PanArmenian News
Feb 28 2005

GERMAN CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION PARTY SUBMITTED DRAFT
RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO BUNDESTAG

28.02.2005 17:03

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ German Christian Democratic opposition party has
submitted a draft resolution on the Armenian Genocide to the
Bundestag. The document stresses the necessity of discussing Turkey’s
participation in the massacres of Armenians at the beginning of the
last century. The resolution says that Turkey denies having committed
the crime and Germany should urge her to confess perpetration of the
Armenian Genocide. Moreover the oppositionists insist that Germany
should do its best to make subject be freely discussed in Turkey.

Independent on Sunday (London)
February 27, 2005, Sunday

BOOKS: PAPERBACKS

by LAURENCE PHELAN

[parts omitted]

Chinese Takeout
By Arthur Nersesian
MARION BOYARS £9.99

Set among the bohemian art crowd of New York’s lower east side in the
run-up to the 2000 presidential election, Chinese Takeout is a baggy
but agreeable novel about the life of a struggling painter, with an
obvious nod to Bukowski and echoes of Orpheus and Eurydice. Our self-
obsessed narrator is Orloff Trenchant, an Irish-Armenian New Yorker
who is in his mid-30s, just old enough to remember when loft space
was affordable. He lives in his dilapidated van for most of the year,
and supplements the income he makes from his paintings by selling
secondhand books in the street. The story finally gets going when he
falls for a heroin-addicted poet and attempts to rescue her from her
drugs and prostitution hell.

Orr had a successful solo show early in his career, but his saleability
has declined and his youthful idealism dissipated. Though there’s a
bit of room to satirise art-world pretensions, Nersesian generally
takes an ultra-realist’s approach to depicting his milieu, and
Chinese Takeout contains enough detail about the mundane problems
Orr has to deal with to sustain his hand-to-mouth existence to belie
the romantic myth of the starving artist. And while he may describe
Orr’s struggle to make a living in mock-heroic terms, he makes it
clear that if we don’t all maintain a few hopes, dreams and ideals,
our cities can become cruel places.

–Boundary_(ID_q+b6avV71JCzMLODIUGJ9w)–

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
February 27, 2005, Sunday

We’ve all gone to heaven

By Peter Reed

BODY:
People still speak in hushed tones of the Kirov Opera’s performance
of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and
the Maiden Fevroniya at the Barbican in 1994. If it was anything like
last Wednesday’s given by the same forces (now called the Mariinsky
Theatre) and again conducted by the Mariinsky’s director, Valery
Gergiev, I can understand why. The impact it made is all the more
remarkable when you consider that this conflation and interpretation
of two medieval Russian fables is not without flaws.

Its epic historical scale lacks dramatic focus – you think that the
“pilgrim’s progress” of saintly Fevroniya is at the centre of things,
but Kuterma, the grotesque and drunken idiot-savant, is far more
powerfully drawn. The love between Fevroniya and her prince,
initiated in Act I, is then virtually ignored until the last act, by
which time they’re both dead in the now celestial city of Kitezh. The
influence of Wagner – not for nothing is the work known as “the
Russian Parsifal” – is all over the score like a rash; and when it
isn’t the music is dominated by those characteristically Russian
folk- and hymn-style melodies that always seem to be looping back to
where they started.

The reason it works, of course, is that the Mariinsky performs it
with such conviction. Kitezh is in their blood and, with the
exception of the two main roles – a steady and radiant Fevroniya from
Tatiana Borodina (standing in for Mlada Khudolei) and Vassily
Gorshkov’s strident and demented Kuterma – in their heads: the other
13 soloists sang from memory. These included Lyubov Sokolova and Olga
Trifonova’s expressive two birds of paradise, who announce
Fevroniya’s death and lead her into the heavenly city, and Gennady
Bezzubenkov as Prince Yuri, sonorous and moving in his prayer for the
city’s deliverance from the Tartar hordes.

This sense of cohesion was firmly grounded in the grandeur of the
chorus’s singing and by the orchestra’s hyper-responsive playing,
which under Gergiev’s fairly minimal direction illuminated the
music’s visionary and narrative detail. One moment it was like
viewing one of those huge sombre Russian landscapes, the next like
contemplating an icon. Gergiev presented us with a rock-solid fusion
of style and content, and the result was both remarkable and
humbling.

The following night the Mariinsky chorus reasserted the authority of
their disciplined, flexible singing in a short concert of Russian
church music in the warm and very comfortable Armenian church of St
Yeghiche in south Kensington. The music included some lovely extracts
from vespers by Kalinnikov and Rachmaninov; Bezzubenkov was the
soloist in a magnificently gloomy Litany of Supplication by
Grechaninov; and I very much liked Arkhangelsky’s concerto for chorus
“I Think of the Dies Irae” – you and me both, all the time.

Agassi amazed by multi-racial harmony in Dubai

Agence France Presse — English
February 27, 2005

DUBAI Feb 27 — Andre Agassi left Dubai disappointed to have lost
a semi-final to Roger Federer but delighted with the possibility of
being a sort of self-styled ambassador for the Middle East.

Agassi, whose father Mike represented Iran as an Olympic boxer,
claimed to be amazed at the cosmopolitan culture and prosperity of
the fast-developing Emirate and appears to believe he might help
change some American perceptions.

“It’s been an incredible week for me and it’s taught me a lot being
here. You see so many different people living together peacefully
that it’s amazing to watch and it’s a privilege to be here,” he said.

“Seeing a thousand cranes in action in Dubai impresses even me, someone
who is coming from Las Vegas. If I were to take a message back home
it would be ‘come to the Middle East before you form any opinions’.”

Agassi is saying that he will bring his wife, Steffi Graf, and his
children next time he comes, which will apparently happen whether or
not he decides to play in the 2006 Dubai Open at the age of nearly 36.

He has also admitted he is trying to line up some kind of business
deal in Dubai and there is said to be a possibility that he might
buy a holiday home, only 250 miles across the Gulf from his father’s
country of birth.

Agassi was visibly moved by the way a multi-racial Middle East crowd
reacted to him, an American, when he was playing.

As well as proving an even bigger draw than world number one Roger
Federer, with many unable to get into Dubai’s 5,000 capacity centre
court when he was playing, Agassi continually brought a tumultuous
response.

“What is happening here is a reflection of a lot of vision and
passion,” he said.

“Seeing all these different people living peacefully together – it’s
the way the world is meant to be, and the chance to share this with
my wife and kids would be a pleasure.”

Of course Agassi will be able to share things others would not. His
visit to Dubai has included a viewing of the city from a 700-foot
high helipad, where a tennis court was specially laid down for him,
a meeting with Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid, the Crown Prince, and a
stay at the world’s only seven-star hotel. That is the Burg Al Arab,
in which every rooom is a duplex suite with a personal butler, and
which boasts an underwater sea-food restaurant. It also claims to be
the world’s tallest hotel, and was evidently to Agassi’s taste.

“Maybe I can play my semi-final on top of that next time,” he said.

Agassi is also reported in the Tehran Times to be considering a visit
to Iran “eventually”. His father shortened his appellation from the
Armenian name of Agassian after arriving in the United States at the
age of 18.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
February 28, 2005, Monday

THE NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL’S ENVOY HOLDING NEGOTIATIONS IN ARMENIA

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Robert Simmons, NATO
secretary general’s envoy for the Southern Caucasus, discussed the
prospects of relations between the republic and NATO. Kocharyan’s
press service said that the parties raised regional problems and the
Karabakh conflict. (…)

On the program of individual partnership between Armenia and NATO,
Simmons noted that the timing of signing of this document depends on
the Armenian government. Simmons noted that relations between the
South-Caucasian nations and NATO do not contravene their relations
with other nations. Simmons noted that Armenia’s membership in the
Organization of the collective security treaty does not hinder the
development of relations with the alliance.

Translated by Alexander Dubovoi

KOCHARIAN PICKS UP NEW SPOKESMAN

ArmenPress
Feb 28 2005

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS: President Kocharian picked up a
26 year-old Viktor Soghomonyan to replace his former spokesman Ashot
Kocharian appointed ambassador to India. Viktor Soghomonyan was born
in 1979 in Yerevan. He graduated the Department of Russian language
and Literature at Yerevan State University in 2001 and continued his
post-graduate education at the Institute of Literature, an affiliation
of the National Academy of Sciences.

He was engaged in TV reporting since 1997. From 2002 to 2003 he taught
at Russian-Armenian University in Yerevan. Later he worked as chief
of staff of parliament chairman. Viktor Soghomonyan is single.

RUSSIAN STAVROPOL AND ARMENIA SEEK MORE ACTIVE BUSINESS CONTACTS

ArmenPress
Feb 28 2005

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS: A forty-member delegation of
businessmen from the southern Russian province of Stavropol, which
has a strong Armenian community, is expected to visit Armenia in late
March in an effort to establish new business contacts here.

In turn the Armenian Union of Businessmen and Industrialists plans
to organize an exhibition of Armenian-made goods in Stavropol.
According to Arsen Ghazarian, the chairman of the Union, the presence
of the strong Armenian community is looked upon as a factor that may
facilitate the entrance of Armenian goods to the region.

Viktor Milenin, the deputy trade minister of the Russian province,
said to Armenpress Stavropol businessmen are interested in Armenian
agricultural goods and jewelry. The annual trade between the province
and Armenia now stands at about $700,000.

RELIGIOUS HEAD OF IRANIAN ARMENIANS CONDEMNS LOCAL MASS MEDIA

ArmenPress
Feb 28 2005

TEHRAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS: The religious leader of Armenians
in Iran, Archbishop Sepuh Sarkisian, denounced, for the second time
in less than a month, the Iranian mass media for disseminating false
reports alleging that a great number of Christian Armenians
participated actively in the Festival of Muharram, an important
period of mourning in the Shi’ite branch of Islam.
Muharram signifies the Karbala tragedy, when Husayn bin Ali, a
grandson of Prophet Muhammad, was martyred. Muharram is the first
month of Islamic lunar calendar. This marks the time when Prophet
Mohammed was driven out of Mecca. He, along with Muslims, took refuge
in the city Ya-Th’rib, which was later renamed to Medina (City of
Prophet). Though Muslims around the world celebrate the new Islamic
year, the Shi’ite sect has most visible celebration proceedings.
This festival is observed in the first month of the Hijra year,
Muharram. Mourners, both male and female, congregate together (in
separate sections) for sorrowful, poetic recitations performed in
memory of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn, lamenting and grieving to the
tune of beating drums and chants of “Ya Husayn.” Passion plays are
also performed, reenacting the Battle of Karbala and the suffering
and death of Husayn at the hands of Yazid.
Many of the male participants congregate together in public for
ceremonial chest beating as a display of their devotion to Husayn and
in remembrance of his suffering. In certain Shi’a societies, mainly
Lebanon and Iraq, some male participants will inflict actual wounds
upon themselves, though this practice is viewed as being extreme and
is widely discouraged and banned in other countries with significant
Shi’a populations, such as Iran.
The Armenian Archbishop cited a local TV coverage showing an
Armenian woman, whose son died in the war with Iraq, recalling her
son’s deep faith in and respect to Islam. Local newspapers in turn
reported that around 700 Armenians gathered in a huge tent to mourn
and recite in memory of Imam Husayn, “though such tents can house
only 400 people.” Newspapers also reported that Armenians organized
mourning ceremonies at their own in their living quarters.
Archbishop Sarkisian demanded publicly that such reports be
stopped immediately. “They (presumably Iranian mass media) have no
right to approach us and ask what our opinions about Islam and its
relics are,” he said.

PanArmenian News
Feb 28 2005

CIS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE HEAD VLADIMIR RUSHAYLO TO VISIT ARMENIA MARCH
2-4

28.02.2005 18:31

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Head of the CIS Executive Committee Vladimir
Rushaylo will visit Armenia on March 2-4. In the course of the visit
Vladimir Rushaylo is to meet with Armenian President Robert
Kocharian, Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, Defense Minister Serge
Sargsian and Foreign Minister Deputy Gegham Gharibjanian to discuss
the issues regarding CIS reforming as well as the events dedicated to
the 60-th anniversary of the victory in the World War II. He is also
expected to meet with the veterans of the World War II.

PanArmenian News
Feb 28 2005

OSCE AND CE JOINT EXPERT GROUP TO VISIT ARMENIA MARCH 3-4

28.02.2005 12:49

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ OSCE and CE joint expert group will visit Armenia
on March 3-4 to examine the issues regarding the constitutional and
electoral reforms, Slovenian Foreign Minister, OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Dimitrij Rupel stated at the meeting with Armenian
National Assembly Speaker Artur Baghdasarian, who was in Austria on a
formal visit. Mr. Rupel highly appreciated the role of the Armenian
parliament in the process of fulfilling the commitments to the PACE
and expressed hope that the constitutional and electoral reforms will
be carried out in accord with the European standards. In his turn,
Artur Baghdasarian noted that Armenia attaches great importance to
the process of eurointegration and the Karabakh conflict settlement
with the OSCE frames, as the Minsk Group has examined the problem and
is perfectly aware of the situation. It was noted that 10 years have
passed since peace was established in the region and Armenia is
considering the conflict settlement in the conditions of peace and
stability achieved via negotiations.