Author: Jalatian Sonya

AT THE CROSSROAD: BETWEEN DIGNITY AND INSTINCT OF SELF-PRESERVATION
Naira Hayrumyan

KarabakhOpen
13-03-2008 13:14:40

The Armenian world – Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora – is discussing
seriously the possibility of establishment of democracy and protection
of national security in Armenia. The post-election process in Armenia
is viewed in this context. Although everyone understands this is a
primitive approach, in this discourse many perceive the government of
Armenia as a guarantor of national security, and Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
supporters as carriers of democracy which is believed to pose national
security to threat.

The discussion takes place in different aspects in the three parts
of the Armenian world.

In Armenia, which is the subject in this process, a great number of
people think that democracy cannot be sacrificed. They think that
the government violated democracy long before March 1. There was no
democracy in the country in the pre-election period when the government
took under control the majority of the media. A major part of people
in Armenia think the absence of democracy is lack of respect of the
government for people, violation of rights, honor and dignity of
every separate person. Most of those people think this behavior of
the government is a heavier blow at the national interests than the
external foe.

In Armenia there are also people who think that some freedoms could
be sacrificed to security and stability. Some people agree not to
get information, live in a corrupt, non-democratic country only to
avoid war.

The correlation of those two parts of the Armenian society is difficult
to measure.

In Artsakh, which is the main subject of national security and where
skirmishes occurred on the border some time ago, there is almost no
discussion (except for a couple of alternative opinions). There is
a diehard opinion that no democracy will help if they are shooting
on the border, that those who cause instability in Armenia are
accomplices of the external foe which is interested in the weakness of
Armenia. In Armenia nobody perceives the idea that democracy can also
be a guarantor of national security. Most people of the country think
that only a strong government can guarantee security in this stage.

Judging by blogs and forums, opinions differ. Most Armenians living
abroad, who live in accordance with democratic rules, were frightened
by the border incident and rumors about funding of the Armenian
opposition from the outside, and think that for the sake of stability
and security it is possible to ignore rigged elections, corruption,
violation of human rights.

Everyone knows that in Armenia non-democratic elections are already
customary, whereas stability is a national priority, say most Diaspora
Armenians, especially who have a Dashnaktsutyun-like thinking.

There are also a great number of Diasporans who do not accept the
present government. They think that this government is a threat
to national security, both in terms of internal and external
policies. They consider the ongoing process as an effort of the
government to hold on to the top of the pyramid.

The following conclusions can be drawn:

1. Part of the Armenian nation perceived the ideas of regional
integration offered by Levon Ter-Petrosyan as a threat to their
security. Hardly anyone denies that the world is moving toward
integration, that this is the only way of not taking a back seat in
politics, that Armenia cannot live in isolation forever, but analyzing
the external conditions, especially hostile neighbors, every Armenian
understand inside that in this situation opening of borders, Caucasian
integration may lead to physical extermination of the Armenian people.

2. Democracy has not become an absolute value for the Armenian people.

Freedom of expression of thoughts, enjoyment of rights for freedom of
political and other opinions set down in laws, public discussion of
urgent problems of the society have not become part of the Armenian
mentality. The basis of the national worldview is the instinct of
self-preservation which stems from objective external conditions.

3. Due to the lack of free media, the Armenian people have difficulty
understanding what the struggle in Armenia is for, and how it is
connected with national security. If it is a banal struggle for
power, why are people involved in it? If the change of orientation is
concerned (pro-West or pro-Russian), how is it possible to find out
without a public discussion, which is more beneficial for an average
Armenian? If it is a Turkish or whatever political plot aimed at
weakening the state, and its external political potential, very serious
arguments are needed to make such accusations. If those arguments had
been offered to people, everything would have moved in a different
direction. The lack of arguments gives rise to other thoughts.

4. Assume that Armenia sacrifices democracy for the sake of stability.

Assume that the external forces forced Armenia to make concessions
which threaten national security. Assume that people decides to go
on protest.

What actions will be taken against the society which protests
against the decision of the government to return the territories,
for instance? Again impose a state of emergency?

IN MARCH 13 INTERVIEW SERGE SARGSIAN RESPONDS TO NEARLY 80 QUESTIONS OF INTERNET USERS AND CITIZENS

Noyan Tapan
March 13, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. The newly elected president of the
RA, prime minister Serge Sargsian responded to nearly 80 questions
of Internet users and citizens during an over two-hour interview
on March 13. NT was informed by the RA Government Information and
PR Department that the prime minister promised to organize anothet
inteview in the same format after formation of the new government.

4,000 SERVICEMEN TO PARTICIPATE IN CSTO MILITARY DRILL

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
March 11, 2008
Russia

Around 4,000 servicemen are to participate in the Frontier-2008
command-post drill of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO,) to be held in Armenia and Russia in the summer and autumn.

"Armored vehicles, cannon artillery, missile systems, army, attack
and fighter aircraft, air defense weapons and engineering and liaison
units will be involved," Maj. Gen. Vitaly Kormiltsev in charge of
the CSTO’s joint headquarters’ tactical and combat training tasks,
told Interfax-AVN.

"The drill is ranked as a brigade-level exercise," the general said.

The troops to be involved in the drill will only act as "conditional
forces," he said.

The Frontier-2008 is a command-post exercise, not force-on-force
maneuvers, Kormiltsev said.

ARARAT ZURABIAN AND ALEXANDER ARZUMANIAN PUT UNDER ARREST

Noyan Tapan
March 12, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 12, NOYAN TAPAN. As a result of the operative-searching
work implemented by the RA National Security Service, Ararat Zurabian
and Alexander Arzumanian, who were hiding from the investigation,
were discovered in rented Appartment 3, Saryan 16, Yerevan on March
10. On March 11 a message about this was put on the official site of
the RA Prosecutor General’s Office. According to the official message,
they were brought to the Police station and put under arrest by the
RA Special Investigation Service on the same day on the first parts
of Article 300 and Part 3 of Article 225 of the RA Criminal Code on
the suspicions of organizing mass disorders with murders and making
activities directed at ruining the RA constitutional order by violence,
as well as at seizing the state power by violence by infringing the
RA Constitution.

WORKING CONSULTATIONS AT RA PRESIDENT’S OFFICE

armradio.am
12.03.2008 18:05

The doctrine of passports with biometric data and reforms of the
migration system was discussed during President’s Robert Kocharyan’s
working consultations featuring Deputy Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan,
the Ministers of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Finance and Economy,
Chief of Police, the National Security Service, representatives of
other interested agencies.

The President said the process that is starting in the migration
system is one of the recurrent steps in the reformation of the state
system and is targeted at formation of a common migration service.

Assistant to RA President Gevorg Mheryan presented the suggestions of
the working group on implementing a system of electronic passports
including biometric data and identification cards. In his words,
passports with biometric data are meant for entering foreign countries,
while inside the country identification cards will be used. The study
of the international experience has shown that implementation of such a
system will enable to reduce the opportunities of falsifying documents,
will simplify and automatize the system of personal identification. It
may also simplify the process of receiving visas to EU member states.

The participants of the consultations underlined the necessity
of implementing an electronic management system. Emphasizing the
importance of the start of the work, the President said a concrete
schedule has been worked out and the interested agencies have been
instructed to work within that framework.

BIRTH-RATE INCREASED IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

DeFacto Agency
March 3 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 11.03.08. DE FACTO. 375 children were born in the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in January-February 2008, which exceeds
the level of the same period of 2007 by 31, 1 %.

According to the information DE FACTO received at the NKR National
Statistic Service today, 37, 6% of the new-born had been registered in
Stepanakert, the capital city of the Republic As compared with the same
period of 2007 death-rate increased by 28, 5 %. In January-February
2007 natural increment of the population increased by 40%, as compared
with the analogous period of the last year, making 91 people. High
indices of the population’s natural increment have been fixed in
Stepanakert and Kashatag region – 31 and 29 people accordingly.

For the two first months of the current year mechanical increment of
the Republic population made 132 people.

PHOTOGRAPHS UNRAVEL TURKEY’S ETHNIC TAPESTRY
By Sabrina Tavernise

International Herald Tribune
March 10 2008
France

SAMSUN, Turkey: They were suspected to be missionaries. Then
fugitives. But when the motley band of Turkish intellectuals finally
arrived in this Black Sea city last month, people seemed to understand
that they really only wanted to tell stories.

The group – a Kurdish feminist, an Armenian writer, and an academic and
a photographer, both Turkish – were presenting a book of photographs
of people from Turkey.

The book counted 44 different ethnicities and sects across Turkey,
and captured them in pictures dancing, eating, praying, laughing and
playing music. If it sounds innocuous, it was not. Turkey, a country
that has had four military coups in its 85-year history, has a very
specific line on cultural diversity: Anyone who lives in Turkey is
a Turk. Period.

Attila Durak, a New York trained photographer, compiled the book,
traveling around Turkey for seven consecutive summers, living with
families and taking their portraits.

His intent was to show that Turkey is a constantly changing
kaleidoscope of different cultures, not a hard piece of marble
monoculture as the Turkish state says, and that acknowledging those
differences is an important step toward a healthier society.

"People see themselves in the photographs, and they realize they are
no different," said Durak, whose book, "Ebru: Reflections of Cultural
Diversity in Turkey," was published in 2006. "Those Kurdish people
have kids who play together like ours," he said, referring to viewers’
reactions. "Look, they dance the same kind of wedding dance."

Ever since Turkey became a state in 1923, it has been scrubbing its
citizens of identities other than Turkish. In some ways, that was
necessary as a glue to hold the young country together. European powers
were intent on carving up its territory, a patchwork of remains from
the collapsed Ottoman Empire, and Muslim Turkishness was a unifying
ideology.

But it forced families from different backgrounds, who spoke different
languages, such as Armenian, Kurdish, Greek, Georgian, Macedonian,
Bosnian, to hide their identities. Family histories, such as the
crushing events of Turkey’s genocide against Armenians in 1915, were
never spoken of, and children grew up not knowing their own past
or identity.

"Memories like that were whispered into ears behind closed doors,"
said Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer who learned only in her 20s that her
grandmother was Armenian. "There was a big fear involved in this,
so the community itself perpetuated the silence."

It is that locked past Durak and his colleagues seek to open. Their
method is telling their own stories to audiences across Turkey as an
accompaniment to exhibits of Durak’s photographs to open a conversation
about the past and chip away at stereotypes.

The academic, Ayse Gul Altinay, an anthropology professor from Sabanci
University in Istanbul, is a kind of national psychiatrist, identifying
the most painful points from the country’s past and offering a way
to think about them that is most direct route to healing.

She uses the Turkish art form, Ebru, the process of paper marbling
that produces constantly changing interwoven patterns, as a metaphor
for multiculturalism.

"We’re not a mosaic, different from one another and fixed in glass,"
said Altinay, who earned her doctorate from Duke University. "Ebru
is done on water. It is impossible to have clear lines or distinct
borders."

In Samsun, a bustling city with a nationalist reputation, the
fifth in Turkey to see the exhibition, the audience was small but
interested. The Armenian writer, Takuhi Tovmasyan, talked about how
she was gruffly banished from a piano recital hall after winning a
competition, when teachers learned her last name, which is overtly
Armenian.

"I hid this feeling for a long time," said Tovmasyan, who has published
a book of family recipes and stories as way to open up a conversation
about the past. "But when I saw these photographs, I decided I needed
to talk about it."

The discussions have hit a nerve. At a presentation in Kars, an
eastern Turkish city, a man in his 50s wearing a suit spoke through
tears about discovering that his family had been Molokan, Russian Old
Believers. It was the first time he was speaking publicly about it,
he said. Others have apologized to Tovmasyan in emotional outpourings.

In Samsun, a young man in a white sweatshirt said, "I personally
apologize for ‘Get out,’ on behalf of all my friends," eliciting
applause. "It’s really a terrible thing."

Durak’s subjects look into his camera with a directness that is
startling. A Jewish man sits in a chair in Istanbul. A gypsy in a
flower print shirt plays the saxophone. A woman from the Black Sea
stands in a doorway, her fingers touching her collarbone.

Each one is labeled for ethnicity and sect, a method of categorization
that initially struck the local authorities in Samsun as something
close to a seditious act.

"They said, ‘we have to investigate, maybe they are wanted by the
police,’ " said Ozlem Yalcinkaya, an organizer from a student group,
Community Volunteers Foundation, who arranged the exhibit. "I said,
‘If they are fugitives, why would they be putting their names on the
exhibition posters?’ "

Another one of their questions went to the heart of what the group is
trying to change. When it was revealed that Tovmasyan was Armenian,
police officials were stumped.

"What do you mean Armenian," Yalcinkaya recalled an officer saying.

"A Turkish citizen, or from Armenia?"

The answer was both – a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent – but
because the Turkish state does not recognize mixed identities, the
concept was foreign and baffling to the police.

In the end, the authorities relented, and the municipality even
allowed use of its lecture hall.

"The genie is out of the bottle," Altinay said. "Too many people are
interested in looking into who we are, who lived on this land before
us," for the healing process to be stopped.

A young woman in the audience echoed that thought, as she apologized to
Tovmasyan. For as gloomy as the past was, the future was more hopeful,
she said, because young people are much more flexible and accepting
than the older generations.

"In a few years time, a lot of people will be doing a lot of
apologizing," she said.

Hürriyet, Turkey
March 9 2008

Armenia accused over killing of civilians in Karabakh

Azerbaijans defence ministry accused Armenian forces on Sunday of
opening fire on a residential area near the disputed region of
Nagorny Karabakh and killing two civilians.

The defence ministry said that two men, 26-year-old Niyamaddin
Ismaylov and 38-year-old Etibar Mikayilov, were killed when Armenian
forces opened fire on the residential area and Azerbaijani positions
in the frontline Aghdam region. Two other men were wounded in the
shooting which began Saturday night and continued until early Sunday,
a defence ministry spokesman said. It followed one of the worst
breaches of a 1994 ceasefire in the region in years on Tuesday.

Both sides accused the other of taking advantage of the volatile
political situation in Armenia to violate the ceasefire. The Armenian
capital Yerevan is under a state of emergency after eight people were
killed on March 1 in street battles between riot police and
opposition supporters protesting the result of a presidential
election Azerbaijan claimed that four of its soldiers and 12 Armenian
servicemen were killed in the fighting Tuesday, while Armenia claimed
it had lost no soldiers and that eight Azerbaijanis died.

Armenian forces seized control of Nagorny Karabakh and seven
surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, in a war that
claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and forced about a million people
to flee their homes. The two countries have cut direct economic and
transport links and failed to negotiate a settlement on the regions
status.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are spread across a ceasefire line in
and around Nagorny Karabakh, often facing each other at close range,
and shootings are common.

NECESSARY TO ENTER INTO A DIALOGUE

Hayots Ashkhar
Friday 7 March 2008

Despite being blinded with hatred

`I want to state once again that there happened something we were
speaking about for several months on end and were unable to prevent.
And if we were unable to prevent it, we are also to blame.
But today, I don’t want to speak about those who are to blame. What
I want to speak about is the elimination of the consequences of the
disaster. Spite in society has increased; our society is split apart;
therefore, I anticipate all of you to work actively in that direction.
It is necessary to enter into a dialogue. It is necessary to have
debates and explain things even if the opposite party won’t understand
you; even if the opposite party is blinded with hatred,’ SERGE SARGSYAN
said yesterday, addressing the members of the Government.

AZERI DEFENSE MINISTER ASKS FOR INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE IN KARABAKH PROBLEM

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS
March 5, 2008
Russia

International organizations must step up their efforts to resolve the
conflict in the Nagorno Karabakh, Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abiyev
said at a meeting with Jose Lello, the President of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in Baku
on Wednesday.

"International organizations, including the NATO PA, must use their
potential to increase their efforts in resolving the Karabakh conflict.

Otherwise the situation could get even worse, and Azerbaijan might
recur to tougher measures in order to free its lands," Abiyev was
quoted as saying by the Defense Ministry’s press service.

The peace talks have so far been unsuccessful, with Armenia still
reluctant to comply with four resolutions of the United Nations
Security Council, he said.

"The situation on the frontline is increasingly escalating.

Armenia’s consistent breach of the cease-fire agreement may lead to
losses on both sides," the Azeri minister said.

Azerbaijan entered the second stage of cooperation with NATO under
its Individual Partnership Action Plan, Abiyev said. All troops
in Azerbaijan now comply with the NATO standards and its system of
military training has been modernized, he said.

Lello for his part praised the social and economic growth in
Azerbaijan. He mentioned the reforms in Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces and
said he was satisfied with the high level of cooperation between the
country and the alliance.