Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005
A NUMBER OF WORKS BY MODERN ARMENIAN WRITERS TO BE PUBLISHED IN OTHER
LANGUAGES
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. The literary taste was distorted
so much in the Armenian reality that it isn’t ready to perceive
neither modern world nor local serious literature. Eduard Militonian,
Head of the Publishing Agency of RA Ministry of Culture and Youth
Affairs, declared this at the September 16 press conference.
According to him, especially text-books make the Armenian reader
one-sided and he is more inclined to a historic material. In
Militonian’s opinion, that’s why the modern literature was put aside
in the Armenian reality and isn’t taken serious by the society. He
mentioned that the situation is the same in Spyurk where they only
speak and write about the Genocide. “Unfortunately, there are few
great Armenians on the map of world’s fiction,” agency’s head said.
Eduard Militonian said that a number of programs were implemented in
the recent 4-5 years, works by modern Armenian writers were published
in other languages for the purpose of presenting the Armenian
culture, Armenian literature abroad. He informed that the anthology
of modern Armenian poets will be published in German soon and
negotiations are carried out for publishing it in Spanish and Persian
languages as well. Aghasi Ayvazian’s collected works will be also
published in English.

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005
CATHOLICOS OF CILICIA CHAIRS WCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
GENEVA, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. His Holiness
Aram I, Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia, presided the meeting of the
Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches, held in Geneva
last week.
According to the Information Department of the Catholicosate of
Cilicia, the agenda of the meeting focused on the preparations for
the WCC 9th Assembly to be held in Brazil in February 2006. The
participants discussed and finalized the meeting’s agenda, as well as
the political, economic and social decisions to be taken by the
Assembly.
The Executive Committee listened to the General Secretary’s report
and adopted decisions accordingly. The financial situation of WCC was
widely discussed and the participants concluded that despite the
economic initiatives taken by the Council, WCC still faces financial
difficulties, which force the Council to plan more wisely for the
coming years.
After long and serious discussions the Executive Committee took a
series of decisions related to administrative, economic and executive
issues. The committee established new committees and assigned people
to new positions.
As chairman of WCC’s Executive and Central Committees, His Holiness
Aram I emphasized the importance of keeping up with the modern world,
introducing drastic changes to WCC’s structures and projects and
turning the inter-religious dialogue into an important imperative.
His Holiness Aram I also held meetings with the General Secretary,
secretariat and the heads of some committees of WCC.

Calgary Herald, Canada
Sept 20 2005
A systemic sonic assault

Heath McCoy

CREDIT: Jenelle Schneider, Calgary Herald
Serj Tankian and System of a Down rocked the Saddledome on Monday.

System of a Down performed Monday at Pengrowth Saddledome.
Attendance about 12,000
The opening chords of acoustic, protest song Soldier Side sounded
first, guitarist Daron Malakian singing the lyrics sweetly behind the
curtain.
Then the curtain dropped.
Malakian screamed maniacally, shredding away in true virtuoso,
metal-head fashion on his axe, joined by his System of a Down
bandmates. Machine-gun drum fills and barreling bass rhythms,
courtesy of John Dolmayan and Shavo Odadjian, respectively, filled
the Saddledome Monday night as 12,000 fans lost their minds.
Singer Serj Tankian led the band through a raging take of B.Y.O.B.,
from the Armenian-American band’s Mezmerize, which happened to be THE
album for the summer of 2005.
Nobody released a record as vibrant, as intense, or as
burned-into-your-brain infectious as Mezmerize. Even those typically
scared by the dizzying onslaught of thrash beats and shrieks could
not resist grooves as insanely catchy as the chorus of B.Y.O.B.
Opening with such power, System of a Down did not let up for the
remainder of the evening. Tankian led the band through Revenga next,
its lusty, gypsy refrain belonging to an Armenian circus tent as much
as to an arena rock show (but making the transition beautifully).
“We are here to feed all you starving rock ‘n’ roll children!”
declared Malakian, as his band proceeded to fulfil that promise with
one metallic morsel after another. Highlights included Needles with
its demented, Frank Zappa-esque rallying cry. This quirkiness
continued on the band’s scathing media-critique Violent Pornography.
Then there was the group’s slam on military machismo, Cigaro, first
delivered as a ballad, before the band launched into the thrash
attack heard on Mezmerize.
System also previewed a song from Hypnotize, the second act of
Mesmerize, which is set to hit stores in November. After the intro, a
few bars of Neil Young’s My My, Hey Hey, Malakian led the band
through the anthemic Kill Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Opening the show was The Mars Volta, an eight-piece prog-metal
jam-band from Texas that rose from the ashes of the acclaimed At The
Drive-In. A number of critics have declared this band brilliant,
which is the biggest crock you’ll ever read. Mars Volta’s sonic
blitzkrieg is ambitious to be sure, as drums thunder and guitar riffs
slither forth, like psychedelic beasts. The flutes and saxophones are
a nice touch, too. Singer Cedric Bixler has his moves down, wielding
his microphone stand like he’s warding off evil spirits.
It’s a shame about his high-pitched wail of a voice which is truly
grating.
It’s an even bigger shame that, instead of writing songs, the band
takes us on endless, jam-metal tangents. It’s about as pretentious as
it gets.
But no matter. System of a Down was the attraction and they made the
evening.

