Author: Dabaghian Diana

ARMENIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY WON’T PARTICIPATE IN COUNCIL OF ELDERS ELECTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.03.2009 18:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yerevan needs a Mayor capable of returning true face
to the city, Armenian Democratic Party Leader Aram Sargsyan told a
news conference. "We gave close consideration to the Draft Law on Local
Government in Yerevan and submitted our remarks to RA Parliament. Yet
legislative authorities chose to oversee our suggestions. Under
imperfect legislation in this particular sphere, ADP thought it best
to refrain from participation in Mayoral elections."

"ADP will not cast votes if unsatisfied with the candidates’ election
programs. Nominated parties spend significant funds on election
campaigns, but time will come when election program will matter more,"
Aram Sargsyan emphasized.

ADP Leader refused to comment on Heritage decision to recall their
participation in Mayoral elections, deeming public discussion of
other parties’ steps politically incorrect.

President: Armenian authorities have no right to blame global crisis
for own faults

YEREVAN, March 23. /ARKA/. Armenian authorities have no right to blame
the global crisis for own mistakes and faults, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan said on Friday while discussing the crisis with
political parties’ leaders.

`The crisis is not only the government’s problem. Crisis is our common
problem. Crisis is not our fault. It is not an Armenian phenomenon. If
we don’t resist the crisis with joint efforts, the crisis will strike
hard at the whole community. It is not reasonable to leave the
government alone with this problem’, the president said.

He said that there is no remedy for that.

Sargsyan said that this is his second meeting with political
activists.

At his first meeting, they discussed ways to settle Karabakh problem.

The president said that the global crisis has affected all countries,
and `Armenia and its economy are not isolated islands, and the crisis
impacts us as well’.

He stressed the importance of such meetings saying that the discussion
can produce particular results.

The head of state said that developed countries resorted to
extraordinary measures, which were considered unacceptable before the
crisis.

`Unfortunately, nobody has invented a remedy. It is clear that things
force Armenian Government to take extraordinary steps. The premier and
member of the Government are constantly informing the community about
that’, he said adding that Armenians are good at finding unusual
solutions to unusual problems.

Sargsyan thinks that time has come to use creative capacity of the nation.
M.V.-0—

ORINATS YERKIR PARTY NOMINATES 101 CANDIDATES FOR YEREVAN MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF ELDERS

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.03.2009 21:02 GMT+04:00

Orinats Yerkir party has nominated 101 candidates for the post of
Mayor of Yerevan and the Council of Elders.

The slate topped by Heghine Bisharyan will be submitted to the Central
Election Committee on March 22.

"Our party is the winner in all elections," the party’s spokesperson
Susanna Abrahamyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

She also informed that the election program and the party’s slogans
will be made public in the near future.

RA GOVERNMENT SHOULD STRENGTHEN COUNTRY’S IMMUNITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.03.2009 21:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During RA Presidential Conference attended by
RA Political Parties Leaders, Tigran Sarsyan stated, that anti
crisis program has developed 3 primary directions aimed at social
package support. "Social program implementation will help decrease
difficulties that disadvantaged representatives of our society have to
face. First of all we need to control price raise for goods of first
necessity. This can help control the situation in other spheres too."

The Armenian Government has to strengthen country’s immunity, which
requires the development of country’s infrastructure and promotion of
small and medium-size business. We have to work to decrease shadow
economy, strengthen tax system and provide transparency of major
business. The government has to lend a helping hand to organizations
who suffered under world financial crisis and need support," Tigrn
Sargsyan stated.

UNTFHS PROJECT TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN ARMENIA

A1+
04:13 pm | March 20, 2009

Economy

With the support of the Government of Japan and the United Nations
Trust Fund for Human Security in New York, assistance totalling USD
2,484,900.00 has been extended to the United Nations Agencies in
Armenia i.e. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
– the lead co-ordination agency of the project, United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Industrial
Development Organisation (UNIDO) for the realisation of ‘Sustainable
Livelihood for Socially Vulnerable Refugees, Internally Displaced
and Local Families’ project in Armenia.

The objective of the above project, which was initiated and submitted
to UNTFHS for funding by UNHCR, is to assist, through a UN system
wide effort, vulnerable families in the identified communities in
Gegharkunik and Kotayk marzes in reducing poverty by providing social
housing, increasing their self-sustainability through income generation
by supporting farming activities and start-up businesses and access to
energy services. The UNTFHS project will contribute to the enhancing
of living conditions, accessibility of quality health care services,
improving educational opportunities as well as building the capacity
of direct beneficiaries and self-government bodies.

As the financial agreements of the project have already been signed
with all UNTFHS project participating Agencies, the implementation of
this project will start on 1 April 2009 to be completed in two years
to secure the livelihoods and dignity in the lives of vulnerable
communities in Armenia – crucial, particularly in the current
financial crisis.

Classical Music: The Compact Collection

The Independent – United Kingdom
Jul 26, 2004

Rob Cowan

POISED SOMEWHERE along the misty outskirts of 20th-century music is
Karol Szymanowski, gentle lone wolf, dreamer and aesthete, someone who
could conjure chords of transcendent beauty and suspend radiant
melodies above them. A brand new four-disc set of Szymanowski’s
Complete Songs for Voice and Piano (Channel Classics CCS 19398 *****o)
takes us from sombre early pieces inspired by German Romanticism to
various songs from texts by the Persian poet Hafiz and Szymanowski’s
Polish compatriots.

Spending just a minute or two in the hypnotic company of, say, “The
Song of the Wave” from the six Songs of the Fairy Princess (CD 4,
track 5), with its darkly luminous harmonies, its echoes of Debussy
and aromatic hints of the East, should be enough to convert anyone. Or
the three sombre lullabies, where listening is more like eavesdropping
on a profoundly private brand of reverie. Soprano Iwona Sobotka holds
us enthralled, just as tenor Piotr Beczala, soprano Juliana Gondek and
mezzo Urszula Kryger had done on the first three discs. And yet so
often the multi-shaded pianistic backdrops hold the most treasurable
surprises, which is why pianist Reinild Mees is surely the real star
of the show.

In the case of a programme of English Folk Songs arranged by Benjamin
Britten (476 1973 *****o), newly reissued as part of Decca’s “The
British Music Collection”, the singer-pianist partnership is
symbiotic, Peter Pears’ every phrase either mirrored or anticipated by
the composer-arranger. These are miracles of subtle recreation,
whether among the dark spectres that accompany “The Last Rose of
Summer” or the lofty nostalgia of “Tom Bowling”. The recordings date
from 1959 and 1961, which surprised me, given that a number of the
tracks sound suspiciously like mono, but the overall quality is very
good and the performances are truly unforgettable.

Less familiar than Pears and Britten, but equally absorbing, is a
brand new budget-price four-disc collection of lieder, songs, arias
and duets featuring the legendary Armenian mezzo-soprano Zara
Dolukhanova (Guild GHCD 2281/4 *****o), who premiered (alongside
soprano Nina Dorliac) Shostakovich’s “From Jewish Folk Poetry”. The
voice has a full-bodied, sensuous quality, especially suited to
Schumann and Strauss (sung in Russian) and some notably dramatic
renditions of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

There’s agile Mozart with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra under Barshai,
a whole host of rarities and, perhaps most memorable of all, a
recording of Ravel’s “Kaddish”, performed in biblical Aramaic and sung
with such burning intensity that it sounds like spontaneous
prayer. Purchase should be mandatory for that one track alone, but
there are plenty of others to savour alongside it, not least a moving
sequence of “arie antiche”. Good transfers, and the sort of
comprehensive annotation that helps bring these great singers to life.

Though I’d hazard a guess that the biggest seller among new vocal
issues and reissues will be Volume 4 of Naxos’s Jussi Bjorling
Collection (8.110788 *****9), and not just because of Bjorling’s
trumpeting tenor. Alongside arias by Gounod, Massenet, Donizetti,
Puccini, Mascagni and others is a series of duets with baritone Robert
Merrill which includes one of the most popular operatic recordings of
all time, justly so given the perfect matching of timbres in “Au fond
du temple saint” from Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers. The transfer is
slightly hard, but at a fiver only the most fastidious sound buffs are
likely to complain.

GEMAYEL: EITHER AGREEMENT WITH TASHNAG OR TWO CLOSED LISTS

ils.aspx?id=78278&language=en
19/03/2009

The head of the Phalange party former President Amin Gemayel said on
Thursday that communication with the Tashnag party had not come to a
halt and should increase in the coming days, noting that the electoral
lists for the upcoming parliamentary elections needed to be disclosed.

Speaking to the Voice of Lebanon, Gemayel said that the electoral
battle in the Metn district could be an ordinary one if the Tashnag
took a clear position, finding strange that the Armenian party backs
only one candidate from an electoral list.

The former President said that things should become clearer within
days but he rejected the possibility of keeping the Armenian seat
vacant. "Either we hold an agreement with the Tashnag party or we’ll
resort to two complete lists," he said.

Gemayel’s new ally, MP Michel Murr, wants to keep the Armenian seat
vacant to secure the votes of the Tashnag party. The Armenian party
however, promised Murr to vote solely for him, but not for the entire
list as Tashnag is allied to Aoun’s FPM.

NZHK REJECTS INVITATION

A1+
04:50 pm | March 18, 2009

Politics

The New Times Party (NZhK) has rejected Serzh Sargsyan’s invitation
to a March 20 discussion on the global financial-economic crisis
which features the leaders of political parties.

The NZhK letter welcomes a dialogue between the parties for the
sake of Armenia’s future prosperity and well-being. "We think that
discussions between political forces are effective if they are held
in narrower circles."

But considering the importance of the raised issues, we do not
anticipate a thorough and effective discussion with the participation
of more than 50 party leaders. Under the given circumstances, the
NZhK finds it expedient to abstain from such imitative discussions,"
says the NZhK letter.

U.S. MAY NEED TURKEY WHILE WITHDRAWING TROOPS FROM IRAQ: TURKISH FM

Xinhua General News Service
March 16, 2009 Monday 12:25 PM EST
China

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Monday that the United
States earlier told Turkey that it might need Turkey in general sense
while withdrawing troops from Iraq, the semi-official Anatolia news
agency reported.

Babacan said the United States has not yet made plans about the number
of soldiers and the route it would withdraw the troops, adding that it
would inform Turkey about its plans and Turkey would make assessments
about it.

"Iraqi people supports withdrawal of the U.S. soldiers and they want
this to take place soon," Babacan said and noted that Iraq had given
a signal to Turkey to assist this.

He said Turkey would of course consider its own conditions on the
matter.

Commenting on scheduled visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Turkey
next month, Babacan said this was a result of the positive impact of
Turkey’s influence both in the region and in the world.

About the agenda of the meeting with Obama, Babacan said
Afghanistan-Pakistan, developments in the Middle East, Iran, the
Caucasus, Balkans, Cyprus, Armenia, as well as Iraq would be discussed
during the talks.

In March 2003, Turkish parliament rejected to allow U.S. troops to
invade Iraq from Turkish territory.

TURKEY DISREGARDS MINORITY RIGHTS IN SCHOOLS
By Ayla Jean Yackley

International Herald Tribune
March 16 2009
France

Nearly half of the children of internally displaced ethnic Kurds
in Turkey are unable to attend school and other minorities face
institutional discrimination in education, a report said on Monday.

Nurcan Kaya, author of the report by Minority Rights Group
International, said a failure to provide equal access to education
for children from non-Turkish backgrounds could hamper the country’s
bid to join the European Union, which has called on Turkey to expand
cultural rights for its ethnic minorities.

"The discrepancy between EU standards on education for minorities
and those in Turkey will ultimately affect Turkey’s efforts to join
the EU," Kaya said at a news conference.

"The EU should give this issue greater priority during Turkey’s
accession process," she said.

Turkey only recognises Greeks, Armenians and Jews as minorities under
a treaty that ended World War One and doesn’t afford special rights
to other ethnic or religious groups, including Kurds, who make up
about 20 percent of the population, Roma, Syriac Christians, Alevi
Muslims and others.

Millions of Kurds over the last three decades have left the countryside
in southeast Turkey for urban centres to find work and escape fighting
between the army and Kurdish separatists.

Forty-eight percent of these families questioned said they were unable
to send their children to school after moving, citing poverty as the
main obstacle, according to the London-based NGO’s report, which was
funded by the EU.

Literacy rates are 73 percent in the mainly Kurdish southeast,
compared to 87 percent in the country’s more affluent west, the report
said. Only 60 percent of women are able to read in the Kurdish region,
it also said.

Turkey has eased restrictions on the Kurdish language, which was
completely banned until 1991, and language courses are now available
at a handful of universities.

Kurdish children, as well as other ethnic groups, who attend state
school are unable to study their mother tongue, the report concluded.

Officially recognised minorities operate their own schools and are
able to teach some classes in Greek or Armenian, but are given as
little as $1 per student annually in financial assistance from the
government, said Garo Paylan of the Armenian Foundation Schools at
the news conference.

Minority schools are unable to find properly trained teachers and
updated textbooks, he said. A Turkish assistant principal employed
by the Education Ministry is the main authority at the schools.

Religious education that teaches the Sunni Hanafi creed of Islam
remains mandatory in state schools and non-adherents can only opt
out of classes if they disclose their faith, which violates Turkey’s
secular constitution, the report said.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that religion
classes in Turkey’s state schools violate pluralism in a case brought
by an Alevi father.