Category: News

KARABAKH IMPORTANT FACTOR IN CAUCASUS – MINISTER
Ayastani Anrapetutyun, Yerevan
8 May 04
Text of Galust Nanyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Ayastani
Anrapetutyun on 8 May headlined “The NKR is an important factor in
the region”
This is an interview with the foreign minister of the Nagornyy Karabakh
Republic (NKR), Ashot Gulyan. The Bishkek agreement on the armistice
signed on 12 May 1994 will mark its 10th anniversary soon. It does
not contain any term, it only says that the armistice should last
until the signing of a peace agreement.
According to NKR Foreign Minister Ashot Gulyan, when the armistice
agreement was signed, the NKR was given the opportunity to start
peaceful life. “It is natural that the Karabakh party’s participation
in the signing of the armistice agreement, as well as in other
discussions, was one the most painful problems for Azerbaijan,”
Gulyan said.
Irrespective of everything, the most important thing is that they
reached such an agreement and it is still in force. According to
Gulyan, if the NKR as a party is responsible for maintaining the
armistice, so the NKR should logically be a full participant in the
Karabakh conflict settlement.
When several months ago the former foreign minister of Azerbaijan,
Vilayat Quliyev, said that Azerbaijan is ready to negotiate directly
with the NKR if Armenia walks out of this process, Ashot Gulyan says
that it was not serious readiness. This was simply a regular political
step on the part of Azerbaijan and aimed to find out what response
it will get.
“The NKR president, as well as numerous members of the NKR Foreign
Ministry, have repeatedly said that the Karabakh party is ready to
negotiate with Azerbaijan in any format without any pre-conditions,”
Gulyan said.
He also said that in the 10 years they managed to make quite serious
progress in the issue of creating and establishing an independent
state.
Gulyan said that thanks to these efforts, the NKR has really become
an important factor in the region. If earlier the NKR was seen in the
region only as a military and political factor, which had military
potential, today “I think that the level of the NKR’s economic and
public development allows us to say that Nagornyy Karabakh is really
an important factor in the region in all spheres,” Gulyan said.
As for the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border and the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict in this context, Gulyan said that only Armenia and
Turkey can settle these relations. “I have the impression that the
Turkish government is hostage to the pre-conditions put forward by
Azerbaijan from time to time,” Gulyan said.

Dar Al-Hayat, Saudi Arabia
May 26 2004
The Weeping Speech
Mohamad Rumaihi Al-Hayat
>>From the 15th to the 17th of May 2004, an important intellectual
seminar was held in Kuwait, prepared and called for by the committee
of the foreign affairs in the Kuwaiti Parliament. The seminar was
entitled: The Region and the Future. “Region” means here the Middle
East, and one is free to imagine whether it is the greater one or the
smaller one! A huge number of politicians, academics and concerned
people attended the seminar; among them were current or former
officials and Arab, Iranian and Western journalists. The media
published a lot of material about this important seminar.
There is a lot one can comment in this important seminar: the
speeches of the Arab League former Secretary General, Ismat Abdul
Majid, the current Iraqi minister of foreign affairs, Hoshyar Zibari,
Mr. Richard Jones, the Vice-Governor in Iraq, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas’
opinions about the Palestinian issue and the viewpoints of Iranian
and Iraqi academics.
However, I want to comment on the statements of the Syrian Dr. Sami
Khaimi, who was said to be a member in the Syrian delegation to the
European partnership negotiations.
If Mr. Sami delivered his comments in his name or that of the
negotiating delegation; no one would have been so surprised or
annoyed. But the truth is that he entitled it: How Do Syrians Read
the Americans’ Position! Hence, he talked in the name of all Syrians.
The speech belonged more to the past than to the present, not to
mention the future that was the required subject of discussion.
In his speech, Mr. Sami asked questions and answered them. He said,
for instance, “They say the (Arab) region is full of money and it
finances terror.” His answer was that Syria suffered from terror
first and that it doesn’t have money. He added: “they say changing
the region into a democracy is necessary to limit terror,” and
answered: “the U.S. doesn’t apply this principle to the other
countries!”
Then, he continued and said: “shifting quickly to democracy in a
country that suffers economically (he probably meant a country that
is economically retarded) would lead to loosing social security!”
What a justification! Mr. Sami forgot that the majority of the
audience knows about India, Bangladesh, Turkey and other countries,
whose economies are still weak but yet they are democratic!
He added; “they say that there is an urgent need to change the Arab
mind” and Mr. Sami admits that the Arab mind (is overwhelmed by the
glory of the past). He pointed out that Syria “welcomed the
Armenians, Turkish and Bosnians” and said, “There are seven Syrian
popes who ruled Rome.” He forgot that he is once again talking about
the past without realizing at the contradictions.
Mr. Sami said: “Syria is accused of supporting terror through
Hezbollah, Hamas and Jihad.” He answered that these organizations do
not constitute a threat to American national security and that their
bureaus in Damascus are mere formalities!
Mr. Sami wondered then why is the image of the Arab people and
Syrians bad in the West? He answered that some people say that it is
due to the nature of the regime in Syria! Then he asked: “did the
Communists suffer from the ugliness of Pinochet’s image, did the
Spanish image change under Franco or did the Serbian one under
Milosevic?” What a comparison!
Mr. Sami stated that they said that Syria doesn’t deploy efforts to
prohibit sneaking through its borders with Iraq. He answered that “it
is very difficult to close long borders and we wish the U.S. good
luck to succeed in doing so!”
He added: “we are accused that our school curricula teach children
religious and national fanaticism.” He answered: “Not in Syria,
although efforts should be deployed gradually in order to reduce the
praising of the Arabs.” He added: “be sure that a child learning
something wrong in the U.S. is even more dangerous on the world
security than a thousand of Arab children!”
He then finished the speech by saying: “I am saddened because I think
that the U.S. with all its greatness, values and military force,
deserves better than those men” (in the current administration). Note
that he is talking about “the U.S. positive values!”
It is not required for anyone to praise the U.S. and it is not
required to go beyond what he thinks is wrong. Mr. Sami’s speech was
not a good one. It was contradictory and constituted a negative image
about Syria’s position.
The speaker could have been more convincing only if he quoted some
ideas from the U.S. General Clark’s book, Victory In Modern Wars and
listened to his advice about the extent to which media has an impact
on convincing people.
Any observer can now interpret Syria’s position that is standing at a
turning point in its history.
Many people want to see Syria in a better place under the prevailing
circumstances in the region for several reasons, one of them being
that the allowed choices might not be better than those available
right now. Many people are still betting on the young Syrian
leadership, however, the official awareness is still far away of
understanding the rules of the game that had changed.
Hence, the objective of this article is to wish for Syria’s discourse
and performance to change because it is no longer convincing.

Beast on the Moon, Hit Play About Armenian Survivors, To Make NYC Debut in 2005
By Kenneth Jones
Playbill.com, NY
May 25 2004
Beast on the Moon, the well-reviewed regional and international play
about an Armenian couple forging a romance in America while being
haunted by the 1915 genocide that rocked their country, will get its
Off Broadway debut in spring 2005.
American playwright Richard Kalinoski’s play debuted in 1995 at
the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of
Louisville. The intimate four-actor show later blossomed in American
regional theatres, from Los Angeles to Boston, and has since appeared
in 15 different countries winning over 30 awards (including five
Moliere Awards in Paris and five Ace Awards in Buenos Aires, taking
the award for Best Play in both cities).
Larry Moss, who directed The Syringa Tree to North American success,
will direct Beast on the Moon in New York City. Casting is ongoing.
Playwright Kalinoski is a college professor at the University of
Wisconsin, Osh Kosh, where he teaches in the Theatre Arts department.
