Foreign Minister: Breakthrough in Store if Armenia Accepts All Proposals
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 25 2005
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said that progress will be
achieved in talks on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement if
Armenia accepts the proposals made by Azerbaijan.
“We are ready for talks. The sides have mutual understanding on
certain issues. If Armenia is ready to accept all of our proposals,
there will be a breakthrough in the talks.”
Mammadyarov told local TV channels after an informal meeting with
his Armenian counterpart Vardan Oskanian in Moscow on Tuesday that
the parties exchanged views on the talks between the two presidents
due Saturday.
The Minister continued that the US, Russian and French co-chairs of
the OSCE Minsk Group mediating the conflict resolution have stepped
up their activity and continue to put forth ‘compromise’ proposals.
Touching upon the Karabakh status, the Minister stressed the importance
of discussing the issue strictly within Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. “There are different ways to resolve the issue. Dialogue
on the matter should therefore continue….We approach the conflict
resolution from the conceptual standpoint. The main idea is for us
to find a way for Azeris and Armenians to live peacefully in a small
territory. The sooner we find a way for this, the more rapidly our
states will develop, as the conflict is an obstacle for our countries’
development. We should focus on the processes ongoing around the
world and look to the future.”

PM WANTS THE CONFERENCE
Turkish Press
Aug 25 2005
Press Scan
MILLIYET (LIBERAL)
It was revealed that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Bogazici
University Rector Prof. Dr. Ayse Soysal to organize the conference
on “Armenians in the Late Ottoman Empire” before opening of entry
talks with the EU on October 3rd. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister &
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said about the conference, “we
consider such meetings an opportunity to explain our theses both in
Turkey and abroad. We should benefit from such opportunities.”

ARMENIAN CHURCH DENIES REPORTS ABOUT KAREKIN II’s VISIT TO JAVAKHK
Armenpress
AUG 25, 2005
ETCHMIADZIN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian Church has denied
today press reports saying that Catholicos of all Armenians, Karekin
II was set to visit southern Georgia’s predominately Armenian region
of Javakhk on October 1 to consecrate the newly constructed Armenian
Diocese building.
Regnum news agency quoted today Vahram Melikian, head of Church’s
press office, as saying that Karekin II made no such a decision. The
original report was disseminated by A-Info news agency, operating
in Javakhk, which also said that the last Armenian Catholicos who
visited the region was Khrimyan Hayrik in 1896.
From: Baghdasarian

BOXING NEWS: RAGING BULL CHARGES ON
Gary Todd
The Sweet Science
August 26, 2005
SYDNEY, Australia (August 24, 2005) – As the bell rang for the first
round in last night’s IBF World championship bout in Sydney, you
just knew who was going to win. Armenian born Vic “The Raging Bull”
Darchinyan was defending his world title and was desperate to make
an impression with the Australian boxing fans, and also stake his
claim as the best flyweight on the planet.
Last night, I think he achieved both, by battering the tough and
experienced Colombian, Jair Jimenez (22-5-1) in five rounds to retain
his title in what could only be described as an awesome display of
sheer power and aggression.
Known as “The Raging Bull” to his fans, Darchinyan charged the
smaller-looking Jimenez and sent out a fast, piston like-jab to
establish his range, before opening up from his awkward southpaw
stance to land some huge, debilitating left hooks to the Colombians
mid-section, before finishing his accurate combinations to his
challenger’s teak tough head.
Jimenez never had a chance and had never experienced this kind of
onslaught in his entire career, and it was clear from the first body
shot landed by the Sydney 2000 Olympian, that this fight was going
to be over sooner rather than later.
Round 1. Darchinyan stalks Jimenez around the ring, jabbing out
consistently before unleashing his power shots catching the Colombian
to the body with seconds to go.
Round 2. Huge body shot to begin the round has Jimenez struggling
for breath. The brave challenger sucks it up, but is throwing nothing
but arm punches. Darchinyan continues to target the body with great
results.
Round 3. Brilliant right-left combination stuns Jimenez, stopping
him on his feet, but he regains his composure to survive the round,
but only just. Big shots from the champion in the last seconds of
the round, and the Colombian’s legs are gone.
Round 4. This is the beginning of the end for Jimenez. After a huge
head and body combination flurry from Darchinyan, the referee gives
Jimenez a standing eight-count, and still punch after punch continues
to rain down on the hard-as-nails Jair Jimenez.
Round 5. Just before Darchinyan came out for the fifth, his trainer,
Jeff Fenech, calls out, “Finish him and lets go home.” Darchinyan gives
a wicked little smile, shrugs his shoulders and does what he has been
told. Darchinyan is battering the Colombian at will and is landing
to the head with big lefts; Jimenez looks like he is going to cry. At
2:23 seconds of the round, Jimenez is saved by the referee. TKO.
Vic Darchinyan decided to make the move to Australia after the 2000
Games in Sydney, and after a lot of setbacks in his five year career,
he is now on top of the world. Darchinyan is champion and is where he
deserves to be. This quiet, often funny little man trains as hard as
any boxer I’ve seen in the gym, and will spar anyone. Fighting out
of triple world champion Jeff Fenech’s acclaimed gym, Darchinyan
pushes himself to the extremes and after all the sacrifices he
has made to get to the top, god help anyone who wants what is his.
Interviewing him after the fight, he said “my goal has always been to
win the world title then unify. I want the WBA champ, Lorenzo Parra,
then WBC champion, Pongsaklek Wongjongkam. If I get these fights,
I’ll be happy. Jimenez was tough, but no-one can take my power.”
Now a world champion, Darchinyan and his people only want the big
fights, and are desperate to attract a following with the Aussie
fight fans, and capture their hearts like another famous immigrant
boxer did, all those years ago in 1991. That man was Kostya Tszyu.
While it is unlikely that he will ever make as much money or attract
the same household status as the rat-tailed “Thunder From Down Under,”
he could achieve the same hall of fame achievements in the ring,
by becoming an undisputed champion.

SYSTEM’S FIERY SONGS `MEZMERIZE’ METAL FANS
By Dave Wedge
Boston Herald, MA
Aug 26 2005
Tony Danza and Frankie Avalon may seem worlds away from fiercely
political rock, but for System of a Down’s Daron Malakian, they were
perfect fodder.
The pair became an odd muse for the guitarist/songwriter after
he fulfilled a lifelong dream of playing baseball at Los Angeles’
Dodgers Stadium in a pseudo-celebrity game.
“I was just so weirded out. It was just a surreal situation,”
Malakian said, recalling his inspiration for the song “Old School
Hollywood.” “When I went home, no more than half-hour, I just shot
out that song.”
Like most tracks on the band’s latest platinum smash,
“Mezmerize,” the song is an uncompromising mix of Frank Zappa-esque
lyrics and punk-metal fury. And while many of their peers are whining
about lost love and broken homes, somehow System – which performs
tomorrow at the DCU Center in Worcester with fellow art-metallers the
Mars Volta – manages to morph ’50s teen singer Avalon’s name into a
catchy chorus. “I don’t put any walls in front of me when it comes
to things that inspire me,” Malakian said by phone before a show at
Miami Arena. “I write about my life.”
Though all four members of System are of Armenian descent, they
claim the Armenian connection is coincidence. Malakian grew up in
Hollywood, a disgusted spectator of the superficiality of the City of
Angels, an experience responsible for one of the album’s most intense
tracks, “Lost in Hollywood.”
“The L.A. persona is a bunch of people who never grew up in
L.A., who think they have to act a certain way. They aren’t usually
from L.A.,” he explained. “And that’s what `Lost in Hollywood’ is
about – me growing up watching it all. I’m really proud of that song.”
On “Mezmerize” and its forthcoming counterpart “Hypnotize,”
due out in November, Malakian takes over a large chunk of the
vocal duties from frontman Serj Tankian. But, Malakian explained,
it’s really not much of a change. When the band formed a decade ago,
Tankian was a keyboardist and Malakian was the frontman. Their vocal
chops, coupled with the band’s fiery, off-kilter style, puts them in
a category of their own.
“I think we play honest music. That’s a rarity these days in pop
culture or radio culture or mainstream,” Malakian said. “You don’t
have many bands playing honest music – music that is not produced
and cookie cut in the regular, corporate fashion just so it will be
marketed out like Pepsi.”
Their latest single, “B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bombs),” is
clearly anti-war, but it’s abrasiveness is softened by a disco-fied
chorus, played with a sarcasm casual listeners may miss. Its references
to the Iraq war are pointed, but Malakian said “it’s more of a social
statement, a class statement” than a political song.
“We’re just a band that looks at music as art,” he said. “We
don’t just look at it as `Let’s just play our guitars.’ We’re a
heavy band, but we’ve got emotional and light sides to our songs,
funny and sad. We don’t limit ourselves.”
And thanks to rabid grassroots support and relentless touring,
Malakian said, “We’ve seen some success without having to change
our ways.
“We’ve kind of stuck to our guns,” he said. “We’ve pretty
much done things our way and things fell in the right place at the
right time. With a little bit of luck here and a little bit of hard
work there.”
System of a Down plays tomorrow at the DCU Center in Worcester
with the Mars Volta and Bad Acid Trip. Tickets are $37.50-$45. Call
617-228-6000 or go to

WATERTOWN HIGH CONTINUES TO ENHANCE ARMENIAN LANGUAGE PROGRAM
Watertown TAB & Press, MA
Aug 26 2005
After meeting with representatives of the local Armenian-American
community this past summer, the superintendent of schools and principal
of Watertown Public High School have agreed that maintaining two
Armenian-language courses in the high school would better accommodate
the educational needs of the student population, reported the Armenian
National Committee of Eastern Massachusetts.
While students were off enjoying their summer vacation, local
ANC activists learned that the Watertown Public High School was
considering combining three levels of Armenian-language students into
one class with one teacher for the upcoming school year.
After investigating the issue, the ANC learned from parents and
students that there were more than 20 students of at least three levels
of Armenian language skills enrolled in the Armenian language classes,
which would have resulted in an inferior learning environment if the
classes were combined.
Since this was understandably a major concern for parents and
students, the ANC of Eastern Massachusetts raised the issue at a School
Committee meeting in June, and the Watertown TAB ran a front-page
story on the issue the following week, citing the concern of parents
with children enrolled in the classes.
The ANC met with Principal Michael Noftsker of Watertown High
School, a strong advocate of enriching programs which enhance
Watertown’s ethnic diversity. Noftsker shared the community’s concerns,
but was not sure a solution would be reached by the 2005-2006 school
year.
In a subsequent meeting with Watertown Superintendent of Schools
Steven Hiersche last month, ANC representatives again outlined the
issue and asked that the matter be reconsidered. The superintendent
assured the ANC that the decision to make the change was not related
to budget restrictions nor intended to diminish the Armenian language
program, agreeing that combining three language levels did not offer
an ideal learning environment for Watertown students, and he pledged
to work with Noftsker toward a solution.
The ANC of Eastern Massachusetts was pleased to learn soon after
that meeting that the Armenian-language courses would continue to be
taught as originally intended with at least two separate classes in
September 2005 addressing the different levels of students.
“We would like to thank Superintendent Hiersche and Principal
Noftsker for their commitment to the diverse educational needs of
Watertown students and for their deep understanding as we presented
the concerns of parents and students,” said Sharistan Ardhaldjian of
the ANC.
