoken editor
of the popular opposition newspapers Real Azerbaijan (Realny
Azerbaydzhan) and Azerbaijan Daily (Gündelik Azerbaycan), resulted in
two separate trials in April and October respectively. In April, he was
sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment for defaming victims and survivors
of killings in the village of Xocalı during the 1991-1994 war in
Nagorny Karabakh. He denied authorship of the internet postings, of
unclear origin, on which the case was based. In May, both newspapers
closed after a series of inspections of their premises by state
authorities, apparently aimed at shutting the newspapers down. In
October, Eynulla Fetullayev was sentenced to eight and a half years’
imprisonment on separate charges of terrorism, incitement of ethnic
hatred and tax evasion. He denied all charges against him. Amnesty
International considered him a prisoner of conscience.

* Four other opposition or independent journalists and editors, Faramaz
NovruzoÄ?lu, YaÅ?ar Agazade, RovÅ?an Kebirli and Nazim Quliyev, were
imprisoned on charges of libel and insult after publishing articles
about high-ranking political figures or alleging corruption in public
office. Faramaz NovruzoÄ?lu, YaÅ?ar Agazade and RovÅ?an Kebirli were
pardoned and released in December. Nazim Quliyev was also released in
December by court order.

* Journalist Rafiq TaÄ?i and editor Samir SedeqetoÄ?lu of the Art (Sanat)
newspaper were sentenced in May to three and four years’ imprisonment
respectively for incitement of religious hatred after writing and
publishing an article critical of Islam. Amnesty International
considered both men prisoners of conscience, having found nothing in
the article that could be construed as incitement to hostility,
violence or discrimination. Both men were pardoned and released in
December.

* A serious assault on opposition journalist Ã`zeyir Ceferov by unknown
men in April, on the same day as he testified in defence of Eynulla
Fetullayev (see above), was unsolved at the end of 2007.

* In September, reporter Süheyle Qemberova of the Impulse (Impuls)
newspaper was reportedly beaten by court officials while researching an
article on forced evictions. She was hospitalized after being kicked
and punched.

* In Naxçivan (an Azerbaijani exclave bordered to the south by Iran and
to the east by Armenia), Hekimeldostu Mehdiyev, journalist for the
opposition New Equality (Yeni Müsavat) newspaper, was seized by police,
allegedly beaten and detained for four days in September after
reporting on socio-economic problems in the region.

* Qenimet Zahid, chief editor of the opposition Freedom (Azadlıq)
newspaper and brother of imprisoned satirist Sakit Zahidov, was charged
in November with hooliganism and causing bodily harm after an incident
with two passers-by he claimed was orchestrated by the authorities. His
case was still pending at the end of the year.

Police – excessive use of force

Police reportedly used excessive force to prevent journalists from
reporting or filming politically sensitive events such as opposition
party rallies. In June, about 200 police officers dispersed an
unauthorized rally by some 50 journalists against protesting the
curtailment of freedom of speech. Journalists at the rally were kicked
and punched, and one had to be hospitalized with stomach injuries. In
July, President Ilham Aliyev declared that no police officer would face
criminal prosecution for allegedly beating journalists during the 2005
parliamentary elections. Human rights activists condemned the comment
as contributing to a climate of impunity for the use of force by police
against journalists.

Torture and other ill-treatment

There were persistent reports of the use of torture or other
ill-treatment by law enforcement officials. In October, the deputy
Minister of Internal Affairs, Vilayet Eyvazov, stated at a press
conference that police officers occasionally use torture when
interrogating suspects in pre-trial detention.

* In June, the Court of Grave Crimes sentenced teenagers Dmitri Pavlov,
Maksim Genashilkin and Ruslan Bessonov, accused of murdering another
teenager, Vüsal Zeynalov, to 10 years’ imprisonment after a trial
characterized by serious irregularities. The boys’ allegations that
they had incriminated one another under torture following their arrest
in March 2005 had not been investigated. The boys’ parents told Amnesty
International they believed their sons were targeted on account of
their Russian ethnicity, allowing the crime to be construed as
ethnically motivated since Vüsal Zeynalov was an ethnic Azeri.

Human rights defenders

Law enforcement agents reportedly intimidated human rights defenders,
and in one case, failed to intervene to protect an NGO from
intimidation.

* In April, Javid Aliyev, the son of Akifa Aliyeva , Helsinki Citizens’
Assembly coordinator in the city of Ganja, was arrested and sentenced
to three days’ imprisonment for refusal to co-operate with police after
being questioned about hanging a curtain in the rear window of his car.
The arrest followed alleged threats from local police that Akifa
Aliyeva’s human rights activism was putting her children in danger.

* On 5 July, members of the Modern Equality (Müasir Müsavat) party
picketed outside the office of the Institute for Peace and Democracy.
They threw eggs and other objects at the office, but police officers
present did not intervene.

Deportation and extradition

The authorities continued to extradite people despite risk of torture
or other ill-treatment.

* In April, Hadi Sid Javad Musevi , an Iranian citizen and ethnic Azeri
activist of the Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement (SANAM)
was extradited to Iran. Hadi Musevi had fled to Azerbaijan in 2006
after reportedly being arrested and tortured in Iran.

* In May, the UN Committee against Torture ruled that the extradition
of Elif Pelit (a Turkish citizen of Kurdish ethnicity) to Turkey in
October 2006, breached international obligations against forcible
return to states where there is a risk of torture.

In another case, people were deported without being given access to
appeal procedures.

* Six Jehovah’s Witnesses, consisting of one Dutch, one British, two
Russian and two Georgian citizens, were deported in January on the
basis of administrative deportation orders, which do not require any
court hearings. According to the authorities they were deported for
violating the law against foreigners conducting religious agitation.
The deportations followed a raid on a Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting in
December 2006, at which the authorities claimed to have confiscated
technological equipment suitable for espionage activities, an
allegation the Jehovah’s Witnesses denied. Those deported were
reportedly not allowed to appeal.

Internally displaced people

Hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced by the conflict in
Nagorny Karabakh in 1991-94 continued to face obstacles preventing them
from enjoying their economic and social rights. These included reported
restrictions on their freedom of movement, resettlement in economically
impoverished and isolated locations, difficulties with registering new
family units, and the absence of consultative mechanisms.

In September the State Committee on Refugees and Internally Displaced
People offered Amnesty International assurances that all displaced
people enjoyed uninhibited freedom of movement in the country, while
acknowledging problems with the registration of new family units and
stating that continued efforts were required to secure the economic and
social rights of vulnerable urban displaced people.

To this end, the State Committee had prepared a programme addressing
the needs of urban displaced people housed in former municipal
buildings, schools and barracks. However, people resettled following
displacement continued to be denied legal tenure of their new
accommodation, which was defined as `temporary’. This compromised their
capacity to exercise the right to choose between eventual return should
a peace settlement be reached, integration or permanent resettlement
elsewhere in the country.

S. Ohanyan hosted the representative of the American Jewish Committee

amp;p=0&id=508&y08&m=05&d=30
30.05 .08

SOn May 29 RA Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan received the
representative of the American Jewish Committee, Ambassador Peter
Rosenblatt, Executive Director of the US – Armenia Public Affairs
Committee Ross Vartian and Director of the `Hope for Armenia’ Fund
Madeleine Minasyan.

RA Defense Minister greeted the guest, stressing importance to the
deepening of Armenia-US bilateral relations, especially from the
perspectives of economic and democratic development and regional
stability.

For his part, Ambassador Rosenblatt noted that the Committee he
represents is one of the key organizations of the Jewish community,
which is maximally involved in the field of international relations. He
noted also that starting from 1990 he has been closely watching the
developments in the South Caucasian region, and last visited Armenia in
1999. According to the Ambassador, the interest of the American Jewish
Committee in Armenia is connected with the close ties with the American
Armenian community.

During the meeting the parties discussed the reforms implemented in the
Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia and issues of maintenance of
the cease-fire regime.

The parties discussed the Armenia-Israel interrelations.
At the end of the meeting sides discussed a number of issues of
regional security.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 30 2008

Direct talks are only way to resolve Karabakh problem – Lavrov

30.05.2008, 19.39

MOSCOW, May 30 (Itar-Tass) — The upcoming meeting of the Armenian
and Azerbaijani presidents in St. Petersburg will give guidelines for
further Karabakh settlement efforts of the two foreign ministries,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the Friday meeting with
his Armenian counterpart Eduard Nalbandian.

`The presidents will meet in St. Petersburg this June. The meeting
will give guidelines to the two foreign ministers supported by the
Minsk Group,’ he said.

`It is possible to reach agreement only in direct negotiations, yet
both sides laud [the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group] cochairmen,’
he said.

`We hope that the presidents’ meeting [of June 6] will spur on
negotiations. We also hope that the Azerbaijani side will continue the
negotiations on the basis of the Minsk Group proposals. We wait for
Azerbaijani proposals, which may help resolve the Karabakh conflict,’
Nalbandian said.

`Proposals of Russia, the United States and France [that cochair the
Minsk Group] must not be ignored,’ he remarked.

VIOLIST KIM KASHKASHIAN DEBUTS WITH CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA ON BARTOK
by Donald Rosenberg

The Plain Dealer – cleveland.com
nt/index.ssf/2008/05/violist_kim_kashkashian_debut s.html
May 28 2008
OH

It should come as no surprise that Kim Kashkashian didn’t begin
musical life as a violist. Few violists do. They usually play violin
before being seduced by the noble sound of the slightly larger and
lower-pitched instrument.

And never mind that the viola is often the prime inner voice in
the orchestral string section and string quartet. Kashkashian has
participated in all sorts of ensembles, but she’s also attained
prominence as a soloist.

The admired Detroit-born musician brings her keenly refined artistry
to Severance Hall this weekend, when she makes her Cleveland Orchestra
debut performing Bartok’s Viola Concerto under music director Franz
Welser-Most. They’ll repeat the work this summer at Austria’s Salzburg
Festival and in Milan, Italy.

Kashkashian, 55, set out to become neither violist nor soloist. She
initially hoped to play clarinet, which she first heard at her public
school in Detroit. But Kashkashian’s mother set her on a different
course by insisting that she take up the violin stashed in the closet
that a cousin had abandoned.

"She had no idea she was getting herself into a much more expensive
proposition," Kashkashian said with a laugh on the phone from her
Boston home.

"In the long term, it would have been much wiser getting a clarinet. I
salute the public school system and my mother’s inadvertent wisdom,
because I cannot imagine not being a string player."

Kashkashian studied violin with Ara Zerounian, whose pupils in
Detroit included the sisters Ani and Ida Kavafian, before switching
to viola at the Interlochen Arts Academy. She had the good fortune
to study with two master violists, Walter Trampler and Karen Tuttle,
at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory.

It was during one of the summers she spent at the Marlboro Music
Festival, the chamber-music mecca run by celebrated pianist Rudolf
Serkin, that Kashkashian had an epiphany. While performing a string
quartet by Alexander Heller, she was seated near the formidable Serkin,
whose presence freaked her out. The experience compelled her to seek
a cure for nerves.

Relief arrived after she won prizes at both the Curtis and Munich
international competitions. Her playing came to the attention of
several noted musicians, including violinist Gidon Kremer, who invited
her to his festival in Lockenhaus, Austria.

"That started my solo career," said Kashkashian. "I met a whole bunch
of people. It did not start because I planned it. I was hoping if
I was incredibly lucky and could solve my problems, I could be a
chamber musician.

"And I still hope that. No violist in her right mind wants to be a
soloist. Most of the great repertoire is in chamber music."

Still, Kashkashian has had a prosperous solo career, especially in
Europe. While living in Germany for 12 years, she played 50 solo
concerts per season. Since moving back to the United States, she has
pared her schedule back to 30 solo appearances.

"I’m playing a lot less solo and concerto work because of personal
preference," she said. "I feel that at my age, I can do that. I’ve
done what I’ve needed, and the repertoire is simply more interesting
in other areas."

Kashkashian, who has played recitals in Cleveland with pianist Robert
Levin, is a veteran of the Bartok Viola Concerto. She plays it often
and recorded it with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under
Peter Eotvos (a guest of the Cleveland Orchestra last month). Studying
the work with two eminent Hungarian composers, Eotvos and Gyorgy
Kurtag, helped her better understand the concerto’s folk roots.

Bartok didn’t live to finish the piece, which he composed in the
months before his death in 1945 on a commission from the renowned
violist William Primrose. A number of musicians have completed the
score, fleshing out Bartok’s sketches and filling in the orchestration.

Kashkashian plays the 1950 completion by Tibor Serly, a composer
and friend of Barotk, though she’s studied other versions. She finds
all of them enlightening, while wondering what might have emerged if
Bartok had finished the score and handed it to Primrose.

"If Primrose had had a chance to play for Bartok and say, ‘This is
uncomfortable,’ I know Bartok would have listened," she said. "You
can read it so many different ways. That’s why I say there’s no right
and wrong here."

One of Kashkashian’s favorite projects these days focuses on her
Armenian roots. She is collaborating with percussion, voice and piano
colleagues on programs of old and contemporary Armenian music. So far,
the project has centered on Europe.

"I hope to bring it to the States the season after next," said
Kashkashian. "I’m trying to present new ideas or new juxtapositions
of thought."

ARMENPRESS

JAPAN TO PROVIDE EXTRA CREDIT TO ARMENIA TO BUILD NEW
POWER PRODUCING UNIT

YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Energy and
Natural Resources Minister Armen Movsisian and Yasuo
Saito, Japanese ambassador to Armenia (seated in
Moscow ) signed today in Yerevan an agreement
according to which Japan will provide Armenia with
extra credit to accomplish construction of a new power
generating unit near the Yerevan Thermal Power Plant.
Under the 2005 agreement signed by Armenia and the
International Cooperation Bank of Japan the latter
provided Armenia with a 15.9 billion Yen credit for
construction of a new steam-gas energy producing unit.
The new unit is supposed to produce approximately
2.-2.5 times cheaper electricity and reduce
substantially green gas emissions.
The government of Japan agreed to provide extra
10.4 billion yens worth credit in view of the glowing
prices of equipment and assembling work between
2004-2007.
The extra credit will be released on the same terms
as the main one- with a 30 year repayment period, 10
year grace period and 0.75 percent annual interest
rate.
The Armenian minister said the power generated by
this unit will be for domestic consumption. He said
they have chosen an equipment that will enable to
produce power at the lowest possible cost. The new
unit is supposed to produce up to 1.5 billion
kilowatt/ hours electricity annually.

Mediamax, Armenia
May 27 2008

Armenia Moving Toward Becoming Financial Powerhouse

The idea of turning Armenia into a financial and banking center
should be our guide for the nearest years, President Serzh Sarkisian
stated today.

Mediamax reports that Serzh Sarkisian said this during the first
financial-banking conference, organized by the Union of Banks of
Armenia (UBA), which took place in Dilijan today.

`From now on, we should not compare the development speeds of the
Armenian financial system to the indices of the countries of the
region, but should find out to what extend we approached the world
trends’, the President noted.

Serzh Sarkisian stressed the importance of OMX Group’s presence in the
republic, noting that this brand-named exchange operator will help the
formation of a competitive financial market in Armenia, meeting the
international standards.

According to the President, the banking system should become a
locomotive of Armenia’s economy.

Serzh Sarkisian highlighted the necessity to establish trust relations
in the financial sphere.

`Trust relations should be spread in all the spheres of business. Time
will come and the factor of trust will be stronger than the factor of
legal norms in the relations between sides’, the President stated.

He also stressed the importance of even territorial development in
Armenia, noting that the citizens of the country should feel economic
growth on themselves.

`We will take up all the necessary legislative and political measures
to reach the goals set’, Serzh Sarkisian stated, adding that the
authorities are ready to consider proposals from participants of the
financial market.

Who promised Bernard Fassier to return five territories

28-05-2008 13:40:58 – KarabakhOpen

Bakililar.az reports that the French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group
Bernard Fassier said currently they are negotiating the return of the
Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia. After the return of five
occupied territories Karabakh will be ready to negotiate the status
with Azerbaijan, he reportedly said.

This is what the Azerbaijani newspapers wrote. Bernard Fassier has not
denied the reports on his statements. It is also difficult to find
refutations in the Armenian press. Either the Armenian politicians are
busy with new appointments and redistribution of property or everyone
is used to the statements of the co-chairs, but the Armenian political
elite overlooked the statement by Fassier.

It is notable that the Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandyan did
not respond to this statement (everyone is already used to the silence
of the Karabakh ministry of foreign affairs). The silence of the
Armenian foreign ministry may mean that either Fassier’s statement
means nothing or the Armenian minister agrees to the return of five
territories and he himself told Fassier about it.

For some time now the return of territories has been the main issue of
the talks for the Karabakh settlement. The settlement is related to the
return of territories not only in Azerbaijan but outside its borders.
Moreover, the Armenian media speak about the return of territories as a
`necessary compromise’, without going deeper into the matter and
handing the trump card to our opponents.

And the former Russian co-chair of the Minsk Group Kazimirov went even
further stating during the recent international conference in
Stepanakert that Armenia and Karabakh should sign an agreement with
Azerbaijan not to resume military actions, and in return for the
commitment of Baku not to wage a war the Armenian sides must return all
the seven territories around the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous
Region.

So why does Karabakh need these territories? Maybe in order to rid of
them as soon as possible to have nothing to seize on. Apparently, the
strategists thanks to whom the present border between the Armenian
states and Azerbaijan has occurred were bad soldiers and were bad at
security issues. Or the current Armenian politicians are bad at maps
and have never been at the border of NKR.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Alan Kasayev: war unlikely in Karabakh within next
several years
27.05.2008 18:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Resumption of military operations in
Nagorno Karabakh is unlikely within next 5 years, at
least, said the head of RIA Novosti division for
Baltic States and the CIS.

-Azerbaijan is building up an image of `investment
attractiveness’, is trying to resolve problems with
Iran and determine status of the Caspian Sea, whose
basin includes five states, each presenting its
claims,- Alan Kasayev said in an interview with
PanARMENIAN.Net.

-I would also like to mention that the election
developments in Azerbaijan are complicated by internal
instability. The Anti-Armenian propaganda and warlike
rhetoric is used with a purpose to unite the nation.
You should nor forget that over half of the
Azerbaijani population are illiterate rural residents.
On the whole, Azerbaijan is poorly developed and
poorly educated country living at expense of oil
income. Agriculture is not developing. There is no
industry with an exception for a couple of refineries.
The whole population of the country can’t concentrate
in the capital. So, the actively created image of an
enemy is one of the elements of consolidation of the
society,- he said.