Aravot, Armenia
Sept 20 2005
“MESROP MASHTOTS” INSTEAD OF FOUR HORSES
The President Robert Kocharian received yesterday the delegation led
by the member of highest council of the United Arabic Emirates, the
Emir of Sharjah, sheikh doctor Sultan ben Mohammad al Kasimi who
brought with him 4 Arabic thoroughbred horses as a gift. The
President gave to the Emir the highest state award of Armenia “St.
Mesrop Mashtots” medal for strengthening relative relations between
Armenian and Arab people and also for warm attitudes towards the
Armenian community of Sharjah.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005
“CENTURY OF OUTSTANDING WOMEN” WORK DEDICATED TO PUBLIC ACTIVITY OF
ARMENIAN WOMEN OF 19th CENTURY AND EARLY 20th CENTURY PUBLISHED
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. “The Century of Outstanding
Women” research work by Anahit Haroutiunian, candidate of
philological sciences, was published. The subject of study is the
public activity of Armenian women in 19th century and early 20th
century. The work presents the historic preconditions and motivations
of women’s entering the public sphere, the activity of women’s NGOs
and society’s reaction to it. The history of separate women’s
organizations is accompanied by the biographical data and portraits
of the persons who played an important role in those organizations or
were famous in the society by their activity.
According to A.Haroutiunian, she presented the activity of women of
this period only in NGOs, enlightenment and social spheres. She
didn’t set herself a task to present women politicians or
revolutionaries as this part of the history has been already deeply
studied.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005
RA NA PRESIDENT THANKS GOVENRMENT OF SYRIA FOR GOOD ATTITUDE TOWARDS
ARMENIAN COMMUNITY
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Issues of the
Armenian-Syrian mutual cooperation were discussed at the September 16
meeting of Artur Baghdasarian, the Chairman of the RA National
Assembly, with Mukhlis Faraun, the acting Charge d’Affaires of Syria
to Armenia.
The Parliament Chairman thanked the Government of Syria for good
attitude towards the Armenians.
As Noyan Tapan was informed by the NA Public Relations Department,
the issue of Syria’s participation in the Arabic cultural center to
open in Yerevan was also discussed.
Artur Baghdasarian presented the process of the constitutional
reforms in Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005
OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL EUROPEAN MOVEMENT ENVISAGED TO OPEN IN
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Henrik Kroner,
the Secretary General of the International European Movement
presented the history and the activity of the organization at the
September 16 meeting with Artur Baghdasarian, the Chairman of the RA
National Assembly. He mentioned that being a wide-spread movement in
Europe, the Internationak European Movement was in sources of
formation of the Council of Europe and the European Union.
As Noyan Tapan was informed by the NA Public Relations Department,
the issue of opening an office of the Movement in Armenia was
discussed at the meeting. It’s goal is to support formation of the
civic society and deepening democracy in Armenia. Henrik Kroner
proposed the NA Chairman to join the International European Movement
members of which are Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the
European Commission, Valery Giscard d’Esting, the former President of
France, Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany and many people
having high posts in Europe.
Artur Baghdasarian expressed his readiness to support Henrik Kroner
and wished successes in Armenian activities. An agreement was reached
on continuing the cooperation which can be implemented by a
successful activity of the office.

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005
5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “CSIT 2005” OPENS IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. The information technologies
sphere of Armenia has considerable potential for development. Fadei
Sargsian, President of the RA National Academy of Sciences (NAS),
stated this on September 19 at the opening ceremony of the 5th
international conference “CSIT 2005” on computer science and
international technologies. He espressed a hope that the conference
to be held every second year will help disseminate knowledge,
especially among young people. According to F. Sargsian, Armenia has
in recent years achieved a remarkable success in the spheres of
information technologies and computer science – a high-efficiency
system based on the Armcluster computing system in order to make
scientific calculations has been created. Issues related to it will
be discussed by the conference participants at a working seminar.
According to Yuri Shukurian, Director of the RA NAS Institute of
Informatics and Automatization Problems, the conference enables not
only to exchange opinions but also to present the work carried out in
the indicated sphere in Armenia. According to him, the conference has
aroused great interest among the participants – good cooperation has
already been established with French scientists.
In the opinion of Artak Sahradian, RA Deputy Minister of Education
and Science, the conference represents yet another step in the
direction of developing the sphere of international technologies (IT)
and setting up scientific institutions.
The 5-day conference has been organized by the RA NAS Institute of
Informatics and Automatization Problems with the assisitance of the
International Scientific and Technical Center, the National Fund of
Science and Advanced Technologies, the Enterprises Incubator Fund, as
well as the companies Arminco, Unicomp and Anelik. Experts from
Armenia, the US, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, France, India and Iran
will make 135 reports at the conference.

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005
ALEXANDER ISKANDARIAN: STATEMENTS OF AZERI AUTHORITIES ABOUT INCREASE
IN MILITARY BUDGET ARE MADE INTENTIONALLY ON THRESHOLD OF ELECTIONS
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. “I think that the military budget
of Azerbaijan doesn’t pose any danger for us. It’s quite obvious that
its increase isn’t aimed at war with us,” Alexander Iskandarian,
Director of Caucasian Media Institute, declared in his interview to
Noyan Tapan’s correspondent, answering the question, how Azerbaijan’s
military budget amounting to 600 mln USD will go with the agreement
“On Reduction of Conventional Armament in Europe.”
Quite recently Azeri President Ilham Aliyev declared that Azerbaijan
intends to increase its military budget up to the level of Armenia’s
total budget. In particular, Aliyev emphasized that Azerbaijan lives
in conditions of a war, that’s why its attention to the army must be
at the highest level. Namely, Azerbaijan’s 2006 budget envisages to
increase expenditures on defence up to 600 mln USD instead of 300 mln
USD allocated for the current year.
Alexander Iskandarian doubted of adoption of the budget in the
above-mentioned amount. “If it is even adopted, obviously, a
considerable part from this money, if not the most part, will be
lootted.”
Besides, according to him, military budget isn’t an exactly defined
notion, it may include both expenditures on buying of rubber arms and
shields for dispersal of demonstrations and on training of servicemen
in the West or construction of cantonments. At the same time,
Alexander Iskandarian didn’t exclude that Azerbaijan can spend money
on armament, as well. “It’s clear that all these quotas on armament
aren’t observed well by not only Azerbaijan but by averybody around.”
A.Iskandarian mentioned that such statements made by Azeri
authorities quite fit into the logic of the forthcoming parliamentary
elections. “They have great problems with power’s consolidation. The
use of these threatening anti-Armenian statements in the internal
rhetoric is an instrument, which was worked through very well for the
home policy and is always used by them.”
Armenia as a country-winner, in which the society and political
forces with a very small exception are consolidated in the issue of
Karabakh conflict settlement, doesn’t need using such instruments,
the Director of Caucasian Media Institute emphasized.

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 20 2005
THE TOWN OF SURB KHACH (BUDENNOVSK) IS 206
The town of Buddenovsk is 206. According to the newspaper of
Armenians of Russia Yerkramas, today inhabitants of the town are
celebrating `the Day of the city’.
Since the morning people gathered at the town’s central square, where
the festival of the three cultures: Slavic, Armenian and Caucasian,
opened. Numerous guests from the Armenian communities of the
Stavropol region took part in the concert.
Igor Lazaryan is a young leader of the Armenian community of `the
Saint Cross’ who contributed to the holiday’s organization. He said
the celebration was great. He added they would do their best to
organize such a great holiday next year.
A NOTE: the town of Surb Khach (the Saint Cross, now Budennovsk) was
founded in 1799 by Armenians – emigrants from Karabakh.