Newsletter issue number 010 (February 2007)

Presidents Jacques Chirac and Robert Kocharian inaugurated exposition “Saint Armenia” (Armenia Sacra) dedicated to the Armenian Christian culture (from the 4-18th centuries), which is being exhibited in the Louvres for the first time.

The two Presidents made a tour of the exposition and examined some 200 pieces dislayed there.

Chirac was accompanied by Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Minister of Culture.

Chirac had the opportunity to admire some 30 Khachkar pieces, the oldest one dating to the 9th century. The guests had a long stop in front of a piece taught to be part of the Noah's Ark, discovered in the 17th century on the top of Mount Ararat.

Placido Domingo, the world-renowned tenor, will be performing at a specially created desert village in Al Khatim, between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain (United Arab Emirates) on 26 February 2007, according to organisers.

Domingo will be performing in the UAE as part of the upcoming Education Without Borders (EWB) conference to be held at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi from 25 till 27 February 2007.

Domingo's performance will be the main cultural event during the conference. He will be accompanied by the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of condutor Misak Baghbudarian.

Baghboudarian's two sisters are playing also in the Orchestra (Dzovag on violin and Karoun on cello).

Interview by Sylvia Bourdjian-Matta

Ask any child to sing a song then immediately will start with “Hink Pokrig Patigner khaghalu katzin…”.

Every Armenian household owns a CD or DVD of Taline for their children?s sake. I have known some kids who ate their food only while watching Taline singing. Families with cars definitely own Taline?s CDs so that their children stay entertained while driving.

Through her songs Taline was able to enter in to every Armenian home and capture the attention of the children indirectly teaching them songs and lullabies. Through her DVDs, she introduces the children to the Armenian alphabet and emphasizes the importance of keeping the Armenian language and heritage. Your child will certainly enjoy and watch her highly educational and entertaining DVDs over and over again.

I had the chance to contact Taline and ask her the following questions:

By Carlos Jose Bourdjian

A very interesting character. He only minds his own business, very quiet and conservative, but once you know him he?ll become an almost open book especially after trusting you. He was awarded with the ?Best album of 2006? for his album ?Um? (To whom) in the 4th Armenian national music awards on 15 December 2006. He won a special award from Elvina Magarian at the Meridian club hit awards in December 2005. He has only one album but you may find his name in hundred of CDs as a sound engineer. Big names like Shushan Bedrossian, Aram Asadrian and Hayko trust him only to mix their songs. He is very romantic, sensitive, charming, a father of two kids and a wonderful husband. Our star is Dikran Bedrossian.

Congratulations for winning the award ?Best album of 2006?, how does it make you feel?

This award means a lot to me, because the album itself is a very special work. Each track of it took a lot of time and hard work till it was finalized and recorded. I?m happy that it was finally appreciated, and I have to admit that I was utterly shocked when my name was announced that evening, especially that there were big names among the nominees, like Nune Yesaian and Arsen Safarian.

The topic of the dicussion was adopting common national platform

Leaders of the international governing bodies of the ARF Dashnaktsoutiun, the ADL Ramgavar and the SDHP Hunchak Party met in Paris on 5 Febraury 2007 to discuss national issues and a new quality of cooperation to consolidate efforts around various pan- Armenian issues such as Hay Tad and the recognition of the Genocide, lobbying for Armenia as well as issues of security related to the Armenian community of Lebanon.

In an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper “Al Siyasa” (16 February 2007 / see PDF format file in Arabic below), a prominent International relations expert Boghos Mardirossian residing in Kuwat, has said “Russian- Iranian alliance is not that strong and it could be broken and weakened in front of serious test by western world.”

Mr. Mardirossian has analyzed in depth the strength of Iran-Russia relation. He stated “Russia and Iran have fought many wars in the past and only improved their relations after Islamic regime came to power in 1979 having a common enemy the USA in their foreign policy agenda. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia continued to retain good relations with Iran's Islamic regime”.

Mardirossian has explained Armenia's strategic importance in the Iran-Russia relations. “Armenia is the natural and most important bridge of Russia ? Iran alliance. Russia and Iran will not let anti-Russian- Iranian, pro-USA government come to power in Armenia during next year's presidential election. Armenia will pay big price, willing or not, if it takes Georgia's way of dealing with Russia. Already Russia has controlled Armenia's strategic energy sector in return to the payment of Armenia's loans to the ex- Soviet Union.”

By Hayg Panoyan

Protest condemning the murder of Hrant Dink On Tuesday, 23rd of January 2007 at 11:00am, on the same day when Hrant Dink was being buried in Istanbul, members of the Armenian community in Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa gathered in front of the Turkish consulate in East Jerusalem, condemning the murder of Hrant Dink.

The event organized by the Hay Tad Committee of Jerusalem, brought forward more than 100 protestorsm who carried banners written “Hrant Dink:the Genocide continues”, “We are all Hrant Dink, we are all Armenians”, etc. The protestors chanted Armenian nationalistic songs. The protest lasted for an hour which was documented and photographed by various reporters. A letter of condemnation was handed by the Hay Tad Committee to the consulate.

The official website of the Embassy of Armenia in Egypt has been launched on 1st February 2007.

The address is: http://www.arme mbegypt.com

The website aims at highlighting the Armenian- Egyptian bilateral relations, the activities of the Embassy in political, economic, scientific and cultural domains, as well as plethora of consular services and related issues.

A special section of the website is devoted to the Armenian community in Egypt, its past history and present-day situation.

The website is unique in its kind, as it is the only electronic presence of an Armenian diplomatic mission in the Middle East. It is worth mentioning that there are 4 Armenian Embassies functioning in the Arab capitals (Beirut, Damascus, Cairo and Abu Dhabi) and one Consulate in Aleppo.

By Sylvia Bourdjian-Matta

On 4 February 2007 the ?Aleppo Choir ? Zvartnotz? performed a concert in the Damascus Opera House, conducted by Artun Kalemkerian, accompanied by pianist Ruzan Barsoumian.

The 1st lady of Syria Asmaa Al-Assad, who was the guest of honour, warmly welcomed the group and highly praised their performance (see photos).

The concert started with an Armenian song ?My land? followed by ?Song of unity?, which was performed twice due to the beautiful interpretation by the singers. The concert ended with the songs ?Fi sabil al-majd – For Glory? and ?Suria ya habibati ? My dear Syria?. The program also included Arabic patriotic songs with new musical arrangements. According to Kalemkerian the program was prepared in 4 months time including those songs that had new arrangements. ?We hope the audience liked them? he added.

By Alaric Gomes, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Overnight leader Yerjanik Avetisian fumbled a bit, but held her nerves to clinch the top spot in the women's skeet at the Dubai Shooting Championships yesterday.

At the impressive Jebel Ali International Shooting Club range, victory did not come easy for the stocky Russian as she slipped up a bit on the penultimate station missing a target.

However, she did enough to recoup and hold her nerve in the shoot-off against Germany's Christine Brinker.