Category: 2019

Amendment Countering Azeri Threat to Civilian Aircraft Clears for House Vote

Greg Madatian
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2 hours ago

Sherman Amendment counters Azerbaijani threat to civilian aircraft

ANCA Applauds Rules Committee Decision to Allow House Vote on Sherman Amendment Countering Azerbaijani Threat to Civilian Aircraft

WASHINGTON,—The House Rules Committee voted to allow full floor consideration of an amendment, spearheaded by Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), that would block the transfer of U.S. defense articles that strengthen Azerbaijan’s offensive airstrike capabilities, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). The initiative aims to limit Baku’s ability to act upon its standing threat to shoot down civilian aircraft operating out of Artsakh’s Stepanakert Airport.

The decision to allow consideration of the ANCA-backed measure came late Monday evening, as Chairman Jim McGovern (D-MA) and the Rules Committee reviewed some 600 amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R.2500).  Rep. Sherman’s measure and the underlying bill are expected to be taken up by the full House this week. Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Vice-Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) also support the amendment.

“This amendment sends a strong message to Azerbaijan that it cannot threaten to shoot down civilian aircraft. Azerbaijan must not be allowed to intimidate its neighbors,” Rep. Sherman told the ANCA, upon learning his amendment was ruled “in order.”  “The last thing we should do is help strengthen Azerbaijan’s air defenses in any way.”

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian concurred, noting: “We appreciate the leadership of Chairman McGovern to allow House members to cast an up-or-down vote on this common-sense amendment,  sending a clear signal to Azerbaijan that the United States stands unconditionally against any and all threats to destroy civilian aircraft. We look forward to working with Congressman Sherman and his colleagues to ensure the amendment’s thorough consideration and passage.”

In March of 2011, Arif Mamadov, the Director of Azerbaijan’s Civil Aviation Administration, reported that the Azerbaijani government had warned the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that it had not authorized flights to Nagorno Karabakh, explaining that “The law on aviation envisages the physical destruction of airplanes landing in that territory.” The Azerbaijani government has neither withdrawn this threat, nor agreed that its forces will not shoot down civilian aircraft. As a result, the civilian airport in Stepanakert has remained closed for the past eight years, depriving the citizens of Artsakh and others of their universally recognized right to travel.

The text of the Sherman Amendment states that “none of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available to the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2020 may be used to transfer defense articles or services that improve Azerbaijan’s offensive air capabilities or air defense systems, which could threaten civil aviation in the Caucasus region.”

The Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Ministry of Foreign Affairs hailed the Sherman amendment, stating “the resuming the operation of the Stepanakert airport is a sovereign right of Artsakh and pursues purely civil and humanitarian goals, in particular, the exercise of such an inalienable right as freedom of movement.”

This Year’s UNESCO Session Was an Insult to World Heritage

Boshkezenian Garik
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9 hours ago

A partial view of the world’s largest collection of medieval cross-stones at the cemetery of Djulfa, photographed in the Soviet era (courtesy Argam Ayvazyan archives)

Djulfa, a sacred site for Armenian Christians, is disqualified from consideration because the host of this year’s UNESCO World Heritage Committee session, the government of Azerbaijan, has erased its existence and destroyed tens of thousands of Armenian cultural monuments.

BY SIMON MAGHAKYAN
From Hyperallergic 

Moments ago, the global organization for cultural preservation — UNESCO — announced the final list of 29 historical and natural wonders that have now officially joined the ranks of the Pyramids and Grand Canyon as World Heritage Sites. But the celebrated site of Djulfa, which boasted the world’s largest collection of exquisitely-carved medieval cross-stones as remnants of the area’s once-thriving community of Armenian Christians, was not among the 35 candidates vying for World Heritage Site designation. The legendary historical site is disqualified from such an honor, because the host of this year’s UNESCO World Heritage Committee session, the government of Azerbaijan, has erased its existence.

In December 2005, Nshan Topouzian, the leader of north Iran’s Armenian church, posted a chilling video online. An Iranian border patrol had alerted him to the deployment of Azerbaijani troops at Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, where Djulfa had stood for centuries. The tearful Bishop rushed to videotape over 100 Azerbaijani soldiers armed with sledgehammers, dump trucks, and cranes as they destroyed the sacred site, pounding the intricately carved sacred medieval headstones into rubble and then dumping their pulverized remains into the river. Within weeks, thousands of sacred stones, which had memorialized numerous medieval Armenian merchants — a community whose legacies include Europe’s first cafés and Captain Kidd’s pirated loot — had disappeared. This erasure is part of a state-sanctioned war on history that is arguably the worst act of cultural cleansing of the 21st-century. Yet unlike the cultural crimes of ISIS or the Taliban, few have heard of it.

A partial view of the world’s largest collection of medieval cross-stones at the cemetery of Djulfa, photographed in the Soviet era (courtesy Argam Ayvazyan archives)
As Sarah Pickman and I exposed in an investigative report in February, Azerbaijan’s destruction of Djulfa was the grand finale in a broader campaign. Between 1997 and 2006, the authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan worked systematically to demolish every trace of medieval Armenian Christianity in the region called Nakhichevan (formally called the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic). The final toll included 89 medieval churches, 5,840 cross-stones — half of which were at Djulfa, and 22,000 tombstones. One of the churches erased was the majestic Saint Thomas cathedral of Agulis, originally founded as a chapel in the 1st century and one of the oldest churches in the world. According to official Azerbaijan, none of these 28,000 monuments were destroyed: they never existed to begin with.

