International Journalist’s Network
Feb 23 2005

Media Relations for Armenian Journalists and NGOs
Mar 01, 2005 – Mar 03, 2005

Workshop

In Nagorno-Karabakh. Organized by the Media Diversity Institute for
NGO leaders and journalists from the Nagorno-Karabakh region. NGO
participants will be given practical training in techniques ranging
from gauging news value and creating photo opportunities, to
preparing press releases and press conferences. Journalists will be
trained in the value of NGOs to the news agenda, and how to get the
most from them. For information on any of these upcoming events,
visit or
contact MDI at [email protected], telephone +44 20 73800 200
or fax +44 20 73800 050.

San Francisco Bay Guardian, CA
Feb 23 2005

Back Burner

By Karen Solomon

Mr. Coffee

WHEN WE SAN Franciscans think of buying fresh roasted coffee beans,
our noses tend to lead us to places like Caffe Roma in North Beach,
or to an outpost of Peet’s or some similar burnt-batch empire. There
are myriad fine places to sit and sip, but when it comes to the
backbone of the coffee experience – the beans that shape the body of
the brew – only a handful of purveyors roast their own, and fewer
still import the right quality and pair it with the perfect
processing. Savvy Sunset residents might already be in the know, but
not nearly enough people pay homage to the beany wizardry of Henry’s
House of Coffee master Henry Kalebjian.

The shop has been percolating just under the radar for 40 years and
has been under Kalebjian’s ownership and management since 1982. The
Armenian son of a father who roasted his own at their family grocery,
Kalebjian roasts as much as 200 pounds a day; that’s enough to supply
his three shops in San Francisco and Burlingame, along with a growing
national mail-order and wholesale business.

Today I have the pleasure of watching Kalebjian start his morning, as
he does six days a week, roasting 15- and 30-pound batches of beans
from a revolving menu of about 25 varieties. A kind, crisply dressed,
bearded man with his trusty statistical clipboard at his side, he
explains that his approach to the roast is “a little bit
science-minded.”

In his charming accent, he tells me about the struggle to keep the
flavor of the coffee consistent. “You have to pay attention to the
air – wet or dry,” he explains. Kalebjian measures the density of
every bag of beans and combines this information with the atmospheric
pressure and humidity of the day on which it’s roasted. Using his
series of formulas, he determines precisely which temperature and
time frame are required for the smooth flavor he seeks.

We fire up “the San Franciscan,” the steam engine-sized, 15-year-old
roaster in the back of his Noriega Street flagship location. After
checking and double-checking that all gauges are set correctly, in
goes a batch of Indian – 10 to 12 minutes at 418 degrees for these
mellow-bodied, deeply dense beans. The beans brown slowly as they
start to whirl around the turbine, then quickly reach a deep toast
hue. Kalebjian constantly checks their color, pulling out a sample
every 10 to 15 seconds. His obsessive attention, along with the crack
of the skins, the rising steam, and the pungent, wonderful perfume in
the room, makes the roasting process oddly exciting. Finally, the
roast is complete, and the spilling brown beauties pour onto the
air-cooling tray en masse in a dizzying swirl. And the process begins
again with Sumatran: 12 to 15 minutes at 419 degrees, an increase
deemed necessary by Kalebjian’s complex calculations.

Kalebjian’s obsession results in a superior brew worthy of a lengthy
ride on the N Judah to purchase. Today the shop is pouring
Salvadoran, a smooth, light, yet full-bodied brew with a fruity edge
that, like the shop’s other selections, requires no additional
sweetening. Kalebjian gives me some beans to try at home too: a
perfectly balanced, medium-bodied Bella Finca and a refined Panama La
Torcaza, a light roast with a vanilla vibe. “Your mind affects the
taste,” Kalebjian insists, noting that his preferences in coffee are
as varied as his preferences in food. “I want roundness in the cup,
and body that lingers in my mouth after the finish.”

Henry’s House of Coffee sells more French roast than anything else.
It’s a bargain at $8.70 a pound. But Kalebjian always enjoys
introducing customers to new brews, such as the intensely charactered
China Yunan, which is a bit lighter than the French. His repertoire
includes several house blends and the predictable Kona and Kenyan
beans, as well as more eccentric heritage roasts, including Abyssinia
Harrar, Celebes Kalossi, and Costa Rica Terrazu.

What lights Back Burner’s fire is that Henry’s House of Coffee turns
out a superior product to a small but appreciative audience. “There’s
always room for getting bigger, but I don’t want to be greedy,” the
owner says. “I’m not that famous, but I’m happy with what I have.”

Still, at age 63, Kalebjian is looking at the last few drops of his
career and thinking about retiring from his tiny coffee operation.
The San Francisco shop is going through an extensive remodeling,
which should be complete sometime this summer. Kalebjian quips, “If a
nice company comes and offers to buy, why not?”

He pauses from his roasting to taste from the fresh pot prepared
in-house. I ask how much coffee he drinks a day, but Kalebjian
insists that it’s not a matter of cups – that his job is simply to
taste. Like a scientist in a white lab coat, he makes certain that
the counter help brews the perfect pot every time: 2.2 liters of
water to every quarter pound of grind. “I like what I do, and I do a
good job. But I constantly check myself to make sure I’m doing the
right thing.”

New York Times
Feb 23 2005

In Quest of the Perfect Roast Chicken

By JULIA MOSKIN

ROAST chicken used to be a rare treat at American dinner tables, a
ceremonial meal fit to honor a visiting preacher or a patriarch’s
birthday. Today we are eating far more chicken but cooking it less
and less.

American consumption of chicken overall has more than doubled since
1970, according to the Agriculture Department, and supermarket
rotisserie chickens make up a substantial part of that increase. The
Grocery Manufacturers of America, an industry research group, says
that Americans now spend more than $2.5 billion on supermarket
rotisserie chickens every year. The Costco chain, which sold no roast
chickens a decade ago, sold 22 million in 2004 alone.

“I consider the perfect roast chicken my own Holy Grail,” said Ly
Phan, a Vietnamese-American living in Brentwood, Calif. But, she
said: “I don’t want to learn to make it. I just want to be able to
buy it.”

A reliable place to buy a good roast chicken has become an important
quality-of-life matter for those too busy to cook. “I buy a chicken
here every Sunday, and I eat it all week,” Paul Griscom said at the
Whole Foods Market at Columbus Circle. “I used to live close to
Fairway, and I was nervous about moving away from those chickens. But
the ones here are even better.” At Whole Foods and elsewhere, the
price of a whole roasted organic chicken is almost the same as a raw
one.

Roasting a chicken at home may become a domestic throwback, like
darning socks or putting up peaches.

Mr. Griscom said that he doesn’t know how to roast a chicken. “I
know, it’s supposed to be so easy,” he said. “But how would I know
when it was done?”

In New York City buying a great rotisserie chicken means choosing
your quest. You can find a great chicken: organic, free-range,
antibiotic-free, minimally seasoned and expertly roasted, with a
rounded chickeny flavor. Or you can find a great recipe, an explosive
convergence of lime and lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic, cumin, apple
cider vinegar, chili paste and countless other possibilities that
produce highly seasoned meat and skin. Chicken goes global in New
York: the city’s favorite birds are Peruvian and Dominican, kosher
and halal, Chinese and Tuscan and flavored with things like annatto
(the Puerto Rican-style ones at Casa Adela on the Lower East Side)
and yogurt (the Afghan birds at Kabul Cafe in Brooklyn).

Across the country a passion for roast chicken seems to transcend the
normally stubborn ethnic boundaries of American cuisine: chicken
chains have cult followings. Los Angelenos worship Zankou’s Armenian
chicken and its pungent garlic sauce; Brasa Roja’s chickens with
salsa verde are loved in Chicagoland; and in Dallas, Cowboy Chicken
is famous for Tex-Mex enchiladas stuffed with leftover meat from its
hickory wood-roasted chickens.

Allegiances can be fierce. Williams Bar-B-Cue, a legendary chicken
joint on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, closed last month, and
locals took it like a death in the family; it had been roasting
chickens at the same spot since 1952. The tangy crisp skin and
pleasingly greasy meat of the Williams chicken and its pseudobarbecue
flavor were addicting. “The smell of Williams is a neighborhood
institution and should be preserved at the Smithsonian,” declared
Adam Peretz, mourning outside the store last week.

New York’s new chicken capital is Jackson Heights, Queens, where
Mario’s Colombian chickens duke it out with the Peruvian ones at La
Casa del Pollo and Pollo Don Alex. Raul Rojas, the owner of Super
Pollo on Northern Boulevard, said that Peruvians are the acknowledged
masters of pollo brasado. “We are the only ones who use soy sauce,
because we have the Japanese population,” he said. “Soy and garlic
make the best chicken.”