“We are proud that Watertown students are learning in the hands
of such committed leaders. We applaud the town of Watertown and
particularly the school system. Watertown High School is the only
area school that offers Armenian as one of its language courses,
in recognition of the diversity of local cultures, and we are glad
that students of all nationalities will continue to be able to learn
Armenian in the best possible environment in the public school system,”
said Ardhaldjian.
The Armenian National Committee is the largest Armenian-American
grassroots political organization in Massachusetts and nationwide.
The ANC actively advances a broad range of issues of concern to the
Armenian-American community.

TURKISH FM GUL WARMLY VIEWS ATTENDING ARMENIAN CONFERENCE
By Cihan News Agency, Anadolu News Agency (aa) 25 August 2005
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Aug 26 2005
ANKARA – Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has conveyed that
he might attend the postponed academic conference titled “Ottoman
Armenians During the Decline of the Empire”, which will be held at
the Bogazici University, Istanbul between September 23 and 25.
Gul announced he might also not be able to attend the conference
because he is envisioned to be in New York to attend the United Nations
(UN) General Assembly studies on the same dates. Gul received an
invitation to the disputed conference on Wednesday and said he viewed
such conferences as crucial opportunities to express Turkey’s theses
regarding the Armenian issue. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Namik Tan said Gul might attend the “final session” of the conference
if his schedule allows. The conference, termed by Turkish Minister of
Justice Cemil Cicek as a “dagger in the back of the Turkish people”,
was previously postponed due to negative reactions. Gul, however,
noted he saw the conference as, “a crucial opportunity to express
Turkish theses and approaches both in the country and abroad. In this
respect, we, as a foreign ministry and government, will be more active
from now on,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Armenian lobby within the US Congress sent a letter
to the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling on the US to
object to a new railroad project planned to connect Azerbaijan and
Turkey through Georgia on the grounds that it would isolate Armenia.

AZERI PRESIDENT TO ATTEND CIS SUMMIT IN KAZAN
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
Aug 26 2005
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will participate in CIS Summit to
be held in Kazan, Russia, on August 26-27, the Azerbaijani President’s
Executive Power told Trend.
The agenda of the meeting scheduled for August 26 and to be
held in Kazan includes around 10 issues, including a resolution
on improvement and reforming of the CIS bodies, an Agreement on
humanitarian cooperation among CIS member-countries, a Declaration on
the celebration of the 60th anniversary of UN, Appeal toCIU nations
and world community in connection with the 20th year of the tragic
incident in Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. The head of state will
participate in the events dedicated to 1000th anniversary of Kazan.
During his stay in Kazan President Aliyev intends to hold meetings
with his counterparts from CIS countries. On August 27 he is scheduled
to have a next round of a dialogue with Armenian President Robert
Kocharian on the peaceable resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. He is also scheduled to meet with
Presidents of Russia and Ukraine.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, AUCTION: ARMENIA PRIVATIZES A HISTORIC FILM STUDIO. WILL IT HELP REVIVE THE RICH CINEMA TRADITION OF THE CAUCASUS?
By Tom Birchenough
Moscow Times
Aug 26 2005
As Russia waits for any real development in transferring parts of
its film industry into private hands — the partial privatization of
Moscow’s Gorky Film Studio, announced this spring and heralded as
the first step in that process, has been indefinitely postponed —
other countries in the region are pressing ahead, in an effort to
reinvigorate local film industries as well as to attract international
productions.
In 2004, private investors took ownership of the Vilnius-based
Lithuanian Film Studio, and last month, Armenia headed in a similar
direction. Yerevan’s historic Armenfilm, founded in 1923 and long part
of the rich film tradition of the Caucasus, passed into the hands of
the well-connected local media group CS Media City, or CSMC, and its
subsidiary Armenia Film Studios, for the sum of 350 million drams
(just over $750,000).
Cinema in the Caucasus has always straddled the present-day national
borders, and though Armenia has a considerable reputation in film,
it’s often been dwarfed by neighboring Georgia, where directors,
especially those from the generation of the 1950s and 1960s, earned
particular fame.
For instance, Armenfilm is named in honor of Amo Bek-Nazarov, a
Soviet actor and director whose career began before the Bolshevik
Revolution. Although of Armenian descent, Bek-Nazarov played a
major role in Georgian silent film, and one of his best known works,
“Pepo” from 1935, unfolds in 19th-century Tiflis, though it features
an almost exclusively Armenian cast. Boundaries are further blurred
by the fact that Georgia’s state film production body, Goskinprom,
actually started in Baku, now the capital of Azerbaijan.
National loyalties are relative, indeed: One of Yerevan’s most
prominent museums may honor Sergei Paradzhanov, the censored and
once-imprisoned creator of Soviet-era classics such as “Color of
Pomegranates,” who died in the city in 1990, but the director rarely
worked in the country and is more often linked to Georgia and Ukraine.
Over the last decade, as Armenia went through war and dire poverty, the
situation took a distinct turn for the worse. Armenfilm’s peak output
of up to 10 feature films a year during the 1970s and 1980s dropped to
almost nothing. In 2004, its state budget funding was a mere $600,000.
Now, despite its august history and continuing difficulties,
priorities for the newly privatized studio look more than up-to-date,
especially in promoting lower-budget production using digital filming
equipment, which could give greater flexibility to the studio’s new
management by removing the need for difficult laboratory processing.
“Digital cinematography … [offers the] possibility to reduce the
gap between countries with extremely developed film industries and
countries where annually only a couple of movies are being shot,”
wrote Edgar Baghdasaryan, the director of Armenia Film Studios,
in an online statement.
Progress should certainly be helped by the fact that the venture is
supported by two highly influential figures in Armenia, with friendly
links to the country’s president, Robert Kocharyan. Local businessman
Bagrat Sargisyan is working alongside philanthropist Gerard Cafesjian,
a U.S. citizen of Armenian descent who opened a brand-new arts center
in Yerevan last year. The two also control three local television
stations.
Though the price of the deal may look on the low side, CSMC has
pledged to invest as much as $66 million in the studio over the next
10 years. In addition, it has promised to support four new local
feature films a year, as well as associated short-film and animation
work. The first fruits of the media company’s work, in the form of
two local productions, “Arshile” and “Mariam,” are already under way.

Music: Caucasus’ orchestra for peace
By Meline Toumani The New York Times
International Herald Tribune, France
Aug 26 2005
BATUMI, Georgia Two years ago, Uwe Berkemer, a German conductor
working in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, had an idea that seemed
simple, even sweet: Create a chamber orchestra with musicians from
all over the Caucasus, a region between the Black and Caspian Seas
that separates Europe from Asia and is home to ethnic groups that
speak more than 40 languages.
The orchestra, he imagined, would demonstrate that music is a unifying
force. And it would symbolize the potential for peace among groups
engaged in intractable conflicts over land and sovereignty: Russians
and Chechens, Georgians and Abkhazians, Armenians and Azerbaijanis,
to name a few.
Inspired by the momentum for change in Georgia following the 2003
bloodless revolution that ousted the former Soviet republic’s longtime
leader, Eduard Shevardnadze, Berkemer set out on a mission that
mixed music and politics: His Caucasian Chamber Orchestra would be
a permanent, full-time performing group, based in Tbilisi, bringing
together the best musicians from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and
the North Caucasus areas of Russia. But when Berkemer sought the
support of cultural ministries in each country, he discovered that
not everyone agreed that music should transcend ethnic disputes.
Georgia was quick to sign on. Armenia soon followed, despite rising
tensions between Georgians and ethnic Armenians living in Georgia’s
Javakheti region. But there was no word from Azerbaijan.
After five months and many earnest overtures from Berkemer, European
Union delegates and diplomats throughout the region, a letter
arrived. Azerbaijan’s minister of culture, Polad Bulbuloglu, who had
been a Soviet-era pop star, wrote that Azerbaijani musicians would
not participate. It would be inconceivable to place them alongside
Armenian musicians, he wrote, as long as Armenian forces occupied
the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Berkemer eventually hired 5 musicians from Armenia, 10 from Georgia
and 1 from Dagestan, a Muslim-populated region of Russia bordering
Chechnya. A chamber orchestra should have 16 to 19 musicians, “so we
are saving three seats” for the Azerbaijanis, he said, “whenever they
are ready to join us.”
The next problem for the orchestra was how to make a proper debut.
Berkemer and his staff decided to organize a festival in Batumi,
the capital of the Ajaria region, on the Black Sea.
Batumi looks peculiar even before an onlooker learns of its history.
Thanks to its seaside location, tall palms line the streets, and
a mild, wet climate creates a relaxed, tropical feeling. But large
blocks of shabby Soviet-style apartment buildings loom over the beach
cafes, reminding visitors that this quiet resort town has been through
tumultuous changes in the last century, the last decade and even in
the last year.
Until a year ago, Aslan Abashidze, who ruled Ajaria for 13 years,
ran the region as though it were his private kingdom. When Georgia’s
new president, Mikhail Saakashvili, took power early last year, one
of his first moves was to assert national sovereignty over the region,
forcing Abashidze to flee the country.
According to Ajaria’s newly reinstated minister of culture, Alexandre
Gegenava, local cultural life was transformed. “For 13 years,
Abashidze controlled all performances to suit his own interests,”
Gegenava said. “Normal people could not attend concerts. It was
always just the same people: his ministers, his bodyguards and his
slaves. Everybody knew whose seat was whose.”
Gegenava, who also worked in cultural administration during the
Soviet era, said that he himself would not have been able to enter
the theater during the Abashidze years.
Learning of this detail late in the planning process, Berkemer wondered
whether his orchestra’s debut, and the Batumi Music Festival overall,
were doomed to echo in empty halls.
Opening night on Aug. 11 was encouraging. The Batumi Theater, which
seats about 500, was two-thirds full, and the diversity of the audience
would have been notable anywhere in the world: a mix of children and
adults; dignitaries from Tbilisi, Germany and Britain; a local priest,
and tanned tourists.
Berkemer led the orchestra through Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. Marina Iashvili, a prominent
violin soloist of the Soviet era, performed with the group. The young
orchestra members – many of them fresh from conservatories in Tbilisi
and Yerevan, Armenia – beamed as the audience demanded four encores.
And in a move that won him many fans, Berkemer – standing out with
pale skin and white-blond hair in a room full of black-haired,
dark-eyed locals – sang an unofficial Georgian anthem, “Suliko.”
For a Saturday night “Concert for Peace,” Berkemer chose Britten’s
“Lachrymae” and Hindemith’s “Trauermusik” (Funeral Music). He wanted
to play Hindemith, he said, because the composer had been exiled from
Nazi Germany after Goebbels denounced him as an “atonal noisemaker.”
The composer’s experience as a refugee and the melancholy quality of
his composition, Berkemer said, lent respect to Caucasian war victims,
to whom the concert was dedicated.
Other festival events included late-night serenades in the
candle-lighted art museum by a vocal ensemble, Largo, which presented
songs from Chechnya, Ossetia and regions in Georgia; and by the Batumi
State Vocal Ensemble, which performed in the characteristic Georgian
male a cappella tradition.
Batumi residents seemed enthusiastic about the Caucasian Chamber
Orchestra but retained mixed expectations for solutions to the ethnic
conflicts in the region.
Giorgi Masalkin, a deputy in the Ajaria Supreme Council and a professor
of philosophy at Batumi State University, had taken his young daughter
to see the orchestra perform. “I want her to see the similarities
between people,” he said. “Acknowledging what’s common between you
and your neighbors is 50 percent of good relations.”