Author: Nahapetian Boris

EurasiaNet, NY
May 11 2007

What’s in a Name? Plenty of Voter List Controversy

By Gayane Abrahamyan
Published May 10, 2007

Voter lists have long been the bugbear of Armenian elections. Two
days ahead of the country’s May 12 parliamentary vote, debates
between the opposition and election officials over whether or not the
voter registry has finally been put to rights continue apace.

Central Elections Commission Chairman Garegin Azarian has pledged
that the CEC will do everything possible to correct the outdated and
incorrect voter lists that plagued previous Armenian elections.

`I will resign if there is not a 100 hundred percent [clear] list,’
Azarian said on April 19, news outlets reported. `It’s impossible to
have [lists] absolutely cleared of the names of dead people. And our
lists have never been as accessible as they are now.’

Corrections made to voter lists as of May 10 put the number of voters
at 2, 285, 830 — a decrease of 42,917 voters within over a month,
according to the police passport and visa department, which is in
charge of rectifying voter lists. Deceased voters accounted for just
over a quarter of the names removed from the list. The official
deadline to register to vote in the May 12 elections ended on April
27.

Voters have been urged to check their names on a list of registered
voters posted on the CEC’s website and to call a hotline to report
omissions. The latest interim report by the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights’ election observation mission, however, stated that
`[r]eportedly only a low number of people used the two dedicated
telephone hotlines to report voter list inaccuracies, or checked
their voter list entries at PEC [precinct election commission]
premises.’

Colonel Alvina Zakarian, head of the police department in charge of
voter lists, told EurasiaNet that everything has been done to have
lists `as clear as possible.’ The May 12 election will be noted for
its improved voter lists, she claimed.
Some opposition parties, however, contend that ample room for
improvement still remains.

Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) Party Chairman Artur Baghdasarian
estimates that 25 to 30 percent of the voter lists remain inaccurate,
based on surveys his party members have done. `[T]here are addresses
and buildings in the lists that are totally non-existent,’ he said.

In Yerevan’s Kentron district, for instance, residents of one street
noticed that notifications for the elections had arrived for voters
living at even-numbered addresses on the street, even though the
street does not contain such numbers. Representatives of other
opposition parties have made similar claims.

Baghdasarian told EurasiaNet that he has submitted a written note
about the incorrect addresses and names of non-existent voters to the
police, but has not yet received a response. The opposition leader
expressed doubt that corrections promised by the police department
will be made to the final lists.

`Frequently, the final lists posted two days before the election do
not include the declared changes and people simply do not manage to
pass on information [about mistakes] and to make changes,’ he said.

One parliamentarian from a party represented in Armenia’s ruling
coalition echoed those worries. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation
has detected 900 duplicate names alone in the Yerevan district of
Arabkir, stated Hrayr Karapetian, one of the party’s leaders.

`The passport department specified that all of them are real people,
who simply have the same names,’ Karapetian told EurasiaNet. Such
flaws, he added, `can affect the outcome of the election.’

The police department’s Colonel Zakarian stressed that necessary
changes have already been made to the final list of voters.

One activist for an opposition party that has withdrawn from the race
claims that the incorrect addresses and resident names are used by
individuals who then use the names of the phantom voters to register
votes for certain parties. `I have taken part in elections many times
and I have seen how they show passports and get ballots, but, in
fact, those are not passports, but their covers alone,’ said Armen
Arakelian, office manager for a former Armenian National Movement
candidate for parliament.

Controversy still surrounds reports of alleged collection of passport
data by representatives of the pro-government Prosperous Armenia
Party and the ruling Republican Party of Armenia – data that local
election observers and opposition members claim could be used for
voter fraud. Both parties have denied involvement in any such scheme.
[For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive.]

A 60-year-old resident of Gyulbenkian Street in the Yerevan
neighborhood of Arabakir, however, shared a similar story with
EurasiaNet. `I go to the apartments one by one and ask about the
number of registered people, their availability on election day,’
said the man, who asked not to be named. The man showed EurasiaNet a
list he had made for one apartment building that indicated that over
half of the building’s residents had left Armenia.

`They [the party] mainly need to know the names of those who will not
be in Armenia on election day.’ The man claimed that he receives
about $100 from Prosperous Armenia for the information, but does not
know for what purpose it is needed. `I am not alone,’ he said.
`People in neighboring buildings also get money to make such lists.’

Opposition Orinats Yerkir Deputy Chairman Heghine Bisharian alleges
that such lists will be used by so-called `mobile voter groups’ who,
she claimed, `will travel from constituency to constituency and will
vote for the absent people. To escape being caught voting for other
people, they collect exact data about who will not be here [on
election day].’
Prosperous Armenia spokesperson Baghdasar Mherian, however, denied
the claim. The party, which claims to be the country’s largest, has
no need for such information, he said.

`We have 400,000 members and each of them has family members,’
Mherian said. `If we just double the number, the result will be
enough. But we will have more.’

Reports by the OSCE/ODIHR, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe and domestic observation group It’s Your Choice all made
mention of the use of such groups of voters during the 2003
parliamentary elections.

Editor’s Note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for the independent
online ArmeniaNow weekly in Yerevan.

Kentucky.com, KY
May 12 2007

Factors engendering cruelty to humans emerging
By Paul Prather
HERALD-LEADER CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

The question of why people commit barbarous acts has long troubled
theologians, philosophers, lawmakers and the public at large.

Viewed from a certain angle, history is a litany of atrocities: the
Romans’ slaughter of Jews in the first century; the Turkish genocide
of Armenians during World War I; the Hutus’ machete mass-murders of
Tutsis in 1994.

We prefer to believe a tiny minority of people perpetrate such evils,
people who were born bad or became possessed by demons (whether we
understand those devils to be spiritual, emotional or chemical).

We like to think that, in the main, people are good.

There’s Mother Teresa at one end of the spectrum, Stalin at the
other, but we’d argue we and our neighbors have more in common with
the former than the latter. We might not be saints, exactly, but we’d
never hurt anyone.

What if it’s not so simple? What if the capacity for great evil lies
within nearly all of us?

A lot of research indicates that to be the case, says Philip
Zimbardo, a social psychologist and former president of the American
Psychological Association. He’s spent decades studying why people
mistreat their fellow humans. The central finding of his and other
scholars’ work: The majority of us, if stuck in the wrong
environment, will do unspeakable things. Outside influences quickly
corrupt our inner souls.

In his latest book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People
Turn Evil, Zimbardo recounts the lessons of his famous 1971 Stanford
Prison Experiment. Zimbardo and several colleagues constructed a mock
prison and advertised for college students to serve as paid
volunteers. They weeded out applicants who might have psychological
problems, medical disabilities or criminal records. They chose 24
well-adjusted males as their subjects. By coin toss, half were
assigned as "guards," the other half as "prisoners." The researchers
put them together in the fake prison. The experiment was intended to
last two weeks.

Zimbardo stopped it after six days.

By then, the guards were sexually humiliating and physically abusing
their prisoners, five of whom had suffered emotional breakdowns.

Photos and video footage of the Stanford experiment are easy to find
on the Internet. They’re eerie — in that they’re nearly identical to
the pictures that emerged more than 30 years later from a prison
called Abu Ghraib.

(Zimbardo, by the way, served on the defense team of Sgt. Ivan "Chip"
Frederick, one of the U.S. soldiers convicted of mistreating
prisoners at Abu Ghraib.)

But the Stanford project is only one among many related experiments.
And researchers also have studied real-life cretins, from Brazilian
police torturers to men who served in German execution units in World
War II to suicide bombers.

The findings are disconcerting. Mostly, the folks who do awful things
aren’t psychopaths, but average people who pay their taxes and love
their children.

When they are thrust into certain settings, Zimbardo argues, the
circumstances turn them into monsters. The list of corrupting factors
is long and complex.

Generally, though, police officers, prison guards, soldiers and
others who commit abuses have been given a larger sense of purpose.
They’ve been assured by superiors they’re defending a vital religious
ideology or protecting national security.

The victims they abuse have been dehumanized through propaganda and
have been stripped of their clothes, dressed in prison garb or made
to wear Stars of David.

The abusers think they won’t be held responsible for their actions.
They’re left to their own devices. The few rules that do govern their
behavior are changed illogically.

The abusers also feel anonymous. A policy as seemingly insignificant
as allowing them to wear reflector sunglasses markedly increases
their cruelty.

The abusers are under constant stress, but can’t see any way to quit
their jobs.

Research shows that in such a milieu, up to 90 percent of us will
torture or kill defenseless people.

The soldiers at Abu Ghraib, Zimbardo says, weren’t sadists.
Frederick, for example, was an all-American boy with an impeccable
record in civilian and military life.

But the guards worked long, draining shifts with no supervision from
commissioned officers. They were under mortar fire daily. They were
told, vaguely, to "soften up" their prisoners. The prisoners had been
dressed in colored ponchos.

Abuse was inevitable.

More remarkable, Zimbardo says, is that one soldier, Sgt. Joseph
Darby, kept his moral compass. He refused to go along with the
majority and reported the crimes.

That’s the research topic Zimbardo will pursue next, he says. He
wants to understand the one or two heroes in every group who can’t be
swayed, who continue to do the right thing despite all pressures. I
can’t wait to read that report.

DISMANTLING MONUMENT TO LIBERATOR SOLDIER IN TALLINN ABOMINABLE

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 8, 2007 Tuesday

The dismantling of the monument in Tallinn to the Liberator Soldier
who rid the city of the Hitler occupation "is abominable," Russian
ambassador to Athens Andrei Vdovin said here on Tuesday at the ceremony
of the presentation of gifts to veterans of the Second World War
residing in Greece and to veterans of the Greek national resistance
movement. Present at the ceremony at the Russian centre of science and
culture in Athens were representatives of the embassies of Armenia,
Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.

"What is now done in Estonia to the monument to the Russian soldier
is abominable," the ambassador said. "I believe the persons who have
arranged for this are far from the kind they are sometimes presented
in the West. We are shocked at what has happened in Tallinn, but
I think this is not the end of the story. We have all witnessed a
truly patriotic surge in Tallinn and in Moscow, and, the main thing,
we have learned the lesson of these days."

In this connection the ambassador recalled the address of a group of
famous Greek citizens to the chairmen of the European Parliament and
the Council of Europe to demand juridical and political assessment of
Estonia’s actions. "Indeed, the Greeks spoke as men should," Vdovin
remarked. "I would like to mention particularly Mikis Theodorakis
(the outstanding Greek composer – Itar-Tass), Manolis Glezos (member
of Greek parliament) and their supporters," Vdovin said.

EUROVISION-2007 SONG CONTEST STARTING IN HELSINKI

ArmRadio.am
10.05.2007 13:50

Eurovision-2007 Song Contest is starting in Helsinki
today. Representatives of 42 countries will take part in
the competition. Today 28 participants will perform in the
semi-final. Based on the voting of viewers 10 of them will go to the
final of Eurovision-2007 to be held on Saturday, May 12th.

Let us remind that Hayko represents Armenia at Eurovision-2007.

FREEDOM SHOULD NOT BE MIXED UP WITH DISORDER, RPA SPOKESPERSON SAYS

Noyan Tapan
May 10 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. "Freedom finishes where law starts and
maintenance of public order is the task of any country’s power." Edvard
Sharmazanov, Spokesperson of Republican Party of Armenia, stated
at the May 10 press conference touching upon the conflict between
participants of rally organized by the opposition the day before and
law enforcement bodies. In his words, freedom should not be mixed up
with disorder. "Any violation of human rights is blameworthy for us,
but on the other hand, we should respect public order and country’s
laws," E. Sharmazanov said.

In his words, if there have been cases of violation of right of
freedom of expression and other freedoms during the conflict, those
who suffered should apply to the court.

ARMENIAN PRIVATE TV FAILS TO SHOW PROGRAMME FEATURING OPPOSITION CANDIDATE

Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
9 May 07, p 2

Text of unattributed report in Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak
on 9 May entitled "They are hindering"

After the leader of the [opposition] News Times party [NTP], Aram
Karapetyan, spoke on Public TV about the activity of the leader of the
Prosperous Armenia party, Gagik Tsarukyan, and tried to prove through
facts that businessman Tsarukyan works closely with the Karabakh clan,
Karapetyan and his party were denied access to Kentron TV. This TV
company belongs to Gagik Tsarukyan.

According to the NTP press service, the government reacted to the
Public TV broadcast by directly interfering and preventing the 7 May
"Urvagits" [Armenian: Outline] programme on Kentron TV from being
broadcast. According to preliminary agreement, the former deputy
national security minister, Gurgen Eghiazaryan, who is the third in
the proportional list of the NTP, was to have participated in the
programme. The NTP said that [Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan
personally ordered that the broadcast should be banned, and the
process was led by Kocharyan’s press secretary Viktor Soghomonyan.

OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS TO MEET IN MADRID

ArmRadio.am
08.05.2007 12:33

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Matthew Bryza, Yuri Merzlyakov and Bernard
Fassierwill meet in Madrid May 10, OSCE Minsk Group Russian Co-Chair
Yuri Merzlyakov told.

He said that the negotiations will last for a day, APA reports.

Bernard Fassier’s office told that the diplomats will debate on the
settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, remarkable improvements
in the process and arranging of a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian
Presidents in St. Petersburg on June 10.

The office said that the Presidents’ meeting is scheduled for June 10.

The Co-Chairs will also exchange views on the planned visit of OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Miguel Angel Moratinos to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Minneapolis Star Tribune , MN
May 6 2007

Taboo topic takes home a Book Award

Judges praise Taner Akçam for his history countering Turkey’s
official denial of an Armenian genocide.

By Sarah T. Williams, Star Tribune

Last update: May 05, 2007 – 10:34 PM

For his take on Turkish history, Taner Akçam has been prosecuted,
jailed, exiled, detained, threatened, maligned, vilified and
harassed. On Saturday, the visiting University of Minnesota professor
won a Minnesota Book Award for "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide
and the Question of Turkish Responsibility."
Judges for the 19th annual awards called it a "pioneering work" and
"scrupulous account of Turkish responsibility for the killing of
close to 1 million Armenians" and praised Akçam and his publisher,
Metropolitan Books, for "challenging the country’s 90-plus-year
denial of intentional genocide."

It was bittersweet affirmation for Akçam, who fled Turkey in the
1970s and whose close friend, Hrant Dink, paid dearly for his
outspokenness on the issue of genocide: The Turkish Armenian
newspaper editor was gunned down outside his office in Istanbul on
Jan. 19, allegedly by extremist nationalists. Other like-minded
Turkish writers, including Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and novelist
Elif Shafak ("The Bastard of Istanbul"), also have been threatened.

"I’m deeply honored to accept this award," he said, dedicating it to
Dink, "in the hope of preventing further genocides."It’s great
gratification to see a colleague win something like this," said
Stephen Feinstein, who teaches with Akçam at the university’s Center
for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

More homespun works also were celebrated Saturday at the Crowne Plaza
Hotel-St. Paul Riverfront, in ceremonies hosted by Minnesota Public
Radio’s Kerri Miller and sponsored by the Friends of the St. Paul
Public Library.

Winners in eight other categories:

Readers’ Choice Award: "Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and
Transcendence," by Matthew Sanford (Rodale). The author tells of his
journey from car-accident victim to wheelchair yoga instructor.

Autobiography, memoir, creative nonfiction: "Spirit Car: Journey to a
Dakota Past," by Diane Wilson (Borealis). Wilson uncovers the hidden
stories of five generations of her Dakota relatives.

Children’s: "Tomorrow, the River," by Dianne E. Gray (Houghton
Mifflin). The adventures of a plucky 14-year-old girl on a
Mississippi riverboat in the 1890s.

Fine press: "What It’s Like Here," by Jim Moore, Regula Russelle and
CB Sherlock (Accordion). Moore’s poems of the sweetness and pain of
living are paired with Sherlock’s line drawings of the city in winter
— all brought together by Russelle.

Genre fiction: "Copper River," by William Kent Krueger (Atria).
Ex-sheriff Cork O’Connor runs for his life — straight into a
murderous conspiracy involving teen runaways.

Novel, short story: "When Charlotte Comes Home," by Maureen Millea
Smith (Alyson). The Vietnam War and a young girl’s serious illness
haunt this novel set in 1960s Omaha.

Poetry: "The Curator of Silence," by Jude Nutter (University of Notre
Dame). A two-month stint in the Antarctic inspired these meditations
on quietude.

Young adult: "The Book of One Hundred Truths," by Julie Schumacher
(Delacorte). A young girl who admits she’s a liar discovers that
she’s not the only one not telling the truth.

Also at Saturday’s ceremonies, Emilie Buchwald, publisher emeritus of
Milkweed Editions and now publisher of Gryphon, won the Kay Sexton
Award for lifelong contributions to Minnesota letters.

For more information, go to

Sarah T. Williams is the Star Tribune Books editor.

5422.html

ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF HEATING TECHNOLOGIES TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN ON MAY 2-4

Noyan Tapan
Apr 30 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 30, NOYAN TAPAN. An annual exhibition of heating
technologies will be held in Yerevan on May 2-4 with the aim of
informing the Armenian public about modern heating technologies and
creation of links among the heating market participants (companies
providing heating services, condomuniums, banks, credit institutions
and donors). Over 50 leading and specialized companies of the sector
will be represented at the exhibition.

The event will allow participants to present the process of the
City Heating Program implemented by the Armenian government with the
credit support of the World Bank, as well as display the financing
opportunities of Armenia’s Renewable Energy and Energy Saving Fund
and commercial banks.

According to WB Armenia Office, the exhibition will enable the
public to become acquanited with modern heating technologies in
line with safety and envoronmental protection norms, as well as will
present equipment produced by Armenian companies and the respective
information materials.

NO COLOUR REVOLUTION IN ARMENIA SAYS KOCHARYAN
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)

The Messenger, Georgia
April 30 2007

Armenian President Robert Kocharian dismissed the possibility of a
‘colour revolution’ taking place in Armenia at a speech at Yerevan
State University on April 27. He says campaigning had been peaceful,
and that candidates have refrained from calling for radical steps.

According to Kocharian, only 2 or 3 small parties have attempted to
be more radical.

"It is obvious that currently the population does not accept aggressive
behaviour or calls for a ‘colour revolution.’ This is demonstrated by
a poll according to which only two percent of the whole population
thought about the possibility of a ‘colour revolution’ or a show of
aggression," stressed the Armenian president.