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

ARMENIA: EX-SOVIET STATE IS FINDING ITS PLACE IN THE WORLD
By Richard Plunkett
Miami Herald, FL
April 9 2006
Lonely Planet
Visiting Armenia
Armenians are rediscovering their traditional enjoyment of life —
they share a passion for culture, food and family not unlike Greeks
and Italians.
For an unfair first impression of a country, try arriving at an
unrenovated Soviet airport in the middle of the night. Armenia’s
Zvartnots airport looked like a space station from the outside and
a disused factory on the inside. Mercifully, this ancient country
revealed its authentic — and attractive — nature very quickly.
Along the stately boulevards of the capital Yerevan, cafes were still
doing business at 3 a.m., and the hosts at my B&B (a modern apartment
decked out with traditional Armenian carpets) were waiting up to
embrace me, literally, and feed me until I dropped. The next few days
were a never-ending feast of fruit, cured ham, lavash (flat bread),
salads, brandy, wine and divinely rich Armenian soorch (coffee).
Mountainous Armenia is a compelling mix of European elegance, Middle
Eastern exuberance, ex-Soviet mundanity and modern economic miracle.
The first country to convert to Christianity, it has countless legacies
from 1,700 years of faith — from ancient churches and monasteries to
the uniquely Armenian khatchkars, literally “crucifix stones,” upright
blocks of basalt deftly carved with crosses and interweaving patterns.
Though 20th century wars almost destroyed the country, the new century
is seeing a gratifying upsurge in fortunes. Armenia has one of the
fastest-growing economies in the world. It still has a long way to go,
but prosperity is beginning to spread. Smart new hotels and guesthouses
are sweeping away the gloomy old Soviet hotels.
The three million or so Armenians are rediscovering their traditional
enjoyment of life — they share a passion for culture, food and family
not unlike Greeks and Italians, even though their landlocked country
is tucked between Turkey, Georgia and Iran.
Armenia is the size of Maryland, and almost every corner of the
country can be reached in a day’s drive from Yerevan. The highlight
for Diasporan Armenians is the Vatican of Armenia, Holy Echmiadzin.
The 1,700-year-old Mayr Tachar (Mother Church) is an exotic mix of
Persian-style murals, monks in black cowls and richly gilded holy
relics. Armenia’s holiest treasure, the lance that pierced Christ’s
side, lies in the treasure room at the rear of the cathedral. The
casing around the spearhead is a riot of finely wrought silver, but
the relic itself is a brutal, crude shard of iron — exactly what a
provincial Roman soldier might have wielded 2,000 years ago.
Echmiadzin is only 30 minutes away from Yerevan through the
vineyard-studded Araks Valley.
North from Yerevan lies the vast blue mirror of Lake Sevan. The
richly forested northern province of Lori has two gorgeous World
Heritage-listed monasteries.
Heading south you skirt past the awesome bulk of Mount Ararat and
wind through jagged ranges and knotted valleys on the way to the
spectacular fortress of Tatev. Numerous tour companies run day trips
and overnight stays to the provinces.
Back in Yerevan the cafes stay open late into the night on warm summer
evenings; the Opera House offers high culture at bargain prices;
and the national museum on Republic Square has a magnificent art
collection, regarded as the third best in the former USSR.
The Museum of the Armenian Genocide at Tsitsernakaberd just outside
the city center commemorates the victims of the Ottoman and Turkish
massacres of 1915-23. There is a solemn procession here every year
on April 24 to honor the fallen.
Best of all, there are the Armenians themselves. The language is
something of a challenge (it has a unique 38-letter alphabet), but
many people, especially the young, speak English.
Armenians are an expressive, cultured, hospitable people who love
barbecues, boxing and homemade liqueurs as much as the latest opera
production. Visit someone’s house, and within minutes a table of food
and drinks is set.
As one host said, it is his duty to keep everyone’s glasses full,
but the next step is up to the guest.

