Human rights development very slow in Armenia – ombudsman
A1+ web site
12 Jun 04
11 June: Ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan held a news conference today to
mark the 100 days of the establishment of the human rights institution
in Armenia.
Alaverdyan said that the process of restoring violated human rights
in Armenia is very slowly. The institution has only recently started
to operate and the ombudsman hopes that it will be really successful
in Armenia since people are now taking their work more seriously.
Passage omitted: Minor details
The ombudsman said that she was more interested in the problems of
defenceless people rather than in sensations.
As for the trial of the skinheads who committed disturbances on 5
April attacked journalists , she said: “We should be glad about the
very fact that those who beat up journalists have been brought to
book in our country.”

CENN – JUNE 14, 2004 DAILY DIGEST
Table of Contents:
1. 57th Meeting of World Journalists Held in Istanbul
2. Eurasian Space Development Concept Adopted
3. KfW May Credit Yerevan Hydro Plant Modernization
4. Terms of Reference — Agricultural Biodiversity
5. IRD Tender Announcement
1. 57TH MEETING OF WORLD JOURNALISTS HELD IN ISTANBUL
Source: AzerTag, June 12, 2004
The regular, 57th Congress of World Association of Newspapers /WAN/ was
held in Istanbul.
The organization created in Paris, in 1948, amalgamates 72 newspaper
associations, over 18.000 newspapers, 12 news agencies, 9
media-organizations of the world, AzerTAj correspondent reports.
Aim of annual forum is to unite journalists of world in the period of
globalisation, protect their rights and interests, and establish
cooperation between the mass media representatives and editorial offices
of different countries
2. EURASIAN SPACE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT ADOPTED
Source: AzerTag, June 12, 2004
According to information received by AzerTAj, The participants of the
forum “Eurasia in the 21st century: cultures dialog or civilizations
conflict”, held on the shores of the Issyk Kul high-mountain lake,
adopted a common Eurasian space development concept.
“The East and the West as social and cultural formations should have a
dialog, based on the principles of tolerance and mutual understanding,
as equal partners”, reads the document. “There are no grounds for
separating or opposing the cultural values from the viewpoint of their
belonging to different types of civilization”, stresses the concept.
The forum participants came to the conclusion that “only through the
dialog can the problems of security, counter-terrorism and violence
globalisation be settled”. The economic basis of the dialog should be
made up of “international trade and tourism development and
establishment of new transportation corridors”.
The globalisation advantages should be used by all nations to reduce
poverty and settle the environmental issues, which are closely related
to the economic and social issues, believe the forum participants.
“The oncoming generation should be brought up in the spirit of the world
culture and civilizations dialog”, reads the concept.
The forum was attended by Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmonov,
Kirghiz President Askar Akayev, UNESCO Director General Koitiro
Matsuura, Iran’s Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abdahi, and government
delegations of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Afghanistan,
Turkmenistan, Russia and other countries, as well as by famous
scientists.
3. KFW MAY CREDIT YEREVAN HYDRO PLANT MODERNIZATION
Source: Interfax, June 11, 2004
ZAO International Energy Corporation hopes to receive a credit of 15
million euros from Germany’s Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau by the end
of 2004 to modernize Yerevan Hydroelectric Plant, plant Deputy General
Director Mels Akopyan told Interfax.
He said that representatives from KfW are currently discussing this
project with IEC General Director Mikhail Mantrov in Moscow.
Akopyan said that the German bank is waiting for the question of
guarantees to be resolved before providing the credit. He said that he
hopes that the credit will be provided under beneficial terms.
IEC has taken on the obligation of repaying a credit for 18 million
euros already received from KfW to restore the fifth and sixth
power-producing units at Kanaker Hydroelectric Plant, which is also part
of the Sevan-Razdan Cascade power plant. This credit was provided to the
Armenian government at the end of 2000 for 40 years at 0.75% per annum,
with a grace period of 10 years.
The Sevan-Razdan Cascade united six hydro plants build between 1930 and
1962 and is one of the main electricity producers in Armenia. The plant
has a capacity of 556 megawatts or about 18% of the total power capacity
of Armenia.
ZAO International Energy Corporation was set up at the start of
September 2003 by Unified Energy System of Russia to operate the Sevan-
Razdan plant. The company has a license from the Armenian commission for
the regulation of natural monopolies to produce electricity in the
country for 15 years.
4. TERMS OF REFERENCE — AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY
Project Consultant (part-time)
UNDP/GEF Project:
Recovery, Conservation, and Sustainable Use of Georgia’s Agricultural
diversity
Project Summary:
The project’s goal is the conservation and sustainable utilization of
threatened local plant genetic resources important to food and
agriculture. The project has two immediate objectives. The first is the
on-farm conservation of selected local agricultural biodiversity in
Samtskhe-Javakheti, historically the main granary of Georgia, on a pilot
demonstration basis. The second is to develop and implement a strategy
for replication of best lessons learned in conservation and utilization
of local agricultural biodiversity to other Georgian regions.
The project will address threats and root causes by concentrating its
technical and financial resources along 5 main avenues of actions.
First, it will establish sources of primary seed and planting material
for the threatened crops and fruit varieties. Second, it will strengthen
farmers’ own organizational structures (e.g. farmer association) as main
vehicles for production and distribution of seed and planting material
and experience sharing. Third, it will assist farmers in accessing
markets, including markets for organic products. Fourth, it will enhance
access to information on local agricultural biodiversity to farmers,
authorities, research stations, donors and other stakeholders and
promote information sharing among them. Finally, the project will ensure
that best lessons from project activities in Samtskhe-Javakheti are
replicated to other regions of Georgia.
Responsibilities
The Project Consultant will be responsible to the Project Coordinator.
The Consultants will provide needed expertise to the Project. The
Consultant will work in close cooperation with the Project Management.
His/her responsibilities include but are not limited to:
ž working closely with the Project Coordinator, Manager and
Agrobiodiversity Program Officer, assisting in development of work-plans
for conservation program
ž development of an assessment and analysis of existing information on
agricultural sector, including
– analysis of cross-sectoral issues related to in situ and on farm
conservation;
– policy and legal framework;
– Institutional and human capacity;
– identification of gaps and assessment of existing needs with respect
to involving different stakeholders in the conservation program
implementation
ž assisting in preparation of and participation in stakeholders’
meetings, strategic planning workshops;
ž assisting with the drafting of strategy document on agricultural
diversity conservation and sustainable utilisation, as required by the
Project Coordinator.
Outputs
ž Analysis reports and recommendations
Qualifications
ž Recognized expertise in related subject (local and international);
ž At least 10 years of experience in professional or academic position
in related discipline;
ž Proven ability to effectively analyze situations and communicate
results well;
ž Excellent knowledge of written and oral English and Georgian.
Education
– Higher education in related discipline
Duty Station
Tbilisi
Period of work
5 days per month during the total period of the project implementation
(5 years).
Deadline for CV submission
June 21, 2004
Please deliver your CVs according to the following contact information:
UNDP
Mariam Shotadze
Program Analyst
UNDP, Georgia
Eristavi Str. 9, Tbilisi,
Tel: 25 11 28/29 or 31
Fax: 25 0071/72
E-mail: [email protected]
and
ELKANA
III Delisi str. Nakveti 16
Tel: 536487 (contact person: Rusudan Nemsadze)
Fax: 536484
E-mail: [email protected]
Important note: Interviews will be scheduled with the short listed
candidates only.
5. IRD TENDER ANNOUNCEMENT
IRD, Inc. is announcing request for application from experienced
construction/engineering companies to take part in implementation of the
2-year USAID-financed SAE Primary Health Care initiative project in
Tsalka district.
Interested parties are invited to apply immediately. Please submit the
application documents required below in a sealed envelope to: 1 Irakli
Abashidze St. Tbilisi 0179 IRD Georgia Office.
The deadline is June 28, 2004 12.00 AM.
Organization/Project description:
International Relief and Development is a US based non-profit,
non-governmental organization working in Georgia since 1999.
In 2003 IRD started implementation of the USAID/SAE “Primary Health Care
Initiative in Georgia” for the period of 2003 – 2005. The project is
designed to provide medical care and treatment to the vulnerable
population of Tsalka district. This project will:
– Increase the professional level of Primary Health Care providers;
– Improve the condition of out-patient medical facilities.
The activities outlined address these objectives with an overall goal to
providing increased access to and improvement of the delivery of primary
health care services in Georgia.
General Description of Work:
Rehabilitation of three village Ambulatories selected by IRD in Tsalka
district. Due to the severe weather conditions in Tsalka region,
rehabilitation works should be finished before October 2004.
Interested organizations should submit the following:
1. Organization’s legal status and place of registration;
2. List of the civic infrastructure building/rehabilitation activities
implemented during the last three years;
3. Approximate amount (in GEL) of the total operational activities
implemented during the last three years;
4. Information about human and material resources;
5. Information about the bad debt for the State budget and/or any other
law obligations raised against organization;
6. Information about participation in construction/rehabilitation
activities financed by USAID or other international donor organization;
7. Building-repairing experience in Tsalka Region (desirable).
Only successful candidates will be contacted on June 29, 2004 before
6.00 PM. On June 30, 2004 they will be invited to come to Tsalka to
perform the assessment of physical condition of three selected village
Ambulatories in Tsalka district. Before July 6, 2004 5.00 PM, they have
to submit rehabilitation projects for each of three Ambulatories
(including time schedule and detailed budget).
—
*******************************************
CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
Tel: ++995 32 92 39 46
Fax: ++995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

Return of occupied Azeri districts dangerous for Armenia – paper    
Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
12 Jun 04
The return of Azerbaijan’s seven occupied districts poses a
threat to Armenia’s security, the Armenian newspaper Aykakan
Zhamanak has said. This will allow Azerbaijan to control the whole
Armenian-controlled sector of the Azerbaijani-Iranian border and
worsen the position of the Armenian troops along the front line,
the newspaper said. According to Aykakan Zhamanak, these steps can
seriously threaten the security of Karabakh and Armenia’s southern
regions. If this information is true, it will confirm the failure of
President Robert Kocharyan’s Karabakh policy and testify that he is
using this to extend his power, the newspaper said. The following
is the text of Erdzanik Abgaryan’s report by Armenian newspaper
Aykakan Zhamanak on 12 June headlined “Conflict in the business
sphere?”. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:
The warning issued by the first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, that
in the Karabakh conflict our real enemy is not Azerbaijan, but the
world community has become evident. And even the political forces in
power who are suffering from night blindness and corrupt intellectuals
who are eating their leftovers can notice this if they want.
Helpless Kocharyan
The Council of Europe, the OSCE, the European Union and NATO have
attacked [Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan. Kocharyan is helpless
because even his “partner” Putin cannot help him. He was warned six or
seven months ago that during the NATO summit in Istanbul progress will
be made in the Karabakh problem and Armenian-Turkish relations. If you
remember, some time after that, the Dashnaks [Armenian Revolutionary
Federation – Dashnaktsutyun] started speaking even about holding a
referendum on the Karabakh issue. If their Karabakh policy fails,
[Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan] Oskanyan threatens to resign, etc.
But as is seen, Kocharyan understood the seriousness of the problem
later and turned off the wrong path, deciding not to go to Istanbul.
But this step did not help him either. Oskanyan has been summoned
to Washington, and on 15 June, he should be there with Kocharyan’s
reply to a letter from the American co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group, Steven Mann, who suddenly turned up in Yerevan about 10
days ago. According to our information, during a recent meeting
between the coalition parties, Yerkrapa [Union of Volunteers] and
representatives of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR], Kocharyan
put to a vote the issue of returning Fuzuli, Cabrayil and Zangilan
Districts to Azerbaijan.
The highest price
In fact, Kocharyan suggested discussing the issue of surrendering
the regions of the most strategic importance to Azerbaijan, through
which the Baku-Naxcivan railway passes, which will allow Azerbaijan to
control the whole Armenian-controlled sector of the Azerbaijani-Iranian
border. It is obvious that the territory of those regions should
have the highest price in the settlement of the Karabakh issue. The
positions of our troops that are in this sector of the front will
worsen: the current 20km front line will be extended by 10 times and
will become 200km long. These steps, which are beyond the logic of any
option for the conflict settlement, can seriously threaten Karabakh
and the security of Armenia’s Megri region.
New events, in particular the surrender of [Azerbaijan’s] Zangilan
District, which will lead to the establishment of contact between
Armenia and Azerbaijan on the southern border, raise the issue of
Kapan’s protection. This problem is directly related to the security
of Kapan. It is inadmissible for Kapan to be on the state border
again. Incidentally, we still do not know how Kocharyan is going
to settle such problems which are great in number in the Karabakh
issue. We do not know either which problems connected with the
interests of Armenia and Karabakh Kocharyan will settle if these
regions are surrendered to Azerbaijan. According to some information,
in that case, the USA is ready to give 150m dollars to Armenia within
the framework of “Millennium Challenges” programme and force Azerbaijan
to give up its efforts to include the Karabakh conflict in the sphere
of the anti-terrorist fight.
Kocharyan’s failure
It is difficult to say how correct this information is, but if it
is really so, then it is threatening: if Armenia does not agree,
it will be sidelined from the “Millennium Challenges” programme
and the Karabakh conflict may be included in the anti-terrorist
sphere. Moreover, it is not clear how Kocharyan sees this problem,
which is separate from the Karabakh issue, in the general difficult
context of Armenian-Azerbaijani disagreements. This does not meet the
logic of the stage-by-stage or package settlement options. According
to our information, during the above meeting, everybody listened to
Kocharyan in silence.
The only person who supported this suggestion was Artur Bagdasaryan
[chairman of the National Assembly] who has a dim understanding of
the problems of Karabakh policy and who has announced that his party
[Law-Governed Country Party] is ready to support Kocharyan openly
in the issue of surrendering those regions. The only person who was
against it was the NKR defence minister, Seyran Oganyan, who expresses
the viewpoint of the Karabakh leadership. Finally, it will be clear
soon what Oskanyan will take to Washington with him. If these rumours
are true, it turns out that by turning the most important sector of
the occupied territories into something that can be bought and sold,
Kocharyan in fact confirmed the failure of his Karabakh policy. That’s
to say, like in 1998, he failed the Karabakh issue for the sake of
seizing power. Exactly in the same way, he can make this problem
serve his personal purpose – to extend his power.

ARMENIA POLLUTES RIVER IN AZERI EXCLAVE – TV SAYS
ANS TV, Baku
13 Jun 04
(Presenter) Armenia’s sewage water pollutes the Araz (Araxes)
river. Health Minister Ali Insanov has said that Azerbaijan has
repeatedly asked international organizations to help resolve the
problem. Armenia, however, does not show any interest in solving
the problem.
(Correspondent) The issue of pollution of the Araz river by
Armenia will be raised during forthcoming meetings by international
organizations, Azerbaijani Health Minister Ali Insanov said during
his trip to Naxcivan. Insanov said that he raised the question at
all international meetings in which he took part so that to solve the
problem. Armenia, however, is not interested in solving the problem.
(Insanov shown speaking to microphone) I noted the problem in my speech
at an annual session of the WHO (World Health Organization) Assembly in
Geneva in May. We raise the issue from time to time. Unfortunately,
Armenia’s position on the issue, just like on many other issues,
is inappropriate.
(Correspondent) Armenia’s sewage and waste waters pollute the Araz
river. Bacteriologic tests showed that the contamination of the river
is eight to 10 times over the norm in Sadarak District and four to
six times in Culfa and Ordubad districts. It cannot be ruled out that
the contamination affects the flora and fauna of the Araz basin.
Natella Mahmudova and Musfiq Haciyev, ANS, Naxcivan.

AZERI MINISTER TELLS NATO REP ABOUT DOUBLE STANDARDS IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
ANS TV, Baku
13 Jun 04
It is irrefutable that Armenia has occupied part of Azerbaijan’s
territory. Despite this the international community has not so
far declared Armenia an aggressor state which proves the existence
of double standards in the (Nagornyy Karabakh) conflict settlement
process, Azerbaijani Defence Minister Safar Abiyev told NATO Assistant
Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Jean Fournet at a meeting today
(13 June).
Mr Fournet said in reply that NATO is aware of Azerbaijan’s position
and is looking for ways of improving (bilateral) relations.

An opposition party leader fatally shot in Azerbaijan
AP Online;
Jun 14, 2004
An opposition party leader, who was known for his bold military
exploits in the war over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, was fatally
shot early Monday in Azerbaijan’s capital, police said.
Fatulla Huseynov’s body was found by his neighbors outside his Baku
home, said Yashar Aliyev of the city police. Neighbors reported
hearing between four and six gunshots minutes earlier.
Aliyev said police did not yet have a motive or suspect.
Huseynov, 67, was one of the leaders of Azerbaijan’s opposition
Justice party. He also served as the vice president of Association
of Football Federations of Azerbaijan. He had previously worked in
Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry and headed the nation’s road police.
In 1992-93, Huseynov fought in Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian
enclave in Azerbaijan, where he earned the nickname the “black colonel”
for his unit’s military feats.
Azerbaijani forces were driven out of Nagorno-Karabakh, and a
cease-fire was signed in May 1994. But Nagorno-Karabakh’s final
status has not been resolved and firing sporadically breaks across the
“line of control” demilitarized zone that separates Azerbaijani and
Armenian forces.

Baku not against Armenian presence at NATO exercises – Azeri official
ANS TV, Baku
14 Jun 04
[Presenter Leyla Hasanova] Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has
commented on the planned visit of Armenian officers [to Baku to attend
NATO exercises].
[Azimov shown speaking to microphone] This event in Baku is being held
by NATO. All partner countries are allowed to and must take part in
NATO events. Official Baku is not against the participation of two
Armenian officers.
[Correspondent] Do you take into account the public discontent?
[Azimov] The reason for the discontent is clear and normal. At the
same time, we should take into account all aspects of this issue.

Cleveland Plain Dealer , OH
June 13 2004
Six masterpieces
Paintings worth the pilgrimage within a day’s drive of Cleveland
GEORGES SEURAT
‘A Sunday on la Grande Jatte’
Dots. Zillions of dots of color. That’s what Georges Seurat used to
paint his Pointillist masterpiece, “A Sunday on la Grande Jatte,”
first exhibited in Paris in 1886 and now owned by the Art Institute
of Chicago.
From Our Advertiser
The painting, one of the most famous in the world, has been
reproduced endlessly. Yet it defies reproduction, because its
technique, richness and large scale never come across in postcards or
posters. Seurat’s work, roughly 10 feet wide and 7 feet high, depicts
an island on the Seine River in Paris, where a well-dressed crowd has
gathered to enjoy the riverbank on a summer afternoon. It’s an image
of middle-class leisure at the dawn of the modern age. It’s also a
summation of Seurat’s theories about light and color, about how to
organize a grand composition and about how to go beyond the more
informal landscapes painted by his contemporaries, the
Impressionists.
“It’s all about technique, the very calculated changes you can see
with the naked eye, but you can’t see in reproductions,” said Gloria
Groom, a curator of European painting at the museum. “Because the
surface is incredibly complex, it’s not a one-dimensional object.
It’s a tapestry, and it’s very rich.”
Viewed up close, the painting is a sea of tiny flecks. The arm of the
lounging boatman on the left side of the picture, for instance,
crackles with pure dots of purple, red, pink, green and blue. Step
back a few paces, and the dots appear to meld into the color of
flesh.
“You can see it from different viewpoints, different perceptual
depths,” Groom said.
This summer, beginning Saturday and running through Sunday, Sept. 19,
the art institute will celebrate “La Grande Jatte” in a blockbuster
exhibition with roughly 130 paintings and sketches that re-create
Seurat’s creative process.
The show was conceived as a salute to the completion of the
Millennium Park concert stage on Chicago’s lakefront by Los Angeles
architect Frank Gehry. But it’s also an invitation to gaze deeply
into one of the world’s most famous masterpieces.
“When you’re in front of the painting, it’s not a passive
experience,” said Groom, who cocurated the exhibition. “Participation
is insisted upon. You cannot just ignore it.”
The Art Institute of Chicago is at 111 S. Michigan Ave. Hours are
10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday
and Sunday. Open until 8 p.m. Tuesday (late hours switch to Thursday
on July 1). Admission is $10; $6 for students and seniors; free for
children under 5. Call 312-443-3600 or go to
J.M.W. TURNER
‘Burning of the Houses of Parliament’
Katherine Solender of Cleveland, the acting director of the Allen
Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, has spent years looking at
J.M.W. Turner’s “Burning of the Houses of Parliament,” one of the
most famous paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The work depicts the fire that consumed the Palace of Westminster on
the night of Oct. 16, 1834, as thousands of Londoners gathered to
watch from the banks of the Thames River.
Solender wrote an 80-page catalog for an exhibition in 1984 that
reunited the Cleveland painting with another version owned by the
Philadelphia Museum of Art. Called “Dreadful Fire! Burning of the
Houses of Parliament,” the book compared both paintings with Turner’s
numerous watercolor studies and contemporary accounts of the
catastrophe.
Standing in front of the painting last month, Solender saw things she
hadn’t seen before, particularly in Turner’s handling of paint. She
noticed, for example, how the thinly painted, blue-gray haze on the
right side of the painting contrasts strikingly with the heavy,
thickly painted yellow-orange flames that erupt in the center of the
image.
“It’s about nuance and layering and all these different surfaces,”
Solender said. “The thing that’s so powerful is how he puts together
the physicality of the fire with all these things that explore the
meaning of it.”
While Turner’s ostensible subject is an urban disaster, the painting
also comments on the futility of resisting the immense power of
nature. Turner conveyed that immensity with brushstrokes that evoke
how the fireball erupting from Parliament turns into huge, smoky
clouds that nearly blot out the moon.
“The variety of applications of paint on one picture is so amazing,”
Solender said. “How could you reproduce something that complex?”
The Cleveland Museum of Art is at 11150 East Blvd. in University
Circle. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; until 9 p.m.
Wednesday and Friday. Admission is free. Call 216-421-7340 or go to
PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER
‘The Wedding Dance’
If there’s a Renaissance painter who deserves to be called
“Shakespearean,” it’s Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The greatest Flemish
painter of his time, Bruegel is beloved for paintings that are
utterly specific in their documentation of peasant life in
16th-century Holland, but universal in their appeal. The greatest
concentrations of Bruegel’s work lie in European museums. But there
are two great Bruegel paintings in the United States. “The
Harvesters,” painted in 1565, is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York City. And “The Wedding Dance,” painted a year later, is at
the Detroit Institute of Arts, where it will go back on display about
July 1 after a gallery reinstallation. For an art lover, that’s
reason enough for a road trip to Motown. The foreground of “The
Wedding Dance” is dominated by well-fed men and women who reel and
strut like birds in a mating dance.
“The men with their codpieces, and the women with their flowing
skirts – it’s all about animal energy,” said George Keyes, chief
curator of the Detroit museum.
But if the dancers catch the eye at first, prolonged looking reveals
interactions between the smaller figures who loiter in the
background. Keyes imagines they’re striking deals, gossiping,
complaining about the weather.
Bruegel used color and shape to keep the eye moving throughout the
composition. Areas of red appear repeatedly, in the form-fitting
leggings of the dancing man in the lower left foreground, in the
skirt of the broad-hipped woman in the center foreground and in the
outfits of many peasants in the background.
Bruegel’s use of red directs the eye deep into the painting, where
the artist has artfully arranged a crowd of partygoers like a
Hollywood director with a huge cast of extras.
“This was a man who was an extraordinary observer of the world around
him,” Keyes said. “He never lets up in terms of characterization.”
The Detroit Institute of Arts is at 5200 Woodward Ave. Hours are 10
a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and 10
a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Suggested admission is $4, $1 per
child. Call 313-833-7900 or go to
WINSLOW HOMER
‘Snap the Whip’
Winslow Homer intended his 1873 painting “Snap the Whip,” an image of
boys at play in a field, to be reproduced as a black-and-white wood
engraving.
It was part of an extensive and highly popular series of paintings
that he had copied as illustrations for weekly magazines in the 1860s
and ’70s.
But even though the painting has been reproduced many times since
then, in both color and black and white, the original, owned by the
Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, maintains its
authority.
“The texture of the paint is reproducible, but it’s both stronger and
more gutsy in the original and therefore has a more visceral effect
on the viewer,” said John Wilmerding of Princeton University, a
renowned historian of American art.
The painting depicts a game in which nine boys hold hands and run
across a field outside a oneroom rural schoolhouse. Two bigger boys
at the back of the line stop suddenly, creating a whip action that
throws the youngest boys at the other end of the line to the ground.
Wilmdering said the painting has been interpreted as an image of
children establishing a playground pecking order. He also sees it as
“a celebration of youth after the slaughter of fathers and brothers
in the Civil War.”
When asked in a phone conversation what he sees when he looks deeply
at the surface of Homer’s painting, Wilmerding had no trouble
describing it from memory. He said he notices how Homer used his
brush to differentiate between the boys’ coarse clothing, the softer
textures of trees and sky in the background and the flat geometry of
the schoolhouse.
Perhaps most of all, Wilmerding said he thinks about how Homer
suggested the rough texture of the field through which the boys are
running in bare feet. In front of the original, it’s easy to see how
the foreground is filled with both flowers and stones, details that
don’t come across well in reproduction.
“It gives the painting a seriousness and almost pain,” Wilmerding
said. “It’s a game, but it’s a lesson about life.”
The Butler is at 524 Wick Ave., Youngstown. Hours are 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday; and
noon-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Call 330-743-1711 or go to
ARSHILE GORKY
‘The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb’
Many great artists endure hardships before realizing their ambitions,
but Arshile Gorky suffered more than most.
Born in the early 1900s in Armenia as Vosdanig Adoian, he had an
idyllic childhood that ended violently in 1915, when the Turkish army
invaded his homeland and began a campaign of genocide that left 1.5
million Armenians dead.
Gorky’s mother, whom he loved dearly, died of starvation in 1919.
Other family members, including the future artist, reunited in the
United States.
Adoian, who renamed himself for the Russian author Maxim Gorky, began
teaching and studying art first in Boston, then in New York.
After immersing himself in the styles of Paul Cezanne and Pablo
Picasso, Gorky came into his own in the 1940s. The 1944 painting “The
Liver Is the Cock’s Comb,” owned by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in
Buffalo, N.Y., is perhaps his greatest masterpiece.
Eight feet wide and more than 6 feet high, the work is an abstract
landscape filled with watery plumes of semi-transparent color that
coalesce around spiky, thornlike shapes, painted in thin, sharp black
lines, as if to suggest beaks and claws.
“To get the full impact of the colors and the gestures in the
painting, you really have to be in front of it,” said Kenneth Wayne,
a curator at the Albright- Knox. “It’s just full of energy and life.
It’s not somber and morose. It’s very active and dynamic.”
As an expression of Gorky’s work at its peak, the Albright-Knox
painting represents a moment that was tragically brief. After a
studio fire, a bout with cancer, a disabling car accident and a
failed marriage, Gorky committed suicide in 1948 by hanging himself.
“The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb” shrieks with life. But to experience
it fully, you have to stand in front of the painting. Looking at a
reproduction just won’t do.
That’s what makes it worthy of an artistic pilgrimage.
The Albright-Knox is at 1285 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, N.Y. Hours are 11
a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; until 9 p.m. Friday; and noon-5
p.m. Sunday. Admission is $8; $6 for students and seniors; free for
children 13 and under. Call 716-882-8700 or go to
GIOVANNI BELLINI
‘Feast of the Gods’
If ever there were a painting in a U.S. museum worth traveling
hundreds of miles to see, it’s “Feast of the Gods” by Giovanni
Bellini at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
The artist, a Renaissance master of color-drenched Venetian painting,
signed and dated the work in 1514, two years before he died. The
painting, in oil on canvas, depicts a randy episode from the poetry
of Ovid. During an orgy of the gods, Priapus, whose gown has a
telltale bulge below his waist, tries to violate a nymph named Lotis.
But an ass brays, the gods awaken from a drunken stupor, and Priapus
is foiled.
For David Brown, the National Gallery’s curator of Italian paintings,
reproductions fail to convey the painting’s scale, color and
brushwork. At 6 by 6 feet, it’s big enough to command attention amid
other Renaissance masterpieces. It also glows with a rich luminosity
characteristic of Venetian painters and unmatched by artists from
other Italian cities.
“Viewing it up close, you can see his [Bellini’s] wonderful skill of
hand, the manipulation of paint, the choice of colors, the attention
to detail,” Brown said. “The other thing is that the sheer beauty of
color and brushwork mask the actual subject of the picture, which is
an attempted rape.”
Seeing the painting in person also makes it possible to compare
Bellini’s brushwork with that of Titian, a younger and even more
famous Venetian master. After Bellini’s death, Duke Alfonso d’Este of
Ferrara asked Titian to repaint the landscape in the upper left
quadrant of the painting so it would look at home with a roomful of
other mythological paintings the duke had asked Titian to paint.
Titian’s brushwork in the landscape, in which a castle rises from the
top of a mountain, is bolder than Bellini’s treatment of the gods in
the foreground, which is more refined and delicate. But the two
styles merge perfectly to create a languorous, summery,
alcohol-saturated mood.
“It’s just how you’d feel after drinking a lot of wine at a picnic in
the country,” Brown said.
The National Gallery is at Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues,
N.W., in Washington, D.C. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through
Saturday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Call 202-737-4215
or go to

Team Petrosian gets a draw in round four
Chessbase News, Germany
June 14 2004
13.06.2004 In the first three rounds the Armenians were overmatched
by the World all-stars. Today was like two separate tournaments with
the heavyweights on each team battling it out in a Linares-caliber
line-up. The decisive games came from below, however, as van Wely and
Lputian crashed to their third losses. The World kept its four-point
lead.
A full point for Armenia
Round 4 (June 13, 2004)
Petrosian Team 3 – 3 World Team
Kasparov ½ – ½ Adams
Leko ½ – ½ Svidler
Gelfand ½ – ½ Anand
Akopian 1 – 0 van Wely
Vaganian ½ – ½ Vallejo
Lputian 0 – 1 Bacrot
Overall score: World Team: 14 – 10 Petrosian Team
Vladimir Akopian finally put the Armenians on the board by beating
Loek van Wely in today’s fourth of six rounds. That was van Wely’s
third loss, but he was kept out of the cellar, or at least joined
there, by his opposing board six Smbat Lputian, who lost to Etienne
Bacrot.
Both games continued the black plague theme of the tournament. So far
there have been ten decisive games and six were wins for the second
player, including the last five in a row. Akopian painted a
positional masterpiece today to bounce back from two consecutive
losses. If you go through the moves quickly it looks like van Wely’s
pieces aren’t moving while Akopian’s take over the board.
Lputian couldn’t quite dig himself out of a positional hole against
Bacrot, although he could have made much more of a fight of things in
the endgame if not for time trouble. Lputian is well known for taking
on strategically dubious positions and making them work tactically.
He is the veteran of hundreds of winner-take-all open tournaments and
this style has served him well over the years. It just isn’t very
effective against the world’s best players, who take what you give
them but don’t overpress. We won’t even get into his black repertoire
of 1..e6 2…d5 against just about everything.
Meanwhile, van Wely is the veteran of dozens of supertournaments
thanks to being born in the Netherlands instead of Armenia. He is a
permanent invitee to the spectacular Corus Wijk aan Zee events and he
doesn’t even finish in last place anymore! (He made fine scores of +1
and even in the last two events.) After hitting 2700 and coming close
to the top ten three years ago, van Wely almost dropped out of the
top 100 at the end of last year. This year he has been back on track,
at least until this week.
Vaganian just held on to draw another French Defense against Vallejo.
Anand and Gelfand dueled in an interesting Petroff, swapping pieces
creatively until agreeing to the draw with just a pair of rooks on
the board. Leko-Svidler was a short, sharp Sicilian that finished on
move 20 with still a lot of interest in the position. A pity.
Kasparov again pushed long and hard for a win, this time against
Adams, and again had to settle for a half point against dour defense
by the Englishman.
Vallejo – Vaganian after 40…Qd3
Things are looking good for White with his passed h-pawn, especially
now that they have reached the second time control. Black’s only hope
is to swindle a perpetual check draw.
The Spaniard tried to secure his king with 41.Kf2?, but the wily
veteran refuted this and forced the draw with 41…Nd4!, threatening
mate starting with ..Qe2+. White captured the knight and it was all
checks after that until the draw at move 48.
We have the luxury of using Fritzy to see every possible check and
trick, and it looks like 41.Qd2 gave White good winning chances.
41…Qe4 42.Qd6+ and only then Kf2.
van Wely – Akopian after 57.Rb6
Akopian cashed in on his positional domination with 57…f4! The
White minor pieces are dominated and overloaded.
58.Rb7+ Ke8 59.Bc1 Rc2 60.Kf3 Ng5+ 61.Kf2 Nxh3+ and the passed h-pawn
is too much to handle. Van Wely resigned on move 65.

Azerbaijan’s “Black Colonel” Killed
Baku Today
June 14 2004
Fatulla Huseynov, first vice-president of the Azerbaijan Football
Federations Association (AFFA), who also was known by the appellation
“Black Colonel,” was shot to death early Monday.
According to ANS, Huseynov got seven bullets from the Russian-made
Makarov pistol while getting into his car in front of his house at
around 7 a.m. Motives of the killing was not clear yet.
The murdered had been working for law enforcement bodies for long
years. He had gained the appellation “Black Colonel” during the
1991-94 war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.