Iran and Armenia to start energy barter next year

Mehr News Agency, Iran
May 7 2006

TEHRAN, May 7 (MNA) — Iran and Armenia are planning to start an
earlier agreed upon energy barter in the next year.

Iran has offered to supply Armenia with natural gas in exchange for
electricity imports from the Republic of Armenia, a report said here
on Sunday. Construction works of the pipeline for carrying Iran’s
natural gas to Armenia have already started and is expected to be
completed in the next year, the report added.

Based on the deal, Iran’s natural gas export to the Transcaucasian
state is scheduled to hit three million cubic meters per day, an
official with National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said.

Iran will receive three kilowatts of electricity from Armenia in
exchange for each cubic meter of natural gas it exports to the
republic.

The agreement over the construction of the natural gas pipeline was
signed between the officials of the two countries during the Armenian
President Robert Kocharian’s visit of Iran in December 2005.

48 capsules with Black Sea water to represent not found victims

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 7 2006

YEREVAN, May 7 (Itar-Tass) — Forty-eight capsules filled with Black
Sea water and soil were delivered in Yerevan last night to represent
Sochi air crash victims, who had not been found. That was done by
request of the victims~R families.

Five bodies are still to be identified in Sochi, Armenian Ambassador
to Russia Armen Smbatyan told Itar-Tass.

A two-day mourning for the air crash victims is over in Armenia.

The tragedy aggrieved everyone in the small Armenia, which is
intertwined by family relations and friendship, President Robert
Kocharyan said.

The demand for flights between Yerevan and Sochi is very high, as
people want to attend funerals of the air crash victims and support
their families and friends, a source at the Armavia airline said.
From: Baghdasarian

Russia invites France to join retrieval of Airbus fragments

Interfax, Russia
May 7 2006

MOSCOW. May 7 (Interfax) – The government commission handling the
effects of the crash of an A-320 of Armenian Airlines has invited
experts from the French civil aviation safety authority to participate
in the retrieval of fragments of the Airbus that crashed near Sochi
on May 3.

“We invited French experts to participate in the retrieval of aircraft
fragments,” commission chairman and Transport Minister Igor Levitin
told the Moscow press on Sunday.

He said Russia would not cope without French equipment. “We must define
more precisely the whereabouts of the fragments that interest us,”
he said.

Levitin said the commission is energetically studying the experience
of lifting the fragments of the ship that sank in Sharm El Sheikh.

“The retrieval of fragments took 18 days,” he added.

He expected the French side to deliver the necessary equipment in
the nearest future. ml

Cyprus Mail
May 7 2006

Minority rights put to vote
By By Jean Christou

Cyprus’ religious groups will are also contesting elections in two
weeks

WHILE representatives of the three main religious minorities in
Cyprus are allowed a seat in the House of Representatives, the seats
only have observer status and no voting rights, something all three
incumbents would like to see changed. In this year’s election on May
21, a total of eight candidates – two Armenians, four Maronites and
two members of the Latin community – will battle it out at the polls.
The candidates for the three minority seats all say that their
communities are divided.

ARMENIANS: Melkonian remains an issue IT’S NOT all that long since
the Armenian community held a short but lively by-election with
three participating candidates for the community’s parliamentary
seat, left vacant by the passing of long-time representative Bedros
Kalaydjian. The nearly 2,000-strong community in Cyprus went to the
polls last October with all three candidates pledging to unite the
community.

The biggest issue in the election was the closure last year of the
Melkonian Educational Institute, the only Armenian secondary school in
Cyprus and the only one for a large number of other Armenian students
in the region.

The school remains closed and now there are just two men standing in
the polls.

Incumbent Dr Vahakn Atamyan is going up against new candidate,
businessman Vartkes Mahdessian, although the Sunday Mail spotted one
of the previous three candidates amongst Mahdessian’s entourage when
he went to register his candidacy on Wednesday.