ETHEREAL YET ROOTED IN REALITY
Review By Anu Nathan
Malaysia Star, Malaysia
April 9 2006
SNOW
By: Orhan Pamuk
Publisher: Vintage, 426 pages
(ISBN: 0-3775-70686-0)
THIS is the longest it has taken me to read a book and review – almost
six months. I had to keep putting it down because Snow is not easily
digested. Pamuk is more than a novelist; he is a reporter first and
foremost, and this political novel charts the tumult within modern-day
Turkey. Every time I put down the book because it was threatening
to overwhelm me, I was forced to pick it up again, not just because
Pamuk’s name and face jumped out of newspapers and magazines, but
because I was compelled to read on till the end.
Cliched as it may sound, Pamuk is no stranger to controversy.
Recently, Turkish authorities had charged him with “insulting
Turkishness” for talking about the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and the
massacre of 30,000 Kurds in Anatolia. Much earlier, in 1995, he was
among a group of authors tried for writing essays that criticised
Turkey’s treatment of the Kurdish minority.
Until I visited Turkey last year, I had no idea who Pamuk was, despite
the fact that he is a prolific writer and has been a regular in the
Bosphorus literary scene since the late 1970s. I was strolling in the
Beyoglu district and ventured into a bookstore, hoping to pick up a
book by a Turkish writer. The bookstore owner/manager recommended
Pamuk, who by then had achieved international fame with his book
My Name is Red (about a murderous Ottoman miniaturist), which could
almost be a parallel novel to Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.
Two days after coming home, I found Snow on the review shelf. The
next week a colleague passed me My Name is Red, which only succeeded
in derailing the review of Snow. It seemed there was no escaping Pamuk.
As a novelist Pamuk belongs to that special breed of crossover authors
who manage to sell and achieve critical acclaim – think Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, Milan Kundera, Paulo Coelho.
Snow (Kar in Turkish) is a highly-charged political novel that
explores the conflict between Islamism and Westernisation in modern
Turkey and tackles head-on the delicate headscarf issue.
In Kars (the poetic transition of Ka to Kar to Kars is almost a
sublime touch, like the snowflake which the poet clings to), heavy
snow cuts off the Anatolian town from the rest of Turkey just after a
poet called Ka arrives, a pointed reference to the desolate remoteness
of Kars in vivid contrast to forward-looking Istanbul.
Ka, who has for years been living in Frankfurt, futilely trying to
create poetry amid odd jobs to sustain his departure from Turkey, has
been assigned by an Istanbul newspaper to investigate a chain of young
girls committing suicide because, as the local police chief explains,
“they were not allowed to wear headscarves in school.”
Tracing almost lovingly from Dostoevsky (even Kafka comes to mind),
the characters in Snow are all flawed, with some juggling dual
identities. Among them are the Islamist who has no qualms about
keeping a mistress, a former Istanbul socialite who champions the
headscarf cause with idealistic zeal, and the Communist democrat.
Most ruptured is Ka who, in Malaysian parlance would best be described
as a lalang, swaying in whichever direction the wind blows, unsure
of his convictions.
Ka, as we soon find out, is not in Kars to uncover the mystery of the
virgin suicides, but to woo his elusive classmate Ipek, now happily
divorced. Ipek is the only cause he fervently pursues, even as a
flood of poetic inspiration turns on the creative switch which this
washed-out poet had considered dead.
Ka’s footsteps in Kars, Istanbul and Frankfurt are later retraced
by his novelist friend Orhan (Pamuk also includes himself in My
Name is Red), who is determined to detail Ka’s life, understand the
overpowering love he had for Ipek amid troubled times, and his final
days before succumbing to a hail of bullets.
In this didactic treatise, displacement, blind devotion, love and
alienation all jostle to take prime place against a backdrop of the
fleeting, ethereal promise of peace and unity amid differences.
Pamuk is an inveterate storyteller and here, he has woven a magical
tale, sometimes superfluous, but always engaging, about ordinary
Turks affected by decisions beyond their control and how Turkey,
being both blue-eyed blonde and swarthy tries to strike a balance
between Islamism and secularism/modernism.

40 IRANIAN FIRMS BLACKLISTED IN UK
Brian Brady
The Scotsman, UK
April 9 2006
Westminster Editor ([email protected])
THERE are 43 names. The great and the good of Iran’s industrial
and scientific community, the obscure, the famous and, perhaps,
the infamous.
Their titles were quietly released into the public domain for the
first time only days ago by the Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI) in a swift operation claiming to be merely giving British firms
updated guidance on the trading situation with Tehran.
It was, in fact, far more important than that. The British government
is effectively blacklisting dozens of Iranian entities, including
state bodies like Tehran University. In a climate of rising concerns
about the intentions of Iranian leaders and their advancing nuclear
programme – criticised by foreign secretary Jack Straw last month,
who warned Tehran of possible sanctions if it failed to heed UN
Security Council demands to halt its production of enriched uranium –
this was a clear demonstration of how deeply those fears are felt.
Across Europe and much of the western world the fears about Tehran’s
intentions are growing. Two weeks ago, customs investigators marched
into the business premises of the German-Armenian partnership NTV,
in the infamous “millionaires’ neighbourhood” of Bad Homburg, and
began seizing documents about its dealings with Iran.
The swoop was not an isolated case: 40 more German companies
of varying sizes and interests were caught up in the nationwide
operation, carried out by 250 police and customs officials. They
were all suspected of involvement in a German-Russian network that
may have helped the Iranians advance a nuclear programme that the
West now fears only military action can dismantle.
NTV, a nondescript telecommunications firm owned by a colourful
business partnership obsessed with racehorse breeding and gambling,
had reportedly arranged for a cable drum to be dispatched to an
Iranian weapons importer.
The firm, and its owners, attracted the attention of the a public
prosecutor. In turn he realised there was a connection to the
activities of the defunct Berlin firm Vero Handels GmbH, which is now
suspected of having scoured Germany for special parts for construction
of the Iranian Bushehr nuclear reactor.
As their colleagues throughout Germany were stomping into 41 companies
last month, officials at the Department of Trade and Industry in London
were attempting to tighten the net around their own business community.
Britain has had an arms embargo against Iran in place for 13 years.
The policy, amended by Robin Cook as Foreign Secretary in 1998,
purports to prevent all items on the “military list” or “nuclear list”
leaving these shores bound for Tehran.
The sanctions do not, however, prohibit all business between the
two countries. In the final three months of last year, for example,
British firms got DTI approval for £3m-worth of exports, covering a
list of items including biotechnology equipment, civil aircraft and
gas detection equipment.
And here is the problem: a number of items are acknowledged to be
“dual-use” – able to be applied for both fair and foul means –
but licences are often granted as long as exporters can convince
the authorities that they will be used for industrial or research
purposes. The “end-use” monitoring system, which effectively places
firms on trust, has long been the target of condemnation by campaigners
against arms trading.
The DTI’s switch in policy towards Iran last month attempted
to tackle this issue at source. Via an understated announcement
on its website, the DTI offshoot the Export Control Organisation
(ECO) revealed it was extending its guidance to would-be exporters,
“given the current concerns about Iran in particular”. Along with
the amendments, the bureaucrats added “a list of Iranian entities”
intended to help exporters “judge which exports might potentially be
of concern on end use grounds”.
The sense of foreboding is overpowering. Despite the ECO’s determined
attempts to underplay the move, a cursory glance at the list of Iranian
“entities” now effectively blacklisted by the British government
reveals the gravity of the situation.
Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Esfahan Chemical Industries,
Government of Iran, Department of Defence, Iranian Mineral Processing
Research Centre, Nuclear Research Centre for Agriculture And Medicine,
and Tehran University. Most worryingly, given the DTI’s recently
discovered concerns about these organisations, 12 of the 43 have
already taken delivery of goods from Britain in the past.
“The purpose of a list there is to alert UK exporters to end-users
that we are concerned about in Iran,” trade minister Malcolm Wicks
said when asked about controls over exports to Iran. “That is an
example of how, when there is a concern, we disseminate that concern
to appropriate companies.”
Such concern does not, yet, translate itself into harsh demands for
compliance from British business – nor suggest that the government
itself will be making an enormous effort to tighten the net. “This
information may be factored into your business planning and help
you to make informed decisions on whether to contact the ECO,” the
organisation’s guidance adds. “The list may be amended from time to
time and should be checked regularly if you are planning business
with Iran.”
The approach contrasts sharply with that of the Americans, who maintain
a comprehensive embargo on business with Iran, and come down heavily
upon anyone suspected of helping a key element of the “axis of evil”
augment their offensive powers.
~U IT WAS reported last night that US President George Bush is making
plans for a large scale bombing strike on Iran, targeting sites where
uranium is thought to be enriched.
The use of force is being considered in case diplomatic efforts to
persuade Tehran to stop its nuclear programme fail.
This article: 62006
–Boundary_(ID_BIgyQo423sZYKDlwU7RJVA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU ENVOY DISCUSSES KARABAKH SETTLEMENT WITH REGION’S PRESIDENT
by: Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 8, 2006 Saturday 06:03 PM EST
A possible intensification of the EU role in a search for peace
settlement in Azerbaijan’s mostly Armenian-populated enclave of
Karabakh came into spotlight of talks between the EU’s envoy to South
Caucasus, Peter Semneby, and the President of the self-proclaimed
Karabakh Republic, Arkady Gukassian.
Spokespeople for Karabakh’s permanent mission in Armenia told Itar-Tass
Gukassian stressed the importance of maintaining ceasefire between
Karabakh and Azerbaijan.
He also spoke in favor of the breakaway region’s direct participation
in the talks on settling the conflict, the origins of which date back
to late 1980’s.
Foreign Ministry of the Karabakh Republic said in a statement
circulated Saturday encroachments on ceasefire on the line of
disengagement of Azerbaijani and Karabakh armed units became more
frequent recently.
“The incidents leading to a greater number of victims on the
disengagement line can only breed mutual mistrust and trigger an
escalation of violence in the zone of Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict,”
the statement said.

EDUCATION CLASH HOLDS UP EU TALKS
by Anthony Browne in Brussels and Suna Erdem in Istanbul
The Times (London)
April 8, 2006, Saturday
TURKISH hopes of joining the European Union have been thrown into
jeopardy by a stand-off between Britain and France over human rights.
Entry negotiations have been temporarily suspended after Britain
blocked an early phase of the talks on education.
The dispute puts Britain, which has been the main champion of Turkish
entry into the EU, in the awkward position of blocking the membership
talks and playing down concerns over human rights.
As opposition to further enlargement of the EU mounts, the European
Commission has said that the talks -which started last November and
are meant to result in Turkey becoming the first Muslim member of
the EU in about a decade’s time could be heading for a “train crash”.
The dispute flared on Thursday night when Britain accused France of
trying to “move the goalposts” by insisting that the country’s human
rights record be considered at all stages of the membership talks.
During the negotiations on education policy, France, supported by most
other EU member states, said that it wanted issues of sex and race
to be addressed. There is concern over the difficulties that many
Turkish girls face in getting educated, alleged racism in Turkish
textbooks and the treatment of minorities in schools.
A recent study of Turkish textbooks found widespread nationalism
and racism.
Academics highlighted 4,000 instances of “human rights abuses”,
notably negative portrayals of Kurds, Greeks, Jews and Armenians. In
the religiously conservative east of the country, far fewer girls
than boys have access to education.
Despite the concerns, a senior British official made clear that its
negotiators had made a stand to stop countries that are uneasy about
Turkish membership from repeatedly introducing new hurdles.
A French government spokesman denied that Paris was changing the terms
of the talks, but said that they had to reflect public opposition
to Turkey joining. The mood in Brussels is becoming increasingly
pessimistic. Olli Rehn, the Enlargement Commissioner, said: “We
may face a period of political tension in EU-Turkey relations. The
commission is working hard to avoid a train crash.”