Turkmenistan.ru
16.09.06 13:00

International scientific conference on Ruhnama ends in Ashgabat
The international scientific forum devoted to the creation by
President Saparmurat Niyazov, Ruhnama, has finished its work in the
Turkmen capital. As the State News Service (TDH) reports, issues of
scientific research of the Turkmen leader’s book published in over 30
languages in the contemporary conditions, its importance for the
universal spiritual space were on the agenda.
It fully natural, the TDH notes, the Ashgabat forum has attracted
concerned attention of the international scientific
circles. Representatives of various countries such as Turkey, Russia,
Armenia, USA, Cyprus, Denmark, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China,
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, India, Poland, Czech Republic,
Italy, Pakistan, Japan, UAE, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Britain,
France and Afghanistan took part in the conference. Historians,
political scientists, philosophers, literary critics, culture
researchers, representatives of the biggest non-profit organizations,
translators of Ruhnama arrived in Ashgabat.
During six group sessions held in the biggest scientific and cultural
centers of the Turkmen capital over 180 reports were delivered and
discussed.
The statements stressed that Ruhnama has accumulated the colossal
amount of information about the history, culture, traditions and
customs of the Turkmen nation and has embodied, at the same time,
universal values on its pages. In our complicated time, when the world
faces new challenges, this book gains special importance as it teaches
mutual respect, and assuming responsibility for the fate of native
country and the whole world as well, the scientists stressed.
At the conference closing ceremony it was emphasized that the Ashgabat
forum served as a bright example of the fruitful cooperation aimed at
broadening and strengthening relations among representatives of the
scientific circles and of various countries and continents of the
planet.
On behalf of the President of Turkmenistan the festive dinner was
given for the participants of the international scientific
conference. The guests visited the National Values Museum of
Turkmenistan, the National Carpet Museum, went sightseeing of the
memorial places of the city, visited a number of schools and higher
educational establishments in the capital, the Orphans Palace named
after UAE President Sheikh Zaed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan. They also
visited the Spirituality Museum in Kipchak, Equestrian Sport Complex
and Path of Health laid in the Kopetdag foothills.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Spokesman Review, WA
Symphony season opens with Russians

Travis Rivers
Correspondent
September 16, 2006
Friday night’s concert at the recently renamed INB Performing Arts
Center (it used to be the Spokane Opera House) made a grand opening of
the Spokane Symphony’s 2006-07 season. Conductor Eckart Preu led a
largely Russian program that included a brilliant piano concerto, one
of the most popular of all symphonies, and a lilting suite of highly
romantic ballet music.
Preu opened with the work of a composer he feels is unjustly neglected
nowadays, Alexander Glazunov, with a suite of dances from Glazunov’s
ballet “Raymonda.” The composer has taken a bad rap for being born
too late for his style. His music is firmly in the grand 19th-century
manner, and Preu and the orchestra made the most of it.

The work afforded Friday’s audience a chance to hear acting
concertmaster Daisuke Yamamoto play one of those solos that is every
concertmaster’s dream (or possibly nightmare), the Grand Adagio, a
little violin concerto movement in itself. Yamamoto played
fastidiously, demonstrating a sweet tone and excellent intonation.
Terrence Wilson played the solo part of Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto
with a nearly ideal combination of brilliance and delicacy. This
sprawling concerto has a bit of everything – almost too much of
everything. Khachaturian brought the exoticism of his native Armenia
to the framework of the Rachmaninoff-style virtuoso concerto, then
threw in a musical touch of the razzle-dazzle “novelty” pianists of
the 1920s and ’30s and a bit of Gershwinesque jazziness. Wilson made
the most of every opportunity to roar or sing.
Khachaturian loved exotic instrumental effects with a special fondness
for the bass clarinetist, and Shannon Scott played those solos
beautifully. In an even more exotic choice, the composer employed the
flexatone to double a melody line in the slow movement. The instrument
sounds somewhat like a musical saw with the player gargling. Paul
Raymond handled the instrument’s eerie character excellently.
The evening’s concluding work and centerpiece was Tchaikovsky’s famous
Symphony No. 6 (“Pathetique”). The notoriously self-critical
Tchaikovsky wrote that it was undoubtedly his best work. Like the
Khachaturian Concerto, it is long. Unlike Khachaturian, though,
Tchaikovsky learned a valuable lesson from his own favorite composer,
Mozart. “No matter how long a work might be,” Mozart wrote, “never
lose the thread.”
Tchaikovsky never allowed meaningless digressions or needless
repetitions in his work. Preu and the orchestra gave a riveting
performance from the mysterious unfolding of the bassoon solo against
the cushion of low strings sounds of the opening, through “waltz in
five beats” that substitutes in places of a slow movement, the scherzo
that begins like elves marching and grows in violence to a march of
giant soldiers, and ending with the quiet “collapse” of the finale.
It was that quiet ending that must have baffled the first-night
audience in 1893.That ending still seems strange here more than a
century later. But it was a shining performance to start the symphony
season.

Ventura County Star, CA
Nobody said world democracy would be easy
By George Sjostrom
September 16, 2006
In a recent interview conducted by the Wall Street Journal’s Paul
Gigot, President Bush came up with a truism that is the cornerstone of
his personal philosophy, “Democracy is not easy.”
Bush points out that the road to our own Constitution was not smooth
and easy. His freedom agenda calls for the spread of democracy to the
peoples of the world. That hasn’t been easy, either.
The Mideast, in particular, is run by a group of regimes empowered by
resentment and hatred, and by leaders without conscience who are
willing to fan the fires of that hatred with death and blood. The
president said, “The only way to make sure your grandchildren are
protected is to win the battle of ideas, is to defeat the ideology of
hatred and resentment.”
Trying to create a coherent foreign policy for the United States is
like playing hopscotch in a minefield. Our presidents have tried for
years to establish coalitions of common belief with nation after
nation. The countries of the world awaken to a new kind of turmoil
each morning, and they go to bed each night with a renewed indecision.
One thing is certain, the dislike and distrust of American dominance
is growing worldwide. Take Russia, for example. After 10 years of
belief that Russia was gradually moving toward the West, inching
toward democracy, we now see President Vladimir Putin increasing his
personal powers, clamping down on dissent and freedom of information,
and moving toward a re-establishment of the Russian Union, this time
to include Iran and Iraq.
Vice President Dick Cheney has now accused the Kremlin of using its
energy resources as “tools of intimidation and blackmail.” The
hoped-for chance that Russia might eventually adopt a pro-Western
foreign policy is all but dead.
In Iraq, we were momentarily elated to see millions of Iraqis hold up
their purple ink-stained fingers to signify their delight in finally
participating in a free election. Toppling a Sunni dictator seemed to
offer them a release from tyranny. But we underestimated the
difficulty in toppling an Arab police state.
We also underestimated the newly distorted influence of Iran on the
Iraq transition. In 2005, there was a political shift in Iran, for the
worse, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president. Iran always has been
one of the Muslim world’s most sophisticated societies. A major
portion of its population was comfortable with a pro-American
view. But under Ahmadinejad, all that has changed.
Iran now proclaims an unfettered right to nuclear development,
threatens to annihilate Israel, and continues to preach hatred toward
the United States. Iran has signed a $100 billion agreement with
China for natural gas development, and is trying to negotiate trade
deals with France, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Greece, Australia,
Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Armenia, Norway, Kuwait,
Turkmenistan, and, of course, Iraq. Small wonder that U.N. sanctions
are meaningless.
Although much of the public, at home as well as abroad, are reluctant
to admit it, the radical Muslim brotherhood has developed a love for
violence. In training camps all over the world, these jihadists are
training youngsters, preaching that it is there duty to kill infidels
in the name of God, and to sacrifice their own lives in the process.
Their miserable lives on Earth can be traded for eternal
happiness. This avalanche of terror is not going to stop. For every
terrorist killed or captured, hundreds more are spawned. In the fight
against terror, meaningful foreign alliances are hard to find. The
problem is ours, whether we are comfortable with it or not. It
certainly can’t be resolved by frivolous campaign slogans.
Bush has chosen a courageous road, one that most politicians are
afraid to walk. He is willing to recognize that we cannot have liberty
without limits, that we cannot have freedom without responsibility.
Most of us are unwilling to address head-on the immense problem of
radical Muslimism. They have become radicals because they are willing
to promise rewards greater than life itself, and in the process they
reject the very civil liberties that gave them a voice in the first
place. George W. Bush is correct. To back away from terrorism is to
encourage it. If we believe in freedom through responsibility, then we
have no choice but to stay the course.
– George Sjostrom is a Simi Valley freelance writer. His column
appears biweekly in The Star. His e-mail address is [email protected].

Panorama.am
13:15 16/09/06

CRU SUSPENDS ITS VICE-CHAIRMAN’S ACTIVITY
Our sources say that Constitutions Right Union (CRU)
board has temporarily suspended the activity of Haik
Babukhanyan, CRU vice-chairman. Today the party is
holding its conference to be followed by the party
assembly which will elect CRU leadership. Babukhanyan
is the second figure in the party after Hrant
Khachatryan and the suspension of his activity is
quite an intrigue. In case the party splits up, it
will be fatal for CRU. It will be sad to see that
since, despite of being few in numbers, CRU is an
organization with a distinct face in the political
field. /Panorama.am/

Azeri Press Agency
Zhelyu Zhelev: Kosovo is the Balkans’ Nagorno Garabagh
[ 16 Sen. 2006 15:50 ]
`Kosovo is the Balkans’ Nagorno Garabagh,’ former
Bulgarian President & Balkan Political Club president
Zhelyu Zhelev said in his visit in Yerevan, APA
reports.
He said the separation of Kosovo from Serbia might
cause precedent.
`There are about one million Albans on Albania-Greece
border and two million Hungarians in Rumania. Kosovo’s
independence might cause other nations to determine
their fortune and gain independence too,’ he said.
/APA/

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in Russian
12 Sep 06
US EMBASSY PRESENTS ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES WITH DOCUMENTS ON CORRUPT
OFFICIALS
The US embassy in Yerevan has presented the Armenian authorities with
documents that contain accusations of corruption against Armenian
officials, the Armenian news agency Mediamax has said.
The embassy said that they closely examined all these documents and
after becoming convinced that they contain serious accusations,
immediately raised the issue with the Armenian government, Mediamax
reported.
“We continue to expect that accusations of corruption against
officials should be taken seriously and investigated as is the case
in the USA,” Mediamax quoted the US embassy as saying. The embassy
thinks it irrelevant to make further comments on the nature of these
accusations until they are proven, it said.

ARMINFO News Agency
September 13, 2006 Wednesday
DATA SUBMITTED BY US EMBASSY IN ARMENIA TO ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT
CONTAIN NO FACTS AGAINST NATURE PROTECTION MINISTER
The data submitted by the US Embassy in Armenia to the Armenian
Government contained no facts accusing the minister of nature
protection, Vardan Ayvazyan, of bribery, Andranik Margaryan, the
prime minister of Armenia, told journalists, Wednesday.
The data just contained complaints by Global Gold Mining against the
minister, but no facts. The tense relations between the company and
the Nature Protection Minister are natural. Such tension often
originates between an economic entity and the government. “We
proposed Global Gold Mining to apply to the court, but it preferred
not to do it,” the prime minister said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow, in Russian
13 Sep 06
MOSCOW PROSECUTORS CONFIRM POLICE CADET’S ARREST OVER ARMENIAN
YOUTH’S MURDER
[Presenter] The Moscow prosecutor’s office announced today that it
has solved a high-profile murder committed on the Moscow underground
in April. An Armenian youth, 17-year-old Vigen Abramyants was killed
at the Pushkinskaya underground station. It was announced today that
a certain Nikita Senyukov has been detained on suspicion of
committing this murder. The news can be regarded as quite sensational
because the supposed murderer was a police college cadet. The
detention was confirmed to us by Svetlana Petrenko, aide to the
Moscow prosecutor,.
[Petrenko] Nikita Senyukov, born in 1988, a fourth-year student at
College No 1 of the Moscow Main Directorate of Internal Affairs, has
been detained on suspicion of committing the murder of Vigen
Abramyants in April this year at the Pushkinskaya underground station
in Moscow. The criminal case was instituted by the Moscow Underground
Prosecutor’s Office under Article 105 Part 2 Clauses “zh” and “l” of
the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: murder by a group of
people committed for reasons of ethnic hatred. Moscow’s
Cheremushkinskiy Court ruled yesterday that the measure of restraint
applicable to the suspect is arrest. The underground prosecutor’s
office intends to bring charges against Senyukov shortly.
[Correspondent] Moreover, some reports suggest that Nikita Senyukov
is a second-generation policeman. His father was also a policeman –
not rank-and-file but a very senior one, they say. However, our radio
was told at police college No 1 that Nikita Senyukov had withdrawn
from the college a while ago. The college chief, Aleksey
Bezyazychnyy, told us about the cadet.
[Bezyazychnyy] Nikita Senyukov wrote an application saying he would
like to withdraw. You know, he was an ordinary student, just like any
other. He could not be classified as (? difficult). He went in for
sports, big way. He reached the qualifications of candidate master of
sports in unarmed combat. That’s all I can tell you. He was doing
fairly well in his studies too.
[Presenter] Sources close to the investigation point out that he was
traced thanks to the investigation into a criminal case of the
explosion at the Cherkizovskiy market. Some reports say Nikita
Senyukov was a member of one of the nationalist groups operating in
Moscow. Three of those detained on suspicion of [causing] the
explosion at the market were also members. This was mentioned
yesterday by the lawyer for Vigen Abramyants’ family, Simon
Tsaturyan.
[Tsaturyan] Obviously this individual, together with his accomplices,
was also linked to the explosion at the Cherkizovskiy market. The
motive is still the same: the crime was committed because of
interethnic strife. There could not have been any other motives. You
may remember that from the outset we protested strongly against the
theory that the murder was the result of a personal disagreement –
because Vigen allegedly quarrelled with a certain Kulagin. Thank God,
we have lived to see the day when the true circumstances of this
murder and the identities of the persons really involved in this
crime have been established.
[Passage omitted]
[Correspondent] The 17-year-old Management University student Vigen
Abramyants was killed on the evening of 22 April on a platform of the
Pushkinskaya underground station. He and his group-mates were
attacked by a group of teenagers wearing black jackets and high
boots. In the fight, one of the assailants stabbed Abramyants in the
heart, as a result of which the student died on the spot. Another two
people sustained non-life-threatening wounds to their faces and arms.
The assailants escaped. [Passage omitted.]
[Presenter] Let me quote the view of Ara Abramyan, president of the
Union of Armenians of Russia. He regrets that crimes with ethnic
motives are often committed by students and those from well-to-do
families. [Passage omitted.]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian
13 Sep 06
ARMENIA, BULGARIA SIGN MILITARY ACCORD
Yerevan, 13 September: The Armenian and Bulgarian defence ministers
have signed a document on further development of bilateral
cooperation in the military sphere.
Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan and his Bulgarian opposite
number, Veselin Bliznakov, signed the document at their meeting on 11
September, the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry told
Arminfo.
The Armenian and Bulgarian defence ministers discussed developing and
deepening of defence cooperation. The ministers agreed to cooperate
in conducting democratic supervision over the armed forces, forming
military budgets and ensuring transparency in defence planning, as
well as in the sphere of drawing up the military doctrine and
blueprint for national security. The ministers also agreed to
exchange expertise and re-train Armenian representatives at Bulgarian
military schools.
Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov received the Armenian delegation
led by the defence minister on the same day. The Armenian delegation
also visited the Bulgarian National Assembly and was received by
Deputy Speaker Petur Beron and members of the parliamentary standing
commission on defence.
In addition, meetings of working groups on defence planning and
logistics were held within the framework of cooperation between the
defence ministries of Armenia and Bulgaria.

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan, in Armenian
13 Sep 06
ARMENIAN MINISTER SAYS KARABAKH RESOLUTION SHOULD BE SPEEDED UP
[Presenter] Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan met the
co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group in Paris [12 September]. Oskanyan
told Armenian journalists that the framework of problems had been
clarified and the sides would discuss it in the near future.
[Oskanyan] We discussed additional problems constantly raised by
Azerbaijan in order for this process [negotiations] not to go off its
normal rails. This year, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen want to
make additional progress [in the negotiating process] before the
[Armenian] parliamentary election. We have no time to deviate from
this process.
I thing that it is time to put on the negotiating table a document
that we regard as balanced. Azerbaijan’s position regarding this
document is also positive and we think that it is time to avoid
making pointless statements and the sides should concentrate on
speeding up this process.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress