The New York Times
April 7, 2006 Friday
Late Edition – Final
Armenia to Get a Discount On Russian Natural Gas
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
In a settlement of the latest natural gas dispute in the former
Soviet Union, Armenia will receive natural gas supplies from Russia
at prices well below European averages until 2009. In exchange, it
will surrender a small but crucial section of gas pipeline to Russia.
Armenia will pay $110 for each 1,000 cubic meters of gas, about half
the European average but twice what the country pays now, the Russian
monopoly Gazprom said in a statement on Thursday.
Gazprom in turn will buy a 24-mile section of pipe connecting Armenia
to Iran, which other than Russia is the only plausible source of
energy supplies in the region. Also under the deal Gazprom, through a
joint venture, was granted a concession to build a larger second
pipeline along this route.
In financial terms, the deal is considered small by the usual
standards of the huge Gazprom, but it could have strategic importance
as the company seeks to maintain its dominance in Eurasian natural
gas trading. The gas sales are expected to bring some $187 million
annually.
The pipeline route from Iran through Armenia that Gazprom now
controls with its 24-mile section has been discussed by energy
analysts as a possible export corridor for Iranian gas to Europe.
”Gazprom is strengthening its competitive advantages in the
republics,” Roman G. Elagin, an oil and gas analyst at Renaissance
Capital, a brokerage firm in Moscow brokerage, said.
Armenia, he said, effectively bargained away its future prospects for
energy sources in return for cheaper prices now. ”Gazprom is the
only supplier of gas to Armenia,” he said. ”Armenia could try to
diversify its supply. But with control of this pipeline, Gazprom now
controls the competitors’ supply.”
A spokesman for the Armenian Embassy in Moscow declined to comment on
Thursday.
With the deal, Gazprom, the world’s largest producer of natural gas,
is operating at the intersection of corporate interest and
geopolitics, as it has in demanding price increases from other former
Soviet republics.
Armenia has been a traditional ally of Russia in the Caucasus. Moscow
was seen as favoring Armenia during its war with neighboring
Azerbaijan in the late 1980’s and early 90’s over the independence of
the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The war ended in a
cease-fire but no peace agreement; the lingering animosity prevents
Armenia from receiving energy exports of Azerbaijan, an oil-producing
country.
With February’s talks on Nagorno-Karabakh unavailing and diplomatic
efforts in fits and starts, Russia’s support is considered crucial
for Armenia.
That leaves Iran, with the world’s second-largest natural gas
reserves after Russia, as a source of energy for Armenia in addition
to the Russians.
A Gazprom spokesman declined to explain why the company had
negotiated to purchase the pipe section leading from Iran. Gazprom’s
stated policy is to control gas pipelines for the distribution of its
own products. The spokesman, though, said that Gazprom did not intend
to block possible Iranian gas exports.
”Why would we buy a pipe and turn it off?” the spokesman said.
Still, Gazprom’s attempts to control the export pipes of potential
competitors have precedent in earlier deals.
In Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia, Gazprom has leveraged gas prices in
attempts to buy pipelines for its own gas, with partial success only
in Belarus. To the east, in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan,
Gazprom has gained operational control of the main Central
Asia-Center pipeline, and it controls lines crossing Russia, thus
holding blocking power over these potential competitors for exports
to Europe.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RosBusinessConsulting Database
April 6, 2006 Thursday
Foreign investment in Armenia grows
Foreign investment in Armenian economy (including investment made by
banks and state authorities) exceeded expectations in 2005, having
risen by 8.3 percent to USD504.5m compared to 2004. All planned
investment programs were fully implemented, Armenian Deputy Economy
Minister Tigran Davtian told journalists today.
The real economy sector saw a 31-percent increase in investment
(excluding loans from the banks and state authorities) that reached
USD400.4m. Direct investment totaled USD244.4m in 2005, which is 8
percent more than in 2004, the Deputy Minister said. “This sector
ensures growth of all economic indicators, GDP and prospective
exports,” he underscored.
Davtian noted that starting from 1991 total investment in Armenia
reached USD2bn, direct investment accounting for USD1.5bn. He thinks
that the inflow of foreign capital contributes to the country’s
dynamic and stable economic development, ARKA News Agency reports.

Congressional Quarterly
April 7, 2006 Friday
SEAN MCCORMACK HOLDS STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR NEWS BRIEFING
WASHINGTON, D.C.

STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR NEWS BRIEFING

APRIL 7, 2006

SPEAKER: SEAN MCCORMACK,
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS

[parts omitted]
QUESTION: I was looking for a readout on the Azerbaijan foreign
minister’s meeting.
MCCORMACK: The secretary met with the Azerbaijan foreign minister.
They discussed a number of issues of bilateral interest, both to the
United States and Azerbaijan. They talked about Nagorno- Karabakh.
They talked about economic reform and democratization in Azerbaijan.
The secretary emphasized the importance of respect for human rights
and moving forward on the democratization process in Azerbaijan.
QUESTION: Was there any talk of a visit to the United States by the
president of Azerbaijan?
MCCORMACK: In as much as a visit to the United States by the
president of Azerbaijan might concern the White House, I’ll leave it
to the White House to discuss such visits — potential visits.
QUESTION: Nagorno-Karabakh was the very first initiative that
Secretary Powell dove into when he took office. And I was just
wondering if Secretary Rice had any inclination to become more
involved in mediating the conflict.
MCCORMACK: She actually has been very much involved in this. There
was a recent meeting in (inaudible) France where we had great hopes
that the two presidents, the Armenian and the Azerbaijani president,
would be able to come to some resolution, some agreement on the issue
of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In advance of that meeting, the secretary spoke with both of the
presidents, and she has also been very much involved with Assistant
Secretary Dan Fried, as well as others who have been working to move
this issue toward a resolution.
So she’s certainly up to date on where the discussions stand. We hope
that both sides can in the wake of the talks in France again provide
some renewed impetus to those discussions and come to an agreement
that would resolve this longstanding issue.

AUSTRIA TODAY
April 5, 2006 Wednesday 7:35 PM (Central European Time)
M&C News: Austrians Hold up Turks for the 2nd Time
The Austrians have now managed to stop the Turks from entering Europe
twice: Once at the gates of Vienna in 1683, and the second time at
the gates of Luxembourg on Oct. 3, 2005. Talks that were due to begin
in Luxembourg to discuss the protracted admission process that would
bring Turkey into the European Union ran into a last-minute objection
from Austria when Vienna blocked the discussions from going ahead.
Austria suggested that instead of full membership Turkey should be
offered a ´privileged partnership.´ Basically, what this translates
to is Turkey would, for all intents and purposes, enjoy all the
advantages of other EU members, except Turkish citizens would not be
allowed the same rights of residency and free travel in the rest of
the EU as other citizens of the bloc currently enjoy. If that
reasoning seems to be somewhat discriminatory, it`s because, in fact,
it is. The reason is many Europeans still fear the sudden influx of
millions of Muslims from Turkey suddenly entering the EU, and forever
changing the face of Europe; a Europe that until now has been largely
dominated by a Judeo-Christian culture. Turkey`s population today
stands close to 70 million and is almost exclusively Muslim. By the
time the talks conclude in 10 to 15 years, Turkey`s population is
expected to reach about 81 million, making it the most populous
country in the EU. Upon hearing that an agreement was reached,
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul flew to Luxembourg for a late
night ceremony to formally open accession talks.
“We have reached a historic point,” Gul said before leaving Ankara.
“Full membership negotiations will, God willing, begin tonight.” The
negotiations included strong U.S. diplomatic intervention on Turkey`s
behalf. The question of whether Turkey is or is not geographically
part of Europe is somewhat irrelevant at this point. With the
exception of a small sliver of land actually in Europe, the rest of
the country is in Asia Minor, which is Asia. As for its people,
again, with the exception of a minority who consider themselves
European, the vast majority consider themselves Turkish — a culture
unto itself. And the rest probably identify more with their immediate
neighbors in Syria, Iran, Iraq, etc. Indeed, drive along the region
abutting the Syrian or Iraqi borders and there can be no doubt about
what part of the world you`re in — and it`s certainly not Europe.
The important question here is that by including Turkey in the EU,
Europe extends its sphere of influence to the very borders of the
Arab and Islamic world at a time when Europe and the West are coming
under threat from politicised militant Islam. With Turkey in the EU,
Europe´s borders extend to the periphery of Syria, Iraq, Iran and
Azerbaijan; all Muslim countries, as well as to the borders of
Armenia and Georgia. Think of the advantages of democratic Europe
abutting countries such as Syria, Iraq and Iran. The challenge of
spreading democracy would become a tad easier with a democratic
Turkey member of the EU, sitting at the very gates of the Middle
East. Turkish nationalism, motivated by shattered pride as a result
of an EU refusal, would most likely end up hurting European-Muslim
relations if Turkey were to be permanently shut out of Brussels.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 6, 2006 Thursday 06:22 AM EST
Russia gas price for Armenia to make 110 dlrs till Jan 1, 2009
The Russian gas giant Gazprom and the Armenian government signed an
agreement for the next 25 years stipulating the strategic principles
of cooperation in the gas projects in Armenia.
According to Gazprom, the agreement sets the price on Russian natural
gas for Armenia at 110 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters till January 1,
2009.
The agreement stipulates that Gazprom will buy ArmRosgazprom from the
Armenian government that is building the 40-kilometer section of the
Iranian-Armenian pipeline and the fifth power unit of the Razdan
thermal power station (Razdan-5).
Gazprom said in a press release that under the agreement Armenia
should assign to ArmRosgazprom the functions of the party ordering
the construction of the 197-kilometer second section of the
Iranian-Armenian pipeline.
The preliminary purchase and sale contracts should be concluded
before April 14, 2006, and the ownership of the foresaid facilities
should be finally transferred before January 1, 2007. After the deal
the Gazprom share in the ArmRosgazprom authorized capital will make a
special majority.

Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
April 6, 2006 Thursday
ARMENIA: IN SEARCH OF ALTERNATIVES;
Armenia is through with listening to myths about Russia
by Gajane Movsesjan
Armenia may decide that it doesn’t need Russia after all; Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanjan’s two-day visit to Moscow begins
today. Oskanjan will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov
and Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov. He met with US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington the other day.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanjan’s two-day visit to Moscow
begins today. Oskanjan will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei
Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov. Official reports
on the agenda are brief. They indicate that it includes bilateral
relations, the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, regional matters, and
cooperation within the framework of international organizations.
Sources from Armenian diplomatic circles say that this is just a
routine visit, nothing more.
What is interesting, however, is that Oskanjan discussed the same
matters with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington the
other day. Oskanjan and Rice signed an accord on March 27 to the
effect that Armenia will receive $236.5 million under the Millennium
Challenges program over the next five years. The millions will be
used to repair roads in rural areas, reconstruction of irrigation and
drainage systems, and reduction of impoverishment in the agricultural
sector.
Rice herself undermined political undertones of this seemingly
economic event at the signing ceremony when she began elaborating
meaningfully on the necessity of advancement of democratic reforms in
Armenia in the light of the parliamentary and presidential elections
there in 2007 and 2008. Armenian observers took her words as an
admission of Washington’s desire to bring political and economic
processes in Armenia under its own control. Moreover, the program
itself (Millennium Challenges) was taken as but an additional
instrument of American influence with Yerevan.
Shushan Khatlamadzhjan, an analyst with the Armenian Institute of
Civil Society and Regional Development, believes that the
Armenian-Russian strategic partnership is in a crisis. “The problem
is rooted in the lack of transparency of the talks between the
Armenian and Russian authorities,” she said. “Armenian society feels
disassociated from public politics and cannot help ascribing it to
some clandestine accords between the governments of the two
countries… Like a recompense to Armenia for high gas tariffs in the
form of a discount on Russian military hardware as some Russian media
outlets speculated. In short, even pro-Russian political forces in
Armenia begin promoting the necessity to develop foreign policy on
the basis of the actual national interests and not the old myths…”
Now let’s consider the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh. Chairmen of the
OSCE Minsk Group, Russia and the United States have headed the
mission of intermediaries for a decade now. With nothing to show for
it in terms of the formula of a lasting peace. A meeting between the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in France was arranged this
February but even it failed as a means of accomplishing anything.
Foreign intermediaries are analyzing the situation again now. The
United States is particularly impatient. American diplomacy put
Yerevan and Baku under pressure in March. Daniel Fried, US
Undersecretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, was dispatched to the
region. Fried announced that the United States wanted a compromise
between the warring sides reached this year.
The United States is impatient and the European Union is certainly
getting active. Armenian analysts and observers ascribe these trends
to the desire on the part of the West to resolve conflicts in the
post-Soviet zone in such a manner as to weaken Russia’s positions. As
far as Khatlamadzhjan is concerned, it is precisely from this
standpoint that specialists should contemplate the renewed debates
over the so-called “Marshall Plan for the Caucasus.” The idea boils
down to substantial economic aid to countries of the southern part of
the Caucasus in return for political concessions. “Russia is in the
situation where a new and effective policy with regard to Armenia
becomes a must,” Khatlamadzhjan concluded.
Khatlamadzhjan also believes that “the myth in Armenia of there being
no alternatives to strategic partnership with Russia is in its last
throes.” “Armenia may solve its regional problems and resolve
conflicts without military and other cooperation with Russia,
accepting instead the plan and investments from the West. There is
the widespread opinion in analytical community here that there can be
no war or peace without Russia, but we shouldn’t make a fetish of
this fact or demonize it,” she said.
Source: Vremya Novostei, April 6, 2006, p. 5
Translated by A. Ignatkin

April 7 2006
BOOKS-RWANDA:
Forgiving the Unforgivable
Lisa Söderlindh
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 6 (IPS) – Exactly 12 years ago on Apr. 6, 1994,
Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young Rwandan Tutsi woman, left the university
campus in the city of Butare to spend the Easter holidays with her
family.
Later that day, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed,
together with Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, when
his plane was shot down as it was coming in to land at Kigali
airport. The incident was the final spark to a powder-keg of ethnic
tensions dating back to colonial times between the dominant Tutsi
minority and the majority Hutus.
Over the next three months, Ilibagiza’s mother, father and two of her
three brothers were killed in the genocide, as were some 800,000
others. Ilibagiza herself spent 91 days hiding in a closet-sized
bathroom while rampaging mobs outside turned Rwanda into a sea of
blood.
During her ordeal, Ilibagiza says she found the power of faith and
vowed to write about what she had gone through — if she lived to see
the dawn again.
“I think there is a greater story that helps me tell my story,”
Ilibagiza told IPS at the New York launch of her book, “Left to Tell:
Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust”, which has hit the
best-seller lists here. “God spared me my life and gave me the
strength to bear the pain of being left to tell.”
“I am praying every day that that my message will help build the
world, rather than tear it apart,” she added.
As noted by Armenian researcher Vahakn N. Dadrian in his study of
20th century genocide, German colonisers in the late 19th century
helped cultivate different racial profiles by depicting the Tutsi as
the overlords, endowed with physically superior traits, and
portraying the Hutu as mere peasants.
The rift deepened further with the arrival of the Belgians in the
early 20th century, who introduced an ethnic identity card to more
easily distinguish between the two groups.
With the Hutu revolution of 1959-1962 and subsequent upheavals in
1962-1964 came the final institutionalisation of the Hutu-Tutsi
conflict. The existing arrangement of power relations reversed — the
Tutsi minority ceased being the dominant group and the Hutu majority
rose to power.
Ilibagiza says she came from a home were racism and prejudice were
completely unknown, and the terms “Tutsi” and “Hutu” were never used.
“All I knew of the world was the lively landscape surrounding me, the
kindness of my neighbours, and the deep love of my parents and
brothers,” she said.
But her world was ripped apart with the eruption of Africa’s worst
genocide in modern times. Top government officials from the ruling
Movement National pour la Révolution et le Development party played a
direct role in the slaughter, as did the ignorance of the global
community and the failure of international peacekeeping operations,
with the U.N. Assistance Mission in Rwanda fatefully deciding to
reduce its troop strength from 2,000 to 270.
Only in mid-May 1994 did the U.N. Security Council reverse its
decision, but few peacekeepers arrived before the massacres ended in
July, when the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front took power through a
military campaign.
For three months, militia members, armed forces and civilians freely
carried out appalling atrocities, predominately against the Tutsi
ethnic minority. Ilibagiza recalls days of horror during which she
and seven other women huddled in the darkness of the bathroom in a
local pastor’s home, while hundreds of Hutus hunted for them.
“Marked for execution because we were born Tutsi,” she asked herself
how history had managed to repeat itself after the world’s powers
vowed “never again” in the wake of the Nazi atrocities of World War
Two.
Trembling on a path lined alternately with fear, despair, anger, and
burning hatred, Ilibagiza finally found a place in the bathroom to
call her own: “A small corner of my heart,” where she spoke with God
and found some measure of peace.
“[The Hutu perpetrators’] minds had been infected with the evil that
spread across the country, but their souls weren’t evil,” she
believes, resolving that forgiveness was all she had to offer.
The day she faced the man who had killed her family, Ilibagiza
recalls being “overwhelmed with pity… the evil had ruined his life
like a cancer in his soul. He was now the victim of his victims,
destined to live in torment and regret.”
Twelve years on, the message of love and forgiveness is still
Ilibagiza’s answer, and the wish of an awakening among people, “for
them to see that they are needed”.
Nearly two-thirds of the Rwandan population currently lives below the
poverty line, she notes. “We need doctors, homes for survivors, and
therapists that can help people who went through the genocide,”
Ilibagiza told IPS.
On an economic level, progress has been made over the last decade,
but spiritually, “People are not healed. The wounds from the machetes
[the most widely used weapon during the genocide] are still open,”
she said.
There are some 600,000 orphans in the country, many of whom are
forced to live in the streets without adequate food or shelter.
HIV/AIDS is another major problem, partly due to the widespread rape
perpetrated during the genocide.
Yael Danieli, co-founder of the International Society for Traumatic
Stress Studies, said at a recent U.N. forum on the genocide that
helping society recover from such a terrible event requires attention
from both the local and international communities.
“Unless we prevent by healing the aftermath of genocide, the wounds
will not only fester within the generation for a lifelong legacy, but
fester from generation to generation,” he said.
Ilibagiza believes that the complex underlying causes of the
explosion of violence in 1994 are still barely understood. “The root
of the genocide has yet not been uprooted. Why, I believe it can
happen again — in any country.” (END/2006)

Ninemsn, Australia
April 7 2006
Author trawls net for a Russian bride
Saturday Apr 8 07:01 AEST
When Booker Prize-winning author DBC Pierre started trawling the
internet for Russian brides, it wasn’t a wife he was after.
Rather the Australian-born author was looking for a woman with spirit
enough to take on the worst the western world had to offer her as the
central character of his next book, Ludmila’s Broken English.
“I did hours and hours and hours and hours, probably weeks and weeks
and weeks, poring through Russian internet bride websites,” Pierre
says in an interview with AAP, revealing hints of an Australian
accent with an Irish overlay.
“And I corresponded with some just to get a handle on that.

“And just in the same way that these characters in the book came upon
a face that jumped off the screen at them, there was one that jumped
off the screen at me.
“And that is Ludmila. So it’s a real woman.”
Pierre, whose real name is Peter Finlay and now lives at Leitrim in
rural Ireland, was so haunted by the face while he was writing the
book that he made up a mock cover with a photograph of the woman’s
face, and hung it on his study wall for inspiration.
“It’s beautiful. A dark haired young woman, and she’s looking out,
her head slightly bent down, eyes looking up under a little fringe of
hair and there’s just something challenging in her eyes,” he says.
“There’s a kind of a wickedness, there’s a shyness, and a challenge
there.
“She’s saying come on, come on sucker.
“And it came to symbolise the whole rest of the world looking at us
bumbling around, arrogantly, ignorantly, thinking we’re going to go
and organise the world and tell everyone what to do.”
It is clear from the very beginning of the book that Ludmila Derev is
nobody’s fool, when she fights and kills her grandfather as he
attempts to rape her.
In a bizarre satire of globalisation, the young woman from a remote
village in a war-torn region of the Caucasus then sets off on an
ancient Soviet tractor to save her family from starvation.
At the same time, Pierre introduces a pair of newly-separated, adult
conjoined twins, Bunny and Blair Heath, recently released from the
English institution in which they have spent their whole lives after
it is privatised.
The twins fortify their forays into their new-found freedom with
alcohol and drugs, and it is simply a matter of time before Blair
discovers Ludmila on a Russian brides website.
“I came to almost see it as symbolic of our whole culture, you know,”
Pierre says.
“Sad and flabby and affluent men, who imagine that just for the smell
of a dollar we’re going to get some beautiful foreign girl to go down
on her knees and do everything we want without question.”
The tall, dark novelist with a dishevelled air and gold watch on his
wrist, was born in Adelaide, but spent most of his childhood in
Mexico, where his university lecturer father moved the family when
Pierre was seven.
He settled back in Adelaide in the late 1980s and remembers much of
that time through a drink and drug haze.
His pseudonym, DBC Pierre, a nickname which stands for “dirty but
clean”, is also a reminder of those times.
With debts estimated at $200,000, he won the Booker prize in 2003 for
his first book, Vernon God Little, and has since led the life of a
successful novelist, also managing to repay what he owed.
He claims he has not read the critics on his latest book, some of
whom have condemned it in part for its confronting violence and
coarse language.
However, Pierre justifies these, saying he has actually softened the
deprivation of communities in war-torn Armenia, which he visited
while writing the book and on which he modelled Ludmila’s home
village of Ublilsk.
On the other hand, the most fun he had in the writing was creating
the Ubli language, with its outlandish and colourful cursing. Unable
to speak Armenian, Pierre based the rhythm and structure of the
imaginary language on Russian translations.
Ludmila’s Broken English, which was interrupted when he won the
Booker prize, developed slowly, he says, as he became fascinated with
the idea that migration has become the “over-riding story of humanity
in the last century”.
The idea of globalisation, however, he condemns as a scam.
“I have a real thing about language,” he says striking a match to
light another roll-your-own cigarette.
“And globalisation, which is an invented word, connotes a kind of
coming together, an equality, a kind of a trading which I don’t think
is happening.
“We’re not so much globalising as exploiting.”
The novel is a “sort of splashing” in these arguments, and doesn’t
promote an agenda.
However, “The promise is Ludmila,” he says pronouncing the woman’s
name with a Russian accent.
“She is the only hopeful character in the end,” he says.
“She’s in control and if you take it as a straight symbol, the future
is woman, and the future is probably foreign woman.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Canada NewsWire (press release), Canada
April 7 2006
Attention News Editors:
Media Advisory – The Armenian Genocide makes world television premiere
on TVO’S Human Edge
TORONTO, April 7 /CNW/ – On Wednesday April 12 at 10 pm, TVO’s
acclaimed Human Edge will present the world premiere of The Armenian
Genocide. Written, produced, and directed by Emmy Award-winning
filmmaker Andrew Goldberg, this fascinating point-of-view documentary
explores what many believe to be the first genocide of the 20th
century. Between 1915 and 1923 over a million Armenians perished under
the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In the hour-long film, Goldberg speaks
with Armenian, Turkish, and American scholars and historians to shed
light on the historical events that precipitated the genocide, and why
the Turkish government of today continues to deny such events ever
occurred. The film also features Kurdish and Turkish citizens in
present-day Turkey who openly share stories told to them by their
parents and grandparents.
To facilitate further understanding of this hotly-debated subject,
the documentary will be preceded at 8 pm on the night of broadcast by
a panel discussion on TVO’s Studio 2. The current affairs show’s
regular international affairs panel of Janice Stein, director of the
Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto; Globe
and Mail editor, Patrick Martin; and Toronto Star columnist Richard
Gwyn will help to place the Armenian genocide into context. Viewers
will also be able to follow the Studio 2 discussion online at
As of April 7, viewers will also be able to register in our online
discussion board at to express their views, as
well as access links to other relevant websites.
Now in its 17th successful season, Human Edge is TVO’s acclaimed
series of challenging, provocative, point-of-view documentaries from
around the world. Hosted by award-winning writer and broadcaster Ian
Brown, Human Edge provides viewers with windows into complex or touchy
subjects that make up the human experience to expand their horizons
and foster healthy debate. Executive producer is Rudy Buttignol.
For further information: Media contact: Rosanne Meandro, TVO,
Marketing and Communications, (416) 484-2600, ext. 2389,
[email protected]

Fresno State News, CA
April 7 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 07, 2006
Contact: Shirley Melikian Armbruster
559.278.5292 or 593.1815

Biographer and author Nouritza Matossian part of Gorky Festival

British author and actress Nouritza Matossian will lecture on 20th
century abstract-expressionist painter Arshile Gorky on Tuesday,
April 18 and perform a play about the artist April 19 at California
State University, Fresno. Those events and several others on campus
are part of the Gorky Festival sponsored by the Fresno Art Museum and
the Armenian Museum.

Matossian, who is a human rights activist in the arts, contemporary
music, history and Armenia, last year published a biography, `Black
Angel, A Life of Arshile Gorky.’ As part of the University Lecture
Series, her topic will be `A Case of Mistaken Identity: Why Arshile
Gorky Changed His Name’ at 7:30 p.m. April 18 at the Satellite
Student Union, 2485 E. San Ramon.

Matossian’s multimedia dramatization will be performed at 8 p.m.
April 19 in the Satellite Student Union, sponsored by the School of
Arts and Humanities. There is no charge for the performance or for
several other Gorky Festival events in which Fresno State is
involved.

The Department of Music has scheduled a concert at 8 p.m. Monday,
April 17, in the Music Building’s Concert Hall, featuring music from
Armenia and tunes popular during the time Gorky spent in New York.
The event is coordinated by Dr. Maria Amirkhanian, a lecturer in
music.

Dr. Laura Meyer, an assistant professor of art history will discuss
`Arshile Gorky: Why Abstraction?’ at 4 p.m. April 18 in the Conley
Lecture Hall.

As part of the festival, the Fresno State Department of Art and
Design is exhibiting student art inspired by Gorky at Fresno City
Hall, 8 a.m-5 p.m. weekdays through Thursday, April 27.

The University Lecture Series is a program of the Office of the
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, with additional
support provided by Coke and James Hallowell, the University Student
Union, Associated Students, KJWL-FM and Piccadilly Inn Hotels.

Tickets are $10 general admission; $6 Fresno State faculty, staff,
Alumni Association members and seniors; $5 elementary and secondary
students; $2 Fresno State students. On April 18, prices increase by
$2 for general admission, faculty, staff and Alumni Association
members.
Information and tickets are available at the University Student Union
Information Center or by calling 559.278.2078. Tickets will be sold
on a space-available basis beginning at 6:30 p.m. April 18 at the
Satellite Student Union Box Office.