Author: Emil Lazarian

Art Newspaper, UK
June 8 2004

Unknotting a tangled tale of towels

Scientific tests have established that an icon, revered as an imprint
of Christ’s face, is 13th century

By Martin Bailey

Tests on a painting, called the Mandylion, revered as a miraculous
imprinted image of Christ, have revealed it to have been made in
the 13th century. There are several early versions of the image,
but the one in Genoa is the first to have been subjected to a
thorough scientific examination. The results are being presented at
an exhibition (until 18 July) in the city’s Museo Diocesano as part
of the European Capital of Culture celebrations. Appropriately, the
show is presented as a journey, both spiritual and scientific—since
the venerated icon has links with Syria, Turkey, Sinai and Armenia.

The Mandylion is traditionally believed to be a representation of the
face of Jesus miraculously transferred to a towel (from the Arabic
word mandil, “small cloth”), but is not to be confused with the cloth,
which also bears His likeness, with which Veronica wiped Christ’s
face as He went to Calvary.

The first mention of the existence of the Mandylion comes from the
sixth century. In 944 it was brought from Edessa to Constantinople by
emperor Constantine VII. The imperial city lost the Mandylion in the
crusader conquest of 1204, when it was sold to the French and taken
to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Other versions existed from early
on in Rome and Genoa.

The provenance of the Genoa Mandylion can be traced back to the
1370s, when Byzantine emperor John V presented it to Leonardo Montaldo,
Captain of the Genoese colony on the Bosphorus and later Doge of
Genoa. On Montaldo’s death in 1384, he bequeathed his Mandylion to the
Armenian monastery attached to the Church of San Bartolomeo in Genoa,
where it has remained for over 600 years.

The church recently agreed to a small sample of wood being removed
from the poplar panel, for carbon dating at the University of Lecce.
The results show that there is a 90% probability that the panel on
which the painted linen image is fixed dates from between 1240-90.

Other objects associated with the Genoa Mandylion were also examined.
Most important is the magnificent gilded silver frame, which was made
in Constantinople in the mid-14th century. Enclosing the original frame
are two later cases made in Italy, one in 1601 and the other in 1702.

The back of the Genoa Mandylion is covered by a fine piece of
10th-century Syrian silk. The fact that the original Mandylion arrived
in Constantinople in 944 has led exhibition co-curator Colette Dufour
to suggest that this silk could have once formed a covering for the
original icon.

The Sinai connection Also temporarily on show in Genoa are a
pair of diptych panels from the Greek Orthodox monastery of St
Catherine’s, which have left Sinai for the first time in over 1,000
years. Art-historical detective work has proved that these must
originally have been wings for another Mandylion.

The upper-right image on the diptych depicts King Abgar receiving
the imprinted towel of Christ. Abgar is given the facial features of
Constantine VII, who brought the Mandylion from Edessa in 944. The
other wing shows the Apostle Thaddeus, whom Christ had sent to
establish the church in Edessa. The wings are 28 centimetres high,
the same as the Genoa Mandylion, which is the clinching evidence that
they were created for a triptych with the face of Christ.

The Sinai wings have been dated on stylistic grounds to the second-half
of the 10th century and were probably painted at St Catherine’s. It is
therefore now being suggested that a copy of the Mandylion was given
by Constantine VII to the monastery very soon after the original
had reached him in 944, with the wings being created as protective
shutters for this precious gift. A photographic reconstruction of the
“Mandylion Triptych” has never been published, and appears in The
Art Newspaper for the first time.

The mystery is what happened to the lost Sinai central panel of the
Mandylion. As a small object, it was vulnerable to theft, but what is
curious is that the wings were separated from it and survive. This
has led exhibition co-curator Professor Gerhard Wolf to propose
that the Sinai Mandylion “may have been returned to the emperor in
Constantinople after the original was seized by Crusaders in 1204”.

Historical background

Legend has it that King Abgar of Edessa, who reigned during the
time of Jesus, was ill, and believed that an image of the Saviour
would cure him. He sent an emissary to Jerusalem to paint Christ’s
portrait. Instead Jesus took a towel and put it to his face, which was
brought back to Edessa, in ancient Syria (Sanliurfa in present-day
Turkey). The Sainte-Chapelle version was looted during the French
Revolution and probably destroyed.

Another Mandylion was taken to Rome and by 1587 it was in the Convent
of the Poor Clares at San Silvestro in Capite. In 1870, it passed
to the Vatican. It is currently in the “St Peter and the Vatican”
exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art (until 6 September). The
US catalogue accepts the Vatican dating, ascribing it to the third
to fifth centuries, but the entry reveals considerable uncertainty.
However, Professor Wolf believes that the Vatican icon dates from
the same period as Genoa’s, and is also 13th century.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A EUROPEAN COURT TO HEAR A1+ CASE

ArmenPress
June 8 2004

YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS: Mesrop Movsesian, the president of A1+
television, forced off the air in 2002, told a news conference today
that the European Human Rights Court has decided to start hearing
of the case, filed by the television against the National Committee
on Radio and Television that granted the frequency used by A1+ to
another company after holding a tender.

A1+ first sent its suit against the Commission to the European
Court in 2002 October, protesting against, as it said “the illegal
decision that took away the 37 decimeter frequency and violating the
company’s rights.” The complete package of documents was sent in 2003
January. Tigran Yesayan, the president of the International Union of
Armenian lawyers, told the same press conference that the European
Court has already notified the Armenian government about its decision
and asked also it to provide its answers to four question as why the
Court should not hear the suit.

Yesayan said it is for the time being difficult to say whether the
government could prove that the rights of the television were not
breached. He said the deadline for the government to present its
arguments is 2004 September 28.

This will be followed by open hearings of the case, and a
representative of the television will also participate in them.
Yesayan assumed that the Court may propose a compromise ruling to
the sides, but added that if it is accepted by both parties, its
details will not be disclosed. “Even if the company wins the case,
it will not be given a frequency, as the television’s complaint des
not contain such a demand, the compensation will be of material and
moral character,’ he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NAGORNO KARABAKH PRESIDENT FLEW TO PARIS

PanArmenian News
June 8 2004

STEPANAKERT, 08.06.04. Nagorno Karabakh President Arkadi Ghukasian
flew to Paris today for the participation in the measures dedicated
to the 10-th anniversary of establishment of the cease-fire regime
at the territory of the Karabakh conflict. As reported in the press
office of NKR`s President, the measures are arranged on the initiative
of the Armenian Union of France `In Defense of Karabakh` and with the
assistance of the Coordination Committee of the Armenian Organizations
of France. During the visit Arkadi Ghukasian will visit Marseilles and
Nicå. NKR leader is as well expected to meet with French co-chair of
the OSCE Minsk Group Anri Jakolen. Meetings with the representatives
of the Armenian Diaspora are also scheduled.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Japan to invest in Yerevan power plant

Interfax
June 8 2004

Yerevan. (Interfax) – The Japanese government plans to invest $4.5
million in the construction of a thermal power plant in Yerevan with a
capacity of 1.5 megawatts based on a waste incineration plant, Armenian
Natural Resource Minister Vardan Aivazyan told journalists on Monday.

He said that the ministry has approved the construction of the plant
and thermal power plant at the Nurabshen dump, which covers an area
of over 60 hectares. Talks are currently underway between a potential
subcontractor for the project – Japan’s Shimizu – and the Yerevan
Mayor’s Office.

Aivazyan said that the project would involve the use of up to 800 –
900 cubic meters of rubbish per day to produce methane to be used in
electricity production.

The minister said that recently Armenia set an output tariff for
electricity produced from burning biogas of $0.08 per 1 kWh. The
investor is happy with this tariff.

He said that the talks should be completed by September 10, after
which construction should begin.

Diana Arutyunyan, the national coordinator of the project, told
Interfax that the Japanese state company New Energy and Industrial
Technology Organization plans to finance the project.

She said that Shimizu has already completed the first stage of work on
an audit and preparation of a feasibility study. She also said that
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is interested
in this project.

Electricity production in Armenia fell 0.29% to 5.5 billion kWh
in 2003.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azer Tag, Azerbiajan State Info Agency
June 7 2004

INTERVENTION IN RADIO SPACE OF OUR COUNTRY STOPPED
[June 07, 2004, 15:53:49]

Broadcasting of the tele-channels of Iran and Armenia in the border
areas of Azerbaijan is one of the problems causing concern of the
society.

As Minister of Communications and information technologies Ali Abbasov
informed the correspondent of AzerTAj, our country is a member of
the International Telecommunication Association. Members of the said
Association should observe the established legal rules. According to
these rules, television and radio channels of the frontier countries,
depending on relief, can be broadcast in territory of the next state
on distance almost 300 kilometers. However, it should be carried out
by regulation of channels between the countries. The Iranian TV channel
“Seger-2” possesses very powerful transmitting system. Therefore, airs
programs of this channel are possible to look sometimes even in Hovsan,
a settlement of Baku. For solution of the mentioned problem in the
corresponding zone a new transmitter was installed as a result of which
the radius of broadcasting of this channel was considerably reduced.

According to minister, for the full termination of broadcasting were
singed two protocols with the Iranian officials. According to the
protocols, the neighbors should bring corresponding technical changes
to the transmitter of the mentioned channel.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA’S FOREIGN MILITARY POLICY BASED ON COMPLEMENTARITY, SENIOR OFFICER SAYS

ArmenPress
June 7 2004

YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS: A senior army officer told reporters last
weekend that the army is fully prepared to accept the first conscripts,
granted the right to alternative military service. Lieutenant Colonel
Sedrak Sedrakian, the chief of the legal department at the defense
ministry, said all relevant infrastructures will be ready on July 1.

He said the major task faced now by the defense ministry is to ensure
a full application of the Law on Alternative Military Service. He
said the locations where the alternative conscripts will serve, the
design of their special uniforms will be submitted soon to government’s
approval. The army officer said everything must be done to organize
alternative military service in a way that not violate the conscripts’
rights concurrently avoiding jeopardizing the national security of
the country.

Sedrakian also said some 120 million Drams were collected from
Armenian citizens who dodged mandatory military service escaping
from Armenia in early nineties. Under the law, that came into effect
on March 1, such citizens who have reached the age of 27 can avoid
criminal responsibility after coming back to Armenia by paying around
$3,500. He said a special inter-agency commission founded to consider
such application can consider some 30 applications a day

In a related development, Major-General Mikael Melkonian, the head of
a defense ministry department for external relations and cooperation,
reiterated that Armenia’s foreign military policy is based on what
is known as “complementarity.” Speaking at special discussions at the
American University of Armenia on the existing problems in the Armenian
armed forces, the General said the major points of Armenian military
policy is to keep the military and strategic balance, constructive
cooperation will all interested forces and building the security
environment in the region.

He pointed to Armenia’s allied partnership with Russia and its
membership to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which he
said is the main security guarantee of Armenia and also to Armenia’s
close cooperation with NATO within the frameworks of the latter’s
Partnership for Peace program, underlying the presence of an Armenian
peace-keeping platoon in Kosovo. “Unlike some years ago when Armenia’s
participation in Partnership for Peace program was limited to attending
several training courses, now we are moving towards close practical
exercises,” he said.

Platform souls: New plans for King’s Cross in London show the massive scale of the venture

The Guardian (London)
June 7, 2004

Platform souls: New plans for King’s Cross in London show the massive
scale of the venture. And the smart money – including that of New
York art tycoon Larry Gagosian – is already moving in. By Jonathan
Glancey

The hype surrounding the opening of the Gagosian Gallery in King’s
Cross, London, has been so great and the plaudits have been so
glittering that I expected to find something very special indeed.
Not, perhaps, a riposte to the Bilbao Guggenheim by Frank Gehry but a
landmark building; an artistic adventure.

The Gagosian Gallery proves to be a modest creation, housed in a
former garage in Britannia Street, a rats’ alley smelling of diesel
and urine, scuttling across the Metropolitan and Circle underground
lines as they rattle between Farringdon and King’s Cross-St Pancras.
Behind the gaunt facade, Larry Gagosian’s architects, Caruso St John,
best known for their New Art Gallery, in Walsall, which opened in
2000, have opened up bright, cavernous, concrete-floored, top-lit
white spaces. These are particularly refined white spaces; they have
something of a religious air about them, not least because on a
weekday afternoon this private gallery is as quiet as an abandoned
city church. A security guard sits like a piece of isolated artwork
by the locked door, while bright young things potter about at a vast
reception desk faced with important catalogues. A solitary, studious
looking fellow surveys the brown and white Cy Twombly abstracts,
which hang from the spotless white walls with a degree of respect
owed to icons and statues elsewhere.

None of this is a criticism of this new London art space, which is
one of the best of its kind since Charles Saatchi’s original gallery
in St John’s Wood, designed by the late Max Gordon. Caruso St John
are among our most thoughtful architects, as careful with the process
of building as they are with design. And, yet, for all its graceful
substance, the gallery has something of a temporary air about it.
Should the top end of the art market take a tumble between now and
the completion of the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras in 2007, it
would make a particularly fine restaurant, office or nightclub.

The area will certainly want these as its redevelopment gathers pace
over the next five years. Seedy for decades, King’s Cross is
fast-becoming a blue-chip investment for property developers. Quite
how the promethean building works promised here will pan out is
anyone’s guess. For every impressive new civil engineering
achievement, there will be routine chain stores; for every art
gallery, a fast-food joint. Expect, in time-honoured English
tradition, a mix of the sublime and the banal: the Gormenghast glory
of St Pancras raised to fresh, pinnacled heights as Eurostar trains
snake in and out on their three-mile-a-minute race to and from Paris
with its cafes, restaurants, shops and art galleries. Penny-plain
King’s Cross station stripped of 1970s tat. Both stations are
attended by millions of square feet of gleaming new offices, some
1,800 flats, dozens of shops, washed and brushed public spaces, three
new footbridges over the Regent’s Canal, restored historic buildings
and, so the developers say, more art galleries.

This leviathan plan, announced last week, for the 67-acre area north
of the Gagosian Gallery, has been prepared by a property consortium
comprising Argent St George, Exel, London and Continental Railways.
Allies and Morrison, immaculate Moderns, and Demetri Porphyrios, the
most convincing of the Prince of Wales’s school of classicists, have
been appointed architects in charge of a development that, in scale
at least, matches the heroic urban projects that shaped Victorian
London. The £2bn project will take at least 15 years to complete. It
may yet be rejected by the mayor of London, who will surely find its
tallest 19-storey towers too modest and its plan not sufficiently
dedicated to the concerns of big business. It may yet be called in
for public inquiry by the government, and either held up, heavily
edited or abandoned while lawyers rack up prodigious fees.

Whatever the process – the rise and fall of commercial and
professional reputations, the jaw-dropping fees, the performance
bonuses, pension top-ups, the gongs awarded and brown envelopes
exchanged – King’s Cross will surely be redeveloped on a titanic
scale within the next 10 and 20 years. The dodgy young men,
working-class street-walkers and middle-class kerb-crawlers will move
on, along with the purveyors of kebabs, tattoos and grubby mags.
Spick and span corporate offices, big-brand shops, chain cafes and
relentless street furniture interspersed with well-meant public art
will take their place.

Architects of the calibre of Allies and Morrison and Demetri
Porphyrios will do their best to raise the standards of St Pancras
but they cannot hope to control the quality of the tenants who will
flock here in coming years. There will be something like 30,000 new
jobs here, while millions of passengers travelling to and from London
and the Continent, and looking for diversion, will mill around King’s
Cross. A committed few might waft down New Britannia Street to pick
up a canvas by Cy Twombly or a pickled lamb by Damien Hirst.

Gagosian, however, ought to know what most people will want. This
sharp, silver-haired Armenian-American, nicknamed “Go-Go”, began
making money in Santa Monica in the 1970s. “I would buy prints for $
2-$ 3, put them in aluminium frames and sell them for $ 15,” says the
Donald Trump of the art world. If Gagosian likes art, he likes
nothing better than closing deals. He opened a small gallery behind
Regent Street a few years ago, also a conversion by Caruso St John,
before homing in on King’s Cross, which offers an optimum deal: a
place to show big, headline-stealing artworks – tens of tons of Serra
– in a handsome setting in the sort of grubby street that makes the
art world trill with excitement, while making a quiet future killing
on the property market.

Gagosian likes art, and knows that this, with all its high society
connections, brings kudos, glamour and outlandishly big bucks. Should
you happen to be a wheeler-dealer who builds a fashionable gallery
showing fashionable artists in one of the most fashionable
up-and-coming parts of London, how can you possibly go wrong?

Gagosian’s gung-ho, yet outwardly, highly refined, venture into the
London art world and King’s Cross is, perhaps, to be preferred to the
run-of-the-mill development that could take place here if we fail to
keep a sharp eye on the area and the hugely ambitious “masterplans”
dreamed up by one developer after the other over the past 15 years.
No one should doubt that the real artwork here is the arrival of the
high-speed Eurostar line. This, like the Midland Railway’s grand
Gothic entry into St Pancras some 140 years ago, will change the face
of the surrounding area, including Britannia Street, for ever.

guardian.co.uk/glancey

Graceful substance . . . the new Gagosian Gallery. Below, the
interior, with Rachel Whiteread’s Ghost. Below right, a model of the
planned King’s Cross redevelopment

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 7, 2004, Monday

ARMENIA: DEFENSE EXPENSES INCREASE

Armenia plans to increase the defense budget in 2005. This statement
was made by Serj Sargsyan, Defense Minister and Secretary of the
Security Council, after the end of a hearing in the parliament. This
year Armenia’s defense expenses amount to around $85 million. Serj
Sargsyan noted that the government intends to increase servicemen’s
money allowances and rearm the Armed Forces.

Source: Krasnaya Zvezda, June 3, 2004, p. 3

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Baku’s Building Boom Reveals Grave Inequity
By Chloe Arnold

Moscow Times
June 8 2004

BAKU, Azerbaijan — If you can judge a country’s economy by the amount
of construction work going on, Azerbaijan is booming. You can’t move
in the capital, Baku, for all the construction sites, towering cranes
and wobbly trucks stacked high with joists and scaffolding.

>>From my bedroom window I can see the empty shells of at least half
a dozen high-rise blocks. With money flooding in from oil sales —
Azerbaijan backs onto the Caspian Sea, which is believed to hold
the world’s third largest-reserves — the race is on to build luxury
apartments for all the newcomers setting up shop here.

But it isn’t just foreigners they are catering to. The number of
Azeris with cash to throw around is on the rise, too. When I first
arrived in Baku, you could get to anywhere in the center of town
within 10 minutes.

Today the roads are so clogged with New Azeris driving shiny black
Mercs or executive jeeps, you’re hard-pressed to make it in less than
half an hour. In fact, these days you’re better off walking.

But it’s the rate at which buildings are going up that’s so alarming.
Baku’s skyline has changed more in the last 18 months than it has for
more than a century. And contractors are falling over each other to
sell their apartments before anyone else. Friends recently bought a
flat in a new luxury block, only to discover that they have to step
over piles of rubble to get to it: The higher floors aren’t quite
finished, they were told.

With all these sleek new buildings appearing across the city, the
difference between rich and poor has become even starker. Just behind
the extensive new Taekwondo Center for Azerbaijan — all pillars and
marble and dancing fountains — stands a half-finished block with no
electricity or water, where hundreds of refugees from the war with
neighboring Armenia are living.

