SIX BACHAUER FINALISTS GET THE NOD FOR THE FINALE
– Jennifer Barrett
Salt Lake Tribune, UTAH
June 28 2006
After deliberating for more than an hour, jury members from the Gina
Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition on Tuesday night
selected six performers to advance to the final round.
They are Hinrich Alpers from Germany; Stephen Beus, Washington state;
Vadym Kholodenko, Ukraine; Ka-ling Colleen Lee, Hong Kong; Jue Wang,
China; and Takashi Yamamoto, Japan.
Two Utahns – Aram Arakelyan, a native of Armenia and a student at Utah
State University in Logan; and Jonathan Bowman, raised in Santaquin
but now studying in Italy – did not make the cut.
Kholodenko, Alpers, and Yamamoto will perform with the Utah Symphony
beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, while Lee, Beus and Wang will play
with the orchestra at the same time Friday. The concerts will be
at Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. For ticket
information, visit or call 801-355-2787.

STORM HITS ARMENIA, CAUSING DEVASTATIONS
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 28 2006
The storm hitting Armenia early this morning caused devastations
(APA). Strong winds caused serious damage to apartments and state
establishments in Ararat and Vayoch-Dzor provinces.
Armenia’s Rescue Service reports the storm ruined the cultural house
and kindergarten in Artashat region, “Armish” rehabilitation center
and a maternity hospital in Vedi region. The storm caused collapsing
of roofs of two buildings in Vaychor-Dzor province. No casualties
were reported. The cost of the damage caused to Armenia is being
calculated now.

PATRIARCH MESROB II: I DO NOT AGREE WITH KAREKIN II’S COMMENTS ON GENOCIDE
Hurriyet, Turkey
June 28 2006
Patriach Mesrob II, the leader of the Armenian Orthodox community
in Turkey, has commented on his differing views from those expressed
last week by Catholicos Karekin II, the world leader of the Armenian
Orthodox Church, who was in Istanbul last week for a visit.
Karekin, who came to Istanbul as the guest of Greek Fener Patriarch
Bartholomeus and as well as of Patriarch Mesrob II, held a press
conference at the Armenian Patriarchate on Sunday during which he
called on Turkey to officially recognize the events of 1915 as a
genocide against the Armenians. Mesrob II had subsequently commented
to the press that his perspective on the matter differs from that
of Karekin II’s, and that the Turkish-Armenian relationship is not
soley based on incidents which took place between 1890-1923.
Responding to reporters’ questions about what he thought of Karekin
II’s statements about genocide, Mesrob II said: “How can I comment
on those statements? I guess I could say ‘They were as I expected
they would be.’ At the press conference at which Katekin II spoke,
TV cameras from the Armenian station Shoagat were present. All of
the diaspora watches Shoagat TV. So Karekin knew the public he was
addressing with his comments. I think differently on the matter, as
I have said many times in the past. The disaster of 1915 should be
examined on separate platforms by politcians, historians, diplomats,
and sociologists. This would be very helpful in terms of creating
empathy and understanding, rather than enmity.”

THE PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE
Andy Martin
Political Gateway, FL
June 28 2006
(WASHINGTON, DC) (June 28, 2006) Israelis invaded Gaza today,
ostensibly seeking to “rescue” Corporal Gilad Shalit but in reality
seeking to unleash their blood lust for vengeance against the
Palestinian people. The Israeli fuhrers are outraged at the way
a hapless band of Islamic extremists have demonstrated Israel’s
impotence to the world.
Nothing is more central to Israelis than their constant preening
about their self-proclaimed “superpower” status, their “secret”
nuclear arsenal, and the idea that President Bush has promised to
shed American blood to protect Israel’s conquests in the Middle East.
So when a small band of Palestinians exposes Israeli impotence,
punishment must be imposed on the entire Palestinian People.
Unfortunately for peace-loving Israelis, their leaders’ wrath
is self-destructive and self-destroying. The Israeli government
manufactures anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activism at a breakneck
pace. Today’s events crystallize the counterintuitive nature of
Israel’s slow death and suicidal impulses.
We begin with the basic, the obvious, the unavoidable: being a soldier
puts you at risk. By the very act of putting on a uniform and being
stationed in a military encampment a solider is at risk and in harm’s
way. When Palestinians set up rockets, they get attacked. The Israelis
bomb them. Palestinians likewise attack Israelis for occupying to
their nation. There is tragic but ineluctable symmetry in all of
this killing.
Americans in Iraq are attacked and killed, merely because of their
uniformed status. Every general knew invading Iraq would cost lives.
Only Vice president Dick Cheney thought otherwise. But, no one forces
anyone anywhere to wear a uniform, not here, not there, not anywhere.
Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s own son is a refusenik,
someone who refuses to perform military service in the Israeli
wehrmacht (he’s no fool).
Another obvious truth is that captured soldiers must be rescued.
There is nothing wrong with that. It is part of the ethos of military
loyalty and unit solidarity. But Israelis and their fellow travelers in
the Bush Administration have been watching old tapes of the rescue at
Entebbe (Uganda), long past the sell-by date of that ancient mission.
Entebbe involved the rescue of helpless civilians hijacked and held
in Uganda. Israelis launched a dangerous mission and succeeded. The
result was heroic status for the rescuers, and the enduring myth that
rescuing people is Hollywood-style easy.
Rescues are not. Just ask former president Jimmy Carter about his
rescue mission in Iran. Or the Americans who led the unsuccessful
rescue at the Hanoi Hilton.
On the other hand, when North Koreans took an entire ship hostage,
the U. S. S. Pueblo, the United States did not invade North Korea
and launch a war, and the men were eventually released. The U. S.
Military leadership realized that even in the face of an obvious
act of war, the nation’s greater interests must prevail. And so the
Pueblo’s crew waited.
President Bush faced the same choice when the Chinese recently took an
American surveillance plane captive. He waited; and the crew came home.
Gaza and Corporal Shalit should have been no different. In Gaza and
occupied Palestine there are no TV dramas or Hollywood potential to
fuel the rescue of captured personnel. Fighting in Gaza is deadly,
and ultimately self-defeating. Shalit knew that. He was a solider.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice properly counseled patience
in the wake of Corporal Shalit’s capture. Israel rejected her wise
advice. Arrogance and emotion triumphed over reason and the Israeli
national interest.
Here we should consider the lessons of history. When the Turks
slaughtered Armenians in World War I, there was no “genocide”
because the word genocide had yet to be invented. When Nazis began
slaughtering Europe’s Jews, it was not genocide. The term still had
not been invented.
The term “genocide” was created by Raphael Lemkin in 1943. Genocide
became an international term of law with the United Nations’ adoption
of the Convention on Genocide in 1948. Retrospectively, we now realize
that the concept of genocide could be applied to the Armenian slaughter
or the massacre of European Jews by the Nazis.
Today the civilized world’s only practitioners of genocide are the
Israelis. Golda Meir was known for her comment that Palestine was
seized “by a People without a land,” because it was “a land without a
people.” Actually, “people” had inhabited the land mass of Palestine
since the dawn of civilization. The concept of a “land without a
people” was a racist and genocidal concoction that Meir used to
justify Israeli expansionism.
The insanity continues. Instead of using its overwhelming military and
economic strength to make peace with its neighbors, Israel continues
to make war, hoping against hope that evil methods and evil minds
can triumph over the logic of history and the solidarity of the world
community. It can’t happen.
In his typically understated style Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas today accused Israel of “crimes against humanity” for invading
Gaza. While today’s invasion is undoubtedly a crime against humanity,
the attack on Gaza is more; it is part of an orchestrated Israeli
campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people.
And, unlike people in the time of the Armenian slaughter and Nazi
massacres we cannot pretend that genocide has not yet been invented.
We are all witnesses to the Palestinian Genocide.
In today’s attacks, hundreds of thousands have lost electricity;
public health is endangered. Food was already perilously low.
Infrastructure has been damaged beyond repair. All this for Corporal
Shalit?
What did the Palestinian people do to deserve these attacks? Why aren’t
they justified in retaliating against Israel and Israelis, and engaging
in mutual rounds of destruction until there is truly no people and
no land in the territory of these two warring groups? Hollywood has
a precedent for this: War of the Roses, a divorce drama of two people
intent on self-hate and self-destruction.
Who destroy each other.
Whenever I write a column that compares Israelis to Nazis I get a
spate of pro-Israel hate mail, castigating me for comparing the two.
But I state unhesitatingly that making war against an innocent civilian
population caught in the midst of a war is a Nazi-style atrocity and
a crime against humanity. Genocide.
Civilians did not take Corporal Shalit prisoner, and they can’t
release him. What does blowing up a Gazan bridge or power plant do
to advance the corporal’s freedom? Nothing.
So there must be another explanation for the fury of the Israeli
junta in Tel Aviv. There is: genocide.
When Italy attacked Ethiopia, the League of Nations stood silent. The
word remained mute at the growing evidence of the Nazi holocaust.
Today we watch Israeli storm troopers savage a helpless civilian
population under the pretence and pretext that they are conducting a
“rescue” mission. Once again the world is shamed. And once again,
Israelis continue along the path to their own inevitable demise.
In war, there are prisoners, attacks, and death. Soldiers know that.
They accept those risks. If Israel claims it is at war, it must act
as though it is a nation at war, both respecting limits on civilian
casualties and the endangerment of its troops. The fact that Israelis
cannot be trusted to conduct war ultimately means that this “nation”
cannot be trusted to be a nation. Israelis are in the process of
conducting the eventual and inevitable genocide of their own people
and their own nation.
And as the United States sits silently by and aids and abets in this
suicidal calumny against a civilian population, we are as guilty as
the Israelis whose blood-soaked fingers are carrying out the rape of
Gaza. And we wonder why they hate us. And we wonder why we will be
targeted again. And we wonder why the world looks with scorn on our
own Israeli-style campaign in Iraq. Yes, we really do wonder.
In closing, I affirm that the life of every soldier is precious. A
uniform should be worn with great pride. But the life of a nation is
even more precious. Generals must sometimes send their troops into
danger and death. But in elevating Corporal Shalit’s life to extreme
proportions Israel has debased and endangered the Israeli state and
taken another steps towards its demise. Unfortunately, as Israeli
Abba Eban once said, “The Israelis have never missed an opportunity
to miss an opportunity.” Oh, Eban said that about the Palestinians.
War of the Roses.

THEATER: FLORA, THE RED MENACE
By Rick Reed
Windy City Times, IL
June 28 2006
Music and Lyrics: John Kander, Fred Ebb;
book: David Thompson
At: Theo Ubique at No Exit Cafe, 6970 N. Glenwood
Phone: 773-743-3355; $20-$22
Runs through: July 30
While this early, career-launching effort is not the first play that
comes to mind when one thinks of the musical legacy of Kander and Ebb
( Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, etc. ) , Flora, the Red
Menace does have the prescient feel of greatness…and the richness
of history: the 1965 Broadway production of Flora boasted the debut
performance of Liza Minnelli in the lead ( and she won the Tony that
year ) .
The story of Flora, the Red Menace ( nice, plucky Hungarian immigrant
gets mixed up with the Communist party through her association with
a charming man in depression-era New York and finds she has to make a
choice between love, party alliance and her own independence ) is not
the kind of thing big, show-stopping musicals are made of-and that’s
a good thing. The tiny storefront No Exit Cafe is an ideal venue for
this story of a group of down-on-their-luck artists and revolutionaries
struggling for meaning and recognition during hard times.
Under Fred Anzevino and Beverle Bloch’s deft direction, Flora, the
Red Menace comes to rousing, romantic and engaging life, transporting
audience members into a world that’s in the past, but a world we
can all identify with. Who hasn’t been young and idealistic, hungry
to fulfill a dream or two? Anzevino and Block are blessed with a
talented young ensemble to flesh out the story and characters one
can easily love. Jeremy Trager shines here. Trager is a veteran of
several Theo Ubique productions and while I’ve found his work a tad
hammy in the past, he really delivers here. He makes his stammering
Armenian immigrant, Harry Toukarian, a memorable and believable young
man; we see his conviction, his fervor and, most importantly, his
hunger for love and acceptance. It’s a standout performance, and it’s
great to see this kind of growth in a performer. As Flora, newcomer
Elizabeth Lesinski sparkles; brassy and bigger than life, this Flora
charms and captivates, and Lesinski makes it easy to imagine a life
filled with love and success for this character. Danielle Brothers,
as the staid Communist revolutionary Charlotte, steals the show in
whatever scene she’s in, with perfect comic timing and verve.
It doesn’t seem possible that there should be so much talent and
charm in a little storefront production such as this one. But don’t
question it. There it is. Get yourself a ticket. You won’t be sorry.

RUSSIAN INTERIOR MINISTER DOWNPLAYS ANTI-ARMENIAN VIOLENCE
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty. Czech Rep.
June 28 2006
Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev strongly disagreed on
Wednesday with a growing perception in Armenia that his country
has become a hotbed of racist violence against Armenians and other
non-Slavic immigrants.
Speaking during a visit to Yerevan, Nurgaliev claimed that the number
of Armenian nationals or ethnic Armenian citizens of Russians murdered
for racist motives in recent month is grossly exaggerated by media
and non-governmental organizations.
Russian human rights groups have reported at least six such killings
this year. The most recent of those crimes, reported in late May,
sparked a fresh outcry in Armenia, putting the Armenian government
under greater pressure to raise the issue with Moscow. President
Robert Kocharian called for tougher action against Russian neo-Nazi
groups widely blamed for the racist attacks during a meeting with a
visiting senior Kremlin official last week.
In a related development, a delegation of senior officials from the
Armenian Foreign Ministry is scheduled to hold a special meeting on
the issue with their Russian counterparts in Moscow on Thursday.
Nurgaliev made it clear, however, that the Russian law-enforcement
authorities do not regard racist attacks on Armenians and other people
from the Caucasus and Central Asia as a serious problem. He said the
Russian police registered four killings of Armenian citizens during
the first quarter of this year and has already solved two of them. He
claimed that none of them was racially motivated.
“Investigators have not found any facts connected with ethnic disputes,
religious or ethnic affiliation,” Nurgaliev told reporters.
“There were mainly mercenary motives involved.” It is also not uncommon
for Armenian residents of Russia to be murdered by their co-ethnics,
he said.
Nurgaliev also expressed dismay at an unprecedented amount of
anti-Russian rhetoric voiced by the Armenian press in recent months in
connection with the reported hate crimes. “Many people are trying to
drive a wedge between Armenia and Russia for political considerations,”
he said.
The Russian minister was speaking at a brief joint news conference
with his Armenian opposite number, Hayk Harutiunian, following
a regular meeting of the leaderships of Armenia’s and Russia’s
police services. Officials said that the meeting focused on a joint
Russian-Armenian fight against economic crimes and illegal immigration,
suggesting that the racist attacks were not on the agenda.
An official press release on Kocharian’s separate meeting with
Nurgaliev also made no mention of the issue. Kocharian was instead
quoted as praising the “effective cooperation of the Russian and
Armenian law-enforcement bodies.”

MEDIATORS CONFIRM DISCLOSED KARABAKH PLAN
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty. Czech Rep.
June 28 2006
The OSCE Minsk Group has officially confirmed and elaborated on
the key principles of its proposed solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict that were controversially disclosed by its new U.S. co-chair
late last week.
In a joint statement that was circulated by the U.S. embassy in Yerevan
on Wednesday, the mediating group’s American, French and Russian
co-chairs said their hitherto confidential peace plan envisages
a self-determination referendum to be held in Karabakh after the
liberation of Armenian-occupied territories in Azerbaijan.
The statement was presented to the OSCE’s decision-making Permanent
Council in Vienna last Thursday and was not made public until being
posted on the U.S. embassy website almost a week later. Washington’s
new top Karabakh negotiator, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Matthew Bryza, revealed details of the proposed peace plan to RFE/RL
shortly after the Permanent Council meeting.
Although those details had already been leaked to the media by Armenian
officials last year, Yerevan reacted negatively to Bryza’s interview,
saying that the U.S. official failed to present other important
provisions of the Minsk Group plan. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said
on Monday that those include enabling Karabakh to retain an overland
link with Armenia and remain under Armenian control at least until
the referendum.
Bryza’s remarks also sparked allegations in the Armenian press that
Washington is exerting pressure on Yerevan ahead of the Armenian
parliamentary and presidential elections due in 2007 and 2008
respectively. It is not clear if the U.S. State Department decided
to publicize the Minsk Group statement through its mission in Armenia
in order to end that speculation.
“These principles include the phased redeployment of Armenian troops
from Azerbaijani territories around Nagorno-Karabakh, with special
modalities for Kelbajar and Lachin districts [separating Karabakh
from Armenia proper],” said the co-chairs. “Demilitarization of those
territories would follow. A referendum or population vote would be
agreed, at an unspecified future date, to determine the final legal
status of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“An international peacekeeping force would be deployed,” added
the statement. “A joint commission would be agreed to implement the
agreement. International financial assistance would be made available
for demining, reconstruction, resettlement of internally displaced
persons in the formerly occupied territories and the war-affected
regions of Nagorno-Karabakh. The sides would renounce the use or
threat of use of force, and international and bilateral security
guarantees and assurances would be put in place.”
The mediators said the conflicting parties would also have to work
out practical modalities of the Karabakh referendum. “Suitable
preconditions for such a vote would have to be achieved so that
the vote would take place in a non-coercive environment in which
well-informed citizens have had ample opportunity to consider their
positions after a vigorous debate in the public arena.”
This peace formula seems largely acceptable to Armenia. Its Foreign
Ministry argued that the mediating powers have thereby recognized the
Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination. The ministry said
in its statement that Presidents Ilham Aliev and Robert Kocharian
have agreed to the proposed referendum but remain divided on other,
unspecified issues.
The Azerbaijani side initially responded positively to Bryza’s
disclosure of Minsk Group peace proposals. But in a statement on
Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry in Baku chided the U.S. official for
“taking them out of the general context of the proposed document.” It
also reiterated that Baku is only ready to grant Karabakh “the
highest status of autonomy” and will never recognize its secession
from Azerbaijan.
The mediators, meanwhile, warned that failure by the two sides to
cut a framework peace deal before the end of this year would close
a rare “window of opportunity” to eliminate the principal source of
instability in the South Caucasus.
“We see no point right now in continuing intensive shuttle diplomacy
we have engaged in over the past several months,” they said. “We also
see no point in initiating further presidential meetings until the
sides demonstrate enough political will to overcome their remaining
differences.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PEACE-MAKERS’ PRESENCE IN NKR MUST BE RULED OUT
Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 28 2006
Yerevan, June 28. /ARKA/. The presence of peace-makers in Nagorno
Karabakh must be ruled out, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Armenia
(DPA) Aram Sargsyan told reporters.
“We consider a peace-making mission in Nagorno Karabakh inadmissible,
because the balance of forces is maintained by the NKR Defense Army,”
he said.
According to Sargsyan, peace-makers’ arrival in the zone will disturb
this very balance, which is pregnant with new threats and challenges
in the region.
Commenting on a recent statement made by RF Minister of Defense
Sergey Ivanov that the Russian army’s involvement in the peace-making
mission is possible, A. Sargsyan pointed out that Ivanov meant Russia’s
participation as part of international forces.
“I think that this is pregnant with new complications,” Sargsyan said.
On June 23, American Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew
Bryza stated that the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
are currently discussing a framework agreement. According to him,
Armenia’s troops must leave the Azerbaijani territories under their
control. He pointed out that the document contains other points,
particularly ones on stationing of peace-makers in the conflict
zone, international assistance to Nagorno Karabakh and holding of a
referendum on the status of Nagorno Karabakh.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN POLICE CARRY OUT FULL-SCALE COOPERATION
Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 28 2006
YEREVAN, June 28. /ARKA/. Armenian and Russian Police are carrying
out full-scale cooperation, Chief of the RA Police Hayk Harutyunyan
told reporters.
According to him, the work to identify and detain the wanted criminals
is being carried out.
“During 2005 and five months of 2005, 109 people wanted by Russian
law-enforcement agencies were identified and detained in Armenia,
and six of them have been extradited,” Harutyunyan said.
During the same period, 69 people wanted by Armenia’s police were
detained in Russia and extradited to Armenia.
Harutyunyan stressed that effective cooperation in training police
officers for Armenia continues with the RF Ministry of the Interior.
“From 2005 and up to now 44 officers of Armenian police have attended
refresher courses and taken part in workshops in various educational
institutions of the RF Ministry of the Interior,” he said. The officers
were also sent to Moscow and Saint Petersburg Universities of the RF
Ministry of the Interior and to the Academy of Administration of the
RA Ministry of the Interior.
“Forty-seven officers of Armenian Police are currently internal
and external students at various educational institutions of the RF
Ministry of the Interior,” Harutyunyan said.

PRESIDENTIAL PRIZES IN FIELD OF ART AND SCIENCE AWARDED TODAY IN ARMENIA
Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 28 2006
YEREVAN, June 28. /ARKA/. Armenian President Robert Kocharian today
awarded presidential prizes in 13 nominations in the field of art
and science. The prize-winners in the field of the development of
natural sciences are professors of the Yerevan State University
Sergey Hairapetyan and Hambartsum Khachatryan. The prize-winner in
the field of technical sciences and information technologies was
Doctor of technical sciences Stepan Meschyan.
In the field of medicine a prize was awarded to young Yerevan
cardiosurgeon Mesrop Shatakhyan for the development of cardiac valves
from biological materials for newborn infants.
Chairwoman of the profile commission for medicine Gohar Kyalyan
pointed out that this development is unique in the world.
In the field of physics, presidential prizes were awarded to the
astrophysics Felix Aharonyan, Vardan Sahakyan, Ashot Akhperjanyan
for a series of scientific articles “Registration of gamma rays of
extra high energy emitted from astrophysical sources”.
Chairman of the profile commission for physics, Professor Robert
Hovakimyan pointed out that despite the insufficient funding, the
field of physics in Armenia is actively developing. The witness to
it is the big number of works submitted for prize awarding.
The prize-winner in the field of literature was Alexander Topchyan for
the novel “And Even After Death”, and in the field of the humanities
– Sergey Sarinian – for the monograph “Two Centuries of the Armenian
Literature”. At the same time, in the two nominations – humanitarian
activity and vocal, there was no prize-winners, as, according to the
chairmen of profile commissions, “outstanding works worthy for a high
award have not been presented in these fields”.
Youth presidential prizes were also awarded in the field of fine arts
and cinema, literature and instrumental performance of classical music.
Money prizes to the amount of $2,500 (in AMD), certificates of the
contest winner, breastplates were awarded as the prize. ($1-AMD
418.71).