MG CO-CHAIR BERNARD FASSIER TO ARRIVE IN BAKU
ArmRadio.am
10.04.2006 10:39
This evening the French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard
Fassier will arrive in Baku. The visit comprises part of his regional
visit, in the framework of which Fassier will pay a visit to Armenia.
Issues related to the negotiations process after the meeting of
Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents will be discussed during the
meetings to be held in Azerbaijan and Armenia.

RA PRESIDENT RECEIVED CHARLES AZNAVOUR
ArmRadio.am
10.04.2006 12:35
RA President Robert Kocharyan received today famous singer, public
figure Charles Aznavour, who arrived in Armenia with the first flight
of the “Air France” Company.
Warmly welcoming the guest, the President noted that he should pay
at least one or two visits to Armenia annually and should visit not
only Yerevan but also other marzes to get to know whole Armenia.
“I’m glad to see that the life in the country progresses,” Charles
Aznavour said. The interlocutors discussed humanitarian issues, and
turned to the process of implementation of the programs by “Aznavour
in Armenia” Fund and the new initiatives. Robert Kocharyan informed
that a number of interesting programs including various spheres are
being discussed currently with the French side.

SERGEY HAMBARTSUMYAN – ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
ArmRadio.am
10.04.2006 14:12
At today’s enlarged sitting of the National Academy of Sciences RA
Prime Minister presented the acting President of the Academy Sergey
Hambartsumyan.
To remind, on April 6 the Armenian government suspended President
Fadey Sargsyan’s liabilities according to the latter’s own application.
The Prime Minister informed that he has accepted Fadey Sargsyan’s
resignation and appointed the latter his advisor.
The elections for the vacant position of the President of the Academy
have not been set so far.

‘MEDIA SHOULD FUSE FREEDOM WITH RESPONSIBILITY’
By Saban Gunduz, Kenan Bas
Zaman Online, Turkey
April 9 2006
Antalya hosted on Saturday a “general assembly” amid the Dialogue
Eurasia Platform’s four-day meeting over “media.”
Anar Rizayev, an Azerbaijani poet and the Honorary President of the
program, pointed the finger at the role of media.
The notion of freedom should not lead to impropriety, that is why,
the media, the most powerful tool in the 21st century, ought to keep
a fine balance between freedom and liability, said Rizayev.
Islam suffers from a lax attitude from the media towards equivalence
of it with terrorism, Anar stressed.
The recent incidents in the West are a clear sign of drought of western
influence on the East, said Harun Tokak, the Head of Journalists and
Writers Foundation.
The program here is a ground to introduce eastern values to the West,
said Tokak.
“The western optimism relies today on the eastern enlightenment.”
The program sets a fine example of progress towards universal peace,
said Tokak.
“This is a region hard enough to adjust to. We are under threats
of conspiracy theories that aim for disintegration. There are evil
forces working on the deterioration of hostility and abhorrence. This
program, in this sense, is meant to be a response from the eastern
intellectuals to such evil forces.”
The Euro-Asian communities need to develop mutual relations with each
other, said Elcin Efendiyev, the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan.
It is the “truth” that Azerbaijan can only ally with in search of a
resolution to the question of the Mountainous Karabagh, said Efendiyev.
The failure, however, came over the inability to speak the truth
against the whole world, Efendiyev concluded.
Dialogue Eurasia Platform Honorary President and Azerbaijan Authors
Union President Anar Rizayev told 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories
were occupied by Armenia, claiming that the world media does not
reflect the facts about the Karabagh issue.
“I do not want problems to be solved with bloodshed; however, Karabagh
is a matter of honor,” acknowledged Rizayev.
He told that they may one day cooperate with Armenia on condition
that it does not demand soil from Turkey and give up from genocide
allegations.
Prime Minister Erdogan noted that societies sharing the same geography
pour into the same sea although they flow in different beds and meet
in the same vastness.
Indicating that this fact is valid for the Eurasia region the most,
Erdogan said: “Today, the Dialogue Eurasia Platform is making
significant efforts in order to re-establish the bridges among
Eurasian societies, which have similar adventures and develop future
perspectives. I believe that the benefit of gathering around common
interests and uniting our power will appear here. The Dialogue Eurasia
Platform will be a ground where good wills turn into real steps.”
Emphasizing the platform will make important contributions to our
historical and cultural bonds, the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament,
Bulent Arinc, told, “I wish to live in a world where civilizations
do not clash but unite.”
Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul underlined that
Eurasia is the region, which will be influenced by the international
developments and influence the other regions of the world in the
next period.
Indicating that the region countries should evaluate the developments
in the Eurasian geography in a healthy way, Gul asked to show
the necessary support in order for Eurasia to become a region of
cooperation and welfare more than a region of competition.
Teenagers to Handle Problems of Eurasia
Eurasian countries will find solutions to the world as well as
their own problems with conscious teenagers. Youth platforms will be
established within the framework of Dialogue Eurasia Platform (DEP).
DEP will reach a younger and more dynamic structure with youth
platforms from every country.
Dialogue efforts, which start with the word “da” meaning “yes” in
Russian, are traveling to new horizons. A “Youth Platform” will be
set up within the framework of DA. Leadership of Turkey and Azerbaijan
is expected to be an example to other Eurasian countries.
DA Platform Assistant Editor Cengiz Simsek expressed that together
with DA Youth Platforms, they aimed at creating a responsible youth,
cognizant of the World’s and Eurasia’s problems.

ARMENIA DENIES RUSSIA DEAL ON IRAN PIPELINE
The Moscow Times, Russia
April 10 2006
YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia’s energy minister denied Friday that the
impoverished Caucasus nation had struck a deal with Russia’s state-run
gas monopoly to hand it control of part of a new Armenian-Iranian
gas pipeline.
Gazprom a day earlier announced that it had struck a 25-year-deal
giving Gazprom’s Armenian joint venture ownership rights to the
Armenian segment of a planned pipeline bringing Iranian gas to the
country and an electricity power generating unit.
Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisian, said that the pipeline
was still under construction and therefore “it cannot be sold.” He
insisted that Armenia had only agreed to transfer control of the
country’s Razdan-5 gas-fired power plant for almost $250 million.
The deal was expected to draw fire from Armenia’s opposition, which
has expressed concern over Russia’s already heavy control over the
small, landlocked country’s energy infrastructure.
But Movsisian said the proceeds from the deal — which will give
Gazprom the right to export electricity from the power plant unit —
were needed to soften the effect for the population of a doubling in
the price of Russian natural gas supplies.
The agreement sets a price for Armenia of $110 per thousand cubic
meters of gas up to Jan. 1, 2009, according to a Gazprom statement —
roughly twice what Armenia has paid in recent years.

SYRIA AND ARMENIA TO ENHANCE COOPERATION
SANA – Syrian Arab News Agency, Syria
April 9 2006
ALEPPO
Syria and Armenia discussed here Sunday importance of activating
cooperation between Syria and Armenia in fields of increasing
investment opportunities and organizing businessmen and industrialists’
meetings.
That came during a meeting between Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian and Aleppo Governor Tamer al-Hajjeh.
Both sides also reviewed the bilateral cooperation in industrial,
agricultural, commercial and tourist domains.
The Governor gave a general review on developing industry, trade
and tourism in the city, saying that “Aleppo embraces a number of
industries including textile and food.”
Hajjeh hailed significance of activating tourist investment market
in Aleppo through putting a number of important tourist sites into
circulation.

IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE OPERATIONAL SOON
Persian Journal, Iran
April 9 2006
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline will be inaugurated this autumn. “Things
are going well, previous to this we predicted that we would start
utilizing this project in the ending days of December 2006, but now
we hope to finish this project and inaugurate it at the first days of
December,” said Armenian Ministry of Energy’s Technical Development
and Foreign Affairs Central Office Manager.
Exporting gas to Armenia would be the third natural gas export contract
after Turkey and Emirate which has been signed in the past 12 months.

IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE TO BE OPERATIONAL DEC. 2006
Mehr News Agency, Iran
April 9 2006
TEHRAN, Apr. 9 (MNA) — The first phase of Iran-Armenia gas export
pipeline is expected to kick off in early December 2006, technical and
foreign relations director of Armenia Energy Ministry Leon Vartanian
announced on Sunday.
“The project is moving at desirable pace and it is going to come on
stream 30 days earlier than anticipated time,” the Persian service
of ISNA quoted Vartanian as saying, adding that the pipeline is 40
km long within the Armenian territory.
Elsewhere in the news, Iran’s oil minister, Seyyed Kazem
Vaziri-Hamaneh, stated that the country is exporting gas to
Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan Republic, on energy exchange basis and
several other gas export plans to the neighboring countries are
under consideration.
A natural gas sale to Armenia is Iran’s third largest long-term
contract in this sector after the export agreements to Turkey and
UAE. The deal is projected at the daily volume of nine million
cubic meters.

IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE WILL BE UTILIZED IN AUTUMN
ISNA, Iran
April 9 2006
Tehran, 09 April (ISNA)-Iran-Armenia gas pipeline will be inaugurated
this autumn.
“Things are going well, previous to this we predicted that we would
start utilizing this project in the ending days of December 2006, but
now we hope to finish this project and inaugurate it at the first days
of December,” said Armenian Ministry of Energy’s Technical Development
and Foreign Affairs Central Office Manager.
Exporting gas to Armenia would be the third natural gas export contract
after Turkey and Emirate which has been signed in the past 12 months.

MUSIC OPENS ARMENIAN SOUL, HISTORY DILIJAN CHAMBER GROUP PLAYS HEARTFELT SELECTIONS
by Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff writer
Los Angeles Daily News
April 9 2006
GLENDALE – Performing the classics to open a window into the Armenian
soul, the directors of the fledgling Dilijan chamber music series
have chosen composers who offer turbulent life stories.
They include an Armenian priest and composer who ended up in an
insane asylum after being deported by the Ottoman Turks in 1915, and
a Russian-trained composer of Armenian descent who was sanctioned by
the Soviet “music police” for creating pieces deemed too abstract.
The Dilijan series has also sought to present the work of emerging
composers, especially those of Armenian descent.
After Armenia’s long history of being ruled by the Ottoman Empire
and then the Soviet Union, the nation’s composers are finally coming
into their own, said Vatsche Barsoumian, a Glendale-based creator
of the Dilijan series. And as Armenian composers create new music,
the series is bringing their work to Southern California audiences.
“Now that (Armenia is) relatively independent,” Barsoumian said,
“we are trying to find out and experiment with sound that is closest
to our heart and experiences as Armenians, without any impediments.”
Dilijan, in its inaugural season, brings together small groups of
musicians to play classical music, using the Colborn School of Music
in downtown Los Angeles as a venue and operating out of the Glendale
office of the nonprofit Lark Musical Society.
The series is not dedicated only to compositions by Armenians. It has
already featured the work of classical music heavyweights Josef Haydn,
Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms.
And many of the 26 professional musicians involved in the project are
also not of Armenian descent. Phil O’Connor, 33, who plays clarinet
and saxophone, said he has enjoyed being part of the series.
“In the chamber music setting, because it’s less people involved,
you have more ability for everyone to interject their opinion and
… you can develop a group interpretation much more readily than
you would in a symphony,” O’Connor said.
Artistic director Movses Pogossian, 39, of Montrose is a violinist
who made his American debut in 1990 as a soloist with the Boston Pops.
A native of Armenia who taught music at universities in Pittsburgh,
Bowling Green and Detroit, he is impressed by Los Angeles musicians who
are just as comfortable playing at a movie studio as a symphony hall.
“Musically it’s the busiest city in America,” Pogossian said. “I
think it has the greatest number of great musicians in the country.”
On April 21, in a show called “Armenian Genocide Commemoration,”
Pogossian and five other musicians will perform the last installment
of the Dilijan series. The show comes a few days before the date
when Armenians mark the 1915 deportations and killings in the Ottoman
Empire that claimed the lives of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians.
One of the pieces chosen for the evening is a work by the Armenian
priest and composer Komitas. He was deported by the Ottoman Turks
in 1915 and narrowly escaped death, but the experience put him in an
insane asylum and he died a few years later.
The April 21 show will also feature work by the living Armenian
composer Tigran Mansurian, and the late French composer Olivier
Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” which was written in a
German prison camp during World War II.
“Instead of bringing out the dark and tragic in the piece, basically
Messiaen is singing the glory to God and it’s an incredibly positive
and life-affirming piece,” Pogossian said.
On Oct. 20, the series presented a unique show called “Condemned
by Stalin,” highlighting three Soviet composers who fell out of
favor with dictator Joseph Stalin. They include Aram Khatchaturian,
a Russian-trained composer of Armenian descent.
“They thought that he was trying to do some advanced modernistic
styles,” Barsoumian said.
The other two composers were Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich.
“Their music was going to be checked by people who acted like
policemen, music policemen,” Barsoumian said.
For more information on the Dilijan chamber music series, go to