They’re so close to the martial arts school they can see the children
of rich Azeris practicing their moves. But they’re as far from being
able to afford to attend the classes as it’s possible to be.

Nevertheless, I’m not sure I’d want to live in any of the new
buildings. They’re built to Turkish specifications, but when you
remember the earthquake in Izmir in 1999, which killed 17,000 people,
that doesn’t sound reassuring. Many of the casualties were living in
houses built so shoddily that they simply caved in.

The frightening thing is that Baku, too, lies on a fault line. There
are regular ground tremors, and we’re due for another full-scale quake
sooner rather than later. And when that happens, the people who bought
penthouse suites aren’t going to be laughing any more. If they live
to tell the tale, that is.

Chloe Arnold is a freelance journalist based in Baku, Azerbaijan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

United Nations Development Programme Country Office in Armenia
14, Karl Liebknecht Street, Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Contact: Aramazd Ghalamkaryan
Tel: (374 1) 56 60 73
Fax: (374 1) 54 38 11
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

UNDP COUNTRY OFFICE IN ARMENIA

*7 June, 2004

WITH A VISIT TO ARMENIA’S LARGEST DUMP, UNDP AND THE MINISTRY OF NATURE
PROTECTION LAUNCH ENVIRONMENT WEEK*

Yerevan, Armenia

Today, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry
of Nature Protection officially marked World Environment Day by
organising a media event in the country’s largest waste disposal site in
Nubarashen, near Yerevan. In close cooperation with UN Agencies and
local and international organisations, UNDP and the Ministry of Nature
Protection jointly initiated Environment Week, an advocacy campaign
aimed at raising public awareness on environmental issues. Mr. Vardan
Ayvazyan, Minister of Nature Protection, Ms. Lise Grande, UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, representatives of the
Government, civil society and the mass media participated in the event.

Nubarashen waste disposal site receives almost all the solid waste
produced in Yerevan city and suburbs. As much as 340 tonnes per day, or
102,000 tonnes per year, is deposited in the site. Most of the waste in
Nubarashen is domestically produced by the approximately 1,280,000 who
live in these areas. Industrial waste accounts for only a small
proportion. Large quantities of landfill gas, mainly methane gas, are
produced by the waste and discharged into the atmosphere without being
fully utilised.

According to Ms. Grande: “It is very fortunate that Armenia has achieved
high rates of economic growth in the last decade. At this stage in the
country’s transition, is it critically important to focus on the
environmental aspects of economic growth. The sustainable management of
natural resources and a clean environment are key to the country’s
medium and long-term development. If the environment is destroyed or
damaged, the country will suffer. UNDP is currently one of the major
donors in the area of nature protection and we are confident that our
partnership with Government authorities and the civil society will help
to ensure a healthy environment for a healthy people.”

Background: Armenia has acceded to a number of international treaties
and conventions focused on the environment. UNDP’s National Capacities
Self-Assessment (NCSA) project aims to support the Government
in identifying gaps in meeting the requirements of these global
conventions. The goal of Environment Week, a joint advocacy initiative
of UNDP Armenia and the Ministry of Nature Protection, is to: promote
environmental activities at the community level; raise public awareness
of ongoing initiatives in the area of nature protection; highlight
existing environmental issues; and initiate a public debate on the
linkages between human development and nature protection. Environment
Week also aims to bring together major actors in nature protection
and help find solutions to very urgent and important environmental
problems facing the country and the whole Transcaucasian region.

***

UNDP is the UN’s global development network. It advocates for change and
connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people
build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with
them on their own solutions to global and national development
challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of
UNDP and our wide range of partners.

—
Aramazd Ghalamkaryan
Information and Resource Mobilisation Associate/
Support to UN Resident Coordinator
UNDP/UN Armenia
14 Karl Liebknecht St., Yerevan, 375010, Armenia
Tel: +3741 56 60 73 + 121
Mob: +3749 43 63 12
Fax: +3741 54 38 11
URLs: ;

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress