CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS AWARDED FRIENDSHIP MEDAL
AZG Armenian Daily
10/08/2006
President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has signed a
decree to award Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II Medal of
Friendship. According to the Kremlin’s Press Service, His Holiness
will be awarded for his contribution in fostering Armenian-Russian
friendship.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
EIGHT CHANGES IN ELECTION CODE IN 7 YEARS
Panorama.am
17:51 09/08/06
"The National Assembly will set for the 8th amendment of the Election
Code in fall," Felix Khachatryan, representative of Justice block
at the Election Committee, told reporters today. In his words, it
is not a good indicator to make 8 amendments of the Election Code
in the course of 7 years. Khachatryan agrees with Venice Committee,
which said, "The biggest problems are not with the Election Code but
how, actually, they the elections are conducted."
However, Khachatryan informed the reporters that 100 changed are
expected in a law, which has only 141 articles. He said election
committee members are going to be paid for their jobs, according to
the amendment.
Khachatryan expects this change to diminish election
fraud.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
FIVE WORKS FOR NEW ARMENIAN ANTHEM TO BE PRESENTED FOR PUBLIC APPROVAL
Armenpress
Aug 09 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS: The commission set up to select the
works for the new Armenian anthem has selected the best five works
from the 85.
Armenian Culture and Youth Affairs Minister Hasmik Poghosian said that
by the majority of the voices the work of Tigran Mansurian based on
the poem of Yeghishe Charents took the first place, then comes Yervand
Yerznkian’s work based on the poem of Ararat II, Edgar Hovhannissian’s
work based on the poem of Vahagn Davtian, Aram Khachaturian’s work
based on the poem of Arsen Soghomonian and finally comes the work of
Robert Amirkhanian based on the poem of Ludwig Durian.
The first round of the competition was summed up by three
hearings. Poghosian said that the above mentioned works will be
presented to the public, until that they will develop the system by
which people will express their opinion about the works. They are also
going to work out mechanisms on how they will take into consideration
the opinions of the people.
The minister assessed the work of the commission as unbiased and
effective and noted that all the discussions were conducted in a
working atmosphere.
The public hearings of the second round will be organized by the end
of the month.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ONE MORE MURDER IN YEREVAN
ArmRadio.am
10.08.2006 14:44
One more scandal murder occurred in Yerevan, capital of the Republic
of Armenia, Arminfo reported.
The General Prosecutor’s Office reports that today the corpse of
businessman Armen Grigorian was found in his own apartment. The hands
and legs were bound. The skull was fractured in certain places. A
criminal case is roused.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ARMENIA: MULTI-ETHNIC MATCHES SPURNED
ArmRadio.am
10.08.2006 15:15
Armenia is a practically mono-ethnic state, with very few instances
of mixed marriages, which makes those who do make inter-racial matches
stand out all the more.
"I bring up my children in the spirit of Christianity and I tell them
that all people are equal, regardless of the colour of their skin
and their faith," said Anna, who lives in Yerevan with her Nigerian
husband Michael and their two small sons Joseph and James.
The two dark-skinned boys do suffer racial abuse in their kindergarten
or on public transport. "I just get furious when they call my children
‘negroes’," she said.
"I don’t feel comfortable in Yerevan," added Michael, who despite
owning his own business, an Internet café, wants to take his family
away from Armenia to a more multi-racial society.
Despite living in Armenia for nine years, Michael has not integrated
well and speaks only a few phrases of Armenian.
Michael and Anna’s was the first marriage officially registered
between an African and an Armenian, more than ten years ago and it
is still a very rare case in Armenia.
Ethnographer Hranush Kharatian, who heads the Armenian government’s
department on national minorities and religious issues, notes that
Armenians comprise 97.8 per cent of the population and that they have
little experience of interacting with other nationalities.
She also said that an ancient tradition of self-preservation and
of fostering national identity in the face of adversity had served
Armenia well but carried with it suspicion towards foreigners who
wanted to marry ethnic Armenians, both in Armenia itself and in the
worldwide diaspora.
Yet this attitude, she said, is prevalent in a society, which suffers
from huge migration problems.
"I think foreigners in Armenia will definitely encounter problems,"
Kharatian went on. "Our state does not have an active immigration
policy, there is no discussion of attracting new workers or stimulating
population growth. We don’t have gaps in our workforce, on the contrary
we don’t have enough jobs.
