Author: Zargarian Hambik

AFTER FRANCE, BELGIUM TO JOIN ‘PRIVILEGED PARTNERSHIP’ CLUB
Selcuk GultaÞli Brussels

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
June 12 2007

The Christian Democrats of Belgium gained substantially in the general
elections yesterday, ending eight years of Liberal Democrat government
and opening a new front against Turkey’s membership in the EU.

Yves Leterme, leader of the CD & V, the Christian Democrats of the
Flemish part of the country, and the likely next prime minister, is
known for his ideas for a privileged partnership for Turkey. Current PM
Guy Verhofstadt has been a strong supporter of Turkey’s EU membership
during his eight years in power. It is yet more bad news for Turkey
as Belgium is about to join the ranks of those member states that
are pushing for privileged partnership.

Though Belgium cannot be compared to Germany and France in the EU
"machine," as the seat of operations and one of the founding members
of EU Belgium can be pivotal to tipping the balances.

The shape of the next government is not clear, however. Observers
say a coalition of French-speaking Liberals and Flemish Christian
Democrats is very likely. French-speaking Liberals (MR) support
Turkish membership, and if they agree to being the junior partner
of the coalition, a German-style approach to Turkey may emerge. In
Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is well known for her opposition
to Turkey’s membership but has not been able to block accession talks
due to the strong support of the Social Democrats, who are the junior
partners in the coalition government.

While the Belgian Liberals support Turkey’s bid, they are also in favor
of penalizing the deniers of the Armenian "genocide," which could
again flare up in the wake of elections. On the Armenian question,
Leterme has given mixed signals. In an interview for a special
Zaman election supplement, he hastily said he was against use of the
word genocide but then publicly declared he recognized the Armenian
"genocide," under intense media pressure. His attitude towards the
Armenian question remains to be seen.

Leterme has a rather nuanced approach vis-a-vis Turkey. Though he
is for privileged partnership, he is in favor of accession talks to
continue. In the party program, the Christian Democrats defend the
continuing of accession talks, but agree that they should not lead
to membership. It is clear that a Christian Democrat-led Belgian
government would not be a defender of Turkey in the EU.

–Boundary_(ID_DgZ2oDV0fz+2aXu58MGLUw)–

Emin and femininity
By Jackie Wullschlager

FT
June 9 2007 03:00

Will 21st-century art belong to women? For most of its 100-year
existence, the Venice biennalehas consisted of exhibitions by white
male painters from western Europe and America. But this year, the UK,
France, Germany and other nations are represented by women working in
mixed media. The result is the most feminised biennale in history, and
a shift from the boldly universal to an emphasis on emotional
storytelling in a quieter vein, which unites female artists across the
globe.

Queen and pioneer here is Tracey Emin. Borrowed Light, her exhibition
of paintings, drawings, sewn work, neon installations and wooden
tent-like sculptures, is triumphant, original, beautiful, moving and
the best thing she has done so far. Her trademark sadness and
loneliness still shout out – the embroidery "Sometimes I feel so
fucking lost" (2005), the seeping textures and outlines of wistful
figures and hearts in the "Abortion Watercolours" (1990), and simple
neon inscriptions which almost speak aloud, such as "I know Iknow I
know", all provide retrospective context here – but as challenge and
liberation, Venice and the international setting are her turning point.

In compelling new work Emin responds with paintings and drawings which
place her as late-expressionist heir to such distillers of pain as Egon
Schiele and Edvard Munch. Her focus is the female body, and especially
its splayed open legs and crotch; in the series "Tower Drawings" what
makes her depictions exceptional is the mastery of a hesitant, wavering
line which seems to start, stab, retreat and jolt forward, yet remains
always aesthetically strong: a distinct signature of doubt and anxiety.

In the paintings – "Fuzzy Sex", "Ruined", "Preying for a Penis", the
"Purple Virgin" series – the surprise is how that level of intimacy and
longing is carried over to paintings whose compositional tension and
tortuous figuration belie the apparent spontaneity of their
mark-making. The chromatic range is delicate but rich, recalling
sensuous colourists from Venetian fresco painters to de Kooning. The
effect, as Emin puts it, is at once "pretty and hard core": the
summation of half a lifetime’s absorption in autobiographical themes,
but with an exhilarating sense of future ambitious possibilities in
paint.

Women in the visual arts have at least a century of catching up to do.
Venice shows them doing it at speed, from Armenian Sonia Balassanian’s
video diaries of a soldier, wife and freedom-fighter in "Who is the
Victim?" and China’s "Everyday Miracles", where four female artists use
traditional feminine materials to question identity and social change,
to Isa Genzken’s icy astronaut dolls and ironically formal plastic
ornamentation conveying a vision of chaos and multinational greed in
"Oil". All have their charms, but Emin alone is on her way to becoming
an icon of female emotional pain transformed into art. JW

ST. ANTON THE GREAT’S "ADMONITIONS" COLLECTION PUBLISHED

Noyan Tapan
Jun 06 2007

ETCHMIADZIN, JUNE 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The publishing department of the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin published the first of "Spiritual
Readings" series of books: St. Anton the Great’s "Admonitions"
collection, translated by A. Zohrabian and edited by bishop Asoghik
Aristakesian. The book was published with the sponsorship of Mr. and
Mrs. Raffi Marukians, Mr. and Mrs. Saro Marukians. Noyan Tapan was
informed about this by the Information Services of Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin.

Anton Anapatakan’s admonitions and desert life regulations, sayings
and stories about St. Anton’s life, as well as interpretations of
some admonitions, are included in the book.

ARMENIAN-CAPTURED SOLDIER REFUSES HIS PARENTS’ LETTER

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 6 2007

Armenian-captured Azerbaijani soldier Samir Mammadov returned his
parents’ letter of his own will, his uncle Vidadi Mammadov told
the APA.

Mammadov said that ICRC office in Barda gave this explanation of the
returning of the letter.

"They said that they sent the letter back as Samir refused to
receive it. But his family members do not believe in his behavior,"
he explained.

ICRC representatives in Armenia last met with the captured Azerbaijani
soldier on May 31. Mammadov was captured on December 24, 2006.

RUSSIAN AND SERBIAN FMS TO DISCUSS WAYS OF KOSOVO PROBLEM SOLUTION

Yerkir
05.06.2007 16:19

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – During the June 5-7 negotiations between Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic
in Moscow the sides will discuss the settlement of the Kosovo problem,
official representative of the Russian MFA Mikhail Kamynin stated.

He said, V. Jeremic’s visit to Moscow coincides with the escalation
of events in the Kosovo settlement process in the light of a draft
resolution on Kosovo recently introduced by the United States and EU
member-countries in the UN Security Council. "During the recent times,
including bilateral and multilateral contacts the Russian side has
repeatedly touched and commented upon this very subject.

Naturally, it will be given a priority attention and at the
Russian-Serbian negotiations, which will allow discussing various
aspects of the current stage of the status process," Mikhail
Kamynin underlined. He said, in regard to the Kosovo problem Russia
consistently continues to insist on the necessity to strictly keeping
fundamental principles of the international law. "After all the matter
is about the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia as an
internationally recognized state – a UN member-country.

We insist on the necessity to continue talks on the status of the
region between leaders of Serbia and Albanians of Kosovo under the
balanced international mediation, aimed at reaching such an outcome,
which would satisfy both sides," the official representative of the
Russian MFA said.

LET’S LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGES!
By Cengiz Aktar

Turkish Daily News, Turkey
June 5 2007

Is it terrible if different intermingled communities know the other’s
language? With this, would not we have a better chance to know each
other well?

A recent news report was reading: "Turkey planning for an effective
fight against the Armenian genocide allegations will train diplomats to
become experts on Armenia. For the first time, Turkish Foreign Ministry
sends a young diplomat abroad to learn the Armenian language. Since
there is no diplomatic relation between Turkey and Armenia, this
young diplomat will be sent to some other country providing language
courses in Armenian."However, learning Armenian in Turkey is a piece
of cake. It is the same for Greek too.

Approximately 20 Armenian and 13 Greek schools are active in
Istanbul. But these schools are only for ‘regular’ Turkish Armenians
and Turkish Greeks. It is almost impossible for the children of mixed
marriage or the children of converts to attend these schools. Even the
children of about 20,000 illegal workers from Armenia whom we proudly
mention about to western observers cannot attend these schools, nor
can they attend any other school though. Schools for minorities work
just like ghetto schools. As if they are open to all Turkish citizens,
the slogan, "We all are Armenian" chanted during Turkish Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink’s funeral comes to realization, or the Lausanne
Treaty will be violated! But could not these educational institutions
be allowed to teach Armenian and Greek to those who are willing to
learn, including candidate diplomats, by finding an interim formula,
for instance via alumni associations?

Better chance to know each other well

All minorities living in Turkey automatically know or learn Turkish
beside their mother tongue. But overwhelming majority of Turks is
monolingual. If the easiest way to understand each other is through the
language, what needs to be done is clear. Is it terrible if different
intermingled communities know the other’s language? With this, would
not we have a better chance to know each other well?

Foreign Ministry’s project to teach Armenian looks like obeying the
logic of "learn your enemy’s language to cope with him well". The
point here is not to better understand our fellow citizens and
neighbors who speak different tongues and also to benefit from
intellectual richness of being multilingual.The same news story
continues to read: "As a second priority the decree points at the
Middle East and Iraq. A Turkish diplomat is being sent to London in
order to have a Master’s degree on Iraq’s social structure. Seven new
diplomats will learn Arabic and have higher education on the Middle
East at the Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara. Therefore,
bottleneck of having Turkish diplomats fluent in Arabic to serve
in the Middle East will be overcome. The Ministry will also provide
opportunities for young diplomats to learn Russian, Japanese, Chinese
and Greek. So far, a total of 27 Turkish diplomats were sent abroad to
learn foreign language and gain expertise, in accordance with the said
decree."Among diplomats there are those who learn foreign languages by
their own. However, there was not any planned education scheme until
this decree. Though it is late, this is something to be appraised. In
Turkey, foreign language level of foreign ministry, academia and
public in general is well known. It is limited to dominant foreign
languages. Moreover, Spanish and Russian are not among these. Since
turning our face to the West, we lost even our ability to read our
History; we either forgot the languages spoken around us or failed
to learn them. Learning Arabic and Persian was banned during K-12
education since 1929. With the abolishment of Darulfunun (higher
education system during the Ottoman) in 1934, it was even banned in
universities for a while. We have already talked about the situation
in Armenian and Greek. Forget about learning Kurdish; it does not
cross no one’s mind.

Language is richness

However, language is richness first of all, a common richness of
humanity, let alone its benefits. Linguists say a bilingual or
multilingual person has higher level of intellect than a monolingual.

To store and keep different words in memory, to parse and pronounce
them later require more brain activity. Multilingual people have
broader perception and learning capacity and that make them open to
innovations and change. They are more harmonious. Monolingual people
on the other hand, have tendency to show negative or even aggressive
reactions as they have limited perception capacity compared to
multilingual persons.

A1+

GOVERNMENT FORMATION WILL NOT LINGER
[03:54 pm] 04 June, 2007

The acting government terminates its jurisdictions on June 7, after
the NA first session. Under the acting law,

the new Parliament shall elect a prime minister within 10 days

the RoA President shall appoint the prime minister to the position

the government shall be formed within 20 days’ time after the NA first
session

the new government is to introduce its programme within 20 days

the National Assembly is to endorse the government’s programme within
5 days

Today, none of the press services of the Prosperous Armenia, the
Republican and the ARF Dashnaktsutyun have information on the
`back-stage’ negotiations.

According to our data, a memorandum will be signed on June 4, under
which the Republican and the Prosperous Armenia parties will form a
coalition and the ARF Dashnaktsutyun will co-operate with these
forces.

It is still unknown when the newly-elected deputies will get NA
mandates.

Awayday win cheers Armenia
Saturday 2 June 2007

Armenia lifted themselves off the bottom of Group A
with their first win in six UEFA EURO 2008′ qualifiers
at the expense of Kazakhstan in Almaty.

Hovsepyan decisive
The visitors were always the brighter and took full
control of the match just after the half-hour mark.
Robert Arzumanyan opened the scoring with a left-foot
shot from the edge of the area before Sargis Hovsepyan
doubled the advantage from the penalty spot after
Samvel Melkonyan had been fouled. Ruslan Baltiyev then
got a late consolation for Kazakhstan, also from the
spot. Armenia’s first goals of the campaign proved
enough to move them on to four points, ahead of
Azerbaijan on goal difference. They face a sterner
test on Wednesday when they welcome the group leaders
Poland to Yerevan as Azerbaijan go to Kazakhstan, who
sit one point above the bottom two.

©uefa.com 1998-2007.

National Post (Canada)
June 2, 2007 Saturday
National Edition

IN THE MONEY; PRIVATE EQUITY BUYOUT

[parts omitted]

VAHAN KOLOLIAN

Chairman and CEO, TerraNova Acquisition Corp., a private equity
investment company and new kid on the block

Claim to fame Specializes in turnaround management and industrial
investment. Recently merged with ClearPoint Resources Inc., a
work-force management company with annual revenues of $113-million.

Assets under management $200-million.

Bio Armenian descent. Born in Egypt, his family moved to Canada in
1962. Got a law degree and began his career in 1980 with Burns Fry
Ltd. (now BMO Nesbitt Burns), where he later became a partner and
director. Left traditional investment banking and in 1991 co-founded
Polar Capital Corp., a Toronto merchant banking firm, where he served
as president until March, 2000. Chairman and CEO of Precinda Corp., a
holding company. Founded TerraNova Acquisition Corp. in 2004.

After hours Is bankrolling Mosaic Institute, a specialty think tank
on ethnocultural conflicts. The institute is housed in Mr. Kololian’s
offices. Wife Susie is a co-founder of Variant Paths, a group that
organizes art events and tours for financial types. Personally
collects works of David Milne and Ed Burtynsky. Founding member of
Peace Action Network within the Young Presidents’ Organization.
Donation to University of Toronto for Armenian Studies.

G8 FMS FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

PanARMENIAN.Net
31.05.2007 13:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ G8 foreign ministers welcome the intention of
Armenian and Azeri presidents to meet in the framework of the CIS
informal summit session in Saint Petersburg June 9, 2007, says the
statement adopted during the informal meeting in Potsdam. "We urge
them to reach agreements in main principals as soon as possible,
in order to open a way for peaceful solution to the conflict," says
the document, Reuters reports.

Azerbaijan lost his control over Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent 7
regions during the bloody conflict, which broke out in 1990ies between
Armenians and Azeris on the issue who Karabakh belongs to. In May 12,
1994 the sides signed a cease-fire and military actions stopped.

Armenia insists on pack-mode settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict. Meanwhile Baku accepts only step-by-step approach, which
supposes first to return Azerbaijan territories under the control of
the Armenian side and return refugees to those territories and then
to begin negotiations over the status of Nagorno Karabakh.

The agreement on holding a meeting between the Armenian President
Robert Kocharian and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliev was reached
during the latest visit of OSCE MG Co-Chairs to the region.