Colombian cooks often add a little vinegar to the marinade for roast
chicken, he added.

The birds of New York’s army of Latin American cooks, often marinated
in citrus, are juicy and savory. Mario’s (Colombian), Los Pollitos
(Mexican-Ecuadoran) and El Malecon (Dominican) compete by adding
complex rubs and darkly lacquered skin. Most of the Latin American
chickens have fabulous skin, but the breasts tend to be dry.

(Chinese-style roast chickens, which are mildly flavored with star
anise and soy, have the tenderest meat. They are steamed before
roasting.)

Gilbert Arteta, who grew up near Medellín, Colombia, said the smell
of chicken roasting over a wood fire makes him homesick. “It’s only
the chicken that does that to me,” he said. Mr. Arteta lives near a
Chicken Out in Gaithersburg, Md., and said he loves the smell,
although the chicken itself does not do much for him. “It’s not like
the chicken I grew up with,” he added.

Chicken Out, a 26-unit chain in the Washington suburbs, makes a
pleasant chicken that tastes like chicken, not like rosemary or
roasted garlic or cumin. The restaurants use only chickens that are
antibiotic-free and fed on organic grain and, most radically, they
must be sold immediately from the rotisserie. After an hour they are
recycled into chicken salad or chicken pot pie.

Recycling leftover roast chicken has become an American culinary
subspecialty.

“We go through three or four chickens a week,” Marisol Castellano
said, pushing a full cart through the Hackensack, N.J., Costco last
weekend with four children in tow. “I buy eight chickens at a time,
and then I put them in pasta and sandwiches, sometimes empanadas or
quesadillas or chilaquiles.”

Three cookbooks on “cooking” with rotisserie chicken have been
published since 2003, and recipes for chicken salad have become an
art form on Internet recipe sites.

If you are buying rotisserie chickens with an eye to leftovers, it is
a good idea to look for birds with as little seasoning as possible,
no twiggy herb crusts or maple glazes to assert their flavors in
another recipe.

Places with high turnover have the moistest chicken: once cooked, it
dries out quickly. Bigger birds are less likely to be overcooked. And
if crisp skin is your goal, unwrap the chicken as soon as you can.
Even a few minutes in an airtight container can be enough to steam
the skin soft.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Feb 23 2005

PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN ILHAM ALIYEV RECEIVES CREDENTIALS FROM NEWLY
APPOINTED AMBASSADOR OF GERMANY
[February 22, 2005, 22:59:43]

On February 22, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
received credentials from newly appointed Ambassador Plenipotentiary
and Extraordinary of the Federative Republic of Germany to Azerbaijan
Detlef Lingemann.

Noting he was pleased to start diplomatic activity in Azerbaijan,
Ambassador Lingemann said in particular that he considered this
appointment as a high award and a great responsibility.

He recalled the summer 2004 visit by President Ilham Aliyev to
Germany, which according to him has allowed to raise bilateral
relations between the two countries up to a new level.

During that visit, Your Excellency and Mr. Federal Chancellor
discussed concrete possibilities of economic cooperation, and in
order to intensify economic links, you agreed to hold a conference in
Berlin in spring this year with involvement of representatives of
Azerbaijan and Germany, and I think it is very important for the
conference to be successful, he said.

The diplomat also said that over the past year the Government of
Germany had provide considerable financial assistance for development
of Azerbaijan, and supporting democratic reforms in the country. I
will do my best for continuation of this cooperation, and this also
concerns the reforms you are implementing for Azerbaijan’s
integration into the Euroatlantic structures, he said.

Noting that unresolved conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh impedes ensuring security and economic development
in the region, Mr. Detlef Lingemann said that Germany is absolutely
sure that the problem would be solved only peacefully, in the
framework of the principles of UN and OSCE. Germany welcomes
continuation of the Prague process, and is always ready to continue
its mediating efforts under the OSCE.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev congratulated Ambassador the
Federative Republic of Germany on the start up of his diplomatic
mission in Azerbaijan, and expressed satisfaction with successful
development of Azerbaijan-Germany cooperation in political, economic
humanitarian and other spheres.

He expressed confidence that his official visit to the Federative
Republic of Germany, and meetings and negotiations held there had
brought our countries closer, and given a powerful impetus to our
cooperation. Meetings with President, Federal Chancellor, Foreign
Minister and other German officials made me again confident that
future of our cooperation is as fine as its present, the President
said.

President of Azerbaijan also expressed satisfaction with Germany’s
support with respect to Azerbaijan’s integration into Euroatlantic
structures, and highly valued the country’s efforts to contribute to
peaceful resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. We see the resolution of this conflict only on the base of
the principles of international law, territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan must be restored, over million refugees and displaced
people who suffered from ethnic cleansing, must return to their
homelands, President Ilham Aliyev said.

***

Afterwards, Ambassador Detlef Lingemann presented his credentials to
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

The ceremony was attended by Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov and Head of the International Relations Department of the
President’s Administration Novruz Mammadov.

Hellenic News of America
Feb 23 2005

ISTANBUL GREEKS SEEK JUSTICE IN LAND CLAIMS

Turkey is trying to bring its laws on minorities in tune with those
of the EU, but ethnic Greeks living in the capital say they are
victimized through unfair land expropriations.

By George Gilson – Athens News

VARTHOLOMEOS, ecumenical patriarch and archbishop of Constantinople,
is wont to call the 2,000-strong Greek community of Istanbul a “drop
in the ocean”.

Shrunken and scarred by the violent vicissitudes of Greek-Turkish
relations over the decades, that drop is now in danger of
evaporating. Despite reforms for the protection of minorities
intended to bring Turkey in line with European Union law, the leaders
of Istanbul’s Greek community are struggling for basic rights.

That includes establishing the legal grounds to claim back around 400
pieces of prime Istanbul real estate gradually confiscated by the
Turkish state since 1974. “The confiscated property was certainly
worth billions of dollars. We are talking about entire apartment
buildings and tracts of city land that produced significant
revenues,” says Vasslis Kalamaris, an attorney for the patriarchate.

Based on a 1974 supreme court decision, the Turkish state refused to
recognize titles to Greek minority properties purchased or acquired
by donation after 1936, when Turkey conducted a mandatory
registration of minority properties. “Under the Turkish legal
framework, the state would come knocking at our door and say that you
had no right to possess this land you acquired in 1944, 1959 and so
forth, because it was not registered in the list you submitted in
1936,” Kalamaris told the Athens News.

New property law

In an effort to streamline its minority rights laws with those of the
EU, which it hopes to join, Turkey enacted a law last August. “The
new law passed in August said that we can acquire new property. The
reform was a worthless gift. None of our communities or foundations
want new property. All we want is to get back what was unjustly taken
away from us,” Kalamaris underlined.

The cumbersome requirements of the law also suggest that Turkey’s
reforms do not always achieve their goal. The law required cabinet
approval for the purchase or sale of property by communities. The
August law stated: “Community foundations, regardless of whether or
not they have a charter or foundation, can acquire or dispose of real
property with the permission of the council of ministers.” A further
directive issued by the directorate of foundations in October,
reportedly on instructions from the office of then premier Bulent
Ecevit, threw even more bureaucratic red tape in the way of community
organizations seeking to acquire or sell property.

After the EU refused to open accession talks with Turkey last
December, the law was revised in January, doing away with the need to
obtain cabinet approval to buy or sell property belonging to minority
foundations. But it is still necessary to obtain approval of both the
local directorate of foundations and the headquarters in Ankara.

But the real issue for the Istanbul Greeks remains the return of
confiscated property. Although the new law passed in January does not
specifically establish a right to reclaim confiscated property,
Kalamaris believes it provides sufficient grounds to legally
challenge in the courts past judicial rulings by which valuable real
estate was confiscated. Moreover, those properties acquired by the
Greek minority after 1936 and not previously registered in the land
registry can now be legally registered with proof of ownership like
rental agreements or utility bills.

“The Greek Balouki Hospital suffered most from this situation. They
have had 136 pieces of valuable real estate confiscated by the
state,” Kalamaris said.

Another key property is a huge real estate parcel that once housed an
orphanage on the posh resort island of Prinkipos off Istanbul, and
was owned by the patriarchate. This land was also expropriated by the
state, which blocked an effort by the church to develop the prime
property as a hotel unit. The patriarchate’s case against the state
is still under review in the Turkish Council of State.

But the problem is not exclusive to the Greeks, as the Armenian
community has faced a similar predicament on a much smaller scale.
Diram Bakar, a lawyer for the community, told the Athens News that he
was successful in reversing a handful of expropriations through legal
challenges in court.

Over several weeks until the February 8 deadline for registering all
property, a small group of Istanbul Greeks worked for hours on end
compiling the full record of title to hundreds of pieces of property
owned by dozens of Greek community foundations. These were submitted
to both the land registry and the directorate of foundations in
compliance with the new law. The registered properties are the legacy
of a once vibrant community of wealthy merchants and businessmen
numbering over 150,000 just half a century ago.

No equality for Istanbul Greeks

Although they are Turkish citizens, the Greeks of Istanbul complain
that they do not enjoy equality in the eyes of the law. Greek
Orthodox foundations are placed under the category of “foreign
foundations”, even though the Greek minority is comprised of
native-born Turkish citizens whose ancestors have lived in the
country for centuries.

Article 37 of the Treaty of Lausanne, which still largely determines
the rights of Istanbul’s Greek minority, stipulates that no Turkish
domestic law can limit the treaty rights of the Greek community,
including that of self-administration. But the Turkish state
frequently finds formal pretexts to dissolve the governing boards of
Greek community foundations, opening the way for the judicial
expropriation of the property of minority communities.

The majority of Greek-owned property is still in Greek hands – some
$10 billion worth – but there are fears that the process of
expropriation will soon target these properties as well.

Greek foreign ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis told the Athens News
that the revised EU accession partnership for Turkey, due to be
submitted at the end of March, will set forth a clear obligation for
Ankara to respect the property rights of the Greek minority –
including the right to reclaim properties arbitrarily expropriated by
the state over the last three decades.

“The EU Commission’s evaluation report last October refers to
religious foundations and their rights. It stresses Turkey’s
shortcomings and requests a change in the legal framework to address
that. We underlined this problem leading up to Copenhagen and will do
so again for the revised accession partnership. This will certainly
be a condition Turkey must fulfill,” Beglitis said.

Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (Comunicados de prensa), Switzerland
Feb 23 2005

In a series of public statements and recommendations approved one day
before the end of its 15-22 February meeting in Geneva, the World
Council of Churches (WCC) central committee covered a wide range of
issues.

[parts omitted]

April 24, 2005 – Commemoration of 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide

The Public Issues committee of the WCC central committee recommended
to the organization’s general secretary “to propose to all member
churches to make Sunday April 24 a day of memory of the Armenian
Genocide and to consider further appropriate actions”. That day is
the 90th anniversary of the tragic massacre of one-and-a-half-million
Armenians in Turkey and the deportation of another million from their
homeland.

“From the Christian perspective, the path towards justice and
reconciliation requires the recognition of the crime committed as a
sine qua non condition for the healing of memories and the
possibility of forgiveness”, stated the Public Issues committee.

San Bernardino Sun, CA
Redlands Daily Facts, CA
Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA
Feb 23 2005

The Armenian table

Make it soecial with cusine’s unique flavors

By Natalie Haughton
Staff Writer

Armenian cooking, a cuisine that blends Mediterranean flavors with
Persian, Turkish and Russian accents, stirs up fond childhood
memories for Carla Simonian of Woodland Hills for foods like shish
kebabs, sarmas (stuffed grape leaves), dolmas (stuffed vegetables),
basterma (air-dried beef), boeregs (filo cheese triangles), lavosh,
lahmajoun (Armenian pizza), pilafs and kadayif (filo dessert).
Whenever her family gathered, there were abundant tables of food. Now
she’s sharing her culinary heritage with her daughters.

“I think my cooking was influenced by a tight family background and
always being around Armenian food,” said Simonian, who taught herself
to cook Armenian food with the help of books and advice from her
aunts, grandmother, cousins and mother-in-law.

Food traditions are important to Armenian families.

In a recently released cookbook, “The Armenian Table” (St. Martin’s
Press; $29.95), Victoria Jenanyan Wise of Oakland shares her heritage
and treasured family recipes.

Wise recalls regularly visiting her father’s relatives in Sacramento
(her father was Armenian) “who were the major family figures of my
childhood in terms of food.” For major celebratory occasions, the men
always grilled the shish kebabs while the woman handled the other
cooking tasks.

“Altogether, the cupboard holds a nutritious and fragrant mix,
aromatic and colorful as a spice bazaar or open-air market,” said
Wise of Armenian cuisine.

Hallmarks include lamb, dried fruits (apricots, dates, raisins, figs,
prunes), nuts (walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, pistachios), yogurt,
string cheese, filo dough, butter, olive oil, bulgur, rice, lemon
juice, cider vinegar, lots of vegetables (eggplant, green beans,
tomatoes, fresh peppers, etc.), fresh herbs such as mint, dill and
parsley, and spices and seasonings like cumin, paprika, cinnamon,
Aleppo pepper and sumac.

“Most of the ingredients in Armenian food are very natural and
healthy,” said Simonian. “We were eating yogurt years before it ever
caught on here.”

While Armenian food has some similarities to other Middle Eastern
cuisines, there are differences. Armenians typically don’t use tahini
or hummus.

Simonian, a Los Angeles native, recollects her grandfather (who
raised her along with an aunt after her mother died) making a
delicious hot yogurt soup and lots of stews (green beans with lamb
and others with leeks).

“We had lots of vegetables (green beans, stuffed bell peppers,
stuffed onions, squash and so on), only a small amount of meat and
often just sliced cucumbers, tomatoes or radishes or olives instead
of a green salad.”

Lavosh — a yeast dough Armenian cracker bread that softens when you
dampen with a little water and let stand covered with a towel for 20
to 40 minutes — replaced bread. Available in bags of 6 in Middle
Eastern markets, large dry lavosh rounds will keep for weeks at room
temperature.

When friends and relatives gathered, a glorious, colorful maza
(appetizer) platter — a mainstay of the Armenian table — with
basterma (dried beef with a coating of chaiman, a paste made of
fenugreek with paprika and other spices), string cheese, assorted
black olives, tourshi (pickled vegetables like carrots, cabbage,
cauliflower or green beans), eggplant dip, lavosh, boeregs and more
was always served before dinner, said Simonian. It’s a tradition
she’s kept alive when entertaining today, even when she serves
nontraditional Armenian entrees like grilled steaks, chicken or
chops.

Although neither Simonian nor Wise serves Armenian fare daily (it’s
reserved for special occasions and family gatherings), the flavors
and scents permeate their everyday cooking.

Wise’s informative cookbook, her 13th, contains more than 165
recipes, a mix of traditional signature favorites along with
inspired, innovative and contemporary variations on the theme. For
cooks, it’s Armenian 101 and much more — a great way to learn about
the cuisine. Wise made a concerted effort to make the recipes
approachable and easy to execute.

Particularly interesting are her notes accompanying each recipe and
her from-scratch renditions of yogurt, lavosh, mock basterma and
lahmajoun.

Rocky Mountain News, CO
Feb 23 2005

15-member Camerata a quartet at heart
By Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News
February 23, 2005

Let’s get a few things straight about Camerata Sweden.

First, we really shouldn’t call it Camerata Sweden.

“After next season, we’ll officially call ourselves Camerata
Nordica,” said the group’s music director, Levon Chilingirian. “We
have players from several Scandinavian countries and from the Baltic
countries, so the old name has never really fit.”

On Sunday the 15-member chamber orchestra will be appearing in an
Artist Series concert at Macky Auditorium in Boulder.

Oops – did we say orchestra? That’s not right, either.

“For us, orchestra is a dirty word,” said Chilingirian.

“Some in the group are chamber-music players (including the music
director, who is first violinist of the venerable Chilingirian String
Quartet), and some are concert soloists. In fact, on this tour, three
players are members of the same string quartet.”

One more thing: Chilingirian is leader of the ensemble, but he’s not
the conductor. There isn’t one.

“We’re like an extended string quartet,” he explained. “All of us
stand (except, of course, the cellists). I’ll take the lead in terms
of an interpretation, but the players are far more active with their
input than in a normal chamber orchestra.”

The Armenian violinist came aboard in 1997, when a former student of
his, now a member of the 30-year-old ensemble, invited him to help
solidify the group’s sound. He shares the leadership role with
associate director Terje T?nnesen.

Now that we’re clear about the chamber-music roots of Camerata Sweden
(uh, Nordica), it should come as no surprise that the group’s
repertory focuses on settings of string quartets.

The Camerata – which consists of five first violins, four seconds,
three violas, two cellos and a double bass – will play quartets by
Shostakovich (No. 8), Mozart (No. 2) and Grieg (No. 2), as well as
the Violin concerto by Swedish composer Anders Eliasson.

“It’s a fantastic experience for them,” Chilingirian said of the
impact this repertory has had on the musicians.

“When we played through the Beethoven Opus 59, No. 3 (not on Sunday’s
program), it really stretched us. It added to the whole chamber-music
experience.”

Not every quartet lends itself to such string-orchestra settings.

“I would never do any of the Mozart Quartets dedicated to Haydn, but
the early works (such as No. 2, played Sunday) work wonderfully. And
I believe that large-scale pieces such as Schubert’s G-major
(Quartet) and the C-major (String) Quintet would simply be too
ridiculous to attempt.”

Chilingirian stressed that these settings are not meant as
improvements of the originals.

“You can say they all work best as string quartets. But, on the other
hand, some of them were conceived just as pieces of music. Of course,
the pure form is the quartet.”

The task of converting a four-voice piece into a 15-voice piece
involves more than adding more instruments to each part, he noted.

“I’m thinking about repertory all the time – about what will work and
what won’t. It’s important in the arrangements to have everyone play
as much as possible.”

He acknowledged that the Shostakovich No. 8 also exists as the
Chamber Symphony, orchestrated by Rudolf Barshai.

“We’re doing the Eighth (Quartet) – simple as that,” the violinist
said. “This version is lean and small.”

In other words, when converting quartets to larger-size ensembles,
too many notes can spoil the score.

“Years ago, I did the (late Beethoven) Grosse fuge with a string
orchestra, and was handed the (Felix) Weingartner edition. I stayed
up all night with the white-out, getting it into shape.”

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Feb 23 2005

AZERBAIJAN TO DEEPEN LINKS WITH ARMED FORCES OF BELGIUM
[February 23, 2005, 12:04:03]

This idea has been stated by Minister of Defense, colonel-general
Safar Abiyev at the meeting with the ambassador of Kingdom of Belgium
in Turkey and Azerbaijan Mark Van Risselberg.

Colonel-general Safar Abiyev, having welcomed the ambassador, has
congratulated him on a new post and has wished successes. The
Minister has told: `Representatives of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan
and Belgium closely cooperate within the framework of antiterrorist
coalition and the NATO `Partnership for Peace’ Program. We are going
to deepen our links with the NATO and Armed forces of Belgium.

Ambassador Mark Van Risselberg has noted that is glad to arrival in
Azerbaijan, highly has estimated active participation of the Republic
in antiterrorist coalition, and has expressed regret in connection
with occupation by Armenia of the Azerbaijan lands. In this sense,
the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan from the beginning of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict have developed and became stronger. But I
would like, that settlement of the conflict has taken place without
use of the Armed Forces.

Having touched upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, minister Safar
Abiyev has noted, that in some days would be marked anniversary of
the Khojali tragedy – Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis in
Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azerbaijan city of Khojali in one night has been burnt and
destroyed together with inhabitants.

Having emphasized, that the management of Azerbaijan aspires to peace
and fair settlement of the conflict, that at the same time the people
of Azerbaijan is concerned with that the world community till now has
not recognized Armenia as a state- aggressor, he has told: `’To tell
the truth, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in the
resolution adopted recently has named Armenia as a state-aggressor.
But all international organizations should make it. Armenia
systematically resettles the occupied Azerbaijan lands. It is
irresponsibility. We once again declare, that Azerbaijan will not
concede Armenia a span of its land. Until the conflict has not found
its resolution, the probability of renewal of military operations is
great enough. If it will take place, the responsibility will lie on
Armenia’.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Feb 23 2005

NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT TO BE DISCUSSED AT OSCE PA SUMMER SESSION
[February 22, 2005, 12:01:04]

The Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict will be discussed
at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly summer session on July 4-9, in
Washington.

Chairman of the economic policy standing committee of Milli Majlis,
head of the parliamentary delegation at OSCE Assembly Sattar Safarov
said the document prepared by the OSCE PA special representative on
the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Goran Lenmarker and
which was accepted in the Council of Europe, there are moments that
do not meet interests of Azerbaijan. Official Baku demands the
document, which will be accepted by the OSCE PA to be amended, and
Armenia recognized as aggressor state.

Until the session, Mr. G. Lenmarker is expected to visit the region
and make possible amendments in some items.