CHINA TO GIVE ARMENIA A GRANT WORTH YUAN 5 MLN. ($800 THSD) IN THE
FRAMEWORK OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT
YEREVAN, June 13. /ARKA/. China will give Armenia a grant worth Yuan
5 mln. ($800 thsd) in the framework of technical support. According
to RA MFA Press Service Department, letters were exchanged in Beijing
between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and China Vartan
Oskanian and Li Zhaoxing. A.H. –0–
Freedom of press: imposed or necessary?
Boris Navasardian
President of Yerevan press club
Dear readers,
Between May 31 and June 7, 2005, you had an opportunity to address
your questions on the Yerkir’s website to BORIS NAVASARDIAN, President
of Yerevan press club.
Below are the answers to your questions. See the full version of the
interview in Armenian.
Thank you for your active participation: Spartak Seyranian,
editor-in-chief of “Yerkir” Weekly.
Jirair – Freedom of press is a super-goal for any country, and
especially for Armenia. But how should we treat a reporter, whose
report is often deliberately incorrect, to say the least. Please,
do not reply in a classical way that “readers decline such papers,”
or “you can sue those papers,” because people do not read papers in
today’s Armenia (the newspaper circulations are the proof of this),
and the level of trust in courts can be seen in the Yerkir Online’s
previous interview.
Boris Navasardian – The question is somewhat rhetoric. How a person
— regardless of his/her profession — is regarded if he or she
lies or is engaged in a fraud? This is especially true in case of
journalists who use words and facts as their key tools. What should
we do in such cases? Of course, the journalist should not be thrown
in jail; neither the paper (TV station) should be shut down. The
best way is the clear diversification of the papers in the market
so that everybody knows that one paper is a quality one, the other
is a “tabloid.” A media outlet is a product as everything else. For
instance, we trust the quality of one garment; other times we buy
a cheap piece of clothing just to wear it once or twice. However,
both garments have the rights to be represented in the market. There
are people whose views and knowledge are appreciated, and there
are individuals who simply gossip: we might listen to what they are
saying out of curiosity but we hardly trust them. When you know who
is who, the damage from misinformation can be much less. In Armenia,
however, you may see quality reports and extreme “tabloidness” in
the same paper. The situation will change eventually. Many editors
and reporters are addressing this issue already.
Garegin Vardazarian – What are your organization’s plans in developing
our journalism, protecting the rights of media outlets, enhancing
the professionalism and press freedom?
Boris Navasardian – We are trying to actively react to current needs
and challenges. All the issues that I touched upon in my previous
answers are reflected in our projects: minimizing the government’s role
in regulating the media, simultaneously establishing self-regulation
bodies, improvement of journalism education and implementation of
international standards in the Armenian journalism. In addition,
the enhancement of media’s role in Armenia’s integration in regional
processes is one of the pivotal goals of the Yerevan Press Club. To
learn more about our projects, you may visit our web sites at:
; ;
See the full version of the interview in Armenian.
Where do we benefit?
Yerkir/arm
10 June 05
Everyone has an answer to this question depending on his or her
awareness, professionalism, position, etc. But most importantly,
the answer should stem from patriotism.
In this regard, the leadership of the Yerevan State University, its
faculties and students adopted a stance that in contrast to that of
the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Education and Science is
highly admirable. According the information we have, Deputy Foreign
Minister Geghan Gharibjanian and Education and Science Minister Sergo
Yeritsian are forcing the YSU students to meet today with a Turkish
delegation in the premises of the YSU.
This meeting is actually forced, since as we were told, students show
little interest — to say the least — in such meeting. Moreover,
many have attempted to explain that supporting a Turkish propaganda
action at this time does not stem from our national interest. But it
seems that Mr. Gharibjanian and Mr. Yeritsian use other criteria when
dealing with this issue.
Nevertheless, the meeting will take place today, and Turks would
trumpet all around the world that they have made another step towards
establishing good-neighborly relations with us on their path to the
“European integration.” It remains to be seen what explanations our
statesmen have to offer.
ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 9, 2005 Thursday
Armenia seeks individual partnership with NATO
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
Armenia will present to NATO headquarters a document to a plan of
individual partnership with the Western alliance.
Armenian Defence Minister and National Security Council Secretary
Serzh Sarkisian arrives in Brussels on Thursday.
He will hand in the document, on behalf of the Armenian president, to
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Sarkisian will attend a meeting of the Council of Ministers of
Euro-Atlantic Partnership member states.
Armenian authorities say that joining NATO is not on the country’s
foreign policy agenda, but Armenia develops the relations with the
Western alliance within the framework of a partnership programme and
now of the individual partnership plan.
Contacts with NATO will be developed if they do not come to
contradict Armenia’s relations with the Collective Security Treaty
Organisation, Sarkisian said in a statement last year.
“Armenia realistically assesses the state of security in the regions,
and does not make premature statements, developing cooperation with
the North Atlantic alliance step by step. In this context, the
relations with NATO play a serious role in the system of the
republic’s security,” he said.
3 ARTSAKH SCHOOLS GET NEW CLASSROOM FURNITURE
STEPANAKERT, JUNE 7, NOYAN TAPAN. On June 6, the “Hay Dprots”
(“Armenian School”) fund gave 350 new desks to Stepanakert school N 2
after Ashot Ghulian, schools of village of Khnatsakh of Askeran region
and village of Chartar of Martuni region. So, 700 pupils of the
above-mentioned schools will have new classroom furniture in the new
schoolyear. “There are many persons carrying out donations who
expressed willingness to distribute property in Artsakh and we fulfil
their wish,” Iranian Armenian benefactor Levon Aharonian, fund’s
Chairman, mentioned. In total nearly 8.5 thousand desks will be
distributed to schools with maximum 120 pupils for 17215 pupils. The
distribution will be carried out by 3 stages, during several
years. 1491 desks for 2982 pupils have been already distributed by
now, during 3 months of program’s implementation.
SWEDEN WELCOMES ARMENIA’s ASPIRATION FOR INTEGRATION TO EUROPEAN
STRUCTURES: SWEDEN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
YEREVAN, JUNE 7. ARMINFO. Sweden intends to raise attention to the
countries of the Southern Caucasian region and notes in this context
the importance of developing relations with Armenia, stated the
newly-appointed Ambassador of Sweden Kingdom to Armenia (residence in
Moscow) Ukhan Mulander at today’s presentation of credentials to
Armenia’s president Robert Kocharyan.
As ARMINFO was informed in the presidential press-service, Mulander
noted that Sweden welcomes Armenia’s aspiration for integration to
European structures and is ready to serious cooperation. Kocharyan
noted that both the exchange of information between the countries and
the activation of business relations are necessary for widening
Armenian-Swedish relations. -r-
Sunday Mail (South Australia)
June 5, 2005 Sunday
Still bucking the System
by GREG KOT
Releasing two albums in one year is no problem for this US band, says
GREG KOT
SYSTEM of a Down has never been one to conform, despite mainstream
success.
So it’s no surprise the LA quartet, which has sold nearly 10 million
albums, is bringing out a double album in two halves – one now, the
other later this year.
So far, the oddball strategy is working. The first album, Mezmerize,
debuted at No. 1 on the Australian charts last week.
It will be followed by Hypnotize.
The hard-rock foursome had such a bounty of material, thanks to the
prolific writing of guitarist Daron Malakian and singer Serj Tankian,
they could not fathom how to fit it all on one disc during recording
sessions with longtime producer and collaborator Rick Rubin.
“The concern was that if we put it all out at once, people would
gravitate toward certain songs and not really experience all of it,”
Rubin said. “So we thought: ‘Let’s put it out in two pieces, even
though we still think of it as one project.’
“The nature of System’s music is pretty overwhelming to begin with –
it’s complicated, difficult music.
“Putting two albums of that out at once just might drive you crazy.”
While he shares songwriting duties, Malakian, in particular, has his
imprint on Mezmerize, not only as a songwriter, arranger and
guitarist, but also as a singer.
For him, music is an obsession.
“I have a house (in an LA suburb) with guitars, keyboards, drums, all
over the place and I rarely ever leave it. If I’m not playing music
there, I’m listening to it,” he said. “I rarely go out. Music is
pretty much all I do.”
Malakian’s obsession has helped make System one of the signature
hard-rock bands of the last decade.
The band’s craziness – dramatic leaps in tempo, texture and style
from thrash-metal stomp to droning East European folk harmonics – is
compressed into tightly scripted pop songs on everything from Iraq to
pop-culture “brainwashing”.
It makes the quartet one of rock’s boldest bands, and one of its
unlikeliest success stories – four Armenian outcasts who were told by
Hollywood talent scouts in the 1990s they didn’t fit in. “We weren’t
white, black or Latino,” Malakian said. “We didn’t belong in any
category they could market to.”
Tankian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, 38 years ago. His parents
emigrated to LA in 1975, the year Malakian was born.
Malakian’s parents had just moved from Iraq the year before, and he
still has relatives there, giving added immediacy to songs such as
Cigaro that address American policy in the Middle East.
“We’ve been cast as a political band, but really, the things we’re
addressing are personal, because they affect us directly,” Tankian
said.
Malakian sighs when politics comes up. “It’s life,” he said. “We have
no choice but to reflect our lives. I can sympathise with a family
that is endangered by this war, whether they are the parents of an
American soldier or Iraqis, because I have all sorts of family living
there.
“I don’t understand some of the music I hear on MTV or the radio,
because they don’t mention the times we live in. Times like this
should bring out a big, strong creative movement.”
System of a Down is doing its share. The seeds for that ceaseless
invention were in place long before Malakian was in rock bands.
His parents were successful sculptors in Iraq, but had to work day
jobs after they moved to America, cultivating their passion for art
in their spare time.
His father’s dark and mysteriouis artwork adorns Mezmerize’s cover.
“My dad is my biggest influence on me as a musician, even though he’s
not a musician,” Malakian said.
“I even learned from his mistakes. I remember him working on
paintings for days and my mother saying, ‘Stop, you’re ruining it’.
“It made me realise that sometimes you have to hold back some of your
ideas to make the art work,” he said. “That what you leave out can be
just as important as what you leave in.” Tankian came to music much
later than Malakian, and projects a more worldly, confident air.
He’s run a software company and worked in jewellery, all the while
writing poems, lyrics and music.
“I didn’t start writing music and playing instruments until I went to
college. When I did, I realised I was famished for them. I’ve been
playing like a madman ever since,” he said.
On first impression, Mezmerize isn’t quite as striking or consistent
as 2001’s Toxicity. Both Rubin and Malakian suggest some of the best
songs were left for Hypnotize, which suggests with more pruning,
System could have made a monster single disc. As it is, Mezmerize is
still a relentless 36-minute thrill ride.
The most compelling development is the way the voices of Malakian and
Tankian blend; their eerie harmonies sound as ancient as their
long-lost homelands.
“Everything comes down to the song with these guys,” Rubin said.
“That emphasis has grown with each album. On these new albums, they
take more chances in more directions than ever before.
“But they know that people don’t remember albums because they sound
great. They remember songs because great songs live forever.”
Mezmerize is out now. It is reviewed on Page 14.
Palmerston launches Young Turks
to permanently control Middle East
by Joseph Brewda
Chorus: It is clear that the B’nai B’rith is an abject tool of British
intelligence, run and directed to serve the interests of British
imperial policy, and not the interests of Jews, nor even of B’nai
B’rith members. The one peculiarity of B’nai B’rith in comparison to
the other organizations launched by Palmerston and his three stooges,
is that B’nai B’rith will be used for a wider variety of tasks in
various countries and epochs. Therefore, the B’nai B’rith will be more
permanent in its continuous organization than its Mazzinian
counterparts, among which it stands out as the most specialized.
At the end of this century, one of the tasks assigned to the B’nai
B’rith will be to direct, with the help of other Mazzinian agents, the
dismemberment and partition of the Ottoman Empire. This is the state
the British will call “the sick man of Europe.” Historically, the
Ottoman Empire offers surprising tolerance to its ethnic
minorities. In order to blow up the empire, that will have to be
changed into brutal racial oppression on the Mazzini model.
In 1862, during the time of the American Civil War, Mazzini will call
on all his agents anywhere near Russia to foment revolt as a way of
causing trouble for Alexander II. A bit later, with the help of Young
Poland, Mazzini will start a Young Ottoman movement out of an Adam
Smith translation project in Paris. In 1876, the Young Ottomans will
briefly seize power in Constantinople. They will end a debt
moratorium, pay off the British, declare free trade, and bring in
Anglo-French bankers. They will be quickly overthrown; but the same
network will soon make a comeback as the Young Turks, whose rule will
finally destroy the Ottoman Empire.
In 1908, the Committee for Union and Progress, better known as the
Young Turks, carried out a military coup, overthrew the sultan, and
took power inthe Ottoman Turkish empire. Once in power, they carried
out a racist campaign of suppressing all non-Turkish
minorities. Within four years, their anti-minority campaigns provoked
the Balkan wars of 1912-13, among Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, and
Serbia. By 1914, these wars had triggered World War I, with Turkey
becoming an ally of Germany.
Within seven years of coming into power, the Young Turks destroyed the
Ottoman Empire. British intelligence had manipulated every nationalist
group in the Empire, both the Young Turks, and their opponents.
When the Young Turks took power, the Ottoman Empire still included
Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, and the Arabian Peninsula. The empire
still included much of the Balkans: half of Greece, half of Bulgaria,
half of Serbia, and all of Albania. Its land area was much bigger than
present-day Turkey.
Although most of the population of the Ottoman empire were Turks,
there were also large numbers of Slavs, Greeks, Arabs, Armenians, and
Kurds. The Ottoman empire was a multi-ethnic empire, as were the
nearby Austrian and Russian empires.
The Young Turks came to power waving the banner of democracy, but they
soon picked up the banner of pan-Turkism. The idea was to form a state
that included all the Turkic peoples of Asia. Since half of these
people lived in Russia, this policy meant a collision with Russia.
But pan-Turkism was not created by the Young Turks or even in
Turkey. It was first called for in the 1860s by a Hungarian Zionist
named Arminius Vambery, who had become an adviser to the sultan, but
who secretly worked for Lord Palmerston and the British Foreign
Office. Vambery later tried to broker a deal between the Zionist
leader Theodor Herzl and the sultan, over the creation of Israel.
The Young Turks also raised the banner of a pan-Islamic state. The
idea was to bring all the Muslim peoples of the world into one empire,
whether or not they were Turkish. This was another goal that meant
conflict with Russia.
This idea was also not created by the Young Turks or in Turkey. It was
first called for in the 1870s by an English nobleman named Wilfred
Blunt, whose family had created the Bank of England. Blunt was a top
British intelligence official who advocated using Islam to destroy
Russia. Blunt’s family later patronized the British KGB spy “Kim”
Philby.
While the Young Turks were pushing the pan-Turkic and pan-Islamic
movements, the British were also boosting all the anti-Turkish
independence movements within the empire. They were supporting Arab
nationalism, led by Lawrence of Arabia. They were supporting Serbian
nationalism, led by the British agent Seton-Watson; Albanian
nationalism, led by Lady Dunham; and Bulgarian nationalism, led by
Noel Buxton. All of these peoples wanted to break free from the
Ottoman Empire; but they also claimed the land of their neighbors.
For example, the British supported the idea of carving a “Greater
Armenia” out of Turkey, Iran, and Russia. This “Greater Armenia” had
no possibility of existing. None of the Great Powers, including
Britain, really wanted it. The Kurds, who lived in the same area,
didn’t want it. But the British told the Armenians they supported
their plans.
At the same time, the British were also telling the Kurds they
supported the idea of “Greater Kurdistan.” As the map shows, the
proposed territories of “Greater Kurdistan” and “Greater Armenia” were
almost identical.
In 1915, during World War I, the Kurds killed about 1 million
Armenians. The Young Turks, who had been put in power by the British,
used the Kurds (who thought they had the support of the British) to
slaughter the Armenians (who also thought they had the support of the
British). The British then used this genocide as a justification for
trying to eliminate Turkey.
In fact, the next year, the British and French got together to plan
the division of the Ottoman Empire between themselves. According to
the plan, which only partially worked, Turkey itself would be reduced
to a tiny area on theBlack Sea. The rest of the empire would go to
Britain and France.
B’nai B’rith and the Young Turks But who were these “Young Turks,” who
so efficiently destroyed the empire?
The founder of the Young Turks was an Italian B’nai B’rith official
named Emmanuel Carasso. Carasso set up the Young Turk secret society
in the 1890sin Salonika, then part of Turkey, and now part of
Greece. Carasso was also the grand master of an Italian masonic lodge
there, called “Macedonia Resurrected.” The lodge was the headquarters
of the Young Turks, and all the top Young Turk leadership were
members.
The Italian masonic lodges in the Ottoman Empire had been set up by a
follower of Giuseppe Mazzini named Emmanuel Veneziano, who was also a
leader of B’nai B’rith’s European affiliate, the Universal Israelite
Alliance.
During the Young Turk regime, Carasso continued to play a leading
role. He met with the sultan, to tell him that he was overthrown. He
was in charge of putting the sultan under house arrest. He ran the
Young Turk intelligence network in the Balkans. And he was in charge
of all food supplies in the empire during World War I.
Another important area was the press. While in power, the Young Turks
ran several newspapers, including The Young Turk, whose editor was
none other than the Russian Zionist leader Vladimir
Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky had been educated as a young man in Italy. He
later described Mazzini’s ideas as the basis for the Zionist movement.
Jabotinsky arrived in Turkey shortly after the Young Turks seized
power, to take over the paper. The paper was owned by a member of the
Turkish cabinet, but it was funded by the Russian Zionist federation,
and managed by B’nai B’rith. The editorial policy of the paper was
overseen by a Dutch Zionist named Jacob Kann, who was the personal
banker of the king and queen of the Netherlands.
Jabotinsky later created the most anti-Arab of all the Zionist
organizations, the Irgun. His followers in Israel today are the ones
most violently opposed to the Peres-Arafat peace accords.
Another associate of Carasso was Alexander Helphand, better known as
Parvus, the financier of the 1905 and 1917 Russian
revolutions. Shortly after 1905, Parvus moved to Turkey, where he
became the economics editor of another Young Turk newspaper called The
Turkish Homeland. Parvus became a business partner of Carasso in the
grain trade, and an arms supplier to the Turkish army during the
Balkan wars. He later returned to Europe, to arrange the secret train
that took Lenin back to Russia, in 1917.
Of course, there were also some Turks who helped lead the Young Turk
movement. For example, Talaat Pasha. Talaat was the interior minister
and dictator of the regime during World War I. He had been a member of
Carasso’s Italian masonic lodge in Salonika. One year prior to the
1908 coup, Talaat became the grand master of the Scottish Rite Masons
in the Ottoman Empire. If you go to the Scottish Rite headquarters in
Washington, D.C., you can find that most of the Young Turk leaders
were officials in the Scottish Rite.
But who founded the Scottish Rite in Turkey? One of the founders was
the grand master of the Scottish Rite in France, Adolph Cremieux, who
also happened to be the head of the B’nai B’rith’s European
affiliate. Cremieux had been a leader of Mazzini’s Young France, and
helped put the British stooge Napoleon III into power.
The British controller: Aubrey Herbert You can find the story of the
Young Turks in the B’nai B’rith and Scottish Rite archives, but you
cannot find it in history books. The best public account is found in
the novel Greenmantle, whose hero is a British spy who led the Young
Turks. Carasso appears in the novel under the name Carusso. The
author, John Buchan, who was a British intelligence official in World
War I, later identified the novel’s hero as Aubrey Herbert.
In real life, Herbert was from one of the most powerful noble families
in England. The family held no fewer than four earldoms. His repeated
contact with Carasso and other Young Turk leaders is a matter of
public record. Herbert’s grandfather had been a patron of Mazzini and
died leading revolutionary mobs in Italy in 1848. His father was in
charge of British Masonry in the 1880s and 1890s. His uncle was the
British ambassador to the United States. During World War I, Herbert
was the top British spymaster in the Middle East. Lawrence of Arabia
later identified Herbert as having been, at one time, the head of the
Young Turks.
The U.S. State Department also played a role in the conspiracy. From
1890 through World War I, there were three U.S. ambassadors to Turkey:
Oscar Straus, Abraham Elkin, and Henry Morgenthau. All three were
friends of Simon Wolf. And all three were officials of B’nai B’rith.
AZG Armenian Daily #102, 04/06/2005
Interview
CHAIRMAN OF WAC ARA ABRAHAMIAN SHARING WITH HIS THOUGHTS ON RUSSIA,
DEMOCRACY AND ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS
(beginning in previous issue)
– Is that possible that an “orange” revolution will take place
in Armenia?
– I think today’s situation in Armenia is hardly favorable for such
a revolution. It usually comes with elections. There is still much
time for parliamentary and presidential elections in Armenia. It is
important for an “orange” revolution that there is a united opposition
with one leader. It also requires involvement of external powers and
weak and disunited authorities. Many elements that go hand in hand
with “orange” revolution are absent in Armenia. Besides, Armenia’s
political elite understands that there is the Nagorno Karabakh issue
which may suffer in case of political crises. Thus, the opposition
does not neglect Karabakh issue while defining its stance against
the authorities. But, as President Bush said in his speech at the
International Republican, USA will perhaps back suchlike revolutions
and regime changes in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. I want to
believe that he meant Georgia and Azerbaijan but not Armenia. I think
neither the US nor Russia are interested to see revolution in Armenia.
– How do you see Nagorno Karabakh conflict resolution?
– The resolution is obvious for us, Armenians. We certainly would
like to set right the historic injustice, when ancient Armenian region
was deliberately handed over to Azerbaijan by the Party’s decision —
a decision that no one had right to take. For us it is obvious that
Nagorno Karabakh is part of Armenia. By making concession, I think it
would be possible to recognize Karabakh a sovereign unite, a small
state, which will have good-neighborly relations with Azerbaijan
and close brotherly ties with Armenia. The Minsk group co-chairs
make different offers to push the settlement forward. But it’s not
the time and the place for detailed discussion of these offers,
particularly in case when they are not thoroughly elaborated.
– Is that possible that the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan will
break out?
– That threat is always hanging, as Azerbaijan is getting ready
for parliamentary elections in November. If the opposition exerts
too much pressure the authorities may provoke break of the truce in
order to unite the nation and keep the opposition away from taking
the wheel. Much will depend on America’s and Russia’s behavior. Will
they take a tough position not to allow a war that will destabilize
the region? In view of the newly built Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline,
such destabilization would play into hands of neither oil companies
nor the Western states with their huge investments in the pipeline.
– What do you think of Turkish Prime Minister’s letter to Armenian
President with a proposal of a joint Armenian-Turkish group to study
archive documents connected with the events in the beginning of
20th century?
– I think that the fact of Turkish Prime Minister’s appeal to
Armenian President should be greeted. Unfortunately, Turkey takes such
steps only after feeling international community’s pressure. Without
Washington’s pressure that would be no Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation
Commission. Without European Union’s pressure, without European
Parliament’s precondition of Armenian Genocide recognition the Turkish
side would hardly take any step to remove that painful issue which
separates the two nations.
I think that Armenian President is right saying that it is not the
time to discuss archive documents and that it is not an issue for
the historians to study. Today the Armenian-Turkish relations are a
political issue. Politicians and diplomats have to treat it but not
the historians.
At any rate, Armenian side has no doubt that there was a genocide. No
Armenians are left in our historic homeland, their property was
appropriated, many monuments were ruined and the people spread all
over the world. It’s ridiculous to return to historical studies today
when 2 dozens of states and international organizations recognize
the Armenian Genocide.
– How do you see the improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations?
– I think that those relations should improve based on the
international law and should include a few elements: Genocide
recognition by Turkey, material reparation to Genocide survivors and
territorial concession to Armenia.
I think that small material reparation (there are very few survivors
today that could present their documents to Turkish authorities),
construction of a memorial at the place of massive massacres and
return of a symbolic territory comprising the Mount Ararat, Armenian’s
medieval capital of Ani could be a good ground for talks.
At all events, the World Armenian Congress has created a commission of
specialists that should elaborate a pan-Armenian approach and demand
to this issue. It will also decide the size of reparation. I think
we will have final and summarized recommendations to submit to the
Armenian authorities and the Armenian Diaspora.
Gramophone, UK
June 3 2005
Sergey Khachatryan wins Queen Elisabeth competition
Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan has won first prize at Belgium’s
prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition.
(Photo: James F Hunkin)
The 20-year-old featured in Gramophone’s One to Watch section in
January 2003, for his debut disc, on EMI. He recently recorded the
Sibelius and Khachaturian concertos on the Naïve label, with the
Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Emmanuel Krivine. His next recordings,
also on Naïve, will be a solo programme, followed by Shostakovich’s
Concertos Nos 1 and 2 with the Orchestre National de France conducted
by Kurt Masur.
Held in Brussels, the Queen Elisabeth competition rotates over a four
year cycle between piano, voice, violin and composition.
Second and third prize were awarded to Yossif Ivanov and Sophia Jaffe.
Martin Cullingford, The Gramophone, features editor
;newssectionID=1
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