ARMENIA AND THE EURASIAN UNION
The Messenger
Sept 14 2012
Georgia
Armenian Prime Minister Tigan Sargsyan says his country has not yet
received an invitation to join the proposed Eurasian union. Sargsyan
stated that Armenia is still interested in joining the EU as well as
the Russian-proposed Eurasian Union, adding that membership in both
organizations is not mutually exclusive. This position is shared by
the Russian government.
THE ARMENIANS OF MUSA DAGH
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso
Sept 14 2012
Italy
An Armenian, a Syrian and a Turk are playing cards in the only inn in
town. The three eldersliven up an empty room with ritual jokes, amidst
the vapor of coffee. Each of their lives is asynthesis of individual
and collective stories gone bad, forsaken like this place. The tenth
episode of the story “From the Caucasus to Beirut”
>From my journal. November 23rd.
The reflection of the orange light saturates the room, giving
the nightmares the stylized shapeof the shadows surrounding me. An
encrusted sink, sinuous in old-fashioned shapes; the siphonhanging on
the wall, damp with carelessness; a formica clothes stand, shiny from
wear. Themagnificence of an ancient Middle-Eastern capital implodes in
the torment of a sleepless hotel fortruckers and wheeler-dealers. Rise
soon, sun: put out this nauseating reflection of the light on thewalls,
kill solitude, finally tell me if your day will or will not see my
journey continue to Syria.
Antioch, a handful of kilometers North of the Turkish-Syrian border.
The Orontes river, a watertongue born from the perennial snows of
Mount Lebanon, cuts a luxurious city in half. Ancientbazaars for
centuries swarming with the same euphoric wish for small business;
restaurantsinvading the streets till late at night; Roman capitals
and columns integrated in the geometry ofan aesthetic Islam. The
Syrian civil war is only a half hour-drive away, but on the festive
riversidein Antioch, a city Ankara snatched away from Damascus only
70 years ago, no one seems to mind.Waiters take orders in Arabic,
renewing the perfect bilingualism of this young corner of Turkey.
Thursday morning. November is almost over, while the Syrian revolution
is already eight monthsold. The United Nations have announced yet
another ultimatum which (disregarded) will befollowed by yet other
sanctions. Just like every Friday, at the end of the most awaited
prayer ofthe week, Syrians will carry out a mass demonstration howling
with rage against the 40 year-old autocracy of the Assad dynasty. The
hundred thousand Armenians populating the Country, aminority amongst
minorities, children of the orphans of the genocide, will look out
their windowsin Aleppo and Damascus: they will witness the rush of
rage fill the streets, in the land that hasgenerously given them
shelter for a hundred years.
Everything is ready to cross the border. On the memory card in my
camera now I only have thepictures that any tourist with my visas on
their passport would have shot: Caucasian sunsets,snowy mountain tops,
children smiling, flocks pasturing. The other pictures, transferred on
a DVD,are already in Istanbul, along with the rest of the material:
notes, clippings, drawings, maps, lifestories. Again, I go over the
itinerary from Armenia to the Turkish-Syrian border ad nauseam: foreach
leg of the journey, I make up a subject: for each stop, an anecdote;
for each detail, a lie…so that, if asked, the month-long journey I
am leaving behind will appear to the Syrian customsofficers to only
be an insignificant whim of a solitary tourist on a trip out of season.
The Orontes invades the sea with its full spate force, flooding the
floor of the Mediterranean withmud. These shores, beat by the same
wind blowing on Beirut during rainy autumn afternoons,mark the last
leg of the journey before the most treacherous border. Amidst the
mountainscovered with a blanket of pine trees and closely chasing
the coast, a village of about ten souls hasbeen renewing its same
patient life every day for centuries. A handful of farmers and
shepherds’houses, gone unarmed through a violent history, is the
connection of a memory flow thatoriginates in the Armenian villages
of the Bekaa in Lebanon and lands in the suburbs of Yerevan, inArmenia.
It is Vakif, the last Armenian village of Turkey.
An aluminum sign swings squeaking on thin stands of steel. “Vakifli
koyu, Hosgeldiniz”. Welcometo Vakif. The road winding along the slopes
of Musa Dagh, the Mountain of the Muses, stageto the most memorable
episode of the Armenian resistance against the Ottoman Troops,
iscontinuously beat by the wind. Along with five other villages in
the valley, Vakif is an importantpage in history for the battle that
on these very mountains saw a small group of Armenian civiliansoppose
the soldiers for forty days. The soldiers had come to deport them. The
civilians were finallysighted from the sea by a French ship: at the end
of their strength, the combatants fled bringingto safety only a red
cross sewn on a piece of white cloth that made them visible from the
sea.It was 1915. Today that flag is in the Bekaa valley, in Lebanon,
guarded in a glass shrine by thedescendants of the Musa Dagh heroes,
along with the pride of a gallant descent.
The slow walk climbing up to Vakif gives me time to compare the
ground with the maps of thebattle that I collected at the Musa Dagh
museum in the suburbs of Yerevan. Red arrows indicatethe directions
of the army attacks; black arrows in the opposite direction, even in
number, markthe withdrawals. In the end, eighteen Armenians died. The
eighteen martyrs of Musa Dagh.History has kept no trace of how many
casualties were among the regular troops. What is knownhistory, though,
is that the refugees found shelter in Port Said, Egypt. The adult men
enrolled in avoluntary battalion employed in the campaign to conquer
the Ottoman provinces of the MiddleEast. By 1917, the conquering of
Syria was complete, and the refugees of Musa Dagh were able toleave the
Egyptian tent city to return to the shades of these flourishing woods.
The grating around the Armenian Church in Vakif is locked. The
silence is broken only by the blowsof a salty wind. A gentleman,
torn between curiosity and indifference, is slowly coming closer.I
finish reading the inscription telling the rest of the story. In 1939,
during World War II, Franceobtained neutrality from Ankara giving up
this land to Turkey. The Armenians of Musa Dagh lefteverything again,
this time to move to Lebanon. All of them, except for some: a group
remained,giving continuity to a very ancient human presence, to which
this small church bears witness. Inthe meantime, the gentleman has
overcome his fear. Two huge black eyes look closely at me. Hishand
up to his mouth, a very eloquent gesture. “Coffee?”
An Armenian, a Syrian and a Turk are playing cards in the only inn
in town. The three eldersliven up an empty room with ritual jokes,
amidst the vapor of coffee. Each of their lives is asynthesis
of individual and collective stories gone bad, forsaken like this
place. The Armenian, adescendant of the survivors of Musa Dagh, was an
emigrant to Germany for forty years as a Turk,like millions of other
Turks. The Syrian was forced to become a Turkish citizen in 1939,
when thisland switched sides. The Turk is the son of merchants who,
prior to the fall of the Ottoman empire,lived in Greece, on the Aegean
Sea. He settled here because of re-population policies by whichthe
repatriated Turks were assigned Armenian houses left empty. How much
history around onetable? How much of neglected memory dies in these
old men? I come out of the inn and lookdown the valley. The border
is down there, splitting this clear view in two.
The Syrian customs officer touches his moustache while shaking his
head. Illuminated by a milkyneon, the passport lies open on his table.
It has been lying there for hours, now, among piles ofbullets that
two soldiers are patiently inserting in the chargers. “Sometimes,
faxes take the wholenight, to get here. If I were you, I would
give up”. The waiting room is empty: up until a few weeksago, it
was crowded with people and goods. Today, silence rules. Finally,
a policeman brings apiece of paper from upstairs.
>From my journal. November 25th I write to keep busy, to avoid meeting
the sharp gaze of the young officer on duty. Tidy, clean-shaven,
very short hair. Uniform ironed.
He must be my same age, but he seems to belong toanother world. I know
the fax is a farce, I know he is the one who makes the decisions,
aroundhere. And I know that he will never let me pass. His is the
thin face of a power feeling threatenedand who now recognizes and
speaks with his fellow officers only.
“Italian? I’m sorry, you can’t cross here”. The clock marks 1 in the
morning. I walk backwards andretrace the stretch of sky towering over
the no man’s land. Stars big as nuts carefully watch overmy path.
While announcing the end of my journey, the officer never took his
eyes off a Turkishsoap opera on the colorless monitor of his small
television.
CONSTRUCTION OF GYUMRI MUSIC SCHOOL IN FULL SWING
Mediamax
Sept 14 2012
Armenia
Yerevan/Mediamax/. The construction of N6 Music School in Gyumri is
in full swing. The school is built within the framework of a joint
project of Mediamax, the Fund for Armenian Relief and Australian
“Do Something” organization.
The school foundation is almost ready, concreting works will be over
in a couple of days after which the wall construction will start. The
framework of the building should be ready by winter.
The construction is carried out by “Kanaka” company.
The ceremony of laying a memorable capsule in the building foundation
will be held on September 25.
The school will be put into operation in 2013.
***
The story started 23 years ago.
A few months after the devastating Spitak earthquake that killed 25
thousand Armenians and left hundreds of thousands homeless, 24 year
old Jon Dee organized the Rock Aid Armenia project in London. British
rock stars recorded a top 40 cover version of Deep Purple’s Smoke on
the Water and helped to release the special “Earthquake Album”.
Revenue from the single and album sales was contributed as aid
to Armenia.
In 2009, the Armenian Mediamax media company decided to honor the
participants of Rock Aid Armenia and contacted Jon Dee who lives
in Australia and heads the Do Something organization that he set up
with tennis star and former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash. As Jon was
planning to re-release Rock Aid Armenia’s Smoke on the Water to raise
additional funds for Armenia, Mediamax and Do Something joined forces
to implement the Armenia Grateful 2 Rock / Rock Aid Armenia project.
In October 2009, Mediamax invited Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, Tony
Iommi from Black Sabbath, Geoff Downes from Yes/Asia and Jon Dee to
Armenia. Under the Armenian President’s decree, they were awarded
an Order of Honor. It was later that Brian May from Queen and David
Gilmour from Pink Floyd were given their Orders of Honors by the
Armenian Embassy in London.
Ian Gillan, Tony Iommi, Geoff Downes and Jon Dee visited the Octet
Music School in Gyumri during their trip to Armenia. If there has ever
existed a painful blend of poverty and talent, then it was vividly
exposed at the Gyumri Octet School of Music. Many of the students come
from underprivileged families in Gyumri. Their music school has been
made up of “domiks” (metal sheet dwellings) that were left over from
the 1988 earthquake. The promise to rebuild these temporary premises
with a proper building has not happened. Despite their dilapidated
premises, the Octet Music School has kept producing talent year
after year.
The Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) has been sponsoring the
underprivileged students of the School for many years. A hint of hope
came to the school about 5 years ago when a very special couple from
the United States, Mr. and Mrs. Edward and Janet Mardigian visited
the students, accompanied by the FAR Board of Directors. “I would
never forget those children, tears were coming to my eyes every time
I recalled their beautiful musical performance” – said Mrs. Janet
Mardigian. They have never stopped thinking about the ways that they
could help the children.
The children’s performance also struck the rock heroes Ian Gillan,
Tony Iommi and Geoff Downes. Together with Jon Dee, they announced
that they would help to rebuild the school. By the end of 2009, FAR,
Mediamax and Do Something signed a trilateral agreement to achieve
this outcome.
In March 2010, Mediamax and Do Something organized two charitable
concerts by Ian Gillan with the Armenian Symphonic Orchestra in
Yerevan and raised 45.000 USD. Over the past 2 years, a total of
USD 110.000 has been raised for rebuilding the school – the Armenian
Government, Geoff Downes, EMI Records and Orange Armenia also made
contributions. Armenian President Serzh Sargsian pledged to support
the project with AMD10mln (or 25.000 USD). This money will soon be
transferred to the school account.
In 2010, Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi set up the WhoCares ad-hoc
super-group to raise funds for the Octet school. In May 2011, Edel
Music released the first single by WhoCares with 2 brand new songs
– Out of My Mind and Holy Water. In July 2012, Edel Music released
the WhoCares album that comprises the 2 songs from the single and
unreleased and rare material from Gillan and Iommi’s back catalogue.
Gillan and Iommi will make an advance payment of 15.000 USD for the
school and the rest will be transferred after the album sales.
The FAR Board recently briefed the Mardigian Family Foundation
about these extensive fundraising efforts. The following day, their
Foundation informed FAR that it will almost triple the funds raised so
far. This generous donation was extremely important and it allowed FAR,
Mediamax and Do Something to launch the construction of the school.
The dream of having a new Octet Music School is now very close
to becoming a reality. Ian Gillan once called the Octet school a
“great symbol”. Indeed, this cause that started 23 years ago is a
great combination of Philanthropy and Art that are coming together
to support these talented young children.
ARMENIA RECEIVES 15 OFFICIAL CONDEMNING DOCUMENTS ON SAFAROV’S CASE
Mediamax
Sept 14 2012
Armenia
Yerevan/Mediamax/. Secretary of the National Security Council
of Armenia Artur Baghdasaryan said today that they received 15
official documents on Ramil Safarov’s case from various international
structures.
Artur Baghdasaryan hailed the European Parliament’s resolution on
Safarov’s case adopted on September 13. He noted that it came to
prove once more that the international community shares Armenia’s
approaches in this case.
Artur Baghdasaryan paid special attention to the fact the resolution
notes that Safarov’s pardon by the Azerbaijani President may lead to
further escalation of tension in the region.
“The process will be continued and still more structures will touch
upon this issue”, noted the Secretary of the Security Council.
Mediamax, Armenia
Sept 14 2012
Great Britain’s Foreign Office Minister for Europe to visit Yerevan
Yerevan/Mediamax/. David Lidington, the Great Britain’s Foreign
Office Minister for Europe, will pay an official visit to Yerevan on
18-19 September.
In Yerevan, the Minister will meet the President of Armenia Serzh
Sargsyan, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Edward Nalbandian, Mediamax was informed in the British
Embassy.
The discussions will focus on the development of the bilateral and
business relations between Armenia and the UK; Armenia’s progress on
EU Association Agreement negotiations; and an exchange of views on
regional and international issues.
ANTI-ARMENIAN XENOPHOBIA IN AZERBAIJAN SUPPORTED BY STATE – ARMENIAN MP
news.am
September 13, 2012 | 19:19
YEREVAN. – head of the Euronest Armenian delegation, ruling Republican
Party of Armenia (RPA) MP Artak Zakaryan has wrote a letter to the
European Parliamentary MPs providing them with additional information
on the Azeri murderer Safarov case.
“Granting a pardon by the state and glorifying a cruel murderer like
Ramil Safarov, who confessed his xenophobic reasons and was convicted
by the EU member Hungarian court, caused problems for all European
values. An anti-Armenian xenophobia exists supported by the Azerbaijani
state, which escalates tension around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,”
Zakaryan’s letter reads.
SAMARA-YEREVAN BUS CLASHES WITH TRACK
news.am
September 14, 2012 | 17:48
MOSCOW. – A bus heading from Samara, Russia, to Yerevan, Armenia
crashed with a track. The accident occurred at 9.05 a.m. in Russia
on Friday.
The bus Neoplan, which was transporting passengers, crashed with a
KAMAZ track on the federal highway M-6 Caspiy Volgograd – Elista, in
Russia, SAMARA24 reports. Two drivers, nineteen passengers, including
four children were in the bus at the moment of the accident. As a
result of the crash, driver of the bus was injured.
Currently the passengers are taken to a cafe near the railway station,
while a bus from Yerevan headed to take them. The bus is to arrive
there at 1.00 p.m. on Saturday.
ARMENIA REGISTERS 1500 ACCIDENTS FROM EARLY 2012
news.am
September 14, 2012 | 18:18
YEREVAN. – Armenia registered 1,521 accidents during the eight months
of this year, as a result, 176 people died, while 2,236 were injured.
The number of accidents was 1,367 in the same period last year, while
183 people died and 2,025 were injured in the first eight months of
2011, police informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.
Run-overs made 453, and 50 people died, while 434 were injured. As
compared to the same period of the last year, the number of run-overs
was the same, but in the same period of 2011 63 people died, while
464 were injured, the source reports.
NEW YORK COURT FINES ARMENIAN MP AND FORMER MINISTER
news.am
September 14, 2012 | 16:59
YEREVAN. – The New York Court made a decision on Sept. 6 to fine
Armenia’s former Minister of Nature Protection, ruling Republican
Party influential MP Vardan Ayvazyan for $37,537,978.02 for benefit
of Global Gold Mining Company (GGM).
According to the verdict, one of the GGM branch companies was subjected
to corrupted and improper demands by the Armenian former Minister in
2006, Hetq informs.
As a result of the corrupted demands, the New York court fined Ayvazyan
for $37,537,978.02, including the compensation and fines.
However, the verdict is likely to have no consequences for Ayvazyan
as there was no agreement signed between Armenia and the United
States on that field. The only consequence for Ayvazyan will be the
impossibility to enter USA. Currently Ayvazyan is head of the Standing
Committee on Econimic Affairs of the Armenian Parliament.
WOMEN GOING ABROAD TO WORK
05:28 pm | Today | Social
The number of women leaving for Russia and Turkey for better job
opportunities is increasing in Armenia’s Gyumri city. Single women
comprise a great number among guest workers.
Their minor children are sent either to an orphanage or remain under
their grandmother’s care.
“My elder grandchild attends a boarding school. His mother is working
in Russia, she is weaving stocks. The children are left under my
care. The girl is 5 years old and the boy is 10,” a Gyumri resident
told representatives of Shirak Centre.
For more details watch the video