On why he decided to stand for election for the first time, Mahdessian
said: “I felt that with the experience I have in Cyprus and overseas
over the last 30 years I could offer to my community, which has
I believe a number of problems that have stayed stagnant over the
years. We would like to motivate everybody to go forward.”

Mahdessian also said the Melkoninan was still a big issue. “There’s
a lot of uncertainty about it. It’s the wish of every Armenian for
it to reopen,” he added.

Atamyan freely admits he is not too happy about having to go through
another election so soon. “I think it’s a bit unfair to tell you the
truth because it’s only been eight months,” he said. “I’m required
to fight another election now and the thing is that I had only eight
months to show some progress. I think I have done a lot of things
and I have started doing a lot of other things and I will try, if I
am re-elected, to fulfill the promises I have given.”

He said that other than the hassle involved, he was not concerned
about his opponent. “Whoever the opponents are I am ready to fight
them,” he said.

THE LATIN COMMUNITY: A need for change?

THERE are also two candidates competing for the ‘Latin’ (Roman
Catholic) seat in parliament. Benito Mantovani seems to have been the
Latin representative forever. In the last two elections, going back
to 1996, he had no opponent. This time however he is being challenged
by a woman, Maria Markou, the only female candidate standing in the
religious groups.

Mantovani is the main proponent of religious minorities being given
a vote at the House instead of being just observers.

“Currently we have no vote and we have no right to speak except in
parliamentary committees,” he said. “I think the law can be modified
to allow us to present ourselves a bill of law, discuss it and vote
on it as long as it is related to our community.”

There are only 650 Latins registered to vote in Cyprus but Mantovani
said there are actually 2,000 Cypriot citizens of the Roman Catholic
faith. “For various family or other reasons they have not registered,”
he said.

“Then there are about 3,000 European citizens who are permanent
residents of Cyprus. If you were to add to them the 2,000 it makes
about 5,000 Latin Catholics in Cyprus plus the foreign workers. We
have some 5,000 Filipinos and around 1,000-1,500 Sri Lankans. That
makes a total number above 11,000 Latin Catholics but of course not
all of them are Cypriot citizens but whenever they have a problem and
want to discuss something, I always sit and talk with them. I don’t
care if they’re Cypriot citizens or not.”

But Mantovani’s opponent, Markou, who presents the Latin programme
on CyBC radio, believes all is not well within the community and she
has decided to do something about it.

“I see that there are some problems that are unsolved and have existed
for many years in our community,” she said, adding that for starters
the Latin community still doesn’t have its own cemetery.

However, Mantovani’s manifesto states that land has been expropriated
for Nicosia and that he would keep working on the Limassol end.

“For 32 years we have not had a cemetery in Nicosia and this is just
an example,” Markou said.

“I believe that my candidacy is going to give a new spirit and a new
climate to the Latin community. There are many problems and I have
a pre-election plan which is very realistic and possible,” she added.

Markou, who is a psychologist, said she would also focus her campaign
on families in need, something the Latin community has always been
involved in “not only through the church”.

“I’m going to give half of the (deputy’s) salary to a fund that I’m
going to create according to the law to give help to people who are
really in need,” said Markou.

She believes that her opponent has not done enough and those things
he has done were only related to the basic benefits they were entitled
to from the government as a minority group in Cyprus.

She also admits that she is coming up against someone who has been
the established representative of the community for many years.

“It’s a big challenge and you know in the past two elections we
didn’t have another candidate. It needs courage to come against the
establishment but the people have welcomed my candidacy. They’re very
interested and I’m very optimistic about the results. People realise
the need for change.”

MARONITES: Rights for refugees

THE Maronite community, which numbers around 6,000 in Cyprus has
four candidates.

Antonis Hadjiroussos, the incumbent said the main concern for Maronites
is the political issue and the occupation of the villages in the
north. Maronites had four villages where their community lived,
now only Kormakitis remains as a home for them.

“The Maronite villages are enclaved, they are all under Turkish
occupation and in a forthcoming discussion of the Cyprus problem we
have to give a lot of emphasis and try to make these villages free
for our people to return,” said Hadjiroussos who is going for his
third term.

“I’m confident,” he said, adding that another major issue for the
community was education and government grants to students.

“All our people are refugees, they don’t have sources of income so we
want the government to increase the grants to students. In ten years,
it has not been increased,” he said.

Ioannis Poyiadjis was the Maronite representative from 1991 to 1996
and is also concerned primarily with the political issue and what is
to become of the community and its property in the north. But he has
other concerns as well.

“The community is really in a very bad state at the moment,” he said.
“The problems are many. We are divided as a community. We have no
unity and no organisation and we don’t know how to ask for our rights
from the government. These are the main things.”

Poyiadjis said that compared to other majority and minority groups
in Cyprus unemployment within the Maronite community was running at
30 per cent, which is more than five times the national average.

“Something like 30 per cent is out of work or they are occupied in
very humble positions,” he said. “We don’t know how to ask for our
rights. That’s why. We are in the poorest community of Cyprus in
relation to the others and have no power to fight. We want this to
change. We want education and more scholarships for our people. This
is what we want to do. We want these people to understand that they
cannot just say we look after the minorities. They have to show in
practice that they are looking after us.”

Edouardos Hadjihannas said he was standing in order to offer an
alternative choice to the divided community. It is his fourth time
and he has not yet won but he is unfazed.

Asked if he was optimistic this time around, Hadjihannas said: “No
but I am optimistic of achieving my target, which is to make my point,
to present the problems, to listen and to be heard.”

Hadjihannas, who is not from Kormkitis, said he was worried that
the overall political instability was leading to uncertainty for the
Maronite community that could hurt them as a minority. “I am worried
about emigration,” he said. “Our community is in danger.”

He dismissed the other candidates. “They are always from Kormakitis
and when they talk about Maronites they always mean the people of
Kormakitis. My candidacy is for all Maronites,” said Hadjihannas.

The last religious minority candidate to register, and the fourth
from the Maronite community was the fresh-faced Yiannakis Moussas,
Surprisingly for someone who barely looks 30, this is not his first
time standing for parliament.

“I stood in last elections in 2001,” he said. “I feel there is a need
for a real change in the leadership of the community and I feel very
confident that the people of the community will vote for change.”

Again the political issue was deemed the most important. “Ninety five
per cent of the Maronite community are refugees and I promised them
I would stand with them in confronting their problems,” Moussas said.

On the fact that there are another three candidates for the community,
he said: “It seems at least that democracy in the community is alive
and well.”

Boston Globe, MA
May 7 2006

Artifacts of church and state
Medieval wonders unscroll at BC
By Greg Cook, Globe Correspondent | May 7, 2006

CHESTNUT HILL — In the spring of 2004, a dozen curators and historians
visited the Boston Public Library’s Copley Square branch to meet
with Earle Havens, the library’s curator of manuscripts. Among many
lavishly decorated texts that Havens showed them was a 15th-century
document written in medieval French.

“When we unrolled the scroll, everyone pounced on it because nobody
knew what it was,” recalls Nancy Netzer, director of Boston College’s
McMullen Museum of Art and a medieval specialist who led the team of
BC scholars.

The 33-foot-long text, illustrated by 57 tiny scenes, is a history
of the world from Genesis to 1380. Not publicly exhibited since the
library acquired it more than a century ago, it is the centerpiece
and greatest wonder of “Secular/Sacred,” an exhibit of wonders from
the 11th to 16th centuries at the McMullen Museum through June 4. The
show brings together more than 90 works from the Boston Public Library
and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the majority of them rarely, if
ever, shown.

The scroll, given the name “La Chronique Universelle,” is one of 32
hand-painted copies known to exist. “This is by far the most completely
illustrated and one of the earliest versions of this text,” Netzer
says. Walking the length of the grand case it is displayed in is like
traveling through time. Centuries ago people may have unrolled it to
see God creating the world, Adam and Eve, Noah, the Tower of Babel,
Abraham, and King David. After the burning of Troy, the founding of
Rome, and Alexander the Great, Jesus arrives.

By this point the text has been divided into four columns, with
biblical tales and papal histories on the left, the decline of the
Roman empire and rise of France and Britain on the right. The Franks
drive out the Romans, King Arthur battles, Charlemagne makes an
appearance. Religious and secular history mix fluidly, establishing
connections between Adam and Eve and French and English kings,
declaring their divine right to rule.

These last years are what the BC exhibit so magnificently documents.
If you dream of rummaging through the Hogwarts library or the archives
of Middle Earth, this is the show for you. It was a time of cathedrals
and castles, the scruffy middle era between the crumbling of the
Roman empire and the celebrated rebirth of European culture during
the Renaissance. It was an era when the Roman Catholic Church vied
with ascendant feudal kings for sacred and secular dominion.

Exhibition organizers aim to point out the blurry divisions between the
secular and sacred in medieval works. But unless you’re a specialist,
you’ll likely brush such questions aside to get straight to examining
these treasures. Organizers have arranged things by subject and type
— beasts, ministers and magistrates, the Virgin Mary, sacraments,
devotional books, worldly goods — to elucidate the development of
European styles.

A 13th- or 14th-century metal pitcher used for washing hands is shaped
to depict a wiry, stylized Samson, as in the Old Testament tale,
leaping upon a lion’s back, twisting its neck, and prying open its
jaws. A stunning, tiny 14th-century silver box pendant honors St.
Margaret and St. Catherine. Inside, it probably once contained
images of Jesus to match the inscription “Hail holy face of Christ”
on the outside.

A 15th-century alabaster carving sensitively describes an angel landing
before the Virgin Mary to announce that she will bear a boy who would
be called the son of God. And a sumptuous wool and silk tapestry
from the late 15th or early 16th century shows a smiling Narcissus
(suffering from the kind of vanity that requires him to emblazon his
name on his pants leg) entranced by his sober reflection in a fountain
amid a flowering woodland full of birds and small beasts.

As great as these are, the real stars here are the manuscripts
and books. Look closely; it’s easy to miss the tiny details whose
chromatic punch was protected from damaging sunlight between closed
book pages. A 1521 English book is printed from exquisitely carved
woodcuts illustrating “The Passyon of Our Lorde.” (Try reading the
old English.) Woodcuts designed by Lucas Cranach the Elder compare
the pope (as Antichrist!) unfavorably with the evangelism and trials
of Christ in a 1521 tome that supported Martin Luther’s attacks on
corruption in the church — a glimpse of the feud that led to the
Protestant Reformation.

Fourteen baseball-card-size paintings by Simon Bening, cut from an
early 15th-century prayer book, render Christ’s life and execution in
vivid color. And the embossed silver cover of an Armenian “Ritual”
book from about 1698, with clasps shaped like little hands, depicts
the prophet Isaiah standing before God and surrounded by Old Testament
figures framed in arcades. An angel reaches down with tongs to press
a hot coal against his lips, purifying them.

This book stands at the end of the medieval era, looking backward, not
quite ready for the start of our modern age of science and humanism
and the “discovery” of new worlds outside Europe. Much medieval art
reveals artists stretching to make sense of a confounding world,
both material and spiritual. To our eyes it seems all cockeyed kings
and lions, babies that look like aliens, and bent drapery. Medieval
artists often get anatomy wrong and perspective wrong — you name it,
they get it wrong –but they get it wrong in fabulous ways. And in
doing so they reveal the curious workings of human minds.

Metro-West Daily News, MA
May 7 2006

Blumenau: Magic of Mgrdichian
By Kurt Blumenau/ Surf~Rs Up
Sunday, May 7, 2006

A musical maestro died just a week or so back, and somehow we didn~Rt
hear a word about it.

Of course, that~Rs what happens when your chosen instrument is the
oud — a fretless, 11-stringed Middle Eastern instrument that looks
like a cross between a guitar and some kind of exotic seed pod.

George Mgrdichian, who died April 30, was one of the world~Rs
best-known oudists (oudistes? Oudeours? Oud-slingers?), performing
with everyone from the New York Philharmonic to jazz saxophonist Phil
Woods. An Armenian-American Juilliard graduate, he appeared on more
than 100 recordings, one or two of which we recall stumbling across
in our travels.

We~Rre pretty much fascinated by string instruments of all kinds,
and by people who toil honorably outside the limelight. So — you
guessed it — this week~Rs Surf~Rs Up is all about George Mgrdichian.
He wasn~Rt exactly an Internet star, but we found a few tidbits:

— You~Rll probably want to start by learning something
more about Mgrdichian~Rs chosen instrument. This page, by Greek oud
player Nikos Dimitriadis, details the oud~Rs long history, as well as
the baffling variety of ways in which it can be tuned. The oud~Rs
complexity probably explains its relative obscurity — it sounds like
it~Rs just too ornery for some MTV-idol guitarist to pick up and idly
tinker with.

— Speaking of
MTV, George Mgrdichian~Rs agility on the oud would be the envy of more
than a few prominent guitarists we can think of. This page offers
three RealPlayer recordings of Mgrdichian showing his business.
(Check out the prolonged, speed-picked runs in just the first 30
seconds of “Nehavend Longa.”) This ain~Rt stereotyped Middle Eastern
restaurant background music; this is soulful, musical, even fiery
stuff.

members.boardhost.com/oudpage/msg/1146442691.html — What better
way is there to learn about somebody than to listen to the words of
his or her good friend? This link takes you to an all-oud discussion
board (isn~Rt the Net wonderful?), where a user named Saffet announces
Mgrdichian~Rs death and sums up his contributions to the oud
tradition. Would that we are as well-remembered, or as important in
our field, when we check out.

More heartfelt comments can be read at another oud discussion forum:
p?tid=3708.

stID=15320 —
Just how big was George Mgrdichian? Well, a program from a 1967
Central Park concert is selling for more than $1,500 at this pop
memorabilia site. OK, we admit: The concert was actually a festival
of 50-plus acts, among them Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Duke
Ellington and John Lee Hooker, with Mgrdichian among the more obscure
names on the bill. Still, it illustrates what kind of company he was
capable of moving in, and we wish we~Rd been there.

Aero-News Network, FL
May 7 2006

Fire At Sabena Technics Hangar Claims Four Planes, Including Second
Armavia A320
Sat, 06 May ’06

Second A/C Loss For Carrier In Three Days

A fire that swept through one of aircraft maintenance company Sabena
Technic’s hangars at Brussels National Airport Thursday night
destroyed four aircraft, including a second Airbus A320 belonging to
Armenia carrier Armavia. That carrier is still reeling from the loss
earlier this week of another A320, that went down in the Black Sea
Tuesday night with 113 onboard.

“This was a reserve airliner. We hope this accident will not wreck
our overall flight schedule, and we will try and make up for the
losses,” said Armavia press secretary Zhasmin Vilyan in response to
the loss of the second aircraft (file photo of type, below.)

A worker at the hangar was seriously burned in the fire, but is
expected to recover. Three firefighters received minor injuries and
were treated at the scene, according to local media reports.

Sabena Technics handles maintenance for a variety of carriers
throughout Europe. In addition to the Armavia plane, another A320
belonging to International Armenia Airlines was also reportedly
destroyed in the fire, as was a C-130 transport belonging to the
Belgian Air Force.

The fourth aircraft is reported to be an A320 belonging to Cypriot
charter carrier Hellas Jet.

Before this week’s accidents, Armavia counted five A320s in its
fleet, as well as two Yak-42 trijets. All of its aircraft are leased
from other companies.

On Friday, hundreds of mourners gathered on the shores of the Black
Sea near the resort town of Sochi, and laid wreaths of blue, white,
and red flowers to commemorate the 113 victims of this week’s
accident. On Wednesday, the Russian and Armenian governments
designated Friday as a national day of mourning for those lost in the
mishap, which officials have stated was caused by poor weather
conditions. Search crews also said Friday it was unlikely that the
bodies of more than half the victims would ever be recovered.

Nagorno-Karabakh analyst on Vilnius conference: “evidently, they are deluding themselves”

Regnum, Russia
May 7 2006

“The forum on NATO’s Role in Defrosting Frozen Conflicts recently
held in Vilnius is a landmark event revealing a number of trends,”
Karabakh analyst David Babayan commented to a REGNUM reporter. First
of all, the Forum confirms the gravity of NATO’s plan to strengthen
its role in resolving conflicts in South Caucasus.

“We can only welcome participation of such an influential organization
in peaceful conflict settlement in this strategically important South
Caucasian region. However, the conference participants offer NATO
a ready approach, a preset settlement scenario. They behave quite
contradictory in this context,” David Babayan said. He reminded
that in the declaration adopted at the forum it is pointed out that
unsettled conflicts in Transdniestria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and
Nagorno Karabakh corrupt general European well-being: “The existence
of unrecognized states is straightforwardly characterized in the
declaration as aggressive separatism. Meanwhile, another declaration
article proclaims that unsettled European conflicts may be settled
only based on principles of democratic pluralism and respect for human
rights, as well as with the assistance of peacekeeping missions. These
two theses conflict with each other. On the one hand, unrecognized
states are stigmatized as aggressively separatist, which excludes
every chance to recognize their self-determination. On the other
hand, principles of democratic pluralism and respect for human rights
are maintained. What is it really that hinders application of the
abovementioned democratic principles?” David Babayan questions.

The situation, according to Babayan, is rather paradoxical: politicians
are trying to “delude themselves and avoid taking decisions crucial
for the strengthening of democracy itself.”

“Meanwhile, international conflicts are a good test to measure
democracy. It is how states behave in the process of conflict
settlement and how they approach the settlement that indicates most
clearly sincerity of the states’ adherence to democratic values.

Otherwise, lofty democratic ideals merely camouflage aggressive
imperial striving,” analyst stressed. He believes that the threat
of such neo-imperial striving to democratic communities could not
be overemphasized. It is too often underestimated due to the small
size and relative weakness of states who adopt such covert official
ideology. “An analogy with medicine immediately comes to mind.

Generally speaking, the size of viruses is neglectable compared to
the size of organisms which they invade, but the former are able to
parasitize and paralyze the latter, even when these are healthy and
very large organisms,” David Babayan resumed.

EU ready to assist in Garabagh settlement

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
May 5 2006

Baku, May 4, AssA-Irada — The European Union is ready to assist
in settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno)
Garabagh, the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said.

“Intense talks are underway between the conflicting sides with
the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group,” he told a conference in
Lithuania on Thursday held as part of the summit of Baltic and Black
Sea member states.

“Some elements of a possible accord are already discernible.”

Solana added that reaching peace depends directly on the parties to
the conflict.*

OSCE chairman: Upper Garabagh ‘not a state’

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
May 5 2006

Baku, May 4, AssA-Irada — Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, an Azeri region
under Armenian occupation, Georgia’s breakaway republic of South
Ossetia and Moldova’s Dnestr “are not separate states, although they
are geographic entities”, the OSCE chairman-in-office and Belgian
Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht has told the Armenian press.

Asked why representatives of the separatist republics were not invited
to a summit of the Baltic and Black Sea littoral states dedicated
to “frozen conflicts” flaring in the former Soviet Union states,
De Gucht disappointed Armenians, saying invitations to attend the
event had been sent only to recognized countries and their presidents.

“The summit is attended by the presidents of Moldova and Georgia,
as well as Azerbaijani and Armenian government officials,” he said,
indicating that Upper Garabagh could not be involved in the talks as
a party.

De Gucht added that one of the priorities for any given state is its
recognition by other countries.*

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress