Category: News

Agence France Presse
April 4, 2004 Sunday 8:05 AM Eastern Time
Christians gather to celebrate Palm Sunday in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM
Hundreds of followers from different branches of Christianity began
Easter celebrations Sunday by parading through the streets of
Jerusalem’s Old City before praying at the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre.
Groups of Boy Scouts from the Catholic, Armenian, Greek Orthodox and
Assyrian communities banged drums, followed by crowds shouting
“Hosannah” and waving palm fronds and olive branches to mark Palm
Sunday.
They congregated at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to the
final resting place of Jesus Christ, for a special service.
Palm Sunday marks the Sunday before Easter, when Jesus is said to
have ridden a donkey down the Mount of Olives and into the holy city
to a joyous welcome from the crowds, who scarcely a week later were
calling for his death.
Numbers were markedly down on the levels seen before the start of the
Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000, which has seen
many tourists steer clear of the Holy Land.
Many Palestinian Christians have also been unable to attend
celebrations, with Israeli authorities restricting travel from the
occupied territories.
One Arab resident of Jerusalem said she had been hoping that the rest
of her family, who live near the West Bank town of Ramallah, would
have been able to join her.
“None of my brothers and or sisters have been able to come to
Jerusalem,” said the woman who would only give her name as Labiba.
“Our family was meant to come and celebrate together and pray
together. The Israelis said they would allow Palestinians to come but
this is not true.”

Buffalo News (New York)
April 2, 2004 Friday, FINAL EDITION
DREAM DATE/ BAIRD TRIO OFF TO CARNEGIE HALL/
by MARY KUNZ; News Classical Music Critic
PREVIEW
WHAT: Baird Trio’s Carnegie Hall warm-up
WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday
WHERE: Slee Hall, UB North Campus, Amherst
TICKETS: $5
INFO: 645-2921
/ Next week, when the Baird Trio plays Carnegie Hall, its concert
will be a dream come true.
Not that the musicians haven’t ever played Carnegie Hall. Cellist
Jonathan Golove has appeared at the historic hall’s Weill Recital
Hall (and he’ll be returning in May with flutist Cheryl Gobbetti
Hoffman). Pianist Stephen Manes has played there numerous times.
So Carnegie Hall is hardly a dream to the musicians. No, the dream
lies in the music itself.
The Baird Trio has always taken a bold approach to music, embracing
the old and the new. This concert is a typical adventure — but it
has a theme.
One piece the trio will be playing is “Bad Dreams,” an excerpt from
“Red Harvest,” Golove’s opera in progress based on Dashiel Hammett
stories. Haydn’s Trio in E flat minor, with its “Jacob’s Dream”
finale, continues the dream theme. Also on the program is “Dream of
Dreams,” by the young Armenian composer Vache Sharafyan.
Pogossian, who is from Armenia, greatly admires Sharafyan both as a
composer and a countryman. “He’s a close friend of mine, someone I
love and respect in an equal amount,” he says. “He is a very deep
musician who also is very attuned to our common Armenian heritage,
the Armenian tradition.”
Sharafyan, he adds, is well-versed in the roots of Armenia’s
classical music, folk music and church music, including Gregorian
chant structures. “To me,” Pogossian says, “his music is always an
emotional journey.”
The program opens with five Bagatelles by Tigran Mansurian, Armenia’s
best-known contemporary composer. “They’re really beautiful,” Manes
says. “They’re short, poetic and eloquent.”
The musicians’ fun-loving side emerges with Charles Ives’ piano trio,
completed around 1914. The Scherzo movement is especially famous; the
composer labeled it TSIAJ, for “This Scherzo Is a Joke.”
“Ives is one of the greatest representative, if not the greatest,
American composer,” Pogossian says. “It seems almost a duty to
include him, along with another leading American composer, Golove.”
His colleagues laugh.
Golove’s opera, “Red Harvest,” is an adventure in progress. The
segment “Bad Dreams,” which the trio will be premiering at Carnegie
Hall, is a pivotal scene in which the hero meets the heroine for the
first time. Their meeting takes place, Golove explains, to the
accompaniment of a radio playing such sultry jazz standards as “Body
and Soul” and “Night and Day.” “I won’t say everyone will get all the
references, and I wouldn’t want them to,” Golove says.
The scene requires immense finesse on the part of the performers, who
have to portray, simultaneously, the hero, the heroine and the radio.
Preparing the piece for this particular concert was also a challenge
for Golove, who had to write the vocal version, and then transcribe
it for trio. “The ink is somewhat dry,” he jokes.
How does it feel to be premiering his opera in Carnegie Hall?
“Rather a thrill,” he says.
The Baird Trio performs its pre-Carnegie Hall warmup concert Tuesday
at 8 p.m. at Slee Hall on UB’s Amherst Campus. Admission is $5. For
info, call 645-2921.
e-mail: [email protected]
GRAPHIC: Cellist Jonathan Golove, violinist Movses Pogossian and
pianist Stephen Manes make up the Baird Trio./

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
April 1, 2004 Thursday Final Edition
AVERTING GENOCIDE IS FOCUS OF FORUM;
ENVOY BLAMES NATIONS FOR NOT PREVENTING SLAUGHTER OF TUTSIS IN RWANDA
IN 1994.
By Paul Riede Staff writer
Ten years ago this month, a genocide began in Rwanda that took the
lives of as many as 800,000 Tutsi people over 100 horrific days.
Since then, world leaders have acknowledged that the killings carried
out by extremist Hutus in the central African nation could have been
stopped or greatly reduced if they had stepped in.
The genocide and its lessons will be discussed today and Friday at a
symposium at Syracuse University. The symposium kicks off tonight
with a film about the genocide at 6:30 and a keynote address by
Stanislas Kamanzi, the Rwandan ambassador to the United Nations, at
7:30 at SU’s Heroy Geology Auditorium.
A full day of workshops is planned starting at 9 a.m. Friday in the
Schine Student Center. All the events are open to the public.
Horace Campbell, a professor in SU’s department of African-American
studies and the lead organizer of the event, said the symposium is
intended to help bring the Rwandan genocide to the same significance
in the public mind as other genocides in human history. He said the
Rwandan event was played down and distorted by the U.S. government
and media and therefore has not registered in the same way as the
Holocaust and other systematic ethnic killings.
“We believe at the university that genocide against Africans is just
as important as genocide against Armenians and against Jews,” he
said.
In a telephone interview earlier this week, Kamanzi said he
understands why the Holocaust registers more in the public mind than
the Rwandan genocide. It was a larger event that occurred during a
world war, and all eyes were focused on it. But he said it is
important for people to recognize that the Rwandan genocide was just
as evil, though it took place in a small African nation.
“It was a crime against the whole of humanity,” he said.
A report commissioned by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1999
concluded that the United Nations and its leading member countries –
especially the United States – could have prevented or ended the
genocide. It said the Clinton administration continually minimized
the disaster that was developing in Rwanda and blocked the Security
Council from taking significant action there.
The report said the United States was coming off the killing of 18
American Rangers in Somalia in 1993 and was reluctant to get involved
in another peacekeeping mission in Africa.
In a visit to Rwanda in 1998, President Clinton acknowledged the
shortcomings of U.S. policy, saying the United States and the world
could have done more to prevent the genocide.
Kamanzi said a recognition that something could have been done is the
key to preventing future genocides.
“It’s very good that leaders of these countries can acknowledge that
it was a mistake to think that nothing could stop this genocide,” he
said.
Remembering Rwanda
Here is today’s schedule for the Syracuse University’s symposium
“Remembering the Rwanda Genocide: Challenges of Healing and Peace in
the 21st Century.” Events are free.
Heroy Geology Auditorium
6:30 p.m.: “Triumph of Evil” video
7:30 p.m.: Keynote address by Stanislas Kamanzi, Rwandan ambassador
to the United Nations

New Times Broward-Palm Beach (Florida)
April 1, 2004 Thursday
Oi Va Voi: Laughter Through Tears (Outcaste)
By Scott Medvin
It seems like every kind of traditional and ethnic music is ripe to
be mixed with modern electronica to form some new genre-warping
musical experiment. Oi Va Voi hopes that it can repeat Tabla Beat
Science’s success with Indian classical music and the Gotan Project’s
work with tango; the group wants to take klezmer, a traditionally
Jewish form of folk music from Eastern Europe, and make it accessible
to a new generation. The British group recently released Laughter
Through Tears, its debut album. It is often haunting, though upbeat
and danceable at times, full of the instruments — clarinet, violin,
accordion — that klezmer is known for. But there also are
Spanish-sounding classical guitar, steady funk bass grooves, and
inventive percussive arrangements. The album’s opening track,
“Refugee,” is based on a traditional Armenian folk melody and
features duduk player Tigran Aleksanyan; it begins as a ballad with
swelling, poignant lyrics by silky-voiced guest vocalist KT Tunstall.
“Yesterday’s Mistakes” sounds like a well-produced pop track but
veers East with a Hebrew chorus. Surprisingly, the intricate beats
fit perfectly with the bowed violin and the deep, melodic chants. “7
Brothers” and “D’or Yikra” both supply doses of bar mitzvah breaks
and other-worldly chanting. At times, the album veers into a bubbling
stew of post rock-esque ambience much like the music of Godspeed You
Black Emperor! but never for long, as Oi Va Voi evokes emotion
through powerful melodies and mysterious lyrics rather than
emotionally swirling compositions. Laughter Through Tears is worth
checking out for its novelty and worth listening to a second time for
its beauty.

Armenian TV head denies “political subtext” behind programme suspension
Arminfo
3 Apr 04
YEREVAN
The head of the [Armenian] Kentron TV (Centre) and leader of the
United Workers’ Party, Gurgen Arsenyan, has denied a statement by the
opposition Anrapetutyun (Republic) Party explaining the suspension of
Kentron’s Tesankyun programme by pressure put by the presidential
apparatus on the leadership of the TV channel.
In an interview with Arminfo, he said that the decision to suspend the
TV programme was taken earlier and that there is no political
subtext. “The time has come for Kentron to show more serious
analytical programmes. “It would not be right to resort to satire now
when the political situation in the country is so difficult and
tense,” he said.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
April 3 2004
Genocide scholars to speak at library
SOUTHEAST GLENDALE – Local scholars will examine U.S. policy in the
face of three 20th century genocides – the Armenian genocide, the
Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide – at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the
Glendale Central Library, 222 E. Harvard Street.
The United Nations has designated Wednesday as an international day
of reflection, and Yom Hashoah, the day of remembrance for Holocaust
victims, is April 18, and the Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day is
April 24.
Jackie Karuletwa-Kakiza, the Rwandan trade representative to
California; Arlene Lazarowitz, Director of Jewish Studies at Cal
State Long Beach; and Levon Marashlian, a history professor at
Glendale Community College, will participate.
Reservations are required. For reservations and information, call
(626) 744-1177 ext. 23, or register online at
Calendar.
Josh Kleinbaum

Armenian opposition to oust separatist Karabakh leader – Azeri paper
Ekspress, Baku
4 Apr 04
Text of Huseyn Bakuvi report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on 4
April headlined “It has started: A coup is being plotted in Xankandi”
A new separatist movement, Karabakh-88, was set up in Xankandi
[Stepanakert] yesterday. Eduard Agabekyan and candidate of physics and
mathematics Gagik Bakhunts, members of the initiative group of the
movement, held a news conference in this connection. They said that
the major goal of the new movement was “to reach world recognition of
the state independence” of Nagornyy Karabakh.
“We are the people who laid the foundation of the national liberation
movement of Nagornyy Karabakh. Therefore, we believe that apart from
having recognized Karabakh’s independence, we have the right to try to
establish a fair and normal government here. Our major goal is to
restore the status quo of the national spirit of the Karabakh
Armenians of 1988,” Bakhunts said.
In addition, Bakhunts and Agabekyan said that they were ready for
cooperation with all political forces in Karabakh, adding that there
should be “the rule of law rather than dictatorship”.
In analysts’ opinion, the strengthening of the opposition camp in
Armenia and the growing tendency towards a power change in the country
have also affected Nagornyy Karabakh.
The latest issue of Masis Weekly newspaper reported that the
“unexpected” opposition activity was registered in Nagornyy Karabakh:
“Armenia’s Peoples, National Unity, Ramkavar Azatakan and four more
opposition parties, as well as the Justice bloc, want to overthrow
Karabakh leader Arkadiy Gukasyan. To be more precise, they are going
to start the process to oust Armenian President Robert Kocharyan not
in Armenia, as many believe, but in Nagornyy Karabakh, by neutralizing
Gukasyan.”
The Karabakh-88 movement is also said to target Gukasyan who “has
sidelined true nationalist forces from the government and created
dictatorship”. It is no coincidence that at yesterday’s news
conference, Bakhunts and Agabekyan spoke about “the rule of law rather
than dictatorship”.
Apart from this, the Nagornyy Karabakh Communists merged with the
Yerkrapa union of volunteers to set up the Path of Justice and
Salvation bloc. As is clear from the title of the bloc, Armenia’s
Justice bloc is behind this organization.

Karabakh foreign minister pessimistic about future of Karabakh talks
Interfax news agency, Moscow
4 Apr 04

STEPANAKERT
The authorities of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagornyy Karabakh
are not expecting any progress in the peace process.
“Negotiations now have more obscure prospects, and are more
unpredictable,” Nagornyy Karabakh’s foreign minister Ashot Gulyan has
told Interfax.
“The Karabakh problem is not so important today for Azerbaijan’s
current authorities. This is clear from statements of [President]
Ilham Aliyev, who has suggested starting the negotiations from
scratch, effectively rejecting even what was achieved by his father,”
Gulyan said.
“The Azerbaijani authorities are not serious about the mediating role
of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is confirmed by Baku’s recent refusal
to attend a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers,
which was supposed to take place in Prague on 29 March,” he said.
“I think that they simply had nothing to say either to the mediators
or partners in the peace process,” Gulyan said.

Armenian party congress elects leaders
Arminfo, Yerevan
3 Apr 04

AKHALKALAKI
The Javakhk Union public organization has held its second congress.
Arminfo news agency reports that the congress approved the charter and
programme of actions of the organization. The congress elected the
leadership of the organization. The congress elected Stepan Akopyan
chairman and (?Petya Stamboltsyan) his deputy.

Azeri MP rejects USA “world domination” policy
Ekspress, Baku
4 Apr 04

If hostilities were to resume between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the USA
would impose sanctions on both countries, Director of Plans and
Policy, Headquarters US European Command Jeffrey Kohler said during
his latest visit to Yerevan.
He said that the USA had not changed its position on the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict and that the problem should be resolved
peacefully. We wonder what kind of sanctions can be imposed on a
country which wants to liberate its occupied territories?
[Passage omitted: the USA, Europe imposed sanctions on Azerbaijan,
Armenia previously]
Expert in conflict studies Elxan Mehdiyev believes that even if a war
starts, there will be no serious sanctions. The USA might cease
military cooperation with the sides, which is not important at all:
“Because neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia can afford to buy weapons from
the United States, they are far too expensive. These countries buy
weapons only from Russia and other CIS countries.”
Rauf Qurbanov, a member of the Milli Maclis [parliament] standing
commission for defence and security, assessed the USA’s military
policy as world domination. “The USA has a huge appetite and even
independent countries have to consult it when solving their domestic
problems.” Qurbanov said that “when it comes to large-scale military
operations”, the statement from the Pentagon official did not come as
a surprise. He said that this was the policy the USA follows all over
the world. The MP said that this was happening in Iraq and Korea,
adding that the collapse of the Soviet Union had enabled the USA to
carry out a unipolar policy.
“The USA should not meddle in the internal affairs of independent
countries. International structures like the UN and the OSCE Minsk
Group are currently dealing with the Karabakh problem. However, this
does not mean that a country whose territorial integrity has been
infringed cannot take independent decisions,” Qurbanov said. He
believes that Azerbaijan retains this right and at any time it can
declare war on Armenia in order to restore its territorial integrity
in line with appropriate UN regulations.