As the preeminent organization charged with protecting global heritage, UNESCO was expected to speak out to prevent Azerbaijan’s erasure of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past. Instead, UNESCO has not only avoided a public condemnation of this destruction but also praised Azerbaijan as a “land of tolerance.” The cooperation between UNESCO and Azerbaijan became strong in 2013 after the latter donated $5 million to the cash-strapped organization. In 2011, after Washington cut a quarter of UNESCO’s budget due to member states’ vote in favor of Palestinian membership, the organization had to seek alternative funding.

Undoubtedly, UNESCO conducts vital operations across the world. Its different arms oversee the designation of cultural and natural World Heritage Sites, educate children, empower women, and serve vulnerable communities around the globe. The 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, an important international treaty, is one of many lasting legacies of the organization.

Underfunded international organizations cannot be too picky about their donors. Resourceful countries with questionable motives know this all too well, which is why Azerbaijan has made its courting of UNESCO a top foreign policy priority. An exiled Azerbaijani dissident historian, Arif Yunus, thinks that his government’s obsession with receiving UNESCO’s approval has more to do with domestic than international politics. “Nothing projects the Aliyev dictatorship’s power to Azerbaijani dissidents,” Yunus told me last year, “like committing cultural genocide in Nakhichevan then showering in international praises of tolerance.”

But others explain the destruction through the lens of ethnic conflict. Following the USSR’s sudden dissolution in 1991, Djulfa — along with the wider Nakhichevan region — became an exclave of independent Azerbaijan. By then, Nakhichevan’s indigenous Armenian population had dwindled to zero. This fate was precisely what the Armenian-majority population of another autonomy within Soviet Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, had wished to avoid by seeking independence. That led to the early 1990s Armenian-Azerbaijani war, which Azerbaijan lost.

Having lost territories and amassed refugees, Azerbaijan’s narrative blames every problem and criticism alike on “Armenian occupiers.” According to official Azerbaijan, Armenians’s latest plot is fabricating destruction of imaginary monuments for the purpose of laying new territorial claims. “Absolutely false” fabrication by “the Armenian lobby.” That is how, in April 2006, Azerbaijan’s president berated a confirmation of Djulfa’s destruction by a now-exiled journalist. Another dissident, the famous Azerbaijani novelist Akram Aylisli, has been under house arrest in Baku since 2013 for the crime of authoring Stone Dreams, a novel that pays homage to the vanished Armenian past of Aylisli’s native Nakhichevan.

Whether UNESCO should altogether sever its ties with an oil-rich country that destroyed 28,000 cultural monuments may be up for debate. But hosting the world’s top preservation summit in that country crosses a red line. The cruel irony of UNESCO hosting the World Heritage Committee session in Azerbaijan this week is nothing short of an insult to all world heritage.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 07/09/2019

Vanyan Gary 
                                        Tuesday, 
Armenian Government Reports Further Rise In Tax Revenue
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Davit Ananian, head of the State Revenue Committee, arrives for a 
news conference in Yerevan, July 9, 2019.
The Armenian government’s tax revenues soared by about 25 percent in the first 
half of this year, the head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC), Davit 
Ananian, said on Tuesday.
Figures released by Ananian show that the sharp rise was made possible by about 
63 billion drams ($132 million) in additional taxes and other duties collected 
by the SRC in this period.
Armenia’s 2019 state budget calls for a total of almost 651 billion drams in 
first-half tax revenues, up from 572 billion drams in the year-earlier period. 
The SRC surpassed that target, collecting over 713 billion drams ($1.5 
billion), according to Ananian.
Ananian cautioned that his agency’s performance will not necessarily be just as 
strong in the second half of this year.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian promised an additional budgetary revenue of at 
least 62 billion drams at a May 8 news conference in Yerevan. Meeting with 
foreign diplomats in Yerevan two weeks later, Pashinian said his government has 
already raised that sum thanks to “a little trick.” He did not elaborate.
Ananian likewise did not specify factors behind the surplus when he met with 
the press. The SRC chief reported only a 21 percent rise in the monetary value 
of cash receipts issued by Armenian shops, restaurants and other businesses in 
January-June 2019.
Pashinian regularly urges Armenians to demand such receipts when buying goods 
and services in order to prevent businesses from evading taxes. He has said 
that this is essential for the success of an “economic revolution” promised by 
him.
Pashinian’s government pledged to crack down on widespread tax fraud when it 
took office following the April-May 2018 “Velvet Revolution.” Armenia’s tax 
revenues rose by over 14 percent, to 1.3 trillion drams ($2.7 billion), last 
year. They were projected to reach 1.4 trillion drams in 2019.
Pashinian said in May that most of the extra taxes collected by the authorities 
will be spent on road construction. They have also allowed 10 percent increases 
in the salaries of schoolteachers and military personnel.
In Ananian’s words, the improved fiscal performance is also enabling the 
government to finance its recent decision to make healthcare free for all 
citizens aged under 18.
Iran Looks To Boost Gas Supplies To Armenia
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Iran -- President Hassan Rouhani (R) meets with Armenia's Deputy Prime Minister 
Mher Grigorian, Tehran, July 3, 2019.
The Armenian and Iranian governments are exploring the possibility of expanding 
a swap arrangement allowing Armenia to import Iranian natural gas, Deputy Prime 
Minister Mher Grigorian said on Tuesday.
Under the commercial scheme launched a decade ago, Iran has supplied up to 500 
million cubic meters of gas to Armenia annually. The latter pays for it with 
electricity delivered to the Islamic Republic.
The rest of Armenia’s gas imports totaling roughly 2 billion cubic meters per 
annum come from Russia. According to the current and former Armenian 
governments, Russian gas has been cheaper, in monetary terms, for the South 
Caucasus state than Iranian gas.
Speaking after talks with Grigorian held in Tehran last week, Iranian Energy 
Minister Reza Ardakanian said that his country is ready to increase the gas 
supplies and also accept other Armenian “goods” in payment for them.
Iran -- Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian (R) meets with Armenia's Deputy 
Prime Minister Mher Grigorian, Tehran, July 2, 2019.
Grigorian confirmed that the Iranian side floated the idea during the talks. 
“Such an issue was discussed and negotiations regarding this will certainly 
continue,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We expect that a group of 
Iranian specialists will visit Yerevan soon and I think that discussions on 
this issue will continue.”
“This topic needs further elaboration because it is quite interesting in 
itself,” said the Armenian vice-premier.
Grigorian said the Armenian government is interested in greater gas supplies 
from Iran because it believes they could cut domestic prices of gas and 
electricity. He made clear that “the most desirable option” for Yerevan is to 
continue to pay for Iranian gas with electricity, rather than other goods.
Armenia is currently building a third high-voltage transmission line that will 
connect Armenian and Iranian power grids. The new line, slated for completion 
next year, will allow it to almost triple power supplies to Iran.
While in Tehran, Grigorian also met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The 
latter told him that the two neighboring nations should deepen their relations 
despite the U.S. economic sanctions against Tehran.
The gas issue was high on the agenda of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
February 2018 visit to Iran. Speaking after talks with Pashinian, Rouhani 
expressed Tehran’s readiness to sell more gas to Armenia.
Tsarukian Also Sees No Constitutional Court Crisis
        • Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian arrives for a 
parliament session in Yerevan, July 9, 2019.
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian joined on Tuesday other 
opposition figures in defending the legitimacy of the Constitutional Court 
challenged by its newest judge and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political 
allies.
Immediately after being elected by the parliament and sworn late last month, 
the judge, Vahe Grigorian, claimed that only he and another judge of the 
9-member court, Arman Dilanian, can make valid decisions.
Grigorian argued that under constitutional amendments which took effect last 
year the Constitutional Court now consists of “judges,” rather than “members,” 
as was the case until April 2018. He said that the seven other members of the 
court therefore cannot be considered “judges.”
The eight other members of the Constitutional Courts, including Dilanian, 
dismissed the claims in a joint statement, saying that they “cannot have any 
legal consequences.”
Senior lawmakers from the BHK and the other opposition party represented in the 
parliament, Bright Armenia, also disagreed with Grigorian. The BHK’s Gevorg 
Petrosian said an article of the amended constitution makes clear that the 
court members appointed before 2018 can serve as judges until they turn 65.
Tsarukian also denied the existence of a constitutional crisis in the country. 
“I don’t see anything [wrong,]” he told journalists. “People can’t just wake up 
and express a thought or draw a conclusion so that things move in that 
direction.”
Grigorian elaborated on his claims in a lengthy letter to Armenia’s government, 
parliament and top judicial officials publicized on June 28. He urged them to 
help resolve the “crisis” and proposed three different solutions, including the 
election of seven new Constitutional Court judges by the National Assembly. 
None of those state institutions has officially replied to Grigorian’s letter 
so far.
Some parliament deputies from the ruling My Step alliance have publicly sided 
with the judge in the dispute. Still, My Step’s parliamentary leader, Lilit 
Makunts, said on Tuesday that the parliament’s pro-government majority has not 
yet formulated an official position on the issue.
“Our parliamentary faction does not have a decision at the moment as to what 
roadmap we will be following,” Makunts told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We have 
certainly familiarized ourselves with the letter but are in no rush to come up 
with any solutions or proposals.”
“I don’t exclude that we will accept Vahe Grigorian’s proposal,” she said. “Nor 
do I exclude that we will propose our own solutions.”
Poll Shows Continuing Support For Armenia’s Government
        • Susan Badalian
Armenia -- Supporters of Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinian gather in 
Republic Square as parliament holds a session to elect a new prime minister in 
Yerevan, May 8, 2018
One year after the “Velvet Revolution” that brought Nikol Pashinian to power, 
most Armenians continue to support his government and remain optimistic about 
their country’s future, according to a U.S.-funded opinion poll.
The nationwide poll was commissioned by the Washington-based International 
Republican Institute (IRI) and conducted in May by the Baltic Survey/The Gallup 
Organization and the Armenian Sociological Association (ASA). It was financed 
by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
The survey released by the IRI late on Monday shows, in particular, that 60 
percent of 1,200 randomly interviewed people across Armenia believe that their 
country is heading in the right direction.
Although the figure represents a 12 percentage point drop from the previous IRI 
survey conducted in October, the U.S. institute said it indicates a 
“significant expression of continued confidence in the new government.”
Accordingly, 59 percent of those polled said they would vote for Pashinian’s My 
Step bloc if Armenia held general elections next Sunday. Businessman Gagik 
Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) would finish second with 12 percent, 
followed by the former ruling Republican Party (HHK), whose top leader, Serzh 
Sarkisian, was overthrown in last year’s revolution. The HHK was backed by 5 
percent of respondents, making it the third most popular party.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian attends a parliament session in 
Yerevan, January 14, 2019.
My Step garnered over 70 percent of the vote in the December 2018 elections. 
The opinion poll suggests that popular support for Pashinian’s bloc has 
somewhat declined since then. It indicates slight increases in the BHK’s and 
the HHK’s popularities.
In the December polls, the HHK narrowly failed to clear the 5 percent vote 
threshold for entering the new Armenian parliament. Gevorg Poghosian, the ASA 
head whose organization carried out the fieldwork for the survey, predicted 
that Sarkisian’s party will attract a larger following over time because it is 
the country’s “most pronounced opposition force” that regularly and strongly 
criticizes the current authorities.
When asked about the Pashinian government’s biggest achievements, the largest 
proportion of respondents (27 percent) pointed to a decrease in corruption, 
while 11 percent singled out “the improved psychological state of people.” Only 
3 percent chose “socioeconomic improvement” as an answer to the question.
“Bad management” was the most frequent answer (22 percent) to a question about 
the government’s biggest failures. And almost one in ten respondents blamed it 
for “political instability” in the country.
Even so, as much as 72 percent of respondents were satisfied with Pashinian’s 
performance. President Armen Sarkissian, who has largely ceremonial powers, and 
the Armenian military had even higher approval ratings: 81 percent and 80 
percent respectively.
“The goodwill expressed by the Armenian people presents the Armenian government 
with an unprecedented opportunity to undertake fundamental reforms that 
strengthen the country’s democracy and improve the economic well-being of its 
people,” Stephen Nix, the IRI director for Eurasia, said in a statement.
“The government’s speedy delivery on reforms will be key to maintaining its 
strong public support and the momentum to press on with its agenda,” Nix added.
Press Review
“Hraparak” reports that a pro-government member of Armenia’s parliament, Hayk 
Sargsian, has demanded that law-enforcement launch criminal proceedings against 
several media outlets that have published reports critical of him. Sargsian is 
quoted as saying that those reports are not only slanderous but also pose a 
threat to the country’s national security. The paper ridicules that claim, 
saying that Sargsian does not seem know that libel had long been decriminalized 
in Armenia.
“The parliament deputy [Hayk Sargsian] does not realize that after getting 
elected to the legislative body one must be ready for being the target of 
harshest criticism,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” “Being a representative of the state 
authority is not only a pleasure or privilege but also responsibility along 
with a portion of inevitable criticism that comes with it.” The paper too 
dismisses Sargsian’s claims about national security threats. “The most worrying 
thing in this situation is the very fact that it occurred to Hayk Sargsian and 
his lawyer to have media outlets undesirable for them shut down,” it says. 
“This is a serious blow to not only the freedom of expression but also broader 
democracy in our country. One must revolt against this development. Or else, 
this precedent could be irreversible and everyone could ask the Special 
Investigative Service to shut down media outlets under the guise of national 
security.”
“Zhamanak” comments on recent days’ deadly car accidents which have rekindled 
public debate about the poor state of road safety in Armenia. The paper says 
that the Armenian traffic police alone cannot seriously reduce such accidents 
because “it is simply not possible to have so many police officers and 
surveillance cameras that would ensure a close monitoring of everyone and 
everywhere.” It calls for greater public awareness of the risks of reckless 
driving and the creation of a more adequate road infrastructure. “In this 
regard, nearly 90 percent of Armenia’s roads do not meet those [safety] 
standards,” it says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

The Armenian Population in India Is Growing Again, After Centuries

Emil Lazarian
The Wire, India
July 9 2019

One family’s story highlights the revival of people-to-people ties between the two countries.

Andrew Whitehead

One of India’s old trading communities, the Armenians, is growing in numbers for the first time in many years. Former BBC correspondent Andrew Whitehead attended an Armenian church service in Chennai and met some of the worshippers. This is an expanded version of a piece he wrote for the BBC radio programme From Our Own Correspondent.

I didn’t expect to see a baby in his mother’s arms among the congregation. India’s Armenian community – once conspicuous in commerce, though always modest in number – has been fading away for many decades. In Chennai, they are barely clinging on.

The city’s serene 18th-century Armenian church holds just one service a year. It stands on Armenian Street and is the oldest church in what was once called Black Town – the place that became home for those not allowed to live in the British fort at the heart of what was then Madras. The place was one of Asia’s commanding ports in that earlier era of globalisation and Empire. And the Armenian traders had money – that’s reflected in the stylish design of this pocket-sized church, its large grounds, striking plaster cherubs and their bugles, and a separate tower complete with church bells cast in Whitechapel in London.

Kolkata, the second city of the British Raj, remains the main base of India’s Armenian community, who were once prominent merchants, financiers and hoteliers. There are 25 families of part-Armenian descent in the city, and the Armenian College and Armenian Sports Club are continuing testament to the community’s influence. Sunday service rotates around the city’s three Armenian churches – and the congregation can reach the heady heights of 100 or more worshippers at Christmas time.

The Armenian church in Chennai is the only one in India outside West Bengal which still holds services, albeit one a year. There were once Armenian chapels in Mumbai (the building still stands) and Surat. Further afield, Dhaka also has an Armenian church – as does Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, where regular services are still conducted.

The Armenian church in Chennai. Image: Andrew Whitehead

The Armenian population of Chennai probably never exceeded a few hundred. Over the decades, integration and emigration – to Australia in particular – has reduced the community to single figures.

Two priests based in Kolkata took the two-hour flight to Chennai to conduct the annual mass. They are from Armenia, on a tour of duty in India which can stretch for as long as seven years. The clerics brought with them the incense, ornate clerical headgear, capes and crucifix which are such essential parts of Orthodox worship. Even counting well-wishers and the curious – and I suppose I fit both descriptions – the number attending just touched double digits.

Also read: The Caretaker of an Armenian Church in Dhaka Whose Roots Lie in Gorakhpur

So the young family made up I guess a quarter of the congregation. The baby’s name is Suren. His father, Kapilan, is an architect – Chennai-born and, he insists, 100% Tamil; his mother Ashkhen, with red hair and pale complexion, describes herself as Armenian through and through.

Baby Suren at church.

As is often the case with marriages across the frosted boundaries of race, religion, language and nation, there is a heart-warming measure of coincidence in this love story. Kapilan was so often told when a postgraduate student in Canada that his surname, Jesudian, sounded Armenian that his interest in the country was aroused; Ashkhen performed so well in Hindi lessons when she was at school in Armenia, a scheme supported by the Indian government, that she won a study trip to India and on her return took on a role promoting links between the two countries.

When Kapilan travelled to Armenia as a tourist, Ashkhen showed him round. “He asked me if Armenia is safe,” she recounts, with feigned shock and amusement. “He’s from India – and he asks if my country is safe!” When she was, in turn, invited to Chennai, she was wary. “Don’t think I’m coming there to get married,” she insisted. But a day before her return home, they got engaged. A white wedding followed, held in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Ashkhen found her first year in Chennai tough. She was hit by south India’s ferocious heat and humidity. She missed her family, her language, her food, her favourite kind of coffee. Her husband is a Christian but the services at his Protestant church in Chennai didn’t sound – or smell – anything like the orthodox worship she had grown up with.

Over time, she came through and adapted. She started teaching Russian and – with admirable entrepreneurial flair – worked as a business coach, offering Indian businesses advice on branding and on commercial etiquette when dealing with the Russian-speaking world.

That’s just one story. But there are more. Hundreds of Indian students now attend medical schools in Armenia. Ashkhen reckons that 60 or more Armenian women have married trainee doctors and accompanied them back to India. Suren is not the only youngster in Chennai with an Armenian mum and an Indian dad. He will be brought up to respect his Armenian heritage as much as his Tamil identity.

Not all the new Armenian migrants to India cleave to the church as a marker of their identity – but they do network, and Ashkhen is now the regional coordinator of the India-Armenia friendship group. She’s worried about her son growing up in a culture where inter-racial marriages are still rare, and where anyone with fair skin is likely to be seen and treated as an outsider. Chennai is no longer the cosmopolitan city it once was – but Ashkhen is determined to (as she put it) make herself comfortable there.

So for the first time in a couple of centuries, the Armenian community in India is growing. “If you want to find the bad things about India, you will,” Ashkhen counsels her friends – and her clients. “If you want to find the opportunities for business, you can. There are plenty.”

Then she checks herself – looks at her husband – and declares with a laugh in her voice: “I sound just like one of those Armenian traders who came here back in the 1780s, don’t I?”

It’s difficult to disagree.

This article first appeared on Andrew Whitehead’s blog.

Armenian minister explains why Lake Sevan is ‘blooming’

Arsine Chaltikian
ARKA, Armenia
July 9 2019

YEREVAN, July 9 /ARKA/. In response to Armenian environmentalists’ warning that the country’s largest lake Sevan is facing a serious threat from algae and falling water levels, Minister of Environment Erik Grigoryan provided explanation why the lake is “blooming”.

He said there are several reasons. One is the growth of blue-green algae, which he said is being observed also in the Black Sea and the Russian Lake Baikal. “All waste and sewer waters of Gegharkunik region, where the lake is flow into Sevan, as well as all pollutants from coastal hotels and restaurants, as well as organic substances,” he said.

“The main reason is the falling level of the lake. The planned rise of 6 meters should help to slow down the growth of algae and improve the quality of water in the lake,” the minister said.

Grigoryan added that the drop in the level is the outcome of the excessive water withdrawal and the state of the Arpa-Sevan tunnel that takes the waters of Arpa River to the lake.

He said a string of criminal cases have been initiated against water users associations which are accused of causing 2.8 billion drams worth damages  via a set of falsifications and  fictitious contracts. Another criminal case has been launched into misuse of funds released for the repair of the tunnel.

On June 12, Grigoryan said that no additional water will be pumped form the lake for irrigation purposes. 

The 48.3 km-long Arpa-Sevan tunnel is supplying Lake Sevan with waters of Arpa and Yeghegis rivers. Lake Sevan is the largest body of water in Armenia and the Caucasus region. It is also one of the largest fresh water high-altitude lakes in Eurasia.

The Lake is situated in Gegharkunik province at an altitude of 1,900 m above sea level. Its’ basin’s total surface area is about 5,000 km2, which makes up 1⁄6 of Armenia’s territory. The lake itself is 1,242 km2. It is fed by 28 rivers and streams. Sevan has significant economic, cultural, and recreational value. Its only island (now a peninsula) is home to a medieval monastery. -0—

Armenian, Russian FMs discuss Artsakh settlement

Kajoyan Gevork
Panorama, Armenia
July 9 2019

Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the OSCE informal ministerial meeting in Slovakia on Monday, 8 July, the Armenian Foreign Ministry reported.

During the meeting the officials discussed the Armenian-Russian allied agenda and a number of issues concerning the cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats.

The Armenian and Russian foreign policy chiefs exchanged views on pressing regional and international issues.

The meeting addressed the peaceful settlement process of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict.

Armenia’s #metoo aims to break silence on sexual violence

Kalantarian Kevo
Eurasianet.org
July 9 2019


Ani Mejlumyan Jul 9, 2019


Hundreds of Armenian women have been sharing and publishing stories of sexual violence, for the first time bringing the traditionally sensitive issue to broad public discussion.

The movement began with the investigative news website Hetq publishing the account of a Czech woman living in Armenia who survived an attempted sexual assault. The piece, published June 29, recounted in painful detail the refusal of bystanders to help her and the insensitivity of the criminal justice system in dealing with sexual assault victims.

One journalist, Lucy Kocharyan, posted the story on her Facebook page. “Not long after, I got a message on Facebook, an active user in my Facebook friend list, who told her story and asked me to publish it anonymously so everyone knows that not only tourists are being abused in Armenia,” Kocharyan told Armenian public TV.

That inspired hundreds more Armenian women (and a handful of men) to write in, and Kocharyan has collected the stories on a new Facebook page, “Voices of Violence.”

The issue quickly garnered heavy media coverage and became Armenia’s most talked-about topic. The campaign “has shown that we have started to talk, even though it is still anonymous and stealthy, but we are already imagining that any individual story is a link to a larger problem,” wrote Nune Hakhverdyan in a column on the website media.am.

But the campaign also engendered a backlash. Some Armenians said that the anonymously published stories were fakes, or that the campaign was intended to get Armenia to ratify the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe agreement that requires signatories to take specific actions to combat sexual violence. Armenia signed the convention in 2018 but has not ratified it. (Among other regional countries, Georgia and Turkey have ratified the convention, while Azerbaijan and Russia have not even signed it.)

Domestic and sexual violence issues are hotly contested in Armenia, with social conservatives arguing that attempts to regulate the problem represent an imposition of foreign values on Armenia’s traditional family model. The “Voices of Violence” campaign revived those arguments.

“This movement is being used as a tool to push the Istanbul Convention, which is not authentic to the Armenian people,” said Arman Abovyan, a member of parliament with the Prosperous Armenia Party. “Why copy-paste something like this when a state can create its own mechanisms to fight this?” he told the news website 24news.am. “The convention will open the door to non-Armenian developments.”

Kocharyan said she had not even heard of the Istanbul Convention, but as it happened, just after the campaign began the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it was launching a joint program with the Council of Europe on “Preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in Armenia: Continuing the path towards ratification of the Istanbul Convention.”

Some in Armenia saw a connection. Sofya Hovsepyan, a member of parliament in the ruling “My Step” alliance, said the campaign was an attempt to blacken Armenia’s name. “For two days I have been trying to understand what was the reason that some people started remembering their stories,” she wrote on July 4 on her Facebook page. “It turns out that we are a ‘violent’ nation and we didn’t know it. Stop spreading these stories as if they describe the nation for the sake of promoting your idea.”

The post launched a vigorous debate, with one of her fellow “My Step” MPs strongly disagreeing. “If you want to understand, make a little effort to understand, at the end of it you are an MP of the National Assembly, and a woman,” Grigor Yeritsyan commented. “Have a little respect for people’s personal tragedy,” he said, adding: “Your opinion doesn’t reflect ‘My Step’s’ opinion on the issue.”

In a subsequent interview, Hovsepyan said she believed the campaign could be a means to push Armenia to ratify the Istanbul Convention. “It’s likely that it could be, why not?” she told the news website tert.am.

Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan came out in support of the campaign and said the government needed to do more to prevent domestic and sexual violence and to protect its victims. He argued with critics who relied on official statistics to claim the problem was not as significant as campaigners made it out to be. “In these cases statistics can’t be valid because in most cases people [victims] don’t go to the authorities,” he said in an interview with 24news.am. “For example, we see 50 cases recorded in the statistics and we think we don’t have a problem and can relax, but in reality it’s not 50, it’s 500.”

Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.

How One Journalist Sparked Armenia’s #MeToo Moment

Liana Toganian
News Central 24×7, India
July 9 2019


How One Journalist Sparked Armenia’s #MeToo Moment

By Karena Avedissian On Jul 9, 2019
          
“Voices of Violence”: the new hashtag has prompted public debate about sexualized violence in Armenia. Image by Tom Venner.

Warning: This article features accounts of sexual assault which some readers may find disturbing.

On Monday, July 1, an independent Armenian journalist named Lucy Kocharyan began posting anonymous personal accounts of sexual harassment and violence on her Facebook page. By the end of the day on July 2, more than 200 stories had been shared and the associated hashtag, #of violence_the voice (or “voice of violence” in English), became the highest trending in Armenia.

The campaign developed after a case of sexual assault against a Czech woman named Eva was published by investigative news outlet Hetq.am. Eva, who lived in Armenia for one year, had been volunteering in Vanadzor, the country’s third-largest city, when she survived an attack and attempted rape. After escaping her attacker, she sought shelter in neighbors’ homes, but was pushed out and told that “it is impossible for such a thing to happen in Armenia.”

Eva’s story is significant not just for the social problems it unveiled — specifically victim-blaming and widespread denial of the problem—but because Eva pursued justice and her attacker was sentenced to three years in prison.

After Kocharyan posted about Eva’s story on Facebook, she was approached by Armenian women who wanted her to show the public that sexual violence is not just experienced by foreign women in the country, but by Armenian women too. These women also wanted to fight the stereotype that Armenian women are not outspoken, and started to send Kocharyan their personal accounts of sexual assault, which Kocharyan published anonymously on her Facebook page. In an unexpected turn, members of the public — mostly women, but also men — trusting Kocharyan’s journalistic credentials and her ability to keep their identities confidential, began sending her their stories and asking her to share them. The wave of sharing grew, propelling the topic to the forefront of the Armenian public’s attention.

Kocharyan’s campaign was supported publicly by at least two members of government: Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zara Batoyan, and Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan. The journalist was interviewed by various news outlets about the campaign, including CivilNet, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Azatutyun, and Petros Ghazarian, who hosts a popular political discussion show.

However, some parts of Armenian society are skeptical about the veracity of the stories being shared; they find it hard to believe that so many incidents could have actually happened in Armenia, especially those where the abuser is a family member. For example Sofya Hovsepyan, a member of parliament from Armenia’s ruling My Step Coalition, criticized the campaign on her Facebook page for creating what she considers an unfairly negative image of Armenia. Kocharyan has responded to such skepticism in interviews, saying that “sexual harassment happens in every society, including ours; our specific challenge is what we do about it afterwards.” As journalist Samson Martirosyan said on his Facebook page, the sheer number of stories emerging is hard for people to accept as they were truly unaware of the problem’s existence; nevertheless, he continued, they would have to accept reality at some point.

The more than 200 stories shared document all kinds of sexual abuse and harassment. There are stories of abuse from relatives, classmates, romantic partners, and strangers. Most of the testimonies were from women, but some men shared theirs as well, expressing the hope that their experiences would show that men are also subjected to sexualized violence.

Kocharyan vetted and fact-checked all the stories, and in some cases reached out to the authors to verify certain details. Kocharyan says that she was surprised by the response, especially as she had not made any announcement or calls for contributions. She sees the sharing as self-motivated, and a sign that those who reached out to her just wanted to be heard.

The campaign could be likened to an Armenian #MeToo. It has forced a very public questioning of what lies beneath the surface of idealistic understandings of Armenian society, how power operates in Armenia’s traditional and patriarchal society, why many people have not come forward sooner, what obligation broader society has to survivors, and what constitutes consent. Moreover, it has highlighted the importance of an effective law enforcement that can respond to individuals facing abuse and pursue perpetrators.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of this campaign has been the overwhelmingly positive reaction from the Armenian public. While Kocharyan has deleted comments that ridicule the survivors and blocked their authors, readers’ comments still overwhelmingly validate the horror that the survivors experienced, expressing compassion and support.

If nothing else, this campaign has given rise to a new community in Armenia: a community of those who believe and support survivors of abuse and who will neither ignore nor suppress of such incidents. This was demonstrated after one particularly harrowing account of a woman who was abused as a child by her mother’s partner.

After describing the abuse, the woman wrote, “Now I want to die every day. I want to ask him, why did you do that to me, why did you ruin a little girl’s life? Why did you cause me so much pain? I was a small, pretty, curly-haired, brave and strong child. Why did you turn me into a such an exhausted, frightened coward?”

The first comment beneath the testimony reads:

“Curly-haired girl, I want you to be reborn.”

One young woman writes:

“I was 15 and was friends with people who were two to three years older than me. It was one friend’s 18th birthday; they were celebrating in a pub. I was happy that they treated me like I was their age and invited me. I went and met their other friends. There was loud music and alcohol, but I didn’t drink. One boy seemed interested in me and he kept wanting me to drink, but drinking was unpleasant for me, so I decided it was time to go home. For the judgmental people out there: no, I was not wearing a short skirt, I was not drunk, I was not smoking, and everyone there knew my age. I went to the toilet to wash up and go home.

That boy entered the toilet after me. I was frightened, and he kept getting closer to me and smiling. He embraced me and I was already crying, hitting him with my fists, trying to break free. I was screaming, but I suppose the music was too loud and no one came. He raped me. I was a virgin. When he saw the blood, he became frightened. He pulled my hair and said, “If anyone finds out I’ll cut your throat. Understood?” My family never found out, no one found out. Because my mother would have said that it was my fault: “Why did you go there?”

I didn’t leave the house for three months. I tried to kill myself. I overdosed on pills and woke up in the hospital. My family thought I was just a stupid teenager who decided to die. I cut off ties with everyone, I avoided men, and I didn’t speak to them. Two years later, I found a job so that I could afford to see a psychologist because I didn’t want to live. I tried to not dress up, to not be cheerful, to not be noticed. It’s now been four years and I am gradually overcoming my fear of interacting with men. But still, I am very, very anxious when there are men I don’t trust around me. Thank you for the opportunity to share this story. What you are doing is incredible.”

— Lucy Kocharyan, Facebook, July 3, 2019

Another woman described abuse she suffered as a child: 

“I was 8 years old, we had lodgers in our yard – a husband and wife… I always spoke to them, and they supposedly liked me a lot, because I was a well behaved child))))

One day I was walking by their house and the husband said ‘Come here, I want to show you something,” and I went (because I was taught to obey my elders). I asked, ‘Where is your wife?’ He said, ‘She’s coming home now. See how many flies are on the ceiling? Grab the fly swatter and help me kill them.’ I took the swatter and he held me to lift me up. He was holding me by my butt, and I began to feel his fingers between my legs, and I could sense that something was not right. He was looking at me with a disgusting smile and breathing heavily. I said that I wanted to come down so that I could go and do my homework. He let me down and sat me on his lap and began kissing my neck with his disgusting heavy breathing, telling me, ‘You know how much I like you…’

I came down and ran home. Maybe everything was written on my face because my mother asked me where I was, and I told her. She said, ‘But his wife is not home. What business do you have alone with that man?’ I said, ‘He was holding me and we were killing flies.’ I felt like an accomplice in the incident, as though it was my fault, and that I was in a secret, disgusting pact with that stupid man. What my mother said to me convinced me of that; that what happened was my fault.

She said ‘PERVERT’, and I will never forget the look on her face. Ever.”

— Lucy Kocharyan, Facebook, July 3, 2019

This man recollected an incident from when he was a teenager:

“I was waiting at the bus stop and a car approached and the driver asked me where I was going; he told me to get in, as he’d take me there. I refused at first, but he convinced me. He said he was my neighbour, that he knows my family and that he was going in the same direction, and there was no problem. I was a stupid child, so I got in. He began to talk about different things and then started talking about sexual topics. I was leaning up against the window and praying that we arrive soon so that I could leave. He then took my hand and pulled it towards his penis and said, ‘I know you want to play with it.’ While I was frozen and trying to come to my senses, he was talking about how he had a wife and that one day the three of us should get together and ‘have a good time.’ We got to my destination and I left and tried to forget what happened once and for all. I never saw that man near our building, I had the habit of looking left and right. I never knew if I’d see him again. I was still a kid; it’s been years since that happened, but I haven’t told anyone. I haven’t told anyone also for a very grotesque and vile reason. When a male grows up in a society and is taught from childhood how to be violent, how to be a rapist, but then becomes a victim himself, if he talks about, he will be even more of a target. That means that he is no longer a member of the wolf pack. That means that he can also be ‘hunted.’”

— Lucy Kocharyan, Facebook, July 2, 2019

One man wrote about a friend who was assaulted in the army:

“Now that it’s the men’s turn I also want to tell a story. My friend went to the army and a bit later, when he came back on leave, he was very depressed. I didn’t know him that well, but it was as if he had come out of prison. He didn’t say a single word to me about why he was so depressed, no matter what I did. Two years passed and he came back. The day he returned he got reallllllly drunk and tried to kill himself. Somehow, I was able to take the razor from his hand. He calmed down and began to speak. Three men raped him, in every way that you can imagine. They made him lick their shoes. Two of them would rape him simultaneously from behind and then orally. It’s dreadful remembering the state he was in. Five years have passed, and he is now in a different country. I don’t interact with him that often, but it seems that no irreversible damage was done to him, or maybe I just don’t know better. He was from a village. Taking this to the police was not even an option. I later found out that one of the three men had been convicted of rape in another case. Only this time, the survivor wasn’t silent. In my subjective opinion, these incidents are huge in number. [Keep it] anonymous, please. I don’t want my friend to see and figure out that this is about him.”

— Lucy Kocharyan, Facebook, July 2, 2019

This article was originally published on Global Voices and has been republished under the Creative Commons license.

Armenian tax inspector charged with bribery

Khondkarian Raffi
Panorama, Armenia
July 9 2019

The Armenian National Security Service has charged a senior official of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) with taking a bribe from a mining company, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The chief inspector of the SRC Goris Tax Inspectorate, being aware that Blue Basalt LLC was engaged in stone mining and sale without permission, as well as didn’t register most of its employees, demanded and received from the company about 600,000 drams in bribes.

Factually, in 2017-2018, the company caused substantial damage to the state by selling around 700 cubic meters of stone at a price of 17,500,000 drams without paying taxes, the statement said.

A criminal case has been initiated. Preliminary investigation is underway.

VivaCell-MTS supports another family in Armenian village

Emil Karabekian
Panorama, Armenia
July 9 2019

The Minasyans are the 8th family in Armenia’s Syunik Province supported by VivaCell-MTS and the Fuller Center for Housing Armenia. These days, construction is underway in Akhlatyan village. The principle of volunteering is becoming a tradition even without partners’ intervention. This is one of the important achievements of the housing program, VivaCell-MTS said in a press release.

24-year-old Hrachya from Syunik has overcome serious problems… Having lost his mother years ago, his family has also fought for the life of one of Hrachya’s brothers. Consistent and long efforts helped save the life of the youngest of the family. The boys, who have become even stronger with every challenge of life, have made sure their mother’s dream came true. Both have already graduated from the university and work at the Akhlatyan village school. The youngest brother is going to become a student. Now they are trying to open a new page in their life. Three sons stand side by side and support their father: they have started building a house which remained unfinished for 28 years.

The works inside the semi-constructed house have united everyone. From time to time, the neighbors, relatives, and friends come to volunteer and help the homeowners. Hrachya, who has volunteering experience and knows the value of it, appreciates the volunteer support. The work moves forward with much enthusiasm and jokes. Now they want that happiness always be inside the new house.

“I have many dreams but the most important one is to see my father safe. For many years he has not been able to build a house. After my mother’s death and after having overcome my younger brother’s serious health problems we managed to start the construction that my father always wanted to do but wasn’t able to finish. I want him to live a quiet life in the house that we are building after years of suffering,” said the elder son, 24-year-old Hrachya.

Due to a heavy workload, the heads of VivaCell-MTS and the Fuller Center for Housing Armenia are not always able to join construction works. However, the life of the families and the construction process are in the center of their attention. Sometimes, before they will meet, the physical absence is filled with a message.

“Hrach, I’m aware of the difficulties your family has gone through. I send you, your brothers and your father this message from my workplace. I realize how strong you are and what kind of willingness you demonstrated to overcome misfortunes. Fight for your dreams. You deserve to be respected. Be optimistic and be sure that you’ll see happy days inside the newly built house,” said VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian.