Russia ready to become guarantor of accords on Nagorno-Karabakh
ITAR-TASS News Agency
July 15, 2006 Saturday 05:17 PM EST
ST PETERSBURG, July 16 — Russia is ready to become a guarantor of
implementing agreements on Nagorno Karabakh by Armenia and Azerbaijan,
Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference on Sunday.
“The two countries should reach a compromise and Russia together
with its partners is ready to become a guarantor of implementing the
agreements,” he said.
Putin recalled that “most G8 countries try to help settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to a certain degree,” he said. French
President Jacques Chirac and U.S. President George W. Bush are actively
engaged in this process, he said.
“We want Armenia and Azerbaijan find a reasonable decision. We will
not impose our decision on them,” he said
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Jerusalem welcomes Canadian filmmakers
by Hannah Brown
The Jerusalem Post
July 9, 2006, Sunday
An Oscar nominee and a Cannes prize winner are among Jerusalem Film
Festival’s distinguished early arrivals
A friendly unassuming group stopped by the King David Hotel in
Jerusalem on Wednesday night to have dinner with Tourism Minister
Isaac Herzog and a group of Israeli professionals. Nothing unusual
about that except that this group was the Canadian delegation to the
23rd Jerusalem Film Festival and included some of the world’s most
distinguished directors actors and producers.
The delegation which will be present at screenings panels and press
conferences includes Festival Achievement Award winners director
Atom Egoyan and producer Robert Lantos. Among Egoyan’s best-known
films are Exotica the Oscar-nominated The Sweet Hereafter and Ararat
which will be screened at the festival. Lantos has produced most of
Egoyan’s films as well as dozens of others including Sunshine and
the Oscar-nominated Being Julia. Both Egoyan and Lantos are longtime
supporters of the Jerusalem Film Festival and festival founder and
director Lia van Leer who attended the dinner spoke effusively about
their generosity over the years praising Egoyan for donating one
of his first films Family Viewing to the archives of the Jerusalem
Cinematheque after he presented it at the 1988 film festival.
The Hungarian-born Lantos who has lived and worked in Canada for
over 40 years spoke of how he first fell in love with Israel when
he visited the country with the Canadian Maccabiah team in 1969 (he
played on the water polo team). “This group of Canadian filmmakers
wanted to see the reality of Israel today he said.
Another delegation member, director Patricia Rozema (I’ve Heard
the Mermaids Singing and Mansfield Park, which will be screened
at the festival), was already enthusiastic about Jerusalem stone
architecture, and said she was eager to go on a scheduled walking
tour of the Old City.
Egoyan, who was born to an Armenian family in Cairo but was raised
in Canada, chatted about how he enjoys making contact with the
Armenian community here. He reminisced about meeting a Canadian from
his hometown on his last visit here, and asked questions about the
Israeli film industry as if he were a casual visitor and not one
of the world’s most celebrated directors. His wife, actress Arsinee
Khanjian, who has appeared in most of his films and works frequently
these days in France, joked about getting a place card with her son’s
name instead of her own.
Documentary filmmaker Simha Jacobovici, who became religious late
in his life and served in the artillery corps of the Israel Defense
Forces, introduced his five children and his wife proudly. His latest
documentary, The Exodus Decoded, an innovative look at the Bible,
was made with the assistance of Titanic director James Cameron and
will also be shown at the festival.
Actress Marie-Josee Croze smiled shyly when she was introduced,
knowing that most Israelis last saw her as a femme fatale involved
in the assassination of an Israeli intelligence officer in Steven
Spielberg’s Munich. The actress seemed relieved that at least one
dinner guest also recognized her from her charming comic turn in the
French film Mensonges et Trahisons, as well as from her performance
in The Barbarian Invasions, which won her the best actress award at
Cannes. Director/actor Paul Gross, who made the comic Men With Brooms,
one of the biggest box office hits in Canadian history, stood up and
let his dessert melt so that he could pose for photographs.
No one mentioned the one member of the delegation who dropped out
at the last moment, Sex and the City actress Kim Cattrall. They were
all far too gracious for that, and too busy thanking their hosts and
asking questions about Israel.
But don’t say Canadians don’t know how to have fun. Although they
had arrived in Israel just a few hours before the dinner and were
scheduled for a long walking tour the next day, after the Israeli
guests departed, quite a few of the Canadians made their way to the
hotel bar, where they had a couple of drinks and watched a little
World Cup soccer.
GRAPHIC: Photo: THE WINNER of the 2003 best actress prize at Cannes
Canadian film star Marie-Josee Croze celebrated the Jerusalem Film
Festival’s opening last week with Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog.
(Credit: Debbie Ben Ami Yerushalmy Magazine)

Le Monde, France
14 juillet 2006
Kirk Kerkorian L’homme de tous les jackpots;
Vendeur de journaux, boxeur, pilote d’avion, joueur de poker et
financier intraitable, le principal actionnaire individuel du
constructeur automobile americain, General Motors, est un homme
presse
par Eric Leser
C’est un joueur ne avec un sixième sens hors du commun pour detecter
de la valeur “, explique Lee Iacocca, ancien president de Chrysler.
Fils d’immigres armeniens, ne il y quatre-vingt- neuf ans en
Californie, le milliardaire Kirk Kerkorian est de son vivant un mythe
du capitalisme americain. Secret, reclus, craint, souvent compare a
Howard Hughes, il fuit comme la peste les mondanites et les medias.
Meme s’il possède un Boeing 737 et un yacht de 60 mètres et a un
faible pour les costumes Brioni, il cultive la discretion. Les
bureaux a Los Angeles de sa holding Tracinda, contraction des prenoms
de ses deux filles, Tracy et Linda, sont situes dans une petite rue
de Beverly Hills. Le nom de la societe ne figure meme pas sur la
porte. Il est pourtant l’archetype du capitaliste aventurier, du
joueur de poker avec des mises de centaines de millions de dollars.
Surnomme par la presse ” Capitaine Kirk “, il a reussi le tour de
force de vendre deux fois sa compagnie aerienne (Trans International
Airlines) et quatre fois la Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), le celèbre
studio hollywoodien dont a meme fini par heriter un temps le Credit
lyonnais. Utilisant le produit de la vente de la MGM en 1989 au
mafieux Giancarlo Parretti, il entre en decembre 1990 dans le capital
de Chrysler pour en devenir le principal actionnaire. Il veut en
prendre le contrôle, echoue, mais ramasse tout de meme un benefice de
plus de 1,7 milliard de dollars lorsque Chrysler est finalement
rachete par l’Allemand Daimler. Son irruption l’an dernier dans le
capital de General Motors (GM) semble obeir a la meme logique.
Les traits burines et la chevelure grise ondulante sur les rares
photographies, il apparaît dans le classement du magazine Forbes a la
19e place des fortunes americaines avec 10 milliards de dollars.
Selon la legende, elève turbulent, il est chasse de plusieurs ecoles
avant de multiplier les petits boulots pendant la Grande Depression
pour aider sa famille a survivre. A 9 ans, Kerkor vend des journaux.
A 13, il devient boxeur et americanise son prenom en Kirk. Sa
première vraie passion est l’aviation. Il obtient sa licence de
pilote de ligne en 1940 et fait voler pendant toute la guerre des
Mosquito flambant neufs du Canada a l’Ecosse pour la RAF britannique.
A la fin des annees 1940, il prend son essor, amenage un bimoteur et
transporte des accrocs du jeu, comme lui, de Los Angeles a Las Vegas
dans le Nevada. Il achète en 1947 pour 60 000 dollars une petite
compagnie qu’il rebaptise pompeusement la Trans International
Airlines. Il la vendra une première fois en 1962, la rachètera et la
cedera definitivement en 1968, realisant au passage une copieuse
plus-value.
Avec l’argent de la première vente en 1962, il realise une formidable
operation immobilière. Il met la main sur 32 hectares de terrain a
Las Vegas pour moins de 1 million de dollars. Il y construit trois
hôtels casinos, a l’epoque les plus grands du monde, et fait de cette
ville perdue au milieu du desert la capitale mondiale du jeu. Deux de
ces etablissements, le MGM Grand et le Hilton, brûlent
mysterieusement en 1980. Kirk Kerkorian prend alors ses distances
avec Las Vegas.
Entre-temps, il s’est lance dans le cinema. Il acquiert en 1969, pour
82 millions de dollars, 40 % des studios MGM. A la faveur d’une OPA
(offre publique d’achat) hostile, il prend en 1979 le contrôle de la
totalite du capital du studio, qu’il fusionne avec United Artists.
Selon une technique bien rodee, il vend et rachète ensuite a quatre
reprises la Metro Goldwyn Mayer, a Ted Turner en 1985, au groupe
australien Quintex en 1989, a Giancarlo Parretti, en fait le Credit
Lyonnais, en 1990, et a Sony l’an dernier. Il a constitue une bonne
partie de sa fortune avec ses allers et retours.
Avant de ceder le studio, a chaque fois, Kirk Kerkorian le vide d’une
bonne partie de sa substance financière. Cela lui permet de financer
ses aventures dans l’automobile et son retour a Las Vegas. Il est
redevenu le roi de la cite du jeu en mettant la main en 2000 sur le
groupe Mirage et en 2004 sur Mandalay Bay Resorts. Il contrôle la
moitie des grands hôtels casinos du ” strip ” (la grande avenue de la
cite du jeu).
” Quand vous etes un self-made-man, vous commencez tôt dans la vie.
Je ramenais de l’argent a la maison a l’âge de 9 ans. Vous avez alors
une volonte differente, bien plus forte qu’un heritier “, declarait
Kirk Kerkorian dans une rare interview accordee il y a de nombreuses
annees au Los Angeles Times. Il est fidèle a ses origines et a donne
des centaines de millions de dollars a l’Armenie pour construire des
routes, des ponts, restaurer l’Opera d’Erevan. Le gouvernement
armenien a voulu baptiser une avenue et meme un aeroport a son nom,
il a toujours refuse.
” Il est timide. Il n’a pas fait d’etudes. A la maison, ses parents,
qui ne savaient ni lire ni ecrire, parlaient l’armenien. Il a appris
l’anglais dans la rue. Cela ne l’empeche pas d’etre dans les affaires
le personnage le plus redoutable qui soit. Il ne fait aucun sentiment
et possède une determination incroyable. Ce n’est meme plus l’argent
qui le motive, mais le succès “, souligne l’economiste en chef de la
Comerica Bank, David Littman.
Après avoir pris, en 2005, 9,9 % du capital de GM, il entend
rentabiliser au plus vite son investissement de 1,5 milliard de
dollars. Carlos Ghosn, le patron de Renault et Nissan, encense par
les analystes financiers, est l’homme qu’il lui faut a la tete de GM.
Pour forcer la main du conseil d’administration de GM, Kirk Kerkorian
n’hesitera pas sur les moyens. Il ne l’a jamais fait.
Une semaine seulement après le dîner du 15 mai a Nashville dans le
Tennessee, où il evoquait pour la première fois avec Carlos Ghosn la
possibilite d’une entree dans le capital de GM, le magazine Business
Week s’interrogeait sur la possibilite de voir le patron de Renault
devenir le sauveur de General Motors. Les fuites avaient ete bien
organisees. Elles n’ont pas suffi.
Le milliardaire a alors adresse quelques semaines plus tard une
lettre au PDG de GM, Rick Wagoner, rendue publique a la fin du mois
dernier. Cette fois, General Motors, Renault et Nissan ont ete
contraints de negocier selon le calendrier dicte par Capitaine Kirk.
Eric Leser
–Boundary_(ID_042bARksPvWA4jTnvzzXTQ)–

Journaliste armenien: un arret qui bride la liberte d’expression
(Bruxelles)
Agence France Presse
12 juillet 2006 mercredi 11:28 AM GMT
BRUXELLES 12 juil 2006 — Bruxelles s’est dit mercredi decu par la
confirmation par la justice turque de la condamnation d’un journaliste
armenien pour “insulte a l’identite turque”, rappelant que la liberte
d’expression etait l’un des “principes cles” a respecter pour entrer
dans l’Union europeenne.
“Je suis decu par ce jugement qui limite l’exercice de la liberte
d’expression en Turquie”, a indique le commissaire europeen a
l’Elargissement Olli Rehn dans un communique.
“Je voudrais rappeler que la liberte d’expression est un principe
cle des critères politiques de Copenhague et constitue le noyau de la
democratie”, a-t-il ajoute, en soulignant que le respect par Ankara
des critères de Copenhague ferait l’objet d’une nouvelle evaluation
de la Commission a l’automne.
Pour entrer dans l’UE, un pays candidat doit respecter les critères
politiques, economiques et d’alignement sur la legislation europeenne
definis a Copenhague en 1993.
La Turquie a entame officiellement en octobre dernier des pourparlers
d’adhesion a l’UE, qui s’annoncent très difficiles vu les reticences
de certains Etats membres a l’entree dans le bloc europeen de ce pays
musulman a cheval entre Europe et Asie.
Le commissaire a appele les autorites turques a reviser l’article
301 du code penal sur lequel s’est appuye la cour de Cassation,
et d’autres articles “a la formulation vague”, “afin de garantir la
liberte d’expression en Turquie”.
–Boundary_(ID_yRpdGjFH22Lb1r8Wa5V /Dg)–

NEW VERSIONS OF THE MURDER
Naira Mamikonian
Aravot.am
14 July 06
It refers to Sedrak Zatikian’s murder committed on 22 of June
The murder committed near “Metax” industrial center in Malatia
Sebastia community on 22 of June, the target of which was the former
district mayor of the mentioned community Vahan Zatikian’s son,
Sedrak Zatikian and an accidental passer-by Karine Sargsian is still
under investigation. Only a person is arrested within the framework
of the brought criminal case on the occasion of the committed
crime. That person is Stepan Hakobian who is the NA deputy Hakob
Hakobian’s nephew. His culpability in that murder isn’t proved yet,
as we know. While the criminal case on Sedrak Zatikian’s murder is
under investigation, new versions of that murder are being discussed.
In one of our issues /24.06.06/ “Why has Sedrak Zatikian been
killed?” by headline we mentioned about the quarrel round Vahan
Zatikian’s purchased “Paros” restaurant as one of the versions of
the murder. Sedrak Zatikian could also been killed for unsettled
debts. According to our sources there is another version on the
occasion of the murder where the above-mentioned two versions are also
included. According to that version a killer killed S. Zatikian. The
same source informs there were no cars pursuing Zatikian’s car
and there was no exchange of fire as the witnesses told on that
day. According to our source the killer who killed S. Zatikian was
a blonde, thin young person with a violin case in his hand standing
not far from Sebastia-Tichina crossroad. When he informed that the
car was moving at that direction, he passed the street, stood on tram
rails and shot into the target. They say that if there was a passenger
next to S. Zatikian, he was been shot instead of Zatikian whose head
was injured by that shoot. The car ran over a lorry, and the killer,
reaching his target, assured by a checking shoot that he had killed
his target, got on a car, which was waiting for him and ran away.
As regards the motivation of the murder, the cause was the quarrel
over the above-mentioned “Paros” restaurant, which RA deputy Minister
of Defense Manvel Grigorian wanted to purchase.
By our source the NA businessman deputy Samvel Alexanian was also
interested in purchasing that restaurant. The latter and S. Zatikian
had even concluded a bargain, and S. Alexanian had even paid about
2 million Drams in advance. Later, S. Zatikian has changed his mind,
and gave half of the advance payment back. S. Alexanian called Zatikian
to negotiation for the rest of money on the day before his murder. The
negotiations turned into quarrel and they shot at each other. They say,
S. Zatikian was the first who shot. Finally the latter was given time
to pay the rest of money back otherwise he would be killed.
According to our sources this is the most credible version of the
murder. According to some information President Robert Kocharian
demands from the RA Public Prosecutor to detect that murder, while
there are some opinions, if deputy S. Alexanian is involved in this
murder, the case won’t be detected.
We tried to talk to Samvel Alexanian about this version but he isn’t
in the Republic.

Fearful escape from Beirut
By Lin Noueihed and Adam Bell
Sunday Telegraph/Australia
July 16, 2006 12:00
THE first Australians to flee war torn Lebanon arrived home to tearful
reunions with family in Sydney last night.
“It was very bad,” Joseph Hadchiti cried.
“They burned all the bridges, the airport. I was very worried.”
Mr Hadchiti fled Beirut with his wife and seven-year-old daughter
on Thursday.
The Sydney father told of his 36-hour dash to flee the region. His
family got a lift to the Syrian border, then a cab to Damascus,
where they boarded a commercial flight which flew via Bahrain.
But his excitement last night to be home was tinged with sadness. Mr
Hadchiti had to make the heart-wrenching decision to leave his other
daughter, Xena, behind with her young family.
His other daughters and son in Sydney spent an anxious two days
awaiting news that their family were safe. They could communicate
only via SMS text messages because all the telephone lines were jammed.
“It’s 4.20am and we haven’t slept yet because of the sound of the
Israeli airplanes and bombings. God bless xo,” read one text.
Also touching down on Australian soil last night was Rosie Haddad
and her children Stephanie, Ellie and Anthony.
“We just ran as soon as we found out. It was very stressful,”
Mrs Haddad said. Asked how it felt to be back home, Anthony said:
“It’s the best.”
They were the lucky ones. For most people, every avenue for safe
rescue remains blocked as the intense Israeli bombing campaign has
shut down all Lebanon’s main transport routes.
There are an estimated 3000 Australians travelling in Lebanon and
another 25,000 members of the Australian Lebanese community who
live there.
They include 78 members of the Sydney Armenian Community dance group,
including young children, teens and young adults, who are trapped in
Beirut as Israel’s bombing raids continue.
“There is a lot of anger, and a lot of frustration,” said Rosemary
Diodati, 12 members of whose extended family are stranded.
“I don’t think they (governments) are doing enough. We want them out,
and we want them safe and sound,” he said.
Sydney man Aren Eablanian, 23, a member of the dance group stuck in
Beirut, said they were becoming increasingly anxious listening to
the bombs exploding.
“We’re seeing what’s happening on television, and it’s pretty scary —
especially what’s going on with the airport,” he said.
Younger members were panicking, Mr Eablanian said. “It’s getting
really stressful for everyone.
“We just want to go home, but we have no idea when that will be.”
At least 79 civilians have been killed and 248 wounded since Israel
began its assault on Lebanon after the capture of two soldiers and
the killing of eight others by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah
on Wednesday.
Eighteen civilians, including nine children, were burnt alive in
an Israeli helicopter gunship attack yesterday on residents fleeing
border villages in south Lebanon, UN and hospital sources said.
The bomb raids have destroyed runways at Beirut’s airport and major
roads out of the country.
Israeli army chief Dan Halutz said more targets would be bombed in a
bid to remove Hezbollah from the border and replace it with a force
answerable to the Lebanese government.
In retaliation, Hezbollah fired more than two dozen rockets at towns
in northern Israel, slightly wounding several people.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking shortly
after Israeli jets destroyed his Beirut home, said the guerrilla group
had hit an Israeli warship off Beirut and threatened to launch deep
strikes inside the Jewish state.
“You wanted open war. We are going to open war,” Sheik Nasrallah
declared.
Israel’s assault on Lebanon has drawn mounting world criticism,
but the White House said President Bush would not press Israel to
halt operations.

Discomfort over Plan for Webster Comfort Inn
Norwood News, NY
July 14 2006
By ALEX KRATZ
On a recent Friday afternoon, Korean War veteran Harold Hekimian
pointed to the side of his house where sand from the construction
site next door has spilled onto his property, under his porch, into
his basement and onto his backyard.
Wearing a linen bathrobe and sporting a shaved head – the result of
a four-year battle with stomach cancer – Hekimian loudly laments the
imminent arrival of his new neighbor: an 80-room Comfort Inn.
A plywood fence runs suffocatingly close alongside Hekimian’s house
on Webster Avenue between East 202nd and 203rd streets. He can only
imagine how intrusive a five-story motel will be on him and his sister,
Virginia, both in their 70s.
“They’re taking away my oxygen,” Hekimian says, putting his hand to
his chest. “I won’t be able to breathe.”
That same day, June 30, the hotel’s developer, Sam Chang of Floral
Park, received design approval from the Buildings Department for a
five-story, 80-room motel on the slender plot of land wedged tightly
between Hekimian’s house and an auto body shop to the north. Chang has
yet to apply for a building permit, but that’s mostly a formality,
said Jennifer Givner, a spokesperson for the department. All Chang
needs is the proper insurance documents and the permit will almost
certainly be granted, Givner said.
Queens architect Michael Kang, who designed the motel and has worked
with Chang for 12 years on other New York hotel projects, refused to
offer any details about the hotel without the developer’s permission.
Chang specializes in low-cost hotels and has constructed more than
30 in New York, mostly in Manhattan. As of publication, Chang failed
to return several calls from the Norwood News.
Because the area is zoned for heavy commercial buildings, Chang’s
development company, McSam LLC, has a right to build the hotel
regardless of community opposition.
“They have an ‘as of right’,” said Rita Kessler, the district manager
for Community Board 7, talking about the developer’s “right” to build
on commercially zoned Webster. “But we’re going to fight them.”
At a Board 7 Land Use Committee meeting two weeks ago, Chang sent
his lawyer, Patrick Jones, to discuss the project with Board members.
Kessler and other members peppered the lawyer with questions.
“He had no answers for anything,” Kessler said.
Instead, the lawyer jotted down questions in his notebook and said he
would bring them up with his boss. Kessler also gave Jones something
else to give to Chang – a copy of a petition, created by the Hekimians,
with more than 800 signatures of people opposing the new motel.
With PS/MS 20 just a stone’s throw away, Kessler and others are
concerned about who will inhabit the rooms and what they will be used
for. The motel will be available for short-stay rentals, Kessler said,
meaning customers will be able to rent rooms for less than four hours
at a time.
“Webster certainly is not a tourist attraction,” Kessler said, adding
that she’s concerned the hotel will also be used to house the homeless.
Father Richard Gorman, chair of Community Board 12, sympathizes with
the community’s plight. He’s fought against what he describes as
“no tell motels” or “hot sheet motels” for more than a decade.
Gorman says a motel like Chang’s in an area like Webster Avenue is
only designed for two types of people – drug addicts and prostitutes
looking for a private place to conduct illegal activities or homeless
families sent there by the city because there is nowhere else to put
them. The city pays out of the way motels up to $90 a night to house
homeless families, Gorman says.
Recently, Gorman says, there was a brutal murder in one of the dozen
motels in his district in the northeast Bronx. The community has
been cut out of the approval process, Gorman says, even when motel
developments directly affect the community surrounding it. “To have
it across the street from a school, I would be very concerned,”
Gorman says.
Barbara Rondon, who has worked at PS/MS 20 for the past 10 years
and lives in the area, agreed. “We don’t need that [a motel] here,”
she said. “We’re trying to bring this area up, not bring it back down.”
Back on Hekimian’s porch, Harold says “hello” and smiles to everyone
passing by on the sidewalk. Both he and his sister were born in
this house. Their parents, Armenian immigrants, fled Turkish death
squads in 1915 and ended up here in Norwood in 1927. The Hekimians
remember when Webster was a narrow cobblestone road trafficked with
horse carriages. Virginia points to where the family’s lush green
lawn spread out to what is now gray concrete.
Harold Hekimian looks out from his porch and sweeps his hand over the
neighborhood – a place where the siblings now have myriad immigrant
friends, mostly young families, from places like Ghana and Chile.
They could be the next Hekimians.
“We’re used to it here,” Hekimian says. “Where are we going to go?”
“But Harold,” Virginia says, “you’re not going to like it here when
the motel comes.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN PIPELINE AFTER HEYDAR
ALIYEV IN THE CENTER OF ATTENTION OF WORLD PRESS
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
July 14 2006
Official opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Main Export Pipeline after
Heydar Aliyev taken place on July 13 was in the center of attention
of world press.
The ceremony was covered by about 400 journalists represented various
influential Turkish and world mass media. The “Washington Times”,
marking, that the BTC pipeline represents great value for power supply
of the West, at the same time, regards it as the important step of
Turkey in the direction of membership in the European Union.
The French newspaper “Figaro” emphasizes, that BTC has paramount
strategic value in struggle for pipelines in the Central Asia. The
article marks, that the East-West power corridor already has become a
reality, and Armenia which is carrying out in this region a destructive
policy, has stood aside of the given corridor.
The BBC TV mentions, that once the BTC project was for many a myth,
and its realization is regarded as a historical victory of the
heads of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia, and also the USA. Alongside
with economic value of the pipeline, the author also emphasizes its
strategic importance.
The German newspaper “Frankfurter Rundhau” calls the ceremony of
official opening of the BTC the “great opening of all times”. It
characterizes transportation of the Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan crude oil
to the world markets as big contribution to power safety of the Europe.
The French newspaper “Le Soir” names the BTC pipeline after Heydar
Aliyev “a pearl necklace”, connecting Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia,
and marks its value for power safety of the Europe. The newspaper
draws attention to that fact, that owing to transportation via the
territory of Turkey of energy carriers of the Caspian region possessing
one third of the volume stocks of oil in the world, Ankara gets an
important strategic value.
The Turkish media in detail speaks on the undeniable role of the
nationwide leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev in realization of the
BTC project. The newspapers “Milliyyet”, “Sabah” emphasizes, that at
ceremony of official opening the heads of the states and governments
revered bright memory of Heydar Aliyev who was the initiator of the
mentioned project – the “Silk Road of XXI Century”.
In the article of the minister of Energy and Natural Resources of
Turkey Hilmi Guler “BTC becomes an example for new projects”, it is
emphasized, that the pipeline is a subject of pride, represents great
value from the point of view of progress of the countries of region.

Interwoven histories
Financial Times; Jul 15, 2006
By Peter Aspden
The chic streets that surround the Victoria and Albert Museum in South
Kensington are not short of expensive shops selling exotic carpets and
fabrics from the east; but here, in the museum’s new Jameel Gallery
of Islamic Art, is one that makes all those others look like tawdry
camel rugs. The Ardabil carpet, the world’s oldest dated carpet from
1539, is the proud centrepiece of the gallery: 50 sq m of subtle hues
and exquisite craftsmanship, encased in a brilliant new display that
finally puts it where it belongs – on the floor.
A specially created case, made with non-reflective glass and hung
low from the ceiling by numerous strands, deliberately echoing the
pendulous effect of lanterns in a mosque, gives the Iranian carpet
its best-ever public showcase; it has always previously hung on the
wall. Little is known for certain about its origins, says Tim Stanley,
the museum’s senior Middle East curator, but it was admired by no less
a figure than William Morris, who considered it “the finest eastern
carpet which I have seen… of singular perfection, defensible on
all points, logically and consistently beautiful”. Morris urged the
museum to buy it from a London dealer for the hefty sum of £2,000 in
1893. Today it is priceless. It will be lit for visitors for just 10
minutes every half hour, to preserve its original colours.
The Jameel Gallery, designed by the architects Softroom, opens
this week with a sharp sense of purpose. Not only does it aim to
improve public understanding of a culture that many westerners have
misunderstood, prejudged or underrated; it also focuses on the fact
that Islam was always more than a religion. “What we have gathered
here is the art of the Islamic empire and its successor states,”
says Stanley. “And not everyone was a Muslim in that empire. People
get the wrong idea – for example they think there are no images in
Islamic art, which is not true.”
The sections of the gallery that are dedicated to secular items show
an art that reflects a highly sophisticated court milieu, where
“un-Islamic” activities such as astrology, dancing to music and
drinking wine are lavishly portrayed. “It is imagined that the Middle
East was in some way cut off from the rest of the world, whereas it
was the very centre of so many cultural exchanges,” says Stanley. At
the same time, it was the religious devotion inspired by Islam that
enabled the region to resist cosmopolitan influences and keep its
distinctive identity.
Many of the fine ceramics on display, for example, were the result of
trade links with China, where white stoneware was being produced and
became widely admired; from the Middle East it spread to the west,
where it became more fashionable still.
Christianity also played a role in the Islamic empire. The Isfahan
Cope, a semi-circular church cloak woven in Isfahan, Iran, with the
dense silk pile used for carpets, features striking images of the
Annunciation and the Crucifixion. It was produced in the early 17th
century for an Armenian church. It is a remarkably worked garment,
its Christian components harmonising with typically Iranian scrollwork
motifs.
Cross-fertilisation of this kind was common: a Syrian or Egyptian
brass chalice from the 13th/14th century is in the Islamic Mamluk
style, yet is inscribed in Arabic honouring the Christian patron who
commissioned it, illustrating how local Christians were accommodated
in the prevailing political system.
These are perhaps fanciful footnotes to the gallery’s main business,
although one may think that such fruitful examples of multicultural
synergy are never to be overlooked in the present climate of mutual
suspicion. The principal constituents of Islamic art – that are
common to most of the work here – are: an emphasis on calligraphy,
particularly in the depiction of quotations from the Koran; a rigorous
geometric style, employing a flat picture plane; the use of plant-based
motifs, a style that was to become known as “arabesque” in Europe;
and the occasional appearance of images and extracts from poetry.
The contentious issue of figural decoration is nowhere better seen than
in the 14th century tiles that come from a monumental tomb found in
Natanz in Iran. An inscription in cobalt blue is backed by scrollwork,
which is inhabited by small birds. Some time before the 19th century,
when the tiles were removed from the building, the head of each bird
was carefully chipped off, so that religious sensibilities would no
longer be affronted.
The Ardabil carpet is thought to have religious connections precisely
because of its lack of figurative imagery, in contrast to the so-called
Chelsea carpet (after the London dealer from whom it was bought),
another 16th-century masterpiece, adorned with animals either grazing
or in combat, and clearly for secular use.
But the Jameel Gallery, dedicated to the memory of his parents by
Mohammed Jameel, president and chief executive of the Abdul Latif
Jameel Group, does not only tell the story of Islamic art; it is
also an insight into British cultural history. Interest in Islamic
ornament was a by-product of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which had
given prominence to British industrial design, then widely thought
to be lacking in aesthetic qualities. The architect and critic Owen
Jones, who sketched details and plans at Granada’s Alhambra in the
1830s, made explicit the link between improving industrial design
and the superb craftsmanship displayed in Islamic ornamental art in
his influential book The Grammar of Ornament.
Outstanding individual pieces, such as ornate trays and basins, were
acquired by the new Museum of Ornamental Art (the V&A’s precursor)
for their superb detailing – yet there was also something akin
to industrial espionage taking place, according to Stanley.
“Manufacturers needed information on the material culture of
non-western countries, so that they could match their production to
the needs of overseas markets.”
The acquisition of Arab and Persian art, as it was then classified,
continued apace, from a series of international exhibitions held
in London and Paris. Iran even participated officially in the
Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867. (At this time, the Turks
were not considered capable of producing anything worthwhile – one
theory ingeniously believed Iznik pottery to be a product of Persian
craftsmen who had been marooned on the island of Rhodes.)
The gallery of Islamic art as such was opened in 1950, when, says
Stanley, “the knowledge we have today and the desire to explain to
the public was simply not there”. The Jameel Gallery takes as its
twin mantras the new imperatives of museum culture – “education
and engagement”, with interactive displays linking the gallery’s
400 objects to the fine poetry tradition of the region, and proper
discussion of social context. Above all, however, Stanley says the
gallery should be a great experience for British Muslims, “to visit
and come away with a real appreciation of the beauty of these works,
and a sense of pride”.
The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art opens at the Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, SW7, this Thursday.
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OSCE proposals basis for future talks – Armenian foreign minister
Arminfo
14 Jul 06
Yerevan, 14 July: The disclosure of the main principles by the
co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group was no surprise for the Armenian
side, Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan said during a news conference at the Mirror
Discussion Club today.
“Of course, we had information that the co-chairmen were discussing the
issue of disclosing the contents of the meeting in Vienna, however, no
information was given to us until recently,” the foreign minister said,
recalling that the interview of the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group, Matthew Bryza, followed the statement made by the co-chairmen.
“I consider that all this is good for us to start healthy discussions
in our society,” the minister pointed out. As for different and
frequent critical opinions about these principals, the minister said
that he treats them calmly. The minister said that he considered
as natural the existence of different opinions and people and forces
that are against the “principles”.
However, he noted that at the moment, he does not intend to persuade
anyone, especially the people, about the need to accept provisions
of the document. “In fact, the Azerbaijani side has not accepted
them yet. If this document was a completely ideal for us, I would
start persuading people regardless of whether Azerbaijan has accepted
it or not. But this is a document of compromises on which we have
already expressed our position. We consider that these principles
are comprehensive, well-thought out and have a correct combination
of mutual compromises. They can serve as a basis for us in future
negotiations. But the document is not perfect. So why should we
persuade our people? This is not that stage. We will enter that stage
when there is an agreement between two or three sides,” the Armenian
foreign minister said.
[Passage omitted: Oskanyan commented the visit to the region by the
US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza]