ANCIENT MEDICAL PRACTICE OPENS WORLD OF CULTURE

China daily.China
March 17, 2006 Friday

Seven years ago, Gayane Tsaturyan came to Beijing from Armenia hoping
to fulfil her childhood dream of helping others through medicine. She
is moving closer to her dream as her graduation from Beijing University
of Chinese Medicine is coming up in August. In the meantime, the
22-year-old student is working as an intern at Dongzhimen Hospital
in Beijing’s Dongcheng District.

>>From the first day she worked at the outpatient wards last November,
she attracted the attention of curious patients as well as many funny
incidents, she told China Daily.

“They took me as a foreigner at first sight, but later on they would
rather believe I was an Uygur from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region, Northwest China,” said Tsaturyan.

In the mind of those patients, she explained, they don’t believe
that a foreigner can serve as a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
doctor in a Chinese hospital.

This gives her supervisor extra work to explain several times a
day that the quasi-Xinjiang woman is actually an intern student
from Armenia.

“However, they didn’t expect that I could understand nearly every
word they said about me, like my big nose, fair skin and deep eyes,”
said Tsaturyan with a laugh. “They chatted in public with each other
while I was walking by. I picked up Chinese because I wanted to
study TCM.” Language course To learn TCM, she said people must study
Chinese language well. It is through TCM that the world of culture
and language opened up for her, allowing her to know China and its
people more intimately along with the ancient traditional medical
practice. Tsaturyan came to China in 1999 at the age of 16 and entered
the Beijing Language and Culture University to undergo two years’
intensive Chinese language training. Unlike many foreigners who fear
Chinese, Tsaturyan said she enjoys it.

“The Chinese characters look very beautiful,” she said. “Writing
characters is just like drawing pictures.” To enrich her understanding
of Chinese characters, she signed up for a calligraphy course,
learning how to use the soft brush and black ink to write Chinese
characters and strictly following the traditional routine.

“Calligraphy helps me deepen my understanding of the basic the
structure of Chinese characters, like different dots and strokes,”
said Tsaturyan. “The more complicated structure a character has, the
more beautiful it looks.” In her eyes, the classic Chinese characters
look prettier than the simplified ones. She dislikes memorizing a
new word by rote, however. So, she tries to catch it in contexts. She
owed this good habit to her Chinese teachers.

“They taught me Chinese simply in a pure Chinese environment,” she
recalled. “Though they could speak English, they never used it in
teaching Chinese. They use gestures to help us understand meanings.”

She still remembers her teacher’s gestures at her first Chinese class.

“My teacher acted as if throwing something out, to let us understand
the word of xiake (dismissal when class is over), and then we realized
that we could leave,” she said. “Gesturers are way more important than
anything else in the initial phase.” Rich body language, accompanied
with several commonly-used Chinese words like zhege (this), nage
(that) and duoshaoqian (How much it costs), she recalled, helped her
handle routines in Beijing.

However, she had trouble making out the right tones of the Chinese
characters with the same pronunciation.

“Taxi drivers drove me to the wrong place, simply because I couldn’t
utter the right tone as perfectly as Chinese,” she said.

To get more interaction with the Chinese, she went out of the small
campus and registered in a salsa dancing course at a club named Latino
Fly. Now she has been learning salsa for almost a year.

“In this dancing course, I meet with people of different ages and
jobs,” said Tsaturyan.

Besides dancing together, she said she may chat with them during the
break and even travel with them during holidays.

Medical studies She began to study TCM in the fall of 2001. For
Tsaturyan, Chinese language learning is much easier than TCM study.

“Though I could use Chinese in my daily life after two years study,
I understood almost nothing when I took the first medicine course,”
she said. “Chinese in the field of TCM is much more complicated than
the daily Chinese.” Courses like Fundamentals of TCM and Ancient
Literature in Medicine are filled with jargon like yin and yang
(the negative and the positive in nature), wuxing (the earth’s five
fundamental elements), and qi (vital energy), said Tsaturyan.

To tackle these abstruse words, Tsaturyan bought dictionaries
specialized in TCM and looked up those new words one by one.

“The dictionary is a treasure full of knowledge,” said Tsaturyan.

“With the help of the dictionary, I can improve my understanding of
Chinese as well as Chinese medicine by myself.” The language difficulty
also lies in names of Chinese herbal medicines. “There are too many
herbal medicines in awkward-sounding Chinese characters,” she said.

“We must memorize the medical function of each one, and combine them
into a subscription for patients in the manner of TCM like feeling the
pulse, watching colours of the upper side of the tongue, and asking
about the previously-contracted disease of patients.” She added that
foreigners may encounter the language barrier along with the great
difference in beliefs.

“To study TCM well, I have to change many things that I had believed
before I came to China,” she explained. “The philosophy in religion
and biology that I accepted as truth are in sharp contrast with the
fundamental ideas promoted by TCM.” Six and a half years of living
in China, she said, has made her feel that she has already turned
from a foreigner into a native Beijinger. “I am afraid that I may
miss China very much after I go back to Armenia,” she revealed.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 17, 2006 Friday

PEACE IS FORCED ON BAKU AND YEREVAN

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, March 15, 2006, p. 4

Washington needs a bridgehead of stability in the southern part of
the Caucasus to deal with Iran

by Sokhbet Magomedov

AMERICA’S INSISTENCE ON A SETTLEMENT OF THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT
IN 2006 HAS AN EXPLANATION; Washington insists on a solution to the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem this year already.

The visit of US Undersecretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Daniel
Freed and Stephen Mann, American chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group for
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, to Baku ended yesterday. The
Americans met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov and
were granted an audience with President Ilham Aliyev. Nothing is
reported on what transpired at the meetings and talks. Mann only said
that the sides discussed continuation of talks over the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

The guests left Azerbaijan for Baku. They also intend to visit
Armenia. The American diplomats’ visits to Baku and Yerevan take
place when the Karabakh talks are in a cul-de-sac and when presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan threaten to resume the hostilities.

The cease-fire regime is broken practically every day, both
servicemen and noncombatants die and that does not make the whole
mess any easier to sort out. Needless to say, this state of affairs
worries OSCE intermediaries who spare neither time nor effort to keep
Baku and Yerevan from escalation of the hostilities.

Commenting on the highly volatile situation, US Ambassador in
Azerbaijan Rino Harnisch told journalists that “deaths occurring on
the front line show that the conflict is anything but over.” The
American diplomat said quite emphatically that the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict “should be settled by negotiations only.” Wishing that the
recent meeting between presidents Aliyev and Robert Kocharjan in
France had been more productive, Harnisch emphasized the necessity of
regular negotiations between the leaders of the two states and
activization of intermediaries.

The American diplomat’s categorical tone matched the statement made
by intermediaries in the wake of the March 7-8 meeting in Washington.

Most Azerbaijani analysts believe that the insistence of world powers
and first and foremost the United States on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
settlement in 2006 exactly, has an ulterior motive. Political
scientist Anar Safikhanov is convinced that “the matter concerns the
mounting tension over the Iranian nuclear program.” “It is this
factor precisely that is making international intermediaries and
first and foremost the United States frantic. Now that things are
rapidly progressing to isolation of the “obstinate” Iran, the United
States needs peace and stability in the southern part of the
Caucasus. The Americans view the republics here and particularly
Azerbaijan as a bridgehead – either for isolation of Tehran or for
actual military strikes at this country,” Safikhanov said.
Effectiveness of Freed’s and Mann’s mission will depend on what
Washington intends to offer to Yerevan and Baku. The Americans will
be discussing the same matter with the Armenian leadership later this
week.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 17, 2006 Friday

GYUMRUI: WE CAME TO STAY

Source: Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier, No 10, March 15 – 21, 2006, p. 4
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Arms and military hardware withdrawn from Georgia will go to the
102nd Military Base

by Oleeg Falichev

THE RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN MILITARY COOPERATION IS FRUITFUL; An update on
Armenia, Russia’s strategic partner beyond the Caucasus Range.

There is a country beyond the Caucasus Range that unlike Georgia is a
bona fide strategic partner of Russia. This is Armenia. Russia and
Armenia signed Treaty on friendship, cooperation, and mutual
assistance (August 29, 1997). Both countries are signatories of the
Collective Security Treaty. The 102nd Russian Military Base is
quartered in Armenia and the border with Turkey and Iran is manned by
Russian border guards. President Vladimir Putin and Robert Kocharjan
proclaimed 2006, the Year of Armenia in Russia.

Armenian historians and politicians are out to have the international
community and first and foremost Turkey recognize genocide of the
Armenians in 1915.

Turkey convened several international conferences on genocide of the
Armenians in the Osmanian Empire not long ago. It indicates
recognition in Turkey of the fact that the process acknowledgement of
the genocide even by the countries like Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia
that do not boast of large Armenian diasporas cannot be stopped
anymore. Moreover, normal relations with all neighbors is one of the
requirements for membership in the European Union Ankara has coveted.
All the same, Turkey’s stand on the matter remains unchanged. It does
not even intend to open the border with Armenia, a fact that cannot
help affecting the situation in the region.

The situation on the border with Iran is much better. On the other
hand, the international situation Iran is in nowadays may
automatically generate problems for Armenia should the United States
decide to strike at Iran. It is therefore necessary to understand
Armenia’s interests. It does not appear however, that the Armenian
leadership is giving any thought to the matter even though a great
deal will depend on Armenia’s position in escalation of the
American-Iranian conflict. After all, Armenia is the territory that
may be used for the strike at Iran. No wonder the Americans are
discussing the use of the territory of Azerbaijan with official Baku.
As a matter of fact, neither is it possible nowadays to predict all
consequences of appearance of peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict area. In short, there are lots of reasons that might turn
Armenia into an arena of regional wars – not to mention possibility
of a war in Nagorno-Karabakh itself where battalions stand poised and
ready…

Tension is rapidly mounting in yet another area close to Armenia. The
matter concerns Djavakhetia in Georgia, a region with an ethnic
Armenian population, Russian troops are leaving nowadays. The
Armenian are forced to leave too. There will be no jobs to be found
in Akhalkalaki once the Russians are gone. Ashot Melkonjan, Director
of the Institute of History, is convinced that the security concept
of the Republic of Armenia must account for the problem of
Djavakhetia too.

The Armenian population of Samtskhe-Djavakhetia regularly brought up
the matter of the status of autonomy after 1992, and inevitably
encountered all sorts of difficulties and obstacles. As for the
Russian base in Akhalkalaki (a district center in Djavakhetia) it is
about to be withdrawn. NATO troops will probably move in once the
Russian military is gone and they may include a Turkish contingent.

Deputy Premier and Defense Minister, Sergei Ivanov, visited Yerevan
in early 2006. Russian contracts for enterprises in Armenia turned
over to Russia for debts were discussed.

Ivanov visited the 102nd Military Base as well and said that
everything possible was done to improve combat readiness of the
Russian-Armenian army group within the framework of the bilateral
military cooperation. “Military-technical cooperation is successful
as well,” Ivanov said.

Armenian officers and trainees are being trained in Russian military
academies and colleges free of charge as of January 1, 2005. They
number almost 500 men nowadays. Now that Russia is withdrawing
military hardware from Georgia, it is common knowledge that some of
them will be moved to the 102nd Military Base. It does not mean that
all of that will remain in Armenia for good. The assumption that
Russia is arming its ally is incorrect. After all, blockade of
railroads has a disruptive effect on supplies to the Russian base in
Armenia and therefore on combat training. Munitions are at high
premium, saved whenever possible even in the course of live fire
practice.

The 1997 Treaty, between Russia and Armenia was followed by 45
military treaties between our countries (15 international, 20
treaties between governments and 10 between ministries and
departments). Six documents were ratified: Treaty on friendship,
cooperation, and mutual assistance; Treaty on the Russian military
base in Armenia; Agreement of the use of arms by servicemen of the
Russian base beyond its territory; Agreement on joint planning of
forces (means) in the interests of collective security; Agreement on
legal aspects of existence of the Russian military base and on mutual
legal assistance; Protocol No 4 on amendment to the Treaty on the
Russian military base in Armenia.

Negotiations between military delegations and meetings of defense
ministers are planned and regular. Chief of the General Staff,
General of the Army Yuri Baluyevsky, visited Armenia in 2005. Major
General S. Bainetov, Chief of the Flights Security Service of the
Russian Air Force, and Armenian Deputy Defense Minister Lieutenant
General A. Mirzabekjan met in Yerevan and signed an accord on
security of flights. Armenia is the only country in the Caucasus that
possesses sophisticated S-300s.

An important meeting of the Russian-Armenian working group took place
in Yerevan in August 2005, when financial aspects of the Russian
military presence in the Republic of Armenia were discussed and
decided on. It is common knowledge that Russian servicemen do not pay
for communal services and for the land they are using as shooting
ranges and testing sites. No other Russian military base abroad
enjoys this treatment.

Meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers took place in Moscow
on November 30, 2005. Defense ministers of Russia and Armenia signed
a protocol between the governments of our countries on amendments of
the Accord on sites of the Russian military base in Armenia and
procedures of allocation of land plots. Working meetings of groups
for military and military-technical cooperation took place in Moscow
and Yerevan. Experts of foreign ministries of Russia and Armenia met
to discuss foreign political plans.

Joint actions should be commented on as well. The matter concerns
regular exercises for the command of the United Army Group, joint
exercises (on maps) with the United Command of the United Army Group,
conferences with senior officers of the Armed Forces of Armenia,
joint field exercises…

Generally speaking. The Russian-Armenian military cooperation is
fruitful. It will continue and advance. All of that proves that
Armenia had been and remains Russia’s outpost in the Caucasus.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 17, 2006 Friday

ROBERT KOCHARYAN AND NIKOLAY BORDYUZHA HAVE NOGOTIATIONS

Yesterday Armenia President Robert Kocharyan had a meeting with
Collective Security Agreement Organization General Secretary Nikolay
Bordyuzha, where he discussed missions and perspectives of the
Agreement named, as well as the agenda for the coming session of
Collective Security Council in June in Minsk, the Collective Security
Agreement countries, including Zakavkazye. Mister Bordyuzha is paying
a business call in Armenia’s capital. He had negotiations with
Republic’s Ministry of Internal Affairs Head Vartan Oskanyan,
discussed with Minister of Defense and Security Council Serzh
Sarkisyan the questions for the session Secutiry Council Committee of
Collective Security Agreement Organization member-countries, which
will be opened on March 22. Nikolay Bordyuzha’s visit to Erevan is
done to proceed his business trip, meant for gathering information
for the countries about Collective Security Agreement Organization
activities. In February Bordyuzha visited Kirgiziya, and Byelorussia
and Tadzhikistan at the beginning of March.

Source: Kommersant, March 15, 2006, p. 9

LARISA ALAVERDIAN: IT BECOMES CLEAR THAT WRITING LETTER TO COUNTRY
PRESIDENT IS VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTION

YEREVAN, MACRH 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The human rights violation in Armenia
is of a regulated character. RA first Ombudsperson Larisa Alaverdian
expressed such an opinion at the March 16 discussion organized
by the civil national initiative. According to her, particularly,
the process of violating the property rights of the Buzand street
inhabitants was implemented in conditions of different levels of
cooperation of the authorities.

According to L.Alaverdian, sale of a property may be implemented only
in the case when a profit for the society exists. But in this case,
one may speak about sale with corresponding compensation, but not
about an obliged buy and sale, when owners haven’t even the right to
have their property estimated by an independent agent.

In the given case, people were obliged to sign an agreement on sale
from the money got of which they had to pay taxes, when no taxes are
paid from the money got in the case of compensation.

The former Ombudsperson mentioned that when making an attempt to
draw the country administration’s attention to all these, she wrote
a letter to the RA President, persuading the latters to address to
the Constitutional Court on that issue, a response was got in which
she was accused of violating point 5 of the Constitution with the
explanation that she carried out actions which aren’t arisen of the
Ombudsperson’s commissions. “It became clear that writing a letter
to the President of the republic is a violation of the Constitution,”
Larisa Alaverdian mentioned.

While, according to her, it’s spoken only about the money problem:
people demanded such a size of money which will allow to buy flats
instead of the ones taken from them. According to L.Alaverdian,
in the case of fulfilling those demands, those people or groups of
people the interests of who were classified higher than the interests
of inhabitants at all levels of the authorities, will have no great
losses.

Touching upon the problem of violating the right of judicial
protection, Larisa Alaverdian mentioned that this issue is spoken
about so much that the Ombudsperson’s speech seems to be late. But
according to her, one must give the alarm not about dependence of
judges but about absence of a just legal action. According to her,
for complaints against an unjust decision made by a judge, it isn’t
much important who appoints that judge.

DANGER OF AVIAN INFLUENZA SOFTENED IN ARMENIA, REPRESENTATIVE OF RA
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE ASSURES

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The avian influenza danger is
softened in Armenia as not a great number of swans will come to the
republic because of natural climatic conditions. Grisha Baghian,
the Chief of the Veterinary Service Department of the RA Ministry
of Agriculture made such a statment in the March 16 interview to
journalists. According to him, during the last month cases of bird flu
were fixed mainly among swans. And there were yet no swans flying over
Armenia this year. G.Baghian also mentioned that according to data of
poultry keepers of Armenia, about 100 swans may come to the republic.

RESULTS OF COMPETITION HELD AMONG ANALYSTS AND EXPERTS SUMMED UP

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The “Caucasus Institute for Democracy”
development program summed up on March 16 results of a competition
announced among experts and analysts 2 months ago. According to them,
among the more than 30 presented works, Vahagn Aglian was honoured with
the first prize, 300 thousand drams and diploma for the work dedicated
to development of relations of Russia and the South Caucasus. Prizes
of 200 thousand drams and dimplomas were awarded to Artak Shakarian
for the work concerning the process of Turkey’s membership to the
European Union, and Haroutiun Khachatrian, Noyan Tapan agency expert,
for the work “Armenia: Economy Growth Potential of Coming Years.”

Sergey Shakariants for the work “Kosovo and Artsakh,” Hayk Demoyan and
Sergey Minasian correspondingly for the works “Islamic Mercenaries
in Karabakh War” and “Military-Technical Aspects of Regional Safety
and Problems of Control towards Armament in South Caucasus,” were
awarded the third prize of 150 thousand drams each and dimplomas.

Others of other 3 works were awarded encouriging prizes of 50 thousand
drams each: Hrant Ter-Abrahamian and Levon Ghazarian for the works
concerning problems relating to Iran, and Arshak Ohanian for the
analysis of the U.S., NATO and Russia relations and policy with the
South Caucasus.

While summing up the competition results, Gagik Ter-Haroutiunian, the
head of the jury, the Director of the “Noravank” scientific-educational
center, attached serious importance to the issue that analytical
society is formed in Armenia the evidence of what is that the
considerable part of more than 30 works are analytical works of
a rather high quality. Estimating the works, the jury took into
account the authors’ independence and the general quality of the
works. The organizers also mentioned that the competition will become
a traditional one.

INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONSULTATIONS ON ARMENIAN-GERMAN FINANCIAL AND
TECHNICAL COOPERATION TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN ON MAY 20-21

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Intergovernmental consultations
on the Armenian-German finnacial and technical cooperation will be
held in Yerevan on May 20-21. NT correspondent was informed at the RA
Ministry of Finance and Economy that during the meeting the sides will
address a number of financial and technical programs. Particularly,
they intend to discuss issues related to the energy, health and
municipal infrastructures sectors, the mortgage crediting market,
as well as issues of assistance for small and medium business.

The Armenian Co-Chairman of the Intergovernmental Commission is the
RA Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatrian, and the German
Co-Chairman – the Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development
of Germany Rolf Baldus.

Australian Associated Press Pty. Ltd.
AAP Newsfeed
March 17, 2006 Friday 8:54 PM AEST

Wght: Sarkisian retires after missing medal

by Sam Lienert

MELBOURNE March 17

Decorated Australian weightlifting veteran Yourik Sarkisian retired
from the sport in disappointment today, after failing to win a medal
at the Commonwealth Games.

Immediately after failing in his final attempt of the competition,
the 44-year-old removed his shoes and held them up to the crowd,
signalling the end to his illustrious career The Armenian immigrant
won a silver medal for the Soviet Union at the Moscow Olympics in
1980 and broke numerous world records during his years in the sport.

However, after the competition today finished he suggested that the
retirement might not be permanent.

“Today I am stopped, next year I don’t know,” Sarkisian said.

Sri Lankan Chinthana Vidanage won the gold medal, with a total weight
of 271kg.

India’s Arun Murugesan, the pre-event favourite, lifted the same
weight, but Vidanage won out because of his lighter bodyweight.

Malaysia’s Roswadi Bin Abdul Rashid took the bronze medal with a
261kg total.

Sarkisian finished in eighth position with 255kg.

He said he felt before the competition he had the ability to win gold,
but had faltered under pressure in front of his home crowd.

“Too much pressure, I never feel this pressure before,” he said.

“I feel nervous, that never happened before too.”

It could almost have been much worse, after he failed in his first
two attempts at the snatch, with 113kg on the bar, before making the
lift with his third attempt.

That put him in equal fifth place affter the snatch, 8kg behind
leader Murugesan.

It meant he had to do something special in the clean and jerk to win
a medal.

After lifting 142kg with his first attempt, he moved up to 149kg,
which would have been enough for the bronze medal.

However, on both of his attempts at that weight, he could not even
complete the “clean” part of the lift.

After his final failure, he went and thumped the back wall with his
hand, raised his palms upwards with a look of resignation, before
removing his shoes and holding them to the cheering crowd.

That preluded an exciting conclusion to the gold medal battle.

With the final lift of the competition, Vidanage had to lift 153kg,
after failing in his previous attempt at 150kg, when the jury
overturned an earlier majority decision of the judges, who had awarded
him the lift.

It made it all the sweeter for him when he then hoisted the 153kg
weight, giving him the gold medal, Sri Lanka’s first medal of the
weightlifting in these Games.

ARMAVIA TO RESUME YEREVAN – TEL AVIV – YEREVAN FLIGHTS FROM MARCH 23

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Starting March 23, the Armavia
airline will resume Yerevan – Tel Aviv – Yerevan flights which
were discontinued due to the insufficient number of passengers. NT
correspondent was infomed from Armavia’s press service that the company
plans to operate new flights to Anapa and Donetsk this summer, as
well as to increase the number of flights in July in the following
destinations: Paris, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Odessa, Simferopol,
Beirut, Athens, Aleppo and Tehran. Armavia envisages to purchase two
new Airbus A-319 planes this year.

It was noted that in January-February 2006, Armavia operated 356
regular flights, transporting 26,700 passengers.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress