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ARMENIANOW.COM May 20, 2005
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WORDS WAGED IN WARSAW: AZERI MINISTER SAYS ARMENIA READY TO RELINQUISH
NKR TERRITORIES
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
On May 14, on the eve of the scheduled meeting between the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Warsaw, Poland, Azerbaijan's Deputy
Foreign Minister notified official Ankara of the presence of some
"new proposal of Yerevan":
"The Armenian side currently expresses its readiness to certain
concessions. The Armenians first propose to return to Azerbaijan
five out of seven occupied regions around Nagorno Karabakh (Aghdam,
Fizuli, Jebrhil, Zangelan and Kubatli) and then start talks about
the fate of the Lachin and Kelbajar regions," said Azimov. "At the
same time, Armenia demands restoration of communications immediately
after it withdraws from the five regions. However, the position of
official Baku on this issue is unequivocal: simultaneous withdrawal
from all seven regions around Nagorno Karabakh. It is this issue that
will be the key one during the fresh dialogue between the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan planned in Warsaw. If the sides come to
agreement, then the issue of concluding a peace agreement may be put
on the agenda already in July 2005."
This statement made by the special representative of Azerbaijan's head
of state on Nagorno Karabakh brought added intrigue to the meeting
between the presidents, which before that was viewed solely as no
more than a formal dialogue.
The meeting between Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliyev took place in
Warsaw on May 15, on the eve of the CE summit and was held upon the
initiative of the OSCE Minsk Group. Despite media expectations, the two
leaders did not comment on their meeting and the only information that
had an immediate relation to the talk was the special statement made
public by the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen, which, in particular, reads:
"For two hours the heads of state were conducting negotiations
tete-a-tete. Meanwhile, the cochairmen were holding discussions
with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the end,
the presidents of the two countries acquainted the cochairmen with
their considerations and conclusions. The foreign ministers were
given instructions to continue interaction with the cochairmen, who
are currently drawing up the schedule of consultations with the sides
for the coming months."
Despite the scarce information coming from the presidents themselves,
their ministers turned out to be much more talkative, and Azerbaijan's
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov even made a sensational statement
regarding the readiness of the Armenian side to "withdraw from the
seven occupied Azeri regions."
"The Armenian side gave its consent to withdraw from the seven regions
around Nagorno Karabakh and now they are considering how soon they
will do that," Mamedyarov emphasized following the meeting of the
presidents.
This news proved a complete surprise for the Azeris themselves.
"The statement of the Azeri diplomat purports to be a
sensation. Earlier there were only rumors about the readiness of
Armenians to withdraw from five out of seven regions, except Lachin
and Kelbajar, but now Azerbaijan's foreign minister speaks about
something close to impossible," the Azeri "Zerkalo" newspaper writes
in its May 17 issue ("The Last Supper", by K. Guluzade). "It remains
to hope that the statement of the diplomat is based on real facts and
that upon return to their countries the presidents of the two states
will not renounce all the agreements that, judging from Mamedyarov's
words, they have come close to."
In connection with Mamedyarov's statement, Azeri political analyst
Rasim Musabekov expressed confidence that the main subject of the
negotiations of the two presidents in Warsaw was the possibility
of implementing a stage-by-stage variant of settling the Karabakh
problem. The package solution (first of all implying the resolution
of the status of Nagorno Karabakh) is "already improper today":
"I have no doubt that the subject of the current stage of negotiations
between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan is some variation of
the stage-by-stage settlement," the political analyst said on May 16.
Ex-foreign policy advisor to the former president of Azerbaijan Heydar
Aliyev, independent expert Vafa Guluzade holds a different point of
view on this matter:
"I think that the presidents mainly discussed the problem of violations
of the ceasefire region along the line of contact of the armed forces
that became frequent recently," said Guluzade. "I also think that
the presidents managed to reach an agreement on this issue and the
senseless loss of life on the frontline will be put an end to. As to
the possible breakthrough in the negotiations, the situation has not
yet ripened for that."
Though, while in Warsaw President Aliyev addressed not only
the stage-by-stage, but also the package variant of settling the
problem. He didn't say anything fundamentally new and again drew the
attention of the world community to the readiness of official Baku
"to grant Nagorno Karabakh the highest degree of autonomy within
Azerbaijan."
To this proposal of the Azeri president, Armenia's Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian responded: "Such a variant means a return to the
past. Armenians already had autonomy within Azerbaijan for 70 years
and it was a time of the discrimination of Armenians."
It is noteworthy that the one responding to this remark of the Armenian
diplomat was not his Azeri counterpart, but personally Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Erdogan, who, despite all expectations, didn't meet
with Kocharyan in Warsaw.
"As long as Yerevan continues the occupation of Azeri territories,
do not let it hope for opening borders and establishing diplomatic
relations with Turkey," said Erdogan.
One way or another, official Yerevan does not yet comment on the
statement by Azerbaijan's foreign minister.
"I think that Elmar Mamedyarov laid it on thick and showed
his wishful thinking," political analyst Levon Ghazaryan told
ArmeniaNow. "Official Yerevan, indeed, spoke about the possibility of
some territorial concessions in exchange for NKR's security guaranteed
by the international community. This was, in particular, stated
by Armenia's Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan in his address to the
parliament still on March 30 when he said that the regions controlled
by Nagorno Karabakh's defense army are particularly important in
terms of security. However, if the international community is ready
to provide appropriate guarantees, then the point of further keeping
the security line by Armenian forces is lost. The Armenian minister
didn't specify which regions he meant, but it is obvious that the
matter cannot concern Lachin and Kelbajar. I think that it was the
discussion of this issue within the context of measures on achieving
security that became an occasion for not the most precise definition
by Mamedyarov."
COLLEAGUES IN ARMS: LOCAL REPORTER CALLS ON JOURNALISTS TO SUPPORT
FRENCH HOSTAGE
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
It is four and a half months that French Liberation newspaper reporter
Florence Aubenas has been held hostage in Iraq by an unknown group. Her
Iraqi guide Hussein as-Saad was taken hostage together with her. The
only information about her was the video tape released on March 1 in
which the reporter looked depleted, with dirty hair, and was saying
in English that her physical and mental health had been damaged.
Reporters in France have established committees to save Aubenas. French
reporters working in different countries abroad organize meetings
with local journalists to present information about her, expecting
solidarity from her foreign colleagues.
French RFI Radio reporter Laurence Ritter invited Armenian journalists
to the Caucasus Media Institute (CMI) on Wednesday to present Florence
Aubenas: "Florence's problem should touch the hearts of us all,
since she is our colleague," Ritter said.
Forty-three-year-old Florence Aubenas is one of the most respected
journalists in France, specializing on Arab countries. She reported
from "hot spots" in Rwanda, Kosovo, Algeria, Afghanistan and also
covered controversial trials in France (news.flexcom.ru).
Aubenas worked in Iraq since December 16. She was taken hostage
on January 5. The only evidence of her being alive is the video
tape. Ritter said it is not yet clear why she was kidnapped and
what they demand for her life. Earlier, two French journalists had
been taken hostage in Iraq. They were Christian Chesnot and Georges
Malbrunot. But they were freed following negotiations: "Good diplomacy
worked in their case, but in the case with Aubenas it is very difficult
to achieve a result as it is not known what group kidnapped her,"
said Ritter.
CMI lecturer Fredrik Wadsrom presented the statistics of Reporters
without Borders regarding journalists who became victims during
wars. Since the war in Vietnam the largest number of victims among
journalists has been in Iraq. However, whereas 63 journalists were
killed in Vietnam during the ten years of war (1965-75), 56 journalists
have been killed in Iraq within just two years and 29 were taken
hostage. Sixty-six percent of the journalists who suffered in Iraq
are Iraqis, 20 percent are from the countries of the coalition.
The war in Karabakh was not distinguished by many losses of life among
journalists. Photojournalist Max Sivaslian told about his experience
during the Karabakh war, saying that he had mostly free access while
doing his job, with the exception of perhaps a couple of cases.
No reporters from Armenia have yet been to Iraq. But Armenian media and
society are concerned over the fate of the Romanian "Romania Libere"
newspaper reporter, ethnic Armenian Ovidiu Ohanesian.
During the Karabakh war one Armenian reporter was killed and one was
taken hostage. Cameraman Vardan Hovhanissyan was taken hostage in
1991, and "Azatamart" newspaper reporter Norair Marutyan was killed
in 1993.
OUTSIDE EYE: A NON-ARMENIAN'S VIEW OF LIFE IN HIS ADOPTED HOME
By John Hughes Editor
The occasion called for 16 roses.
"Tasnvets," I said to my man at the corner of Abovian and Tumanian
streets.
"Che," he said back. No. "Tasnhing." 15.
I counted at least 30 or more roses in his tub of water.
"Tasnvets," I said, louder, as if volume could clear what turned out
to be a cultural misunderstanding shaped by millenniums and miles.
"Lav che," the rose peddler said back. Not good.
This was unprecedented. Usually, whether it's the purchase of flowers
or fruit or light bulbs or lap dances, the Armenian on the other side
of my extended drams customarily wants me to buy more, not less.
"Inchu?" Why, I asked, knowing full well that I wouldn't be able to
understand his explanation, but thinking the transaction required
it nonetheless.
"Lav che," he said back to me, also louder, in his own waste of volume.
15, lav eh; 16, lav che.
Between the numbers lies a reminder that, as my Irish ancestors might
have said of these beautifully curious Armenians: "there's nothing
queer as folk".
On the Yerevan street corner, puzzled by flower guy's refusal to
increase sells, recall kicked in, to take me back some years to
Karabakh. At a Stepanakert market I shopped for flowers to take to
a Martuni grave of a child killed in the war. It was the fifth year
of his death, so I asked for five carnations.
My Armenian companion said I should take four, or six.
"But it's the fifth year," I replied.
"If it's for a funeral or to a gravesite, you must take an even
number," Hayk said.
Of course I asked why.
Of course he didn't know.
For reasons no one has explained to me, in this odd land, even numbers
are associated with bad times. I'm guessing that if Noah's flood had
been 39 or 41 days instead of 40, the opposite would be true. But
that's just me trying to introduce logic into a place where it has
no chance of survival.
This was to mark a happy event and, revenue be damned, this Armenian
flower dealer would not participate in the defiance of myth.
Recalling the Karabakh lesson, I smiled and said to the vendor:
"Ayo, ayo. Hima, haskanum em." Yes, yes, now I understand. (Anyway,
I think that's what I said.)
I bought 15. Then I went to the next corner and bought one. So far,
there has been no associated calamity. But if there should be, the
numbers will add up to it being my fault.
TOO RIGHT ABOUT WRONGS?: AUTHORITIES STUNG BY CRITICISM OF OMBUDSMAN
By Zhanna Alexanyan ArmeniaNow reporter / Special to Institute for
War and Peace Reporting
Only a year after her appointment, Armenia's first human rights
commissioner is in open confrontation with the authorities after
delivering a series of stinging verdicts on legal abuses in the
country.
"Back then [a year ago], everyone wondered if the ombudsman would be
independent from the president, but now it looks like the president
is trying to get independent from the ombudsman," ombudsman Larisa
Alaverdyan told IWPR.
When she was appointed in March 2004, following pressure from
international organizations, there was widespread skepticism that the
human rights ombudsman would have anything but a decorative role. But
after a series of bitter disagreements, in which she has rebuked the
government, President Kocharyan petitioned the constitutional court
last month to restrict the mandate of his ombudsman.
Article 7 of the Law on the Human Rights Defender declared that
the ombudsman had the right "to give recommendations to the court,
guaranteeing the enforcement of citizens' right to a fair trial,
in accordance with the constitution of the republic of Armenia and
international norms".
However, in its May 6 verdict, the constitutional court declared this
article unconstitutional and divested the ombudsman of any right to
interfere with the judicial process.
Justice Minister David Harutunyan, who testified in the constructional
court on behalf of the president, argued that the ombudsman had
effectively been given the right to undermine the independence
of judges.
"We do not want this kind of interference to continue," he told
IWPR. "Small concessions undermine the independence of the judicial
system. I believe this amendment will help the ombudsman find her
rightful place in the system."
But Alaverdyan denied she had ever interfered with the administration
of justice or taken any sides, saying she had simply tried to safeguard
citizens against arbitrary judgments.
"The constitutional court decision was clearly biased," she said. "My
duty to issue recommendations to courts was limited to begin with. The
president goes by the documentation and explanations provided by his
justice minister. They simply want to keep the ombudsman in the dark
about the shady dealings of the courts and judges.
"Instead of defending human rights, they are defending the judges
from the human rights commissioner. The majority of complaints we
receive are about court rulings and verdicts."
When the ombudsman's office published its human rights report for
2004 last month with strong criticism directed at law enforcement and
courts, it came under strong attack from different parts of government
and the legal system.
In one case, the ombudsman highlighted a human rights abuse when the
mayor of Yerevan auctioned off a plot of land that was still on valid
lease, and the tenant's rights had not been terminated. The mayor's
office described the ombudsman's actions as "unconstitutional",
and told her to stay away from property matters.
Alaverdyan was similarly rebuffed by the legal department of the
president's office when she questioned the validity of government
actions in a property dispute, when citizens' property was forfeited
and land was seized for the needs of two ambitious government
construction programs, the Northern Avenue and Cascade in central
Yerevan.
Stepan Safaryan, an analyst with the Armenian Centre for National
and International Studies, believes that the Armenian authorities had
expected their ombudsman to be more obedient and are now trying to make
her so. "Whether the law was good or bad is beside the point. What
matters is that Armenia got an ombudsman, who proceeded to insist on
certain freedoms," he said.
Safaryan recalled how in April 2004, when an opposition demonstration
was brutally dispersed by the police in central Yerevan, the ombudsman
put the government in an awkward position by claiming its actions
were unconstitutional and demanding an explanation from the president.
"The president appealed to the constitutional court because he did
not like this new institution which could influence the routine,
conveyor-belt administration of justice, making the outcome less
predictable," said Safaryan.
Zhora Khachatryan, a legal adviser to Alaverdyan, told IWPR the
ombudsman only had an oversight role in court cases.
"We are not contesting judgments, we are simply raising issues,
but they are saying this violated court independence," said
Khachatryan. "I've had at least one case when hearings were conducted
and a verdict passed in the absence of the defendant, which is against
all canons of judicial practice."
Khachatryan said the government was now embarked on a course of
restricting Alaverdyan's role as much as possible. Already she is no
longer entitled to speak at government meetings. "From now on, you may
only ask questions," President Kocharyan told her at a recent meeting.
"If this provision of the law is changed, then they are clearly
attempting to turn the ombudsman and her office into some kind of
compliant addendum to executive government," said Alaverdyan.
"All this goes to show that the powers accorded to the human rights
ombudsman by law do not have substance," said Khachatryan. "The
ombudsman's position is strictly formal, or decorative. And whenever
the ombudsman speaks out, they claim it violates the constitution."
The Armenian Centre for Strategic and National Studies conducted a poll
in March which found that Alaverdyan had gained popular support over
the last year. A total of 22.6 percent of the sample said they trusted
the ombudsman the most as a human rights defender. By contrast the
president, parliament, government and courts all received approval
ratings of less than ten percent.
"Restricted as the ombudsman is in her actions, she has won
considerable authority and confidence at the grassroots level,"
said Safaryan.
Safaryan said he was concerned that the government might be preparing
evidence to discredit the ombudsman, so that this autumn, following
constitutional reforms, Alaverdyan can be replaced with a more
compliant figure.
AVAG: GENOCIDE TOOK EVERYTHING EXCEPT LIFE
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
"Every day he waited for death. Every morning when the sun rose,
we did not know whether it would get dark or not."
The words are written by the now-trembling hand of 94-year old Avag
Harutyunyan.
In a thick notebook the old man has written the story of his life,
beginning not on the day of his birth but on a notorious day in the
spring of 1915, when Avag's life would forevermore impose upon him
the title: "Survivor".
The Genocide deprived him of everything but life. Like the wicked
devil in the tale of his childhood the massacres took his father,
his mother and his sister, and by the time he was six he was alone
with his memories, that he now shares from his home in Ararat.
"The Turk wanted to kill everyone to the last Armenian." Like his
hands, the voice trembles, and his brown eyes fill with tears. He
tells of the road to refuge, on which Turkish soldiers made bets about
pregnant women - about whether the child inside the belly was a boy
or a girl. Then slicing the woman's belly open to see who won the bet.
Then his face brightens like that of a child and he says: "But
we fought heroically, even the women had taken guns, otherwise we
couldn't pass the road of refuge, every day the soldiers came across
and we fought to death."
Grandpa Avag remembers the escape from Western Armenia had not begun
yet when the men of their village where drawn to the Turkish Amy,
including his father. His mother was alone with two children. She
tied Avag to the back of an ox, his sister to the back of a calf,
and they took the dark way of refuge.
"We were hungry, my poor mother found something to eat from here
and there, but she wouldn't eat, she was exhausted and sick. When we
reached the city of Baquba in Iraq, the English people took my mother
to the hospital."
But the mother did not return from the hospital. Avag believes she
was poisoned by a Muslim doctor.
"Those Turks had frightened their own as well, bribed them not to
help us. My poor mother suffered so long, crossed the way of refuge
for three years and was killed when we were already saved," Avag
remembers with bitterness.
After their mother's death, 6-year old Avag and his 4-year old sister,
Sanam, were cared for by an English soldier, then turned over to
Avag's uncle.
"My uncle was young and couldn't take two children. He took me with
him and asked my aunt to take my sister. But my aunt was heartless
enough to say she can't take an orphan, she didn't want to care for
a girl. And my sister stayed in a foreign city full of refugees.
"I still do not know did she survive or not, what happened to her? And
God punished my aunt. She never could give birth to a child despite
the treatments she took, she never became a mother."
The three year long escape led to the village of Khalisa in Ararat
marz, where in those years (1919-1920) 70 percents of the inhabitants
were ethnic Azeris.
"When we were brought there, we thought we got rid of those Turks,
now we came to these Turks," jokes Avag, remembering days of his
orphan childhood.
Longing for maternal love, the 8 year old boy was forced to work for
an Azeri as a serf, and then when he learned to read and write a bit
he was sent to the town of Ararat to work in a shop.
"In the shop I worked everybody had stolen something and had served in
prison. But when after the three years of my work nothing was stolen
there everybody was amazed. In the end they presented me a bicycle,"
tells Avag.
Along with working in the shop he studied at a 7 year school, then
entered an agricultural college and started his work in the world
of books.
"I did not know Armenia properly. I spoke all the languages at once. I
knew the language of those people whom I dealt with - Kurdish, Turkish,
Azerbaijani, but I began learning Armenian alone and was the best."
Longing for learning the 17 year old young man came to Yerevan
and entered the Agricultural Institute, where he earned the Tairov
scholarship for excellence in studies.
"He was alone in this life and reached everything with his
industriousness and stamina, his grandchildren have inherited this
feature from him - they like learning," says Avag's daughter Hasmik
Harutyunyan.
Now, the Doctor of Agriculture carefully takes his awards and
certificates out of the drawer, and tells proudly about the devotion
and hardships he worked with to deserve them, when he has passed the
road from an orphan and a refugee to the Doctor of Philosophy and
Hero of Labor titles.
His grandson says that Avag works still, and that he is now studying
English.
But today the most important thing in Avag's life is the book about
his life. He has finished it. But now, he makes copies, writing each
one over.
"He does not tell us why he copies by hand," says Hasmik. "He says
he makes some corrections. But I think he wants to keep a copy for
each of his grandchildren."
QUIT AND WIN: ARMENIAN ANTI-SMOKING ACTIVISTS ASSURE THEY WILL SUBDUE
DEADLY HABIT
By Julia Hakobyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Two and a half months after the restriction on smoking in public
places went into force Armenia's tobacco-addicts continue smoking in
transports, hospitals and other public places.
On March 2 Armenia signed a law on "Tobacco realization, consumption
and usage limitation," aiming to protect citizens from the deadly
dangers of tobacco use. Among the restrictions are the banning of sale
of cigarettes to teenagers below 18 and smoking in some public places.