"A person who has an unusual appearance or whose skin is a different
colour tries to lead the life of an ordinary citizen, but the extra
attention he gets from society makes his life public property."
According to official statistics, in the 18 months between January
2005 and the end of June 2006, there were 864 marriages between
Armenians and foreigners out of a total of 20,000 unions overall.
"I think any of our women who marry blacks are our enemies," said
a middle-aged man with higher education questioned by IWPR on the
street in Yerevan. " Armenian blood should not be mix with the blood
of blacks. If you marry a foreigner then he should at least be white."
His view was typical of many ordinary Armenians asked to comment on
the issue.
Murtada came to Armenia from Sudan nine years ago as a tourist and
married an Armenian named Naira. They live in Yerevan and Murtada,
who trained as an economist, works as a driver.
"I’m not concerned by the extra attention that gets paid to us, but
I worry about Murtada," his wife told IWPR. "He is a very sensitive
person and he can be insulted by a sideways glance."
"I can’t hide the colour of my husband’s skin," she went on, expressing
hope that their son Bashir, who speaks Armenian like a native will
not suffer from the same problems as his father.
Mira, who is Korean, moved from Moscow to Armenia with her Armenian
husband Ashot. She said that the two of them, both artists, had
encountered few problems and had had more trouble in Georgia, where
they also lived for several years.
Ashot acknowledged that it was easier for his wife, an Asian, to fit
into Armenia than for an African to do so. But he said he was worried
by the country’ s intolerance towards foreigners. "The more developed
a country is the better it treats its foreigners. Poorly developed
countries put obstacles in the way of foreigners," he said.
"We need time to live together so that Armenians get used to the idea
that black-skinned people can adapt to our way of life, speak Armenian
and live like Armenians," said Vladimir Mikaelian, a psychologist.
He argued that Armenian ignorance about foreigners stemmed from lack
of historical experience rather than sheer prejudice. "We know the
customs of Arabs, Turks and Persians," he said. "And we get our ideas
about black people from the media and ascribe to them traits which
we learn about second-hand."
Mikaelian also mentioned a good example of racial prejudice being
overcome: the popular television performer Hrant Hovsepian, known as
Blond, who has an Armenia mother and African father.
"If Armenia wants to develop then it ought to understand that, one way
or another, foreigners will keep on coming here," said Elza Guchinova,
who is herself an ethnic Kalmyk and is doing comparative research
on the mono-ethnic societies of Armenia and Japan. "[Urban centres]
all over the world are ethnically diverse and it’s impossible to stop
this process."
–Boundary_(ID_xHPHKRO80STnmENG8Jb C2w)–
PROBLEM OF ARMENIAN REFUGEES REVEALED ASYMMETRY IN TALKS
PanARMENIAN.Net
09.08.2006 17:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The speeding up of the settlement process
revealed the weak points of the negotiation process, NKR President’s
Aide for Foreign Policy Arman Melikian said in an interview with
PanARMENIAN.Net.
"The format of the talks doesn’t correspond to the configuration of the
conflict. The problem of the Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan is one
of the factors. This problem was raised by the refugees themselves,
who unified to protect their rights and appealed to the Armenian and
Azerbaijani President as well as to the co-chair states," he remarked.
"According to the plan proposed by the mediators, Azerbaijan
receives some territories while the Azeri refugees return to their
homes. However one should not forget that unlike the Armenian
population of Baku, Kirovabad and Sumgait these people were not
subjected to violence and ethnic cleansings. Moreover many of them
joined the Azeri troops and then retreated with the Azeri army. As
you know at that time the military units in Azerbaijan were formed
according to a territorial principle. Now the Co-chairs bypass the
problem of the Armenian refugees. I would like to remind that the
survey showed that Armenian refugees will not return to their former
residence under the jurisdiction of the Azerbaijani Republic. "Refugees
and International Law" civic society network proposes to include the
issue of 500 thousand Armenian refugees in the agenda of the talks. As
far as I know the members of the organization met with representatives
of the Embassy of one of the co-chair states," Arman Melikian said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
AZERBAIJANIS SEEK FOREIGN PARTNERS
ArmRadio.am
10.08.2006 15:23
Kenul Hasanova has met the man she intends to marry only three times,
but that does not concern her. Kenul got to know Muhammed through an
Internet chat-room. He is an Iranian Azerbaijani fifteen years older
than her, living in Switzerland.
Part of an increasing trend of Azerbaijani women seeking foreign
partners, Kenul defends her choice of husband-to-be.
"I don’t regard Muhammed as a foreigner," she said. "After all we share
the same faith and nationality and he observes all our customs. In
the last two years, he’s visited Baku three times with his parents.
"The first time they met my family, the second time he proposed,
on his third visit we were engaged. And now the wedding is very
close. Soon we will marry and go and live in Switzerland."
Experts note that the main reasons for such unions is a big gender
imbalance in the country; an ambition to live in a more developed
country; and greater tolerance within Azerbaijani society.
"The number of women in Azerbaijan has exceeded the number of men
for many years," said Aihan Mehtiev, director of the Centre for
Sociological Research in Baku. "The data from the State Statistics
Committee for 2005 shows that the correlation is 56 to 44 per
cent. Moreover, according to a survey we conducted, 70 per cent of
those who have left to work abroad are men.
"Among them are many unmarried men who later marry foreigners. And
there are many who have abandoned their family in Azerbaijan and got
married again. " For these reasons many of our girls simply have no
one to start a family with."
Azerbaijani men have traditionally chosen wives of other nationalities,
typically Russians, Georgians and Armenians. But there have been
greater social restrictions on women marrying foreigners.
Mehpara Yagubova recounts the troubles she had when she told her
family she was intending to marry a non-Azerbaijani she met at Moscow
University.
"Eighteen years ago when I came home for the holidays and said that
I was planning to marry my classmate and that he was an Afghan, my
parents were in shock," she said. "My father said that he would not
allow it. I obeyed, but I said that in that case they should forget
about me getting married at all."
In the end, Mehpara married her boyfriend, but none of her family
came to the wedding. They now live in Moscow.
The current generation of Azerbaijani young women say they experience
less prejudice than their predecessors. And they have the advantage of
being able to use the Internet or marriage agencies to find distant
partners.
Tamila Putnikova, who runs the Nigakh marriage agency in Baku, said
that the majority of her clients are looking for well-off Muslim
husbands living in Europe or America.
For example, Gulya Talybova-Badrani married Farruh, an Arab, whom she
met in London. "Farruh attracted me by his piety," she said. "With his
help I saw Islam anew and began to practice all its precepts. We’ve
been together for eight years and we are bringing up two children. I
am very happy with him."
The number of Azerbaijani women marrying foreigners in Baku’s Palace of
Happiness – the only location where a foreigner is allowed to have a
wedding in Azerbaijan – is still relatively low. There were 27 such
ceremonies in the palace in 2005, in 24 of which the Azerbaijani
partner was female.
Most of the Azerbaijani wives are heading straight abroad. Metin Mirza,
a spokesman for Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry, said that the ministry
gets many applications from Azerbaijanis wanting to leave the country
to marry and that most of the weddings happen in the husband’s country
of origin.
Lamia Bagirova married her husband Osman Kadyr, a Turkish citizen,
three years ago. They also met via the Internet. Now she regrets her
decision and said she faces an agonising problem over divorcing him.
"We corresponded online for more than a year and Osman told me to
come to Igdir where he lives and get married there," she said. "My
parents were against the idea but I took the risk. We got married and
soon a son was born. But I quickly realised I had made a big mistake."
Lamia has now returned home but has not received a divorce. She
says she is being told that if she gives up her child, she will get
a divorce.
Shafag Abdulova is still looking for her elusive foreign suitor. "I
chat online with several foreigners," she said. "But I have not
accepted any offers yet. I wouldn’t think long over marriage with a
foreigner. Even if I don’t like him you can always get divorced. The
main thing is to leave here."
Samira Ahmedbeili is a freelance journalist in Baku.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
WILL ARMENIAN PRESIDENT AND DEFENSE MINISTER PLAY A "ROYAL GAMBIT"?
ArmRadio.am
10.08.2006 15:57
"During its last congress the Republican Party of Armenia gained
absolute control over in the country," the leader of the Marxist Party
of Armenia David Hakopyan said at a news conference on August 9. "For
the second time since 1998 the military and punitive machines have
got into the hands of one party, who also controls the parliament
and the government," says Hakopyan.
Hakopyan says that the RPA congress paved the way for "a parliamentary
coup."
It was "Bonapartism, Juntism, Blacism" and "political adventurism."
Hakopyan is sure that next spring Serzh Sargsyan will start an active
political campaign, a kind of "royal gambit." "If Republicans fail
to do that, they will only lose as this will be the best time for
such a step. It would be political idiotism on their part to try to
do that after the parliamentary elections," says Hakopyan.
"The RPA should follow the example of the Bolsheviks. They must not
miss their chance: Serzh Sargsyan must become Armenian President
by January 2007 -or never," says Hakopyan. Under such a scenario,
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan should resign no later than
October-November 2006.
"After the failure of the Karabakh peace talks, Armenia needs,
at least, one year of respite on the diplomatic arena as by that
time George Bush will resign and new president Hillary Clinton will
drastically change the US policy."
"To get this respite, we need a royal gambit and, realizing this,
Kocharyan should resign before the end of his term," says Hakopyan.
He says that his party will run in the parliamentary elections on
its own " with no cooperation with any other political forces."
The parliamentary elections in Armenia are scheduled for 2007, the
presidential election for 2008.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
FREEDOM HOUSE IS RIGID WITH ARMENIA
Lragir.am
9 Aug 06
All the elections held in independent Armenia were marred by cases of
ballot stuffing and electoral fraud. Radio Liberty informed that this
is mentioned in the report of Freedom House on democratization in 30
countries going through transition, which was published on August 3.
It is stated in the report of Freedom House that the OSCE and CoE
observers reported serious violations during the recent presidential
and parliamentary elections. They reported that the elections did not
comply with international standards, and their report supports the
statements of the opposition about electoral fraud, runs the report.
The experts of Freedom House state that Robert Kocharyan twice won
elections with serious electoral fraud.
The international community assessed the efforts of the president
administration in the sphere of human rights as very poor. The
situation became worse in 2004 when the opposition underwent
unprecedented pressure, including arrests and even violence, runs
the report of Freedom House. The authors of the report of Freedom
House also mention the constitutional referendum on November 25,
2005 which upheld the culture of electoral fraud in the country. The
experts of Freedom House remind that the CoE observers highly doubted
the official results of the referendum.
At the same time, Freedom House mentions that democratization in
Armenia is hindered by the system of government which grants vast
powers to the president. It is emphasized in the report that despite
the changes to the constitution the president of Armenia remains the
most powerful government official. The authors of the report also dwell
on the freedom of speech, mentioning that the media in Armenia work
in an unfavorable environment. The authors of the report of Freedom
House say the government keeps the public and private TV channels,
which belong to businessmen who are loyal to the government, under
rigid control.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ARMENIAN COURTS DO NOT PASS VERDICTS OF NO GUILTY
Lragir.am
9 Aug 06
According to the justice of the Appeals Court of Armenia Hovanes
Manukyan, in the first half of 2006 1879 people were convicted,
including 80 teenagers, four people were acquitted. In the same
period of the previous year 1946 people were convicted, 88 teenagers,
6 persons were acquitted. The rate of verdicts of no guilty is 0.04
percent, "which cannot be considered as positive".
According to Hovanes Manukyan, in European countries, such as Belgium,
verdicts of no guilty totaled 4.94 percent. In the CIS the situation
is better than in Armenia: 0.1 percent in Kazakhstan, 3 percent in
Russia, including 18 percent of verdicts passed by the jury.
"The low rate has both objective and subjective reasons. The quality
of investigation also has its role and effect. The weak tactics of
attorneys also has its role, as well as I would like to emphasize
the sufficient quality of the judges," says Hovanes Manukyan. These
are the subjective reasons. And an objective cause of the absence of
verdicts of no guilty is the imperfection of the legislation. "For
instance, the institution of additional investigation, which is an
atavism of the Soviet criminal law."
In this context, Hovanes Manukyan emphasizes the importance of the
prevention of the possibility of an additional investigation through
judicial reforms and establishment of the judicial school.
In the meantime, our justice is rather rigid. In the first half of
2006, 2184 cases were tried, in 2025 cases the indicted were sentenced
to an arrest, the sentence was prolonged in 361 cases and only in 14
the indicted were freed on bail.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress