Author: Mamian George

ALEXANDER ISKANDARIAN: SITUATION FORMED IN ARMENIA IS EXPRESSED BY “WEAK POWER AND WEAK OPPOSITION” FORMULA

YEREVAN, MAY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. “No revolution must take place in
Armenia, we may theoretically suppose a coup and there is a difference
of principle between a revolution and a coup and the coup is an
easier variant,” Alexander Iskandarian, Director of Caucasian Media
Institute, declared at the May 17 press conference at the Pakagits
(Bracket) club. According to him, the reasons brought as an argument
for carrying out a revolution, namely, referendum on constitutional
amendments and local self-governance elections, are insufficient for
“untwisting” a revolutionary situation. Besides, a strong political
force and the support of even if a part of economic elite is necessary
for carrying out of a revolution. “I see neither this nor that yet,”
A.Iskandarian declared. In his opinion, the situation formed in Armenia
is expressed by the “weak power and weak opposition” formula. “This
construction leads to a firmly unstable situation we have in Armenia
today.” The speaker criticized both the Armenian authorities and
opposition. According to him, the political coalition is “an institute
intended for making a career” and the coalition’s central force, the
Republican Party of Armenia, has no ideology and will exist until it
holds the power, after which it will collapse. As for the opposition,
Iskandarian mentioned that we have no united opposition in Armenia,
there are only some opposition groups united by the main idea –
necessity in power shift. The opposition considers the latter not
the result of the processes taking place in the country but their
cause. “This is a wrong conception: the power is the result of
everything taking place in Armenia.” In Iskandarian’s opinion, the
political system formed in Armenia is the classical Latin American
system, when, in difference to Turkmenistan and Tadzhikistan, a power
shift, nevertheless, is taking place here but, unlike countries with
European political culture, such as Baltic states, power shift is
taking place illegally in Armenia and the opposition doesn’t accept
election results. “The Latin American variant is not the worst one
that may be imagined in the post-Soviet totalitarian variant. This
is the way such countries as Chile and South Korea passed through,
and today these countries may be considered European in the respect
of political culture,” he declared.

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS MET WITH KISLOVODSK MAYOR

Pan Armenian News
17.05.2005 06:57

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II today
received Kislovodsk Mayor Sergey Demidenko and head of the Armenian
community of Kislovodsk Valery Galustov, reported the Press Service
of the Chancellery of Holy Echmiadzin. In the course of the meeting
the parties appreciated mutual visits at that level, as well as the
centuries-old and fruitful cooperation of the two related peoples. The
parties also discussed questions referring to the life of the Armenian
community of Kislovodsk.

TURKEY CRITICIZES ACTIONS OF BELGIUM

Pan Armenian News
17.05.2005 07:53

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ When commenting on the decision of the Belgian
Parliament to establish criminal punishment for denial of the
Armenian Genocide, Turkish PM R. Erdogan said, “I cannot understand
when a country that has nothing in common with the affair passes
such a decision.” “If that decision comes into effect, Turkey will
undertake steps to pass corresponding resolutions regarding the
countries that have really committed genocides in the past,” he
stated when addressing the CoE Summit in Warsaw. As noted by Erdogan,
“the decision on genocide” is a prerogative of local politicians.
At that he noted that that Armenians will not obtain any results
in international recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman
Turkey by means of their lobby. He also noted that the CoE considers
Armenia an “occupier country” and it has to withdraw its troops from
Nagorno Karabakh instead of making ungrounded accusations of other
states. As noted by Erdogan, Turkey has already opened its archives
for historians, lawyers and scholars and wishes that Armenia and other
countries do the same. “Armenia does not wish to establish bilateral
relations,” he emphasized, Regnum news agency reported.

Armenian, Georgian prosecutors discuss fighting crime, corruption

Mediamax news agency
17 May 05

Yerevan, 17 May: Armenian Prosecutor-General Agvan Ovsepyan and his
Georgian counterpart Zurab Adeishvili, who is on a two-day working
visit to Armenia, discussed cooperation in fighting crime in Yerevan
today.

Agvan Ovsepyan told a news conference that an agreement had been
reached during the talks on exchanging experience in the fight
against corruption.

For his part, Zurab Adeishvili said that the Armenian and Georgian
law-enforcement bodies intend to cooperate closely in the sphere of
ensuring security in the border regions.

Egoyan’s ‘Truth’ lights up fest
BY ROGER EBERT

May 16, 2005
Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

CANNES, France — Because the party was being given for Atom Egoyan and
because he has made a terrific new film and is a nice guy, I went to
it. People have been known to shed blood to attend the parties every
night in the beachfront restaurants, but I would pay good money to get
out of most of them. The parties are always the same: Too many people,
too much smoke, not enough food, music to rupture your eardrums and
weird lights in your eyes. The caterers here must have trained on
“The Manchurian Candidate.” I’ve never been able to understand why
hosts allow music so loud they have to go out on the beach and talk
to their guests on cell phones.

Egoyan, however, was in a rare mood, because his movie “Where the Truth
Lies” is one of the big successes of the first weekend at Cannes,
which is off to its best start in years. His film stars Kevin Bacon
and Colin Firth as a show biz team in the 1950s who will remind all
sentient viewers of Martin and Lewis, although everyone connected
with the film swears they were the last two people on their minds.
When the naked body of a dead blonde is found in the bathtub of
a casino suite in Atlantic City, a scandal is created that echoes
through the years, until in the 1970s a young blonde investigative
journalist (Alison Lohman) tries to solve the mystery. Although the
movie has a magnificently convoluted noir plot, its strongest quality
is the nature of the film’s human relationships; I was blindsided
by a crime movie where the journalist’s reason for not revealing the
solution is inspired by kindness.

Bacon is on a roll now, after “Mystic River,” “The Woodsman” and
now “Where the Truth Lies.” Along the way, something intriguing
has happened to his face, which used to be clean-cut and without
complications, and has deepened into character and mystery; everyone
eventually grows into the correct age for their face, and Bacon
is, right now, able to do more with a closeup than some actors can
accomplish with a soliloquy.

Egoyan is the Canadian director of films that deal powerfully with
eroticism, not as a subject but more as a problem. His credits include
“Exotica” (1994) and “The Sweet Hereafter” (1997), for which he won
Oscar nominations for writing and directing.

Egoyan introduced me to his father and said that his father does
not like this film but his mother does. The last time he had a
film at Cannes, “Ararat,” about the Turkish massacre of Armenians,
he invited his mother to attend. She didn’t like it, but his father
did. “My father is more political about Armenia, my mother is more
assimilationist,” he said. Yes, but the fact that he has two parents
who tell their son what they really think about his films may help
explain why he makes such good ones.

“Dad immigrated from Armenia to Canada, studied for three years at the
Art Institute of Chicago and became an abstract expressionist painter,”
Egoyan told me, “but then he had a show in Paris that didn’t sell,
and so he went into the furniture business.” Someone says one sentence
to you, and it’s a short story.

A1plus

| 15:50:22 | 13-05-2005 | Social |

PEOPLE OF ART AGAINST POLITICAL VANDALS

About 10 uniformed people came to the building at Tigran Mets 30 at about
12:30 p.m. today. The workers of the compulsory service of the court were
going to evict the branch of the library after Avetiq Isahakyan from the
building.

The library which has been working there for 50 years has 1200 readers which
is considered a normal index of work. In order to protect the library people
of art – actor Azat Gasparyan, President of the culture fund Arevshat
Avagyan, President of the library association, and heads of the National,
Khnko-Apre and many other libraries had come to the place of incident.

If the authorities reach their aim, the library and the readers will lose
several thousands of books. In order to transport the books special
conditions are needed and not lorries in which they will be put and taken
away. Besides, for the preservation of books too special conditions are
needed and the library does not have even a building to go to.

And the argument over the area was raised as ex-NA deputy Egia Shamshyan has
long wanted to have a private area in the mentioned street. With that aim he
signed an agreement with the `Smela’ LTD. With joint effort and the support
of the Central community head they privatized the area belonging to the
library.

By the way, it was done with the violation of law and the abusing of the
community head’s position, as the defenders of the library note. According
to them, when the documents of the area were given to the new owner, the
area was not at the disposal of the community head, so they did not have the
right to carry out the process.

`They have the right as they see that no one is punished for the closing of
libraries’, says library head Hasmik Karapetyan. The indignation of actor
Azat Gasparyan was so strong that he was almost unable to say criticizing
words. `Surprisingly I want to laugh but it is a bitter laughter’. The actor
is convinced that the books make people people, and they are not for today
but for future.

We learned from the Ministry of Justice that the process of evicting the
library has been ceased but it has been postponed fro only 10 days before
the library finds a new area and the necessary conditions for
transportation.

Envoy says US to expand military cooperation with Armenia

Mediamax news agency
13 May 05

YEREVAN

The United States is pleased with cooperation with Armenia in the
struggle against terrorism and non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, US ambassador to Armenia John Evans said in Yerevan
today.

Mediamax quoted the ambassador as saying this to journalists in the
Armenian National Assembly after the opening of a seminar on the
anti-terror fight,.

John Evans noted that the USA highly praises Armenia’s decision to
send a group of peacekeepers to Iraq.

He said that the USA and Armenia also cooperate in protecting the
state borders and, in particular, in foiling any attempts to smuggle
into Armenia or transit via Armenia weapons of mass destruction and
other banned substances.

Ambassador Evans also said that Armenia and the USA would now expand
cooperation in the sphere of defence.

“The relations between Armenia and USA in the sphere of defence today
have a good and solid basis and we are very pleased with the level of
cooperation,” he said.

He recalled that a group of experts of the US European Command had
visited Armenia in early May for an assessment of the Armenian armed
forces.

Pan Armenian News

KRASNODAR ARMENIANS HONORED GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR VETERANS

10.05.2005 02:32

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian community of the Kuban capital has marked the
12th anniversary of the establishment of a Khachkar (cross-stone) in
Krasnodar, reported the Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of Russia. The
Khachkar was erected May 8, 1993 in a territory, where an Armenian church
was built later. Simultaneous to the celebration of the Khachkar Day,
Armenians of Krasnodar honored their compatriots, who had taken part in the
Great Patriotic War. Flowers and presents were handed to all veterans
present at the event, pupils of Narek regional center for culture and
education presented a literature and musical composition devoted to the 60th
anniversary of the Victory over fascism. The event finished in a feast and a
performance of a vocal and instrumental ensemble.

Armenian Orthodox parish to mark first year
By Eugene Tong, Staff Writer

Los Angeles Daily News
May 6 2005

CANYON COUNTRY — Santa Clarita Valley’s Armenian Orthodox parish is
celebrating its one-year anniversary this weekend with two special
Masses — one in honor of a slain sheriff’s deputy of Armenian
heritage.

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, head of the Western Diocese of the
Armenian Church of North America, will lead Mass on Sunday at the
Santa Clarita Armenian Apostolic Church congregation. He also will
conduct a special service in honor of Deputy Hagop “Jake” Kuredjian.

The Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was gunned down in 2001 while
assisting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in serving a
warrant at a Stevenson Ranch home.

The services will be held at Rio Vista Elementary School, where the
congregation of some 25 regular parishioners meets biweekly. The
diocese established the fledgling parish here last May as the local
Armenian community grew to include more than 500 families, according
to church estimates.

John Toungaian, chairman of the church parish council, said the
congregation is working hard to increase turnout and to move services
from the elementary-school campus to a local church.

“They’re getting to know that we’re here,” he said. “Last year, we
had a picnic at which we had about 150 people attending. This year,
we had an Easter egg hunt. We’re doing things to let the Armenian
community know that, hey, we’re here.”

Still, Toungaian acknowledged it takes time to persuade local Armenians
to attend services close to home when most are accustomed to attending
Mass at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church in Van Nuys.

“People are going to be going to St. Peter because they’ve been
doing it all their lives,” he said. “We’re considered a satellite —
a mission church. We’re on a mission to gather the Armenian people
in the community. It takes time to build them up. It takes time to
gather the sheep.”

The Santa Clarita Armenian Church services are slated to begin Sunday
at 10 a.m. at Rio Vista Elementary School, 20417 Cedarcreek St. in
Canyon Country. Sunday Mass led by Derderian will begin at 10 a.m.,
and a special service honoring Kuredjian will start at noon.

ARMENIAN SPEAKER MET WITH EU SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR SOUTH CAUCASUS

Pan Armenian News
05.05.2005 03:04

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Artur Baghdasarian
met with European Union Special Representative for the South
Caucasus Heikki Talvitie, reported the Press Service of the Amrenian
Parliament. British Ambassador to Armenia Thorda Abbot-Watt was
also present at the meeting. Noting that the importance of the
parliaments is daily increasing, Heikki Talvitie underscored the role
of the National Assembly in democratization of the society. In his
words, the hearings of the Karabakh case in the Armenian Parliament
have made a large contribution to the settlement of the conflict.
At the instance of the EU Special Representative Artur Baghdasarian
presented the legislative reforms being implemented in Armenia
in detail, specifically the reform of the Constitution and the
Electoral Code. Thereupon it was noted that it is the first time
that the Electoral Code is being adopted two years before the
election. The interlocutors noted the importance of the independent
judicial system and self-government bodies in the process of
holding the reforms. Besides the importance of the OSCE and Venetian
Commission experts contributing to the process of making the Armenian
legislation comply with international standards was emphasized. The
parties discussed the prospects of transforming the South Caucasian
Parliamentary Initiative into a Parliamentary Assembly.