Category: News

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
April 8 2004

WALK ANOTHER FIVE YEARS

For ten years already S. Martirossian has been travelling in the world
on foot carrying the flag of Artsakh with him. Starting his pilgrimage
at his own initiative on August 16, 1993, Sergey Martirossian set an
aim to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh problem
through his pilgrimage. `I have been to 67 countries, including
Scandinavia and the countries of South America, the Middle East,’ says
the Artsakh-born traveler. `I have told everywhere who are Armenians,
where is Karabakh, what the people of Karabakh want. In Strasbourg,
New York and a number of other big cities I organized press
conferences and, answering the questions of journalists, tried to
introduce to them the past of the Armenian nation starting with the
period between 1918-1920. In my opinion, many people understand
us. Let it not seem immodesty, the way I chose is not easy. In
particular, I mean my personal security. Can you imagine, I also
visited Muslim countries, but twice my life was endangered in Poland,
a country considered civilized?’ On December 15, 1993 Sergey
Martirossan entered the UN office in New York although he knew the
entrance there with flags was forbidden (it is considered a
protest). But the consistency of the Karabakh man won. He was
provided with a special reference by the UN allowing to pass all the
borders of the world without obstacles. According to S. Martirossian,
in the world only 4-5 people received such references, all of them
travelers. When passing through Moscow in 2001, in the competition
`Healthy People’ our compatriot won the title`The Healthiest Man of
the Planet’. In ten years our compatriot met with many delegations,
diplomats. He thinks that our propaganda for the settlement of the
Karabakh problem is weak. `In some countries I noticed that certain
our diplomats do not even recognize the Karabakh flag. I am not afraid
of saying this. I said this by the television of Armenia. As different
from the Turks, we are not professionals in propaganda,’ says the
pilgrim. This year was the 70th birthday of the traveler. On this
occasion the government of NKR conferred on him the medal
`Gratefulness’. `I had decided to travel tillthe age 70 but I have to
walk for another five years. First because the medal obliges, and
second, as long as Karabakh is not recognized de jure I cannot
consider my pilgrimage completed.’ This year the traveler will walk to
Athens where the Olympic games will take place in August. `In Athens
if 10-20 journalists shoot me and write about me with my flag, it is
not little, I think. I want the flag of Artsakh to have a place beside
the flags of other countries during the Olympic games. We must
struggle for justice and final victory by all means. In this reference
the international chess tournament organized recently in Artsakh is
also our big achievement,’ says Sergey Martirossian. The traveler has
problems with sponsorship. So far his sponsors were from Armenia,
mainly businessmen. From Artsakh Edward Verdiyan, Samvel Hakobian
sposored him. This time too he is expecting the assistance of
benefactors. Walking 35-40 km every day S. Martirossian has already
passed 45 thousand km. The travel to Baku was also planned, but it is
postponed because his security is not guaranteed in Azerbaijan. Let us
wish our compatriot good health and success in his difficult mission.

LAURA GRIGORIAN

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
April 8 2004

FATHERLAND AND ARMY START AT THE BORDER

Meeting the proposal of the RA TV companies, the NKR Ministry of
Defence invited a group of journalists to the NKR Defence Army to get
acquainted with the life of the servicemen. On April 2, headed by the
press secretary of the minister, colonel S. Shahsuvarian, 27
journalists representing 10 TV companies of Armenia visited different
military units of the NKR Defence Army, and border installations. The
journalists visited the educational strategic center `Asparezâ’,
watched the training. The journalists had an interview with the NKR
minister of defence Seyran Ohanian. The NKR minister of defence
mentioned that the situation at the border is quiet. As to the present
condition of the army, he mentioned that day by day the level of the
military training, supply of arms and equipment, the engineering
structures are improved. The minister mentioned that the NKR Defence
Army is successfully fulfilling the role of the defence of the border
of the motherland, the servicemen control the situation and the
situation in Yerevan can in no way influence the service.

