Author: Kalashian Nyrie

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
April 9, 2004

AZERBAIJAN, SWITZERLAND: RELATIONS HIGHLY ASSESSED
[April 09, 2004, 14:05:23]

Foreign minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov met the Chief of the
Political Directorate Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Mr.
Blaise Godet on 8 April.

Minister Elmar Mammadyarov gave a high assessment to the relations
between Azerbaijan and Switzerland, underlining that he adheres
strengthening of bilateral links and widening of cooperation in
numerous spheres, the defense ministry’s press service told AzerTAj.

Then, minister Elmar Mammadyarov updated the guest on the hard living
conditions of the refugees and IDPs who were ousted from their
homelands as a result of the Armenian -Azerbaijani Nagorny Karabakh
conflict and on the work done for settlement of the problem. The
Minister also stressed the necessity of solving the conflict in the
frame of internal law and principles by the efforts of the
international community.

In the course of meeting, head of the foreign policy department of
Azerbaijan highlighted on the situation in the region, economic
reforms in the Country, development of the oil industry and other
accomplishments gained last years.

In turn, Mr. Blasé Godeth noted that Swiss Confederation attaches
great importance to expansion of bilateral relations between
Azerbaijan and his country. Touching the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorny
Karabakh conflict, expressed hope that the problem would be settled
in peaceful and in the frame of international law.

The parties also had exchange of views on a number of issues of
mutual interest.

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
April 8 2004

FATHERLAND AND ARMY START AT THE BORDER

Meeting the proposal of the RA TV companies, the NKR Ministry of
Defence invited a group of journalists to the NKR Defence Army to get
acquainted with the life of the servicemen. On April 2, headed by the
press secretary of the minister, colonel S. Shahsuvarian, 27
journalists representing 10 TV companies of Armenia visited different
military units of the NKR Defence Army, and border installations. The
journalists visited the educational strategic center `Asparezâ’,
watched the training. The journalists had an interview with the NKR
minister of defence Seyran Ohanian. The NKR minister of defence
mentioned that the situation at the border is quiet. As to the present
condition of the army, he mentioned that day by day the level of the
military training, supply of arms and equipment, the engineering
structures are improved. The minister mentioned that the NKR Defence
Army is successfully fulfilling the role of the defence of the border
of the motherland, the servicemen control the situation and the
situation in Yerevan can in no way influence the service.

ARMEN DANIELIAN

Armenian opposition spearheads campaign to change “undemocratic regime”

Arminfo
6 Apr 04

YEREVAN

“By giant waves of national struggle, we shall rid the country of the
undemocratic regime, return power to the people and establish jointly
a fair state,” the Republic [Anrapetutyun] Party issued this statement
today.

According to our source, the Republic Party condemns the illegal
“ruling regime” and states that all efforts to settle a score with the
opposition are doomed to failure. The statement said that “the illegal
regime has again resorted to lowliness and arrested well-known
journalist Suren Surenyants on the trumped-up and false
charges. “Bringing to book for political views is an act
characteristic of the dictatorial regimes, and the dictator must be
removed for the establishment of a democracy in the country,” the
statement said.

Let us recall that today the first instance court in Yerevan’s Kentron
and Nork-Marash communities extended Suren Surenyants’ term in custody
by two months.

A1 Plus | 18:13:29 | 05-04-2004 | Politics |

DASHNAKS’ UNILATERAL MOVE

Dashnak party said Monday it was ready to offer some cabinet minister
portfolios to the opposition activists to ease tension.

Kocharyan’s bitter opponent and key rival in presidential elections Stepan
Demirchyan rejected the proposal on Monday saying the opposition is
struggling for constitutional law restoration, not for portfolios.

Commenting on the coalition move he denounced the offer as hypocritical.
Coalition does nothing without Robert Kocharyan’s and Serge Sargssyan’s
instructions.

—

A1 Plus | 15:27:44 | 05-04-2004 | Politics |

ANOTHER ARREST

Member of “Republic” party’s council Suren Surenyants was taken in the
police custody on Sunday. No formal charges are bought against him so far.

A criminal case is believed to be opened.

—

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 29, 2004

Peace in Karabakh conflict should be reached without winners,losers

By Sevindj Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman

BAKU, March 29

Azerbaijan pins high hopes that Russia would play a positive role in
the resolution of the Karabakh conflict, speaker of Milli Medjlis,
Azerbaijan’s Parliament Murtuz Aleskerov said at a meeting with Duma
Speaker Boris Gryzlov on Monday.

According to him, Russia that is a co-chairman of the Minsk OSCE
group on Nagorno Karabakh plays an important role in the conflict
settlement. “We hope that using our powers and influence in the
region Russia will try to find ways of a just solution to this
problem,” the speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament said.

During the meeting the sides reached the agreement on the soonest
settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement by peaceful means.
“It is necessary to achieve peace without winners and losers,”
Gryzlov emphasised.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 29, 2004 Monday Home Edition

Veteran disappoints, but newcomer dazzles

by PIERRE RUHE

A couple of decades ago, song recitals were declared dead and all but
buried. Fewer composers were writing for the exposed duo of solo
voice and piano; impresarios found vocalists a tough sell; young
singers didn’t see the benefits of all that discipline.

Well, the rumors were greatly exaggerated. This season in Atlanta has
heard terrific art-of-song performances. Over the weekend, a veteran
and a rookie came to town and, not surprisingly, arrived with
different agendas.

Mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer has been a strong presence at the
Metropolitan Opera for some 15 years. At Emory University, she and
Craig Rutenberg, a lyrical pianist, opened with a pair of “what if?”
composers — music by the wives of great men, women who didn’t
pursue composition as a career, Clara Schumann and Alma Mahler.

Where three Schumann songs from her Op. 12 sounded here like tepid,
nicely wrought parlor songs, Mahler’s set heaved with allure and
personality. In the latter’s “Balmy Summer Night,” Mentzer conveyed a
winking, almost swishy attitude.

Works by Gustav Mahler (earthy) and Eric Satie (cabaret cute) led to
Libby Larsen’s “Love after 1950,” five songs written for Mentzer and
premiered in 2000. Each song gets a treatment: One is blues, another
honky-tonk, a third tango, and so on. Fun to hear and mostly
well-written for the human voice, these songs suffer from Larsen’s
self-conscious, post-modern approach, where the music is remote from
the texts instead of interlocked. And throughout the evening, the
mezzo’s brushed velvety voice sounded a bit weary. It made for a
low-energy recital.

On Saturday, soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, making her Atlanta recital
debut, sang with the giddy excitement of a newcomer, without a
horizon in sight. I first heard her in 1997, in a tiny role at the
Glimmerglass Opera, and wrote she was “exquisite in her pure tones,
generating a frisson of interest in her vocal possibilities.” Even
then, it was obvious here was someone special. Now just 29, she’s
starting to win acclaim in the opera house and through CDs.

Yet the first half of her Spivey recital — Grenados, Rossini and
Vivaldi — seemed more about wowing us with her technique than about
singing to her strengths.

Still a growing artist, Bayrakdarian’s vocal timbre is somewhere
between Kathleen Battle’s and Sumi Jo’s, equal parts soul and
diamond-sparkle coloratura. She summoned despair for Vivaldi’s “The
Scorned Wife,” although she left a few tones (like the word “fida”)
curiously uncolored, like it sat between two regions of her voice and
she couldn’t quite reach it. And was it fatigue that caused some
misfiring vocal pyrotechnics in “Buffeted by Two Winds”? Her pianist,
Serouj Kradjian, proved an inadequate accompanist, flashy and
oblivious to the subtleties of the texts.

In any case, after intermission the Canadian-Armenian soprano finally
let us savor more than just her splendid technical gifts: She became
an interpreter and an actress, telling moving stories with her voice
— the crux of a song recital. She was at turns naive and manic in
Tchaikovsky’s “The Cuckoo” — both funny and scary — pronouncing
the bird’s song like an antique clock gone haywire. She sounded like
a non-smoking Edith Piaf for a set of cynical Kurt Weill love songs,
squatting over the low notes with a seductively nasal drawl. Is the
term “vocal charisma” adequate to describe a singer who makes time
stop, who conjures magic? Whatever that intoxicating property is,
Bayrakdarian has it in abundance — the future of the art form.

GRAPHIC: Photo: In her Atlanta recital debut, Canadian-Armenian
soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian sang with the excitement of a newcomer.
When at her best on Saturday, she was magical.; Photo: Susan Mentzer,
a regular at the Metropolitan Opera, sounded a bit weary in her
Friday recital.; Graphic: CLASSICAL REVIEW
Mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, Friday at Emory University’s Emerson
Concert Hall; and soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, Saturday at Spivey
Hall.

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
March 25 2004

Representation in federal institutions – The Legislature
By Yiouli Taki

CONSTITUENT state representatives in federal institutions should have
the internal citizenship of the respective constituent state. This is
in line with the provision that political rights in federal elections
will be exercised on the basis of internal citizenship: the people
who will elect the representatives of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot
states in federal institutions will have the internal citizenship of
the relevant constituent state.

Internal citizenship is defined on the basis of residence on the date
the Foundation Agreement comes into effect. Neither of the
constituent states will be obliged to grant internal citizenship to
those who will choose to live in their territory but have the
internal citizenship of the other constituent state.

Thus it is expected that the Turkish Cypriot constituent state will
not grant internal citizenship to Greek Cypriots who choose to reside
permanently on its territory, so as to ensure that only Turkish
Cypriots will vote for or be voted as representatives of the Turkish
Cypriot state. In this way, the equal status of the two constituent
states, as specified through their representation on a federal level,
will be translated as political equality between the two communities.

The Legislature: The House of Representatives and the Senate
The two constituent states will be represented in the House in
proportion to their population, though no state will hold less than
25 per cent of the seats. Of the 48 seats, 36 will go to the Greek
Cypriot state and the rest to the Turkish Cypriots. Decisions will be
taken by simple majority.

Representation in the Senate will be based on the political equality
of the two sides; each constituent state will have 24 seats. There
will be two decision-making procedures according to the matter on the
agenda.

Simple Majority: Standard decisions will be taken by simple majority
of the Senators present and voting, including a quarter of the
senators from each constituent state who are present and voting.

Special Majority: Certain issues will need a special majority of at
least two-fifths (10) of the Senators from each constituent state.
Such issues will include the approval of the federal budget and the
election of the Presidential Council, as well as a series of issues
concerning the vital interests of the two constituent states.

House decisions will need the approval of the two bodies. A special
law will provide for a compromise mechanism between the two bodies.

How are the religious minorities going to be represented on the
Legislature?

The Maronite, Latin and Armenian minorities will be represented by at
least one deputy each. The deputies will be counted amongst the
representatives of the constituent state where the majority of the
members of the respective minority reside.

How are the minority representatives going to be elected?
Members of the relevant minority would have the right to vote for
their deputies irrespective of their internal citizenship.

What is the authority of the Legislature?
The Constitution of the United Republic of Cyprus provides the
following powers for the legislature: 1. It will legislate and make
decisions on issues within its competence 2. It will approve
international agreements that need ratification 3. It will elect and
oversee the Presidential Council 4. It will refer to the Supreme
Court – by special majority – allegations of impeachment regarding
members of the Presidential Council and independent officials for
serious violation of their duties or serious crime. 5. It will adopt
the federal budget.

When will a special majority be needed in decision-making in the
senate?

A special majority will be necessary for: 1. Ratification of
international agreements on issues under the legislative authority of
the constituent states. 2. Ratification of conventions and adoption
of laws and regulations concerning airspace, the continental shelf
and territorial waters of the United Republic of Cyprus, including
the economic and border zone. 4. Adoption of laws and regulations
regarding citizenship, immigration, water resources and taxation. 5.
Approval of the federal budget. 6. Election of the Presidential
Council

You have stressed that political equality between the two communities
is protected through a provision in the UN plan that does not oblige
constituent states to provide internal citizenship to citizens from
the other state. Can you explain?

Political rights during federal elections will be exercised on the
basis of the internal constituent state citizenship status. The only
way for the Turkish Cypriot state to secure that its federal
representatives will be Turkish Cypriots is through the provision
stipulating that a constituent state is not obliged to grant Turkish
Cypriot citizenship to Cypriot citizens holding the internal
citizenship status of the Greek Cypriot state who choose to reside
there permanently, after the Foundation Agreement comes into effect.
Consequently, Greek Cypriots who are granted permanent residency in
the Turkish Cypriot state, will continue to have the internal
citizenship of the Greek Cypriot state.

Thus exercising their voting rights at the federal level in the Greek
Cypriot state: they will be able to elect candidates of the Greek
Cypriot state or run for office themselves. This secures Turkish
Cypriot demands since a primary concern of the Turkish Cypriot
community is that of a situation where Greek Cypriots would be
elected as representatives of the Turkish Cypriot state. The equality
of the two constituent states is thus translated into political
equality between the two communities; this would not have been
possible if Greek and Turkish Cypriots could represent the Turkish
Cypriot state at a federal level.

The Nobel Prize in Medicine
Author(s): Michael Ruse

Metanexus Salus
2004.03.16.

In the op/ed piece below, Michael Ruse, Professor of the Philosophy of
Biology at Florida State University, considers the possible political
and religious issues at stake in the selection of winners of the 2003
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. The 2003 prize was awarded to
Dr. Paul Lauterbur and Dr. Peter Mansfield for their work in magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI). Amidst the controversy surrounding the Nobel
committee’s exclusion of Dr. Raymond Damadian despite his groundbreaking
work in MRI, Ruse speculates that Damadian’s exclusion was motivated by
knowledge of his religious commitments, specifically his support of
creation science.

Michael Ruse was born in 1940 in Birmingham, England. He received a B.A.
in Philosophy and Mathematics from Bristol University in 1962, an M.A.
in Philosophy from McMaster University in 1964, and a Ph.D. from Bristol
University in 1970. Ruse has worked at the University of Guelph in
Ontario, Canada since 1965, obtaining the rank of Professor. He has been
a visiting professor and scholar at Cambridge University, Harvard
University, and Indiana University. Ruse is a fellow of the Royal
Society of Canada, the AAAS, Guggenheim, Killam, the John Templeton
Foundation, and a Gifford Lectures. Ruse is the author of many books,
including The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw. 1979;
Taking Darwin Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to Philosophy 1986; The
Philosophy of Biology 1989; Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in
Evolutionary Biology 1996; Readings in the Philosophy of Biology, 1998
with David Hull; Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social
Construction? 1999; Can a Darwinian be a Christian? The Relationship
between Science and Religion, 2001; The Evolution Wars, 2000; The Nature
of Science, (forthcoming 2001); Darwin and Design: Science, Philosophy,
Religion, 2003; Cloning (edited volume), 2001.

–Editor

The Nobel Prize in Medicine – Was there a Religious Factor in this
Year’s (Non) Selection?

By Michael Ruse

Dr. Raymond Damadian failed to be included in this year’s Nobel honors
for work in Medicine, and feels sore about it. Although he was the
inventor of the first machine that discovers cancers through magnetic
resonance imaging, the award went to two other and somewhat subsequent
scientists, Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield. Notoriously, the Nobel
committees never reveal their deliberations (until everyone is long
dead) and never change their minds. So, although by having taken out
advertisements of protest in the New York Times and the Washington Post
may make him feel somewhat better, and draw attention to his bad luck,
Damadian seems fated to remain with the rest of us who are not Nobel
Laureates. He will join Charles Best of Banting and Best fame who
discovered the significance of insulin treatment for diabetes –
Frederick Banting and his boss J.J.R. McCleod (who was on vacation at
the time) got the award and Best the junior scientist was left out.

But perhaps Dr. Damadian does have reason to feel having been slighted
for the wrong reasons. He is not just an inventor, but also a very
prominent Christian. And not just a Christian of any bland kind, but a
Creation Scientist – one of those people who believes that the Bible,
especially including Genesis, is absolutely literally true – six days of
creation, Adam and Eve the first humans, universal flood, and all of the
rest. It is as least as likely a hypothesis that Damadian was ignored by
the Nobel committee because they did not want to award a Prize to an
American fundamentalist Christian as that they did not think his work
merited the fullest accolade. In the eyes of rational Europeans – and
Swedes are nothing if not rational Europeans – it is bad enough that
such people exist, let alone give them added status and a pedestal from
which to preach their silly ideas. Especially a scientific pedestal from
which to preach their silly anti-science ideas.

Is this unfair? One certainly feels a certain sympathy for the Nobel
committee. Creation science is wrong and (if taught to young people as
the truth) dangerous. It does represent everything against which good
science stands. However, even the best scientists believe some very
strange things, and if we start judging one area of their work in terms
of other beliefs that they have, we could well do more harm than good.
Isaac Newton, the greatest scientist of them all, had some very strange
views about the proper interpretation of such Biblical books as Daniel
and Revelation, and in respects believed things about the universe – its
past and its future – that make today’s Creation Scientists seem
comparatively mild. More recently, Alfred Russel Wallace, the
co-discoverer of natural selection along with Charles Darwin, became an
enthusiast for spiritualism, believing that there are hidden forces
controlling every aspect of life. People knew this and were embarrassed
by it, but it did not stop them from celebrating and praising Wallace’s
great scientific work. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, and
given Britain’s greatest award for achievement, the Order of Merit.

All of my life I have fought for evolution and against Creationism – in
writings, on the podium, and in court in 1981 as a witness in Arkansas
against a law demanding that Creation Science be taught alongside
evolution in the state supported schools. But as one who loves science
above all and thinks it the greatest triumph of the human spirit – as
one who has no religious beliefs whatsoever – I cringe at the thought
that Raymond Damadian was refused his just honor because of his
religious beliefs. Having silly ideas in one field is no good reason to
deny merit for great ideas in another field. Apart from the fact that
this time the Creation Scientists will think that there is good reason
to think that they are the objects of unfair treatment at the hands of
the scientific community.

San Diego Union Tribune
March 18 2004

Russian, Armenian community targeted
By Joe Hughes
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Two Russian immigrants have been arrested in connection with a scheme
to defraud members of San Diego’s Russian and Armenian community out
of hundreds of thousands of dollars, police said yesterday.

Yasha Kuper, 55, and his son, Roman Kuper, 28, were held last week,
Detective Christine Gregg said.

Bail for Roman Kuper was set at $1 million. Yasha Kuper posted
$10,000 bail after his arrest, but a second arrest warrant has been
issued and he is scheduled to surrender this week, Gregg said.

Sixteen victims have been identified, but that list will grow, police
said.

“We feel there are many other victims out there who are afraid to
come forward,” Gregg said. “We want these people to contact us if
they have had dealings with the Kupers.”

The Kupers, Gregg said, told victims that they were new to the
country and did not have Social Security numbers or bank accounts.
Victims allegedly were duped into providing their bank account
numbers on the premise that money would be wired from the Kupers’
accounts in Russia to the victims’ accounts here.

In exchange for helping out, the victims were told they could collect
a portion of the Kupers’ funds, police said.

Money was never transferred from Russia, Gregg said, and the victims
later found their accounts had been cleaned out.

Victims were solicited, Greg said, through advertisements placed in
Russian-language newspapers.

The Kupers moved to San Diego from Chicago late last year.

Police ask that anyone who has been victimized in the scam call Gregg
at (619) 528-4100.