Author: Badalian Vardan

DOUBLE DIFFICULTIES: DISABLED WOMEN IN ARMENIA FACE ADDITIONAL TRIALS IN AN UNACCOMMODATING SOCIETY

SOCIETY | 20.03.13 | 15:12

Photolure

By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

The whistle of the boiling kettle calls Seda to the kitchen. With one
hand she puts the tea leaves, pours the hot water with the other and
the glassy cups get painted in brown.

“My parents died a few years ago. I wish I had a family of my own,
children,” says 65-year-old Seda (her name has been changed at her
request). “I grew up with complexes, and my parents had their share of
fault in it. Rather than encouraging me, they kept breaking me all my
life – I am limping, I am ugly, not worthy of anything, an eight-year
school education would do for me, who’d marry me?” recalls the woman
with bitterness.

Seda works as a cleaning lady at a Yerevan store, with a monthly salary
of 40,000 drams ($100). She says that women with disabilities are more
vulnerable than physically challenged men in society, continuously
facing physical, social and psychological issues.

“I feel like a second-rate person, never needed by anyone, never had
happiness as a woman; even when hiring me they look at my limping
leg and think I cannot be of any use,” she says.

Seda is one of the 87,420 disabled women in Armenia, who make 47
percent of the people with disabilities here (the total number is
186,384).

Zaruhi Batoyan, advocating the rights of the disabled at the Bridge
of Hope NGO, says in a society the image of a woman commonly does
not match the image of a woman with disability.

“From that dogmatic perspective a physically challenged girl or
a woman is not attractive, not sexy, cannot get married, be a good
wife and a mother, and this aggravates her family’s attitude to her,”
says Batoyan.

Christine Aghayan, psychologist at Gyumri’s Agat center for women with
special needs, says the misconception that disability is a disease
is firmly rooted in people’s minds.

“We held surveys in the streets of Gyumri on whether a girl with
disability can get married or not. Some said yes, others said they
didn’t know, others said ‘of course not, she’d only harm herself’. It
is very difficult to break the dogmatic mentality, but it is an
undeniable fact that everybody has the right to personal happiness,
maternity and family. But in any case, a disabled woman experiences
an inner conflict on how the society would take her possible decision
to become a mother,” she says.

Batoyan believes that the issue has to be solved in those state and
social projects, which do not reflect the needs of these women. None
of the numerous documents on women’s rights has any reference to
women with disabilities and their issues.

Armenia joined the international convention on the rights of the
disabled in 2006, in which special attention is paid to women with
disabilities. People in charge of this sphere claim that they are
implementing a disability policy based on the social model, which
implies protection of the rights of people with disabilities and
creation of equal conditions for them.

The law on social protection of the disabled was first adopted in 1993
in Armenia. Since 2009 a new model draft law is being developed. Anna
Hakobyan, senior specialist at the department of disability and
elderly people’s issues at the labor and social affairs ministry,
says the new draft law regards disability as a combination of the
person and the environment, and not as a disease, like it used to.

The NGOs advocating the rights of people with disabilities point
out the lack of facilities in the environment to make it accessible
also for people with special needs, and in case with women it causes
significant difficulties.

“Even with sanitary facilities (toilets), if there are disabled men
and women in the area with no disability access, it’s harder for
women than men to take care of their needs, just because of their
physiological differences. Healthcare services, doctors’ clinics are
not accessible for women with special needs,” explains Batoyan.

According to her, inclusive policy is a process of development,
ensuring accessibility of services and projects for people with most
diverse needs, and as a result it’s a win-win situation for all,
because they manage to be members of one common society. The NGOs
involved in this field will try to make suggestions that a provision
be included specifically about women with disabilities in the new bill.

Psychologist Christine Aghayan says the country keeps joining various
conventions, adopts laws, but reality has a different face.

“Women with disabilities continue running into obstacles, both physical
and social. Their rights are not fully protected in Armenia.

As for the issues of maternity and reproductive health, those are
rarely voiced even at the state level,” she says.

Hakobyan says while working on the draft law she has met people from
various ministries and explained what kind of changes are needed:
“Unfortunately we have failed at some things, some provisions are
missing despite our efforts, but nothing’s lost yet, we have adopted
this path and will be able to change many things. The role of each of
us will be big; when the society learns to change their view of people
with disabilities, we will be able to bring about deeper changes in
the policies.”

LETTER FROM HAY TAD CYPRUS TO LITHUANIA/ARTSAKH GROUP

Nicosia – Gibrahayer e-magazine – March 2013 – The Armenian National
Committee of Cyprus sent a letter to the honourable members of the
Lithuanian Parliament congratulating them on their decision to form a
parliamentary friendship group with Nagorno Karabakh Republic despite
Azerbaijani’s hysterical provocations.

The Chairman of the ANC of Cyprus Hagop Kazandjian expressed the
hope that the adopted declaration will become precedent for other
Parliaments as well.

Kazandjian also congratulated long-time activist, Euro Parliament MP
and the great supporter of the Armenian people Dr. Eleni Theocharous
for extending her support to the nine Lithuanian Parliamentarians.

TURKEY IN NO POSITION TO SCHOOL ISRAEL ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Protestors chant slogans against Israel and Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad as they carry a mock coffin with the mention “In Hule,
50 children massacred by knives” during a rally on May 31, 2012 on
Taksim Square in Istanbul, marking the first anniversary of the Mavi
Marmara incident. (photo by BULENT KILIC/AFP/GettyImages)

By: Orhan Kemal Cengiz for Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse. Posted on March 19.

Who can take Turkey seriously when it accuses Israel of crimes
against humanity and then lays out a red-carpet state reception for
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has an arrest warrant from
the International Criminal Court?

Or let’s put it another way: Can the Turkey that couldn’t settle the
accounts of its massive human rights violations against the Kurds in
the past and couldn’t even apologize for what happened to the Armenians
in 1915, place Israel’s crimes against humanity on the world’s agenda?

Turkey’s problematic past not only impedes its efforts to call
attention to Israel’s inhuman practices against the Palestinians,
but also prevents it from holding violators of the rights of Turkish
citizens accountable. For example, look at what transpired after the
Israeli military attack on the Mavi Marmara flotilla in 2010.

Nine Turkish nationals lost their lives in the Israeli attack against
the flotilla. The Israeli operation against the ship, from beginning to
end, was an array of violations of international law. For an account
of the terrifying actions of Israeli soldiers in that operation,
one need only look at the report of the UN Human Rights Council dated
Sept. 22, 2010 [A/HRC/15/21]. The UN report clearly says that contrary
to Israeli allegations, nobody had fired on the Israeli soldiers. The
Israeli soldiers had fired on civilians on board from close range,
and even after the wounded civilians had fallen to the ground. The
conclusions of the UN report clearly explain the human tragedy on
Mavi Marmara that day:

“The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the
flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but
demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It
betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality.”

The Human Rights Council also provided a legal assessment of the
Israeli operation: “It constituted grave violations of human rights
law and international humanitarian law.”

So what did Turkey do against these “grave human rights violations”
that killed nine of the citizens? It launched a born-dead legal case
at Istanbul’s High Criminal Court. The Istanbul public prosecutor asks
for nine life sentences for the then-Israeli chief of staff, commanders
of its navy and air force and the head of military intelligence for
their responsibility in the deaths. In Turkish jurisprudence, it is
not possible to try and sentence defendants in absentia. That means
that unless these former Israeli officials agree to come to Turkey
for trial by a high criminal court, they can’t be penalized.

Istanbul’s 7th High Criminal Court held four sessions starting in
November 2012 and heard depositions of hundreds of plaintiffs. The
court is likely to hear even more plaintiffs in its next sessions,
but since it cannot hear the depositions by defendants, it will
at some point decide to suspend the trial. If the defendants ever
come to Turkey, they will risk detention to compel appearance before
the court. The court can also call on Interpol for the arrest of the
defendants, should they show up in any European country, to bring them
before the Turkish court. However, no such request has been sent to
Interpol at the moment.

If Turkey had been a country unworried about accounting for its own
human rights violations, what choice did it have in the Mavi Marmara
case? For example, if Turkey had been a party to the International
Criminal Court, it could have asked for the Israeli soldiers to be
tried there, as the operation was carried out on board a Turkish ship.

The prosecutor in Istanbul said the Mavi Marmara, although
Comoros-flagged, was registered in Turkey. The Israeli attack would be
considered to have been committed on Turkish soil. Turkey then would be
able to claim that this attack, along with the blockade against Gaza,
was a war crime. And as there were crimes against humanity committed
against those on board, the ICC would be qualified to try the case.

Why doesn’t Turkey become a signatory to the ICC, long demanded by the
EU it hopes to join one day? Turkey is afraid of its past human rights
violations being brought to the court one way or the other. Some of
these fears pertain to the Kurdish issue and others to the Cyprus
question. Turkey is afraid of being accused of ongoing violations
arising from the inability of Kurdish villagers to return to the
villages which were set ablaze in 1990s. Turkey also fears its 1974
military intervention in Cyprus could be classified as aggression as
per the Rome Statute. Although the ICC had declared its intention to
investigate crimes of aggression only after 2017, Turkey is not sure
of settling the Cyprus issue until then, and still fears of being
accused. Turkey, although a candidate for EU membership, is the only
country among all EU members and membership candidates that doesn’t
does recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction.

A country that cannot effectively cope with its own human rights
and other issues in its past cannot give lessons in human rights to
another country. Sadly, Turkey is so fearful of its own past that
it cannot leave the corner it has backed itself into, not even to
prosecute crimes against humanity committed against its own citizens.

Instead, it must be content with filing legal complaints that will
not produce any meaningful outcomes and serve only to appease its
own public.

Orhan Kemal Cengiz is a Turkish lawyer, journalist and human rights
activist. A former president of the Human Rights Agenda Association,
a respected Turkish NGO that works on human rights issues, he has been
the lawyer of the Alliance of Turkish Protestant Churches since 2002.

He writes for Today’s Zaman and Radikal.

Read more:

GARO AND MHER: THESE QAMISHLI ARMENIANS PLAN TO STAY IN KOVSAKAN
Hayk Ghazaryan

19:43, March 19, 2013

It’s not only their accents that distinguish Syrian Armenians from
local Artsakh residents. It’s also their viewpoints.

If locals resent the wealthy lifestyles of state officials, Karo
Margaryan, who moved to Armenia seven years ago from the Syrian town
of Qamishli, doesn’t seem to mind.

“So what if top Artsakh officials are engaged in business. What’s
important is that they aren’t leaving the country and taking their
money with them,” he says.

After moving, Karo spent two years in Stepanakert and later relocated
to Ashtarak. Later on, he decided on Kovsakan (former Zangelan)
in the extreme south of Artsakh’s Kashatagh Province.

His friend Mher Boghosyan, also from Qamishli, moved to Kovsakan
three years ago.

Today, they jointly farm some 200 hectares of land. Most residents
of Qamishli, on the Tirkish border, are farmers as well.

I met Karo and Mher in Stepanakert,

Garo’s family is now living in Sweden. They will move to Kovsakan
after Garo builds a house large enough for them all. Mher’s family,
all seventeen of them, are waiting back in Qamishli. He says a spate
of financial problems has delayed their move to Artsakh.

They both say one can live normally in Artsakh. It just takes hard
work and perseverance.

Garo said he didn’t stay in Armenia because all the land is being
privatized and fenced in. “In Armenia, you can’t sit down on a river
bank and eat a bit of cheese and watermelon. It’s all posted land.”

He points out that a similar trend is evident in Kashatagh and that
it must be countered. “The law in Artsakh is that if someone doesn’t
farm their land, someone else can. If you work the land, it’s yours. If
not, it doesn’t belong to you. I believe this principle is correct,”
Garo says.

Garo says that everyone must do their bit to ensure that the rule of
law is established in Artsakh and gives a personal example.

“Once, I was stopped by a traffic cop. He told me that he would fix
my 10,000 fine if I paid him 3,000. I told him that if he did this
I would lodge a complaint.”

Many Artsakh residents complain that they can’t pay off their loans by
farming. Garo thinks differently. “There are those who receive loans
and then spend the money foolishly, on drink, expensive clothes and
other baubles. In the end, they’re in a bad way.”

Both Garo and Mher Boghosyan believe that the roads around Kovsakan
need immediate attention. There’s also the matter of improving cell
telephone reception and building a temporary shelter for arriving
Syrian-Armenians in addition to a granary.

Karabakh Telecom still doesn’t provide telephone service in Kovsakan.

“You often see people up in trees with their phones in order to link
up with a service provider from Armenia. But their connection is very
weak,” says Garo.

The two former Qamishli Armenians believe that a temporary shelter
for 15-20 people would be a great help for others just arriving.

They say that more Armenians from Qamishli will come if the government
continues to provide assistance.

Unlike Aleppo Armenians, those from Qamishli are quite used to village
life, the two friends comment.

Garo and Mher say they have no plans to return to Qamishli because,
whatever the outcome of the civil war in Syria, the border town won’t
be the same.

“If the rebels win, they won’t forgive the Christians for siding with
the government. It would be like moving to Baku and living amidst
the Turks,” says Mher.

Robert Matevosyan, who heads the Kashatagh Repopulation Department,
believes that new families will relocate to the area once houses
envisaged for the Syrian Armenians are completed.

Right now, a building with 12 apartments is being built for them
in Kovsakan.

There are 28 Syrian Armenian families now residing in Kovsakan;
74 individuals all together.

ARMENIA’S KHOSROV FOREST RESERVE HAS NEW DIRECTOR

TERT.AM
13:06 ~U 20.03.13

Armenia’s Nature Protection Minister Aram Harutyunyan conducted a
consultation in the Khosrov Forest state reserve and presented to
its staff his March 18, 2013 decision on appointing deputy minister
Khachik Hakobyan as the reserve’s management council’s chairman and
Hrachya Hovakimyan as reserve’s director.

According to the Ministry’s press service, other candidates for the
office that passed the 70% barrier – Varantsov Barseghyan and Garnik
Shaboyan – also participated in the consultation. The minister said
in future the potential of all skillful people will be used for the
recovery of the reserve.

Harutyunyan also assigned the leadership of the reserve to report
about the situation there every month. It has been assigned to present
new development programs for the discussion of the leadership of
the reserve.

The minister has also assigned to work out new programs for the
development of eco tourism in the reserve.

ALIYEV SLAMS MINSK GROUP, ARMENIA OVER LINGERING KARABAKH CONFLICT

TERT.AM
11:09 ~U 20.03.13

The Azerbaijani president has criticized Armenia and the OSCE Minsk
Group over a failure to reach a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

“The most painful issue for our country, the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict over Karabakh, won’t find a solution, unfortunately,”
Ilham Aliev said, accusing Armenia of non-constructivism and the
international mediators – of indifference.

“Armenia is, of course, interested in the maximum long maintenance of
the status quo, a situation which implies neither a war nor peace,
but that cannot satisfy us. Azerbaijan uses and will keep using
all the possible tools to promote a progress and development in
the negotiation process to achieve a quick settlement and have its
territorial integrity reinstated,” the Azerbaijani leader said in a
congratulatory speech dedicated Nowruz, the Iranian new year.

He then stressed the importance of relying on the norms of
international law while achieving a solution.

Aliyev said he is confident that the conflict will be resolved in
Azerbaijan’s favor.

“We seek and must seek for a settlement in the nearest future. I don’t
have the slightest doubt that the problem will be resolved in our
favor. The question is when and in what way. We now give preference
to a diplomatic solution. In the meantime, we keep making country
more powerful. We are isolating Armenia from all regional projects
and will pursue those policies in future,” he added.

SERZH SARGSYAN’S DECISION ON LARGE-SCALE OFFENSIVE
HAKOB BADALYAN

15:56 19/03/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

Serzh Sargsyan’s press conference which was his reply to Raffi
Hovannisian seemed to be the continuation of the EPP president Wilfred
Martens’ reply to the letter of the Heritage Party. It seemed that
Martens and Serzh Sargsyan co-drafted their answers in Brussels. Note
that Sargsyan held his press conference after returning from Brussels.

Interestingly, on the same day the press reported that the tax service
and the National Security Service are again checking Civilitas
Foundation.

Most probably, having visited Moscow and Brussels, Serzh Sargsyan has
made a decision on a large-scale offensive or has got an opportunity
for an offensive in all the directions. In the meantime, it seemed
that Serzh Sargsyan is stuck between Moscow and Brussels. After his
return from Brussels the head of the EP foreign committee and deputy
president of the EPP Brok announced that DCFTA and Customs Union are
incompatible.

Serzh Sargsyan again has to choose between two options, which means a
difficult decision to refuse either Russia or Europe.

Hence, Serzh Sargsyan decided to refuse Raffi Hovannisian first. It is
possible that Sargsyan has tried to use Hovannisian’s factor either in
Moscow or in Brussels. Or both. In Moscow he may have succeeded
resisting Putin’s attacks or marking time while in Brussels he may
have tried to get support with the help of Hovannisian’s factor.

Serzh Sargsyan should have cherished, not refused Raffi Hovannisian.

However, this is what Sargsyan might be busy doing. In this case, the
only way of cherishing remains refusal. Serzh Sargsyan is unable to
take another step. His press conference is a confession of his
incapability. He cannot even resign because there are oligarchs whom
he cannot compel to do anything, and issues are resolved by asking,
not compelling, and after this resignation Raffi Hovannisian will not
be asked to be president.

There is nothing Serzh Sargsyan can do about Raffi Hovannisian. It is
another issue what he personally thinks and what he is ready for. The
fact is that he lacks power to make necessary and adequate decisions
on how to deal with Raffi Hovannisian. Meanwhile, the society, civil
activists and initiatives have something to do about Hovannisian. It
is a fact that political parties are no longer an effective mechanism
but it has no implications to civic activity unless no generic,
institutional system is formed in this field which will be different
and more efficient than party pyramids.

The addressee of Raffi Hovannisian’s hunger strike is this field, not
the government. Moreover, the government seems to have understood this
very well and is trying to appear as the addressee of the hunger
strike and deny whatever is addressed to it, noting that it is not a
political way of protest, and there is no such politics. In addition,
it should be noted that the same thing was stated by the political
parties, trying to impart Hovannisian’s hunger strike with a political
content and at the same time deprive of meaning or devaluate this
means of struggle by saying this is not a way of doing politics.

This reaction of the government and the so-called party system is
understood. They need to prevent the civil society to feel being the
addressee of Hovannisian’s hunger strike and carry out adequate action
to form an alternative to the traditional party-political-governmental
system. The system always has a chance as long as the formation of
this system is uncertain.

AZERBAIJAN SENDS ANOTHER NOTE OF PROTEST TO LITHUANIA OVER THE FRIENDSHIP GROUP WITH ARTSAKH

14:48 19.03.2013

Azerbaijan has sent another note of protest to Lithuania over the
establishment of the Lithuania-Artsakh Friendship Group at the
Lithuanian Seimas.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov met Lithuanian
Ambassador to Azerbaijan Arturas Zhurauskas. Khalafov said Azerbaijan
is concerned about the initiative to create the Lithuanian Parliament
Friendship Group with Nagorno-Karabakh, Azeri media report.

Khalafov noted that this initiative put forward by some MPs, does
not respond to the state of relations between the two countries,
and casts a shadow on the existing relationship.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs handed a note of protest to
the Lithuanian diplomat and expressed hope that the case would be
investigated and the Lithuanian side would take measures to prevent
such situations.

ARMENIA SHOULD REJECT LIBERAL-ECONOMIC SYSTEM AND APPLY TO SOCIO-DEMOCRATIC ONE : SHIRKHANYAN

YEREVAN, March 19. /ARKA/. Armenia should refuse from liberal-economic
system and adopt socio-democratic one, former Defense Minister of
Armenia Vahan Shirkhanyan said.

“Today Armenia is applying to economy liberalization, and this course
can’t have positive outcomes… That’s why I think our country should
choose a socio-democratic path,” he said.

According to Shirkhanyan, in case Armenia uses this system, the
regulatory role of the government in different spheres will rise,
including the spheres of healthcare and education.

He also highlighted Armenia had chosen the current liberal-economic
system during difficult years of the Karabakh war, that is why this
system if full of many flaws which have a negative impact on the
republic’s overall development. -0-

FRANCOPHONIE MONTH IN ARMENIA TO BE HELD IN A SPECIAL WAY

13:24, 19 March, 2013

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS: Current year Francophonie month
is scheduled to be held in a particular way. The launch of 2013
Francophonie month enables a chance to international organization’s 77
member and observer states jointly celebrate Francophonie international
day on March 20. The Adviser to the Foreign Minister of Armenia on
Issues of Francophonie, Ambassador Christian Ter-Stepanyan told the
reporters about this on March 19.

In the words of the Ambassador various cultural, educational events,
scheduled to be presented to wide frames of public were targeted
to dissemination of Francophonie culture. As reports “Armenpress”
Ambassador Christian Ter-Stepanyan stated: “Like each year, current
year program will contribute to reaffirm our adherence to Francophone
culture and values.” Over 350 cultural, educational events will be
held in the frame of the program, which is a considerable data as
compared with that of the previous year.

Henri Reynaud, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
French Republic to Armenia pointed out Francophone days will be
celebrated in a peculiar way. The Ambassador gratefully recorded
World famous French singer Helène Segara is going to visit Armenia
in the frame of Francophonie days. “We are proud she accepted to our
invitation and we succeeded to organize her visit to Armenia. Segara
is a uniting path between French song and Armenian culture,” Ambassador
underscored. Segara’s mother is Armenian.