Russia tests new Tu-334 passenger plane in Armenia

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
August 5, 2004 Thursday

Russia tests new Tu-334 passenger plane in Armenia

YEREVAN

Russia chose Armenia for test trials of its new Tu-334 passenger
plane in conditions of heat and mountain landscape.

Chief designer of the Tupolev aircraft company Igor Kalygin told Tass
Thursday Armenia had become a test range for Russian planes as the
Be-300 aircraft passed the trials in the republic last year.

Tu-334 demonstrated good climbing results in conditions of heat and
will be launched into “controlled operation” in the end of the year,
he said.

The new-generation Tu-334 short-distance plane can carry 102
passengers for up to 3,000 kilometers. Kalygin said the plane fully
meets international noise and ecology standards.

In June the Tu-334, which is to replace the Tu-134 and Tu-154
“workhorses” of the Russian aircraft fleet, was certified by the
Interstate Aviation Committee. The Russian demand for the plane is
estimated at 122 craft and market experts believe the Tu-334 will
soon become one of the most widely used planes in the country.

Kalygin said preparations for the serial production are underway.

Monitors of the stop fire regime of Am & Az air forces ended

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 6, 2004, Friday

MONITORING OF THE STOP FIRE REGIME OF THE ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJAN AIR
FORCES ENDED WITHOUT INCIDENTS

Monitoring of the stop fire regime of the Armenian and Azerbaijan air
forces, which was held on Wednesday by the representatives of OSCE,
ended without incidents. The press agency of The Azerbaijan Ministry
of Defense reported about this. The monitoring took place on the
territory of Shurabat settlement of Agdamskiy region of Azerbaijan.
In this monitoring participated the personal representative of the
acting chief of OSCE Andgey Kasprschik with field assistants Miroslav
Vymetal and Yurgen Schmidt on the Armenian side; and field assistants
of the personal representative of the acting chief of OSCE Kennet
Piklis and Imre Palatinus on the Azerbaijani side.

Collapse of the old order

The Advertiser, Australia
August 7, 2004 Saturday

Collapse of the old order

by Chris Brice

A WRIST-SNAPPING, 625-page swirling epic of love and war, tenderness
and savagery, BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS (Secker & Warburg, $49.95) is Louis
de Bernieres’s first major work since his celebrated Captain
Corelli’s Mandolin was published a decade ago.

Bernieres has said that the reason for the long sigh between the
novels is that he didn’t want to write “Captain Corelli twice”.

So the conflict is World War I rather than World War II, and the
action has moved from a Greek island to the coast of Turkey.

But there is a comforting familiarity about aromas of pine and olive
groves wafting across rough-hewn hillsides to the vivid waters of the
Aegean, though this time to “where it merges with the Mediterranean”.

Essentially, Birds Without Wings is the story of the last years of
the Ottoman Empire and the birth of Turkey during the first two
decades of the 20th century.

It is told through the hop-scotching narratives of the inhabitants of
Eskibahce, a village in southwest Anatolia.

There, Muslims and Christians, Greeks, Turks and Armenians live in
tolerant harmony – even if Christians are called “dogs” or
“infidels”, it is “said with a smile, just as were their deprecatory
terms for us” – until divisions in the larger world are imposed and
the old order painfully collapses.

The novel’s emotional heart is the doomed chaste love affair of
beautiful Christian girl Philothei and Muslim goatherd Ibrahim.

In the end, Birds Without Wings has just enough highlights – prime
among them a powerful memoir of the defence of Gallipoli against the
invading Allies – to keep it afloat against the weight of a biography
of Mustafa Kemal, later Kemal Ataturk, father of the Turkish nation,
which drones through 20 or more interspersed chapters.

Slick Vic has strong support

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)
August 7, 2004 Saturday

Slick Vic has strong support

by Grantlee Kieza

VIC Darchinyan’s dad ran a petrol station back home in Armenia and
the little Sydney strongman is on a high-octane surge toward the
world flyweight boxing title.

Darchinyan, a fighter who can bench press nearly double his 51kg body
weight, fights for the IBF flyweight title on September 3 against
Colombia’s Irene Pacheco in a battle of left-handers.

Irene is unbeaten in 30 fights and with the most embarrassing
Christian name since A Boy Named Sue, he’s had to fight hard all his
life.

Darchinyan, 28, who represented Armenia at the Sydney Olympics and
settled in Ryde, fights Pacheco in Hollywood, Florida and says he has
the power to beat the tall southpaw.

“I like to fight against boxers who are taller than me,” Darchinyan
said. “There is more of them to hit.

“I believe I have the punching power to throw Pacheco off his plan
and worry him from the first bell.” Darchinyan is unbeaten in 21 pro
fights and has been preparing for the fight in torrid sparring
sessions against world-ranked junior-welterweight Lovemore Ndou at
Jeff Fenech’s Marrickville gym.

The man with 16 KOs will be accompanied to America by training
partner Danny Green, the WBC Interim super-middleweight champ, who
fights South African Andre Thysse in Perth on October 17.

Green will spar former world light-heavyweight champ Julio Gonzalez
and undefeated world-rated super-middleweight Librado Andrade in Los
Angeles.

Sones celtas en Pamplona

El Pais
August 6, 2004

Sones celtas en Pamplona

IGOR CUBILLO

Los Festivales de Navarra, dedicados este ano a la cultura europea,
celebran esta noche en el Baluarte de Pamplona una velada que
pretende revivir la mistica y la alegria de la musica celta. La tarea
se ha encargado a las cantareiras gallegas Leilia, el grupo sueco
Bazar Bla, el tablista hindu Ravi Naimpally, el gaitero irlandes
Jerry O’Sullivan, el guitarrista Eric Liorzou y la violinista
irlandesa Mairead Nesbitt. Ya manana, la muestra llegara a su fin con
ritmos de Armenia y Anatolia, base del avantgarde folk que interpreta
el vocalista y percusionista Arto Tuncboyaciyan junto a la Armenian
Navy Band, orquesta armenia en la que conviven instrumentos
tradicionales, como duduk, zurna, kemanche y kanun, y contemporaneos.

Las fiestas del barrio getxotarra de Romo son el marco en el que se
ha asentado el Festival Internacional de Ska-Reggae, que manana
celebra su septima edicion con un cartel encabezado por A.S.P.O.
(About Some Precious Oldies). El grupo de Burdeos sera precedido en
escena por varios valedores espanoles de ritmos jamaicanos como el
dub, el rocksteady, el roots reggae y el dancehall: el valenciano
Alberto Tarin, los 14 musicos barceloneses de The Kinky Coo Coo’s,
los bilbainos Bomb Bass Hi-Fi, que subiran al escenario junto al
valenciano Nano Bravo, y los madrilenos Pastizal Sound System, que
compartiran tablas con el cantante Sensey Shafir.

Tampoco podia faltar la musica en las fiestas de Vitoria, que estos
dias permitiran contemplar, en distintos puntos de la ciudad, la
puesta en escena de nueve artistas. Destacan las actuaciones de la
plaza de los Fueros, donde tocaran Orishas, grupo cubano cuya mezcla
de hip hop y rock ha sido nominada a los premios Grammy Latinos;
Dover, rudo cuarteto madrileno de rock, encabezado por las hermanas
Llanos, que alardea de espiritu punk y ha despachado cientos de miles
de ejemplares de sus seis discos; y Los Pecos, almibarado duo de
cancion melodica y pop que, gracias a protagonizar un fenomeno de
fans hace dos decadas, ha vendido mas de cuatro millones de discos.

Mientras, el primer concierto destacado de las fiestas de San
Sebastian lo protagonizaran el domingo en Saguees los sonidos
tradicionales, folkies, del gaitero gallego Carlos Nunez. A la misma
hora arrancara la actuacion de la cantautora donostiarra Ana Pozas en
la plaza de la Trinidad, donde repasara Sin querer (Dro), un disco de
pop rock “mucho mas guitarrero” que su estreno, y en el que colabora
su paisano Alex Ubago.

Teatro en fiestas

En lo que se refiere a la programacion teatral, la cartelera de las
capitales alavesa y guipuzcoana se presenta plagada de comedias que
ya han pasado por otros escenarios vascos: las protagonizadas por
Pepon Nieto (Excusas), Josema Yuste (Nadie es perfecto) y Silvia
Marso. La actriz interpreta junto a Jordi Rebellon y Pedro Casablanc
hasta el domingo en el Teatro Principal de San Sebastian Aqui no paga
nadie, adaptacion de una de las obras mas conocidas de Dario Fo, uno
de los renovadores de la satira dramatica en Europa. La obra cuenta
la rebelion de un grupo de mujeres por los precios imposibles de un
supermercado. “Nos gustaria sacar de la gente una carcajada
liberadora para que reflexione sobre los problemas cotidianos de
nuestra sociedad”, apunta la artista.

Asimismo, el Festival de Teatro Clasico de Olite que, dotado con
403.000 euros de presupuesto, anuncia siete espectaculos y animacion
callejera hasta el 22 de agosto, arrancara hoy con la puesta en
escena de Julio Cesar en la plaza de la Rueda. El barcelones Alex
Rigola dirige para Teatre Lliure la obra de Shakespeare, reflejo
tragico de la irresistible atraccion del poder.

Ya manana y el domingo, la iglesia de San Pedro acogera Cada loco con
su tema, titulo bajo el que la compania Teatro de Camara Chejov
agrupa tres piezas breves (El oso, La peticion de mano y El
aniversario) de Anton Chejov dirigidas por Angel Gutierrez. En ellas
el autor ruso plasmo satira social y criticas al ansia de poder.

Don’t I know you?

MX (Melbourne, Australia)
August 6, 2004 Friday

Don t I know you?

You probably know the face, yet struggle to remember the name.
However, these actors deserve accolades for the off-beat roles they
play.

TILDA SWINTON

Swinton generally appears in independent films, such as Young Adam,
Orlando, The Deep End and Adaptation. The outspoken Scot believes
that the average moviegoer isn’t sure what to do with women whose
looks are unconventional, by Hollywood standards.

She is now filming The Chronicles of Narnia.

EMILY MORTIMER

Mortimer belongs in the women’s role hall of fame for her work in
Lovely and Amazing. In Bright Young Things, she’s a party girl, and
in the musical version of Love’s Labours Lost, she’s fantastic. She
is filming The Pink Panther with Beyonce and Steve Martin.

SARAH POLLEY

Even Dawn of the Dead fans probably aren’t familiar with Polley’s
best work. She’s attracted to personal films by directors with skewed
visions. Not exactly big box office stuff, but this former child star
hasn’t made a false move since The Sweet Hereafter in 1997. She also
starred in Go, with Katie Holmes.

HOPE DAVIS

Davis raised her profile as Jack Nicholson’s annoying daughter in
About Schmidt, but is still relatively unknown.

She will soon be seen in The Weather Man, opposite Nicolas Cage,
playing a wry and down-to-earth character.

ISABELLE HUPPERT

French actor Huppert has made at least 40 films in which her
character usually has a secret.

Whether it’s the homicidal mum in Merci pour le Chocolat or the prim
nag in 8 Women, they’re almost always

upper-class.

She’s drawn to dark stories that explore the extremes of emotional
behaviour.

JUDY GREER

Greer takes the Joan Cusack roles that Cusack doesn’t want.

She has made a nice little career out of playing the ditzy, slightly
pathetic sidekick. She’s made almost 30 movies in the past six years,
playing that part in virtually all of them, most memorably in What
Women Want. She will soon be seen in The Village.

SANDRA OH

Wry, straightforward Oh made a bewitching debut as a young woman
rebelling against the Chinese traditions of her uptight family in
1994’s Double Happiness, and she hasn’t had a well-rounded role
since. It’s a common mistake for actors who make big, early splashes.
Oh has taken what she could find, including small roles in The
Princess Diaries and Under the Tuscan Sun.

ARSINEE KHANJIAN

Canadian-Armenian Khanjian had intriguing roles in the French films
Late August, Early September, Irma Vep and Fat Girl, but her fierce
intelligence is best showcased in films by her husband, director Atom
Egoyan. In Felicia’s Journey she wittily hinted at the dark side of
being a domestic goddess long before Martha Stewart’s downfall. She
also starred in The Sweet Hereafter.

NKR FM responds to Azeri statement on Karabakh military exercises

NKR FM responds to Azeri statement on Karabakh military exercises

Arminfo, Yerevan
6 Aug 04

STEPANAKERT

The foreign ministry of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic NKR has issued
a statement in response to the statement of the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry on the exercises held by the NKR defence army.

Arminfo has learnt from the NKR Foreign Ministry’s press service that
the statement reads: “On 4 August, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
issued a statement which strongly condemned the staff exercises of the
NKR defence army in the NKR. The NKR Foreign Ministry’s press service
states that the exercises, which are under way at the moment, were
planned beforehand and that according to the established rules, all
the interested parties were informed about them in advance. One should
note that over many years, the armed forces of Nagornyy Karabakh have
been conducting various military exercises which are one of the very
important means of increasing the combat readiness of the Karabakh
army.

“The NKR authorities think that maintaining the high level of the
combat readiness of the NKR troops is an important condition for
guaranteeing the military security of the NKR and its people,
especially in conditions of uninterrupted bellicose calls in
Azerbaijan for a military settlement to the Karabakh problem. While
Azerbaijan is fuelling tension and the conflict zone has no
international peacekeeping forces, the NKR defence army, which is an
important element of preserving regional stability, is actually
playing the role of a factor of restraint. Anyone who has a sincere
interest in preserving stability established in the last 10 years and
in the joint development of the entire South Caucasus region realizes
this unique function of the NKR armed forces which are in fact an army
of peace.

“The NKR Foreign Ministry press service states that adhering
exclusively to a peaceful settlement to the conflict and in order to
avoid a new armed invasion by Azerbaijan, the Karabakh side will
continue in the future to strengthen the NKR’s statehood and its armed
forces as an important body defending the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of the NKR.”
From: Baghdasarian

Peace And Security Cannot Be Actualized Through Suspicion, Force

Tehran Times, Iran
Aug 7 2004

Peace And Security Cannot Be Actualized Through Suspicion, Force,
Threats: Khatami

BAKU (IRNA) — Visiting Iranian President Mohammad Khatami here on
Friday called peace, security, and justice the most basic needs of
humanity, saying that peace cannot be established by suspicion and
lack of confidence and security cannot be maintained by force and
threats.

Speaking at Azeri National Assembly, he added that in today’s world
peace and security are of great importance.

He added that new understandings and close cooperation are required
to promote peace and security.

“However, firm determination to promote peace, security and justice
as well as campaign against war, terrorism and discrimination on the
international, regional and national levels can open new horizons to
the human community,” he added.

Turning to the fact that today the fate of regional and world
countries are interdependent, he noted that dialogues, initiatives
and new measures are required for getting over the concerns inherent
in unilateral politics, economy and culture.

“Today, on the eve of entering the era of information and
communication technology, the world is facing new dilemmas and
limitations. Therefore, democratic methods and logic should be used
to tackle misleading approaches.

Prior to the president’s speech, Speaker of Azerbaijan’s National
Assembly Murtuz Aleskerov welcomed the Iranian chief executive and
hoped that his visit would give momentum to further expansion of
ties. —————- Focusing On Parliament Shows Respect For
Nation—————

Khatami also referred to parliament as the cornerstone of democracy
and symbol of sovereignty and said that placing focus on parliament
indicates respect for the nation.

Speaking in a meeting with the Speaker of Azerbaijan’s National
Assembly, he pointed to the decisive role of the parliaments of both
countries in expansion of mutual ties and urged to implement the
mutually signed agreements, despite bureaucratic problems.

The president noted that security, stability and progress in
Azerbaijan is linked to security in the Islamic Republic of Iran and
hoped that Karabakh clashes will lead to sustainable peace.

Appreciating the steps taken to establish a legal Caspian regime, he
said that Majlis is quite serious on the issue.

The chief executive hoped that a comprehensive plan securing the
interests of the Caspian littoral states will soon be drawn up.

“The convention on the Caspian Sea environment inked by the littoral
states will soon be examined by Majlis. We expect Azerbaijan’s
National Assembly will take a similar step,” he added.

Aleskerov also appreciated Iran’s approach towards Karabakh issue on
the international scene and said, “We believe that Iran will take
measures towards seeking a peaceful solution to the problem.

BAKU: Iranian leader wants “friendship and security” with Azerbaijan

Iranian leader wants “friendship and security” with Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani TV Channel One, Baku
6 Aug 04

[Presenter] Azerbaijani Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov today met a
delegation led by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Then the Iranian
president delivered a speech at the Milli Maclis.

[Correspondent, over video of the meeting] Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov
spoke about the development of relations between our countries during
the independence of Azerbaijan. He stressed national leader
[ex-President] Heydar Aliyev’s exceptional services in the creation of
Iranian-Azerbaijani cooperation. He said mutual visits by the [former]
presidents of the two countries, Heydar Aliyev and [Akbar]
Hashemi-Rafsanjani, had laid a good basis for multilateral relations
between our countries. Speaker Alasgarov highly assessed the
interparliamentary ties. He spoke in detail about the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem which democratically developing Azerbaijan has
faced. He said that Azerbaijan also relied on Iran’s support for the
resolution of the problem.

At the meeting, Iranian President Khatami expressed his satisfaction
with the level of interparliamentary relations. He said that the
Caucasus was one of the most important regions in the world and that
Iran was leading a policy to maintain its interests here. He spoke
about the role of our national leader Heydar Aliyev in the development
of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations. He said that a detailed exchange of
views had been held during the meetings with Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev. He stressed that the two sides should make efforts to
ensure the signed documents are carried out. He said that Iran will do
its best to contribute to a solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict
and reach a lasting peace in the region.

Then a meeting was held at the Milli Maclis. First, Speaker Alasgarov
talked about Iranian President Khatami’s visit to our country, his
life and activities.

Iranian President Khatami delivered a speech at the Azerbaijani
parliament. He highly evaluated the role of parliament in any
country’s life and stressed the importance of the laws adopted to rule
the country. He talked about the relations between civilisations. He
noted the importance of developing dialogue and mutual understanding
in this sphere. He said that the modern world needs peace and
security. He said that one-sidedness, unipolarity and the double
standards applied by many countries are unacceptable to international
policy. Khatami said that knowledge, public information and mutual
ties linked countries in the modern world to each other and that
democracy was an important factor in creating political theories. He
noted that important steps have been taken towards democracy over the
last 200 years. Khatami talked about Azerbaijani-Iranian relations and
stressed the presence of stronger potential for the development of
cooperation between our countries in the economic, political,
cultural, trade and other spheres. He shared his views about the
Caspian Sea’s environmental security and legal status. Iranian
President Khatami said that we support living with Azerbaijan in an
atmosphere of friendship and security.