Ararat, a 42 year old driver of a mini-bus smokes while driving and
says he never heard of a ban on smoking.
"No one ever stopped me. Police officers see me when I drive and
smoke but no one said it is prohibited. Yes, I know that a smoke of
cigarette can be harmful for passengers. But I assure you the smoke
never gets to them- I keep my window always opened."
Despite the general public unawareness, Armenian Non Governmental
Organizations and health institutions which "declared war" on smoking
say that two months is quite a short term to be an indication of some
positive results.
More than 20 NGOs and professional associations united their efforts
against smoking into the Coalition for Tobacco Free Armenia. Another
three organizations, the Armenian Public Health Association, Armenia
Public Health Union and American University of Armenia formed an
Armenia Public Health Alliance.
"The idea of forming the Coalition is not actually to control the
restriction on smoking in public but to raise public awareness
of the damage on health of smoking," says Narine Movsisyan, the
Director of the Armenian Public Health Alliance tobacco control policy
project. "People should first of all understand why they should quit
smoking; they have to learn to care of their own health."
The Armenian Medical Association (ArMA) a professional union of
doctors and biomedical scientists has recently launched an anti-smoking
campaign among doctors.
The surveys of ArMA showed that Armenian doctors smoke not less than
people of other professions and moreover in some cases the doctors
themselves are unaware of the harmful effects of smoking.
"We made a survey among 399 doctors and 16 percent of them were
smokers," says Vahe Ter- Minasyan, the PR Committee Chairman of the
ArMA. "I can not say if it is a high indication or not, but the fact
that our doctors smoke is destructive. How are they going to make
propaganda of anti-smoking with those patients who smoke, if in fact
they do not realize of a damage of smoking themselves?"
Ter-Minasyan says that one of their projects engaged in
training doctors from fifteen policlinics, both smokers and
non-smokers. Together with the Health Department of the Yerevan
Municipality there will be organized seminars for them. Upon
completion doctors are supposed to become non-smoking PR "agents"
at their own policlinics.
"For example Great Britain has reached very successful
results in reducing the number of smokers among doctors," says
Ter-Minasyan. "Since 1952 one of the health organizations of Great
Britain has been following the life duration among smoking and
not-smoking doctors. When they recently published the results of
a long term experiment - those doctors who smoked died earlier,
the number of other doctors-smokers have drastically reduced."
Paruyr Amirjanyan, the Head of Project Implementation and Management
Unit of the International Center for Human Development (ICHD) says
despite the number of smoking Armenians is very high Armenia has
already reached progress in its fight against smoking.
Last November Armenia joined a Framework Convention on Tobacco control
(FCTC), an international treaty negotiated by 192 members' states of
World Health Organization. (WHO). The FCTC requires following the
WHO standards of health warning covering 30 percent of a cigarette
pack. Also the Armenian government should outlaw cigarette advertising
by 2010.
"Armenia is the only member of the FCTS among Commonwealth of
Independent States," says Amirjanyan. "It is very encouraging that
Armenia decided to join that convention and along with European
countries will fight smoking."
Amirjanyan says annually some 30-40 million dollars come to the
Armenian budget from the sales of cigarettes. In Armenia the tax for
the sale of cigarettes makes 30-70 percent from its cost. In European
countries the tax are even higher and the tobacco producers make the
prices for cigarettes higher, which in many cases make it unaffordable
for teenagers.
If many Armenians quit smoking the budget incurs loses, but the
families will be able to save more money.
"The average Armenian family loses monthly from 3,000-15,000 thousand
drams ($7-53) of its family budget, if taking into account that
usually the Armenian man smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and the
cheapest one is 100 drams."
Amirjanyan says that there is no objective data on the number of
smokers in Armenia in Soviet times, as the only national survey
on smoking was made in 1997 which revealed that 60 percent of the
general population smokes. Soon the ICHD will publish the results of
the second national survey.
"Maybe Armenia should follow examples of European countries or Canada
where there are not just warnings of damage of smoking but the phrase
'Smoking Kills' or there are pictures of lungs of people destroyed
by cancer," Amirjanyan says.
The Armenian Law on Tobacco realization, consumption and usage
limitation does not envisage fines for violators, except for the
selling cigarettes to persons under 18 (up to about 54,000 drams -
some $120.
Alexander Bazarchyan, head of Epidemiological Observatory of Armenia
says that it is too extreme to impose fines on people for breaking
a law which many of them have not heard of.
"We should take into account that the law is Armenia's first-ever
restriction on smoking and like many European countries Armenia too
needs time."
"The law has some defects, in particular, it is not clearly defined
who should control the smoking drivers, or people smoking in public,
or people selling cigarettes to teenagers. Should it be implemented
by patrol police, Tax or Sanitary Inspections? Now these things are
being discussed and soon will be clarified."
Bazarchayn has been involved in anti-smoking campaigns since
2000. Last year on May 31, on the World No Tobacco Day he was awarded
a certificate by the World Health Organization for "outstanding
contribution to Tobacco control" (annually the WHO awards five persons
from different counties)
"It is for the first time that Armenia takes the problem of smoking so
seriously," he says. "Numerous seminars are organized, and the stories
on damage of tobacco appear more often in Armenian newspapers. Now
we can confidently say that the anti-smoking campaign is one of the
priorities of our country. I hope that all these measures will allow
us to reduce the number of smokers each year by 1-2 percent."
FROM SANAHIN TO KREMLIN: MIKOYAN BROTHERS' ROLE IN WW II AND AVERTED
WW III
By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
One thousand meters above sea level in the mountains 190 kilometers
north of Yerevan, the village of Sanahin is home to a unique
landmark. Noted by its deep gorges and home to a 10th century
monastery, Sanahin is also home to a MiG-23 fighter jet.
With village houses on one side and a secondary school on the other,
the plane (from a series used in WWII and made famous in Vietnam and
Afghanistan) is grounded in Sanahin because this is the place where
the MiG idea was born.
Sanahin's popular monument has been in the village for 26 years. But
it was long before that that Artem Mikoyan grew up in Sanahin and
later became the designer for whom the fighter plane is named.
In WWII, German troops called Mikoyan's creation the "flying monster",
especially after 600 out of 900 downed German aircraft were shot out
of the skies by MiGs over Moscow.
The fighter stands near the village's museum of Artem and his brother
(politician) Anastas, both of whom were leading figures of the 1950s
throughout the Soviet Union.
The elder brother, Anastas, was a leader under Josef Stalin, and was
among allied leaders who met in Tehran in 1943.
Nearly 20 years later, in 1962, Anastas was credited with helping
defuse the "Cuban Missile Crisis" that had brought the USSR and
America to the brink of war.
As Europe celebrates the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII in
Europe, Sanahin - a village of 243 families - is remembering the 100
and 110th birthdays of its famous sons.
According to director of the museum Haykush Aghbalyan, the Mikoyans
museum was set up in the village simply to present the humble origin
of the people who reached such prominence.
"The Mikoyans were the sons of an Armenian village family who due to
the firmness of their mind and diligence managed to play a prominent
role in world history," says Aghbalyan.
Artem's real name is Anushavan and his fate was decided on a Sanahin
hillside when, while tending goats, he saw a flying machine approach
and land in a meadow (because of engine problems).
Before the pilot of the damaged French "Forman" plane put the plane's
mechanism right, the young shepherd was looking with astonished eyes
at the strange bird and already was making up his mind about his
future occupation.
And so the first plane that appeared in the village became the reason
why, 75 years later in the same place, the second one would appear,
but this time designed by a Sanahinci.
On the first floor of the two-storied museum of Sanahin there are old
items from the Mikoyans' village house - Anushavan's shepherd stick,
a cradle created by their carpenter father, which lulled five children
of the Mikoyan family (three brothers and two sisters), a couch, a
closet, a large mirror of their mother of 1887 and a hand-made carpet.
On the second floor, through the photographs and personal items of
Artem and Anastas, the career paths of the Mikoyan brothers are traced.
An experienced pilot and war vеteran Konstantin Malkhasyan was
personally acquainted with the Mikoyan brothers. Malkhasyan, now 90,
was the navigator of the flights that took Stalin to Tehran in 1943,
and Khrushchev to the USA in 1959, and later to China.
"I was not so close with the Mikoyans, but we greeted each other
when we met. I was friendlier with Anastas's son Stepan Mikoyan,
who was an excellent test-pilot and was honored with title Hero of
the Soviet Union," says Malkhasyan, who lives in Yerevan.
In 1940 aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan, as the head of one of the
special design bureaus of the Soviet Union, designed the first MiG-1
fighter for high-altitude fights.
Modified versions of this plane were applied during World War II,
which by their aerodynamic properties, weight and armament were
superior to German planes.
"There was no confidence towards the new created planes until they
finished their flying experiments, which actually lasted too long. MiG
fighters and some other planes were born during the war and had to
pass the experiments taking part in the events. MiGs are good until
now," says Malkhasyan.
After the war Mikoyan designed high-speed and supersonic warplanes. The
last series of MiGs during his lifetime was MiG-25, whose flight
speed exceeded three times the speed of sound, thus fulfilling his
prediction:
"Soon we will start to fly so fast and high that even characters from
science fiction do not fly that way."
A total of 55 world records have been set by Mikoyan's planes, of which
only in 1967 his one-seater E-266 fighter set three world records.
In the very MiG-23 in Sanahin, an experimental flight was flown in
1960 by the well-known Soviet female pilot, who became the first
female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, and the world speed record
for women was set in it by Svetlana Savitskaya.
Till his last day (he died in 1970) Colonel-General Artem Mikoyan
was director and head aircraft designer of Moscow's "Zenit" aviation
plant. After his death the aviation plant was named after him and
his study was preserved as a museum.
Anastas Mikoyan retired in 1964 and put down his memoirs on paper
publishing a number of books.
And today the brothers, one who romanced the skies and one who flew
in the dangerous airspace of wartime politics, are honored in a tiny
place that is a testament to big abilities.
DANCE FEVER: WORLD'S LARGEST ROUND DANCE STAGED FOR MOUNT ARAGATS
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Beginning yesterday (May 19), all Armenian TV channels have become
dance studios. In a matter of speaking.
In 25-second clips broadcast several times a day, Armenians are
being taught how to do the "Unity Round Dance" for a national show
of solidarity to be staged at Mount Aragats on May 28.
"TV clips begin like this: 'On May 28 we dance one step forth and one
step back.' The move will be shown (with the instructor) standing on
the sidewalk so that it will be clearer to people," says National
Choreography Union of Armenia Chairman, member of the "Unity Round
Dance" organizing committee Karen Gevorgyan.
The dance step was chosen from several proposals and takes into
account participation by elderly, children and the disabled. And also
taking into account that the display will be videotaped from above
in a helicopter.
Organizers say that 160,000 people making a perimeter of 163 kilometers
will take a step forth and then a step back. The move cannot be right
and left, since the picture of the dance will not be noticeable and
if they move then the circle will be broken.
While the movement of the dance was chosen from some 800 Armenian
round dances, the idea is unique to Armenia. (see ???)
The dance itself is called "Govnd".
Gevorgyan says that the name originated from the Armenian word "gund"
meaning an assembly point, unity. The move seems very simple, yet
it contains a profound philosophy. This round dance is danced to the
accompaniment of special music. All regions of Armenia have their own
"govnds", like kochari.
"We borrowed only moves from the dance. And we selected special pieces
of music for the Unity Round Dance arranged jointly with specialist
on Komitas Artur Shahnazaryan. The sounds of (historical) Armenia's
11 regions are included. The music of each region will last one minute
and 14 seconds," says Gevorgyan.
The music of the Unity Round Dance was called Armenian Colors, that is
all the colors of the Armenian upland were used, which helped create
a common palette.
Gevorgyan explains that the idea of a unity dance is important during
this event. It will be the celebration of unity expressed through
a dance.
Along with dance classes, TV companies will also broadcast the anthem
of the Unity Round Dance throughout next week. And from 6 a.m. on May
28, television channels will be periodically showing the routes towards
Aragats from Yerevan and other regions and on what bus stops hundreds
of coaches will be waiting for participants of the round dance.
Gevorgyan says that orange kepis will be distributed among the round
dance participants so that they make an orange circle for the cameramen
shooting from three helicopters.
On May 27, at 10:00 pm, 1,600 fires will be started at the foot of
Aragats, and later a fireworks display.
The participants in the round dance will arrive at the mountainous
stage on May 28, early in the morning. They will form the circle an
hour before the actual dance begins. And at 3 o'clock in the afternoon
sharp the first 15-minute Unity Round Dance around Mount Aragats
will commence. Gevorgyan says that 15 minutes have been chosen to
have enough time to solve technical problems. The Guinness Records
commission will witness and register the first round dance in the
world on such a large scale.
"It is an exclusive and unprecedented event. The Hungarians did such a
thing with 10,000 people dancing around hand in hand, and they stood in
a straight line and not in a circle. This dance symbolizes unity. We
do not see such a manly dance, so much grandeur of coordinated moves in
other nations' dances as we see it in Armenian dances. There are few
nations in the world that have (multiple) round dances, for example
Greeks have only 12 round dances," says Gevorgyan.
Gevorgyan notes that this event is unlikely to become a tradition,
as it is rather difficult to organize, but he hopes that the next
dance will be around Mount Ararat.
"Idea is another matter here. There is a philosophy existing in the
world today and it is a complicated principle with a simple logic: if
you think of something all the time, it is certain to be fulfilled. If
160,000 people on May 28 make their minds think all the time for a
quarter of an hour that they will dance the next unity round dance
around Ararat, then it cannot but come true," says Gevorgyan.
PROMISE KEPT: NEW PHOTO BOOK IS ARTIST'S PLEDGE TO HIS GOD AND
HIS NATION
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
The recent release of his third book of photographs on Armenian
subjects wasn't an easy matter for Canadian-Armenian photographer Hrair
"Hawk" Khatcherian.
"After taking our films for several times, armed border guards put
us into an armored car and took us to the police, they even wanted
to run over us with cars, but we escaped," the photographer recounts
of a shooting excursion in Turkey.
The photos he got there of Armenian monuments, castles, churches -
many now decayed or vandalized - are among 460 images in the new album
"Yerkir" ("Country").
"Yerkir" takes the viewer on a unique trip starting from the slopes
of Mount Ararat, through the muddy waters of the River Arax down to
Van and Cilicia (in "Western Armenia").
"This book should be a table book for each Armenian family for one
needs to always see and know, see and show to the world how rudely
our ancient values are destroyed, how our churches are exploded,
and how our khachkars (stone crosses) are used to build barns,"
says artist Hakob Hakobyan.
Khatcherian worked on the book from 1997 to 2003, traveling seven
times into areas of Turkey that were once Armenia. But it was not just
patriotic passion that took him there. It was fulfillment of a pledge.
In 1993, Khatcherian was diagnosed with cancer, and feared he had
only a short time to live.
"There was nothing left to me but to pray," he says. "I had a short
look on the cross hanging on the wall of my hospital room and said
if I ever leave the room I swear I will immortalize all our churches
built across the centuries with my photos."
The vow took the photographer into 43 countries. "Only then, I realized
how difficult my oath is; but there was no way back."
"Yerkir" is dedicated to the late Father Mesrob Ashjian who helped
organize Khatcherian's trips and found sponsors for the project.
"I knew little about our history, and if it were not for the Father
and professor Ashot Melkonyan I would not have gone to so many places
and wouldn't have shot so many monuments," Khatcherian says. "Many,
many churches, although still Armenian are not Armenian from the
outside, and only the one who knows is aware what they are in truth,"
says Baze Hrair. Melkonyan helped the photographer find such churches.
Through the help of historians, Khatcherian found Armenian churches
and holy sites that had never been photographed for publication. For
example, the cave where Grigor Narekatsi wrote his "Book of
Lamentations" is known only from descriptions; or the heads carved
on Mount Nemrut.
"Yerkir" is valuable as a cultural document, because it also includes
archive photos that, compared to the new shots, show the decay and
destruction of historically-significant landmarks.
"The changes are obvious even from one year to the next," says the
photographer. "For instance I had a photo of a church made in 1997,
and when we went there in 1998 the khachkars were thrown all across
the ground." The book includes St. Karapet monastery in Mush - a famous
and favorite pilgrimage site to which many folk songs are dedicated -
that today is inhabited by chickens and geese.
Khatcherian's camera has also reached backward villages to find houses
where stairs are made from Armenian tombstones and pieces of khachkars
are scattered in yards where animals feed.
"They rudely and purposefully destroy everything reminiscent of
Armenians," he says. "Even a child, 13 years at most said to me
threatening: 'if you have come to take your lands back, we will
massacre you all the same'."
The St. Gregory the Illuminator church of Kesaria now serves as a
gym for young Turkish men and the main altar is decorated with three
flags of Turkey.
Noted photographer and director of the Parajanov museum Zaven Sargsyan
says "Yerkir" is valuable because it illustrates that a type of
cultural genocide is still being carried out.
"Imagine, they have dug the grounds by the Mren church to collapse. It
is still standing, but it won't very long," says Sargsyan.
While on the journey of documenting the churches that still stand,
Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian served mass in some of them - the first in
nearly 90 years. Three couples on pilgrimage were even wed in Akhtamar
and Anavarza.
The last page of "Yerkir" presents a picture made inside a church where
light intruding through the church door and the three windows breaks
the thick darkness. Khatcherian says this symbolizes his optimism
that no matter what happens a light will evolve from somewhere . . .
COURT JESTER: ARTIST CREATES "BOBOS" AT ECONOMIC COURT
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
On Thursday the new building of Economic court of Armenia was turned
into an artist's studio.
Abstractionist painter Kiki (Grigor Mikayelyan) was painting his famous
"bobos" (scary characters from children's tales) in the court hallway.
Bobos are two black circles. For more than 20 years Kiki, 49, paints
his bobos before audiences, with a broom on 2 pieces of canvas spread
on the floor.
In Soviet times Kiki painted his bobos in studios of artists, and
later, in Los Angeles (where he has lived since 1992), during art
festivals, a theatre, a library and a Japanese school.
On May 14, he painted bobos at Avant-Garde jazz club accompanied by
the music of jazzman Arto Tunjboyajyan.
"At first I was painting circles and triangles, then the circles
appeared in the triangles and it turned out to be a strange thing,"
Kiki tells. "My neighbor saw it and asked: have you painted a bobo? My
children will get frightened when they see it. This is how it was
named bobo."
The latest "scary" art is an outcome of cooperation between the
Economic Court and Akanat art gallery, which bears the name "Art
gives birth to Law" (taken from the expression by Garegen Njdeh
"Power gives birth to Law").
Akanat director Ani Sukiasyan says that their aim was to establish
a link between authorities and art. The Chairman of the Economic
Court explained why the performance took place in the court: law is
also culture.
Under the glances of his audience Kiki, with a fierce expression
on his face, circled around the pieces of canvas like a shaman, and
with broom-shots, began creating two pairs of bobos. Bobos on one of
the pieces, besides black, were painted into red and white colors,
which the very "angry" painter poured on the canvas from tubes.
"Painting at home is something," the artist says, "and this is
different, this is a performance during which the bobo is born. The
audience also takes part in the birth- giving process. The abstract
expression is spontaneous, but it wants something to appear at
the end."
Bobos, according to the artist, are sitting in the audience
with himself. Coming out they become materialized and lose their
abstractness.
"People are staring with serious faces. They think that something will
happen to them. They are curious about what is Kiki doing," says
linguist Arevik Kamalyan. "At last they see that he just scrambled
and left. Some of the viewers say Kiki is genius, others think that
what he does is foolish; they can also do the same thing."
Kiki says that environments in which bobos are created matters. He is
ready to create bobos everywhere and in the corrupt halls of justice
as well: "The judge is not corrupt, while he is watching an art in
its creation process."
The court chairman kept secret the amount of money to be paid for
bobos. He also kept secret whether he is going to pay for them from
his own pocket or from the court's budget.
Eventually, though the Bobos will hang in the hallway of the court.
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WORDS WAGED IN WARSAW: AZERI MINISTER SAYS ARMENIA READY TO RELINQUISH
NKR TERRITORIES
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
On May 14, on the eve of the scheduled meeting between the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Warsaw, Poland, Azerbaijan's Deputy
Foreign Minister notified official Ankara of the presence of some
"new proposal of Yerevan":
"The Armenian side currently expresses its readiness to certain
concessions. The Armenians first propose to return to Azerbaijan
five out of seven occupied regions around Nagorno Karabakh (Aghdam,
Fizuli, Jebrhil, Zangelan and Kubatli) and then start talks about
the fate of the Lachin and Kelbajar regions," said Azimov. "At the
same time, Armenia demands restoration of communications immediately
after it withdraws from the five regions. However, the position of
official Baku on this issue is unequivocal: simultaneous withdrawal
from all seven regions around Nagorno Karabakh. It is this issue that
will be the key one during the fresh dialogue between the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan planned in Warsaw. If the sides come to
agreement, then the issue of concluding a peace agreement may be put
on the agenda already in July 2005."
This statement made by the special representative of Azerbaijan's head
of state on Nagorno Karabakh brought added intrigue to the meeting
between the presidents, which before that was viewed solely as no
more than a formal dialogue.
The meeting between Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliyev took place in
Warsaw on May 15, on the eve of the CE summit and was held upon the
initiative of the OSCE Minsk Group. Despite media expectations, the two
leaders did not comment on their meeting and the only information that
had an immediate relation to the talk was the special statement made
public by the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen, which, in particular, reads:
"For two hours the heads of state were conducting negotiations
tete-a-tete. Meanwhile, the cochairmen were holding discussions
with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the end,
the presidents of the two countries acquainted the cochairmen with
their considerations and conclusions. The foreign ministers were
given instructions to continue interaction with the cochairmen, who
are currently drawing up the schedule of consultations with the sides
for the coming months."
Despite the scarce information coming from the presidents themselves,
their ministers turned out to be much more talkative, and Azerbaijan's
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov even made a sensational statement
regarding the readiness of the Armenian side to "withdraw from the
seven occupied Azeri regions."
"The Armenian side gave its consent to withdraw from the seven regions
around Nagorno Karabakh and now they are considering how soon they
will do that," Mamedyarov emphasized following the meeting of the
presidents.
This news proved a complete surprise for the Azeris themselves.
"The statement of the Azeri diplomat purports to be a
sensation. Earlier there were only rumors about the readiness of
Armenians to withdraw from five out of seven regions, except Lachin
and Kelbajar, but now Azerbaijan's foreign minister speaks about
something close to impossible," the Azeri "Zerkalo" newspaper writes
in its May 17 issue ("The Last Supper", by K. Guluzade). "It remains
to hope that the statement of the diplomat is based on real facts and
that upon return to their countries the presidents of the two states
will not renounce all the agreements that, judging from Mamedyarov's
words, they have come close to."
In connection with Mamedyarov's statement, Azeri political analyst
Rasim Musabekov expressed confidence that the main subject of the
negotiations of the two presidents in Warsaw was the possibility
of implementing a stage-by-stage variant of settling the Karabakh
problem. The package solution (first of all implying the resolution
of the status of Nagorno Karabakh) is "already improper today":
"I have no doubt that the subject of the current stage of negotiations
between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan is some variation of
the stage-by-stage settlement," the political analyst said on May 16.
Ex-foreign policy advisor to the former president of Azerbaijan Heydar
Aliyev, independent expert Vafa Guluzade holds a different point of
view on this matter:
"I think that the presidents mainly discussed the problem of violations
of the ceasefire region along the line of contact of the armed forces
that became frequent recently," said Guluzade. "I also think that
the presidents managed to reach an agreement on this issue and the
senseless loss of life on the frontline will be put an end to. As to
the possible breakthrough in the negotiations, the situation has not
yet ripened for that."
Though, while in Warsaw President Aliyev addressed not only
the stage-by-stage, but also the package variant of settling the
problem. He didn't say anything fundamentally new and again drew the
attention of the world community to the readiness of official Baku
"to grant Nagorno Karabakh the highest degree of autonomy within
Azerbaijan."
To this proposal of the Azeri president, Armenia's Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian responded: "Such a variant means a return to the
past. Armenians already had autonomy within Azerbaijan for 70 years
and it was a time of the discrimination of Armenians."
It is noteworthy that the one responding to this remark of the Armenian
diplomat was not his Azeri counterpart, but personally Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Erdogan, who, despite all expectations, didn't meet
with Kocharyan in Warsaw.
"As long as Yerevan continues the occupation of Azeri territories,
do not let it hope for opening borders and establishing diplomatic
relations with Turkey," said Erdogan.
One way or another, official Yerevan does not yet comment on the
statement by Azerbaijan's foreign minister.
"I think that Elmar Mamedyarov laid it on thick and showed
his wishful thinking," political analyst Levon Ghazaryan told
ArmeniaNow. "Official Yerevan, indeed, spoke about the possibility of
some territorial concessions in exchange for NKR's security guaranteed
by the international community. This was, in particular, stated
by Armenia's Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan in his address to the
parliament still on March 30 when he said that the regions controlled
by Nagorno Karabakh's defense army are particularly important in
terms of security. However, if the international community is ready
to provide appropriate guarantees, then the point of further keeping
the security line by Armenian forces is lost. The Armenian minister
didn't specify which regions he meant, but it is obvious that the
matter cannot concern Lachin and Kelbajar. I think that it was the
discussion of this issue within the context of measures on achieving
security that became an occasion for not the most precise definition
by Mamedyarov."
COLLEAGUES IN ARMS: LOCAL REPORTER CALLS ON JOURNALISTS TO SUPPORT
FRENCH HOSTAGE
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
It is four and a half months that French Liberation newspaper reporter
Florence Aubenas has been held hostage in Iraq by an unknown group. Her
Iraqi guide Hussein as-Saad was taken hostage together with her. The
only information about her was the video tape released on March 1 in
which the reporter looked depleted, with dirty hair, and was saying
in English that her physical and mental health had been damaged.
Reporters in France have established committees to save Aubenas. French
reporters working in different countries abroad organize meetings
with local journalists to present information about her, expecting
solidarity from her foreign colleagues.
French RFI Radio reporter Laurence Ritter invited Armenian journalists
to the Caucasus Media Institute (CMI) on Wednesday to present Florence
Aubenas: "Florence's problem should touch the hearts of us all,
since she is our colleague," Ritter said.
Forty-three-year-old Florence Aubenas is one of the most respected
journalists in France, specializing on Arab countries. She reported
from "hot spots" in Rwanda, Kosovo, Algeria, Afghanistan and also
covered controversial trials in France (news.flexcom.ru).
Aubenas worked in Iraq since December 16. She was taken hostage
on January 5. The only evidence of her being alive is the video
tape. Ritter said it is not yet clear why she was kidnapped and
what they demand for her life. Earlier, two French journalists had
been taken hostage in Iraq. They were Christian Chesnot and Georges
Malbrunot. But they were freed following negotiations: "Good diplomacy
worked in their case, but in the case with Aubenas it is very difficult
to achieve a result as it is not known what group kidnapped her,"
said Ritter.
CMI lecturer Fredrik Wadsrom presented the statistics of Reporters
without Borders regarding journalists who became victims during
wars. Since the war in Vietnam the largest number of victims among
journalists has been in Iraq. However, whereas 63 journalists were
killed in Vietnam during the ten years of war (1965-75), 56 journalists
have been killed in Iraq within just two years and 29 were taken
hostage. Sixty-six percent of the journalists who suffered in Iraq
are Iraqis, 20 percent are from the countries of the coalition.
The war in Karabakh was not distinguished by many losses of life among
journalists. Photojournalist Max Sivaslian told about his experience
during the Karabakh war, saying that he had mostly free access while
doing his job, with the exception of perhaps a couple of cases.
No reporters from Armenia have yet been to Iraq. But Armenian media and
society are concerned over the fate of the Romanian "Romania Libere"
newspaper reporter, ethnic Armenian Ovidiu Ohanesian.
During the Karabakh war one Armenian reporter was killed and one was
taken hostage. Cameraman Vardan Hovhanissyan was taken hostage in
1991, and "Azatamart" newspaper reporter Norair Marutyan was killed
in 1993.
OUTSIDE EYE: A NON-ARMENIAN'S VIEW OF LIFE IN HIS ADOPTED HOME
By John Hughes Editor
The occasion called for 16 roses.
"Tasnvets," I said to my man at the corner of Abovian and Tumanian
streets.
"Che," he said back. No. "Tasnhing." 15.
I counted at least 30 or more roses in his tub of water.
"Tasnvets," I said, louder, as if volume could clear what turned out
to be a cultural misunderstanding shaped by millenniums and miles.
"Lav che," the rose peddler said back. Not good.
This was unprecedented. Usually, whether it's the purchase of flowers
or fruit or light bulbs or lap dances, the Armenian on the other side
of my extended drams customarily wants me to buy more, not less.
"Inchu?" Why, I asked, knowing full well that I wouldn't be able to
understand his explanation, but thinking the transaction required
it nonetheless.
"Lav che," he said back to me, also louder, in his own waste of volume.
15, lav eh; 16, lav che.
Between the numbers lies a reminder that, as my Irish ancestors might
have said of these beautifully curious Armenians: "there's nothing
queer as folk".
On the Yerevan street corner, puzzled by flower guy's refusal to
increase sells, recall kicked in, to take me back some years to
Karabakh. At a Stepanakert market I shopped for flowers to take to
a Martuni grave of a child killed in the war. It was the fifth year
of his death, so I asked for five carnations.
My Armenian companion said I should take four, or six.
"But it's the fifth year," I replied.
"If it's for a funeral or to a gravesite, you must take an even
number," Hayk said.
Of course I asked why.
Of course he didn't know.
For reasons no one has explained to me, in this odd land, even numbers
are associated with bad times. I'm guessing that if Noah's flood had
been 39 or 41 days instead of 40, the opposite would be true. But
that's just me trying to introduce logic into a place where it has
no chance of survival.
This was to mark a happy event and, revenue be damned, this Armenian
flower dealer would not participate in the defiance of myth.
Recalling the Karabakh lesson, I smiled and said to the vendor:
"Ayo, ayo. Hima, haskanum em." Yes, yes, now I understand. (Anyway,
I think that's what I said.)
I bought 15. Then I went to the next corner and bought one. So far,
there has been no associated calamity. But if there should be, the
numbers will add up to it being my fault.
TOO RIGHT ABOUT WRONGS?: AUTHORITIES STUNG BY CRITICISM OF OMBUDSMAN
By Zhanna Alexanyan ArmeniaNow reporter / Special to Institute for
War and Peace Reporting
Only a year after her appointment, Armenia's first human rights
commissioner is in open confrontation with the authorities after
delivering a series of stinging verdicts on legal abuses in the
country.
"Back then [a year ago], everyone wondered if the ombudsman would be
independent from the president, but now it looks like the president
is trying to get independent from the ombudsman," ombudsman Larisa
Alaverdyan told IWPR.
When she was appointed in March 2004, following pressure from
international organizations, there was widespread skepticism that the
human rights ombudsman would have anything but a decorative role. But
after a series of bitter disagreements, in which she has rebuked the
government, President Kocharyan petitioned the constitutional court
last month to restrict the mandate of his ombudsman.
Article 7 of the Law on the Human Rights Defender declared that
the ombudsman had the right "to give recommendations to the court,
guaranteeing the enforcement of citizens' right to a fair trial,
in accordance with the constitution of the republic of Armenia and
international norms".
However, in its May 6 verdict, the constitutional court declared this
article unconstitutional and divested the ombudsman of any right to
interfere with the judicial process.
Justice Minister David Harutunyan, who testified in the constructional
court on behalf of the president, argued that the ombudsman had
effectively been given the right to undermine the independence
of judges.
"We do not want this kind of interference to continue," he told
IWPR. "Small concessions undermine the independence of the judicial
system. I believe this amendment will help the ombudsman find her
rightful place in the system."
But Alaverdyan denied she had ever interfered with the administration
of justice or taken any sides, saying she had simply tried to safeguard
citizens against arbitrary judgments.
"The constitutional court decision was clearly biased," she said. "My
duty to issue recommendations to courts was limited to begin with. The
president goes by the documentation and explanations provided by his
justice minister. They simply want to keep the ombudsman in the dark
about the shady dealings of the courts and judges.
"Instead of defending human rights, they are defending the judges
from the human rights commissioner. The majority of complaints we
receive are about court rulings and verdicts."
When the ombudsman's office published its human rights report for
2004 last month with strong criticism directed at law enforcement and
courts, it came under strong attack from different parts of government
and the legal system.
In one case, the ombudsman highlighted a human rights abuse when the
mayor of Yerevan auctioned off a plot of land that was still on valid
lease, and the tenant's rights had not been terminated. The mayor's
office described the ombudsman's actions as "unconstitutional",
and told her to stay away from property matters.
Alaverdyan was similarly rebuffed by the legal department of the
president's office when she questioned the validity of government
actions in a property dispute, when citizens' property was forfeited
and land was seized for the needs of two ambitious government
construction programs, the Northern Avenue and Cascade in central
Yerevan.
Stepan Safaryan, an analyst with the Armenian Centre for National
and International Studies, believes that the Armenian authorities had
expected their ombudsman to be more obedient and are now trying to make
her so. "Whether the law was good or bad is beside the point. What
matters is that Armenia got an ombudsman, who proceeded to insist on
certain freedoms," he said.
Safaryan recalled how in April 2004, when an opposition demonstration
was brutally dispersed by the police in central Yerevan, the ombudsman
put the government in an awkward position by claiming its actions
were unconstitutional and demanding an explanation from the president.
"The president appealed to the constitutional court because he did
not like this new institution which could influence the routine,
conveyor-belt administration of justice, making the outcome less
predictable," said Safaryan.
Zhora Khachatryan, a legal adviser to Alaverdyan, told IWPR the
ombudsman only had an oversight role in court cases.
"We are not contesting judgments, we are simply raising issues,
but they are saying this violated court independence," said
Khachatryan. "I've had at least one case when hearings were conducted
and a verdict passed in the absence of the defendant, which is against
all canons of judicial practice."
Khachatryan said the government was now embarked on a course of
restricting Alaverdyan's role as much as possible. Already she is no
longer entitled to speak at government meetings. "From now on, you may
only ask questions," President Kocharyan told her at a recent meeting.
"If this provision of the law is changed, then they are clearly
attempting to turn the ombudsman and her office into some kind of
compliant addendum to executive government," said Alaverdyan.
"All this goes to show that the powers accorded to the human rights
ombudsman by law do not have substance," said Khachatryan. "The
ombudsman's position is strictly formal, or decorative. And whenever
the ombudsman speaks out, they claim it violates the constitution."
The Armenian Centre for Strategic and National Studies conducted a poll
in March which found that Alaverdyan had gained popular support over
the last year. A total of 22.6 percent of the sample said they trusted
the ombudsman the most as a human rights defender. By contrast the
president, parliament, government and courts all received approval
ratings of less than ten percent.
"Restricted as the ombudsman is in her actions, she has won
considerable authority and confidence at the grassroots level,"
said Safaryan.
Safaryan said he was concerned that the government might be preparing
evidence to discredit the ombudsman, so that this autumn, following
constitutional reforms, Alaverdyan can be replaced with a more
compliant figure.
AVAG: GENOCIDE TOOK EVERYTHING EXCEPT LIFE
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
"Every day he waited for death. Every morning when the sun rose,
we did not know whether it would get dark or not."
The words are written by the now-trembling hand of 94-year old Avag
Harutyunyan.
In a thick notebook the old man has written the story of his life,
beginning not on the day of his birth but on a notorious day in the
spring of 1915, when Avag's life would forevermore impose upon him
the title: "Survivor".
The Genocide deprived him of everything but life. Like the wicked
devil in the tale of his childhood the massacres took his father,
his mother and his sister, and by the time he was six he was alone
with his memories, that he now shares from his home in Ararat.
"The Turk wanted to kill everyone to the last Armenian." Like his
hands, the voice trembles, and his brown eyes fill with tears. He
tells of the road to refuge, on which Turkish soldiers made bets about
pregnant women - about whether the child inside the belly was a boy
or a girl. Then slicing the woman's belly open to see who won the bet.
Then his face brightens like that of a child and he says: "But
we fought heroically, even the women had taken guns, otherwise we
couldn't pass the road of refuge, every day the soldiers came across
and we fought to death."
Grandpa Avag remembers the escape from Western Armenia had not begun
yet when the men of their village where drawn to the Turkish Amy,
including his father. His mother was alone with two children. She
tied Avag to the back of an ox, his sister to the back of a calf,
and they took the dark way of refuge.
"We were hungry, my poor mother found something to eat from here
and there, but she wouldn't eat, she was exhausted and sick. When we
reached the city of Baquba in Iraq, the English people took my mother
to the hospital."
But the mother did not return from the hospital. Avag believes she
was poisoned by a Muslim doctor.
"Those Turks had frightened their own as well, bribed them not to
help us. My poor mother suffered so long, crossed the way of refuge
for three years and was killed when we were already saved," Avag
remembers with bitterness.
After their mother's death, 6-year old Avag and his 4-year old sister,
Sanam, were cared for by an English soldier, then turned over to
Avag's uncle.
"My uncle was young and couldn't take two children. He took me with
him and asked my aunt to take my sister. But my aunt was heartless
enough to say she can't take an orphan, she didn't want to care for
a girl. And my sister stayed in a foreign city full of refugees.
"I still do not know did she survive or not, what happened to her? And
God punished my aunt. She never could give birth to a child despite
the treatments she took, she never became a mother."
The three year long escape led to the village of Khalisa in Ararat
marz, where in those years (1919-1920) 70 percents of the inhabitants
were ethnic Azeris.
"When we were brought there, we thought we got rid of those Turks,
now we came to these Turks," jokes Avag, remembering days of his
orphan childhood.
Longing for maternal love, the 8 year old boy was forced to work for
an Azeri as a serf, and then when he learned to read and write a bit
he was sent to the town of Ararat to work in a shop.
"In the shop I worked everybody had stolen something and had served in
prison. But when after the three years of my work nothing was stolen
there everybody was amazed. In the end they presented me a bicycle,"
tells Avag.
Along with working in the shop he studied at a 7 year school, then
entered an agricultural college and started his work in the world
of books.
"I did not know Armenia properly. I spoke all the languages at once. I
knew the language of those people whom I dealt with - Kurdish, Turkish,
Azerbaijani, but I began learning Armenian alone and was the best."
Longing for learning the 17 year old young man came to Yerevan
and entered the Agricultural Institute, where he earned the Tairov
scholarship for excellence in studies.
"He was alone in this life and reached everything with his
industriousness and stamina, his grandchildren have inherited this
feature from him - they like learning," says Avag's daughter Hasmik
Harutyunyan.
Now, the Doctor of Agriculture carefully takes his awards and
certificates out of the drawer, and tells proudly about the devotion
and hardships he worked with to deserve them, when he has passed the
road from an orphan and a refugee to the Doctor of Philosophy and
Hero of Labor titles.
His grandson says that Avag works still, and that he is now studying
English.
But today the most important thing in Avag's life is the book about
his life. He has finished it. But now, he makes copies, writing each
one over.
"He does not tell us why he copies by hand," says Hasmik. "He says
he makes some corrections. But I think he wants to keep a copy for
each of his grandchildren."
QUIT AND WIN: ARMENIAN ANTI-SMOKING ACTIVISTS ASSURE THEY WILL SUBDUE
DEADLY HABIT
By Julia Hakobyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Two and a half months after the restriction on smoking in public
places went into force Armenia's tobacco-addicts continue smoking in
transports, hospitals and other public places.
On March 2 Armenia signed a law on "Tobacco realization, consumption
and usage limitation," aiming to protect citizens from the deadly
dangers of tobacco use. Among the restrictions are the banning of sale
of cigarettes to teenagers below 18 and smoking in some public places.
Ararat, a 42 year old driver of a mini-bus smokes while driving and
says he never heard of a ban on smoking.
"No one ever stopped me. Police officers see me when I drive and
smoke but no one said it is prohibited. Yes, I know that a smoke of
cigarette can be harmful for passengers. But I assure you the smoke
never gets to them- I keep my window always opened."
Despite the general public unawareness, Armenian Non Governmental
Organizations and health institutions which "declared war" on smoking
say that two months is quite a short term to be an indication of some
positive results.
More than 20 NGOs and professional associations united their efforts
against smoking into the Coalition for Tobacco Free Armenia. Another
three organizations, the Armenian Public Health Association, Armenia
Public Health Union and American University of Armenia formed an
Armenia Public Health Alliance.
"The idea of forming the Coalition is not actually to control the
restriction on smoking in public but to raise public awareness
of the damage on health of smoking," says Narine Movsisyan, the
Director of the Armenian Public Health Alliance tobacco control policy
project. "People should first of all understand why they should quit
smoking; they have to learn to care of their own health."
The Armenian Medical Association (ArMA) a professional union of
doctors and biomedical scientists has recently launched an anti-smoking
campaign among doctors.
The surveys of ArMA showed that Armenian doctors smoke not less than
people of other professions and moreover in some cases the doctors
themselves are unaware of the harmful effects of smoking.
"We made a survey among 399 doctors and 16 percent of them were
smokers," says Vahe Ter- Minasyan, the PR Committee Chairman of the
ArMA. "I can not say if it is a high indication or not, but the fact
that our doctors smoke is destructive. How are they going to make
propaganda of anti-smoking with those patients who smoke, if in fact
they do not realize of a damage of smoking themselves?"
Ter-Minasyan says that one of their projects engaged in
training doctors from fifteen policlinics, both smokers and
non-smokers. Together with the Health Department of the Yerevan
Municipality there will be organized seminars for them. Upon
completion doctors are supposed to become non-smoking PR "agents"
at their own policlinics.
"For example Great Britain has reached very successful
results in reducing the number of smokers among doctors," says
Ter-Minasyan. "Since 1952 one of the health organizations of Great
Britain has been following the life duration among smoking and
not-smoking doctors. When they recently published the results of
a long term experiment - those doctors who smoked died earlier,
the number of other doctors-smokers have drastically reduced."
Paruyr Amirjanyan, the Head of Project Implementation and Management
Unit of the International Center for Human Development (ICHD) says
despite the number of smoking Armenians is very high Armenia has
already reached progress in its fight against smoking.
Last November Armenia joined a Framework Convention on Tobacco control
(FCTC), an international treaty negotiated by 192 members' states of
World Health Organization. (WHO). The FCTC requires following the
WHO standards of health warning covering 30 percent of a cigarette
pack. Also the Armenian government should outlaw cigarette advertising
by 2010.
"Armenia is the only member of the FCTS among Commonwealth of
Independent States," says Amirjanyan. "It is very encouraging that
Armenia decided to join that convention and along with European
countries will fight smoking."
Amirjanyan says annually some 30-40 million dollars come to the
Armenian budget from the sales of cigarettes. In Armenia the tax for
the sale of cigarettes makes 30-70 percent from its cost. In European
countries the tax are even higher and the tobacco producers make the
prices for cigarettes higher, which in many cases make it unaffordable
for teenagers.
If many Armenians quit smoking the budget incurs loses, but the
families will be able to save more money.
"The average Armenian family loses monthly from 3,000-15,000 thousand
drams ($7-53) of its family budget, if taking into account that
usually the Armenian man smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and the
cheapest one is 100 drams."
Amirjanyan says that there is no objective data on the number of
smokers in Armenia in Soviet times, as the only national survey
on smoking was made in 1997 which revealed that 60 percent of the
general population smokes. Soon the ICHD will publish the results of
the second national survey.
"Maybe Armenia should follow examples of European countries or Canada
where there are not just warnings of damage of smoking but the phrase
'Smoking Kills' or there are pictures of lungs of people destroyed
by cancer," Amirjanyan says.
The Armenian Law on Tobacco realization, consumption and usage
limitation does not envisage fines for violators, except for the
selling cigarettes to persons under 18 (up to about 54,000 drams -
some $120.
Alexander Bazarchyan, head of Epidemiological Observatory of Armenia
says that it is too extreme to impose fines on people for breaking
a law which many of them have not heard of.
"We should take into account that the law is Armenia's first-ever
restriction on smoking and like many European countries Armenia too
needs time."
"The law has some defects, in particular, it is not clearly defined
who should control the smoking drivers, or people smoking in public,
or people selling cigarettes to teenagers. Should it be implemented
by patrol police, Tax or Sanitary Inspections? Now these things are
being discussed and soon will be clarified."
Bazarchayn has been involved in anti-smoking campaigns since
2000. Last year on May 31, on the World No Tobacco Day he was awarded
a certificate by the World Health Organization for "outstanding
contribution to Tobacco control" (annually the WHO awards five persons
from different counties)
"It is for the first time that Armenia takes the problem of smoking so
seriously," he says. "Numerous seminars are organized, and the stories
on damage of tobacco appear more often in Armenian newspapers. Now
we can confidently say that the anti-smoking campaign is one of the
priorities of our country. I hope that all these measures will allow
us to reduce the number of smokers each year by 1-2 percent."
FROM SANAHIN TO KREMLIN: MIKOYAN BROTHERS' ROLE IN WW II AND AVERTED
WW III
By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
One thousand meters above sea level in the mountains 190 kilometers
north of Yerevan, the village of Sanahin is home to a unique
landmark. Noted by its deep gorges and home to a 10th century
monastery, Sanahin is also home to a MiG-23 fighter jet.
With village houses on one side and a secondary school on the other,
the plane (from a series used in WWII and made famous in Vietnam and
Afghanistan) is grounded in Sanahin because this is the place where
the MiG idea was born.
Sanahin's popular monument has been in the village for 26 years. But
it was long before that that Artem Mikoyan grew up in Sanahin and
later became the designer for whom the fighter plane is named.
In WWII, German troops called Mikoyan's creation the "flying monster",
especially after 600 out of 900 downed German aircraft were shot out
of the skies by MiGs over Moscow.
The fighter stands near the village's museum of Artem and his brother
(politician) Anastas, both of whom were leading figures of the 1950s
throughout the Soviet Union.
The elder brother, Anastas, was a leader under Josef Stalin, and was
among allied leaders who met in Tehran in 1943.
Nearly 20 years later, in 1962, Anastas was credited with helping
defuse the "Cuban Missile Crisis" that had brought the USSR and
America to the brink of war.
As Europe celebrates the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII in
Europe, Sanahin - a village of 243 families - is remembering the 100
and 110th birthdays of its famous sons.
According to director of the museum Haykush Aghbalyan, the Mikoyans
museum was set up in the village simply to present the humble origin
of the people who reached such prominence.
"The Mikoyans were the sons of an Armenian village family who due to
the firmness of their mind and diligence managed to play a prominent
role in world history," says Aghbalyan.
Artem's real name is Anushavan and his fate was decided on a Sanahin
hillside when, while tending goats, he saw a flying machine approach
and land in a meadow (because of engine problems).
Before the pilot of the damaged French "Forman" plane put the plane's
mechanism right, the young shepherd was looking with astonished eyes
at the strange bird and already was making up his mind about his
future occupation.
And so the first plane that appeared in the village became the reason
why, 75 years later in the same place, the second one would appear,
but this time designed by a Sanahinci.
On the first floor of the two-storied museum of Sanahin there are old
items from the Mikoyans' village house - Anushavan's shepherd stick,
a cradle created by their carpenter father, which lulled five children
of the Mikoyan family (three brothers and two sisters), a couch, a
closet, a large mirror of their mother of 1887 and a hand-made carpet.
On the second floor, through the photographs and personal items of
Artem and Anastas, the career paths of the Mikoyan brothers are traced.
An experienced pilot and war vеteran Konstantin Malkhasyan was
personally acquainted with the Mikoyan brothers. Malkhasyan, now 90,
was the navigator of the flights that took Stalin to Tehran in 1943,
and Khrushchev to the USA in 1959, and later to China.
"I was not so close with the Mikoyans, but we greeted each other
when we met. I was friendlier with Anastas's son Stepan Mikoyan,
who was an excellent test-pilot and was honored with title Hero of
the Soviet Union," says Malkhasyan, who lives in Yerevan.
In 1940 aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan, as the head of one of the
special design bureaus of the Soviet Union, designed the first MiG-1
fighter for high-altitude fights.
Modified versions of this plane were applied during World War II,
which by their aerodynamic properties, weight and armament were
superior to German planes.
"There was no confidence towards the new created planes until they
finished their flying experiments, which actually lasted too long. MiG
fighters and some other planes were born during the war and had to
pass the experiments taking part in the events. MiGs are good until
now," says Malkhasyan.
After the war Mikoyan designed high-speed and supersonic warplanes. The
last series of MiGs during his lifetime was MiG-25, whose flight
speed exceeded three times the speed of sound, thus fulfilling his
prediction:
"Soon we will start to fly so fast and high that even characters from
science fiction do not fly that way."
A total of 55 world records have been set by Mikoyan's planes, of which
only in 1967 his one-seater E-266 fighter set three world records.
In the very MiG-23 in Sanahin, an experimental flight was flown in
1960 by the well-known Soviet female pilot, who became the first
female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, and the world speed record
for women was set in it by Svetlana Savitskaya.
Till his last day (he died in 1970) Colonel-General Artem Mikoyan
was director and head aircraft designer of Moscow's "Zenit" aviation
plant. After his death the aviation plant was named after him and
his study was preserved as a museum.
Anastas Mikoyan retired in 1964 and put down his memoirs on paper
publishing a number of books.
And today the brothers, one who romanced the skies and one who flew
in the dangerous airspace of wartime politics, are honored in a tiny
place that is a testament to big abilities.
DANCE FEVER: WORLD'S LARGEST ROUND DANCE STAGED FOR MOUNT ARAGATS
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Beginning yesterday (May 19), all Armenian TV channels have become
dance studios. In a matter of speaking.
In 25-second clips broadcast several times a day, Armenians are
being taught how to do the "Unity Round Dance" for a national show
of solidarity to be staged at Mount Aragats on May 28.
"TV clips begin like this: 'On May 28 we dance one step forth and one
step back.' The move will be shown (with the instructor) standing on
the sidewalk so that it will be clearer to people," says National
Choreography Union of Armenia Chairman, member of the "Unity Round
Dance" organizing committee Karen Gevorgyan.
The dance step was chosen from several proposals and takes into
account participation by elderly, children and the disabled. And also
taking into account that the display will be videotaped from above
in a helicopter.
Organizers say that 160,000 people making a perimeter of 163 kilometers
will take a step forth and then a step back. The move cannot be right
and left, since the picture of the dance will not be noticeable and
if they move then the circle will be broken.
While the movement of the dance was chosen from some 800 Armenian
round dances, the idea is unique to Armenia. (see ???)
The dance itself is called "Govnd".
Gevorgyan says that the name originated from the Armenian word "gund"
meaning an assembly point, unity. The move seems very simple, yet
it contains a profound philosophy. This round dance is danced to the
accompaniment of special music. All regions of Armenia have their own
"govnds", like kochari.
"We borrowed only moves from the dance. And we selected special pieces
of music for the Unity Round Dance arranged jointly with specialist
on Komitas Artur Shahnazaryan. The sounds of (historical) Armenia's
11 regions are included. The music of each region will last one minute
and 14 seconds," says Gevorgyan.
The music of the Unity Round Dance was called Armenian Colors, that is
all the colors of the Armenian upland were used, which helped create
a common palette.
Gevorgyan explains that the idea of a unity dance is important during
this event. It will be the celebration of unity expressed through
a dance.
Along with dance classes, TV companies will also broadcast the anthem
of the Unity Round Dance throughout next week. And from 6 a.m. on May
28, television channels will be periodically showing the routes towards
Aragats from Yerevan and other regions and on what bus stops hundreds
of coaches will be waiting for participants of the round dance.
Gevorgyan says that orange kepis will be distributed among the round
dance participants so that they make an orange circle for the cameramen
shooting from three helicopters.
On May 27, at 10:00 pm, 1,600 fires will be started at the foot of
Aragats, and later a fireworks display.
The participants in the round dance will arrive at the mountainous
stage on May 28, early in the morning. They will form the circle an
hour before the actual dance begins. And at 3 o'clock in the afternoon
sharp the first 15-minute Unity Round Dance around Mount Aragats
will commence. Gevorgyan says that 15 minutes have been chosen to
have enough time to solve technical problems. The Guinness Records
commission will witness and register the first round dance in the
world on such a large scale.
"It is an exclusive and unprecedented event. The Hungarians did such a
thing with 10,000 people dancing around hand in hand, and they stood in
a straight line and not in a circle. This dance symbolizes unity. We
do not see such a manly dance, so much grandeur of coordinated moves in
other nations' dances as we see it in Armenian dances. There are few
nations in the world that have (multiple) round dances, for example
Greeks have only 12 round dances," says Gevorgyan.
Gevorgyan notes that this event is unlikely to become a tradition,
as it is rather difficult to organize, but he hopes that the next
dance will be around Mount Ararat.
"Idea is another matter here. There is a philosophy existing in the
world today and it is a complicated principle with a simple logic: if
you think of something all the time, it is certain to be fulfilled. If
160,000 people on May 28 make their minds think all the time for a
quarter of an hour that they will dance the next unity round dance
around Ararat, then it cannot but come true," says Gevorgyan.
PROMISE KEPT: NEW PHOTO BOOK IS ARTIST'S PLEDGE TO HIS GOD AND
HIS NATION
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
The recent release of his third book of photographs on Armenian
subjects wasn't an easy matter for Canadian-Armenian photographer Hrair
"Hawk" Khatcherian.
"After taking our films for several times, armed border guards put
us into an armored car and took us to the police, they even wanted
to run over us with cars, but we escaped," the photographer recounts
of a shooting excursion in Turkey.
The photos he got there of Armenian monuments, castles, churches -
many now decayed or vandalized - are among 460 images in the new album
"Yerkir" ("Country").
"Yerkir" takes the viewer on a unique trip starting from the slopes
of Mount Ararat, through the muddy waters of the River Arax down to
Van and Cilicia (in "Western Armenia").
"This book should be a table book for each Armenian family for one
needs to always see and know, see and show to the world how rudely
our ancient values are destroyed, how our churches are exploded,
and how our khachkars (stone crosses) are used to build barns,"
says artist Hakob Hakobyan.
Khatcherian worked on the book from 1997 to 2003, traveling seven
times into areas of Turkey that were once Armenia. But it was not just
patriotic passion that took him there. It was fulfillment of a pledge.
In 1993, Khatcherian was diagnosed with cancer, and feared he had
only a short time to live.
"There was nothing left to me but to pray," he says. "I had a short
look on the cross hanging on the wall of my hospital room and said
if I ever leave the room I swear I will immortalize all our churches
built across the centuries with my photos."
The vow took the photographer into 43 countries. "Only then, I realized
how difficult my oath is; but there was no way back."
"Yerkir" is dedicated to the late Father Mesrob Ashjian who helped
organize Khatcherian's trips and found sponsors for the project.
"I knew little about our history, and if it were not for the Father
and professor Ashot Melkonyan I would not have gone to so many places
and wouldn't have shot so many monuments," Khatcherian says. "Many,
many churches, although still Armenian are not Armenian from the
outside, and only the one who knows is aware what they are in truth,"
says Baze Hrair. Melkonyan helped the photographer find such churches.
Through the help of historians, Khatcherian found Armenian churches
and holy sites that had never been photographed for publication. For
example, the cave where Grigor Narekatsi wrote his "Book of
Lamentations" is known only from descriptions; or the heads carved
on Mount Nemrut.
"Yerkir" is valuable as a cultural document, because it also includes
archive photos that, compared to the new shots, show the decay and
destruction of historically-significant landmarks.
"The changes are obvious even from one year to the next," says the
photographer. "For instance I had a photo of a church made in 1997,
and when we went there in 1998 the khachkars were thrown all across
the ground." The book includes St. Karapet monastery in Mush - a famous
and favorite pilgrimage site to which many folk songs are dedicated -
that today is inhabited by chickens and geese.
Khatcherian's camera has also reached backward villages to find houses
where stairs are made from Armenian tombstones and pieces of khachkars
are scattered in yards where animals feed.
"They rudely and purposefully destroy everything reminiscent of
Armenians," he says. "Even a child, 13 years at most said to me
threatening: 'if you have come to take your lands back, we will
massacre you all the same'."
The St. Gregory the Illuminator church of Kesaria now serves as a
gym for young Turkish men and the main altar is decorated with three
flags of Turkey.
Noted photographer and director of the Parajanov museum Zaven Sargsyan
says "Yerkir" is valuable because it illustrates that a type of
cultural genocide is still being carried out.
"Imagine, they have dug the grounds by the Mren church to collapse. It
is still standing, but it won't very long," says Sargsyan.
While on the journey of documenting the churches that still stand,
Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian served mass in some of them - the first in
nearly 90 years. Three couples on pilgrimage were even wed in Akhtamar
and Anavarza.
The last page of "Yerkir" presents a picture made inside a church where
light intruding through the church door and the three windows breaks
the thick darkness. Khatcherian says this symbolizes his optimism
that no matter what happens a light will evolve from somewhere . . .
COURT JESTER: ARTIST CREATES "BOBOS" AT ECONOMIC COURT
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
On Thursday the new building of Economic court of Armenia was turned
into an artist's studio.
Abstractionist painter Kiki (Grigor Mikayelyan) was painting his famous
"bobos" (scary characters from children's tales) in the court hallway.
Bobos are two black circles. For more than 20 years Kiki, 49, paints
his bobos before audiences, with a broom on 2 pieces of canvas spread
on the floor.
In Soviet times Kiki painted his bobos in studios of artists, and
later, in Los Angeles (where he has lived since 1992), during art
festivals, a theatre, a library and a Japanese school.
On May 14, he painted bobos at Avant-Garde jazz club accompanied by
the music of jazzman Arto Tunjboyajyan.
"At first I was painting circles and triangles, then the circles
appeared in the triangles and it turned out to be a strange thing,"
Kiki tells. "My neighbor saw it and asked: have you painted a bobo? My
children will get frightened when they see it. This is how it was
named bobo."
The latest "scary" art is an outcome of cooperation between the
Economic Court and Akanat art gallery, which bears the name "Art
gives birth to Law" (taken from the expression by Garegen Njdeh
"Power gives birth to Law").
Akanat director Ani Sukiasyan says that their aim was to establish
a link between authorities and art. The Chairman of the Economic
Court explained why the performance took place in the court: law is
also culture.
Under the glances of his audience Kiki, with a fierce expression
on his face, circled around the pieces of canvas like a shaman, and
with broom-shots, began creating two pairs of bobos. Bobos on one of
the pieces, besides black, were painted into red and white colors,
which the very "angry" painter poured on the canvas from tubes.
"Painting at home is something," the artist says, "and this is
different, this is a performance during which the bobo is born. The
audience also takes part in the birth- giving process. The abstract
expression is spontaneous, but it wants something to appear at
the end."
Bobos, according to the artist, are sitting in the audience
with himself. Coming out they become materialized and lose their
abstractness.
"People are staring with serious faces. They think that something will
happen to them. They are curious about what is Kiki doing," says
linguist Arevik Kamalyan. "At last they see that he just scrambled
and left. Some of the viewers say Kiki is genius, others think that
what he does is foolish; they can also do the same thing."
Kiki says that environments in which bobos are created matters. He is
ready to create bobos everywhere and in the corrupt halls of justice
as well: "The judge is not corrupt, while he is watching an art in
its creation process."
The court chairman kept secret the amount of money to be paid for
bobos. He also kept secret whether he is going to pay for them from
his own pocket or from the court's budget.
Eventually, though the Bobos will hang in the hallway of the court.