Armenia

RFE/RL reports that the republic is once again considered “Partly Free” by Freedom House. RFE/RL quotes the U.S. based organization as laying the blame firmly on a “limited respect for political rights and civil liberties.”
The Washington-based group again evaluated the state of political rights and civil liberties in each of the 193 countries surveyed […]

Today as I read the newspaper, Serzh Sarkisyan’s comments struck me as unbelievably short sighted and almost comical. I was reading a week old paper and in it Serzh said that he does not see Russia’s acquiring of Armenia’s utilities as dangerous. He continued to say that he does not see Russia using […]

On October 18, the “Haykakan Zhamanak” newspaper published a report by Hayk Gevorgyan, entitled: “They are deceiving us again”. In this article, we read: “The regular session of the inter-parliamentary commission of the Armenian parliament and the Russian Federation Council was held in Yerevan in recent days and a delegation led by the chairman of […]

Armenia is in a very interesting part of the world. As most of you know it is in the Southern Caucuses but this is a new designation. As I travel around the country and see the 1000 year old monuments of the silk trail with Armenian and Arabic languages, it brings up a […]

…that probably wasn’t the first point in Sahakashvili’s agenda. Still, that’s what Georgia is clearly getting out of the scandal: according to data from the Regional Electoral Committee of Akhalkalaki (the predominantly Armenian populated town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region in Georgia), Akhalkalaki with 7052 voters will have 1 delegate to the regional sakrebulo (regional collegial self-government body), which is as many as the Georgian village Ptena with 204 voters.

Eurasianet has an article on the protests by ethnic Azerbaijanis in northern Iran. With as many as 20 million Azeris living in Armenia’s southern neighbor, there are concerns inside Iran that the demonstrations and rioting are part of a U.S. led scheme to destabilize the Islamic Republic from within. However, the article says that the Azerbaijani government is reluctant to lend its support to its ethnic kin in what Azeri nationalists call South Azerbaijan.

Rioting began in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz on May 19 after a local newspaper published a cartoon depicting a cockroach speaking Azeri. Despite official moves to punish the newspaper and its editors, Azeri discontent rapidly spread across northern Iran, prompting fierce clashes between protesters and security forces. For example, the Turan news agency reported May 28 that roughly 100 Azeris had been killed in the town of Sulduz since the start of the disturbances. As the protests spread, Azeris began voicing demands for better social and economic conditions, as well as greater political rights. Iranian leaders claim that the unrest is being stirred up by foreign governments intent on undermining Tehran’s nuclear research program.

Azerbaijani officials in Baku have pointedly refrained from criticizing Iranian government actions, or from sending signals that could be interpreted as endorsing the ethnic Azeri protesters’ demands. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Tagizada emphasized that the protests in northern Iran were “an internal affair of the Islamic Republic,” according to a May 30 report distributed by the Turan news agency. Tagizada indicated that Baku was satisfied with the Iranian government’s handling of events, as well as Tehran’s commitment to ensuring the civil rights of ethnic Azeris.

Interestingly, Eurasianet ran a story on the possible role that Iran’s large Azerbaijani minority could play in 2003, arguing that some U.S. policy-makers are taking the idea very seriously indeed. So far, however, there is no sign that many Azeris are eager to be part of such an “independence” movement.

Washington policy-makers have also expressed an interest in the views of Iranian Azeri cultural rights activist and political dissident Mahmudali Chehregani, a former Tabriz University Professor who was jailed briefly three years ago in Iran, and who currently resides in the United States.

On April 9, he told an audience of policy-makers, diplomats, journalists and students at the Johns Hopkins University Central Asia-Caucasus Institute that a strong sense of Azerbaijani nationalism is growing in Iran, predicting the possibility of Azeri-led unrest unless the demands of this “movement” were met. He predicted “radical changes” in Iran within three to five years, hinting that those changes could emanate from unrest among Iran’s large Azeri population.

[…]

Chehregani backers in Turkey and in the Republic of Azerbaijan have hinted and said publicly that Iran’s Azeri community should unite with Azerbaijan, a view with virtually no support among Iranian Azeris, most on-the-ground observers agree.

[…]

While Iranian Azeris may seek greater cultural rights, few Iranian Azeris display separatist tendencies, or go as far as Chehregani does in predicting ethnic-inspired unrest. Extensive reporting by this author in the three major Azerbaijani provinces of Iran, as well as among Iranian Azeris in Tehran, found that irredentist or unificationist sentiment was not widely held among Iranian Azeris. Few people framed their genuine political, social and economic frustration � feelings that are shared by the majority of Iranians � within an ethnic context.

Still, it’s alarming news given the demographic makeup of the region. Indeed, one local analyst in Armenia has already expressed concern that if military action did take place against Iran, there would be a flood of mainly ethnic Azeri refugees into Armenian-controlled [Azerbaijani] territory surrounding Karabakh. Moreover, there is already an increase in pro-South Azerbaijan blogs on the Internet which suggests that there are those that hope that ethnic discontent in Iran will escalate into something more serious.

The Armenian press is also starting to take the matter seriously, especially now that a South Azerbaijan National Freedom Army has reportedly been formed. Their claims are mainly cultural, but as anyone who has examined similar movements in Turkey and even the mainly Armenian-populated region of Javakheti in the Republic of Georgia knows, such demands are usually just a part of the real picture. Meanwhile, the Azeri media is getting in on the act by alleging that Armenia is ready to support Iran in supressing the protests.

The Armenian ambassador to Iran, Gegam Garibdzhanyan, suggested during secret talks with the Iranian government that his country can send military forces to crush protests in southern Azerbaijan [northwestern Iran], Sirus Azadi, a member of the World Azerbaijani Congress and the committee to support the National Movement of Southern Azerbaijan, has told APA.

There is no doubt that the sides have secured some kind of agreement, Azadi said. “It is possible that special forces will be brought from Armenia to crush protests in southern Azerbaijan.”

According to Arminfo, the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Armenia has denied such reports, and not least since the APA report couldn’t get the name of the Armenian Ambassador to Iran right.

“As is known, Gegam Garibdzhanyan is Armenia’s deputy foreign minister,” Vladimir Karapetyan, acting press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, said laconically while commenting on the “sensational” report of the Azerbaijani news agency APA saying that the Armenian side has allegedly “offered military aid to Iran to crush protests in southern Azerbaijan [northwestern Iran]”.

Regardless, any destabilization or unrest in Iran must surely be of concern to Armenia. Any U.S. military action against Iran would make Armenia’s situation in the South Caucasus even more problematic.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Armenian Energy Minister Tuesday met with Iranian Foreign Minister and discussed avenues available for consolidation of the two countries’ ties.

A statement released by the Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Bureau said that during the meeting, Mottaki noted the common interests shared by the two states and their profound relations and […]

The international media has plenty of coverage of the meeting between U.S. President George Bush and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev. Previously, it was believed that as with Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Aliyev would never be invited for such a high profile meeting because of serious concerns with his record in the area of democracy and respect for human rights. However, things appear to be changing.

Bush met in the Oval Office with President Ilham Aliev, who succeeded his father 2 ½ years ago in a ballot that the State Department said suffered from “numerous, serious irregularities.”

With Aliev sitting in an armchair next to him, Bush held out Azerbaijan as “a modern Muslim country that is able to provide for its citizens, that understands that democracy is the wave of the future.”

Of course, perhaps Bush is being a little “economic with the actualité,” as Alan Clarke used to say. In fact, most observers believe that there are other far more important issues at stake than democracy and human rights whatever the White House might say.

A year ago, the country celebrated the opening of a 1,100-mile pipeline from its capital, Baku, on the Caspian Sea, through Georgia and on to a Mediterranean port in Turkey. The event was important enough to the U.S. that Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman attended.

The pipeline creates a link that avoids Iran, Russia and neighboring Armenia to carry 1 million barrels of oil a day to Western markets by 2008.

Other reports indicate that Iran topped discussion between Bush and Aliyev and that the two presidents also touched upon the issue of Nagorno Karabakh. However, no details are known on this last point although Today.az carries the full transcript of what was said at a photo opportunity staged by the two leaders.

Of course, the issues of resolution of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh also in the center of our discussions and we — I informed Mr. President with the latest status of the negotiations and expressed my hope that a peaceful settlement of the conflict will happen and will serve to the peace and stability in the whole region.

The Azerbaijani online publication also says that Aliyev is against providing assistance to the U.S. in the event of any military action against Iran. However, a short report on the PanArmenian.net site says that Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Karabakh are now seemingly linked.

The United States will take every possibility to get hold of Azerbaijan as an ally against Iran, political scientist, orientalist David Hovhannisian told PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. “In this view the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is bound with the Iranian problem. At that it should be noted that for the United States Iran in the number one tactical problem. Talks with Aliyev will be held on the whole scope of relations including the distribution of energy resources, U.S. influence upon the whole Caspian region and many others. Azerbaijan’s geopolitical location as a transit state should also be taken into account. By the way, Azerbaijan has been for two years already providing its military and civic airdromes for the United States,” Hovhannisian remarked.

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The political scientist also noted that the U.S. may involve Armenia in the conflict with Iran. However, in his opinion, this will be not dangerous for Armenia. “The principle “the ally of the enemy” works, but Armenia should not fear of it. We will be apart of the conflict if such occurs,” he underscored.

On a kind of related note, the World Peace Herald also carries an op-ed on Armenia’s situation in the region and the world as well as the problems it currently faces by the U.S. born opposition party leader Raffi Hovannisian.

In the 15 years of the country’s newly rediscovered statehood, authority has never been transferred from incumbent to challenger by free and fair elections. They have always been forged — unfortunately always by the administration. The sitting presidency is no exception to this deplorable rule of illegitimate government.

For Armenia to reclaim its democratic advantage in the region, to become a competitive contributor to peace, development and security, and to realize its strategic credentials at an increasingly critical crossing on the global map, it must transform itself both at home and abroad.

It’s worth a read.

Photojournalist Zed Nelson has a great photostory on nose operations in Iran. Although recent reform in the Islamic Republic is said to regressing, it’s interesting to note that looking good is as big an issue for young women there as it is anywhere else.

There have reportedly been more nose jobs in Iran during the past year than in any other country in the world. For more than 20 years strict social rules have demanded modest dress and covered hair. Laws forbid women to publicly sing, dance, or wear make-up. But today, frustrated with their lack of freedom, Iranian women are redefining what it means to live in an Islamic fundamentalist society. Iran, and Tehran in particular, has a female population that is pursuing rhinoplasty with the same passion that they’re pushing for government reform.

It’s even more interesting to see Iranian youth in Iran. Not only do the girls generally — although not always– walk aroung with their heads uncovered, young Iranians appear more progressive than their local Armenian counterparts. The same is true for Iranian-Armenians.

Ever since she moved to Armenia from Iran with her family last year Annette has come to enjoy things that are taken for granted or not noticed by many local people. She sums them up with a single word: freedom.

“For example, here I can go to any place without having to worry about something, without fear and without stress,” explains the 19-year-old ethnic Armenian citizen of Iran. “Things are a bit different in Iran. You feel badly when you walk among Iranians. You are just not at ease.”

[…]

An estimated 200,000 Armenians forms Iran’s main Christian minority. Most of them live in the capital Tehran and are the descendants of Armenians that were forcibly resettled in Iran by Shah Abbas in the 16th century.

A slow but steady improvement of the economic situation and living conditions in Armenia leads a growing number of them to wonder if it is about time they returned to their historical homeland. For young people like Annette repatriation also represents a welcome escape from the Islamic Republic’s strict code of behavior to a more liberal and laid-back environment. “What attracts us here is freedom,” he says.

[…]

It is estimated that as many 900 young Iranian Armenians currently study at various universities in Yerevan. Sero, an Iranian national who has lived in Armenia for the last ten years, believes that they should not return to Iran upon graduation.

Incidently, on the subject of plastic surgery, the same is true in Armenia. Nune Yesayan had her forehead enlarged, and many of the prettiest girls on the streets of Yerevan have had nose jobs at the very least. It’s amazing to even consider that among poor families, I know girls who have paid $300 to get their noses “un-Armenianized.” Armenia Now did a story on this sometime ago.

Considering the Armenian face, let’s face facts: We have big noses. Sometimes the distance from eyebrow to lipline is so great a hump is required to get there.

For many, it is an ethnic characteristic as in-extractible for our identity as our inability to be on time.

[…]

Many are proud of their nose bulk and count it a matter of ethnic pride. Many others, exposed to Westernized precepts of “beauty”, are not.

Anyway, Zed Nelson’s photostory from Iran can be viewed here.