Author: Tamamian Anna

Lucid Media
March 26 2010

ATOM EGOYAN INTERVIEW .

Friday, 26 March 2010 10:20 Michael Gregoris .Oscar Wilde once
declared, `Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait
of the artist, not of the sitter.’ Indeed, much of Wilde’s renowned
witticism may be directly applied to the works of director, Atom
Egoyan. This critically acclaimed Canadian-Armenian filmmaker.

Perhaps it is Egoyan’s unrelenting capacity to channel imagination and
personal experience into his subject matter, meticulously scrutinizing
the value of each shot or take to maximize the dramatic value of his
work.

Or, maybe it lies in his competency on set, his uncanny ability to get
his actors to do precisely what he desires. More likely, it is a
fusion of both these distinguishing traits that serves to continually
unearth a cathartic response, collectively shared by audiences time
and time again. His individual style and unabridged authority over all
the facets of production give his films a personal and unique stamp.

This is especially true in Egoyan’s latest picture, Chloe.

Starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, and Amanda Seyfried, Chloe is an
erotic thriller about an untrusting wife, Catherine (Moore) and her
attempts to prove that her husband, David (Neeson), ishaving an
affair. Compelled by her suspicion, Catherine hires an escort called
Chloe (Seyfried) to seduce him, inadvertently endangering her entire
family in the process. The film itself is inherently sexual, dealing
with deception, infidelity, and seduction as revealed to us through
Egoyan’s lens.

`You always channel your own experiences with a project,’ says Egoyan.
`Has it [infidelity] happened to me? No. But I ` we ` can imagine the
agony of it all with great detail and that’s something special.’

Sexuality is one of Egoyan’s chief preoccupations. Some of his other
films like Exotica (1994) and Where the Truth Lies (1995) share
similar themes and is precisely how he came to Chloe.

In 1996, Egoyan had the opportunity to serve on the Cannes Jury. And
in 1997 he again returned to compete with The Sweet Hereafter. His
first adaptation of a novel, it went on to win three prizes at Cannes
and received two Oscar nominations, for Best Director (the first time
a Canadian director had been nominated for a Canadian film) and Best
Adapted Screenplay. As if films weren’t enough, Egoyan took his
interest in music (he can play classical guitar) into the forum of
classical opera. He directed three productions, including the 1996
Toronto Opera Company’s Salome.

Egoyan recalls his triumphs at Cannes for The Sweet Hereafter:

`It was surreal because it came out of nowhere, especially against
Titanic; it was an incredible ride and it changed a lot of things in
my career,’ reveals Egoyan. `At the time, I didn’t really stop and
think about it. I just kept working, riding the momentum while the
film was still fresh in people’s minds.’

`Mostly, I was proud at the fact that it was for a Canadian director
and writer.’

States News Service
March 25, 2010 Thursday

PACE CO-RAPPORTEURS WELCOME WILLINGNESS OF ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES TO
DRAW UP REFORM ‘ROADMAP’

STRASBOURG, France

The following information was released by the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE):

The co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Armenia of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have welcomed the prompt
response of the Armenian authorities to their call for a roadmap to
put into effect the reforms recommended in the aftermath of the March
2008 election violence.

We welcome the wide range of reforms announced in the preliminary
response of the authorities to our recommendation, but we would also
like to stress that, in the end, it will be the content of these
reforms, and their implementation, that counts, said John Prescott
(United Kingdom, SOC) and Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD).

The two co-rapporteurs underscored the importance of carrying out the
reforms recommended by the OSCE/ODIHR in its trial monitoring report.
The ODIHR report pinpoints serious problems with the functioning of
the judiciary in Armenia, and we would like to have a clear indication
from the authorities as to exactly when they intend to carry out all
of its recommendations, they said.

We now await the promised details from the authorities, as well as the
opinions of the different departments of the Council of Europe that
were solicited by the Armenian authorities, they continued. Following
that, and after hearing the opinions of the different political forces
in Armenia, we hope to agree together with the National Assembly of
Armenia on a clear, detailed and specific roadmap, including
deadlines, for the implementation of these essential reforms, which
are in the long-term interest of all Armenians. Nobody wants a
recurrence of what happened in March of 2008.

The co-rapporteurs also expressed their satisfaction at the
publication of the report on Armenia by the Council of Europes
Anti-Torture Committee (CPT), which was made public at the request of
the Armenian authorities following a suggestion made by the
co-rapporteurs to the Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly.

EVENT ENTITLED "OUR SHUSHI: REMEMBERING THE PAST AND YEARNING FOR THE FUTURE" IN WASHINGTON

595783/lang/en
2010-03-24

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS: An event entitled "Our Shushi:
Remembering the Past and Yearning for the Future" was organized on
March 18 in Washington under the patronage of the Armenian Embassy
and All-Armenian Fund’s US East Coast affiliate office.

Media and Information Department of the Armenian Foreign Affairs
Ministry told Armenpress that representatives of American-Armenian
organizations, clergymen, numerous Armenian-Americans partook in the
event, Deputy Chairman of "Lincy" foundation, Director of the United
Armenian Fund Harout Sassounyan was present, too.

In his welcoming speech Ambassador Tatul Margaryan, attaching great
importance to the activity of the All-Armenian Fund in the last 17
years, noted that it has not only a material, but also a moral value.

In the first hard, dark and cold years of consolidation of the
Armenian state system, the fund’s activity raised hope in Armenian
people reminding that Armenia is not lonely, that all the Armenians
are unified.

Afterward Executive Director of the fund Irina Lazaryan made the guests
acquainted with the fund’s activity and programs, which included the
educational, healthcare and agriculture spheres, as well as presented
the restoration programs of Shushi.

A short-length videotape dedicated to the living conditions and needs
of Shushi residents was shown.

DAVUTOGLU TO BE HONORED WITH WOODROW WILSON AWARD

Tert.am
15:15 â~@¢ 25.03.10

A US think tank decided on Wednesday to honor the Turkish foreign
minister with an award, reports The Journal of Turkish Weekly.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the US Smithsonian
Institution decided to present "Woodrow Wilson Award for Public
Service" to Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a center
statement said.

Furthermore, the think tank will present the "Woodrow Wilson Award
for Corporate Citizenship" to Ferit Å~^ahenk, the chair of Turkey’s
DoguÅ~_ Holding.

The statement of the center said Davutoglu had catalyzed the
development of Turkey’s foreign relations, elevating its position
in international discussions since he became the foreign minister
of Turkey.

"He has advocated strengthening relations with Turkey’s hinterland,
increasing its importance in the region and throughout the world.

Combined with a keen understanding of the importance of embracing
Eastern and Western traditions, his achievements as foreign minister
have earned him considerable reputation," the statement said.

This will be the first time two Turkish dignitaries will receive the
Woodrow Wilson Awards.

ROBERT KOCHARYAN CRITICIZES ECONOMIC POLICY

News.am
March 23 2010
Armenia

True, economic crises take place from time to time.

One should be mindful of and prepare for that during good years. But
not by restraining economic development but by accumulating reserves,
cutting the state debt and budget deficit, diversifying trade and
so on. And that’s what we did," former RA President Robert Kocharyan
said in an exclusive interview with Mediamax news agency.

According to him, in 1998-2008 under his presidency GDP/external debt
ratio reduced from 46% to 13%.

He also noted that budget deficit was less than 2% within last
years of his presidency, whereas average annual inflation made 2-4%
with economic growth of 12-13%. Simultaneously, budget financing in
2007 made only 7% of capital construction. Gold stock was constantly
renewed. In 2008 clear balance of finance ministry totaled AMD 100 bn.

"Ideal macroeconomic situation proves that country spent less than
earned, saving part of its funds ‘for a rainy day’," he underlined.

Kocharyan considers that this opportunity enabled new RA authorities
to spend savings and obtain new credits for the implementation of
anti-crisis programs. "Imagine what the government had to do in case
external debt would total say 40% of GDP instead of 13% before the
crisis. Naturally, no one would allocate Armenia such funds as it
could inevitably lead to default," he added.

Former President considers possible to prevent recession in
construction sector, stressing that it is necessary to consolidate
efforts to maintain housing demand. "I think the government now
understands that. It was extremely important to start that in advance,
when crisis was only beginning to move towards Armenia," Kocharyan
emphasized.

REMARKS BY THE SERGE SARGSYAN IN DEIR EZ ZOR

280.html
17:01:57 – 24/03/2010

Your Eminencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am here today since I could not but be here. It is the greatest
grief of my nation that has brought me here, the grief of the first
genocide of the 20th century and the greatest disgrace of the civilized
humanity. Up to this moment, in the 21st century, the stigma of that
disgrace still remains on the foreheads of all those who have turned
the denial of the evident facts into their policy, turned it into
their bargaining chip and into their lifestyle and norm of behavior.

In the desert of Deir ez Zor the most monstrous acts of the tragedy had
taken place, and it is neither possible to articulate the particulars
of that tragedy in the language of human beings, nor am I going do that
since these particulars are well-known even to those who publicly deny
the veracity of the Genocide. Bereft of home and property, bereft of
children and parents, bereft of health and the last hope, and finally
bereft of the most important – their homeland, these people were doomed
to lose the last thing they had – their life in accordance with the
state orchestrated and meticulously developed plan of extermination.

Quite often historians and journalists soundly compare Deir ez Zor
with Auschwitz saying that "Deir ez Zor is the Auschwitz of the
Armenians". I think that the chronology forces us to formulate the
facts in a reverse way: "Auschwitz is the Deir ez Zor of the Jews".

Only a generation later the humanity witnessed the Deir ez Zor of
the Jews. Today, as the President of the Republic of Armenia, the
homeland of all Armenians, I am here to ask: "Where and when will be
held our Nuremberg?"

I’m here to commemorate and to pray for the vast majority of my
slaughtered nation that had suffered both physical and cultural
extermination. I will elaborate neither on the quality, nor on the
quantity of the loss. Let me recall a single fact: as a result of
the Genocide the greatest share of the dialects of one of the most
ancient Indo-European languages – the Armenian – had been irreversibly
eradicated along with its speakers.

In spite of all that happened, we say that we are ready to establish
normal diplomatic relations with the modern Turkey, we are ready to
have open borders and economic relations, we are ready to make efforts
towards building confidence between the peoples of Armenia and Turkey,
we are ready to bring closer the two societies by breaking stereotypes
and myths that have nothing to do with the reality and developed in
decades of dearth of any sensible contacts.

We do this sincerely since we believe that there is no alternative to
the living and development between the neighbors through implementation
of what is proposed and still at the table, at least to start it
up. The signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols presented us with
an historic opportunity that should have a logical destine.

We, however, do not accept the style of references to the
Armenian-Turkish dialogue in attempts to avoid the recognition
of the Genocide. I do not think it helps the process. Moreover,
it is irrelevant to cite some Commission of Historians, since
the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely a governmental
sub-commission on historic dimension. I assume everyone understands
what it means and what the difference is. I ask all those who will
have an occasion to elaborate or express themselves on the topic of
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide: remember of this dessert,
millions of ruined human fortunes and this ancient people deprived
of their motherland and with pain in their hearts, before you make
up your minds.

In 1915 the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century – 35 years old
Daniel Varuzhan and 37 years old Atom Yarjanian (Siamanto) had also
been slaughtered. Before being tortured to death, they were undressed,
because they wore European clothes. In those times and places European
clothes were quite expensive. The executioners dressed up into the
European clothes – stolen from the Armenian geniuses encompassing
millennia old civilization, stolen from ordinary Armenians.

I would not interpret symbols signified in these images but I am
unequivocally convinced: while preaching European apparel, manners
or values no one has a right to cast these images in oblivion.

I am here to remind of the well-known words: "It is impossible to kill
a nation that does not want to die". We mean to live and to grow. It
is no more possible to intimidate or blackmail us since we have seen
the most horrible. We shall continue to live and create with double
vigor for us and for our innocent victims. We look forward since we
have a lot to say and to share with each other, a lot to say and to
share with the world: the brightness and glow that Daniel Varuzhan
and Atom Yarjanian had no chance to share.

And here, in Deir ez Zor, we firmly and loudly say over and over
again that we are, shall exist and will flourish.

EDWARD NALBANDIAN TO TAKE PART IN SESSIONS OF COUNCILS OF CSTO AND CIS FOREIGN MINISTERS

Noyan Tapan
March 24, 2010

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 25-26, RA Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian will pay a working visit to Moscow to take part
in the sessions of Councils of CSTO Foreign Ministers and of CIS
participant states’ Foreign Ministers. Noyan Tapan was informed about
it by the RA Foreign Ministry Press and Information Department.

"AZERBAIJAN’S STATE TERRORISM AND ETHNIC CLEANSING POLICY AGAINST NAGORNO KARABAKH" INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE LAUNCHES IN STEPANAKERT

/595558/lang/en
2010-03-23
STEPANAKERT

"Azer baijan’s State Terrorism and Ethnic Cleansing Policy against
Nagorno Karabakh" international conference launched March 22 in
Stepanakert dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Shushi tragedy
and 20th anniversary of Baku pogroms. Before the opening of the
conference a photo exposition entitled "Licensed Genocide" took place.

"This scientific-practical conference is a regular display of
our collective memory. It is highlighted with the conduction in
self-governing Nagorno Karabakh which means that the perception of
history from just the scientific platform enters the legal-political
evaluation – that is to say becomes a state attitude," chairman of
the National Assembly of the NKR Ashot Ghulyan said.

The conference, he said, testifies that the NKR will reach that
the violence exerted against Eastern Transcaucasian Armenians, the
displacements, pogroms and ethnic cleansings get a worthy assessment
in accordance with an international right and their organizers be
subjected to responsibility.

On the first day of the conference the first five reports contained the
second decade of the 20th century. The interesting was particularly
the study of senior scientific worker of the History Museum of the
RA National Academy of Sciences Gayane Makhmuryan of the 1919-1920
documents of the US Department of State where it is clearly noted that
Azerbaijan’s regular army was acting against the Armenian population
of Karabakh and Zangezur. This fact shows that the hypothesis spread
by the Azerbaijani sources as if Armenians massacred them to press
their fight does not correspond to reality.

As far as the questions of participants to the speakers were a lot,
the head of the "Artsakh" expedition chairing the session Hamlet
Petrosyan decided to conduct seminars after the sessions.

The conference has been organized by the NKR Education and Science,
Culture and Youth Affairs Ministries, Artsakh State University, Artsakh
Historic-Geological Museum and Shushi’s "Katchar" scientific-cultural
center.

The conference will last until March 24. Twenty five reporters from
Artsakh, Russia, Germany and Armenia will come forth.

EASTERN PARTNERSHIP GLOSSARY OF 27 COMMONLY USED TERMS RELEASED

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
23.03.2010 20:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A glossary comprising 27 terms commonly used in the
framework of the EU’s Eastern Partnership has been produced by the ENPI
Info Centre, with the support of DG RELEX and EuropeAid. The six-page
‘Eastern Partnership glossary’ is available in English and Russian,
as well as in the official languages of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Moldova and Ukraine. All the translations have been approved by the
European Commission.

The aim of this publication – handbook is to assist people
understand the terms and expressions used when referring to the
Eastern Partnership, a policy that seeks to bring closer the EU and
its six neighbours in the East, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

TOPIC OF GERMAN EXPULSION STILL TABOO

Waterloo Chronicle
March 21, 2010 Sunday
Canada

WATERLOO – It’s a dark chapter in world history that many know nothing
about, that others refuse to acknowledge.

It concerns the expulsion of millions of Germans living in Eastern
Europe after the Second World War, from such places as Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia and eastern areas of Germany.

It’s estimated that as many as 15 million people may have been forced
from their homes, a move in part condoned by the Allied leaders in the
Potsdam Agreement, which authorized the return of Germans in Poland,
Czechoslovakia and Hungary to Germany.

Those transfers were to be conducted in "an orderly and humane manner,"
according to the agreement signed by British, American and Soviet
leaders. It would prove to be anything but.

While casualty estimates vary, many historians – including Alfred
de Zayas, whose books Nemesis at Potsdam and A Terrible Revenge were
among the first English works to chronicle the tragedy – believe that
two million Germans died as a result.

De Zayas, a lawyer and human rights expert who spent 25 years with
the United Nations, says it deserves to be recognized alongside such
failures of humanity as the Armenian genocide and ethnic cleansing
in the former Yugoslavia.

"We would be ashamed of ourselves if we realized the magnitude of
the crimes," said de Zayas, who will speak tonight at the University
of Waterloo.

"The subject matter belongs in the schools," he said in an interview.

"It should be taught in genocide courses, courses that deal with
crimes against humanity."

And although the Cuban-born de Zayas – now a professor at the Geneva
School of Diplomacy & International Relations – said he "broke the
taboo" by writing about the expulsion, it’s a topic that still remains
off-limits to many.

"They’ve got a problem with the concept of Germans as victims," he
said. "I don’t have a problem … I came to it because I thought it
was an important subject."

He says he’s been asked whether he’s anti-Semitic or a Holocaust
denier, and he quickly dismisses those assertions.

"If I only deal with one category of victims, and deliberately ignore
the experience of other victims, I am essentially taking away the
human dignity of the other," he said. "I’m essentially saying my
corpses are prettier than your corpses."

De Zayas will speak tonight at 7:30 p.m. at UW’s Arts Lecture Hall.

Tickets are $12, and $10 for students and seniors.