Nelly Karapetyan and Dora Osipova awarded NKR Honoured Doctor
ArmRadio.am
17.06.2006 12:40
June 17 NKR President Arkadi Ghukasyan signed a decree, according
to which Nelly Karapetyan and Dora Osipova were awarded the title of
Honored Doctor of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic for their considerable
contribution to the healthcare development.

Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan to visit Kiev and Geneva
ArmRadio.am
17.06.2006 13:45
June 18 RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan will leave for Kiev on
an official visit, where he is scheduled to meet the President of
Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov and Foreign
Minister Boris Tarasyuk.
June 20 RA Foreign Minister will leave Kiev for Geneva to participate
in the opening sitting o the UN Human Rights Council.
In Geneva Minister Vardan Oskanyan will meet representatives of the
Armenian community.

No charges against Safak
TDN
Saturday, June 17, 2006
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News
The Beyoglu Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul decided to drop charges
against Elif Safak, who was accused of belittling Turkishness in her
new book, “Baba ve Pic,” which will be published at the end of the year
in the United States as “The Bastard of Istanbul” by Viking/Penguin.
The prosecutor’s office said they could find no evidence Safak intended
to belittle Turkishness in her book. Beyoglu Prosecutor Mustafa Erol in
his decision said: “In her testimony on June 6, 2006, she in summary
said her purpose in writing this book was not to belittle Turkishness
but just the opposite, to contribute to efforts to create a peaceful
and humane environment between Turks and Armenians. She said her book
was fictional.”
The investigation was due to a character in her latest novel that
recognized the death of Armenians during the First World War as
genocide. The character’s utterances were perceived as insulting
to Turkishness.
The trials against novelists and journalists for statements deemed
insulting to Turkishness, Turkey’s founder Ataturk, the military or
the judiciary have increased in frequency as of late due to a campaign
by some groups to file complaints against them.
Most widely reported cases involved novelist Orhan Pamuk and the
editor in chief of Armenian daily Hrant Dink.

Television: The War of the World
The Independent – United Kingdom; Jun 17, 2006
Gerard Gilbert
Every historian worth a television series should have a grand unifying
theory, even if that theory (we can safely laugh about it now) says
that we are living at the “end of history”. Professor Niall Ferguson,
the poster boy of history TV and, according to Johan Hari in this
newspaper, “a court historian for the imperial US hard right”),
has swept up the entire 20th century for his big one. Those 100
years, he claims as we first encounter him at the end of a sky-blue,
corridor-like set, as if we are visiting an oracle, represented a
vast global struggle. This was not merely about great powers, classes
or ideologies. It was about race, and in particular the decaying,
Western colonial empires and what was once called the Orient. The
20th century wasn’t about “the triumph of the West at all, but the
resurgence of the East”.
The empire strikes back, in other words. It might seem
opportunistically modish of Ferguson to make this point at a time
of China’s emergence as an economic superpower. But then it isn’t
necessary to buy wholesale into Ferguson’s grand idea (or its apparent
sub-plot that empires stem from ethnic violence) to appreciate that it
is taking you to interesting places in a century whose conventional
narrative is now over-familiar. Indeed, his stress on the ethnic
nature of the power leads us to such largely buried corners of the
20th century as the Russo-Japanese War (the Russians of 1905 badly
underestimating the “racially inferior” Japanese) and the Armenian
genocide, as modern Turkey emerged from the Ottoman Empire. He also
stresses the Russian civil war of 1918-1922, which in purely human
terms cost almost as many lives as the whole of the First World War.
Ferguson’s series begins with a reading from The War of the Worlds,
HG Wells’s prescient science-fiction novel, written on the eve of the
20th century. Instead of Martians, says Ferguson, it is men who have
been driven to act like Martians – depicting the enemy as aliens in
order to justify the killing. Again, you don’t have to buy into this
artful analysis to be rewarded by an eye-opening traverse of what he
hasn’t yet called the Second Hundred Years War.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 17 2006
BULGARIA UPHOLDS FAIR CAUSE OF AZERBAIJAN
[June 17, 2006, 13:46:50]
As was informed earlier, the delegation of Bulgarian parliamentarians
led by Solomon Passy, Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee of
this country’s parliament, is visiting Baku.
Soloman Passi in his interview to AzerTAc correspondent said that
‘the goal of visit is to have exchange with their Azeri colleagues
to deepen the relations between two countries’. ‘Azerbaijan is a
leading country on the Caucasus and we are keen in development of
links with this country. Azerbaijan also rapidly integrates to NATO
and the European Union. We support this position of official Baku and
are ready to render any assistance to your coujntry’, he emphasized.
Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict, he
said ‘this conflict is a serious obstacle for development of country.
It is a threat for both Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus’. ‘We think
settlement of the problem is urgent. We adhere peace settlement of
the conflict, and Bulgaria supports fair cause of Azerbaijan in this
question’, he concluded.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TREND, Azerbaijan
June 17 2006
Azeri President calls to fulfillment of all UN resolutions on
Nagorno-Karabakh
Source: Trend
Author: AMammadov
17.06.2006
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev noted that the importance for
expansion of economic cooperation, including the transport sector,
with the participation of Azerbaijan, Trend reports citing ITAR-TASS.
The President stated on it to a summit of the Council for Interaction
and Confidence-building in Asia.
“There are high level political contacts between our countries. We are
related with the plans of regional cooperation,” Aliyev continued,
noting the important significance of the transport projects planed
by Azerbaijan for the development of the region.
“Their implementation can offer new terms for deepening the integration
processes and Azerbaijan is ready to play an important role in this
direction,” he stressed. Now we are working over big projects on the
construction of a railway bridge between Europe and Asia, attach great
importance to the North-South transport corridor, the capacities of
which can be offered to other partners, he added.
Besides, Aliyev noted the danger exiting in the region by the part
of international terror, which could break our plans. All countries
should unite the efforts and demonstrate unified approach to contradict
these threats. “The terrorism has neither nationality, nor religion,”
the President emphasized. He reminded that the international terror
greatly damaged Azerbaijan.
The same time he drew attention to Nagorno-Karabakh problem. “Over 1
million Azerbaijani citizens are the internally displaced people,”
Aliyev underlined. In this connection he called on the fulfillment
of all UN Resolution on this problem.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Pasadena Star-News, CA
June 17 2006
The Munk’s tale
By Valerie Kuklenski, Staff Writer
In 1958, a young father in Van Nuys who supported his family working
as a songwriter came up with a novelty group of three singing
chipmunks, taking them from hit records to an animated TV show.
Nearly 50 years later, his son, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., and his wife,
Janice Karman, have made that imaginary trio – Alvin, Theodore and
Simon – their livelihood and their life.
It wasn’t in Ross Jr.’s early plans. He was a sports fanatic as a kid
whose dad had no expectations of hanging out a Chipmunks & Son
shingle someday. What changed all that was his father’s sudden death
from a heart attack when Ross Jr. was just 21.
“He was like the Armenian version of Zorba the Greek, you know?
Vital, virile, loved life, funny,” Bagdasarian recalled recently over
lunch. “So when he died in 1972 at the age of 52, that was like,
honestly, the universe had turned completely upside down.”
The Chipmunks at the time were mothballed, the elder Bagdasarian
having decided they had run their course through recordings and a
couple of TV series. He had purchased vineyards in the San Joaquin
Valley and was making wine for various labels when he died.
“I really didn’t want his memory to pass away that quickly, and I
thought the surest way of giving that kind of life was bringing these
characters back again,” Bagdasarian said. “Now, being a complete
idiot, I had no idea how difficult that would actually be.”
He invited his sister and brother to join him in the endeavor, but
they passed. “Not Let us get back to you, we’ll think about it.’ The
answer came startlingly fast: Not a chance.'”
So he went to law school and got involved in the family wine
business, always thinking about orchestrating a Chipmunks comeback.
Meeting Janice Karman, a girl with a creative streak and fond
memories of “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” in 1978 was fortuitous.
“On our first date, he brought me to his father’s office and showed
me the films, the cartoons, and reignited my memory and asked me if I
thought the characters were viable,” Karman said.
“And I said I don’t know why they wouldn’t be – I loved the show.”
They got involved, personally and professionally, and began pitching
the franchise at the New York Toy Fair and other outlets, but there
were no takers.
Then late one night, a bored radio disc jockey somewhere back East
decided to put on a Blondie record and speed it up – just as Ross Sr.
had done when he created the Chipmunks’ sound by double-timing his
own slow-tempo harmonic vocals.
“He told all his listeners that it was the latest and greatest song
from Chipmunk Punk,” Karman said. “His switchboard started lighting
up and he got inundated with calls asking where we can get this
album. And a record company heard about this and called us and said,
Are you interested in doing an album called “Chipmunk Punk”?’
“It wasn’t really punky. It was Billy Joel, Blondie. And it sold a
million overnight and then people were willing to have lunch with
us.”
More popular records led to a TV deal with NBC for specials and, in
1983, a new series that ran for eight seasons. With Bagdasarian and
Karman writing, producing and recording the voices, it stayed true to
the boyish characters, originally named for three executives at
Liberty Records, and their paternalistic manager, Dave Seville.
Alvin, wearing the baseball cap and the oversize A on his jersey, is
the troublemaker, while lean, bespectacled Simon is the voice of
reason, and Theodore oozes good-natured charm.
Cranking out all those episodes wasn’t easy, and they often were
frustrated by the compromises in quality that stemmed from the volume
of work and budget constraints. “(Animation) would come back from
overseas and there’d be no head on Alvin and you go, Geez, that’s a
problem,'” Bagdasarian recalled.
That inspired them to make a feature that would allow them to create
the rich look they wanted. But midway through the production of “The
Chipmunk Adventure,” the director quit, and Karman, then pregnant
with her first child, took over the job.
The production ran horribly behind schedule and they found themselves
farming out animation work to every artist in the field they could
find.
“It was just an extraordinarily tough time,” she said. “But I learned
so much. And you’d better hold onto that, because when you feel like
you’re drowning, you have to hold onto something. I’m learning!”
Now that Bagdasarian Productions owns all rights to the characters
following the settlement of a lawsuit against Universal Pictures,
Alvin, Simon and Theodore appear to be poised for another comeback.
“The Chipmunk Adventure” came out last month on DVD, the first
Chipmunks production in that format, and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: A
Chipmunk Christmas” will be out in September in a 25th-anniversary
edition of the holiday show.
Bagdasarian and Karman have a deal with 20th Century Fox for another
feature, this combining computer-animated Chipmunks and a live-action
Dave. If all goes according to plan, it will be released in 2008, the
Chipmunks’ 50th-anniversary year.
And Karman is shopping a TV series titled “Little Alvin and the
Mini-Munks,” a show designed to help preschoolers and their parents
understand and cope with emotions.
This time the Chipmunks are large cuddly puppets who talk, play and
sing with Karman on camera. When the show goes into production, it’s
likely to continue as a family affair with Karman on camera and
Bagdasarian and Karman recording the voices and writing scripts and
songs. Daughter Vanessa, now 19, may be brought in as a production
assistant, and there’s talk that son Michael, 16, may do one of the
voices.
“I’m so cheap,” Karman said with a laugh.
“This is the beauty when you don’t pay yourselves,” Bagdasarian said.
“People say, Oh my gosh, you sold this many videos.’ But I’m sure if
you work it out by the hour, we’re way under the minimum wage.”
Bagdasarian readily admits that he and his then-girlfriend were naive
at the outset about how much time and energy producing and selling
animated entertainment required, even with an established product
like the Chipmunks.
He optimistically thought it would take about a year to get the
business up and running, “but after that, the oars go in the water by
themselves, the thing just has a life of its own, but we will have
helped relaunch it.” At the time, Janice thought that sounded
reasonable.
“That’s 1978,” Bagdasarian said. “Just off by a little.”
He says just like actors who come to Hollywood expecting to hit the
big time after six months to a year, “It’s the time thing that throws
most people off.
“I missed it by 31 years,” Bagdasarian said, “but darn it, we’re
zeroing in on it.”

TREND, Azerbaijan
June 17 2006
Statement of ex-advisor of Russian FM is provacation
Source: Trend
Author: R.Agayev
17.06.2006
The statement of the advisor of Russian Foreign Minister on
natonality affiars in 1999-2001 Vsevolod Maryan is a provacation
first directed agaisnt Russia itself, Soyun Sadigov, the president of
“Azerros”, told the special correspondent of Trend in Moscow.
Maryan made a statement that Azerbaijani group in Russia annually
allocated $50m for killing Armenians. In oppinion of Maryan, the
crime in the national context has started after the collapse of the
USSR.
Sadigov called this a provacation directed against Russia itself and
towards kindling the restless international relations in this
country.
In Russia there are such types of politicians such as Jirnoviski,
Zatulin, Kazimirov who do not avoid to speculate such attacks and
violate the friendly relations of Russia with its neighbours, as well
as with Azerbaijan, told Sadigov.
Besides, Sadigov did not agree with the issue that mob groups of
Azerbaijan function in Russia. He noted that there were numerous and
mixed groups of business people in Russia which are not involved in
crimes, but economical interests.
About 160 nations are living in Russia and we take our position that
Azerbaijanis are not comers, but pure people of Russia. For instance,
Darband was and is pure Azerbaijani city, and during the power of
Khurushov it was included in the composition of Dagestan.
Unfortunately, there are certain political forces in Russia such as
Jirnovski and other communists who offer to apply visa regime with
Azerbaijan and limit economic opportunities of Azerbaijan. It is
clear that all these statements are directed towards hostility.
Therefore we invite all Russian national-patriotic organizations to
our measure ” We – Russians!” to understand them the real things and
deliver the truth to them.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 17 2006
DELEGATION OF AZERBAIJAN FOREIGN MINISTRY CONDUCTS MEETING AT THE
EURASIAN STRATEGIC RESEARCH CENTER OF TURKEY
[June 17, 2006, 11:28:47]
Delegation of Azerbaijan led by Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan
Khalaf Khalafov visiting Ankara in the frame of the Turkish-Azeri
consultations on 15 June has held a meting at the Eurasian Strategic
Research Center of Turkey -ASAM.
Greeting the Azeri diplomats, head of the Research Institute on
crimes against humanity, former ambassador Omar Engin Lutem updated
on the activities of ASAM. He informed that the Institute had been
established in with sections on the Caucasus, the Balkans, the Near
East, China and Japan. In Center, also are carried out researches
concerning the common problem of Turkey and Azerbaijan – Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, and the notorious ‘genocide of Armenians’, their
results are regularly published both in the Turkish and world press.
Highly assessed the successes reached in Azerbaijan in the field
of foreign policy and economy, Omar Engin Lutem brought to notice
of the participants that on 9-13 October the Center would arrange a
symposium dedicated to Azerbaijan.
Head of the delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Khalaf
Khalafov gave detailed information on the priorities of foreign policy
of Azerbaijan, noting that one of the priorities of the country’s
diplomacy founded by the nationwide leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev
and successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev is constructive
and equal cooperation with the neighbors.
Speaking in detail on position of Azerbaijan in settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Khalaf Khalafov
expressed gratitude to the people and state of Turkey for permanent
support of the fair cause of Azerbaijan in the mentioned issue.
Noting that the problems of Turkey are at the problems of Azerbaijan,
he underlined high level of cooperation in the field of foreign policy.
Khalaf Khalafov answered questions of the participants on the ongoing
economic processes in Azerbaijan, social reforms conducted in the
country.

Yerevan-Batumi-Yerevan Railway Route to Be Launched June 17
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.06.2006 15:16 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The solemn ceremony of opening of the
Yerevan-Batumi-Yerevan railway route will take place Saturday,
June 17. In the words of head of the department of transportation
of the Armenian Railway Hakob Khrimyan, the train was scheduled to
depart on June 15, however by the request of Georgian Vice-Premier,
who wished to participate in the ceremony, the terms were delayed.
Armenian Minister of Transport Andranik Manukyan and heads of
the Armenian and Georgian railways will take part in the opening
ceremony. Khrimyan informed that the train will start off on odd days
of week.
To note, the railway communication was established for the summer rest
of Armenian tourists at the Black Sea coast in Georgia. The train will
start off at 9.10 local time and arrive in Batumi at 1.40. The ticket
will cost 18 703 drams in a double compartment and 9 297 drams in a
compartment for four. Meanwhile the price of the ticket from Batumi
to Yerevan will make 21 256 drams and 10 542 drams in a compartment
for four, reported Apsny.Ge.