Author: Dabaghian Diana

Boston Globe, MA
Feb 13 2005

Nominees have ties to Boston and the past
Up for Grammys: local artists and music with roots
By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff

The nominations for classical Grammys used to be predictable — big
stars performing standard repertoire for the megalabels. For several
years, however, they have reflected changes in the industry: Now you
are as likely to see nominees that feature little-known repertoire
on independent or budget labels, played by exemplary musicians who
aren’t necessarily celebrities.

The current nominations draw attention to releases the general
music-loving public might not have encountered. That is certainly
true of two discs with strong Boston connections that appear
alongside Andre Previn’s Violin Concerto “Anne-Sophie” with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer and featuring his wife,
Anne-Sophie Mutter, as superstar soloist.

A Naxos disc in the Milken Archive series of American Jewish music,
“The Mirror,” which contains music by Boston composer Yehudi Wyner,
was nominated in two categories, producer of the year (David Frost)
and best small ensemble. In the producer category, Frost is up against
Manfred Eicher, founder of ECM records, and one of the records that won
him his nomination was a two-CD set, “Monodia,” music by the Armenian
composer Tigran Mansurian. “Monodia” was also nominated in the best
instrumental soloist category, where New England Conservatory faculty
violist Kim Kashkashian finds herself competing against Mutter. The
recording also chalked up a third nomination, in best classical
composition, where it is up against Previn’s concerto. Small world.

Wyner, 75, whose piano concerto receives its world premiere at the
Boston Symphony Orchestra on Feb. 17, is the son of Lazar Weiner,
the preeminent composer of Yiddish art song. The Naxos disc collects
three of his works on specifically Jewish subjects.

The title piece, “The Mirror,” comes from incidental music that
Wyner wrote in 1973 for a Yale Repertory Theatre production of a
play by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The play is about village life in
one of the small Jewish communities in Eastern Europe more than a
century ago. It is not an exercise in nostalgia for a vanished world,
though; it concerns institutionalized sexual repression, fantasy, and
demonology. The 13 short movements, arranged for concert performance,
are scored for a traditional Yiddish theater ensemble of four players;
there are also some songs, one of them charmingly sung by the composer,
as well as a bit of spoken narration.

This is appealing “roots” music, surveying idioms of the play’s
time and place, but not reproducing them. Singer’s play comes
from a deliberately skewed point of view, from a different time
and place. In his music, Wyner achieves a complementary tone and
texture: affectionate, critical, mystified, funny, and a little
terrifying. The klezmer clarinet part is played with virtuoso
abandon by Richard Stoltzman, and the prominent violin part is in
the capable and idiomatic hands of Daniel Stepner; Robert Schulz is
the percussionist. They are all prominent Boston-based players.

The disc is completed by “Passover Offering” (1959) and, from 1981,
“Tants un Maysele” (“Dance and Little Story”), both of them works
without irony or commentary, using traditional gestures but stretched
into a more contemporary harmonic language. The excellent performers
come from all over; the locals include cellist Ronald Thomas,
clarinetist Bruce Creditor, and, at the piano, the composer himself.

Mansurian, 66, is a leading Armenian composer. Like Wyner’s, his
is roots music, and Mansurian writes, “I’ve always tried to compose
works I myself can love.”

Mansurian has enjoyed a long association with Kashkashian, which
resulted in an earlier ECM CD (“Hayren”), and in the three works
composed for her on this disc: the concerto for viola and strings “.
. . and then I was in time again” (1995), “Lachrymae” (1999), and
“Confessing With Faith” (1998).

The work specifically nominated for the Grammy is the concerto;
the title comes from a phrase in William Faulkner’s novel “The
Sound and the Fury.” The 20-minute piece flowers out of an opening
gesture of five repeated notes. The music is melancholy, meditative,
and haunting; the style suggests the timelessness of Arvo Paert,
but with more density, intensity, and depth. There is dialogue of
several kinds between soloist and ensemble, but the viola dominates,
because to the soloist Mansurian entrusts highly personal questioning,
exploration, and reflection. Kashkashian plays with total instrumental
mastery and a harrowing emotional involvement. Christoph Poppen leads
the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

“Lachrymae” (“Tears”) is an eloquent duet for viola and saxophone,
instruments that share range with complementary timbres (Jan
Garbarek is the sophisticated saxophonist). “Confessing With Faith”
is a setting of seven prayers by a 12th-century Armenian saint,
Nerses. The Hilliard Ensemble intones them with simplicity and
sophistication; the viola part is both an extra, wide-ranging voice in
the ensemble, and a narrator/commentator like the Evangelist in a Bach
Passion. Filling out the disc is an earlier concerto for violin (1981)
that is more traditional; Leonidas Kavakosis the assured soloist.

Whether either of these recordings wins a Grammy or whether they
knock each other out of contention doesn’t really matter. Those who
discover them will find a bit of themselves there, for in exploring
the roots of others we gain new perspectives on our own.

Armenia’s K-Telecom buys 100 mln euros of equipment

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
February 11, 2005

YEREVAN, Feb 11 (Prime-Tass) — K-Telecom, Armenia’s second-largest
mobile operator, has bought equipment worth 100 million euros,
Andranik Manukyan, Armenia’s Transport and Telecommunications Minister,
said Friday.

The equipment is expected to be shipped to Armenia in the near future,
he said.

Currently, K-Telecom has been holding negotiations with Armenian
national telecom company ArmenTel regarding cooperation on Armenia’s
mobile market, he said, adding that ArmenTel uses the 25 MHz frequency,
which is expected to be divided between the operators.

Starting May, K-Telecom is expected to start providing services in
Yerevan, he said.

In November 2004, the Armenian government had awarded a license
to K-Telecom to become the country’s second mobile operator, after
removing ArmenTel’s exclusive right to provide GSM, mobile satellite
and mobile radio communication services by amending the company’s
license. End

AzerTag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Feb 11 2005

OFFICIAL VISIT OF FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN TO TURKEY CONTINUES
[February 11, 2005, 19:37:05]

On February 10, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov, having arrived in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
(GNAT), has met with Chairman Bulent Arinc.

Minister E. Mammadyarov has expressed to Bulent Arinc gratitude for
active support by the Turkish deputies of the position of Azerbaijan
during adoption at PACE session of the resolution specifying that
Armenia is a state-aggressor and that the Armenians of
Nagorno-Karabakh are separatist forces.

Chairman of GNAT Mr. Bulent Arinc told about the program of his visit
to Baku, realized on the invitation of Chairman of the Milli Majlis
of Azerbaijan Murtuz Alaskarov, has emphasized, that his meeting with
the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has passed very fruitfully.
He has asked E. Mammadyarov to convey his gratitude to President
Ilham Aliyev, Chairman of Azerbaijan Parliament Murtuz Alaskarov for
rendered high attention and care.

At the meeting, also were focused the Azerbaijani-Turkish
inter-parliamentary links, held exchange of views on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, construction of the
oil and gas pipelines of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, the railroad line Baku-Tbilisi-Kars.

Aftershocks of Ukraine and Georgia are stirring up rallies in Central Asia.
By Fred Weir, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Democracy rising in ex-Soviet states
February 10, 2005

MOSCOW – The peaceful street revolts that recently brought democratic
change to Georgia and Ukraine could spawn copy-cat upheavals against
authoritarian regimes across the former Soviet Union, experts say.

Waving orange scarves and banners – the colors of Ukraine’s revolution
– dozens of Uzbeks demonstrated in the capital Tashkent last week
over the demolition of their homes to make way for border fencing.

According to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the protest
compelled the autocratic government of Islam Karimov, widely condemned
for human rights abuses, to pay compensation.

In Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, hundreds of pro-democracy activists
rallied on Saturday to demand that upcoming parliamentary elections
be free and fair.

>> From Kyrgyzstan on the Chinese border to Moldova, where Europe’s
only ruling Communist Party faces elections next month, opposition
parties are eagerly studying Georgia’s “Rose Revolution” and Ukraine’s
“Orange Revolution,” which led to the triumph of pro-democracy
forces. Opposition groups are even selecting symbols for their banners
when the moment arrives – tulips for the Kyrgyz opposition, grapes
for Moldova’s anticommunists.

