Sofia Echo, Bulgaria
Jan 11 2005
Restaurant Review-A few of our favourites
Clive Leviev-Sawyer
In addition to this week’s special 2004 in Review pages of this
newspaper, it is also an appropriate time to honour the tradition
established last January of asking The Sofia Echo restaurant
reviewers to say which restaurants they found most memorable during
the course of their visits last year.
Marlene Smits said of restaurant Bvlgaria (4 Tsar Osvoboditel Street,
Phone 988 53 07), “The food, service and atmosphere definitely stand
out for me. It’s calm and modern, the food is really up to standard
and the service is great. Its personnel know about etiquette, but are
absolutely not stiff. After having dinner there, I went back several
times just for some dessert or a meeting.”
Of The Thirsty Dragon (2, 13 Mart Street, 964 06 40), Marlene noted:
“This is one of my all time favourite restaurants in Sofia. I visit
it almost weekly. The food is great except for some exotic dishes
that they simply don’t know how to prepare properly. Apart from that
the atmosphere is cosy and nice and that makes it a great place for
informal dinners.”
Her view on Pod Lipite (1 Elin Pelin Street, 866 50 53 or 866 50 59):
“This restaurant is definitely a great way to have real traditional
Bulgarian food in an old fashioned, but quite classy, environment.
The food is great! And that’s why it’s a good start for foreigners to
acquaint themselves with Bulgarian cuisine.”
Of Hua Sing Sin Low (113 Vassil Levski, Telephone 943 34 83), she
said:
“Here I simply had the best Chinese experience in Bulgaria. It’s not
a place one chooses to dine in for its looks, but the food is great.”
Marlene’s view on Komara (on Edison Street and Trudolubie Street,
behind the parking of block nr. 9, 0887 265 021): “Komara is
certainly also not on my list in terms of beauty. The food however,
and in summer the tranquillity of the garden, is really a pleasure. I
went back many times after the review and every single time I had a
nice meal.”
Gersende Schubert gave Pizza Victoria (7 Tsar Osvoboditel Street)
four stars “for a terrific quality restaurant that is simply and
neatly decorated” and she liked Pizzeria Ugo (45 Vitosha Boulevard
and on William Gladstone Street), noting the careful thought that
went into the decor, a diverse selection of dishes and pizza sizes
that were “just right” as Goldilocks might have put it.
David McMullin gave Opera (113 Rakovski Street) five stars, as well
as describing it as trendy and tasteful, and giving it a “bravo!”
Julia Terlinchamp had her first experience of Russian food at Gara Za
Dvama (18 Benkovski Street) and said it had “eliminated any bad
thoughts I once had about Russian cuisine”.
Gus Worth awarded four stars to Amber (70 Burel Street in Ivan
Vazov): “We can definitely say go to Amber and prepare to stop,” and
four stars to Rio (1 Bulgaria Boulevard, near the National Palace of
Culture), which he thought to be good value for money, even with a
bill for two of 64.40 leva.
Danny Dresser gave Awadh (41 Cherkovna Street) three stars, an Indian
restaurant that he praised as a “highly welcome newcomer to the Sofia
scene…even those who don’t like very spicy food should give it a
try, as the chefs are very happy to hold back on the chillis”.
David Toal said of Bistro Boné, “the restaurant is basically a
quaint, simple place favoured by locals. Much of the menu features
the standard Bulgarian fare, but there are some interesting
variations on traditional recipes and a few unique offerings. I’ve
visited the restaurant three times, and each time found that the
kitchen took care in consistently producing attractive, well-prepared
meals.”
Christine Milner said: “The best one I reviewed this year was the At
the Fountain (17 Yanko Sakuzov Boulevard) where we had a really good
meal that stood out from so many mediocre places. They obviously have
an excellent chef and I hope it stays that way. The interior was just
right – fairly trendy and tasteful but still cosy and we had a very
good waiter who behaved naturally.
“The health food restaurant Kibea (2a Dr G Valkovich Street) is also
a good restaurant and I regret being a little down on them in my
review, they were the victim of circumstance and the fact that I
chose something to eat that I should have known I wouldn’t like. I
know lots of people who really like the place and the standard of
cooking has remained very high. Kibea also has a bookshop and a
health food store downstairs, which I use quite frequently”.
Looking back over the 15 restaurants he reviewed in 2004, Clive
Leviev-Sawyer named his favourites as Armenian restaurant Egur, Egur
(18 Sheinovo Street), Maharaja (65 Kiril and Metodii Street) for its
Indian cuisine, and Retro (2 Dobromir Hristov Street) for its
sophisticated atmosphere and decor, and excellent food and service.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Mehr News Agency, Iran
Jan 11 2005
Vatican artists to help renovate Isfahan’s Saint Mary Church
TEHRAN, Jan. 11 (MNA) — A number of Vatican artists will join an
Iranian team renovating Isfahan’s Saint Mary Church to restore the
murals and plasterwork of the monument, an official of the Isfahan
Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department announced on Tuesday.
`The artists have visited the church several times and discussed the
issue with the Iranians working on the project. They are to restore
the murals and plasterwork of the historic church,’ Ali Khajavi
added.
Located in the Armenian district of Jolfa, the Saint Mary Church was
constructed in 1613 and is known for the beauty of its dado
tile-work, completed several years after the original building
between 1651 and 1676, which reveals a high degree of naturalism and
depicts a landscape of evergreens and peacocks.
The construction was financed by an Iranian Christian merchant, Avdik
Babakian. Inside there are four significant Venetian paintings, one
of which shows the beheading of John the Baptist and includes a
portrait of the donor, Grak Agha, praying in the lower left-hand
corner. These paintings are interesting because they show the close
links that existed between the Safavids and Venetian merchants,
principally based upon the trade in silk and spices.
Armenians were settled in Isfahan by Safavid king Shah Abbas I who
wanted to take advantage of their trading skills.
Khajavi did not announce when the Vatican artists would be arriving.
The Bethlehem (1628) and Vank churches are also located in the Jolfa
district of Isfahan.

Eurasianet, NY
Jan 11 2005
POLLS SHOW PRO-WESTERN SHIFT IN ARMENIAN PUBLIC OPINION
Emil Danielyan 1/11/05
Armenians, traditionally oriented toward Russia, are increasingly
losing faith in the benefits of a special relationship with Moscow
and are becoming more pro-Western in their outlook, according to
recent opinion polls.
Analysts in Yerevan say the pro-American shift in public perceptions
over the past year is connected with a host of factors, not the least
of them being the resounding success of Western-backed popular
revolts in Georgia and Ukraine. [For additional information see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. Popular views have also been greatly
affected by the discourse of large sections of the country’s
post-Soviet intellectual and political elites that regard the United
States and the European Union as the ultimate guarantors of their
country’s independence and prosperity.
The change is particularly visible among Armenia’s opposition
political activists, who are buoyed by the success of opposition
movements in Georgia and Ukraine, while continuing to seethe over
Russia’s ongoing support for President Robert Kocharian’s
administration. Some of them are now openly calling for an end to
Armenia’s military alliance with Russia and its accession to NATO and
the EU.
“In the past, no political forces would openly call for Armenia’s
membership in NATO, safe in the knowledge that they would not only
fail to get public support but also face harsh criticism. The
situation is markedly different now,” says Stepan Safarian, an
analyst at the Armenian Center for National and International Studies
(ACNIS), a private think-tank.
“It is the opposition that enjoys the greatest popular support in
Armenia. So naturally, its mood is being passed on to the general
public,” he adds.
This assertion seems to have been born out by a nationwide opinion
poll conducted by the ACNIS in December. Nearly two thirds of 2,000
respondents said they want their country to eventually join the EU
and only 12 percent were against. A similar survey conducted by the
Vox Populi polling organization in October found that 72 percent of
Yerevan residents preferred the expanding union to the
Russian-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States.
Support for Armenia’s entry into the EU was practically unanimous
among 100 political and public policy experts separately questioned
by ACNIS. They were also overwhelmingly in favor of NATO membership.
The figures are remarkable for a small Christian nation that has for
centuries viewed Russia as its main protector against hostile Muslim
neighbors, notably Turkey and Azerbaijan. This sense of insecurity
has been key to Armenia’s heavy reliance on Moscow for defense and
security since the Soviet collapse. The conflict with Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh only reinforced it. [For additional information see
the Eurasia Insight archive].
“I think that over the past two or three years our society has become
much more realistic and is beginning to understand the external
challenges facing our state,” said Suren Sureniants, a senior member
of Armenia’s most radical opposition party, Hanrapetutiun (Republic).
Hanrapetutiun is currently in talks with two other opposition groups
over the formation of a new alliance that would not only strive to
force Kocharian from power, but also offer Armenians a pro-Western
alternative to policies pursued by incumbent authorities. Failure to
come up with such “ideological alternative,” in Sureniants’s words,
was the main reason for the opposition’s inability to topple
Kocharian with a campaign of street protests last spring. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Unlike its counterparts in Georgia and Ukraine, the Armenian
opposition found little support from Western governments, which
appeared to be wary of the Armenian opposition’s vague agenda and
past Russian connections. The oppositionists appear to have studied
the lessons of the “Orange Revolution” in Kyiv, and are now changing
tack. One of the most popular of them, Artashes Geghamian, was
calling for Armenia’s accession the Russia-Belarus economic union as
recently as two years ago. Geghamian now is an opponent of the idea.
His National Unity Party voted for the dispatch of Armenian
non-combat troops to Iraq during parliamentary debates in late
December.
The opposition leaders’ “vehement desire to demonstrate their
pro-Western stance” was denounced by a leading pro-Kocharian daily,
Hayots Ashkhar. The paper voiced confidence that the pending Armenian
troop deployment in Iraq should boost Kocharian’s pro-American
credentials in Washington.
US President George W. Bush recently signed a proclamation
authorizing the immediate implementation of “normal trade relations”
with Armenia. The presidential action is the reflection of a steady
improvement in US-Armenian ties in recent months. The proclamation,
signed January 7, said that normal trade ties were made possible by
the fact that Armenia had “made considerable progress in enacting
market reforms” and had “demonstrated a strong desire to build a
friendly and cooperative relationship with the United States.”
Other Kocharian loyalists are less sanguine. Vahan Hovannisian, a
leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, a traditionally
pro-Russian party represented in government, warned of a potential
“dangerous” export of Western-backed revolutions to Armenia. “I don’t
think that Armenian voters are today prepared to trust extreme
anti-Russian forces,” Hovannisian said at a recent news conference.
“Having said that, it is evident that anti-Russian sentiment in
Armenian society is growing and there are objective reasons for
that.”
According to Safarian, the analyst, Russia’s hasty endorsement of a
rigged presidential ballot in Ukraine and its ensuing humiliation is
one of those reasons. “There is a growing number of events testifying
to Russia’s weakness, and the Armenian public does not fail to notice
them,” he says.
Safarian believes that Moscow’s unequivocal acceptance of Kocharian’s
disputed reelection nearly two years ago, its hard bargain on
Armenia’s debts and the closure last fall of Russia’s borders with
Georgia also alienated many Armenians. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. Indeed, the two-month transport blockade,
ostensibly aimed at preventing cross-border attacks by Chechen
militants, hit landlocked Armenia hard by cutting off one of its main
supply lines. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. The Russians faced an unprecedented barrage of criticism
from Armenian politicians and media at the time.
“The Russian factor is now one of the key challenges that threaten
the sovereignty, security and democratization of our country,”
Sureniants charged. He claimed that a key element in the Kremlin’s
strategy of maintaining Russian foothold in the South Caucasus and
elsewhere in the former Soviet Union is to prop up illegitimate
regimes and thwart the resolution of ethnic disputes.
The changing popular mood means that such views are not considered
extreme and marginal in Armenia anymore.
Editor’s Note: Emil Danielyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and
political analyst.

ArmenPress
Jan 11 2005
US AMBASSADOR COMMENDS ARMENIAN DM FOR HIS FRANKNESS
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS: A spokesman for Armenian defense
ministry said the US ambassador John Evans commended today Armenian
defense minister Serzh Sarkisian for his repeated statements calling
for a peaceful resolution of the Armenian-Azeri conflict over Nagorno
Karabagh.
The spokesman, Seyran Shahsuvarian, said the ambassador and the
minister met today to wish one another Happy New year and expressed
hope that the warm relations between the US and Armenia will continue
through 2005.
The spokesman also said the two men spoke about the upcoming
inspectoral visits within the frameworks of the Vienna agreement. He
added the ambassador complimented the minister for his
straightforwardness regarding the ongoing world developments and his
broad outlook, which he said are contributing greatly to boosting
bilateral relations.
Among other things the two men also discussed regular monitoring
of the line of contact between Azeri and Armenian troops, exchange of
PoWs and extending cooperation between various non-governmental
organizations and the army.

ArmenPress
Jan 11 2005
TURKISH PM SAYS ANKARA WANTS NORMAL RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA
MOSCOW, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS: Turkish prime minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, who is visiting Moscow, said his government wants to
normalize relations with the neighboring Armenia.
Addressing a meeting with Turkish businessmen working in Russia,
attended also by Russia’s president Putin, Erdogan said Istanbul’s
airport is open for Armenian aircrafts. He said opening of the land
border depends on the progress in talks with Yerevan. “Our policy is
to have normal relations with all our neighbors,” Erdogan said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
Jan 11 2005
ARMENIA HAS 268 TONS OF ESTIMATED GOLD RESERVES
YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS: The estimated gold reserves in
Armenia are around 268 tons, but according to Valery Mejlumian, the
chief manager of the Armenian Copper Program (ACP), this figure may
go up. The biggest reserves are in Sotk mines, which contains about
97 tons of pure gold. Mines in southern Kajaran have some 40 tons of
gold and as much have Shahumian mines. According to researches,
Meghradzor mines contain 22 tons of gold.
According to other studies, the estimated reserves of copper
amount to 7.4 million tons, of which 4.5 million tons are in Kajaran
mines. Molybdenum reserves are estimated at 711,000 tons, of which
600,000 tons are in Kajaran.

ArmenPress
Jan 11 2005
ARMENIAN-POPULATED REGIONS OF GEORGIA HAVE SCANTY BUDGETS
AKHALKALAKI, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS: The local budgets of two
Armenian populated regions in southern Georgia-Akhalkalaki and
Ninotsminda- make 3.6 million and 2.6 million laris respectively (one
Georgian lari is equal to $0.57). According to a local A-Info news
agency, the peculiarity of local budgets is that they are formed by
state subsidies and the legislation prohibits increasing their
revenues through other sources.
The state subsidies are enough only to pay pensions and public
sector wages and no money is left for school or roads repair. Thus,
only 100,000 laris are earmarked for health issues in Akhalkalaki,
while the money stipulated for road building is enough to cover with
asphalt a 100-meter long section.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 11, 2005 Tuesday 7:47 AM Eastern Time
Russia ready to mediate Karabakh problem settlement-Putin
By Viktoria Sokolova
MOSCOW
Russia’s is ready to act as a mediator of settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem, President Vladimir Putin told reporters
after his meeting with Turkish businessmen in Moscow on Tuesday.
“Russia will do everything in order to settle conflicts that have
left after the USSR. We shall do this as a mediator and guarantor,
with an understanding that accords should be reached between the
sides in the conflict – Armenia and Azerbaijan”.
Putin said he and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan “did not
discuss directly” at their talks on Tuesday settlement of the
Karabakh conflict.
However, they “touched in a general outline on the relations between
Russia and Armenia, Armenia and Turkey”.
Putin said he and the Turkish prime minister shared the idea that
“one should seek to establish friendly relations between neighbours”.
“We know the difficult history of the legacy between Turkey and
Armenia”, the president said, adding that Armenia “is looking for way
of improving relations” with Turkey.
Russia will help this process, Putin said.
Erdogan for his part said he was ready to establish the interaction
with Armenia.
Turkey will hold consultations in order to find a solution to the
issue, he said.
“I hope that there will be a constructive answer to our consultative
approach.”
Erdogan stressed the Turkey’s policy regarding Armenia was oriented
towards “settlement, and not a lack of settlement”.
He cited as the latest step to establish cooperation the opening of
the Istanbul airport for flights to Armenia.
The ground border between the two countries has not been opened so
far, as “answering movement has not been demonstrated” to proposals
of Ankara.
The efforts to establish the interaction with Armenia should be built
up, Erdogan said.
Turkey does not want to hurt the neighbours, he said.

Financial Times (London, England)
January 10, 2005 Monday
London Edition 1
The dangers of pick’n’mix history
By MARK MAZOWER
In 1401, while besieging the city of Damascus, the Mongol ruler
Tamurlane, whose armies had plundered their way from Moscow to Delhi,
summoned the scholar Ibn Khaldun. Who better to lay bare for him the
secrets of civilisation and political power than the author of that
enduring masterpiece of world history The Book of Lessons. History,
according to Ibn Khaldun, acquaints us with great figures of the past
and allows us to be guided by their example.
The all-conquering Tamurlane was a smart and argumentative man, keen
to glean any insights the past could provide. But was he able to
predict the triumphant successes that followed, or the later division
of his vast empire? Ibn Khaldun, who reminded his readers that
victory and superiority in war come from luck and chance – and that
no dynasty can expect to last more than four generations – would not
have been surprised by either.
The idea that history’s value lies in the lessons it offers us goes
back a long way. Cicero described the past as “the teacher of life”;
Hegel saw knowledge of it as the precondition for self-awareness and
freedom. And what Novalis called “the magic wand of analogy” is still
waved vigorously. Ahead of the invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush
warned the United Nations against following the miserable example of
the League of Nations, while Tony Blair, Britain’s prime minister,
insisted he would not be remembered for appeasement. Historically
minded dissenters dismissed Mr Blair’s implicit reference to Neville
Chamberlain, likening him instead to Eden or Gladstone, imperial
interventionists whose sincerity was matched only by the catastrophic
consequences of their actions. Iraq in 2003 was thus turned,
depending on the viewpoint, into 1939, or 1956, or 1882.
No doubt history offers statesmen (and their critics) a handy
rhetorical weapon. Once historical events embed themselves in the
public imagination, they easily become a shorthand for basic moral
concepts such as treachery (Pearl Harbor), cowardice (Munich),
heroism (Dunkirk) and evil (the Third Reich). But the mere invocation
of these over-familiar names scarcely provides lessons in any
meaningful sense. When those who favoured invading Iraq likened
Saddam Hussein to Hitler, they were not actually interested in
comparing the two men or their regimes. Hitler for them meant not the
historical flesh-and-blood figure but the demonic image that still
dominates the public consciousness of the west as the epitome of
wickedness.
Plundering history in this way can be downright dangerous and lead
unwary policymakers down the wrong path. Has Condoleezza Rice, former
Sovietologist, been helped or hindered in her role as national
security adviser by her reading of how communism collapsed in 1989?
Believing that overwhelming US military superiority was what really
ended the Soviet one-party state, it was tempting to imagine Tommy
Franks spreading democracy in the Middle East, too. Tempting – but
the analogy turned out to be a false friend. And how nice it would
have been if the success and tranquility of the post-1945 Allied
occupations in Germany and Japan really had offered reliable pointers
to Iraq’s post-invasion political trajectory. Yet this parallel,
frequently drawn by think-tanks and policy insiders, is little more
than wishful thinking. Taking occupation seriously as a historical
category would have meant pondering the French experience in Algeria,
the Russians in the Caucasus, or the Italians in Ethiopia. History is
not a pick’n’mix box of candy, in which you can pick only the sweet
ones.
Yet before we write off the whole idea of learning from the past, we
should try to distinguish the stuff of public debate from something
less noisy but more substantial. Selling policy is one thing; but
history can also act as a kind of reality check within the process of
policy formation itself. Comparison and analogy, properly conceived,
are the life-blood of historical analysis, but they depend on an
important kind of detached open-mindedness and a willingness to
explore both the similarities and the differences between the cases
being considered. Why should we not discuss how the treatment of the
Armenians in the first world war compares with the treatment of the
Jews in the second; or ask how the way Palestinians are governed in
the occupied territories differs from the way whites ruled blacks in
South Africa after 1948? Or why should we not explore the contrast in
all its complexity between the defeated Axis powers in 1945 and Iraq
today? Historical insights flow from such comparisons and there are
lessons to be learnt – about states and their ideologies, their
intended and unintended consequences – both for those making policy
and for those wishing to comprehend it.
Taken in the right spirit, therefore, history can provide its own
unique kind of help to understand the present. As a discipline it is
neither predictive, nor a practical guide to action: its lessons are
not so specific. Yet it remains an essential tool for scrutinising
the easy moralising, the ideological certainties and the expansive
claims that batter our ears. It can serve as a politician’s
cheerleader, but it can also weigh policy assumptions and contexts.
And a final heretical thought: should the present provide the only
test of its value anyway? Two centuries ago, Friedrich Schlegel, the
German critic, suggested that the study of the past gives us “a calm,
firm overview of the present (and) a measure of its greatness or
smallness”. Our normally democratic age likes to demand that history
serve it; but then it vanishes like Tamurlane’s empire and becomes
history in its turn. Maybe there is a lesson there too.
The writer is professor of history at Columbia University

Associated Press Worldstream
January 11, 2005 Tuesday 12:24 PM Eastern Time
Armenia announces aid to tsunami-hit region
YEREVAN, Armenia
The government of Armenia plans to send about 25 million drams
(US$50,000, [euro]38,000) in aid supplies to tsunami-hit Sri Lanka,
officials said Tuesday.
About two-thirds of the amount would be in tents and other goods, and
the remainder is medicine including antibiotics, Deputy Foreign
Minister Armen Baiburtian said.