MAMMADYAROV: “ONLY RETURN OF ALL OCCUPIED TERRITORIES WILL HELP RESTORE OUR TRUST IN ARMENIA”
Today, Azerbaijan
Sept 20 2005
Only the return of all the occupied territories back to Azerbaijan
will help restore our trust and confidence in Armenia and its declared
intentions on the establishment of good neighborly relations with
Azerbaijan.
There should be no place for illusions: Azerbaijan will never
compromise its territorial integrity, Elmar Mammadyarov Minister of
Foreign Affairs, said in his statement to the General Debate of the
60th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York on 18 September
2005. Since accession of Azerbaijan to the United Nations, this
Organization has been closely associated in our society with the hopes
for liberation of the territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia.
Although the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is
strongly involved in the settlement process, prompt reaction of the
United Nations Security Council in response to the occupation of the
territories of Azerbaijan and adoption of four resolutions 822, 853,
874 and 884 still generates optimism for peaceful settlement of the
conflict in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of
Azerbaijan. The principles unanimously adopted by the Security Council
in those resolutions continue to be the basis for the settlement
of the conflict. Last year consideration by the General Assembly of
the agenda item entitled “The situation in the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan” played a crucial role in attracting attention to the
dangerous practices carried out by Armenia in the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan.
“As for the negotiation process itself, I must admit that we are now at
a critical juncture where the chances for resolution of the conflict
are cautiously optimistic. The Government of Azerbaijan remains
committed to the peaceful settlement of this protracted conflict,
based on the respect for the norms and principles of international
law,the implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions
and the OSCE documents and decisions. We expect that the Armenian
side will proceed from the similar constructive approach and will
not miss this window of opportunity,” he stressed.
“Such a step will relieve the Government of Armenia from a label of
aggressor inherited after occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan
and will provide for both parties the opportunities to be brought
by the settlement of the conflict,” he underlined. He reiterated
Azerbaijan’s readiness for providing the security assurances for the
Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
“As for the status of the region, it is necessary to create favorable
conditions for the secure and dignified return of the expelled
Azerbaijani population to the Nagomo-Karabakh region and other
occupied territories, to establish there normal living conditions
and to provide opportunities for economic development for both
communities,” the Minister emphasized.
Once the agreement is achieved, both for political and legal guarantees
of its implementation we will need the support of the international
community for the deployment of the multinational peacekeeping
forces, demining, restoration of communications, rehabilitation
of lands, as well as the provision of security guarantees for the
population in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, including
the creation of local police forces in the region for both Armenian
and Azerbaijani communities. Last, but not least point on the conflict
resolution. It is the issue of communication of the Armenians living
in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan with Armenia and thatof
the Azerbaijanis living in the Nakhchivan region of Azerbaijan with
the rest of thecountry.
“From this high rostrum, after the recent meeting of the Presidents
of Azerbaijan and Armenia held in Kazan on August 26 2005, I urge
the Armenian not to loose this chance and to advance the negotiation
process with the assistance of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmen
in accordance with the mutual understandings reached with in the
Prague process,” Mammadyarov underscored. Mammadyarov is to be back
on Tuesday.
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ARMENIA’S AMBASSADOR TO ITALY RUBEN SHUGARYAN MEETS WITH DEPUTY FM OF ITALIA MARGERITA BONIVER
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 19 2005
YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Ambassador to Italy Ruben
Shugaryan met with Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy Margerita
Boniver, press-service of the RA Foreign Ministry reported ARKA
News Agency. They discussed issues of Armenia’s Eurointegration
within the program of new neighborhood, possible development of the
Armenian-Turkish relations in the context of the European processes
and the negotiations on Turkey’s entrance to the European Union.
According to the press-release, the sides discussed in details the
issues related to the organization of Italian-Armenian Friendship
Days in October, 2005 in Armenia. This initiative is sponsored by
the President of Italia Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and the President of
Armenia Robert Kocharyan. Boniver expressed her satisfaction with
the development of Armenian-Italian relations. A.A. -0–

LUCAS’ SEARCH FOR HIS IDENTITY
Hartford Courant
Sept 20 2005
Smith Grad Is One Of Four Transgender Students In Sundance Series
By ROGER CATLIN, Courant TV Critic It was a simple choice for the
Oklahoma high school senior to attend Smith College in Northampton.
“Academically it’s one of the top schools in the country,” says the
student, who graduated from Smith with highest honors in May. “It’s
one of the only schools that offer a neurosurgery major. And it had
very good financial aid. It just happens to be a women’s college.”
The gender issue wasn’t quite as black and white for the student,
born as Leah 22 years ago but more recently known as Lucas.
He didn’t realize there was such a thing as transgender students –
and that he was one – until he got there. Not that it was some kind
of campus fad.
“It’s not something that suddenly happened to me,” Lucas says by
phone from his home near Tulsa. “I spent my entire life with a certain
problem. I didn’t have any language to use to understand where I was
coming from.
“As a young child, I was more masculine, and I had trouble relating
to people in ways they could understand. When you’re 2, you hardly
know what transgender is.
“The issue has been there my entire life,” Lucas says. “That made it
very identifiable when somebody gave me a word for it. That’s when I
realized it. I started taking steps to let people I knew that I knew.”
At first that came in making more visible the transgender support
group at Smith. It comes with a wider impact in a new eight-episode
series that follows Lucas and three other transgender students from
other campuses.
“TransGeneration” begins tonight on Sundance Channel, in cooperation
with the Logo network.
It’s produced by World of Wonder, maker of such films as “The Eyes
of Tammy Faye,” “Party Monster” and “Monica in Black and White.”
“They have a way of looking at characters who might be challenging for
audiences or people might have preconceptions about and finding a way
to really humanize them,” says Adam Pincus, senior vice president of
original programming at Sundance, who said he got the idea for the
series from a New York Times article.
“One of the things that we’ve been trying to do with the documentary
work is to find stories and characters who are really pushing things
in new directions and challenging the status quo,” Pincus says.
“These kids are pretty radically redefining what their gender identity
means to them. And they’re smart, and they’re articulate.”
Besides Lucas, the subjects are:
Gabbie, 21, a male turning female at the University of Colorado,
entering her junior year, the only one of the four to undergo surgery
during filming.
Raci, 20, a male-to-female entering her sophomore year at California
State University in Los Angeles, who was most reticent to tell her
fellow students what the camera crews were about. “They’re doing a
documentary on women in college,” she’d fib.
T.J., 24, a graduate student at Michigan State University, an activist
who has the most trouble getting accepted by her parents, who are of
Armenian descent.
“The only thing these four have in common is that they’re dealing
with an issue of gender in some way,” says Jeremy Simmons, director
and supervising producer of “TransGeneration.” “These are four very
different experiences we’re showing.”
“We’re almost like polar opposites,” Lucas says of his fellow subjects,
whom he met at an early screening of the film.
The producers said they tried to reach out through groups and on the
Internet to find the right people. In the case of Lucas, it was his
roommate, Kasey, whom they had originally come out to interview a
year ago. After months of filming, Lucas says, “We didn’t know who
was going to be the focus until after the school year ended.”
Why agree to do it?
“I guess overall I wanted people to appreciate the aspects of me
that they can relate to that didn’t have anything to do with gender
reassignment,” says Lucas, who adds that he’s been a fan of documentary
film and Sundance.
Parents of all the subjects eventually become part of the series, and
Lucas’ mother emerges as “so incredibly likable,” Pincus says. “It’s
so counter to what some people’s preconceptions would be about what
that woman’s reaction and experience of her son is,” he says. “She
goes through a whole process that you see in the course of the show.”
Now that it’s about to be seen, “my mom is very anxious,” Lucas says.
“She’s worried someone she knows is going to see it, which is
understandable. My dad is not so anxious about that, but he’s extremely
aware on how it’s being marketed.”
The series’ promotional catchphrase is: “Four college students
switching more than their majors.”
“He doesn’t understand that you have to trivialize the issue to create
public interest,” Lucas says.
Lucas says he feels a little anxious in advance of his life’s being
shown on national TV. “But mostly I’m excited in a positive way.”
As he decides his next move in his graduate education, he says he
feels more comfortable in Oklahoma, ironically, than he did in the
famously liberal enclave.
“I’d come home and just be read as male,” he says. “Then I’d go back
to Northampton, and there’d be so many lesbians there, they’d know
me as female.”

ARMENIA’S CENTRAL DEPOSITARY JOINS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CIS EXCHANGES
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 19 2005
YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA-Finmarket/. The Central Depositary of
Armenia has been admitted to the International Association of CIS
Exchanges. The decision was made at the Association’s general meeting
attended by the heads of 15 organizations from eight CIS countries.
During the meeting, representatives of CIS exchanges and depositaries
discussed trends and formation of the CIS exchange infrastructure.
After discussing the current situation and prospects for cooperation
between CIS members, the Association members approved a program
of action for 2005-2010, which includes legal underpinnings for
financial cooperation between CIS members, creation of conditions
for an integrated CIS stock market, development of the stock market
of futures and options, commodity stock market, as well as the
development of bilateral and multilateral projects between the
Association members. P.T. -0–

SUCCESS IS FOUND IN NORMA’S SIMPLICITY
By Alan Conter
The Globe and Mail, Canada
Sept 20 2005
Vincenzo Bellini: Norma
L’Opera de Montreal
Bernard Labadie, conductor
At Place des Arts in Montreal
L’Opera de Montreal set the bar awfully high in launching its
26th season with Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma. While Bellini’s 1831
masterpiece sits pretty solidly in the pantheon of great opera, only
a few productions really live up to the extraordinary demands of the
work. The company last staged it 23 years ago.
The challenge of Norma is not that it’s especially intricate; in fact,
it’s the reverse. Bellini took a bold step in composing a score where
the singers are left very much on their own, supported by a small
orchestra that plays beautiful yet relatively simple melodies.
Norma succeeds or fails on the range and colour of the voices.
Bellini asks a lot of his singers as musicians and actors. Felice
Romani’s libretto is intensely tragic where love, passion, duty and
deception are interwoven.
On Saturday night, l’Opera de Montreal pulled it off. Anyone who’s
ever seen a production of Norma in a post-Maria Callas world knows
that the audience is on pins and needles until the Druid High
Priestess finishes Casta Diva early in Act One. Will she bring the
right simmering intensity and have the power to climb the heights of
this aria with ease? If she can do it, you know the evening will be
all right. If she can’t, well, that’s a tragedy of another order.
As the final chords of Norma’s invocation dissipated in Salle Wilfred
Pelletier at Montreal’s Place des Arts, the audience roared its
approval of Hasmik Papian as Norma.
Papian, an Armenian soprano, is not new to the role. In fact, she has
spent a good part of the last 10 years making it her own throughout
Europe and now, increasingly, on this side of the Atlantic.
Her interpretation of the powerful and tormented spiritual leader
of the oppressed Gauls is full on. She has bold and richly textured
voice, and can act. Act Two can unravel into a series of ill-considered
melodramas with a less capable lead. Norma’s internal struggle over
whether to spare her children infamy and enslavement by murdering
them or sparing their lives and committing them to an uncertain fate
was entirely believable.
American mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich was a fine Adalgisa, the younger
priestess who is seduced by the Roman pro-consul Pollione then
discovers he is the father of Norma’s children. She and Papian sang
wonderfully together.
Another American, Antonio Nagore, was Pollione, the Roman with
severe commitment problems. He is clearly a talented actor with a
solid and broad vocal range. However, on Saturday night, he seemed
to be suffering a bit; a slight hoarseness crept insidiously into
his singing from time to time.
The Polish bass Daniel Borowoski was an imposing Oroveso, the high
priest who ultimately must sacrifice his daughter and her foreign
lover.
Two up-and-coming Canadian singers rounded out the cast. They’re both
members of the company’s Atelier lyrique. Thomas Macleay, who has been
building a career singing early and contemporary music in Europe,
the United States and at home, is now showing up more frequently on
the opera stage. His Flavio, a friend to Pollione, was clean and crisp.
Beverly McArthur’s Clothilde, servant to Norma, fit well with the
remarkable singing of the star sopranos.
As you may have read in yesterday’s Globe and Mail, l’Opera de Montreal
cancelled an upcoming production, Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex,
because the company is experiencing a financial shortfall. It would
be have been a largely homegrown production.
Norma, on the other hand, is largely an import.
The beautiful costumes and sets were by John Conklin for the
Metropolitan Opera in New York. American Steve Pickover worked with
British director John Copley on the stage direction, also for the
Met. Montrealer Luc Prairie lit all of it stunningly. The music
direction was the work of Bernard Labadie.
The orchestra and chorus were also local — the Orchestre metropolitain
will be in the pit for the entire season, given the labour dispute
at l’Orchestre symphonique de Montreal.
Certainly the audience on Saturday night loved the show, and the next
opera, Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’Etoile, will be largely homegrown.

ROUNDTABLE “NK AND N. CYPRUS ARE DIFFERENT ISSUES FROM INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ASPECTS.”
Today, Azerbaijan
Sept 20 2005
“The problems of the Northern Cyprus and the Nagorny Karabkh are
differing from each other issues”, it was reported on 19 September
2005 at the roundtable in the International press centre “The problem
of the Northern Cyprus and the Nagorny Karabakh at the international
legal plane.
As Trend reports, at the event staged by the world organization of
young Turkish writers and the Friendship society Azerbaijan-Cyprus
was dwelt upon the common problems of Turks and Azerbaijanis, the
history of the Turkish Republic of the Northern Cyprus, as well as
the occupation of the Azerbaijan’s lands by Armenians, approach to
these problems from the international legal principles.
The head of the young Turkish writers’ organization Akper Goshaly
reported, after the visit of the delegation of the Turkish Republic
of the Northern Cyprus to Azerbaijan, the attention to this republic
enhanced, meanwhile pressure on our country launched from the part
of Greeks grew. Goshali reported, some interested forces, especially
from the part of Armenia make attempts to identify the problem of
the Northern Cyprus and the Nagorny Karabakh.
Chairman of the Azerbaijan-Cyprus friendship society noted, at the
referendum held on the island of Cyprus the Turks, demonstrating
adherence to peace said on their readiness to live in one state with
Greeks but they declined it. Agil Samedbeyli also said one should
not present Nagorny Karabakh to the Azerbaijan’s public and media
as the third party, as they try to recognize Nagorny Karabakh as the
third party. The lawyer Farman Salmanli reported, Nagorni Karabkh is
the territory of Azerbaijan and the subject of the international law
and Azerbaijan became the UNO member having Nagorny Karabakh as its
part and the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan was recognized by
all states in the world.
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BARONESS CAROLINE COX IS AWARDED A MEDAL “MKHITAR GOSH” FOR HER INPUT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARMENIAN -BRITISH RELATIONS
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 19 2005
YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA/. By the RA President Robert Kocharyan’s
decree from September 16, Baroness Caroline Cox, the Vice -Speaker of
the House of Lords of the GB Parliament, is awarded a medal “Mkhitar
Gosh” for her input in the development of the Armenian-British
relations, as well as for fruitful and self-denying humanitarian work
of many years. According to the President’s Press Service, during
the awarding ceremony Kocharyan highly appreciated the consistent
and goal-oriented work of the Baroness. Caroline Cox in the framework
of the mission “Pilgrimage to Artsakh ” visits Nagorno-Karabakh for
the 60th time. In this regard she told the President of Armenia her
impressions from her visits. According to her, after each her visit
she sees more progress both in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. By the
request of the Baroness, Kocharyan told about his meeting with the
President of Azerbaijan in Kazan and introduced the present process
of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. A.H.-0–

CSIT-20055TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE DEVOTED TO COMPUTER SCIENCES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES LAUNCHED IN YEREVAN
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 19 2005
YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA/. CSIT-20055th international conference
devoted to computer sciences and information technologies was launched
in Yerevan. According to the Vice-President of the RA National
Academy of Sciences (NAS), Director of the Institute of problems of
informatics and automatization (IPIA) of the RA NAS Yuri Shukuryan,
the main goal of the conference is exchange of information in the
area of science and information technologies and establishment of
new contacts between specialists. Shukuryan added that from 1997,
when the first such a conference was held, Armenia did specific steps
forward in the area of information technologies, in particular, an
experimental high productive system was introduced. “After the first
conference we did a lot, and we learn from our colleagues, among whom
are very famous scientists”, he said. In particular, according to him,
representatives of the Scientific and Research Institute of Informatics
of Tuluza, Institute of High Productive Computing and Database of Saint
Petersburg, Institute of System Programming and Computing Center of
the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ukrainian Institute of Cybernetics,
Tehran University and of other scientific institutions participate
in the conference.
The conference is organized by the IPIA of the RA NAS in association
with IEEE, with the support of the International Scientific -Technical
Center, National Fund of Sciences and Advanced Technologies, Incubator
Enterprises Foundation, Arminco Company, Unicomp, Haylink. Over
35 specialists from 12 countries participate in the conference,
including the USA, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, France, India and
Iran. 135 reports, including those by over 40 young scientists from
Armenia will be read at the conference. Theoretical researches are in
the areas traditionally developing in Armenia, and which make the basis
for the applied work: theory of algorithms, machines and mathematical
logic, discrete math and theory of combinations, artificial intellect,
recognition of samples and processing of images, theory of information
and coding. A special attention is paid to the development of a high
productive system for scientific calculations in Armenia, based on
“Armclaster” high productive computing system and developed by the
project of the International Scientific and Technical Center of IPIA
and its software development on the base of theoretical researches
and technology of parallel programming. A.H. -0–

TURKISH POLITICIAN FACES SWISS PROBES OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL
Agence France Presse
September 19, 2005 Monday 3:53 PM GMT
Swiss justice authorities announced Monday that they are investigating
a Turkish politician who said the killings of Armenians during World
War I could not be classified as genocide.
Dogu Perincek, leader of the small leftist Turkish Workers Party,
is suspected of breaching Switzerland’s anti-racism laws, which ban
any denial of genocidal killing, Bern investigators said.
Perincek fell foul of police who recorded a speech he made at a rally
organised in Bern Sunday by his party.
Separately, justice officials in Zurich said they were set to launch an
investigation after Perincek repeated his remarks at a press conference
in the city Monday, saying the genocide claim was a “historical lie.”
The politician said he was the victim of a “witch hunt.”
Perincek is a regular visitor to Switzerland and it is not his first
brush with justice officials — his latest trip followed a summons
by investigators in Lausanne, who are looking into similar comments
he made there in the past and are due to question him Tuesday.
Perincek said he would stick to his position, and provide officials
with “historical proof” to counter genocide claims.
The politician was detained and questioned briefly in July after a
speech at a meeting near Zurich. After his release, he repeated his
denials in an interview with a Swiss newspaper and said Switzerland’s
anti-racism laws were tantamount to “medieval inquisition.”
Perincek also faces a complaint lodged in mid-July by the
Swiss-Armenian Association following a speech he gave here in May.
Perincek’s previous tussles with the Swiss sparked a spat with Turkey,
with Ankara calling off a visit by Swiss Economy Minister Joseph
Deiss in July.
Turkish authorities have pressed the Swiss government over his case
and other probes of alleged genocide denial — including one by
leading Turkish historian Yusuf Halacoglu at a conference near Zurich.
But Swiss officials have consistently responded that the country’s
justice system is independent of the government.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
Like their counterparts in France and Canada and a number of other
countries, Swiss lawmakers have accepted that the slaughter was an
act of genocide.
Turkey has acknowledged that massacres took place under the Ottoman
Empire, but contests the figures and the use of the term genocide.
Turkish authorities say that 300,000 Armenians and as many Turks
were killed in a civil war when the Armenians, backed by Russia,
rose up against the empire.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BARITONE BRYN TERFEL AND SOPRANO ANGELA GHEORGHIU TRIUMPH AS MET OPERA OPENS SEASON
By Mike Silverman; Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
September 20, 2005 Tuesday 1:51 AM Eastern Time
Figaro prepared for his marriage, Tosca stabbed the villain in the
heart, and a shorn Samson regained his strength just long enough to
bring the temple crashing down on the Philistines.
Oh, and along the way the Metropolitan Opera kicked off its 2005-06
season Monday, and Placido Domingo extended his own record by
performing in his 21st opening night. (Enrico Caruso managed only 17.)
The gala audience, which paid up to $1,000 ([euro]824) a ticket, had
to wait quite a while to hear Domingo. In a program that consisted
of three acts from three different operas, his appearance in Act III
of Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Dalila” marked the finale.
Before he appeared, the company performed Act I of Mozart’s “Le Nozze
di Figaro” (“The Marriage of Figaro”) and Act II of Puccini’s “Tosca.”
Both the first two starred the Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, whose
enormous, effortless voice and charismatic stage presence were as
irresistible as ever.
As a Figaro brimming with good humor and self-confidence, he was
partnered by the delightful Susanna of Isabel Bayrakdarian, a rising
young Armenian-Canadian soprano. Luxury casting brought mezzo Susan
Graham to the trousers role of Cherubino, and she invested her aria
with plush tone and impeccable timing.
But the dramatic high point of the evening unquestionably came after
the first intermission, when Terfel returned as the sadistic Baron
Scarpia in the middle act of Puccini’s musical melodrama. Gone was the
affable, open-hearted sound of Figaro; in its place, the chilling,
cavernous tones of a man in love with his own power and willing to
use it without scruple.
His goal was the seduction of Tosca, a beautiful singer portrayed
here by Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu. Her performance, if
anything, surpassed Terfel’s in intensity, and together their extended
confrontation made for theater as gripping as you’re likely to see
on the Met stage.
Gheorghiu’s voice is several sizes smaller than her co-star’s, but she
makes every decibel count, from her cries of despair as she listens
to her lover being tortured offstage, to her famous “Vissi d’arte,”
in which she protests that she has dedicated her life to art. She
sang the aria faster and less showily than it is often done, and it
was devastating in its simple pathos. And she was totally persuasive
in her desperate courage as she grabbed a knife from a table and
plunged it into Scarpia’s heart as he tried to embrace her.
After that, “Samson et Dalila” was something of an anticlimax. For
one thing, the best music is in Dalila’s arias in the first two acts.
About all Act III has to offer is an orgy scene in which the Met
dancers get to writhe about energetically and a final bit of stage
gimmickry when the central pillar of the temple topples under Samson’s
exertions.
Domingo’s singing was perhaps more businesslike than compelling,
though as he nears the traditional retirement age of 65, one has to
be grateful for each performance he gives. He was partnered by mezzo
Denyce Graves as Dalila and baritone Frederick Burchinal as the High
Priest, neither of them having their best night, either.
James Levine conducted the Met orchestra through the oddly varied
program with utmost consideration and support for the singers.
The remainder of the opening week offers some more substantial fare –
Massenet’s “Manon” with Renee Fleming, Puccini’s “La Boheme,” Strauss’
“Ariadne auf Naxos,” and Verdi’s Falstaff, starring Terfel in another
of his signature roles.