Armenia

Azerbaijani Prisoner of War (PoW), Stepanakert, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1994

RFE/RL reports that the Armenian Foreign Ministry has welcomed Montenegro’s 21 May referendum to determine whether it should declare independence from Serbia. The statement comes just days before the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents are due to meet once again in the hope that a framework agreement to resolve the long standing conflict over Nagorno Karabakh can be agreed upon.

Central to the current proposal on the table is a similar referendum that would be held in Karabakh 10-15 years in the future.

For official Yerevan, the Montenegro referendum sets another important precedent of the principle of self-determination of peoples superseding that of territorial integrity of states. Leaders of some of Armenia’s main political parties said last week that its outcome will make it easier for the Karabakh Armenians to win international recognition of their secession from Azerbaijan.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry statement said: “In this peaceful separation, Armenia considers particularly important the fact that the Montenegrin people’s right to self-determination was expressed by means of a referendum, which proves that in international relations referendum remains a universally accepted and civilized way of resolving such problems.”

The statement clearly referred to an international peace plan currently considered by the parties to the Karabakh conflict. The plan reportedly calls for a referendum on Karabakh’s status within 10 to 15 years from the start of a gradual Armenian withdrawal from six of the seven Azerbaijani districts surrounding the disputed enclave. The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan seem to be facing growing international pressure to accept this formula.

Meanwhile, according to RFE/RL’s Press Review, the government controlled Hayastani Hanrapetutyun newspaper says that 77 percent of Armenians believe that a speedy solution to the Karabakh conflict is “very important,” although some political forces consider that the idea of a referendum without appropiate security guarantees is fraught with danger.

Only 2 percent of 1,200 respondents believe it is unimportant. Seventy-two percent said Karabakh must become a part of Armenia, while the remaining 28 percent would agree to the region’s full independence. The paper says none of the respondents backed the idea of restoring Azerbaijani control over Karabakh.

“Hayots Ashkhar” is less than enthusiastic about the peace plan which Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliev are expected to discuss in Bucharest early next week. The paper says the deal would give a mere “promise of a referendum written on paper” to the Karabakh Armenians and an “uncertain military-political situation not guaranteed by anyone” to Armenia. The paper quotes a spokesman for the Dashnaktsutyun party, Giro Manoyan, as saying that the mediators should specify what will happen if Azerbaijan rejects the referendum after signing the peace deal.

“Hayastani Hanrapetutyun” quotes the speaker of the Karabakh parliament, Ashot Ghulian, as indicating in an interview with a Russian online publication that he is not against the referendum option. “I am sure that our people would vote in the same way as they did 15 years ago,” says Ghulian.

Certainly, the momentum for peace is still there with the international community stressing the need for a resolution in an almost unprecedented manner. RFE/RL’s Emil Danielyan has written an article on this generally accepted conclusion for the Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor. Incidently, I’d like to stress that I place great value and importance on Emil’s work in general so it’s always worth paying attention to his analysis.

The United States, Russia, and France are stepping up pressure on Armenia and Azerbaijan in a last-ditch attempt to secure a framework agreement settling the Karabakh conflict this year. The three powers co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group have set the stage for yet another Armenian-Azerbaijani summit that could prove decisive in eliminating the number one source of instability in the South Caucasus.

Official Baku and Yerevan announced last week that Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian will meet for a second time in less than four months on the sidelines of a high-level forum of Black Sea states that is scheduled to take place in Bucharest on June 4-6. All signs suggest that the two leaders are as close to striking a compromise deal as ever. Their failure to do so would be an enormous setback that would keep the bitter territorial dispute unresolved at least until 2009.

High-ranking French, Russian, and U.S. diplomats underscored this reality as they paid an extraordinary joint visit to the Azerbaijani and Armenian capitals on May 24-25. (Such trips are usually made by lower-level diplomats representing the two states.) In a statement issued after talks with Aliyev and Kocharian, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, and a senior French Foreign Ministry official, Pierre Morel, emphasized that “now is the time for the sides to reach agreement on the basic principles of a settlement.” The conflicting parties, they said, are now “at the point where a mutually beneficial agreement is achievable.”

We should know more within the next week. Until then, Emil’s article is here.

Sunday was a great day, I was at the official sendoff ceremony of the Armenian replica Cilicia vessel. This is a model of an 800 year old ship that is being sailed around the world by a very talented group of Armenians. The ceremony was great, with easily 1000 people present. There were excellent performances […]

A fire occured in the Kond suburb of Yerevan today. According to official reports 5 houses are completely destroyed, and 2 have their roof destroyed. The state tv H1, showed pictures of professional firemen putting out the fire, whilst Yerkir Media’s new online news service shows a completely different story:

Residents putting out the […]

Kond, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Another of my long-term personal projects in addition to national minorities such as the Yezidi and children in residential care in Armenia has been the old central Yerevan district of Kond. On Sunday, for example, I took a visiting British-Armenian film maker to the area, so it was an unfortunate coincidence that A1 Plus today reported that a fire had started in a house and was spreading.

At present 6 houses in the district Kond are on fire. 6 fire brigades have arrived on the scene. But they haven’t been able to put out the fire so far.

[…]

The residents are trying to put out the fire by pouring water from buckets. According to them, the fire started in one of the houses because of the gas flowing and spread at a terrible speed. But the representative of gas service noted that there isn’t natural gas there and gas couldn’t be the main cause of fire.

Some of the residents assume that the fire was caused by electricity.

However, because I had strained a muscle in my back after foolishly doing too much (ie read some) exercise yesterday, I didn’t grab my camera and get down to Kond until Nessuna at di cavoli e di re rang me, leaving me no real choice but to do what I should have done hours earlier anyway. Thankfully for the 3,000 residents of homes in Kond, the fire had been extinguished by the time I got there.

However, Harmick over at Blogrel says that the way in which different media outlets covered the story raises a few questions.

A fire occured in the Kond suburb of Yerevan today. According to official reports 5 houses are completely destroyed, and 2 have their roof destroyed. The state tv H1, showed pictures of professional firemen putting out the fire, whilst Yerkir Media’s new online news service shows a completely different story:

Residents putting out the fire themselves with fire hoses, and half way through, the water running out. There was inadequate pressure in the fire hydrant,and no water supply in the suburb at the time. Pictures show people filling buckets with water, and apparently it took the one fire engine a very long time to arrive.

It makes me wonder, what if something worse happend in Yerevan? If there was not even water to put out a residential fire, what on earth would happen if anything worse occured. It is truly shocking that residents were having to struggle with no water whilst watching their houses burn. It is very, very sad.

Harmick has posted a link to the Yerkir Media coverage of the fire in which he says you can see the water run out, but to be fair to the fire service, Kond is not the most accessible of places. To be honest, it’s impossible to get a fire engine anywhere close, and when I was there earlier I was struck by the huge distance the fire hoses had to be laid out in order to get to the fire.

My main concern is that Kond should be in a much better shape than it is, and after this fire I hope that the oligarchs and government-connected “property developers” don’t get any ideas of how to force residents out. Kond is the last remaining part of the center of Yerevan that can be “developed,” and lighting a few fires in lieu of proper financial compensation might now seem a very effective method.

Anyway, after the violation of the law, constitution and human rights of residents of other old parts of central Yerevan, it’s only a matter of time. Instead of re-developing the area in a way that could pay huge dividends for Armenia’s fledgling post-independence tourism industry, I have always feared the worst about Kond. Greed will win over urban planning, and corruption will take precedence over protecting the rights of citizens.

Anyway, some photos of one of the most historical remaining parts of old Yerevan can be found here.

Kond, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

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.

Raffi Hovannisian, Opposition Protest Presidential Elections, Matenadaran, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2003

RFE/RL and A1 Plus report that the U.S.-born first Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia Raffi Hovhannisian is refusing to vacate the offices of his Heritage Party in downtown Yerevan. Hovhannisian was locked out of his premises in March in what many consider to be an attack on the popular political figure in the run-up to the 2007 parliamentary elections. RFE/RL has comprehensive coverage of the latest turn of events.

Opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian regained control over the headquarters of his Zharangutyun (Heritage) party on Monday only to be forced to resist fresh eviction orders from the government a few hours later.

Hovannisian and a group of his loyalists were refusing as of late evening to accept bailiffs’ orders to vacate the state-owned premises from which they were controversially evicted three months ago.

[…]

Relations between Hovannisian and the Armenian authorities seriously deteriorated last December after he sent an open letter to Kocharian which effectively implicated the Armenian leader in high-profile political murders and vote falsifications. Hovannisian accused the authorities earlier on Monday of systematically harassing Zharangutyun activists across Armenia and hampering the party’s activities.

“Both the police and National Security Service exert pressure on us, threatening to strip our members of their jobs, arrest and imprison them. That is having a certain psychological impact on people,” he told RFE/RL, adding that at least dozen of them have left Zharangutyun as a result.

The news item also says that Hovhannisian is prepared to team up with the recently ousted Speaker of Parliament, Artur Baghdasarian, who incurred the wrath of the Armenian President by recently implying that the 2003 Presidential Elections were falsified and that the Government’s geopolitical and domestic policies are following the wrong direction.

Finally, an opposition leader who is respected by most Armenians not only is prepared to work with others, but is also prepared to make a stand. A1 Plus says that Hovhannisian is still in his office, and in related news, RFE/RL said on Friday that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) is becoming increasingly concerned by the likely conduct of next year’s elections.

A top leader of the governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) has lashed out at Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian for reportedly creating a political party which he believes is intent on bribing its way into Armenia’s next parliament.

[…]

Markarian claimed that the Assembly for Armenia and other pro-establishment groups set up in recent months will primarily rely on vote bribes during the legislative polls. He complained that “the criminal underworld is also given a role during elections” held in Armenia.

[…] The Iranian-born politician further reiterated his critical assessment of the state of affairs in Armenia, singling out endemic government corruption. He claimed that the country’s “entire state apparatus” has made sure that officials affiliated with Dashnaktsutyun have no “real possibility” to tackle the problem.

Looks like things are heating up politically, and we’ve only seen the half of it. Next year’s parliamentary elections will be the last chance for Armenia to set itself back on the right path of development. If it doesn’t, we’re all in trouble so I can only hope that Hovhannisian’s stand will prove to be an example for others to follow. The alternative is too alarming to consider.

Perhaps something will now slowly start to change, but most Armenians tell me that they won’t. Unfortunately, Raffi Hovhannisian appears to be one of the few Armenians willing to stand up in the face of increasing government attempts to silence any critical voices despite numerous attempts by the authorities to to intimidate and discredit his family.

Incidently, I interviewed Hovhannisian in September, the transcript of which can be found here.

Two weeks ago, fellow blogger Zarchka over at Life Around Me posted what will probably be her last main entry for the next month or so now she is well into exam period. Not the nicest of times, perhaps, but at least something worth blogging about.

This is the period that I like less of all. My quiz and examination session will begin from the next week and will last till the end of June. That means that day in day out I will be doing nothing but swotting up my spot questions hoping to get an excellent mark. Now we are having seminars on every subject and I have 2 quizzes and 6 exams.

Anyway, from speaking to Zarchka today I know that she’s already passed the two quizzes — with top marks, as I recall — and I’d guess that she’s going to achieve the same with the remainder of her exams. Regardless, it goes without saying that I wish you well with everything Zara, although you seem to have almost everything under control.

The only subject I’m awfully afraid is Stylistics, because till now I don’t have a fair understanding of what I’m going to answer. But I hope to find it out by that time.

Despite your hectic revision schedule, thanks for your help today. As I’ve said to you a few times recently, it amazes me where you get your energy from. Anyone who knows you, and how much you involve yourself with, will understand what I mean by that. For those of you that don’t, just take my word for it. Zara, miss ya already.

Zarchka’s blog is at http://lifearoundme.wordpress.com.

Yellow Bird Indian Dancers, Cascade, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

I’ve just returned from a night out in Yerevan and quite a spectacle by the Casdade — Native American Indian dancers. Unfortunately, whenever I’m behind a camera I generally forget to fully immerse myself in any show that I’m photographing, but what I did take in was impressive as well as refreshing. Of course, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia was in attendance along with other foreign diplomats and a few hundred Armenians sitting on the steps of the Cascade.

Yellow Bird Indian Dancers

Saturday, May 27, 20:00

The Cascade, Yerevan

The US Embassy is organizing and sponsoring a Native American Indian cultural performance tour. The “Yellow Bird Indian Dancers” hail from Arizona and will tour Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In Armenia the group will travel and perform in Yerevan, Gyumri and Ararat. You are invited to attend the Yerevan concert with your family and friends. This will be an outdoor concert, open to the public, free of charge, and appropriate for all ages. No tickets are necessary; seating is on a first-come, first-served basis on the Cascade steps.

The Yellow Bird Indian Dancers are respected in America and around the world for continuing the traditions of ancient cultures through their family. In their dance, in the sharing of eternal wisdom through storytelling, and in their preservation of traditional Apache craftworks, they sustain ageless Native American art forms so that they may be shared with the people of today and tomorrow. The U.S. Embassy is proud to bring the Yellow Bird Indian Dancers to Armenia so that they may mingle the ancient and beautiful traditions of the first peoples of America with the equally ancient and beautiful traditions of Armenia.

For more information about the group go to: http://www.yellowbirdindiandancers.com/

Yellow Bird Indian Dancers, Cascade, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

I’ll try to get more photographs together for tomorrow’s Hetq Online.

Police block a side road leading to Parliament, A1 Plus Protest Rally, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

In the continuing saga that perhaps best represents the way the authorities have destroyed freedom of speech in the broadcast media, A1 Plus has once again been denied a broadcasting frequency. The TV station, considered to be the most independent and popular for its news, was taken off the air in a controversial tender for new frequencies in April 2002.

RFE/RL reports on yet another blow to press freedom in a country that Freedom House considers “Not Free” when it comes to the media.

The National Commission on Television and Radio, a regulatory body appointed by President Robert Kocharian, rejected the A1+ station’s application for one of two radio frequencies put on a tender. The commission voted unanimously to give both frequencies to two little-known companies.

Its chairman, Grigor Amalian, insisted that A1+ was again denied a frequency because its competitors submitted stronger bids. “This was an absolutely just decision,” he said.

A1+ representatives dismissed the explanation, saying that Amalian and seven other members of the body simply upheld a political decision made by the authorities. “Today’s decision was not unexpected,” said journalist Karine Asatrian. “I would be surprised if they gave us a frequency.”

One of the frequency winners, Ulis Media, is based at the Yerevan premises of the Armenian Public Radio. Its chief executive, Norayr Mukhoyan, said the company simply rents office space there and has no ties with the government-controlled broadcaster. “I am happy that we won. The tender was definitely fair,” he told RFE/RL.

Reports in the Armenian press have linked the other winner, Radio Pro, with Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s Republican Party.

A1+, the only national channel that was not loyal to the Kocharian administration, was forced off the air in April 2002 just hours after losing a first-ever frequency tender administered by Amalian’s commission. It has since participated in 11 other biddings and lost all of them.

The commission’s decisions have been denounced as politically motivated by Armenian and international media watchdogs. They as well as the Council of Europe consider A1+’s de facto closure as a serious blow to press freedom in Armenia.

A1 Plus has more on its web site, and quotes its Director Mesrob Movsesyan in saying that Grigor Amalian, the rather shifty looking head of the National Commission for Television and Radio, who at least seems to be able to afford better suits of late, is merely a puppet with the Armenian President pulling the strings.

By putting “A1+” “bad” and its rivals “good” marks Grigor Amalyan once more announced they have made an “impartial” decision this time giving licenses to “Ulyss - Media” and “Radio-Pro” LTDs which are quite unfamiliar to the public. By rating polls “A1+” gained only 22 points whereas its rivals got 29 points. When one of the journalists asked why he put a “bad” mark to “A1+” Grigor Amalyan was surprised that such question might occur to their minds. By the way, the representatives of “Radio-Pro” weren’t even present in the NCTR to know the results of the competition; probably they were sure of their victory.

“I am glad that we won the contest and I think that it was just and fair,” Norayr Mkhoyan, chief producer of “Ulyss - Media” LTD announced after the contest. The representative of the company located on 5 Alek Manoukyan once more refuted their connection with Aleksan Haroutyunyan, the Council of Public Television and Radio Company and “Ulyss” LTD of the “Nairi-Cinema” as “they rented premises in the Radio House on contract bases,” though he couldn’t give reasons for the question whether one can rent premises in the Radio House without “corresponding acquaintances and ties.”

[…]

“The matter is not connected with Amalyan; what can he do? He is merely a tool and must do whatever he is ordered,” said Mesrop Movsesyan on this score. The question must be put in other way; will “A1+” be given a license while the president of the country is Kocharyan? Of course, not. Kocharyan’s attitude to “A1+” is the same, it is invariable though he tries to convince the West that he has missed “A1+” and needs it.

Kocharyan’s hypocrisy is no longer in effect either there or here. At present the time works against them. Amalyan is a puppet, a marionette in all this matter, which will open his mouth each time they pull the thread and will keep silent each time the thread is left but in this case he will bite his tongue.”

The station also reports that the Director of Human Rights Watch is less than satisfied with the response of the Armenian Foreign Ministry to its new reports on human rights practices in the country, and which specifically mention the lack of an independent broadcast media in Armenia. It’s interesting to note that A1 Plus case is currently being examined by the European Court of Human Rights, as was recently reported by the BBC.

The European Court of Human Rights is studying an appeal by an Armenian TV station against a government decision to close it down.

The court’s judgement could have far-reaching implications for freedom of expression and human rights in Armenia and across the southern Caucasus.

In April 2002, the Armenian government took A1+ off the air.

The TV station, which was the most popular independent news channel at the time, has since reapplied ten times for a licence to broadcast. Each time it has been refused.

[…]

When the A1+ signal died, almost four years ago, thousands gathered on the streets of Yerevan to protest.

Those protests lasted for more than a week. It was a show of public support that convinced the A1+ president, Mesrop Movsesyan, that he must find other ways to continue delivering news to the people of Armenia.

“The sheer scale of the public protest, when ordinary people realised that freedom of expression was being attacked through the silencing of A1+, persuaded us that we had a duty to continue to operate as a news organisation, even though our transmitters had been turned off,” he said.

[…]

As well as being unable to broadcast, A1+ journalists are forbidden from attending government news conferences and are refused interviews with ministers.

If they are seen on the streets of Yerevan interviewing members of the public, police move them on.

Boris Navasardian, president of the Yerevan Press Club, says the continued existence of A1+ angers many in power, including politicians, business leaders and members of the judiciary.

He says many want to see the media organisation destroyed and that anger extends to the current government, which, Mr Navasardian says, feels that any alternative point of view should be silenced.

Of course, even if the European Court ruled in favor of A1 Plus, nobody expects that the station would return to the air in time for the 2007 parliamentary elections, or even presidential elections scheduled for 2008. Instead, Public TV as well as Gerard Cafesjian and Bagrat Sarkisyan’s Armenia TV will continue to fulfil the role expected of them in covering up any electoral falsification, and the same will be true for every other TV or radio station allowed to broadcast.

The decision to deprive A1 Plus of the right to broadcast was and still is political as its Director said in an interview I conducted with him the day after the station was taken off the air in April 2002.

The decision to close A1 Plus was taken in November during a private meeting between the Armenian President, Robert Kocharian, the Defense Minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, and the National Security Council. Although we have no evidence, only oral testimony, we believe that the idea to close the station came from that meeting.

[…]

Officially, they argued that our package was bad, and insufficient funding may have been another reason, but it is only a cover for the real reason which is political.

The full interview is available online here.

Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

Police block a side road leading to Parliament, A1 Plus Protest Rally, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

As I ‘m sure many of you guessed, a1 plus ( the only functioning ‘opposition’ media outlet) were denied a frequency by the commision for licenses today. This time for a radio frequency. It came as no surprise but is once again a testimony to the fact that under the current government, the existence […]