iBerkshires.com, MA
July 28, 2006
Piano Virtuoso Karen Tchougarian to Perform (Aug 4)
Armenian piano virtuoso Karen Tchougarian will bring his
distinguished and international talent to EPOCH Assisted Living at
Melbourne on Friday, August 4, at 3 p.m. EPOCH Assisted Living is
located at 140 Melbourne Road.
Tchougarian studied at the Komitas University in Armenia and the
University of Arkansas. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts from
the Manhattan School of Music and has won many performance
competitions, including the 1999 Artists International Auditions. As
the winner, Tchougarian made a fully sponsored debut at Carnegie
Hall. Tchougarian will perform a full range of music from classical
to movie scores to jazz and waltz.

Zaman Online, Turkey
July 28, 2006
Turkey to Try Elif Safak for Denigrating Turkishness
By Cihan News Agency
Friday, July 28, 2006
zaman.com
An Istanbul court decided on Friday to open a case against author
Elif Safak on charges of denigrating Turkishness in the press.
In compiling its indictment file, Beyoglu Prosecution Office based
its accusation against Safak on remarks uttered by the Armenian
characters in her book, “The Bastard of Istanbul.”
Safak’s trial is to open on September 21 at Beyoglu Court in
Istanbul. She could face up to 3 years in prison if found guilty.
The ultra-nationalist Turkish Lawyers Association Chairman Kemal
Kerincsiz, who is infamous for filing complaints against journalists
and authors, had filed the complaint against author Elif Safak
Kemal Kerincsiz has filed suits against famous Turkish novelist Orhan
Pamuk and ethnic-Armenian writer and journalist Hrant Dink.
Safak’s book, entitled “Baba and Pic” in Turkish, narrates the
relationship between an Armenian family and two Turkish families.
Elif Safak, who also writes for Zaman daily, has said that the
remarks of Diaspora Armenians in her book had wrongly been attributed
to her.
Earlier on Friday, a compensation case filed against well-known
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was dropped by an Istanbul Court. The
Martyrs’ Mothers Association had opened the case against Pamuk for
allegedly vilifying Turkish dignity in an interview published in a
Swiss magazine. The association had sought 36,000 YTL ($24,000) in
compensation from Pamuk.

EurasiaNet, NY
July 28, 2006
ARMENIA DEEPENS TIES WITH EMBATTLED IRAN
Emil Danielyan 7/28/06
Armenia is deepening what it regards as a strategic relationship with
neighboring Iran despite mounting international concern over the
Iranian nuclear program and widespread speculation about potential US
military action against Tehran. The two countries’ governments have
agreed in particular to press ahead with the implementation of more
multimillion-dollar energy projects in addition to the ongoing
construction of a pipeline that will pump Iranian natural gas to
Armenia.
The agreements were announced during and after Armenian President
Robert Kocharian’s early July visit to Tehran, which officials said
gave a further boost to bilateral cooperation. Kocharian’s Iranian
counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and reaffirmed the Islamic
Republic’s commitment to maintaining close ties with Armenia. “The
Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes and supports the development of
ties with Armenia in various areas, particularly in energy as well as
transportation, sports, and tourism,” Iranian media quoted
Ahmadinejad as saying after talks with Kocharian. “I hope the
Armenian president’s trip to Iran would serve as an important step
toward the development of all-out ties between the two countries.”
Kocharian, for his part, reportedly welcomed “noticeable progress” in
the development of those ties and said they must be followed up by
“new steps.” Some of those steps are presumably contained in several
agreements signed during his trip. The most important of them
envisages the construction of a third power transmission line that
will connect the Armenian and Iranian power grids. Work on the $90
million project is expected to start later this year and take up to
three years.
The 312-kilometer-long line is meant to allow for a substantial
increase in Armenian electricity supplies to Iran that officials say
will follow the completion of the gas pipeline slated for the end of
this year. Yerevan had borrowed $34 million from Tehran to finance
the construction of the first 40-kilometer Armenian section of the
pipeline and will repay the loan with power supplies. The Iranian
Mehr news agency reported on July 17 that the two sides also plan to
start building a large hydroelectric plant next year on the Arax
River marking the Armenian-Iranian border.
In addition, the Armenian government is currently building a second,
bigger highway leading to the Iranian border in the hope of boosting
trade with Iran. In 2005, Armenia’s trade with Iran totaled a modest
$105 million. The European Union, by comparison, accounted for more
than a third of Armenia’s $2.6 billion external trade in 2005.
Commerce with Iran proved vital for Armenia’s economic survival
during the early 1990s, however, when the conflicts in the breakaway
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and elsewhere in the South Caucasus all
but cut off the country from the outside world. Unlike Turkey, the
Islamic Republic did not close its border with its Christian neighbor
out of solidarity with Muslim Azerbaijan. Observers believe that by
supporting Yerevan, Tehran has sought to limit Turkish presence in
the region and contain separatist sentiment among Iran’s sizeable
ethnic Azeri minority.
“We are building multi-faceted relations with our neighbor and friend
Armenia,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a
visit to Yerevan in February. “We are trying to ensure that they have
a regional significance.”
Having a warm rapport with Iran has always been a matter of virtual
national consensus in Armenia. Many politicians and ordinary people
see it as a way of mitigating the effects of the continuing
Azerbaijani and Turkish blockades. “Given this geopolitical
environment, Armenia has the legitimate right to cooperate with Iran
for ensuring its security,” Stepan Safarian of the Armenian Center
for National and International Studies, a Yerevan-based think-tank,
told EurasiaNet. “Besides, Armenia has an energy surplus and its only
major export market at present is Iran,” he said. “So there is also a
lot of economic interest involved.”
Not surprisingly, the United States, an equally important partner of
Armenia, has followed Armenian-Iranian cooperation with unease. But
while openly voicing its opposition to the Iran-Armenia pipeline, the
US administration seems to be acquiescing to this and other
Armenian-Iranian energy projects. “The United States is very
sympathetic to Armenia’s efforts to diversify sources of energy,”
Washington’s outgoing ambassador to Yerevan, John Evans, said earlier
this year. He also argued that “up to now” the Armenian government
has not breached long-standing US sanctions against Iran.
The fact that Kocharian chose to meet Ahmadinejad amidst Tehran’s
intensifying nuclear standoff with the West suggests that Armenia is
not under strong US pressure to freeze ties with the Iranian regime.
Yerevan also makes no secret of its strong opposition to any US
military campaign against Iran. “There are hardly any political
circles in Armenia that believe the dispute over Iran’s nuclear
program must be resolved by military means,” said analyst Safarian.
The Americans may well be happy with the recent controversial
settlement of Armenia’s gas dispute with Russia, which is widely seen
as a setback for Armenian-Iranian energy cooperation. Under the deal
cut last April, the Kocharian administration agreed to hand over a
large thermal power plant in the central town of Hrazdan to Russia in
exchange for a temporary increase (until 2009) in the price of
Russian natural gas delivered to Armenia. Yerevan had pledged late
last year to place the incomplete but modern facility under Iranian
control. There were reports that Russia’s state-run Gazprom monopoly
will also gain ownership of the Armenian section of the gas pipeline
from Iran as part of the settlement. Gazprom initially confirmed
these reports, but later refuted them, as did the Armenian
government.
Still, Gazprom’s deputy chairman, Aleksandr Ryazanov, announced on
June 29 that the Russian giant intends to buy the pipeline, a conduit
which was supposed to end the Russian monopoly on gas supplies to
Armenia. The Russians had already made sure that the pipeline’s
diameter is not large enough to allow Iran to export gas to Georgia
and other countries through Armenian territory. Analysts believe
Ahmadinejad and Kocharian discussed the issue during their July 6
meeting in Tehran. However, neither leader commented on it
afterwards.
Editor’s Note: Emil Danielyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and
political analyst.

Arka News Agency, Armenia
July 28, 2006
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EUROPEAN INTEGRATION TO BE HELD IN
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, July 28. /ARKA/. An international conference “European
integration: ways and methods of creation of peaceful neighborhood”
is to be held in Yerevan on July 28-29, 2006.
International Center for Human Development reports the goal of the
conference is presenting the European values and principles as
guarantees of security and cooperation, as well as the discussion of
the current situation and prospects of further cooperation.
Representatives of NGOs from Armenia, Bulgaria, Geoprgia, Moldova,
Russia, Romania, Ukraine and Turkey, as well as of the EU, NATO, OSCE
and CE, will take part in the conference.
The conference has been organized by the International Center for
Human Development in association with the European integration
organization and Armenian Center of Transatlantic Initiatives. The
conference will be held under the auspices of the European Commission
of Armenia. P.T. -0–

RIA Novosti, Russia
July 28, 2006
Armenia’s A-320 crash down to last-second crew panic – official
17:02 | 28/ 07/ 2006

YEREVAN, July 28 (RIA Novosti) – Armenia’s top civil aviation
official said Friday that the May crash of an Armenian Airbus into
the Black Sea had been largely because the crew panicked in the last
few seconds of the flight.
“The A-320’s flight modeling showed the flight was stable until 17
seconds before the crash,” said Artem Movsisyan, head of the Civil
Aviation Agency.
The jetliner, operated by Armenian carrier Armavia, crashed in the
early hours of May 3 as it was preparing to land at the airport of
Adler, off Russia’s Black Sea coast. All 113 passengers and crew
died.
Movsisyan’s comments follow a report from the Interstate Aviation
Committee into the cause of the crash. The report said human error
was to blame for the accident.
Movsisyan did not reject this conclusion, but said stormy weather and
inadequate ground control had to be factored in as well. He said
flight recordings suggested that the air traffic controller’s
instructions had made the crew angry and nervous.
Along with Russian and Armenian aviation officials, the Interstate
Aviation Committee includes representatives of Toulouse-headquartered
Airbus, the manufacturer of the A-320.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
July 28, 2006
Lebanese-Israeli crisis was discussed in Azerbaijan during round
table

Source: Trend
Author: A.Mammadov

28.07.2006

On July 28, the International Peacelovers Union (IPU) organized a
round table in Baku to come out against the war between Israel and
Lebanon. The chairman of IPU, pr. Vali Ismayilov noted that the
organization acts mainly for the protection of human rights and the
right to live, Trend reports. And the rights of thousands of people
are violated in result of the war between Israel and Lebanon.
`The war between Lebanon and Israel should be stopped. This small war
may turn into a global war. Israel tries to capture Arabic lands.
There is a historical fact that the assassination of one person was
used as a excuse for the world war,’ Shahbaz Shahbazov, the member of
IPU, told.
The chairman of Azerbaijan Islamic Party Hajiaga Nuri considers that
the large countries are planning to draw up the modern map of East
and create new borders between countries. `Azerbaijan, of which 20
percent territory has been occupied, is also included in these
plans,’ he told.
Other member of IPU Tariel Valiyev stressed that there are problems
with the evacuation of Azerbaijanis from Lebanon, but Armenia already
removes the Armenians from Lebanon to the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan.
The participants of the round table called the world public to join
the fight for peace.

Today, Azerbaijan
July 28, 2006
Matthew Bryza to visit Azerbaijani lands under Armenian occupation
tomorrow

28 July 2006 [16:51] – Today.Az

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian
Affairs, US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza will
arrive in the Armenian capital Yerevan tomorrow.

APA reports that the US co-chair will arrive in Khankendi to meet
with head of the separatist regime functioning in the occupied
Azerbaijani lands Arkadi Gukasyan. He will come back to Yerevan on 30
July to continue to have talks there.
Mr.Bryza is due to visit Baku on July 31 – August 1.
The co-chair will have talks with President Ilham Aliyev, Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, head of Azerbaijani community of Nagorno
Karabakh Nizami Bahmanov in the Azerbaijani capital.
Bryza will inform other co-chairs Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia) and
Bernard Fassier (France) about his visits to the region.
The co-chairs said in their latest statement that they have nothing
to offer now, it is time for the Presidents to take steps. Bryza’s
visit to the region aims at introducing himself as co-chair.

URL:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

This Is Lancashire, UK
July 28, 2006
A tale of love and struggle
By Kat Dibbits
The Last Tango, August 17-18 at The Library Theatre in Manchester.
The Last Tango is a rare chance to experience a musical in creation.
This production, by Manchester Library Theatre, is created as
work-in-progress by people from Young Music Theatre UK.
The stars of the production have been selected from national
auditions and are among the country’s most promising young
performers, both as actors and musicians.
The tale is one of love and struggle, told at a time and in a culture
that is different from that in Manchester today, making it a very
interesting and enlightening piece of theatre.
The story follows Ali, a Muslim boy living in Baku, the capital of
Azerbaijan, in 1919.
He meets and falls in love with a Christian girl, Nino, the daughter
of a rich trader from Armenia.
As the Bolsheviks approach and the Turkish Ottoman Empire retreats,
so Ali and Nino are forced to flee their homelands and seek refuge
from war-torn Europe.
For a short time they find happiness in the desert, but finally
return to the devastated Baku where tragedy overcomes them.
The Last Tango is a fantastically performed musical that shoves
youthful talent into the limelight.
The Last Tango, August 17-18 at The Library Theatre in Manchester.
ehighlights/display.var.856098.0.a_tale_of_love_an d_struggle.php

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
July 28, 2006
BEAT JEWS – SAVE AZERBAIJAN
Azerbaijan’s National Democratic Party leader Iskender Hamidov made a
statement, in which he charged the Jews with creeping annexation
against Azerbaijan. The Azeri gray wolves’ leader, in part,
complained of the fact that `almost all areas of land in the northern
regions of the country – Guba, Gusary and Khachmaz’ belong to the
Jews, `and they succeed in seizing other treasures of our country as
well’. We do not know to what gender and tribe Hamidov himself
belongs, who is well known in Karabakh under the nickname `a wolf,
which eats children’, in any case, whoever he is he should have known
that Guba, Gusary and Khachmaz have never been the Azeri territories.
The lands had belonged to the Lezgins, Avarians and Tsakhurs long
time before the Turks appeared in the region. As it is said, the
Turks are asked not to worry. Comprehending `national – democracy’
expression in a peculiar way, Hamidov charges the Jews with all
current troubles of Azerbaijan. He alleges that the Azeri historians,
realizing the Zionists’ order, `affirm that the mountain Jews of
Azerbaijan are our country’s native inhabitants. Thus, they are
preparing the ground to lay further claims to our country’. I have to
upset a wolf with the fangs torn by the deceased Aliyev: the mountain
Jews, former Khazars, really appeared in Azerbaijan a few centuries
before the Turks. The Jews and Turks had to go there because of
natural-climatic cataclysms. A part of Khazars turned into Denme
Tats, another part is registered as the mountain Jews. If Hamidov has
got literate assistants, they will help him to find the Jewish sites
in Internet, where it’s explained clearly enough even for wolves to
understand that Tats and mountain Jews are one nation.
However, Hamidov pounces on the word `Jew’, like a wolf on raw meat.
For him the Tat is an incomprehensible phenomenon. Meanwhile, the
Tats and mountain Jews have always been at the progressive front of
the struggle for Azerbaijan’s Turkization. The scientists –
historians Sysoev, Yampolski, Polonski; politicians Khan Khoyski, M.
J. Bagirov, A. Mutalibov – each of them contributed to the
Turkization of an artificial state formation in the east of
Trans-Caucasus.
Nowadays Turkish nationalism has appeared on the territory, striking
representative of which is mangy Hamidov. He considers that,
according to the plan of Washington and Tel Aviv, `after the
occupation of Syria and Iran the Israelites will take up Azerbaijan’.
Perhaps, to precipitate the realization of the plan Azerbaijan sends
oil to Israel. Or is I. Aliyev a Jew as well? As far as I know, both
Aliyev and Chairs of SOCAR and Azersun are Kurds. If the Jews are
relevant to Azerbaijan’s oil business, then only in gray Hamidov’s
fevered imagination.
The little wolf’s resume made me really happy: `If two soldiers were
stolen in Israel, then in Azerbaijan 24 servicemen were stolen only
last year, it is time to open hostilities with Armenia’.
I confess that I know nothing about 24 or any stolen Azeri soldiers.
However, I hope that if the `time’ really comes, Hamidov will leave
his Baku apartments and will be among his own soldiers. The Karabakh
people remember and wait for him.
Levon MELIK-SHAHNAZARYAN

Sudan Tribune, Sudan –
July 28, 2006
Hatred destroys but love builds
Friday 28 July 2006 11:42.
By Nhial Tiitmamer de Nhial*
July 27, 2006 – Hatred is the greatest evil that destroys the world.
It is the one that forces us to make weapons of all kinds from simple
spears of Stone Age to the sophisticated WMDs (Weapons of Masses
Destruction) of the 21st century. It was the hatred that threw down
the tower of world trade center and destroyed thousands of innocent
human beings. It was the hatred that killed 6 million Jews in the
Jewish Holocaust. It was the hatred that killed 1, 0000000 Tutsis and
moderate Hutus. It was the hatred that killed more than 2 million
Southern Sudanese during the 21 years of Afro-Arab war in Sudan. It
was hatred that was responsible for most of the ethnic massacres in
Southern Sudan during the war. It is the same hatred which is now
committing atrocities in Darfur in Sudan.
Hatred neither lives in the land of its own nor the house of its own.
It lives in our hearts and minds. It controls our minds and makes us
to do evil things. It can neither be seen with our eyes nor can it be
touched with our hands. It dwells in unforgiving human minds and
hearts. It is both hereditary and acquired. One can either acquire it
through teaching and preaching or can inherit it and then develop it.
The acquired one is more dangerous. The inherited one is less
dangerous unless it has been developed and trained.
Hold your breach. If you do not know how hatred is taught, preached,
and developed, just continue with me. Hate preachers and teachers
neither have the churches nor the mosques of their own to preach
their ideology. They preach and teach in our own mosques and churches
in which we are supposed to teach and preach love. Hatred is also
taught and preached in our media, political parties, political
rallies and political allies. Nobody is really born with the
knowledge of how to hate, nor is one born knowing who to hate. But
one is told about whom to hate and why you should hate him/her.
There are various types of hatred as there are various types of love.
You know how to call the love between you and your parents. The same
thing with how to call the love between you and your sweet heart.
There is no question about that. Hatred has different names like love
but with one goal – destruction. When you hate an individual for a
reason known to you alone, call that an individual hatred. However,
when you hate an ethnic group or tribal group, call that an ethnic or
tribal hatred. In this piece, I am mainly concerned with the act of
hating a whole group of people whether ethnic or religious group.
This kind of hatred is dangerous and can make one group exterminate
an other group.
Group hatred is preached, taught and developed. The hate preachers
and teachers preach and teach you how to hate people and why you
should hate them. They can be quick to justify their hate lesson if
you question them. Hate preachers and teachers are heroes in the eyes
of their fellow members from their ethnic and religious groups on
whose behalf the hatred is being taught and preached. They isolate
and brand an outcast a person who opposes their hate ideology. They
play the tactic of join us in what we are doing or we isolate and
alienate you from our society.
When you suffer from such social isolation and surrender to join the
bandwagon, you hear that these people did this and this to us. They
can create anything from the blue that can make you rage with fury.
They can say anything that can compel an innocent mind to do an evil
act. Some people make themselves suicide bombers for being taught the
ideology of hatred. Others are made to make themselves warriors of
senseless tribal wars for reason created and taught by enemies of
mankind. What on earth can one get from such an evil act? There is
nothing but only the destruction.
When hatred is taught and preached. It is then fed and raised on the
blood of others. The more you use your hatred to kill, the more it
grows and develops into a huge animal that can in turn kill you. One
of the respected Sudanese elders engaged his audience in a metaphor
one day that hatred is a small animal that its owner feeds by
destroying other people and when it has destroyed everything around,
it comes back to destroy its owner.
You teach and preach tribal hatred. You feed it on the blood of your
fellow countrymen and women who you consider as enemies. In the
process, it can not spare you either. As they say, in the war both
the winners and the losers share the losses.
General stereotype against a group as well as blaming the whole group
of people for an act committed by an individual or individuals from a
particular group can be considered as hate preaching. That kind of
general blame or stereotype can lead to conflict resulting in deadly
large scale massacres or genocides. Individuals should be held
accountable for their actions. Individual can neither be defended for
preaching hatred against others nor killing others because of their
ethnicity or religion.
Make Anti-Hate Laws
Hate preaching should be considered as a serious crime against
humanity for it is this that leads to massacres or genocides.
Individuals who engage in doing it should be made to pay for it. I
humbly request that law making bodies in Sudan and in Southern Sudan
in particular should make anti-hate laws to curb the future large
scale killings as it happened in many incidents in the past.
Individuals who do the act should be made accountable and if the
third person gets involved in defending the culprit because of mere
reason of being from the same background, he/she should face the law
more than the real culprit. Law should be allowed to take its course.
Tribal, Ethnic, and Religious Political Parties There should not be
tribal, ethnic and religious political parties in the Sudan. This is
because group hatred is promoted through such parties. These parties
abandon nationwide popular platforms and programs but adopt hate
platforms and programs that only appeal to members from their
background. When they come to power they implement their hate
platforms and programs by oppressing others who do not belong to
them. These lead to large scale killings as it happened in many parts
of Sudan and in Rwanda.
In Europe, some political parties composed of people from one race
and religion committed act of genocide when they were in power. The
National Socialist German Workers Party known as the Nazi killed 6
million Jews during the WWII. The Young Turks in Turkey also killed
1.5 millions Armenians in Turkey. For most of my readers, you may be
aware of many incidents of tribal massacres in Sudan committed by a
group belonging to one particular group calling themselves a party or
anything of that nature.
The Rwanda genocide was committed by Hutu extremists against Tutsis
and moderate Hutus. The Hutus were mainly in power and took that
advantage to massacre the Tutsis. They had developed hatred over a
long time. This hatred developed into conflict and then into
genocide. I give these examples to make us aware that it is dangerous
to have tribal and religious parties. So an ethnic or a religious
group should not be allowed to have a political party of their own
with the intention of coming to power.
Tribal Militias
Almost all the large scale killings that have occurred in history are
committed by militias used as proxy by the group in power. The
Rwandan government led by mainly the Hutus used the Interahamwe
militia to kill the Tutsis. The Sudan government is now using
Janjaweed militia to kill the Africans in Darfur.There should be no
tribal militias. Any armed group affiliated with a particular ethnic
group or religious group should be considered illegal and should be
disarmed. Such armed groups if allowed may develop their own extreme
hate ideologies against other group. The Janjaweed militia is an
example in Sudan and we have all seen its danger. The tribal militias
still existing in Southern Sudan should be disarmed. On the
international scene, we have seen the dangerous activities of the Al
qaeda and the Hezbollah.
Political Parties Bill
In Sudan, political parties should not be formed on tribal and
religious basis. The political parties� law should be made to
ensure that political parties who want to govern the country should
be composed of members coming from background reflecting the
diversity of the country. They should have platforms and programs
that aims at promoting the well being and betterment of all the
people regardless of religion, race and ethnicity. If a political
party does not reflect the diversity of the country, then it can not
be registered as a political party. This should not only prevent
future problems such as large scale killing against other group but
it should also promote nationalism instead of tribalism and
sectarianism. Nations that are strong, free, powerful and prosperous
are founded on love but not on hatred. Hatred destroys but loves
builds.
* Nhial Tittmamer de Nhial is a Sudanese residing in Canada. He can
be reached at either [email protected] or
[email protected]
tribune.com/article.php3?id_article=16817