Category: News

HEAD OF ARMENIAN CHURCH CONCERNED OVER REGISTRATION OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
ArmenPress
Oct 15 2004
ETCHMIADZIN, OCTOBER 15, ARMENPRESS: As reported earlier, Karekin II,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, left today for
Moscow to join the local Armenian community as they celebrate the
75-th anniversary of the birth of His Holiness Alexey II, Patriarch
of Moscow and All Russia. During his two-day visit to Moscow, the
Catholicos of All Armenians will also offer the service of Blessing
the Foundation of the new Holy Cross Armenian Cathedral and Diocesan
Headquarters for the Armenian Diocese of New Nakhijevan and Russia.
The Church headquarters said that before departing His Holiness
reflected on the recent news that the “Jehovah’s Witnesses”
religious organization has received official registration by the
state authorities of the Republic of Armenia, expressing his concern
at the registration of yet another totalitarian cult.
His Holiness stated that attempts to justify the registration of this
destructive group are unacceptable, and regards as disingenuous and
unfair the accusations that the Armenian Church and her clergy are
weak and incomplete in their pastoral ministry.
“The Holy Armenian Apostolic Church has a mission to serve, and
notwithstanding all difficulties and challenges, will bring all of
her efforts to realizing that sacred mission in the lives of our
people”, stated His Holiness. The Pontiff of All Armenians expressed
his appreciation to all faithful sons and daughters of the Armenian
Church who have displayed concern and devotion regarding this issue.

MEDI PUBLISHES A BUSINESS GUIDE BOOK
ArmenPress
Oct 15 2004
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 15, ARMENPRESS: Micro Enterprise Development
Initiative (MEDI), funded by Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship
Development National Center and USAID has published a manual “How to
register a business: a road map for a businessman” the presentation of
which was held today. US ambassador to Armenia John Evans and Armenian
deputy trade and economic development minister Armen Gevorgian were
present at the presentation.
John Evans mentioned that the guide will provide new instruments
to launch a successful business. In the ambassador’s terms, the
publication is a success example of cooperation between US embassy
and the Armenian government. The guide is easy to use and contains
necessary information to start a business in Armenia, he said.
The manual is distributed free of charge in the Yerevan office of
Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship Development National Center and
starting early November in the regional branch offices of the center.

SAAKASHVILI PROPOSES NEW SCHEME FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION
ArmenPress
Oct 15 2004
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 15, ARMENPRESS: Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili
proposed a new scheme-3+3- of regional cooperation in Lithuanian
capital Vilnius, which he said calls for cooperation between the three
South Caucasian and three Baltic countries. “As part of this scheme,
the Baltic republics will help Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to
present their interests at the European Union and come closer to
Europe. Our voices will be constantly heard at European organizations,”
Saakashvili said.
Vilnius and Tbilisi signed an agreement on Thursday on cooperation
and Lithuania’s assistance to Georgia to help it integrate with
Euro-Atlantic region. The document was signed by Michael Saakashvili
and president of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus. In a meeting with reporters,
Saakashvili said the “document means that Georgia will have a lobbyist
in NATO and EU, which is very important.”

Enchanting music keeps singer-pianist Galas ‘alive’
by Nancy Lanthier, Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)
October 14, 2004 Thursday
Final Edition
Sometimes intelligent, sensitive artists are impelled to make art
that has nothing to do with beauty or emotional comfort. Rather,
these artists hurl a horrific hell at us, works that are bleak,
black, raging.
When artists handle topical monstrosities articulately, though, it
can be like a scouring pad to the soul; it feels like an extraordinary
gift.
So, let us give thanks to ferociously uncompromising vocalist and
pianist Diamanda Galas. For more than 20 years the New Yorker has
purged devastating performances about plagues and apocalypse on an
steadily expanding international cultdom.
Her latest double CD, Defixiones: Will and Testament continues
the bleakness. Focusing on victims of Armenian, Assyrian and Greek
genocides, Galas growls, hisses, groans and shrieks while clawing
at the piano like Chopin possessed, creating a soundscape that’s
terrifying and beautiful.
On the phone from her home, the artist is an open book; today’s
chapter is a dark one, revealing what she’d like to do to the “inept
imbeciles,” who three weeks ago cancelled her entire U.S. tour —
while she was one show into it. (Her Tuesday concert at the Vogue
was independently arranged.)
Hard to believe, but yes, someone dared cross Diamanda Galas.
“The guy’s a spoiled, rich boy, vice-president of the company,” she
seethes. “What he doesn’t understand is that while he has all this
money, I’m doing what they say when they tell drug addicts to watch
themselves because, ‘your addiction is doing push-ups while you’re
relaxing.’ I’m the one doing push-ups while he’s relaxing. He’s going
to pay.”
I commiserate with her and steer the conversation back to her work.
But she immediately slides into describing the revenge she’s going to
take on this guy — to the point where I begin to wonder what toll it
takes on an artist to be acclaimed as the “Diva of the Dispossessed.”
To thoroughly research, record and tour extreme music that fixates
on the biggest, saddest themes. What kind of woman becomes a legend
for AIDS-related works such as Plague Mass, Litanies of Satan and
the Masque of the Red Death Trilogy?
She is the same woman who has also just released La Serpenta Canta,
crucial interpretations of blues and country standards by Hank
Williams, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and others.
She is the same artist who says, “there is genius in this world and
Janis Joplin had it.”
She is the same woman who slams “that monkey” president for among other
things, his voice: “You don’t even have to listen to what he has to
say! Listen to the resonance of that little guy. His intelligence is
radiated in that little sign wave of his.”
She is the same artist who describes the most intense moments of her
performance as “going beyond myself. It’s like a gift. Everything is
free and you want to keep going as much as you can in that direction.
It’s beautiful.”
But ultimately, Galas is an angry woman. Her ability to focus on
monstrosity, she admits, is not balanced by a content state of mind.
“The times that everything seems just perfect are very few. I think
some of us are in positions where we have to do a lot of fighting and
that becomes a central part of our existence. So, when you actually
have the opportunity of doing something as enchanting as music,
it keeps you alive for the rest of this crap; it allows you to get
through those things. If you get too introverted when you’re going
through a very difficult stage, that’s the place where people usually
hang themselves.
You’re a very lucky person if you can do something that takes you
beyond it. For some people there’s no escape. ”
She has described the truth of her conviction as “having her own
religion.
“It’s about fighting until the end to defend your beliefs, what it
is you feel you were put on this planet to experience. You believe
in the blessing that it is to be alive and you know how limited and
short that can be. So everything is a fight against people who put
you in a position of slavery. And I don’t mean black slavery; in
terms of Albanians, rape of Bosnians — there’s so much of this all
over the world in different forms. So let’s not use the word slavery.
It’s a fight against being treated like a dog. That’s my religion.”
GRAPHIC: Photo: New Yorker Diamanda Galas plays the Vogue on Tuesday.

A LETTER OF CONCERN ABOUT THE FUTURE
A1 Plus | 21:40:55 | 15-10-2004 | Politics |
“During the session of PACE Monitoring Commission a young man was
spreading leaflets in the doorway, by the way, the ones printed in
Armenia. It is disgraceful. Chechens can spread such leaflets against
Russia”. Tigran Torosyan, Armenian Delegation head in PACE made such
a statement a few days ago.
Michael Danielyan, Chairman of Helsinki Association, commenting on
the words of Torosyan said it was an open letter and not a leaflet. “I
wrote an open letter to all the sides interested. I have written that
Jaskernia’s report runs counter to the reality. There are shortcomings,
which can harm the future of Armenia. As a citizen, I am alarmed at
the development of our state and for the future of my children. I
have never hidden that I wrote a letter and there is nothing bad in
that. Our social organizations are set for such activity, but they
don’t do their job. They just pretend to be devoted to the nation. I
love my homeland more and I am anxious for the future of my state”.
We asked Danielyan how he treated the comparison with the Chechens. “It
is good. If the Chechens write such letters, it means they worry for
the future of their country, too”.

Kocharyan, Levitin discuss development of transport
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 14, 2004 Thursday
YEREVAN, October 14 — Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin met
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan on Thursday to discuss a wide
range of issues relations to bilateral cooperation.
Special attention was riveted to the development of the transport
infrastructure, the presidential press service told Itar-Tass.
Kocharyan stressed that the Russian-Armenian inter-governmental
commission on economic cooperation was an important mechanism of
relations between the two countries. The commission has always worked
effectively, the president said.
A meeting between Igor Levitin and Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan touched on the soonest technical re-equipment and resumption
of the activity of enterprises, which had been handed over to Russia
to pay debts.
According to the Russian minister, concrete agreements reached during
the meetings in Yerevan will be added and then discussed as part of
the commission’s session to be held in Moscow.

Russia, Armenia considering cargo shipments by Caspian Sea
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 14, 2004 Thursday
YEREVAN, October 14 — Russia and Armenia are looking into the
possibility of using the maritime route between Astrakhan in the
delta of the Volga and the Iranian Caspian port of Enzeli for cargo
shipments, alternative to land haulage across the Russian-Georgian
border, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said here Thursday.
As he addressed a news conference upon the end of talks in Yerevan,
Levitin quoted experts as saying the Caspian route is “shorter and
less expensive”.
“For this, we’ll have to settle some formalities with the Iranians,”
he indicated.
He also mentioned the closure of the Verkny Lars border-crossing post
on the Russian-Georgian state border.
“The goal of the measures underway there is to deny the entry to the
cars and people, who may do things like that ones that occurred in
Beslan,” Levitin said.
“But this will not affect in any way the cargos and people that have
nothing to do with terrorism,” he said.
That is why a decision was taken a few days ago to open Verkhny Lars
again, he indicated.
The automobile jam has been liquidated by now,” Levitin said.

THE RELATIVES OF THE AMERICAN MURDERED IN ARMENIA ARE IN PANIC
A1 Plus | 21:25:46 | 15-10-2004 | Social |
American specialist Joshua Haglund has been teaching in the Foreign
Languages University after Valeri Bryusov within language program
of USA Secretary of State since last September. On May 17 Haglund
was murdered in his apartment in Yerevan. His corpse was found in
the courtyard of the building where he appeared while pursuing those
having stabbed him.
Joshua’s mother and two brothers have held a press conference in
“Armenia Now” Information Centre. Together with other sons Joshua’s
mother arrived in Armenia since they are alarmed for neglect over
disclosure of the murder. USA Embassy and Police keep silence.
According to the rumours spread, Joshua’s office period in Armenia
was expiring and on the eve of returning to the homeland he was
killed since he had been an agent of Central Investigation Agency of
USA. There are other versions regarding murder because of jealousy
or personal relations. The relatives of the murdered man announce
that he was of untraditional sexual orientation.
They also informed they had met Armenian General Prosecutor and
USA Ambassador to Armenia who had assured that disclosure of murder
was prior. We asked if the relatives of the murdered person didn’t
trust USA Embassy to Armenia. They said they did but they had arrived
in Armenia in person to support disclosing of the crime, to study at
the scene what in fact could have happened with their relative.
Joshua’s relatives have met his friends, students and intimate
persons. But the relatives didn’t wish to release any information to
journalists what they had learnt after various meetings.
At the press conference the relatives asked journalists to provide
them any kind of information.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Georgia to block traffic from Russia through uncontrolled tunnel
By Eka Mekhuzla
ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 14, 2004 Thursday
TBILISI, October 14 — Georgian authorities will not allow passenger
buses and cargoes to enter the country through the Roksky tunnel, said
Mikhail Kareli, governor of a region bordering Georgia’s breakaway
province of South Ossetia.
“It is impermissible that cargoes and passengers enter Georgia
through this tunnel, a territory not controlled by authorities of
the country. There are official customs posts for this,” Kareli said,
commenting on the situation near the village of Ergneti in the area
of the South Ossetian conflict, where two passenger buses en route
from Russia to Armenia were stopped a few days ago.
The buses were blocked on the grounds that passengers had papers
showing that they had passed customs and border control at the Georgian
check post Kazbegi.
According to the Georgian side, the buses entered Georgia through
the Roksky tunnel controlled by South Ossetian authorities, although
Tbilisi declared this stretch of the Georgian-Russian border closed.
All cars, passenger buses and cargoes coming from Russia to Georgia
must be checked at Russia’s post Verkny Lars and then at Kazbegi.
Both checkposts are located near the Georgian border with North
Ossetia, Russia’s republic bordering South Ossetia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia not to make deal with Itera
RosBusinessConsulting Database
October 14, 2004 Thursday
The Armenian government refused to acquire 10 percent of the shares
in ArmRosGazprom owned by the Russian company Itera because the
deal proposed by Itera was unprofitable, the press secretary of the
Armenian Energy Ministry reported. According to ARMINFO news agency,
she also declared that the Armenian government would not sell its 45
percent of the shares in ArmRosGazprom.
As reported earlier, Itera is holding negotiations on selling a
10-percent stake in Armrosgazprom. According to a source close to
the company, Itera is going to sell it for $30m because the company’s
authorized capital amounted to $280m.