“The recent events in Ukraine have made people everywhere understand
that taking to the streets gets the authorities’ attention,” says
Tatiana Poloskova, deputy director of the independent Institute of
Modern Diaspora, which studies Russian minorities in former Soviet
countries.

Georgian President Mikhael Saakashvili and newly inaugurated Ukrainian
President Viktor Yushchenko were clearly addressing their former
Soviet colleagues last month when they hailed their revolts as the
leading edge of “a new wave of liberation that will lead to the final
victory of freedom and democracy on the continent of Europe.”

The prospect has sent shudders through the Kremlin, still smarting from
the “loss” of pro-Moscow regimes in Georgia and Ukraine, and reeling
in the face of its own grass-roots revolt by pensioners protesting
cuts in social services. For Russia, where authoritarian methods have
been taking root under President Vladimir Putin (news – web sites),
the prospect of pro-democracy rebellions sweeping the former Soviet
Union seems to threaten the underpinnings of domestic stability. The
pro-Western bent of the new regimes in Ukraine and Georgia may also
threaten the economic ties Russia has built with post-Soviet regimes
from Armenia to Uzbekistan.

First in line could be Kyrgyzstan, where any official attempt
to rig parliamentary elections slated for Feb. 27 could trigger
Ukrainian popular action. Strongman Askar Akayev, who’s ruled the tiny
central Asian state for the past 15 years, has already faced street
demonstrations over a failed attempt to ban his chief opponent from
the parliamentary race. Mr. Akayev has pledged to step down in October,
and appears to be grooming his daughter, Bermet, to succeed him. After
a recent Moscow visit with Vladimir Putin, Akayev warned that if the
opposition takes to the streets, “it would lead to civil war.”

But some Russian experts see a “Tulip Revolution” in the near
future for Kyrgyzstan, which hosts both Russian and US military
bases. “Akayev is lost,” says Alexei Malashenko, an expert with the
Carnegie Center in Moscow. “The opposition is strong, well-organized,
and has international as well as domestic backing.”

The Kremlin may fear that political ferment in Kyrgyzstan could spread
to more important allies in central Asia. The long-time leader of
oil-rich Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has fixed elections
and changed the Constitution to extend his rule, last month dissolved
the leading opposition party after it sent a delegation to Ukraine
to study the Orange Revolution. He also moved to close down a local
institute funded by global financier George Soros, who has backed
pro-democracy movements in Ukraine and elsewhere.

In Uzbekistan, which also hosts a key US military base, President
Karimov, a former Soviet politburo member, has ruled with an iron fist
since the demise of the USSR. Karimov recently jeered publicly at those
“who are dying to see that the way the elites in Georgia and Ukraine
changed becomes a model to be emulated in other countries.” He warned
bluntly: “We have the necessary force for that.”

Some experts argue that, while velvet revolution may be possible in
semi-authoritarian Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, it is a very distant
prospect in Uzbekistan because democracy and civil society are barely
developed there. Last week’s protests in Tashkent, though based on
a narrow economic issue, hint that instability may lie just beneath
the regime’s tough and orderly surface.

Uzbekistan’s gas-rich neighbor, Turkmenistan, is run by a North
Korean-style dictatorship that permits no dissent of any kind. “In
absolutely authoritarian regimes like [Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan]
the threat of ‘Orange Revolution’ is just used by the leaders to
crack down harder,” says Masha Lipman, an expert with the Carnegie
Center in Moscow. “There is no chance for the opposition to actually
organize anything, much less a revolution.”

That paradox may help to explain why Georgians were able to rally
successfully against the lethargic regime of Eduard Shevardnadze, when
it attempted to rig the 2003 parliamentary polls, while protesters
in neighboring Azerbaijan were put down when the much more efficient
dictatorship of Gaidar Aliyev imposed the succession of his son,
Ilham, through fraudulent elections just a month earlier.

Ukrainians were able to successfully mobilize against vote-rigging late
last year in part because Ukraine had relatively free institutions,
including a parliament and Supreme Court that the president was not
able to control. In next-door Belarus, which US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice (news – web sites) has labeled “the last outpost
of tyranny in Europe,” dictator Alexander Lukashenko has crushed the
opposition and banished nongovernmental organizations, and looks set
to be handily reelected in showpiece elections later this year.

But an upsurge looks increasingly likely in ex-Soviet Moldova, where
Communist President Vladimir Voronin has lost Moscow support. He faces
a strong challenge in next month’s parliamentary elections from the
pro-Western Christian Democrats, who reportedly are sporting orange
scarves and flags in the capital.

“The Kremlin suddenly finds itself severely challenged to change its
strategies, both at home and in former Soviet countries,” says Sergei
Kazyonnov, an expert with the independent Institute for National
Security and Strategic Research in Moscow. “It can go on depending
on political manipulations and under-the-carpet deals with local
elites. But it is already becoming obvious that there are just too many
different realities here, and an unworkable multiplicity of carpets.”

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
Feb 4 2005

SPEAKER OF AZERBAIJAN PARLIAMENT INVITES HIS FRENCH COUNTERPART TO
VISIT AZERBAIJAN

APPROPRIATE LETTER OF INVITATION WAS PRESENTED TO THE FRENCH
AMBASSADOR IN BAKU
[February 04, 2005, 22:48:14]

Speaker of Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan Republic Murtuz Alaskarov on
February 4 has received ambassador of France in Azerbaijan Rolan
Blatman.

Noting high level of the relations between two countries, Mr.
Alaskarov said the heads of states have great role in this. After the
visit of the nationwide leader of Azerbaijan people Heydar Aliyev to
France in 1993, the negotiations he carried out there, the bilateral
relations acquired higher level. That visit of Azerbaijan President
has defined perspectives of Azerbaijani-French relations. Due to
this, the parliamentary links also develop successfully, the Speaker
said.

Then, Chairman of Milli Majlis updated on the Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He, in particular, noted that despite of
the Resolutions of the UN Security Council, the Council of Europe and
the demand of other international organizations, neither the said
structures nor the OSCE Minsk Group directly engaged in the problem
do not impose sharp sanction against the aggressor. We hope France,
as a co-chair of Minsk Group, will increase its efforts in this
direction, Mr. Alaskarov underlined.

Ambassador Rolan Blatman said his country adheres peaceful settlement
of the conflict. He had widely discussed the question in his recent
meeting with the president of Azerbaijan. We are interested in
all-round relations with Azerbaijan, he stressed. The diplomat also
informed that the French Cultural Center would open shortly in Baku.
At the same time, the parliamentary friendship groups of two
countries will hold a meeting in the capital of Azerbaijan. Speaker
of the French Parliament also wished to take part at the actions. In
mid-year, a meeting of the inter-governmental commission is expected
in Paris. In 2005, the Days of France will pass in Azerbaijan and the
Days of Azerbaijan – in France.

Speaker of Azerbaijan Parliament invited his French counterpart to
visit Azerbaijan and conveyed appropriate letter of invitation to the
Ambassador.

In the meeting, also were exchanged views on a number of questions of
mutual interest.

ZHVANIA’S DEATH CREATES VOID IN GEORGIAN REFORM TEAM

Eurasia Insight

EurasiaNet.org
2/03/05

By Elizabeth Owen

Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania’s untimely death deals a severe blow to
Georgia’s reform process. Political analysts have expressed concern that
the loss of Zhvania’s political and administrative skills will damage
the Georgian’s government’s cohesiveness and diminish its
policy-implementation ability.

Seeking to keep potential disruption to a minimum, President Mikheil
Saakashvili moved quickly to fill the political void, announcing
February 3 that he would assume Zhvania’s duties on an interim basis.
`I, as the President of Georgia, will assume the leadership of the
executive authorities,’ Saakashvili said.

`It is very important to maintain order and discipline in the country. I
want to warn everybody that all those who violate order and discipline
will be answerable before the law,’ Saakashvili continued. `We fully
control the situation, we are a strong state, we are a strong nation and
we will manage to resolve [our] problems.’

The heads of various ministries also attempted to project a sense of
stability, stressing on February 3 that the government was operating
normally. For example, State Minister for Economic Reforms Kakha
Bendukidze emphasized during a news conference that economic policy
would continue. `All the plans regarding the further liberalization of
the economy will be carried out,’ he said.

Georgian law gives Saakashvili seven days to name a new prime minister.
The nominated prime minister will then have ten days to assemble a new
cabinet, which will then be presented to parliament for approval.

Finding a suitable replacement will prove a major challenge for the
Saakashvili administration, observers say. `Zhvania was really running
the country and implementing policies and it’s very hard to find someone
who can be a political heavyweight and function in the same [manner],’
said Ghia Nodia, director of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy
and Development.

While Saakashvili brought charisma to the reform movement that swept
into power following the 2003 Rose Revolution, he relied heavily on
Zhvania to supply the administrative details. `I don’t think there will
be a change in policy because Saakashvili was still the main person who
defined policy,’ Nodia said. `But the quality of implementation is the
major concern in this case.’

The new prime minister, Nodia added, will not have the same political
clout that Zhvania had. `There will be a prime minister, but a much
politically weaker prime minister,’ Nodia said.

Legal and political expert David Usupashvili suggested that Saakashvili
had a special political relationship with Zhvania that will be virtually
impossible to duplicate. `The individual functions between the president
and the prime minister were in many ways the result of a political
agreement between these two politicians,’ said Usupashvili, who was one
of the critics of the 2004 revisions to the Georgian constitution that
amplified the president’s powers. `It will be very difficult for
Saakashvili to find a replacement who could fit in this model, which was
designed for two concrete politicians.’

Since Saakashvili’s administration came to power in January 2004, it has
pursued an ambitious program designed to erase Georgia’s chaotic
post-Soviet legacy. The government has aggressively pursued efforts to
reintegrate the country and root out corruption. At the same time, the
government has acted to change Georgia’s geopolitical course, breaking
away from Russia’s sphere of influence and seeking to join Western
economic and security structures.

Zhvania had been a high-profile figure in Georgia’s privatization
process, especially in the state’s sale of `strategic’ properties.
Outside observers had questioned the responsibility taken on by Zhvania,
but in an earlier interview with EurasiaNet, First Deputy Economy
Minister Natia Turnava described the prime minister’s role as `critical’
to the potential success of the privatization process. On January 31,
the prime minister announced the sale of the Georgian Ocean Shipping
Company to Armstrong Holdings Corp. for $161 million. The announcement
came one day after he had mistakenly named another company, the
British-Australian firm ASP Ship Management, as the buyer.

Zhvania’s also exerted considerable influence in Georgia’s longstanding
tussles with the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The
prime minister was widely seen in Georgia as heading a `party of peace,’
favoring a gradual reconciliation policy with the separatist
territories. In pursuing a go-slow approach, Zhvania had faced
opposition from cabinet `hawks,’ including recently named Defense
Minister Irakli Okruashvili, who, in his previous capacity as interior
minister, led Georgian troops into an ultimately unsuccessful foray into
South Ossetia in August 2004.

`He [Zhvania] spared no efforts to cease the Georgian aggression in the
summer of 2004,’ South Ossetian separatist leader Eduard Kokoiti said in
a press statement. `We hope that his death will not affect the process
of [peace] talks.’

Without Zhvania, noted Usupashvili, the `balancing act’ between
ministers who owed their political loyalties to Saakashvili and Zhvania
will be harder to maintain. That conflict most recently came to light in
December, when State Minister for European Integration Giorgi Baramidze,
a Zhvania protégé and former defense minister, publicly sparred with
Okruashvili, a Saakashvili protégé. Okruashvili recently replaced
Baramidze as defense minister amid an investigation of reported
corruption within the Defense Ministry.

`Zhvania’s group and Saakashvili’s group had some internal intrigues and
checks and balances,’ Usupashvili said. `I don’t think anyone can
replace Zhvania as the leader of Zhvania’s political group.’

Editor’s Note: Elizabeth Owen is EurasiaNet.org’s regional news
coordinator in Tbilisi.

Saakashvili Personally Assumes PM Duties

Civil Georgia (Tbilisi)
2005-02-03

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on February 3 that he will
assume the Prime Minister’s responsibilities in the wake of the death of
Zurab Zhvania early on Thursday.

`I, as the President of Georgia, will assume the leadership of the
executive authorities. I instruct the members of the government to
return to their work places and work in a usual regime. I, as the
Commander in Chief , instruct the law enforcement agencies and the army
to continue performing their functions,’ the President said after
visiting the newly built Holly Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi on February 3.

`It is very important to maintain order and discipline in the country. I
want to warn everybody that all those who violate order and discipline
will be answerable before the law. We fully control the situation, we
are a strong state, we are strong nation and we will manage to settle
the problems,’ President Saakashvili added.

ARKA News Agency
Feb 3 2005

RA Government to send a group of doctors in Indonesia

RA Foreign Minister presents condolences to Georgian people

RA President considers the role of Zurab Jvania in deepening of
century-long friendship between Armenia and Georgia invaluable

RA Prime Minister presents his condolences to Georgian Government on
the occasion of decease of Zurab Jvania

`Gender Equality in Labor. mass media’s Role’ seminar to be held in
Yerevan on Feb 8

Armenia one of leading nations in Eurasia, US Department of State

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian to leave for Equatorial
Guinea on February 20

*********************************************************************

RA GOVERNMENT TO SEND A GROUP OF DOCTORS IN INDONESIA
YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. RA Government will send a group of
doctors in Indonesia for provision of assistance to the population
suffered from disaster, RA Government press office told ARKA.
To organize the trip, RA Government provided 8 million AMD from its
reserve fund to Ministry of Healthcare.
Note earlier RA Government provided 25 million AMD for provision of
assistance to citizens of Sri-Lanka. ($1 – 473.16 AMD). L.D. –0 –

*********************************************************************

RA FOREIGN MINISTER PRESENTS CONDOLENCES TO GEORGIAN PEOPLE

YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
presented condolences to Georgian people on the occasion of decease
of Georgian PM Zurab Jvania, RA MFA told ARKA. `The news shocked
everyone, especially to consider that we had to meet with Jvania this
evening. I have no words to express the deepness of a loss’, Oskanian
stated. `During all his activity Jvanian expressed himself as
serious, responsible and reliable partner’, Oskanian said. L.D. –0 –

*********************************************************************

RA PRESIDENT CONSIDERS THE ROLE OF ZURAB JVANIA IN DEEPENING OF
CENTURY-LONG FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN ARMENIA AND GEORGIA INVALUABLE

YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharian presented
condolences to the President of Georgia Mihail Sahakashvili on the
occasion of decease of Georgian PM Zurab Jvania, President press
office told ARKA. The president said that the role of Zurab Jvania in
deepening of century-long friendship between Armenia and Georgia
invaluable. `Grieving with you, from the name of all Armenian people
and myself personally present our condolences to relatives and
friends of Jvania’, the telegram says. L.D. –0 –

*********************************************************************

RA PRIME MINISTER PRESENTS HIS CONDOLENCES TO GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT ON
THE OCCASION OF DECEASE OF ZURAB JVANIA

YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. RA Prime Minister Andranik Margarian
presented his condolences to Georgian Government on the occasion of
decease of Georgian PM Zurab Jvania, RA Government told ARKA. `In
this difficult moment, grieving with you, present our condolences to
relatives and friends of Jvania’, the telegram says. L.D. –0 –

*********************************************************************

`GENDER EQUALITY IN LABOR. MASS MEDIA’S ROLE’ SEMINAR TO BE HELD IN
YEREVAN ON FEB 8

YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. `Gender Equality in Labor. Mass Medias’
Role’ seminar will be held in Yerevan on Feb 8. As Armenian Labor and
Social Affairs Ministry told ARKA, the seminar is organized jointly
with World Labor Organization Eastern Europe and Central Asian
sub-regional office. T.M. -0–

*********************************************************************

ARMENIA ONE OF LEADING NATIONS IN EURASIA, US DEPARTMENT OF STATE

YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. Due its political and economic reforms
Armenia is one of the leading nations in Eurasia, as it is stated in
report `US Financial Aid to Armenia in 2004′ published by Europe and
Eurasia Bureau of the US Department of State. The report reminds that
Armenia was chosen as a country that will be provided grants in the
frames of Millennium Challenges program. In the last year the US
Government provided to Armenia financial aid in the amount of USD
89.7 mln. `Despite this and the economic growth ordinary citizens
still need more incomes’, the report mentions. T.M. -0–

*********************************************************************

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER VARDAN OSKANIAN TO LEAVE FOR EQUATORIAL
GUINEA ON FEBRUARY 20

YEREVAN, February 3. /ARKA/. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian will leave for Equatorial Guinea for clarifying
circumstances of case of related to the charged Armenian pilots
accused in coup d’etat in that country, as Armenian Foreign Ministry
Press and Information Department told ARKA.
To remind that on November 26, 2004 the court of Malabo, the capital
of Equatorial Guinea sentenced the Armenian pilots accused of coup
d’etat to imprisonment of 14 to 24 years.
Six Armenian pilots on the base of a business agreement signed
between the KAL German Company have stayed in the capital of
Equatorial Guinea- Malabo since January 2004 for the exploitation of
AN-12 airplane, registered in Armenia. On March 7, in the evening the
Armenian pilots as well as the representative of the above mentioned
German organization were arrested in Malabo. The authorities of the
Equatorial Guinea accused the Armenian pilots in organizing an
attempt of coup d’etat as mercenaries in the country. They are also
accused of espionage. T.M. -0–

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER EXPRESSES CAREFUL OPTIMISM IN CONNECTION WITH
RESOLUTION OF KARABAKH CONFLICT

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2. ARMINFO. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
considers that there are all the grounds for a careful optimism in
connection with settlement of the Karabakh conflict, especially taking
into account the reactivated bilateral meetings of the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers. Minister Lavrov made this statement
talking to journalists Tuesday on his arrival in Baku.

<We shall contribute to the parties reaching an agreement, > Lavrov
said. <We proceed from the fact that the mediators operating within
the framework of OSCE Minsk Group are in constant contact with the
parties, Azerbaijan and Armenia,> he added. The minister noted that he
intended to discuss the whole complex of bilateral relations in Baku
and the international agenda, in particular “the reforms at CIS.”

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 29 2005

AMBASSADORS OF GERMANY AND GREECE PRESENT COPY OF THEIR CREDENTIALS
TO FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN
[January 29, 2005, 17:53:36]

Minister of foreign affairs of the Azerbaijan Republic Elmar
Mammadyarov on January 28 has met the newly appointed ambassadors of
the Federative Republic of Germany and Greece to the country Detlet
Lingeman and Themistokles Dimidis, who presented copy of their
credentials.

Congratulating the new ambassadors, the Minister expressed hope that
they would make every effort to develop the relations between
Azerbaijan and their countries.

Expressing pleasure of his appointment as ambassador to Azerbaijan,
ambassador Detlet Lingeman said he would do hi best to develop the
German-Azerbaijani relations.

Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan updated the German diplomat on
socio-political situation in the country, also informed on occupation
of 20 percent of lands of the country by the Armenian armed forces,
on illegal settlement of population in the occupied territories,
which contradicts requirement of the international Geneva Convention.
Speaking of Azerbaijan’s integration to the Euro-Atlantic structures,
Mr. Mammadyarov said occupation of the territories is a great
obstacle on this way.

Ambassador Themistokles Dimidis said to do most effective to serve
the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Greece.

Speaking of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Greece, in particular,
in the energy sphere, Minister Mammadyarov said this cooperation is
of great importance from the point of view of strategic-geographic
position of both countries.

In the meeting, also were exchanged views on a number of issues of
mutual interest.