ARMEN DANIELIAN

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
April 8 2004

RUMOURS EXAGGERATED

The messages of the recent days remind those made before a war.
Threats and answers are made once from the Armenian party, and once
from the Azerbaijani. In Karabakh, however, there is no sign of war.
People think if there is, in fact, such threat why nobody reacts to
it. It means the tensions are provoked deliberately hoping that
something will explode somewhere. In this case for whom are these
tensions favourable? On March 29 negotiations were to take place
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Prague with
the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen. The
negotiations were cancelled because the Azerbaijani party refused to
take part in them. The Armenian newspaper `Haykakan Zhamanakâ’
writes that Baku generally refuses to negotiate with
Armenia. According to the newspaper, the maintenance of the deadlock
situation in the negotiation process is, as usual, favourable for
Russia. In his interview to the newspaper `Azg’ NKR minister of
foreign affairs Ashot Ghulian said, `The very first months of office
of Ilham Aliev showed that the prospect of the process of negotiations
is blurred. Perhaps for them the Karabakh problem has stopped being a
priority, and only vague militarist expressions are made, such as
starting negotiations from the beginning, complaining of the
activities of the international organizations and in particular the
Minsk Group,’ emphasized A. Ghulian. Although, maybe, the talks in
Prague failed because Ilham Aliev was going to relieve minister of
foreign affairs Vilayat Guliev from his post. The corresponding
decision was signed on April 2, 2004 and Elmar Maherram Oghli
Mamediarov was appointed minister of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan. It
is obvious that the process of negotiations is rolling
backward. Apparently this was the reason for active militarist
propaganda. Moreover, now in Baku, on the one hand, they say that
Azerbaijan cannot get reconciled with the loss of the territories, and
on the other hand, the resumption of the military actions is
favourable for the government of Armenia which prefers this to a civil
war. `As long as the Azerbaijani territories are occupied, the war
with Armenia may start at any moment,’ told the Azerbaijani minister
of home affairs Safar Abiev to the Azerbaijani agency `Trend’. `You
know what the situation in Armenia is, as long as the Armenian armed
forces are in our territory, the danger of resumption of war exists,’
stressed S. Abiev. Member of parliament of the Azerbaijani Mili Mejlis
Anar Mamedkhanov announced that the parliaments of Armenia and the
Republic of Nagorni Karabakh are going to legalize the occupation of
the Azerbaijani territories within one or two months. And the
Baku-based newspaper `Zerkalo’ foresees that in the upcoming days
additional points may be introduced in the military doctrine of
Armenia concerning the security of Nagorni Karabakh. `According to one
of the points of the doctrine, in case of military threat or
announcement of martial law the armed forces deployed in Nagorni
Karabakh pass under the military commandment of Armenia.’ Russia is
also worried by the danger of resumption of the military actions in
the conflict area of Karabakh. The Russian news agency `Regnum’
headlined the materials concerning Nagorni Karabakh last week `Will
the USA manage to prevent war in Karabakh?’. As to the USA, it will do
anything for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. This statement
was made by the deputy secretary state of the US Richard
Armitage. According to the newspaper `Turkish Daily News’, Armitage
cited the example of the recent events in Kosovo, adding at the same
time that such collisions are possible in Nagorni Karabakh too, writes
the newspaper `Azg’ and mentions that in the recent months the
skirmishes at the border between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces
have become frequent. The head of the director of plan and defence of
the US European command, major general Jeffrey Kohler announced that
the appeals of Washington for peaceful settlement refer to both
Azerbaijan and Armenia. According to him, before the years 2001-2002
the US government imposed sanctions against the Armenian and
Azerbaijani parties, which may be imposed again in case of new
confrontations at the border. At the same time he announced that the
USA does not intend deploying new military installations in
Azerbaijan. The opening of the Armenia-Turkey border also has a
special role in the relationships of Armenia with Azerbaijan. This
topic was touched upon the during the meeting of Richard Armitage with
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliev; the latter was against, as,
according to him, opening the border with Turkey will render the
conflict impossible to settle, because Azerbaijan will lose an
important lever for putting pressure in Armenia. In his turn foreign
minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian appealed to the government of
Ankara to make corresponding conclusions from Aliev’s statements who
considers Turkey as a lever in its hand against Armenia. On April 6 a
group of journalists representing the leading mass media of Azerbaijan
moves to the Armenian-Turkish border for the action `Turks Supporting
Turks’. The main slogan of the action is `No to Opening Border with
Armenia’. The action will start in the towns Igdir and Kars in the
northeast of Turkey and will end in Ankara. The participants of the
action will address a message to the government of the brotherly
country appealing to oppose the tension on the part of a number of
countries in this matter. The Azerbaijani journalists and the local
inhabitants will create a symbolic wall between the territories of
Armenia and Turkey. What is this if not a provocation of
tensionsâ’

NAIRA HAYRUMIAN
From: Baghdasarian

Baltimore Sun
April 8 2004

Christians in Israel decry residency permit delays

Officials deny that backlog is an attack on freedoms
By Peter Hermann

JERUSALEM – The nuns wanted to buy sheets for their orphanage, so
they headed to a shopping mall. They were 78 and 56 years old,
dressed in the blue and white habits of the Rosary Sisters.
They were venturing into the city with expired Israeli residency
permits, a problem not of their making.

Checking their papers, a security guard at the mall’s entrance
refused to let the sisters in, and an Israeli border police officer
armed with an M-16 lined them up against a wall and searched them.
They were released two hours later.

Church leaders say the incident this week at the Malha Mall was due
not to carelessness on the part of the nuns but to pervasive delays
by the Israeli government in granting or renewing residency permits
to Christian clergy – delays that officials of the Roman Catholic
Church say verge on infringing on religious freedom.

Dozens of Roman Catholic priests, nuns and monks living in Israel are
now subject to arrest as they await new residency permits, church
officials say. Members of other Christian sects, including Greek and
Armenian Orthodox, are facing similar problems.

“They took the elderly sister and put her against a wall and searched
her in a very unacceptable way,” said Sister Agatha Baharm, the
younger of the two nuns who were detained. “I told the police officer
that the sister is old and didn’t feel well. She has had two heart
operations, and she started to tremble.”

“They say it’s a matter of security and we should wait,” said the
chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Shawki Baterian.
“But if this situation continues, I think Israel could rightly be
accused of preventing us from trying to practice our faith.”

Church officials in Jerusalem and at the Vatican have exchanged
letters with Israeli authorities, and both sides said they expect the
backlog of pending visa applications to be swiftly resolved.

“It is not by any means a political issue,” said Jonathan Peled, a
spokesman for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “It is simply
bureaucratic, technical issues that have to be dealt with.” He called
the detention of the nuns “silly and unnecessary.”

Officials at the Interior Ministry, which oversees immigration and
visa issues, said officers have been ordered to take care when
dealing with religious figures. “It is our policy to help everybody
who comes from the church,” said spokeswoman Tova Ellinson. “We are
trying to solve this thing. It won’t take long. Nobody is going to be
arrested from the church.”

Church officials could not provide numbers of those affected by the
backlog. The Latin Patriarchate said about 50 members of the clergy
have expired visas, out of an estimated 500 nuns, 300 monks and 100
Roman Catholic priests in Israel and the West Bank. The Rev.
Athanasius Marcora, a Franciscan, put the number higher, saying 40
members of his order lack the required paperwork to legally reside in
Israel. The Rosary Sisters said 23 of its members now lack the proper
visas.

Their status is a sensitive issue in a country where the landscape is
venerated by three religions – Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
Israeli officials acknowledge that there is a problem to be resolved,
but they blame it on the innocent workings of a notoriously
cumbersome bureaucracy.

Church leaders say priests and nuns from Arab countries are having
the toughest problems. Marcora, of St. Savior’s Monastery in
Jerusalem’s Old City, said there is a danger of having too few
priests who speak Arabic.

Marcora is from Austin, Texas, and has lived in Israel for 11 years.
He said he renewed his residency visa without problem two years ago.
But he said many Arab priests at his parish are unable to return
after leaving for trips abroad. One Syrian priest, he said, did not
return to Damascus when his father died, fearing that he would not be
allowed back.

“The mission of the church is in jeopardy without the presence of
Arab Catholics,” Marcora said. “The fact is that these people are
prevented from coming here, or they can’t stay here once they
arrive.”

The Rosary Sisters nuns are both of Arab descent. Sister Agatha is an
Israeli-Arab who was born in Nazareth. The elder nun, Sister Hani
Akiki, is from Lebanon but has lived in Israel for 45 years. Her visa
renewal has been delayed for three years, Sister Agatha said, with no
reason given. Both sisters have documents from the Interior Ministry
explaining that their visas are pending.

Two weeks ago, police officers detained a Franciscan monk from St.
Peter’s Church in Jaffa after he pulled out his expired visa. Israeli
foreign ministry officials intervened and prevented his deportation.
The monk, through a church official, declined to comment.

The issue has reached the desks of Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In an interview with the Israeli
newspaper Maariv, the head of the foreign minister’s religious
affairs department, Gadi Golan, said, “We’ve already been compared to
Iran in this matter. People complain that we are violating
international conventions and do not allow freedom of worship.”
Golan, reached yesterday, declined to comment further.

Israeli officials deny that clergy are being singled out but say they
may have become caught up in tight security measures. Members of the
clergy, officials say, are not the only people who have been briefly
detained.

A month ago, police mistook a Chinese diplomat for an immigrant
worker and detained him outside his embassy in Tel Aviv. The diplomat
had left his identification in his office but was taken to a police
station instead of being allowed to prove his identity. He was later
released with an apology.

This week, a Nokia executive visiting from Finland was strip-searched
upon entry at the airport. He was allowed to enter Israel, but he
instead took the next flight home.

Church leaders are reluctant to charge that politics is a factor in
the visa slowdown, but Catholic priests have repeatedly criticized
Israeli policies toward Palestinians. The Latin Patriarch, Michel
Sabbah, is a Palestinian, and he recently lashed out at Israel’s
separation barrier and the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the
spiritual leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In his annual Easter message, Sabbah said he hoped that Israel and
the Palestinians would soon have new leaders. He said it was time for
both sides “to come back to reason and reconsider what they have done
in order to avoid for themselves and for their people the sin of more
bloodshed.”

,0,7632324.story?coll=bal-news-nation

Batumi News
April 8 2004

Baku – Tbilisi – Erzerum gas pipelne to be ended by 2005

Construction of the Baku – Tbilisi – Erzerum gas pipeline, is
expected to be ended by the late 2005. The project may be expanded
with Iran – Armenian gas pipeline, which will cross Georgian
territory.

The pipeline cross Turkey and Greece on one direction and Georgian
and Ukraine on another. Experts of the European Commission assess, of
the two variants of the projects, the route of Iran – Armenia –
Georgia – Ukraine – Europe is more profitable. Both Russia and
Ukraine are interested in this project, Boris Aleshin, Russian Deputy
Prime Minister said.

The pipeline project with Georgia’s scheme will cost 5 billion USD,
with the capacity of 60 billion cb. The 550 km. stretch of the
pipeline, from Georgian Supsa harbor to the Crimea harbor Pheodosia,
will be built in the Black Sea.

ARKA News Agency
April 8 2004

Armenian opposition is not trustworthy – Rector of State Institute of
Theater and Cinema

Armenian intelligentsia calls to authorities and opposition to a
dialogue

The Secretary General of OACS is arriving in Armenia today with a
three-day official visit

The NKR Minister of Defense: the situation on the border line in NKR
is stable

OSCE Office in Yerevan condemns the attacks on the reporters during
the meeting of the opposition on April 5 in Yerevan

*********************************************************************

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION IS NOT TRUSTWORTHY – RECTOR OF STATE INSTITUTE OF
THEATER AND CINEMA

YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. Armenian opposition is not trustworthy,
Rector of State Institute of Theater and Cinema Sos Sargsian stated
during the discussion organized by Dashnaktsutyun party. `Acting
president must remain at power, because opposition is not solid, does
not have joint ideology and program’, he said. Sargsian urged
Dashnaktsutyun party to become a mediator between authorities and
opposition for achievement of agreement and decrease of tension. L.D.
–0–

*********************************************************************

ARMENIAN INTELLIGENTSIA CALLS TO AUTHORITIES AND OPPOSITION TO A
DIALOGUE

YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. ARF Dashnaktsutyun initiated today a
meeting `Public Harmony and Collision’ with participation of
representatives of intelligentsia. According to RA NA Speaker, the
Member of ARF D Supreme Body Vahan Hovhannisian, `we will try to
create bridges between political powers and intelligentsia and to
create the atmosphere that will stop tension in created situation’.
Representatives of intelligentsia in their turn called to authorities
and opposition to a dialogue. According to the Director of the Center
of Aesthetic Education of Armenia Genrich Igitian there is no other
alternative to dialogue. `We have to first of all think about future
of the country. We must not break our home from the inside’, he said.
Rector of State Institute of Theater and Cinema Sos Sargsian added
that `if Armenian fights against Armenian, it is the first sign of
losing the State system’. L.D. –0–

*********************************************************************

THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF OACS IS ARRIVING IN ARMENIA TODAY WITH A
THREE-DAY OFFICIAL VISIT

YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. The Secretary General of the Organization
for Agreement on Collective Security (OACS) Nikolai Bordiuzha is
arriving in Armenia today with a three-day official visit. According
to the RA MFA Press Service Department, meetings with the RA
President, RA NA Chairman, the RA Ministers of Defense and Foreign
Affairs, and the Director of National Security Service and the Head
of police are planned. A.H. -0–

*********************************************************************

THE NKR MINISTER OF DEFENSE: THE SITUATION ON THE BORDER LINE IN NKR
IS STABLE

STEPANAKERT, April 8. /ARKA/. The situation on the border line in NKR
is stable, as Seiran Ohanian, the NKR Minister of Defense,
General-Lieutenant stated, according to ARKA reporter in Stepanakert.
Speaking of the present situation in the Army, the minister noted
that it has entered a new stage of development. He emphasized that
`constructions of ñîåðøåíñòóþòñÿ frontier, strengthening and
defensive, engineering importance are improved day by day, and the
level of readiness for military action of the army, technical
equipment of the army is high’. `The NKR Army of defense commits its
duties of motherland defenders well. The army keeps the situation
under control. The concepts of motherland and army are connected with
the frontier, where an Armenia soldier serves, and he is ready to
defend his motherland from any encroachments’, said Ohanian.
One of these days the NKR Ministry of Defense has invited a group of
reporters from Armenia to get acquainted with the life and
conditions, under which soldiers of defensive army serve. 27
reporters, who represented 10 TV companies, at the head of the RA
Minister of Defense Press Secretary Seiran Shakhsouvaryan visited
different military units and the frontiers units of NKR Army and got
acquainted with the life conditions of the Army on the spot. A.H.–
0–

*********************************************************************

OSCE OFFICE IN YEREVAN CONDEMNS THE ATTACKS ON THE REPORTERS DURING
THE MEETING OF THE OPPOSITION ON APRIL 5 IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, April 8. /ARKA/. Valeri Priakhin, the Head of OSCE Office in
Yerevan condemned the attacks on the reporters during the meeting of
the opposition on April 5 in Yerevan. According to OSCE Yerevan
Office Press Service Department, Priakhin noted that any attack on a
reporter must be condemned, and the organizers of such activities
should be punished and legal proceedings should be instituted against
them. `I hope that the RA Government will keep its promise to take
certain measures against all this’, said Priakhin. He also expressed
profound anxiety about the arrests of the member of the political
council of Respublika opposition party, the Press-Secretary of the
party Souren Sourenyants. `OSCE Yerevan Office will carefully follow
the further events’, said Priakhin.
On April 5 during the meeting some of National Unity opposition party
TV cameras of some local TV companies were broken as well as photo
cameras of the reporters. The General Office of Public Prosecutor
instituted legal proceedings against Sourenyants in the morning of
the same day. He is accused of public appeals to change the
constitutional order by force, and offences addressed to the
Government. A.H. –0–

ArmenPress
April 8 2004

THREE ARMENIAN REGIONS SUPPLIED WITH MOBILE GYNECOLOGICAL STATIONS

YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian office of the UN
Population Fund has supplied with mobile gynecological station the
Nansen hospital in Spitak region. The new equipment was provided
within the project “Improving Reproductive Health of Women, Men and
Children.” Similar equipment was provided to Ararat and Armavir
regions as well. Other regions are also considered to be equipped
with such stations when funds are available. The total station costs
30 000 USD. In addition to the station, 10 clinics in different
communities of Spitak have been provided with medical equipment of
first aid. Armenian humanitarian health center also provided with
medicine.
Representative of the Fund, Karen Dadurian, told that they aim to
improve nursing-gynecological services in the communities. The
traveling station will travel among various communities according to
a set timetable and provide free of charge services to the
population. The personnel is having a training course to apply
international standards in using the new technology.

PanArmenian Network, Armenia
April 8 2004

NEW MINISTER TO RESTART TALKS

Dismissal of Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan may affect the Karabakh
talks.

Elmar Mamedyarov is a career diplomat, 42 years old. He was born in
the village of Yadji, Ordubad region of Nakhichevan. His father is an
academician, director of the Institute of Biology. He has graduated
from Kiev’s Institute for International Relations, where Mikhail
Sahakashvili has also studied. Mamedyarov works in the MFA system
from 1992. He is close enough to Ilham Aliyev. He was appointed
Ambassador in Italy when Ilham Aliyev was in fact governing the
country. He stayed in Italy for half a year. He has never been noted
during his career in the MFA that is why his appointment seemed a
little bit strange.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The appointment was more unexpected because
Mamedyarov is not very aware of the process of Karabakh settlement
and. The pro-governmental Baku press says he has written few
analytical articles on Karabakh settlement and has had lectures on
this subject. However, it is not enough to carry negotiations. He has
worked neither with the Minsk group co-chairmen nor even with the
Azeri diplomats involved in the process. Thus, Mamedyarov’s
appointment will hardly be a good proof of the fact that Aliyev
really wants to restart the talks. The leader of the National Front
Party of Azerbaijan Ali Kerimli said recently that Mamedyarov would
not have any political weight and the foreign policy would be totally
conducted by Ilham Aliyev personally. Evidently, he is right.

We shall note that the former Minister was dismissed immediately
after the regional visit of the US Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage. The observers in Baku presume that while being the
Councilor of the Azerbaijani Embassy in the U.S., Mamedyarov had had
certain contacts with him. So, they believe he is Armitage’s protégé.

Why did Ilham Aliyev dismiss Vilayat Guliyev? It should be noted that
Guliyev was appointed in 2000 when conclusion of an agreement on
Karabakh was being outlined. Then Heydar Aliyev needed an experienced
political figure on the post of the Foreign Minister who would be
able to prepare the public opinion in favor of the agreement based on
Parisian principles. Guliyev matched very well. Now Baku carried out
a harsher political course and Ilham Aliyev does not want Guliyev any
more. Besides, an experienced political figure in the staff of a
President-beginner would be dangerous.

Dismissal of Guliyev was stipulated also by the backstage
confrontation of two commanding clans – the Nakhichevani group and
the clan of politicians and officials coming from Armenia and
Karabakh. Mamedyarov represents the Nakhichevani group, while
Guliyev’s origins are from Shoushi. The observers think that after
Guliyev’s dismissal the career of other officials coming from Armenia
– state Advisor to the President Idayat Orujev, Health Minister Ali
Insanov and Minister of Education Misir Mardanov will also suffer. At
the same, the positions of the informal leader of the Nakhichevani
clan, head of the president’s administration Ramiz Mehtiyev have
strengthened recently. He has become a power broker in the staff of
Ilham Aliyev.

Snapping a 3D picture of reality

by Erin Kandel

Washington Square News (New York University)

Onlookers mulling over Dave Krikorian’s three-picture exhibit, “Genesis
Embrace,” may feel as if they’re back in the heyday of Magic Eye images.

Viewers squint their eyes and shift their perspective, lean forward and
arch back. They scan Krikorian’s small black-and-white landscapes, which
line a wall of the Gulf and Western Gallery in the Tisch School of the
Arts, not in the hopes of deciphering hidden images, but to determine
whether the pictures are actually “real.”

“The worlds I create are confusing because I try to make them as
realistic as possible,” said Krikorian, a Tisch senior. “People look at
them, and they look again, and they’re still not sure if they’re real.
But they are kind of suspicious.”

Krikorian is part of a small core of Tisch students exploring the
avant-garde and potentially controversial role “computer-generated” – or
3D – imaging has found in the realm of contemporary photography.

Unlike the scores of “real” photography on display in Tisch’s Department
of Photography and Imaging’s latest Senior Exhibition (open through
April 17), Krikorian’s landscapes are the only “unreal” photographs –
wholly imaginary images created not with a camera, but a computer.

Thanks to advances in digital technology, “any image can be
manipulated,” Krikorian said, making it “impossible to tell by the
picture if an event ever really happened.”

At NYU, Krikorian enjoys a new freedom of expression, or rather,
non-expression, found in the ambiguous separation between photography
and 3D art. His exhibit in the Tisch gallery offers nothing – no
description, no sign on the wall – to distinguish that, unlike other
Tisch students’ traditional photography, his landscapes began as green
grid lines on a computer screen.

“In photography, all you can do is point a camera,” he said. “If you
make a mistake, it’s harder to fix. With my computer, I can do
absolutely anything. I can change anything.”

At the show’s opening on March 25, an attention-shy Krikorian admitted
he felt awkward pointing out to perplexed-looking viewers that his three
otherworldly-looking panoramas, picturing crumbling cottages in a forest
glen, suburban houses submerged in a flood, and a solitary window
emitting a bright stream of light onto an empty wood floor, took weeks
and sometimes months of tweaking, painting, texturizing and detailing in
a complex software program to achieve the most realistic-looking form he
was capable of.

Why not let viewers draw their own conclusions? Krikorian says.

“I think its cool when people can’t tell if my photographs are real or
not. I’m still pretty new at [3D art], so if I manage to convince
someone, even just for a moment, that my 3D image is real, I feel like
I’ve succeeded in some way,” he said.

But while realistic 3D imaging is a coveted feature of video games and
movie special effects, its place in modern photography is much more
complicated.

Critics of computer-generated photography say the art form cheapens
people’s ability to believe what they see in “real” pictures. Allowing
photography like Krikorian’s to be viewed with traditional photography,
they say, damages the camera’s ability to tell an honest story.

But Krikorian said the line between real and computer-generated
photography has already been blurred beyond recognition.

“There is already no way to tell what is true and what is not,” he said.
“Almost every picture in magazines and newspapers is already touched up
with computers. Nothing can be trusted.”

During Krikorian’s first two years at NYU, the Fresno, Calif. native
struggled to find his “place” in the highly talented and competitive
pool of New York City photographers, before deciding he wasn’t “cut out
at making a living taking pictures.” Disillusioned with his curriculum
and lacking a career path, Krikorian moved to computer graphics in fall
2002.

His background in traditional photography has helped him hurdle a
“high-learning curve” and support his transition into the
fast-developing world of 3D art, he said.

“The transition was actually very natural,” he said. “Photography helped
me understand how light works, how it interacts with objects. I imagine
the lights, surfaces and cameras in a 3D scene as if they were truly
photographic, and that really helps make my computer-generated images
look more believable.”

There are still times when form wins over content. In the months leading
up to his senior exhibition, Krikorian had to abandon his favorite
project – an image of Baghdad destroyed and partially converted into an
oil field – because he didn’t “buy it.”

“It looked too fake to me,” he said, revealing a lingering annoyance.
“Sometimes the most idealistic concepts are the hardest to make a photo
out of.”

But the way his post-graduate plans are shaping up, Krikorian said his
ideological beliefs won’t impede his career as a 3D artist.

“I’d rather make a living than a statement,” Krikorian said.

And, no matter what his artist friends say, that does not make him a
“sell-out.” He said he hopes to get a job creating level design, the
interactive environments in video games, a craft that will require his
steadfast attention to computer-generated realism.

“Video games are the art form of the century,” Krikorian said with a
smile, and with all the sincerity of true a believer in the computer
generation.

# # #

The Daily Star, Lebanon
April 8 2004

Members of Iraqi boy band dream of Rock ‘n Roll fame
But with instability in country, their opportunities are even more
limited than during Saddam’s reign

By Borzou Daragahi
Special to The Daily Star

BAGHDAD: They’re young, cute and talented. After the fall of Saddam
Hussein, Western journalists swooned over Art Haroutunian, Nadeem
Hamid, Hassan Ali, Shant Zawar and Diar Delyar, the fun-loving
members the Iraqi boy band, Unknown to No One. They were invited to
England. They dreamed they’d soon see their names in lights, joining
the ranks of their idols: Wham!, Backstreet Boys, Boys to Men, West
Life and Michael Jackson.

Alas, Iraq’s bungled reconstruction effort and continuing instability
have put a damper on their rise. Despite its new freedoms and new
possibilities, the new era hasn’t made the pop life any easier, and
it’s brought plenty of disappointments, even for Baghdad’s jovial boy
band.

“Good things during Saddam’s time have turned bad while bad things
about the Saddam time have turned good,” says Haroutunian, the band’s
leader. “We don’t have to fear being summoned for military service or
hunted by the intelligence officers. But we fear terrorist bombings
and insecurity. Even though we have more money, there are no night
clubs and no entertainment.”

Indeed, the light-hearted band’s experiences since the toppling of
Saddam Hussein’s regime on April 9, 2003 encapsulates many of
post-war Iraq’s successes and failures.

The band members, who sing and speak perfect English, thought they
had paid their dues, trying to live out their Rock n Roll fantasies
under Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship, where satellite dishes
were outlawed and Western music had to be smuggled into the country.

Once they wanted to get their song, Hey, Girl, on a radio station
controlled by Saddam Hussein’s son Odai, who was killed by American
troops in Mosul last summer. Keyboardist Haroutunian says they were
told no way, not even with payola, unless they came up with a
birthday song for Saddam Hussein.

They whipped something together: “Shining throught the times, Your
light never ends, You’re the one who helps us find the truth out of
lies, You’re the answer to all our hopes and dreams, Our love, our
lives to you we have have given, Our love, you bring, all bells let
them ring, As we all will sing, long live dear Saddam.” Odai’s radio
station aired the Saddam song on the hour for a week.

“Then our love song, they broadcast it only once, and that was it,”
says Haroutunian.

For Haroutunian, an Iraqi Christian, and his Sunni, Kurdish and
Shiite bandmates, the US invasion liberated them from tyranny. It was
time to party, or so they thought.

“My whole life I was living this lie and it was gone in a twinkle of
an eye,” Haroutunian said. “I laughed and cried. We celebrated.”

Indeed, the US invasion transformed Iraq’s pop landscape. Record
stores became filled with bootlegged copies of Britney Spears, 50
Cent and Christina Aguilera.

Satellite music channels began pumping out the latest Arab pop tunes
from Beirut and Cairo. The airwaves were flooded with America’s Radio
Sawa, with its mix of Western, Middle Eastern and even Indian hits.

Despite the flood of new entertainment, the band found opportunities
in the new Iraq even more limited than before. Just after the war,
they were invited to England by Channel 4. Promoters and media
descended on them, vowing to make them the next big thing.

But Iraq’s Foreign Ministry burned down after the war, and since the
boys didn’t have passports, they’ve been waiting a whole year to get
permission to leave the country. They’re stuck in Iraq until at least
June 30, Haroutunian says.

The band would have loved spending the last year in Baghdad putting
together a new album. From Now On, their first album, sold 2,000
copies at about $2 a piece. But the Baghdad music scene is even more
moribund than before. All the studios have cleared of their equipment
in fear of robbers.

“Nobody’s producing songs here,” Haroutunian.

Under Saddam Hussein, the boys tried in vain to find a venue in which
to perform live in Iraq. These days they wouldn’t dream of it. An
epidemic of violence has shaken the country, says guitarist Ali. “Who
will risk his life and go watch an Iraqi boy band in a concert?” he
asks. “Nobody would do it.”

The post-war Iraq has even robbed Unknown to No One of the main
fringe benefits of being in a pop band. “All the parents keep their
girls locked up at home,” says singer Hamid, whose slim, tall figure
and bedroom eyes made him the band heartthrob before the war. “None
of us is getting lucky with the girls,” he says.

The band wanted to spend the past year sharpening their act, getting
tighter musically. But Iraq’s phone service was destroyed during the
war and full service has yet to be restored. Just arranging a
practice has become a complicated nightmare.

All of the boys are in their early 20s, except for Art, who’s 26, a
little gray for boy band stardom. But they remain hopeful.

“We have the ambition of becoming rock stars,” says Hamid. “It hasn’t
happened yet. But,” he takes a deep breath, “fingers crossed.”

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