Armenia

While RFE/RL reports that Armenia has been prevented from attending a meeting of Defense Ministers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the French President is reported to have urged his Azerbaijani counterpart to accept the latest peace plan mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.

French government official said that president of France, quoting, ‘confirmed the principles of joint statement made by three co-chairs of Russia, the US and France may 25 in Yerevan, which states that the time has come for both the parties to come to an agreement on basic principles of the confliict settlement’.

Staying in Europe, Armenia appears to have scored a rare public relations victory over Azerbaijan. Although too late to change anything, the European media has now turned its attention towards the ancient Armenian cemetary of Jugha in the Azeri exclave of Nakhichevan after a EU delegation was refused entry. The paper I used to work for, The Independent, has more.

Most of original 10,000 khachkars, most of which date from the 15th and 16th century, were destroyed by the early 20th century, leaving probably fewer than 3,000 by the late 1970s.

According to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos), the Azerbaijan government removed 800 khachkars in 1998. Though the destruction was halted following protests from Unesco, it resumed four years later. By January 2003 “the 1,500-year-old cemetery had completely been flattened,” Icomos says.

Witnesses, quoted in the Armenian press, say the final round of vandalism was unleashed in December last year by Azerbaijani soldiers wielding sledgehammers.

[…]

Some MEPs believe that, boosted by its oil revenues, Azerbaijan is adopting an increasingly assertive stance in the region. Charles Tannock, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman in the European parliament, argued: “This is very similar to the Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban. They have concreted the area over and turned it into a military camp. If they have nothing to hide then we should be allowed to inspect the terrain.”

[…]

Hannes Swoboda, an Austrian socialist MEP and member of the committee barred from examining the site, said he hopes a visit can be arranged in the autumn. He added: “If they do not allow us to go, we have a clear hint that something bad has happened. If something is hidden we want to ask why. It can only be because some of the allegations are true.”

And he warned: “One of the major elements of any country that wants to come close to Europe is that the cultural heritage of neighbours is respected.”

The Independent’s article is here.

Garo (AKA Christian Garbis) over at Notes from Hairenik has more on the continuing destruction of Hin Erevan (Old Yerevan). The destruction of cultural and historical monuments is something that is raised constantly by nationalists in Armenia and Diaspora when it is done by Azeris or Turks, but few seldom say anything when it is done by corrupt or connected businessmen and state officials in the Republic.

A few months ago I had posted an entry revealing that a historic building, with a history dating as far back as the late 19th century, was in danger of being destroyed by a developer and multi-millionaire with government connections. The building housed at least two families, both of whom operated small door-step stores selling sandwiches, bottled soda, candy, and other snacks. To my dismay while walking to work this morning past the Yerevan Hotel, across from which the building is located, I found that two thirds of the two-floor apartment building has been completely demolished, virtually overnight. It was still standing yesterday.

The person responsible for the demolition of the site, according to a story published by Hetq Online earlier in the year, is Gagik Tsarukian, an “oligarch” who is infamously known as “Dodi Gago.” He used to own the majority of the shares in the Kotayk brewery until he sold them off over a month ago. He is considered to be the outright owner of the “Kentron” television station and the conglomerate “Multigroup,” which has a broad area of business interests, with stakes in dairy products, a wine factory, cement, real estate, gasoline stations, and other businesses. He is also a member of parliament, and it is generally accepted that he became one in order to escape any kind of prosecution, as all National Assembly members are apparently immune.

Now he is the head of his own political party called “Prosperous Armenia.” He is also closely linked to the top leadership of Armenia, which is another reason why he can do virtually anything he wants.

Ironically, as Garo explains, some of these buildings date back to when Yerevan was a predominently Azerbaijani or Turkish village, and it’s interesting to note that were this happening in Baku, Tbilisi or Istanbul to old Armenian houses, Diasporan lobbying groups would have jumped on the chance to use it for propaganda purposes. There’d be hell to pay, in fact.

Regardless of origin, however, Garo says that there is very little to represent the city’s history before the 20th Century. Thank god the Erebuni museum and historical site is situated outside the city center, or I daresay that it would be gone too.

There is now very little to account for pre-Soviet Yerevan’s history. You can no longer point to any 19th-century structure and announce that it is part of antiquity, it is where people used to live and want to live, it is a monument to how old the city really is. I have never heard of such careless, random demolition occurring in any other city in the world, without any thought or understanding of how the past is being wholly discarded for the supposed sake of progress. These narrow-minded actions represent a total disregard for human rights and for cultural and historical preservation.

Unfortunately, nobody cares because nobody thinks either about the future or the past. All they care about is making a sometimes illegal fast buck today regardless of whether it means that Yerevan no longer has any public parks in the center, or whether urban “redevelopment” is anarchic, mistaken and improperly implemented. The Diaspora holds it up as positive change, while Yerevanians lament the loss of what was once a charming city.

They lost the Palace of Youth despite assurances that it would not be dismantled, and now there are concerns about the Karen Demirchyan (formerly Hamalir) Sports & Concert Complex.

What we’re seeing is corruption and the lack of community involvement in the decision-making process in action. I suppose Armenians can take some solice in the fact that the urban redevelopment phase also hit Baku and Tbilisi before it did Yerevan, and that there were concerns there too. Rena Effendi documented the Mahalla district of Baku, for example, and Tbilisi lost the chance to become a World Heritage Site.

However, Zarchka over at Life Around Me recently showed me some photographs of a trip she made to Tbilisi last year and I was struck by the beautiful and scenic park the Georgians still have in the center of their capital.

Moreover, on my most recent trip to Tbilisi last Autumn I was also taken by how a lot of the redevelopment has occured and is still occuring in derelict areas outside of the city center. I know which is better for a city, and also, what means more for sustainable long-term tourism. One day, Yerevan will pay the price for this madness.

In the meantime, I dread the day when residents of Kond are evicted out of their homes with little compensation and another old part of the city center is destroyed to satisfy individual greed.

Tsitsernakaberd (Genocide Memorial), Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

By Nessuna

On April 24 Armenians all over the world honor the memory of the one half and a million victims of atrocities that qualify as “the first genocide of the XXth century.” The Armenian genocide was planned and carried out during between the years 1915 and 1923 by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.

The present-day Republic of Turkey adamantly denies that genocide was committed against the Armenians. Fortunately, there are now historians in Turkey who speak out about the Armenian Genocide. I will refrain from going into the timeline of the events because there is large amount of information online.

The history books are open. You need only to open your mind.

In the Armenian blogsphere, Christian Garbis over at Notes from Hairenik has an entry on the Armenian genocide as well as a little background on the families of his mother and father who managed to survive it, while Tamar has posted links to all the blogs that mention it at Armyouth.

It should be crystal clear to everybody that affirming the truth about the Armenian Genocide is an issue of international significance. As Dennis R. Papazian states at Useful Answers to Frequent Questions on the Armenian Genocide, which is an absolute must read:

Many scholars and intellectuals have argued that if the Allies had punished the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide after the war, namely the leaders of the Young Turk party of the then Ottoman Government of Turkey, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis would not have carried out the Jewish Holocaust during World War II.

[…]

By leaving the Armenian injustice of World War I uncorrected, the stage was set for the Holocaust of World War II. The abandonment of the Armenians was not lost on Hitler. Hitler said before sending his troops into Poland, “Go, go kill without mercy. Who today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?”

It is simple really. Unless you recognize and condemn genocide, history will repeat itself. That is why I found the fact that Global Voices did not link to Christian Garbis’s entry on the Armenian genocide or mentions on other sites a little weird. I hate to sound paranoid, and I would love for them to prove me wrong and link to the posts including this one, but I cannot think of a reason as to why anybody would miss out such an event unless…

Indian Student, Tsitsernakaberd (Genocide Memorial), Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Tsitsernakaberd (Genocide Memorial), Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Indian Students, Tsitsernakaberd (Genocide Memorial), Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Tsitsernakaberd (Genocide Memorial), Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Indian Students, Tsitsernakaberd (Genocide Memorial), Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006