Author: Vanyan Gary

Azeri POWs in Karabakh feel okay, official tells agency
Arminfo, Yerevan
26 Feb 05
Stepanakert, 26 February: Albert Voskanyan, the Karabakh coordinator
of the international working group on POWs, hostages and missing
persons captured in the Karabakh conflict zone, today visited captured
Azerbaijani servicemen Xayal Abdullayev, Hikmat Tagiyev and Ruslan
Bakirov in Stepanakert.
The servicemen were captured by the defence army of the Nagornyy
Karabakh Republic on 15 February of this year after they crossed the
northeastern section of the contact line between the armed forces of
Nagornyy Karabakh and Azerbaijan.
In an interview with Arminfo, Voskanyan said that the moral,
psychological and physical condition of the servicemen and also the
place where they are being held are normal. He told the co-chairmen
and coordinators of the international working group about his meeting
with the POWs.

Irtemcelik: Only Historians Have The Right To Make Decisions About
Historical Events
Published: 2/27/2005
Turkish Press
BERLIN – Turkish Ambassador to Germany Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik said on
Saturday, ”only historians have the right to make decisions about
historical events.”
Irtemcelik released a statement about a draft resolution, which will be
submitted to the German federal parliament in April by CDU/CSU group under
the title of ”commemoration of Armenians on the 90th anniversary of their
relocation and massacre on April 24th, 1915 – Germany should contribute to
provide peace between Turks and Armenians”.
In his statement, Irtemcelik said, ”only historians have the right to make
decisions about historical events. The draft includes many prejudices,
mistakes and unilateral expectations about Turkey-Armenia relations.”
”Armenians resorted to organized terrorism not only in Eastern Anatolia
during the World War I, but also in many places in the world from Los
Angeles to Vienna, from Beirut to Paris in the near future to reach their
political targets. Armenia did not recognize Turkey’s territorial integrity
and the existing borders with Turkey. Also, despite all warnings of the
international community, Armenia has still been occupying territories of
Azerbaijan. Under the light of all these, we find it strange that German
political parties have undertaken spokesmanship of fanatic Armenian
nationalism. We think that CDU/CSU did not understand the importance and
sensitivity of the issue,” he said.
”No one can reach anywhere by defaming Turkish people and their history. No
one has the right to hamper our integration process, and our historic and
friendly relations with Germany. Before putting forward such baseless
allegations, everyone should study the history carefully. Besides many
Armenians, countless innocent Muslim people died in those years. If they aim
to assist Turkey and Armenia to improve their relations, they should realize
that such issues are extremely serious and cannot be used as a tool for
domestic policies of the third countries. Instead of preparing such drafts,
I invite them to persuade Armenian President Robert Kocharian and the
Armenian government to give up their policy preventing formation of a
peaceful atmosphere in Southern Caucasus,” he added.

Kazakhstan: Russian minister urges more ties between NATO, Shanghai group
Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty
25 Feb 05
ASTANA
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has come out in support of
stepping up cooperation between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
[SCO; members are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Russia] and NATO.
“The Collective Security Treaty Organization [CSTO; members are
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia] has
already come up with the initiative to establish cooperation with
NATO,” the Russian foreign minister said today at a news conference
following a session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the SCO
member states.
“I think such cooperation could be also established between NATO and
the SCO.”
The Russian minister said that yesterday during the Russian-US summit
in Bratislava Russian President Vladimir Putin “drew the attention of
George Bush to the fact that such entities as the SCO and CSTO exist
in Central Asia”.
Lavrov said that: “The USA has interests in the region, and they
concern, above all, the fight against terrorism.” The minister
clarified that a threat emanating from Afghanistan was meant.
“Russia reaffirms its position on the need for cooperation with the
region’s countries and resolving the set tasks. Most importantly, this
cooperation should be transparent,” Lavrov said.

Armenian defence minister, NATO envoy discuss deepening relations
Mediamax news agency
24 Feb 05
YEREVAN
The secretary of the National Security Council of the Armenian
president and defence minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, said in Yerevan today
that “if it was not for the unsettled conflict, Armenia would have the
possibility of wider involvement in different NATO programmes”.
Sarkisyan said this at a meeting with the special representative of
the NATO secretary-general in the South Caucasus and Central Asia,
Robert Simmons, the press secretary of the Armenian Defence Ministry,
Seyran Shakhsuvaryan, told Mediamax news agency today.
“I want to stress that we intend to follow the path we have chosen and
will consistently deepen our relations,” Sarkisyan said.
Speaking about the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Simmons pointed out
that it is an obstacle standing in the way of the development of the
region’s countries.
“I think that a mutually acceptable solution will be found. NATO is
not directly involved in the settlement process, however, it is
closely following all the developments,” the special representative of
the NATO secretary-general said.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Feb 23 2005
Russian political analyst proposes Upper Garabagh be managed by UN

Baku, February 22, AssA-Irada
Freezing the Upper Garabagh conflict settlement will result in
long-term bloody developments, political analyst, chairman of the
Presidium of the Council of Foreign and Defence Policy under the
Russian President, Sergey Karaganov, has told Armenia’s ANKA news
agency.
Karaganov said that the parties to the conflict will never come to
terms or make mutual concessions. `If any Azerbaijani leader agrees
to give up Garabagh, it will mean a political fiasco for him,’ noted
Karganov, expressing the same opinion on Armenia. As for a suitable
way of resolving the Upper Garabagh conflict for Azerbaijan and
Armenia in the long run, the Russian political analyst proposed that
a concept on territories under the UN mandate be set up in the
region. The concept envisions that the conflict zones are managed by
the United Nations.*

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Feb 22 2005
Saakashvili: Talks with Russia Underway over Privatizing Gas Pipeline
System
In an interview to the Italian newspaper La Stampa published on
February 20, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said that talks
are underway with the Russian energy giant Gazprom over privatization
of Georgia’s gas pipeline system.
`Negotiations are in process… I prefer not to say more,’
Saakashvili answered when he was asked whether Georgia intends to
sell its gas pipelines to Russia.
Gazprom makes no secret about the fact that the company is interested
in privatizing Georgia’s gas pipeline system. The Georgian gas
pipeline system includes pipes which distribute gas in the Georgian
regions and pipelines which are used for transporting gas from Russia
to Armenia. Observers say that the state-run Gazprom is mainly
interested with taking over transit gas pipelines.
Representatives of Gazprom visited Georgia late in January; however
the Georgian leadership claimed that selling of gas pipeline system
was not on agenda.

ARTASHES GEGHAMIAN SET TO BREAK BOYCOTT OF PARLIAMENT WORK
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS: One of the two major Armenian
opposition parties indicated last Saturday it is set to backpedal on
its promises to continue the boycott of the parliament. The deputy
chairman of the NationalUnity of Artashes Geghamian told a meeting of
its activists the party will show up in the parliament when it starts
debates on a number of “vital” issues.
Geghamian for his part denounced the other major opposition
force,the Ardarutyun alliance, led by Stepan Demirchian, for being
jealous of its attempts to rally the people. Geghamian’s deputy argued
also there is no a force in Armenia that could assume the governance
of the country and went as far as to accuse other opposition forces of
“executing the orders of the authorities.”

Russian FM Downplays Dispute Ahead Of Georgia Visit
Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Feb 17 2005
17 February 2005 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said
today that he hopes his visit to Georgia will not be hindered by
his rejection of an invitation to visit a monument related to a
separatist conflict.
Georgia has downgraded the trip from an official, to a working,
visit because Lavrov will not lay a wreath at a monument dedicated
to Georgians who died fighting separatists in Abkhazia and South
Ossetia. Both regions have close Russian ties.
Lavrov, speaking to Russian journalists in Armenia today, said Russia
has a role as a mediator and it would be too “emotionally loaded”
for him to make such a gesture. He arrived in Georgia today.
He added that the conflict, in his words, “cost the lives of innocent
people on all sides.”
Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili criticized the decision
as unfriendly and inappropriate.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia set to benefit from global warming pact
Arminfo
16 Feb 05
Yerevan, 16 February: The Kyoto Protocol, the treaty that requires
cuts in greenhouse gas emissions which cause global warming, came
into effect on 16 February.
[Passage omitted: 141 states supported this protocol]
Armenian Ecology Minister Vardan Ayvazyan said that the sale of unused
“credits” within the framework the Kyoto Protocol may earn Armenia
about 7m dollars annually.
To recap, the Kyoto Protocol envisages a special degree of pollution
of environment by the country’s industrial facilities. If it does not
exceed this limit, the country can sell the unused credit to another
country. Armenia signed an appropriate agreement.

Building a theater of their own
Armenians join forces for project
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer
February 13, 2005
Los Angeles Daily News
Sunday, February 13, 2005 – GLENDALE– Several Armenian-American
doctors, lawyers, businessmen and artists have gotten together to
realize a dream: building the first Armenian arts venue in Los Angeles.
The force behind the project is Aram Kouyoumdjian, who got a group
of friends together in November to attend a critically acclaimed
play in Los Angeles. The group has now grown to 56, and they have
five plays under their belt, including “The Goat, or, Who Is Sylvia?”
at the Mark Taper Forum, Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming” at A Noise
Within and “Doubt” at the Pasadena Playhouse.
The success of the outings confirmed what Kouyoumdjian — a civil
litigation attorney by day and a theater buff by night — had known
all along: The theater-loving Armenian community needed a place to
call home.
“I think we have the sense that not only it’s time for something like
this, but that it’s overdue,” said Kouyoumdjian, 36, who co-founded
a theater company in Sacramento in 1999 and worked as its artistic
director.
“People sense the importance of filling the void and doing so
in a way that will have permanence. Our predecessors have been
successful in building schools and churches, and many of us who are
now in our mid-30s feel that it’s our turn to step up and make a
contribution. It’s sort of picking up the responsibility.”
Feeling the need and the importance of the endeavor, this group,
which includes an architect, a poet, a scientist, the CEO of a
software company, attorneys and businessmen, is not approaching the
task willy-nilly.
“The combined efforts of everybody makes this ambitious project
far more realistic,” Kouyoumdjian said. “We’re making sure that the
project is rooted in the best foundation possible.”
The architect in the group has already started the initial
drawings for the group’s vision of the facility: a building with
two performance spaces — a 400-seat performance hall and a 99-seat
theater — an exhibition gallery and space for workshops, labs and
rehearsals. Initial estimates put the cost at between $4 to $5 million.
At a time when theaters are struggling to stay afloat, Kouyoumdjian
said, all the group’s members are all aware of the financial challenges
of opening and operating a theater.
They have created an aggressive fund-raising plan to get started on
a building, and they plan to create a center with multiple uses that
they would be able to rent out to the artistic community.
Members of the organizing group, many of whom regularly write,
produce and perform plays, have no doubt there is a demand for an
Armenian arts center in Los Angeles. There are an estimated 400,000
Armenians living in Los Angeles County.
Betty Berberian, a film set decorator, recalled that, when she, her
husband and friends formed the Armenian Experimental Theater in the
1980s, they always played to full houses, but they had to spend up
to $10,000 each month to rent spaces to perform.
But when they tried to raise money to build a theater, the support
simply was not there.
“I think the community would be much more open to it now,” Berberian
said. “I think we’ve shown the audiences and Armenian people that
this is a necessity.
“Theater is the lifeblood of the community. For a small community,
especially an ethnic community, theater is the pulse, and it keeps
the youth together.”
But so-called ethnic theater in a diverse Los Angeles is now
experiencing an interest and reception it never had before.
Jose Luis Valenzuela, theater professor at the University of
California, Los Angeles, said the group of young Armenians is
responding to its community’s needs, which is always how ethnic
theater is created.
“Ethnic theater is in response to the needs and aspirations of their
communities, a need to express something of your own history, of who
you are,” said Valenzuela, the artistic director of the 19-year-old
Latino Theatre Company. His group, which currently rents a space in
downtown, is currently in discussions with the city of Los Angeles
to renovate the Los Angeles Theater Center.
“When you have a lack of opportunity for ethnic theater in Los
Angeles, you have groups responding to the needs of the community
because nobody else is giving them access.”
But financially, it’s not going to be easy, said Tim Dang, producing
artistic director of the East West Players, an Asian-American theater
that has been in Los Angeles since 1965.
The Players’ main source of financial support is the Asian-Pacific
community, Dang said. But what happens over time is that, as the
audience grows, drawing non-Armenians to the facility, the donor base
slowly diversifies.
It took 20 years for the theater to get financially comfortable. They
started out in a 99-seat theater in Silver Lake until they moved into
their current 240-seat theater in downtown.
But what ultimately drives an ethnic group’s desire to have its own
theater and take on the struggles is that need to share its culture.
“It’s a double perspective in that, yes, we want to do this for
our community to see ourselves on the stage because we rarely see
ourselves on the stage or in the media, but we also want to enlighten
the greater community about us,” he said.
For more information on the Armenian Center for the Arts or to get
involved, e-mail [email protected] .
Naush Boghossian, (818) 546-3306 [email protected]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress