Author: Vardanian Garo

NEW OSCE MG CO-CHAIR APPOINTED ON KARABAKH ISSUE

Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
sept 8 2009
Armenia

Robert Bradtke has been appointed a new OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair on
Karabakh settlement.

"The Secretary is pleased to announce the appointment of Ambassador
Robert Bradtke as the next U.S. OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair," the
statement of U.S. Department of State Spokesman Ian Kelly reads.

Bradtke entered U.S. diplomacy in 1973. In July, 2009 he accomplished
his term as U.S. Ambassador to Croatia. Prior to that, he served from
2001 to 2004 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs, with responsibility for NATO and OSCE. In 1983 he
worked in U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

As NEWS.am informed earlier, Matthew Bryza, former U.S. Co-Chair
of OSCE MG is expected to assume the post of the U.S. Ambassador
to Azerbaijan.

PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM EXPLORES ARSHILE GORKY

HULIQ
lphia-museum-explores-arshile-gorky
Sept 8 2009
SC

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present a major traveling
retrospective celebrating the extraordinary life and work of Arshile
Gorky (American, born Armenia, c.1904-1948), a seminal figure in the
movement towards gestural abstraction that would transform American
art in the years after World War II.

The picture shows The Artist and His Mother, c.1926-36, oil on canvas,
60 x 50 inches, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Gift of
Julien Levy for Maro and Natasha Gorky in memory of their father. ©
2008 Estate of Arshile Gorky / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

The first comprehensive survey of the work of this artist in nearly
three decades, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective will premier at the
Museum and present 180 paintings, sculptures and works on paper
reflecting the full scope of Gorky’s prolific career. Drawn from
public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe,
this retrospective will reveal the evolution of Gorky’s unique visual
vocabulary and mature style.

It is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and will be
accompanied by a major publication, published in association with
Yale University Press. The exhibition will travel to Tate Modern,
London (February 10 – May 3, 2010) and The Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles (June 6 – September 20, 2010) following its debut
in Philadelphia.

"Gorky built upon the achievements of the early modern artists he
greatly admired and broke new ground during a remarkable moment to
become an inspiration to a new generation of American painters,"
said Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director-elect and CEO of
the Museum. "The exhibition and catalogue will offer a deeply moving
reassessment of the artist’s entire career, including his struggles
and his triumphs–personal as well as artistic–and the powerful
legacy of his work."

Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective is the first major exhibition of its
type since 1981 and the first to benefit from the publication of three
biographies of the artist: Nouritza Matossian’s Black Angel: The Life
of Arshile Gorky (1998), Matthew Spender’s From a High Place: A Life
of Arshile Gorky (1999), and Hayden Herrera’s Arshile Gorky: His Life
and Work (2003), all of which shed new light on the artist’s Armenian
background and his central role in the American avant-garde. This
will be the first major museum exhibition to highlight the artist’s
Armenian heritage and examine the impact of Gorky’s experience of
the Armenian Genocide on his life and work.

The retrospective and its accompanying catalogue have also benefited
from in-depth interviews with the artist’s widow, Agnes "Mougouch"
Gorky Fielding, who has generously supported the project from
the start, through key loans and first-hand accounts of Gorky’s
artistic practice as well as his cultural milieu. Among the works to
be included are such renowned paintings as the two versions of "The
Artist and his Mother," 1926-36 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New
York) and about 1929-42 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.);
"The Liver is the Cock’s Comb," 1944 (Albright-Knox Art Gallery),
the artist’s largest easel painting; "Water of the Flowery Mill," 1944
(Metropolitan Museum of Art), which demonstrates his deep absorption
in nature-based abstraction; "The Plow and the Song series," 1944-47,
which reflects Gorky’s continuing engagement with memories of his rural
Armenian childhood; "Agony," 1947 (Museum of Modern Art, New York),
Gorky’s haunting late painting, a product of his increasingly tormented
imagination in the late 1940s; and "The Black Monk" ("Last Painting")
(Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), which was left unfinished on
Gorky’s easel at the time of his death in 1948. Some of the works
included in the exhibition have not been on public view before,
among them the wood sculptures, "Haikakan Gutan I, II, and III"
(Armenian Plow I, II and III), of 1944, 1945, and 1947 (collection of
the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), on deposit at
the Calouste Gulbenkiam Foundation, Lisbon), as well as the Museum’s
recently acquired "Woman with a Palette" (1927).

Michael Taylor, the Museum’s Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern
Art and curator of the retrospective, stated: "Gorky was a pivotal
figure in modern American Art who has since come to be known as the
quintessential artist’s artist. It is our sincere belief that this
landmark retrospective will secure Gorky’s place alongside Jackson
Pollock and Willem de Kooning as one of the most daring, innovative,
and influential American artists of the 20th century."

Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective will be presented in a generally
chronological sequence. Thematic groupings will represent each phase
of Gorky’s career, which underwent an astonishing metamorphosis as he
assimilated the lessons of earlier masters and movements and utilized
them in the service of his own artistic development. Beginning in
the mid-1920s with Gorky’s earliest experiments with Impressionism
and the structural rigor of the paintings of Paul Cezanne, and
continuing through his prolonged engagement with Cubism in the 1930s,
the exhibition ends with the Surrealist-inspired burst of creativity
that dominated the final decade of Gorky’s life and left us with so
many breathtakingly beautiful paintings and drawings. In the 1940s,
Gorky’s contact with Surrealism informed his breakthrough landscapes
in Virginia and the visionary works made in his spacious, light-filled
studio on Union Square, which he called his "Creation Chamber." Several
galleries in the exhibition will serve as "creation chambers" in their
own right, highlighting the artist’s working process by presenting
Gorky’s most significant paintings alongside the numerous painstaking
studies that informed their making.

Catalogue

The exhibition will be accompanied by a 400-page catalogue, Arshile
Gorky: A Retrospective, published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art
in association with Yale University Press. The catalogue will include
essays by a group of noted art historians and curators: Harry Cooper,
Jody Patterson, Robert Storr, Michael Taylor, and Kim Theriault, who
will present new theoretical approaches to the artist’s work. The
essays will build upon new biographical details about the artist’s
Armenian background that have emerged in recent years, while also
exploring Gorky’s creative thinking, his unique experimentation and
extraordinary command of materials, and his imaginative exploration
of various themes. The catalogue will be fully illustrated in
color and include a section devoted to Gorky’s exhibition history,
a bibliography, and a chronology of his life and work.

About Arshile Gorky

Born Vosdanig Adoian around 1904 near Lake Van in an Armenian province
of Ottoman Turkey, Gorky witnessed as a young boy the ethnic cleansing
of his people, the minority Armenians. Turkish troops in 1915 drove
Gorky’s family and thousands of others out of Van on a death march to
the frontier of Caucasian Armenia. Suffering from starvation in 1919,
during a time of severe deprivation for the Armenian refugees, Gorky’s
mother died in his arms. With his sister, Vartoosh, he eventually
arrived in the United States where, claiming to be a cousin of the
Russian writer Maxim Gorky, he changed his name to Arshile Gorky.

Gorky stayed briefly with relatives in Watertown and Boston,
Massachusetts, before settling permanently in New York in 1924,
where he studied at the Grand Central School of Art, later becoming
an art instructor there. Gorky met and became fast friends with many
of the city’s emerging avant-garde artists, including Stuart Davis,
Willem de Kooning, John Graham, Isamu Noguchi, and David Smith. Among
his students was Mark Rothko.

The noted art critic Harold Rosenberg observed that Gorky, "a lifelong
student, was an intellectual to the roots, he lived in an aura of
words and concepts, almost as much at home in the library as in the
museum or gallery." He was largely self-taught, visiting museums and
galleries and reading voraciously. Gorky became familiar with modern
European art and embarked on a systematic study of its masters and
their methods, from Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse, whose landscapes
and still-lifes he emulated masterfully, to Pablo Picasso’s Cubist and
neoclassical works, and the biomorphic abstractions of Joan Miro. Works
by Giorgio de Chirico and Fernand Leger informed, respectively,
Gorky’s vast Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia series of the early
1930s and the sequence of murals on the theme of aviation that Gorky
created in 1936 for the Administration Building of Newark Airport,
under the aegis of the Public Works of Art Project (later the Works
Progress Administration), through which Gorky and many other American
modernists found employment during the Great Depression.

One of the key themes of Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective will be the
artist’s profound engagement with the Surrealist movement throughout
the 1940s. Gorky’s relationships with members of the Surrealist group
in exile in the United States, including its leader, Andre Breton,
as well as painters Yves Tanguy, Wifredo Lam, and Max Ernst, and
his close friendship with the Chilean-born artist Roberto Matta all
contributed to the development of his singular visual vocabulary,
a highly original form of Surrealist automatism characterized by
biomorphic forms rendered with thinned-out washes of paint. After
his marriage in 1941 to Agnes Magruder, whose parents had a farm in
Virginia, Gorky’s experience of the American landscape would enrich his
artistic vision, and, beginning in 1943, emerges as a central theme
in the lush, evocative paintings for which Gorky is best known. The
rich farmland and bucolic atmosphere of rural Virginia (and later
Sherman, Connecticut) reminded Gorky of his father’s farm near Lake
Van, and inspired him to create freely improvised abstract works that
combined memories of his Armenian childhood with direct observations
from nature. The resulting paintings, such as "Scent of Apricots on
the Fields" (1944) and "The Plow and the Song" series (1944-1947),
are remarkable for their evocative strength, lyrical beauty, and
fecundity of organic forms.

Gorky’s last years were tragic. In January 1946, a fire in his
Connecticut studio destroyed 27 recent paintings. Shortly thereafter,
he underwent a painful operation for rectal cancer, and while
recovering created some of the most powerful, though agonized,
works of his final years, including the haunting "Charred Beloved"
series (1946), which alludes to his lost paintings. In June 1948,
Gorky was involved in a serious car accident that left him with a
broken neck and temporarily paralyzed his painting arm. His young
wife left him shortly afterward to pursue a brief affair with Matta,
Gorky’s friend and mentor. Gorky took his own life on July 21, 1948,
leaving behind an impressive body of work that secured his reputation
as the last of the great Surrealist painters and an important precursor
to Abstract Expressionism.

Gorky and Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s extraordinary collection of modern
art provides a unique context for understanding Gorky’s work, since
it includes many paintings from the A.E. Gallatin Collection, such
as Fernand Leger’s "The City" (1919), Pablo Picasso’s "Self-Portrait"
(1906), Giorgio de Chirico’s "The Fatal Temple" (1914), Andre Masson’s
"Cockfight" (1930), and Joan Miro’s "Dog Barking at the Moon" (1926),
all of which inspired the artist during his formative years. Gorky
often visited the Gallery of Living Art at New York University where
the Gallatin Collection was on view in the 1920s and 1930s, and he
made several paintings that were directly inspired by works by modern
artists that he encountered there.

De Chirico’s painting "The Fatal Temple" (1914) provided the point
of departure for the "Nighttime," "Enigma," and "Nostalgia" series,
which consists of more than 80 drawings and paintings made between
1930 and 1934. Gorky also had his first one-man show at the Mellon
Galleries in Philadelphia in February 1934, and one of his first
patrons was the noted Philadelphia collector Bernard Davis. Bernard
and Irmgard Davis were keen collectors of modern art and assembled a
large collection under the name of La France Art Institute, including
numerous works by Gorky, many of which were later donated to prominent
American museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and
the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gorky and his first wife Marny
George even spent their honeymoon with the Davis family in Frankford, a
neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia, during which time Gorky visited
the Philadelphia Museum of Art (then known as the Pennsylvania Museum
of Art) as well as the Barnes Foundation in nearby Merion. The Museum
also owns three major works by Gorky that will be included in the
exhibition: "Abstraction with a Palette" (1930), "Dark Green Painting"
(1948), and the recently acquired "Woman with a Palette" (1927).

Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective is organized by the Philadelphia Museum
of Art in association with Tate Modern, London, and The Museum of
Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The exhibition will run from October
21, 2009 to January 10, 2010. —

ISSUES OF PROTECTION OF SECRET INFORMATION TO BE DISCUSSED IN CIS HEADQUARTERS

ArmInfo
2009-09-07 14:47:00

ArmInfo. Session of the expert group on completion and coordination
of the draft Agreements on Protection of a Secret Information and the
Rules of Handing a Secret Information in CIS bodies will be held on
September 8 – 10 in CIS Executive Committee.

As the press service of CIS Executive Committee reported, the documents
have been developed by the State Security Committee of Belarus and
the CIS Antiterrorist Center. The agreement aims at assurance of
protection of CIS countries’ state secretes being transferred and
received, as well as created under cooperation within the frames of
CIS. The draft Rules stipulate the requirements to the authorized
persons dealing with a secret information, their duties, the order
of access, a certain degree of confidentiality, the rules of storage
and control of assurance of integrity, the measures to be taken in
case of unauthorized distribution or loss of a secret document.

EU: COOPERATION AND SKILLS PROGRAM PRESENTED IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2009 21:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ EU: Cooperation and Skills program was presented in
Yerevan with participation of RA government members, representatives
of international organizations, political and public figures.

"This program will help our state figures to acquire skills essential
for the European integration process," Karine Ghazinyan, RA Deputy
Foreign Minister told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

For his part, UK Ambassador to Armenia Charles Lonsdale thanked the
Armenian government for cooperation with the Brutish Council and
voiced hope that this cooperation will be efficient and useful.

The program aims to develop skills of employees of South Caucasian
state agencies.

CONSTRUCTION SECTOR’S BOOMERANG EFFECT

Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
Sept 7 2009
Armenia

The Armenian housing construction sector, which had ensured two-digit
GDP growth rates until early 2009, has had quite the opposite effect
on the macroeconomic index this year. This January-July, the GDP
registered a decrease of up to 18.5% — the same two-digit figure
we were proud of before. True, some experts point out a seemingly
hope-inspiring 6.3% increase in GDP this July as compared with this
June. This increase is often regarded as crucial for in Armenia’s
economic development and even as a starting point of the country’s
recovery from the economic crisis. However, it is only at first sight.

In a number of sectors, especially the agricultural sector, the monthly
production output demonstrates obvious seasonality. Specifically,
the agricultural sector registered a 58.7% increase in the output
this June, which is quite understandable: July marks the beginning of
harvest campaign. To make sure, one can only look at the same index for
the previous years. Specifically, last July gross agricultural output
registered an increase of up to 63.7% as compared with last June. Thus,
last year’s increase is 5% as high as this year’s, and there is
no special occasion for rejoicing over the July "achievements." It
would be absurd to account for all the "insignificant events" in our
agricultural sector by the global crisis. However, it is as clear
as noonday that such a slowdown in the rates of increase in the
agricultural sector is undesirable now.

Back to the GDP – the poor index is the result of influence by almost
all the economic sectors of Armenia, first of all the construction
sector.

The situation in the sector can be considered a most grave one:
a 2.2-fold decrease. On the other hand we should not exaggerate
the influence on the construction sector on our economy. Except
for a decline in job registered in the sector, as well as in the
demand for home-made building materials, the fact itself can even
be welcomed. Spending hundreds of billions of drams on housing
construction is not only unpractical, but also absurd for a country
in dire need for investments. For example, last year 600 billion AMD
construction work was carried out on the population’s funds. It is no
secret that the large-scale construction in Armenia over recent years
has not been a necessity, as, for the most part, the construction
projects have been designed to spur the local nouveaux riches’
ambitions. By the way, this phenomenon, as well as the inflation of
housing prices, is far from being a local one, which deserves a more
detailed study.

Although, with respect to construction, many of the CIS
member-countries have "traveled the same road", Armenia has "reached
the bottom" in terms of GDP. Unlike the other former "fraternal"
republics, it is the construction sector that has, to a considerable
extent, contributed to our economic "achievements." Last year, the
construction sector’s share in the GDP was 27.1% against the 13%
share of the industrial sector (with energy generation). So it is
clear why the "boomerang effect" produced by the construction sector
proved to be more harmful.

Here is another surprising fact. While all the economic sectors
are registering a significant decline, the average nominal monthly
wages showed a 12.1% rise (!) this January-July. It turns out that,
in the first half of this year, all the economic sectors, except for
the mining industry, registered a wage increase. The highest wage
increase was registered in the trade sector and household appliance
repair services (137.3%). True, the wages of salespeople and "fixers"
are still low, 81,800 AMD (about $225) as compared with the average
monthly wages in Armenia (about 97,000 AMD). The financial sector
remains leader, with monthly salaries there exceeding the average
level more than 2.6 times. With the banking system’s insignificant
contribution to the development of Armenian economy, one can only be
surprised at the "wage progress" in the system.

Commodity turnover is another paradox. Retail trade registered a
symbolic increase of 0.1%. It is surprising that the increase was
registered against the crisis in Armenia’s industrial sector, a sharp
decrease in exports and in private money transfers from abroad.

This January-July, the industrial production index reached 88%,
with the processing industry index being 87%. The same period saw a
6.4% decrease in food output (inclusive of beverages). The output of
meat products (inclusive of sausages) registered a 41.5% increase,
and that of tobacco products a 20.9% increase. The output of cheese,
confectionery, noodles, etc.. increased as well. On the whole, the
Armenian food industry does not provide a clear picture in terms of
specific products. On the other hand, the output of milk, canned food,
soft and hard drinks (vodka and brandy) registered a decrease.

A downward tend in imports has for the first time been observed over
recent years. This January-July, imports decreased by 29.5%, with a 24%
decrease in the imports of finished food products and 7.8% decrease
in that of vegetables. So the retail trade stability was supposedly
ensured by an increase in the output of a number of product items
in Armenia, as well as due to the retail and wholesale of reserved
imported products. But how can it be harmonized with the considerable
decrease in private money transfers from abroad (mostly from Russia)?

The aforementioned economic collisions affected the Armenian state
budget. The budget tax revenues registered a decrease of 18.1%,
with a decrease of up to 25.1% in VAT revenues. As a result, this
January-July the state budget deficit "set a new record", reaching
67.5 billion AMD. External financing was widely used to cover the
budget deficit. As a result, the external financing of the Armenian
state budget jumped from 9 billion AMD last January-July up to 261
billion AMD this January-July.

OFFICE OF THE NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC IN THE USA
1334 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202) 223-4330
Fax: (202) 223-4332
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site:

PRESS RELEASE
September 4, 2009

KARABAKH CELEBRATES INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY
Members of U.S. Congress Congratulate

Washington, DC – On September 2, 2009 the people of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic, Artsakh marked the 18th anniversary of NKR
Independence. In 1991, after over 70 years of discrimination and
oppression, the people of Artsakh boldly and fearlessly stepped up
their struggle for freedom and democracy, shaking off the shackles
of subjugation.

The decision to establish a sovereign republic came as a
continuation of the national liberation movement that began
immediately after Joseph Stalin’s infamous and arbitrary decision to
include Nagorno Karabakh within Soviet Azerbaijan in 1921. The
establishment of the NKR formalized on September 2, 1991 at a joint
session of local legislatures – Nagorno Karabakh Regional and
Shahumian District Councils of Peoples Deputies. The final document
said, in part:

`Expressing the popular will supported by a documented referendum …
striving for freedom, independence, equality and good neighborly
relations … recognizing Azerbaijan’s policies of apartheid and
discrimination [against its] Armenian population … striving for
restoration of good neighborly relations between Armenian and
Azerbaijani peoples … abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights … and trusting in the understanding and support of the
international community … declares [the establishment of] the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic.’ (Full text of the document appears
below.)

Throughout the last 18 years, NKR has scored numerous successes,
defended against Azerbaijani aggression its basic right to live
free, under the government of own choosing. The republic has been
consistently developing as a democratic and social state with
effective government and strong civil society.

In his September 2 address, the republic’s President Bako Sahakyan
stressed: `Today our republic shows a stable economic growth; the
living standards of the population are rising too. The democratic
system in our state meets all the international norms. Artsakh is an
inseparable factor of the regional stability in the South Caucasus.
We are convinced that international recognition of the sovereign
Nagorno Karabakh Republic is a matter of time. Undoubtedly, the
independence of Artsakh and the security of our compatriots are the
values not subjects to any speculations.’

The Co-Chairs of the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues
Congressmen Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Mark S. Kirk (R-IL) joined
the people of Artsakh on this anniversary. In a letter addressed to
the NKR President, the two Co-Chairmen reiterated their steadfast
support to the independent and prosperous Artsakh. The U.S.
Congressmen, in particular, mentioned in their letter: `We are
writing to congratulate the people of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,
Artsakh and you on your 18th Anniversary of Independence. This
historic day represents another important milestone in Nagorno
Karabakh’s path to freedom. On September 2, 1991 the people of
Artsakh declared their intention to build a free and democratic
state, and they have been steadfast in this mission. For the past 18
years, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Artsakh has firmly upheld the
universal values of freedom, peace and democracy’, the Congressmen
stated in their letter, concluding that they `look forward to the
day when the flag of an independent Artsakh proudly flies in
capitals all over the world’.

NKR Representative to U.S. Robert Avetisyan expressed gratitude to
Rep. Kirk and Rep. Pallone for their ongoing critical support of
Artsakh.

`During the last 18 years, NKR proved its viability as an
independent state. We are grateful to our American friends for their
ongoing support of Artsakh. The NKR people and authorities remain
strong in their commitment to continue developing as a democratic
and prosperous state, and a predictable member of the international
community.’ Avetisyan said.

The Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the United States is
based in Washington, DC and works with the U.S. government, academia
and the public representing the official policies and interests of
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

* * *

Full text of the Co-chairs’ letter:

September 2, 2009

H.E. Bako Sahakyan
President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
20th February Street, 3
Stepanakert, NKR

Dear President Sahakyan:

We are writing to congratulate the people of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic, Artsakh and you on your 18th Anniversary of Independence.
This historic day represents another important milestone in Nagorno
Karabakh’s path to freedom. On September 2, 1991 the people of
Artsakh declared their intention to build a free and democratic
state, and they have been steadfast in this mission.

Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Artsakh has successfully promoted
democracy and the right to self-determination. Your continued
efforts to advance theses principals in the face of many challenges
are admirable. We remain committed to supporting the restoration of
Artsakh’s war-torn economy, strengthening its democracy and creating
a solid foundation for continued development and prosperity.

For the past 18 years, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Artsakh has
firmly upheld the universal values of freedom, peace and democracy.
We appreciate your ongoing contribution to regional stability and
assure you of our continued dedication to Artsakh’s security and
development.

We have stood with you along your path to liberty and we continue to
join you in the call for formal international recognition of your
independence. We look forward to the day when we can join you in
celebration of the flag of an independent Artsakh proudly flying in
capitals all over the world

Sincerely,

/signed/ /signed/
Frank Pallone, Jr Mark S. Kirk .
Member of Congress Member of Congress

* * *

Full text of the September 2, 1991 Declaration:

ation_independence.shtml

PROCLAMATION OF THE NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC
(Adopted at a joint session of legislative bodies)

With the participation of delegates from all levels of councils in a
joint session of peoples’ deputies of the Nagomo Karabakh (NK)
regional and Shahumian district councils, by the expression of the
popular will supported by a documented referendum, and by the
decision taken by the authorities of the NK autonomous region and
the Shahumian district between 1988-91 concerning its freedom,
independence, equal rights, and neighborly relations;

Noting specifically the Azerbaijani Republic’s declaration of
restoring its national independence according to its 1918-20
boundaries;

Recognizing that Azerbaijan’s policies of apartheid and
discrimination have created an atmosphere of hatred and intolerance
toward the Republic’s Armenian population, and led to armed clashes,
casualties, and the deportation of Armenian civilians from peaceful
villages;

Establishing itself on the basis of the current constitution and the
laws of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), which,
upon the secession of a union republic from the USSR, allow the
peoples of autonomous formations and coexisting ethnic groups the
right to self-determination of its national-legal status;

Noting that the territory of the Shahumian district was forcibly
detached from Nagorno Karabakh, and recognizing the intentions of
the Armenian population to reunify as commensurate with the norms of
natural and international law;

Intending that neighborly relations between the peoples of Armenia
and Azerbaijan be restored based on mutual respect for each other’s
rights;

Taking into consideration both the complexity and controversial
nature of the situation in the country, the future of the [Soviet]
Union, and the uncertain future of the [Soviet] Union structures of
ruling authority and government;

Respecting and abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
the principles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and trusting in the understanding and support of the
international community;

Declares:

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic within the current boundaries of the
NK autonomous region and the adjacent Shahumian district, the NKR

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic, basing itself on the authority given
to republics by the constitution and legislation of the USSR,
reserves the right to decide independently its legal status as a
state on the basis of political consultations and negotiations with
the leadership of other countries and republics.

Prior to the acceptance of the constitution and laws of the NKR, the
constitution and legislation of the USSR, as well as other existing
laws shall be in effect on the territory of the NKR unless they
contradict the purposes and principles of this declaration and the
specific nature of the republic.

/Signed by delegates of all levels participating in the joint
session of the NK regional and Shahumian district council’s peoples
delegation/

September 2, 1991

* * *

This material is distributed by the Office of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic in the USA on behalf of the Government of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic. The NKR Office is registered with the U.S.
Government under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Additional
information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington,
D.C.

HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN: TRUTH IS ONE

| |country&pid=15066
14:56:49 – 03/09/2009

On September 3, in Yerevan, the opening of the conference
of the Community of the electoral authorities of Europe
"Court defense of electoral right" took place. The
NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan addressed the conference

AZERBAIJAN: BAKU REBUKES ANKARA FOR ARMENIA-TURKISH RAPPROCHEMENT

NEWS BRIEFS
209d.shtml
9/02/09

Azerbaijan is reacting coolly to the rapprochement between Turkey,
Baku’s traditional ally, and Armenia, a long-time foe.

Turkish and Armenian officials announced August 31 that they were
moving toward the normalization of relations.

[For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Azerbaijani officials
are now especially concerned about the likelihood that Turkey will
reopen its border with Armenia. Turkey imposed an embargo against
Armenia in 1993 as a move in support of Azerbaijan’s efforts to retain
control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

A statement issued by Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry reminded Ankara
that the border was closed in solidarity with Azerbaijan. "Establishing
diplomatic relations with another country is a sovereign right of
every nation, but given that, in this case, the matter has immediate
implications for the national interests of Azerbaijan, we say that
opening the Turkish-Armenian border prior to resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict runs counter to the national interest of
Azerbaijan," the Foreign Ministry statement said, according to a
September 2 report distributed by the Anspress news agency.

ARMENIAN, NKR LEADERS DISCUSS TOPICAL ISSUES

Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
Sept 4 2009
Armenia

President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Bako Sahakyan held a
meeting with RA President Serzh Sargsyan, who arrived in Stepanakert
to take part in the celebrations of the 18th anniversary of the NKR’s
independence. The Information Department, NKR Presidential Staff,
reported that the Presidents’ meeting was followed by an enlarged
meeting with the participation of the two states’ Premiers and
Ministers of finance.

The sides discussed issues of the NKR’s socio-economic development
and bilateral economic and financial cooperation.

The same day, the Armenian and NKR President held another meeting to
discuss the regional developments and the conflict between Azerbaijan
and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Participating in the meeting were Speaker of the NKR Parliament Ashot
Ghulyan, NKR Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan, Secretary of the NKR
Security Council Marat Musaelyan, NKR Minister of Defense Movses and
Minister of Foreign Affairs Georgy Petrosyan.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ARMENIAN LIBRARIES A SUCCESS AT MOTHER SEE

?newsid=1187&selmonth=9&selyear=2009
Septe mber 1, 2009

The first International Conference of Armenian Libraries took place
at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin from August 25 to 27. The
conference was organized by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and
the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center of the Eastern Diocese,
under the auspices of His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch
and Catholicos of All Armenians.

More than 50 representatives from Armenian libraries worldwide gathered
for the event, which included a range of presentations, discussions,
and visits to important historic sites throughout Armenia. What follows
is an interview with Rachel Goshgarian, conference co-organizer and
director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center. Taleen
Babayan is a program manager at the center, who also assisted with
preparations for the conference.

Taleen Babayan: Why did you organize the conference?

Rachel Goshgarian: When I started as director of the Zohrab Center a
little over two years ago, I realized that I benefited greatly from
discussions with my colleagues who were heading similar libraries in
the United States, and little by little, realized that many of the
heads of Armenian Libraries and collections weren’t in contact with one
another but we could all benefit greatly with conversations with each
other. So I started asking my colleagues if they thought a conference
would be a worthwhile endeavor and everyone agreed that it would.

What were the objectives of the conference?

At the most basic level, the objective was to create better links
between Armenian oriented libraries in the Diaspora and in Armenia,
and to create a forum in which we can discuss issues of importance
to all of us. At the conference this first step was realized, and we
began to discuss issues such as book preservation, digitization, the
exchange of duplicate books and how to send books from the Diaspora
to Armenia and from Armenia to the Diaspora.

What were the steps you took in organizing the conference?

First I proposed the idea to Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, the
Primate of the Eastern Diocese, and he was very enthusiastic about
the idea. When I suggested the conference take place in Armenia at
the Mother See, Archbishop Barsamian discussed this idea with His
Holiness Karekin II, and Vehapar was also very enthusiastic.

He appointed the Rev. Fr. Asoghig Karapetian, who is the head of the
archives at the Mother See, to organize the conference with me and
the two of us began preparations.

What was the significance of the conference?

It was a major first step. One of the things that was most important
about the conference was that most of the people who head up Armenian
libraries or collections have no training whatsoever in library
sciences. Most are highly educated individuals with a background in
history or literature, and most of us have learned about organizing
libraries and preserving books etc., either through our own individual
research or through conversation with librarians.

The Armenian tradition of printing goes back many centuries. Even
the smallest of our library collections has a very impressive range
of books and publications. All of the heads of these libraries and
collections care deeply for Armenian heritage and culture, and for
that reason, this meeting was both useful and reassuring.

Oftentimes, it seems that not only in Armenia, but in the Diaspora,
and amongst non-Armenians, books and reading have taken a second
seat to other various forms of learning and technology. But sitting
in a room with other individuals who have dedicated their lives to
books and making Armenian literature and history available was a
powerful experience, especially since it was at the Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin.

Who helped you organize the conference?

Putting together this conference was indeed the result of great efforts
by many people. First, His Holiness Karekin II offered his enthusiasm,
his blessing, and his inspiration for the conference. Archbishop
Barsamian championed this idea from the very beginning and I am
impressed by our church leadership and that it continues to recognize
the importance of Armenian learning and preservation of the Armenian
heritage, as it always has.

At the Zohrab Center, I wasn’t alone in organizing the conference. My
colleague Taleen Babayan from the very beginning brainstormed
with me and undertook a lot of the organizational preparation
for the conference. One of the best things of organizing this
conference was working with the members of the brotherhood of Holy
Etchmiadzin. Fr. Karapetian was extremely organized and did an
excellent job of managing the participation of the Mother See. Very
Rev. Fr. Mushegh Babayan provided excellent support and enthusiastic
direction. This truly was a team effort and one that all of us are
proud to have been a part of.

The following libraries were represented at the conference: the Mother
See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Catholicate of Cilicia, the Patriarchates
of Constantinople and Jerusalem, the Mkhitarian Brotherhoods of Venice
and Vienna, Bzommar Armenian Catholic Clergy Institute, the Mesrob
Mashdots Manuscript Repository, the National Library of Armenia,
the National Archives of Armenia, the Armenian Academy of Sciences,
Harvard University’s Widener Library, University of Michigan (Ann
Arbor), the British Library, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the
AGBU Nubarian Library, Yerevan State University, American University
of Armenia, Yeghishe Charents Museum of Literature and Art, Armenian
Library and Museum of America, National Association of Armenian
Studies and Research, Armenian Cultural Foundation, Armenian Prelacy,
and many of the regional libraries of Armenia.