Author: Emil Lazarian

Karabakh
AGBU.org
April 2004
City of Dreams? Karabakh’s center of culture hangs on and hopes
Karabakh
Marianna Grigoryan and Sona Danielyan
Gray-haired and aged by war and hardship, 68-year old Rima Danielian moves
with care down the edge of a bluff approaching a row of unremarkable shops
in her town, Shushi.
She passes children coming home from school who are growing up in a Shushi
far different than the one Rima sees in her memory.
“My city is the most beautiful,” says Rima. “For centuries Shushi had been
considered as the heart and center of culture of Artsakh. And today it seems
life has become silent. Many things have changed.”
In fact, in the decade since Shushi-on its strategic vantage point
overlooking the capital, Stepanakert the site of prolonged and vicious
fighting between Armenian and Azeri forces-almost everything has changed.
Rima’s memory is good and its facts well known. Before the war, Shushi had
12,000 residents. It was a beacon of culture, a center of art, of publishing
and of a refined life that, if found in Shushi today, is somewhere under the
city’s scarred exterior where 3,500 hang on.
A Borrowed Life: Roosters announce the beginning of the day in Shushi, soon
followed by the ringing of bells at St. Ghazanchetsots Church-33 clangs from
the tower, one for each year of Christ’s life.
The bells mark the beginning of Anahit Danielian’s working day. She sells
candles at the church and says that even though most of her neighbors have
nothing to do with their days, even the poorest ones come to pray; probably
for a better life.
“It’s true that it seems that people’s life conditions don’t change,” Anahit
says. “But in recent years people have been getting married more often and
it delights the heart.” It has become tradition, she says, for couples from
Stepanakert (about 10 kilometers away) to come to the church for their
weddings.
And the occasion to have outsiders in Shushi is welcomed by owners of the
little shops that are evidence of the commerce of necessity, even in a
skeleton of a city.
“Residents of Shushi mainly buy vermicelli, sugar, oil and cheap vodka,”
says 24-year old Liana Harutyunian, a shop worker. But “buy” is not exactly
the right word. “They mainly borrow,” she says. There are two bottles of
champagne on her shelf, so long there that Liana can’t remember where they
came from.
“Sometimes those who come from Stepanakert for wedding ceremonies plunge
themselves into excesses like that if, of course, they forget to bring that
stuff with them. Such things are not for residents of Shushi.”
Liana moved to Shushi from Masis six years ago with her two little girls and
says that they couldn’t live and exist here if her parents didn’t help them
by sending flour, potatoes and other necessary foodstuff from Masis.
“Many people don’t work but I have a job,” Liana says. “However, for two
months I haven’t been getting my monthly 15,000 thousand drams (about $26).
She shows a notebook in which she keeps a record of “borrowed” food. “Only
this copybook grows thicker and thicker. This month people’s debt to the
shop has become more than 100,000 drams (about $177).”
Buying on credit has become a way of life that, for many, is necessary but
humiliating.
Stella Hakobian has seven children and receives a government subsidy for
having a large family-an incentive by the State. “Every month the owner of
the shop gets my children’s allowances,” says Stella, who moved to Shushi
from Hrazdan, a town north of Yerevan. “During the month we take some things
from the shop and then take my children’s allowances directly to the shop.
This is how our debts are covered.”
Stella recently was given an apartment, another perk of having a large
family. She and her children have a three-bedroom flat, but the only
furniture in it is beds. “We have no job,” says Stella. “The only good thing
is that in winters we can go ‘sticking’ in the neighborhood forest for wood
to heat our apartment. And in the spring we pick berries and sell them for
cheap prices to earn money.”
Shushi has not recovered in any comparable way with the development that has
taken place in neighboring Stepanakert. And while the number of “large”
families (having four or more children) is increasing in response to the
State programs, the overall birth rate has dropped, officials say.
“When we were at war we thought everything would be ok,” says veteran
Karineh Danielian. “However, it was understood that there would be
difficulties in the future. Anyway, hope still lives.”
Culture as Pastime: City leaders say that Shushi’s future lies in finding a
way to keep its young people and assure a future for them in their city.
“The majority of young people don’t think about leaving the city because
they haven’t got enough opportunities for thinking about it,” says 22-year
old Armen Poghosian. “For many of them a marshrutka (Russian for mini-bus)
ticket from Shushi to Yerevan is as much as the sum they spend for living
during a month.”
But even in the diminished version of its former self, Shushi shows glimpses
of what it once was, and efforts are made at providing a “normal” life that
would encourage youth to stay.
In fact, cultural life shows the most obvious development in Shushi.
In this place of damaged and vacant buildings one can find an arts college,
a drama theater, a puppet theater, a choir, a quartet, a dance group, and
the list can continue. A few summers ago an arts festival was even started.
The State Humanitarian College named after Arsen Khachatrian is the only
educational option given to students from Shushi and neighboring or remote
villages. The college mainly teaches various arts and crafts such as
painting, carpet making, decorative art, etc.
In May 2003, a technical school was renamed into the college, which, though
small, is a sign of Westernization in a place that seems largely detached
from the rest of the world-or more connected to its former Soviet regime.
The college was reopened in 1992 after the liberation of Shushi. Today the
college has 181 students, ranging in age from 15 to 23.
During a recent day in the winter session at the college, students gathered
to discuss the topic: “Love, Marriage, Family and Law”, while teachers sat
at a table to moderate the discussion.
After a short introduction students discussed questions on divorce, on
children’s rights and whether love is enough reason to get married, and
looked for answers from their experienced teachers.
As is often the case in small towns, the youth of Shushi and their teachers
have relationships that are open and relaxed. After the day’s special
program they all met to sing songs, read poetry, dance, eat, drink, then
dance and sing some more. The scene, not typically found in institutions of
learning, for example, in Yerevan provides a glimpse of life in Shushi.
Such events are a big thing for the youngsters here. It is noticeable that
the day was planned with great care, especially through the way the girls
prepared themselves in their best manner.
Shushi doesn’t offer many opportunities, outside school, for its younger
generation to socialize and even then, the events are restricted to daylight
hours. When the sun goes down, activity is mostly limited inside apartments
among family.
Our future is vague, the youngsters say. And they complain that their city
of rich cultural heritage is too often overlooked.
“Stepanakert is Karabakh’s advertising town,” says David Avagimian, age 22,
who joins other actors at the puppet theater after school. “For some reason
they prefer to concentrate everything there.”
The kids at the puppet theater say officials making promises to revive
Shushi’s cultural life don’t seem to understand that culture is all that’s
developing in Shushi.
In fact the only singing ensemble in Karabakh is from Shushi (so, too, is a
former “Miss Karabakh”).
First it was a quintet founded in 2000 by girls singing in Shushi’s Varanda
choir, and now it is a quartet called Nareh who have become celebrities in
Karabakh.
Karine,19, Alina 27, Christina 23 and Gayane 22, have taken part in some
folk and pop festivals in Stepanakert where they’ve taken first place. The
girls are mainly performing folk songs but in a modern way.
First they would travel around Karabakh and perform for free, just to become
known. Sometimes they get paid today and they consider $200 ($50 each) a
fair price. However they don’t always get that much.
“If we have a good sponsor we’ll get promoted,” says Gayane. “If not we’ll
stay here and no one will probably know about us except Karabakh.”
Anush Danielian, 22, says she dreams of having an Internet café in Shushi to
connect youth with each other and the outside world. “The only thing we do
now is visit each other, but that gets old.
“All of us have interesting dreams but to make them come true we need
opportunities. And if dreams and possibilities coincided with each other,
then Shushi would become the city of our dreams.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1 Plus | 16:00:09 | 07-05-2004 | Politics |
HARUTYUN ARAKELYAN FINDS NO USE OF PRESIDENT KOCHARYAN’S RESIGNATION
Armenian Ramkavar-Azatakan Party leader Harutyun Arakelyan convened a news
conference to say that confidence referendum could lead the country to
deadlock. He offers constitutional referendum instead.
Speaking on National Assembly, he said, in his opinion, its seats should be
filled only through party lists.
As always, Arakelyan criticized the ruling coalition, this time referring to
the party-conducted survey, which showed 60% of respondents were opposed to
the coalition government.
He voiced disapproval over the idea of president Kocharyan’s resignation.
“Will all problems be solved if Kocharyan resigns?” he asked.
Arakelyan was reluctant to speak also on the party’s internal troubles. Four
members were dropped out of the party because of the party charter
violation, he said without specifying their exact wrongdoing.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Press
May 7 2004
The Azerbaijanis And Cyprus
BYEGM: 5/7/2004
BY ERDAL GUVEN
RADIKAL- The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) declared its
independence on November 15, 1983 and was recognized by Turkey the
very same day. But for the next 21 years, no other country extended
recognition. How could this be? After the TRNC was founded, the UN
Security Council adopted Resolution 541 condemning the TRNC’s
self-declared founding and calling on all UN members not to recognize
any Cypriot state besides the `Republic of Cyprus’ (that is, Greek
Cyprus). Therefore only Ankara recognized the TRNC and even if Turkey
turned its nose up, the whole rest of the world recognizes the
`Republic of Cyprus’ as the sole legal representative of the island.
The issue also carries a geopolitical aspect. The TRNC is a concrete
form of separation in the context of international relations and was
formed unilaterally as a result of military intervention by Turkey.
However, today’s geopolitics frowns on separatism, micro-nationalism
and political formations based on ethnicity excepting where there is
mutual consent. On the contrary, today’s geopolitics favors
integration based upon democracy, political equality and economic
sharing. This is another political reason why the TRNC is not
recognized. The interests and policies of countries faced with splits
or threatened by separation are in line with this geopolitics. One of
those countries is Azerbaijan, with its problem of upper Karabakh.
The serious problem faced by Baku is that 20% of its land is
currently occupied by Armenia and the upper Karabakh separatist
movement. Therefore, the Azerbaijani representatives in the European
Council’s Parliament were leaning towards not recognizing the TRNC.
`The Parliament vote would mean recognizing the TRNC,’ said one
Azerbaijani official. `This would set a risky precedent for the
future recognition of the administration in upper Karabakh.’ This
development should remind Turkey that in international relations
there is no friendship or brotherhood, but only interests.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS
AND INFORMATION
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian opposition continues talks with authorities
Mediamax news agency
7 May 04

YEREVAN
The Armenian ruling coalition and the opposition have announced their
readiness to continue their consultations on the previously-agreed
agenda.
This was said in a joint statement issued by representatives of [the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation] Dashnaktsutyun, the Republican
Party of Armenia and Orinats Yerkir [Law-Governed Country Party] and
the Justice bloc and the National Unity Party after the five-hour-long
consultations which ended in Yerevan on 6 May.
The statement said that “the participants in the consultations
stressed the importance of creating a new political situation in the
country on the basis of a statement issued by the coalition parties
and the joint statement issued by the Justice bloc and the National
Unity Party on 4 May”.
According to preliminary information, they are expected to discuss
more than 30 issues at the talks today.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS
May 7, 2004 Friday
Tbilisi open to cooperation with all – foreign minister
MOSCOW
Georgia will no longer play on geo-strategic contradictions; it has
chosen a course towards partnership with everybody, Foreign Minister
Salome Zurabishvili stated.
“Our orientation is that we should move towards Europe, towards the
strengthening of friendship with the United States and integration
with NATO, with very close neighborhood with Russia,” Zurabishvili
told a news conference at the Itar-Tass agency on Thursday.
“Earlier, we had a choice between the main players, and Tbilisi
played on contradictions between them, but it gained nothing. Our
true way is cooperation with all. We want everybody to cooperate with
us,” she said.
The Georgian foreign minister noted a positive role of Russia in
settling the conflict in Adzharia. “The important role of Russia is
clearly visible in these events,” she said, “democracy in Georgia has
scored another victory peacefully, for a second time in the past six
months,” Zurabishvili said.
Igor Ivanov took part in this process in both cases, she added.
Ivanov, on the Russian president’s order, visited Georgia for
consultations over settling the crisis in Adzharia.
As the Russian foreign minister, he took part in a peaceful
settlement of the situation during the velvet revolution in Georgia
last year.
The Georgian foreign minister said she did not want “to draw a
parallel between problems of Adzharia and Abkhazia, but a peaceful
solution of the Adzharian problem has an important significance for
Abkhazians as well.”
Unlike Abkhazia, Adzharia had no conflict provoked by separatism, she
said, “it was a conflict between democracy and non-democracy.”
At the same time, Zurabishvili categorically denied the existence of
the so-called Adzharian scenario for Abkhazia. She expressed doubts
that “somebody in Abkhazia was planning to blow up bridges.”
“This is no approach to the solution of the problem,” she said.
Georgia received the support of all its partners in settling the
situation in Adzharia. “Adzharia was an enclave of the old era which
has no future either for us or our neighbors and partners,”
Zurabishvili said.
“Therefore the solution of this problem has an important significance
both for the Georgian people and our partners,” she underlined.
Answering a question, she said “terrorism is a global danger
threatening all states, especially small countries in strategic
regions, where it is difficult to control the movement of people. It
increases terrorists’ chances of hiding,” she said.
“In this context, there was a danger of Adzharia’s turning into the
so-called “black hole,” the foreign minister added.
“As regards the situation in the Pankisi Gorge, Georgia took dramatic
measures /in settling the situation/, while Americans provided
serious assistance to us. We took joint measures with Russia in
patrolling the state border; we believe this issue is among those
where cooperation is possible among all European countries and the
United States,” Zurabishvili said.
In her view, neither Russia nor Georgia are interested in delaying
the solution of the issue of the Russian bases in Georgia.
Georgia does not need these or other bases, she stressed noting that
it was one of the main issues at her talks with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Tbilisi has a pragmatic approach to cooperation within the CIS
framework and interaction with the neighboring countries, the
Georgian official said when answering a question about the importance
of the Commonwealth of Independent States for it.
CIS members are very important, from Georgia’s immediate neighbors,
such as Armenia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, to those of strategic
importance for Tbilisi.
Salome Zurabishvili flew to Moscow on Thursday and held talks with
her Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov. The main items on the agenda
were Russian-Georgian relations and the situation in Adzharia.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili appointed Salome Zurabishvili
the foreign minister in March. A Frenchwoman of Georgian descent, she
was France’s ambassador to Georgia and has dual citizenship – French
and Georgian.
She was also France’s ambassador in Italy and worked at the United
Nations and NATO. Salome Zurabishvili is a fluent speaker of Russian.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Boston Globe
May 7, 2004, Friday ,THIRD EDITION
JAZZ PICKS
BY SCOTT HELLER
Heads up: The phenomenal singer – and spitfire – Dee Dee Bridgewater
is at Scullers Jazz Club next Thursday and Friday. If you have time
to see one jazz show, make it this. Otherwise: Sergio Mendes and
Brazil 2004 are at Scullers tonight and tomorrow night; on Tuesday
night Julia & Zerounian Ensemble perform songs from Armenia, Russia,
and France. At Ryles Jazz Club tonight at 9:30, it’s singer Marta
Gomez; tomorrow night the Teresa Ines Group is at the Cambridge
venue. Finally, Tuesday at the Zeitgeist Gallery, vocalist/composer
Dominique Eade is part of a women’s jazz event called “Estrojam” at 7
p.m.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
May 7 2004
PLANNED MONITORING
On May 6 the OSCE Mission held planned monitoring of the border
between the armed forces of Nagorni Karabakh and Azerbaijan to the
northwest of the settlement Seysulan. On the side of the NKR Defence
Army the monitoring group was headed by the personal representative of
the OSCE Chairman- in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk. The group involved also
field assistants of the personal representative Jurgen Schmidt
(Germany) and Miroslav Vitemal (Czech). During the monitoring no
violations of the cease-fire were reported. The mission was
accompanied by the representatives of the NKR ministries of defence
and foreign affairs. On the eve, on May 5 Andrzej Kasprzyk met with
the NKR foreign minister Ashot Ghulian and minister of defence Seyran
Ohanian. During the meeting they discussed the situation at the border
and questions referring the prospects of settlement of the Karabakh
conflict.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
May 7, 2004
NUMBERS SAY
According to the data provided by the Civilian Registry Office of
Stepanakert, 212 births, 74 marriages and 11 divorces were registered
from January 1 till May 1 of the current year. Against the same period
of the past year, the birthrate dropped by 14, the marriage rate by
3. Unfortunately, the divorce rate increased; last year in the same
period only 9 divorces were registered.
LAURA GRIGORIAN
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
May 7, 2004
GASIFYING OF STEPANAKERT COMPLETED SOON
In two or three months gasification of Stepanakert will be completed,
assured the director of “Artsakhgas” State CJSC Maxim Mirzoyan. In
this direction efficient work is carried out not only in the capital
but also the regions of the republic. Presently the company carries
out repairs of the old gas pipelines. Since May 1 the tariff of the
gas fee has been increased from 51 to 59 drams for each cubic meter.
Taking into account the fact that there are terms for payment of gas,
as well as electricity fees, which is from the first to the fifteenth
of each month, we tried to find out whether this would not arouse
problems among the population in relation to the increased tariff.
According to Maxim Mirzoyan, the employees of “Artsakhgas” carry out
corresponding explanation works among the population to pay in time
the fees for the gas used during the previous month. If the users do
mot make the payments within the mentioned term they will have to pay
by the new tariff. Maxim Mirzoyan says that all the problems in this
reference will be settled within a month.
LAURA GRIGORIAN
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CHAT
La Turquie face au génocide arménien
LEMONDE.FR | 07.05.04 | 17h24
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress