MELAL ORCHESTRA TO PERFORM AT PERSEPOLIS IN LATE SEPTEMBER
Payvand, Iran
Sept 12 2005
TEHRAN, Sept. 12 (Mehr News Agency) — Persia’s ancient capital
Persepolis is to host Iran’s Melal Orchestra for a three-night concert
series which will begin on September 28, the Iranian Students News
Agency (ISNA) reported on Monday. The orchestra will perform the
program Anitra’s Dance of the Norwegian composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg
(1843-1907) and some pieces composed by Romanian musician Bela Bartok
as well as the national anthem of Iran during the reign of the Qajar
dynasty king Mozaffar ad-Din Shah, which was composed by a French
musician.
The 85-piece orchestra also plans to perform folk songs of Fars
Province and compositions by Vivaldi, Mozart, and some Iranian
musicians, including Morteza Naydavud and Aref Qazvini.
Conductor Peyman Soltani has also announced that ten Armenian musicians
will accompany the orchestra for the shows.
The program is being held in line with an agreement signed by Soltani
and the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO).
However, Soltani said in early August that the changes that the CHTO
made to the contract may lead to the cancellation of the group’s
planned concert tour of major Iranian monuments.
According to the original contract, the CHTO had agreed to allocate
15 billion rials for the orchestra’s one-year concert tour and to
arrange the sound, lighting, and filming facilities at the monuments
where the performances were to be held. It had also agreed to pay the
wages of the orchestra and road crew and to cover other expenditures
of the programs.
The CHTO then decided to reduce the funding to 200 million rials for
only the concerts at Persepolis. According to the original agreement,
the CHTO was to purchase half of the tickets for all of the concerts,
but this article has been omitted from the new contract.
The group had been scheduled to continue its tour with shows at the
Chehel Sotun Palace in Isfahan, Ferdowsi’s tomb in Tus, Gonbad-e
Kavus Tower in Golestan Province, El-Goli in Tabriz, Dolatabad Garden
in Yazd, Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat near Shush (Susa), Shazdeh Garden in
Kerman, the ancient site of Ecbatana in Hamedan, and Takht-e Soleiman
in East Azarbaijan.

GB Ambassador to Armenia
The Times (London)
September 10, 2005, Saturday
Diplomatic appointment
Anthony Cantor has been appointed Ambassador to the Republic of
Armenia, in succession to Miss Thorhilda Abbott-Watt, who will be
transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Mr Cantor,
59, is a former Ambassador in Asuncion and deputy consul-general in
Osaka. He will take up his appointment in January.

TURKEY MUST RELENT
The Spectator, UK
September 10, 2005
The issue of how best to approach a friend who has badly let you
down is one more commonly dealt with at the back of this magazine,
by our agony aunt on etiquette, Mary Killen. But this week it is one
that needs to be addressed here. Over the past years this magazine
has been a staunch defender of Turkey and its right to join the
European Union, negotiations for which begin on 3 October. We have
praised its economy, its founder-membership of Nato, and condemned
the many Turkophobes within the EU most notably Frits Bolkestein,
the EU internal market commissioner, who last year fatuously claimed
that the liberation of Vienna from the Ottoman Turks in 1683 ‘would
have been in vain’ were Turkey allowed to join the EU.
Our point is that while Turkey is far from a perfect democracy, and
still falls short of the standards we have come to expect of Western
European nations, it is essentially a benign country travelling in
the right direction.
Alone among nations with Muslim majorities, it holds proper elections
and, for the most part, maintains a legal system which Britons would
regard as fair. It has 70 million industrious citizens who are keen
to trade with us on equal terms. Moreover, as we have argued before,
admitting Turkey to the EU would make it perfectly clear that, contrary
to what some imams may say, the West has no desire to suppress Islam,
only the malignant regimes which co-exist with it in the Middle East.
It would be a tragedy, therefore, if Turkish membership of the
EU were to be jeopardised by Turkey’s ugly treatment of its most
prominent novelist, Orhan Pamuk. Last week Mr Pamuk was charged under
Article 301/1 of the Turkish penal code, which makes it an offence to
insult the Republic of Turkey, punishable with between six months’
and three years’ imprisonment increased by a third if the offence
was committed abroad.
Mr Pamuk’s crime was to make reference, in an interview with Swiss
newspaper Tagesanzeiger in February, to Turkey’s ethnic cleansing
of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 and to its ill-treatment of Kurds
since 1984. ‘Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed
in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it, ‘ he said.
It goes without saying that jailing people for raising such issues is
unacceptable in a modern democracy. Orhan Pamuk is no traitor. On the
contrary, he is seen in the literary world as a great ambassador for
his homeland, whose work shows a deep love of his country and who has
been able to straddle the gap between East and West. He simply wishes
to be free to discuss a couple of dark episodes in Turkey’s history.
To jail him for doing so would be akin to our own courts sending down
a novelist who dared to mention the Irish potato famine.
To give it some credit, the Turkish government does not entirely deny
that a large number of Armenians came to a sticky end around 1915.
The prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, recently announced his desire to
establish a commission of historians to judge whether or not genocide
took place. Yet no properly functioning democracy seeks to legislate
in favour of one official version of history.
Rather it tolerates a free market in ideas, knowing full well that
it is lively debate which best ensures that the truth eventually
seeps out.
Orhan Pamuk’s accusations of the scale of Turkish maltreatment of
Armenians and Kurds are supported by eyewitness accounts.
An American diplomat filed a report at the time speaking of Ottoman
soldiers, aided by Kurdish tribesmen, ‘sweeping the countryside,
massacring men, women and children and burning their homes. Babies were
shot in their mothers’ arms, small children were horribly mutilated,
women were stripped and beaten.’ Pamuk’s accusations are supported,
too, by Halil Berktay, a professor at Sabanci University, who puts
the numbers of dead at between 800,000 and one million.
But even if Pamuk’s charges were nonsense, it would be no excuse
for jailing him. A confident nation has no need to suppress free
speech, knowing that anyone who makes false accusations against their
country’s past for political reasons will rapidly be crushed beneath
the weight of counter-evidence. It is very irritating when some
left-wing firebrand pops up blaming the British empire for Aids,
using the tortuous argument that the buggery of black slaves by
their British masters induced Afro-Caribbeans to violent homophobia,
thereby suppressing condom-use in latterday Africa. But to bung them
behind bars? Apart from the abuse of the firebrand’s human rights,
it would merely serve to suggest that Britain had never got over its
loss of empire.
Admittedly, Turkey’s problem over Armenia and the Kurds is not
limited to the government: 80 per cent of respondents to a recent
opinion poll said they could do without EU membership if it meant
having to admit to past genocide. But if Turkey wants to join the EU,
and become a full member of the wider club of Western democracies,
it simply has to face up to its past, and to its present democratic
failings. Article 301/1 of its penal code must go.

ARMENIAN ARMS SMUGGLING CASE TRANSFERRED TO CITY COURT
RIA Novosti
September 09, 2005
MOSCOW, September 9 (RIA Novosti) – The case involving Samvel
Avestisyan, accused of smuggling arms from Armenia to sell to the
United Arab Emirates, has been transferred to the city court of
Domodedovo in the Moscow region from the Moscow Region Prosecutor’s
Office.
The press service of the prosecutor’s office said that on March 26,
2005, Avestisyan was arrested in the customs hall of Domodedovo
Airport with 16 devices used in weapons navigation systems.
Avetisyan is accused of entering Russia with equipment that could
be used as means of launching weapons of mass destruction, the press
service said.
“Because such equipment can be used to create the means of launching
weapons of mass destruction, the government has instituted particular
laws for their transport through Russia’s customs borders.”
The accused is currently in custody.

A RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN MILITARY EXERCISE BEGINS IN ARMENIA
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 9, 2005, Friday
Servicemen of the Russian group of forces in the Trans-Caucasian
region and the Armenian Armed Forces will conduct a joint exercise
on the Bagramyan firing range (Armenia) from September 7-14.
Vladimir Kuparadze, an official representative of the Russian group
of forces, said, “We conduct the exercise within the framework of the
Collective security treaty signed by Russia and Armenia. Russian and
Armenian ground and air units will be involved.”

ESTONIA, ARMENIA START DEFENSE COOPERATION
Baltic News Service
September 9, 2005
Estonian Defense Minister Jaak Joeruut and his Armenian counterpart
Serge Sargsyan signed a memorandum of understanding on defense
cooperation between the two countries in Tallinn on Friday.
The ministers spoke about possibilities for cooperation in defense
and developments regarding the NATO Individual Partnership Action
Plan (IPAP) for Armenia, spokespeople for the Estonian Defense
Ministry said.
Within the framework of the IPAP, Armenia is soon about to carry out
a reform of its defense forces. In this respect the country expects to
secure a development similar to that of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
and make its defense forces compatible with the standards of NATO
and the European Union, the Armenian minister said.
Sargsyan said Armenia values its participation in the NATO Partnership
for Peace program and the experience gained by participating in
multinational missions in Kosovo and Iraq.
“Estonia welcomes the completion of Armenia’s first IPAP and is
offering Armenia as a NATO partner its help and reform experience in
the implementation of the IPAP,” the Estonian defense minister said.
As part of his stay in Estonia, the Armenian minister of defense
visited the Baltic Defense College in the southern city of Tartu,
meeting with its chief, Lithuanian Brig. Gen. Algis Vaiceliunas.
“In Baltic Defense College we have an excellent example of very good
regional cooperation,” Sargsyan said.
Sargsyan also met in Estonia with the chairman of the parliamentary
national defense committee, Toivo Tootsen.
Armenia wishes to learn from Estonia’s experience, Sargsyan said,
underscoring that a long-time relationship in the former Soviet Union
helped Estonia and Armenia better understand each other.
The Armenian minister backed the Estonian stance that EU membership
talks with Turkey should start already this year.

CRISIS GROUP WELCOMES PERMISSION FOR GARABAGH ARMENIANS TO VOTE AT NOVEMBER POLL
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 12 2005
Baku, September 9, AssA-Irada
The International Crisis Group, an organization working to prevent
conflicts worldwide, has welcomed the resumption of activity of
the Khankandi district constituency in Upper Garabagh, which will
allow ethnic Armenian citizens of Azerbaijan to vote in the November
parliament elections, the ICG project director on South Caucasus
Sabin Frasier said.
Frasier told a news conference in Baku on Friday that she discussed
the issue with the Central Election Commission chairman Mazahir
Panahov. She noted that the Azeri government has repeatedly confirmed
that Armenian residents of Upper Garabagh are Azerbaijani citizens.
“Drawing all of the country’s citizens to the election process is a
positive tendency.”
Frasier noted however, that the decision was belated, which ‘creates
certain problems in its implementation’.
The ICG representative called on the Azeri to step up the relations
between the Azeri and Armenian communities of Garabagh.*

DISPLACED CHILDREN CONDEMN ARMENIAN TERROR
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 12 2005
Baku, September 9, AssA-Irada
Schoolchildren displaced from Shusha, Khojaly and Khojavand districts
as a result of the Armenian aggression held a protest action in Baku
on Friday.
The protesters held posters “No to terror!” and “End to Armenian
terror!” during the action aimed at raising funds for the construction
of a monument in the United States honoring the memory of victims of
the September 11 terror attacks.
Addressing the event, head of the Azerbaijani community of Upper
Garabagh Nizami Bahmanov said the goal of the protest action is for
young Azerbaijanis to voice their condemnation of global terror.
The protest also targets demanding speedy liberation of Azerbaijan’s
occupied territories and denouncing the atrocities committed by the
Garabagh separatist regime.
Bahmanov added that the proceeds were presented to a representative
of the US embassy in Baku, who attended the event.*

ETHNICALLY-ARMENIAN BUSH ATTACKER TO STAND TRIAL IN GEORGIA
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 12 2005
Baku, September 9, AssA-Irada
The Armenian terrorist charged with attempting on US President George
Bush’s life during the latter’s visit to Tbilisi, Georgia on May 10,
will stand trial in Tbilisi on September 20, according to Georgian
interior minister Vano Merabishvili.
Vladimir Arutunian, 27, will be imprisoned in Georgia and no other
measures are planned, Merabishvili said.
The US Department of Justice has charged Arutunian with two offenses
– an attempt on President Bush’s life and illegal possession of
weapons. However, the United States has not demanded his extradition.
The results of the investigation into Arutunian’s case carried out
by US experts will be handed over to the Georgian interior ministry
on September 20.
Arutunian will face life in prison if he is convicted under US laws.
Meanwhile, the Georgian media quoted Arutunian’s former lawyer as
saying that Arutunian has demanded a meeting with US investigators
to provide them with important information. Arutunian has demanded
$50,000 for the information that is allegedly not related to the
unsuccessful terror attack on Bush.*

CSTO FORCE GROUPING MANEUVERS START IN ARMENIA
Kazinform, Kazakhstan
Sept 12 2005
MOSCOW. September 12. KAZINFORM /Arnur Rakhymbekov/ – CSTO Secretary
General Nikolay Bordyuzha will estimate the interaction of the Russian
and Armenian troop commands, being a part of Caucasus regional force
grouping of CSTO, during maneuvers in Armenia. Collective Security
Treaty Organization Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha came to
the Republic of Armenia on September 12. “I came to Armenia on the
invitation of its Defense Minister to participate in maneuvers
of the Russian and Armenian troop commands of Caucasus regional
force grouping of CSTO. It was founded in the framework of CSTO and
holds joint maneuvers annually as well as Russian-Byelorussian force
grouping in the West and Collective Forces of fast expansion in Central
Asian region. They practice the operations of units and detachments
of bilateral force grouping on protection and defense of CSTO
member-countries, Nikolay Bordyuzha stated before flying to Yerevan.
Two motorized rifle regiments and support units, representing each
side, will participate in maneuvers, he itemized.
According to CSTO Secretary General, he is to estimate the operations
of units and detachments during maneuvers as well as to acquaint with
its dispositions. He called the Republic of Armenia one of the most
active members of the Organization.
Armenia always puts forward interesting initiatives on further
integration in the sphere of collective security provision. It regards
the documents, worked out by CSTO, very attentively at all levels
from Armenia Plenipotentiary Representative under CSTO to state
authorities. The level of the work of Armenia executive bodies is
very high, N. Bordyuzha noted.
The maneuvers take place on September 10-13 in accordance with
bilateral agreements between Russian and Armenian sides. Overland and
air force units of Armenia and 102nd Russian military base will take
part in it.