David Grillo, an actor who appeared in a 1999 Boston production of
the play, is to be lead producer for the commercial Off-Broadway
stand. Roy Gabay will serve as general manager.
The title, Beast on the Moon, refers to an ominous lunar eclipse.
“So much appeals to me about Beast that it is hard to find a
place to begin,” producer Grillo told Playbill On Line. “It is
an extraordinarily challenging drama with a surprising number of
well-earned laughs. The play takes its audiences through an emotional
cataclysm and delivers them, at its finish, to joyful redemption.
I don’t like plays that ask me to jump through emotional hoops and
then leave me beaten up by the side of the road. Beast is redemptive.
The journey is hard, but one for which the audience is enormously
grateful. Also very important for me right now is that Beast on the
Moon is a play about Muslim/Christian relations that stresses healing.”
Beast on the Moon is a four-actor romance about two survivors –
Aram and Seta, a young man and his mail order bride – who settle
in Milwaukee between the World Wars (spanning 12 years) and seek to
start a family in the wake of the genocide of their past. They end
up taking an orphan under their wing. A narrator provides context.
The play received the 1996 Osborn Award from the American Theatre
Critics Association, recognizing an emerging playwright.
Rehearsals begin in January 2005 toward previews in February and a
March opening. A theatre has not been announced.
Producer Grillo has two degrees from the University of California at
Berkeley, in Economics and Dramatic Arts, plus a masters in fine arts
in acting from the Yale School of Drama.
In 2003, Grillo acquired the rights to produce the play in New York,
after 10 months of negotiations. This is the first time the
playwright has granted the New York rights.

Substance beats style in ‘Figaro’
By Rob Lowman, Entertainment Editor
Redlands Daily Facts, CA
May 26 2004
THE LIST OF timeless artworks may not be growing these days, but
no matter. We already have enough to engage us. Or so listening to
Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro’ suggested on Saturday night.
The occasion was opening night of a new Los Angeles Opera production
of the work. Directed by Ian Judge and designed by Tim Goodchild, it
takes the place of Peter Hall’s version, which was both well-liked and
straightforward, albeit a bit unspontaneous after several revivals. But
the exchange has not worked in our favor.
No, playwright Beaumarchais’ savvy barber-cum-valet and his bride-to-be
don’t now work for modern American plutocrats (see Peter Sellars),
nor do they reside in a pile reminiscent of Poe’s House of Usher
(see Jonathan Miller).
There is, though, something decidedly Eurotrashy about Goodchild’s
outsized palace rooms, with their super-rich colors and anachronistic
modern-day accouterments, like telephones and glossy magazines. And
one can’t ignore Deirdre Clancy’s bizarrely matched costumes, each
seemingly plucked from a different theatrical road company. Why, you
may ask, are the count’s soldiers dressed like chauffeurs, circa 1920?
More serious are the lapses Judge makes regarding 18th-century
manners. Seeing Figaro kiss the hand of his master’s wife, to say
nothing of watching the page Cherubino smooch with her, subverts what
Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte intended. Without class
boundaries, Figaro and his cohorts risk nothing — and sacrifice is
central to this opera.
Still, one goes to “Figaro’ primarily for the music, not the visuals,
or even always the morals. And musically this production is strong.
Though no one in the cast is famous, several singers no doubt will
be. Topping the list is Figaro himself as personified by Uruguayan
bass-baritone Erwin Schrott.
Schrott won great acclaim here last season as a sexily resonant Don
Giovanni. And it’s no surprise that the company signed him to this
role. To be convincing, Figaro must be clever and charming. It’s no
bad thing if he’s a lady-killer, too. And Schrott certainly is that.
He swaggers across the stage with enviable self-confidence. How
nice that he has a voice to match — deep and robust, but with a
captivating, bright edge.
This vigorous Figaro is paired with a Susanna of commensurate gifts,
soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, a Canadian born to Armenian parents in
Beirut. Though making her L.A. Opera debut with this role, Bayrakdarian
already has appeared at two company galas and won Placido Domingo’s
Operalia competition in 2000. Pretty and vivacious, she looks like an
ideal Susanna; more important, she sings like one, with a glimmering,
even tone. Her wise and cheeky performance proved a joy from beginning
to end, but never more so than in her final aria, when she was also
ineffably touching.
Susanna’s noble counterpart, the Countess, is sung by Bulgarian soprano
Darina Takova. If Bayrakdarian sounds like topaz, then Takova’s voice
is amber. In the Countess’ two great arias — “Porgi amor,’ about
love lost, and “Dove sono,’ about its possible reclamation — Takova
sang ardently, though she got more expressive as the opera progressed.
American bass David Pittsinger’s Count Almaviva, no slouch himself
in the testosterone department, rounds out the central quartet. His
gripping account of the great vengeance aria “Vedro mentr’io sospiro’
seethed with wounded pride, and he made a convincing foil for Figaro
at every turn.
With two beloved arias, the trouser role of Cherubino has always
been plum for mezzo-sopranos, and Boston native Sandra Piques Eddy
assumes it enthusiastically, singing well and offering a particularly
convincing portrait of a young man on hormonal red alert. No less
fine were Anna Steiger as a robustly scheming Marcellina and company
regulars Michael Gallup, as blustering but somehow amiable Dr.
Bartolo, and Greg Fedderly, as an unctuous, stuttering Don Basilio.
In the pit, Stefan Anton Reck, in his company debut, made a fine
first impression, leading Mozart’s effervescent score with ample
enthusiasm and enough sensitivity to avoid overpowering the singers,
which his broad gestures certainly suggested he might do.!end!

Lagging schools share cash
Grants for before- and after-school programs
By Lisa M. Sodders, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News
May 26 2004
Forty-seven low-performing schools in Los Angeles Unified —
including just four in the San Fernando Valley — will share $27
million in federal grants awarded to California schools for before-
and after-school programs, officials said Tuesday.
The federal grants were awarded by the State Department of Education
under the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which
seeks to establish or expand community learning centers for students
at low-achieving or high-poverty schools.
“I’m thrilled,” said Joanna Kunes, principal at Madison Middle School
in North Hollywood, one of the schools selected for the grant. “This
is so welcome in this climate of budget-reductions. It couldn’t come
at a better time.”
The other three Valley schools were: Haddon, Sharp Avenue and Bertrand
elementary schools.
LAUSD will receive about $6.2 million from the grant, said John
Liechty, associate superintendent for the LAUSD’s Beyond the Bell
branch, which handles after-school enrichment programs.
Madison, a 2,200-student school, is 70 percent Hispanic and 20 percent
Armenian, and has a 300-student health and medical careers magnet
program, Kunes said. About half of the students are English-language
learners and about 93 percent qualify for free and reduced lunches.
Kunes has not been told how much Madison will receive, but she said
the grant money will be used to support a variety of mentoring and
enrichment programs, including computer labs and art classes.
The money will also go toward tutoring to help students meet the
state’s math, science and reading requirements, the education
department said in a statement.
Most of the schools that received the grants are considered Program
Improvement Schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, said
Kevin Brown, manager of the after-school partnership office in the
California Department of Education.
Program Improvement Schools are those that have not met their student
achievement goals for the past two consecutive years.
“Local law enforcement and the FBI strongly support after-school
programs because they help to reduce dropout rates and time spent in
unhealthy behaviors such as drug use and gang activity,” U.S. Sen.
Barbara Boxer (D-California), author of the federal law providing
funding for after-school programs, said in the statement released by
the education department.

Obit: Rev. Father Shahe Semerdjian, pastor emeritus of St. Peter’s dies at 88
By Holly Andres, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News
May 26 2004
A funeral will be Thursday for the Rev. Father Shahe Semerdjian,
pastor emeritus at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church in Van Nuys,
who died Saturday of a heart attack in Las Vegas. He was 88.
Semerdjian was born Jan. 18, 1916, in Ainteb, Turkey, and he was
ordained in 1949, two years before emigrating to the United States
with his family.
Semerdjian served as vicar general of the Western Diocese of the
Armenian Church from 1953 to 1970, and was awarded the Pictorial
Cross of Priesthood for his devotion and service to the church by
His Holiness Vasken I.
Semerdjian was the senior pastor at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic
Church from 1962 to 1992. Under his leadership, major improvements
to the church site on Sherman Way were made including the sanctuary,
Sunday school classrooms and Karagozian Hall. He founded the AGBU
Elementary School at the church.
At the time of his death, he was a spiritual leader at the Armenian
Apostolic Church of Las Vegas, where he had moved with his wife
in 1992.
Semerdjian is survived by his wife, Yeretzgin Alice; sons, Dr.
Gregory Semerdjian and Dickran Semerdjian; daughters, Mary Kellejian
and Nanette Mikaelian; and 10 grandchildren.
A Divine Liturgy will be said at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Peter
Armenian Apostolic Church, 17231 Sherman Way, Van Nuys. Burial will
be at 10:30 a.m. Friday at El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley.
Memorial donations may be sent to the Father Shahe Avak Kahana
Semerdjian Foundation, 101 W. Broadway, Suite 810, San Diego, CA 92101.

Baku Today
May 26 2004
MP Urges Azerbaijani Government To Closely Monitor BBC Broadcasts
Baku Today 26/05/2004 13:17
A member of the Azerbaijani parliament on Tuesday called the
government to take strict control over broadcasts of the BBC Central
Asian and Caucasus Service to the country in order to prevent the
“unequivocally anti-Azerbaijani propaganda.”
“BBC’s this kind of broadcasts [to Azerbaijan] must be stopped,” said
Mubariz Qurbanli, an MP from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP).
Qurbanli urged the Ministry of Communications and also
re-broadcasters of the BBC Central Asian and Caucasus Service in the
country to strictly monitor the allegedly biased programs.
One of the re-broadcasters, ANS ChM radio, has already set up
deadline for the BBC World Service management to stop the purported
pro-Armenian programs by June 1 or see its broadcasts stopped in
Azerbaijan.
One of the demands put to the BBC management by Vahid Mustafayev,
President of ANS group of companies, to which ANS ChM radio also
includes, said an ethnic-Armenian producer of the BBC Central Asian
and Caucasus Service, Mark Griogorian, must be fired from his
position. Mustafayev blamed Margarian for the alleged
anti – Azerbaijani propaganda of the BBC.
The Azerbaijani MPs also protested against BBC’s sending one of its
reporters, Steve Eke, to Nagorno-Karabakh on May 12 without receiving
an official permission from Baku.
The BBC World Service has denied the accusations.
“Looking back on the events around Karabakh over the last week, and
even the years, the BBC is convinced that it has got the overall
balance right,” said a letter sent to the Azerbaijani embassy in
London by the BBC Eurasia Region Executive Editor, Olexiy
Solohubenko, on May 14.
With regard to Steve Eke’s visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, the letter said
the reporter was sent there via the only route that was available and
that the route had been used also by journalists from various media
organizations during the past decade.

Kashatagh: Retaking and rebuilding a “third” Armenia in old Lachin
By Vahan Ishkhanyan ArmeniaNow
(As reported in AGBU magazine) Kashatagh may be the only region
of “two Armenias” where there are no magnificent villas or foreign
cars. As one resident said, there are no rich or poor here and all
are equal.
Among the ruins of war, buildings that were only shells are being
re-occupied..
Outsiders still know it as Lachin, famous for the corridor that was
the hard-won link between Armenia and Karabakh, gained during fierce
fighting in 1992.
But to the locals, this area retaken from Azerbaijan and made the
sixth region of Karabakh has regained its ancient name. By renaming
and repopulating Kashatagh authorities are merging two Armenian states.
“Kashatagh is the land of our ancestors,” says head of administration
of Kashatagh Alexan Hakobian. “Armenians living here began thinning
out 100 years ago. As a result of the policy conducted by Stalin it
became a part of Azerbaijan. Today Kashatagh is again Armenian and
it will be forever.”
Despite being part of Karabakh, there are almost no Karabakhis living
here. The population is made up of immigrants from different regions
of Armenia who speak different dialects.
In some ways, Kashatagh is a “third” Armenia. It lacks the dramatic
gap between social classes seen in Stepanakert or Yerevan. Nor is
it infected with the corruption that influences life in so much of
each republic.
For many Armenians, Kashatagh is an escape. Here, they can move to a
new region and start a new life where they become landowners instead
of refugees. With the exception of officials, it is hard to find any
who say they settled here for patriotic reasons.
Escape to Karabakh
Together with his wife and two children Karo Meseljian moved from
Yerevan to the provincial seat of Kashatagh, Berdzor (the city formerly
known as Lachin) two years ago. He left his older son in Yerevan with
his parents while he attends chess school there.
“In Yerevan everything gets on my nerves: bureaucrats, cops, traffic
police,” says Karo. “At every turn people’s pride is mortified. Trying
to get any document, people are dishonored. Here you feel like a
human being and don’t feel the influence of authorities on you. People
understand each other very easily here, they are friendly.”
In Yerevan, Karo had a small shop which was somewhat profitable. Now
he rents out that shop and has started a business in Berdzor, bringing
goods from Yerevan and selling them to local shops.
“When I had a shop in Yerevan every day I had to deal with
bureaucrats,” he says. “I had good profit there, but it is better to
have small profit here than to see their faces.”
Doctor Artsakh Buniatian “sacrificed my skills” to Kashatagh. His
wife, Gayaneh, is a nurse. She didn’t work in Yerevan, but in Berdzor
she works in a kindergarten. “When you work your life becomes more
interesting,” she says. “The staff is very good. We made new friends.”
Her daughter attends kindergarten and her son attends school. The
family lives in a hostel, where about 200 families are waiting to get
apartments that have been promised to those who come here to resettle.
The government of Karabakh (with assistance from Armenia) spends
about $600,000 a year building apartments for re-settlers.
Berdzor is a town of about 2,000 residents. Most, Karo says, “are
people who don’t like the city and who escaped from Yerevan and look
for things that they haven’t found in the city.”
And for many, government subsidies make moving to Kashatagh an
attractive alternative to life in most parts of Armenia.
Money for moving
Each family receives a 20,000 drams ($35) one-time allowance plus
one-time payment of 5,000 drams ($9) per family member. Families are
also eligible for a $210, 20-year loan for buying cattle. (The wait,
however, for getting the cattle loan is three to four years, due to
limited State finances.)
Residents of Kashatagh are also given electricity allotments.
(Additionally, while the cost of electricity is about four cents
per kilowatt in Armenia, it is about two cents here.) Water is free
of charge and there are no taxes on agricultural production. (If,
however, land is privatized, the owner must pay taxes, from which a
community budget would be formed.)
“We don’t accept everyone,” says head of Repopulation Department
of Kashatagh Administration Robert Matevosian. “Sometimes we notice
that people come here to get the non-recurrent financial assistance,
and then leave.
“We talk to migrants as long as it is necessary to find out whether
they came here to stay permanently or not,” Matevosian says.
Entering Kashatagh (Lachin), new red roofs are evidence of a region
being regained.
People move to Kashatagh for many reasons. Some have sold their
houses in Armenia to cover debts, and come here to start debt-free
living. Some young couples want to start families separate from
their parents. Most see the new region of Karabakh as offering
opportunities they don’t see in their old homes.
And one can meet various types of former officials in Kashatagh. In
one village the director of the school is former head of the Education
Department of Yerevan. In another village one of former president
Levon Ter-Petrosian’s security service raises cattle. Former Minister
of Defense of Karabakh Samvel Babayan’s assistant is head of the
Social Department.
Resettling, but not resettled
After a decade of resettlement (often building homes from the
bombed-out remains of Azeri households), the region of 3000 square
kilometers now has about 13,000 residents. Of 127 settlements, only 57
have electricity. (Authorities say villages in the southern part of the
province should have electricity within a year, however the northern
parts don’t expect electrical service for at least five years.)
There are two hospitals in the region, in Berdzor and in Kovsakan
(formerly Zangilan), the second largest town, near the border of
Iran. Each community has a nurse.
At the Berdzor hospital, director Artsakh Buniatian insists on keeping
his hospital a place where residents can receive free treatment.
“If a doctor takes money from a patient he will be punished for that,”
says Buniatian, age 69. “However, we can’t treat all diseases and
when we send a patient to Yerevan or Goris then he finds himself
in a completely different world and falls into the hands of hawks,
where they demand money and medicines of him. There, residents of
Kashatagh are taken for third rate people, who cannot cover their
treatment expenses.”
In their Kashatagh village Karine Ishkhanian and Svetlana Barseghian
make lavash on an improvised oven.
Eight doctors work in the Berdzor hospital. They earn 45,000 drams
(about $80) a month. Buniatian says that it is almost impossible to
find a doctor who will agree to work in the region. Nobody wants to
come here and work only for salary, without taking money for services
he says.
Buniatian spent the war working in a field hospital in Karabakh. After
the war he again returned to his former work, as a surgeon at a
hospital in Abovian (just north of Yerevan).
“I hadn’t seen my family for three years. Three daughters were waiting
for me. After the slaughter of war it was hard for me to adapt to
civilian medicine.”
While he was trying to adapt he was invited to Berdzor hospital’s
opening ceremony.
“I was invited to spend two days, but, at the opening ceremony a
Karabakh Minister handed over the order of appointing me to this
position,” Buniatian says. “I thought that during the war I had been
in so many difficult places and now it is God’s will and it means
that people need me.”
The surgeon’s abilities are limited by a lack of facilities and about
the most complicated case he can treat is appendicitis.
“I used to perform any type of difficult operations, but, what can I
do,” he says. “I sacrificed my skills to the war, and now to Kashatagh
in this way.”
Rebuilding blocks
While laying the foundation for a new society, culture has not been
ignored in the resettling of Kashatagh.
In 1996 a Museum of History was opened in Berdzor, which now holds some
300 exhibits, including bronze and stone items that date to the 4 th
millennium B.C. Armenian household items from the 3 rd millennium B.C.
to the 19 th century show the rich heritage of the region.
Most items in the museum were collected by director Livera
Hovhannisian, who before moving to Berdzor had worked for 18 years
in the Yerevan Museum of History.
Re-settler Karo Meseljian says: “Here, you feel like a human being.”.
“During one month, I had traveled in 47 villages and collected
all these exhibits to be in time for the museum’s opening,” she
says. “Those days many villages hadn’t been settled yet. Accompanied
by two men I was going to every village by truck and we were searching
and finding in every house things we had been looking for. In one
village we were fired upon. Residents of that village hadn’t seen
other people for a long period of time and when they saw us they were
very scared and thought we were Azeris.”
About 200 paintings are displayed in the gallery including works of
Parajanov and Garzou. Some paintings were sent from the Ministry of
Culture in Yerevan.
“The director of Yerevan Art Gallery said: ‘How can I give them to
you? What if this territory is retaken?’,” Hovhannisian recalls. “I
said that if this territory is retaken then let these paintings be
lost with the territories. And he agreed and gave 25 paintings.”
As Armenian life in previously enemy territory is formed, one feature,
the Church, lacks a significant presence in Kashatagh. In the entire
province the only functioning church is Holy Ascension, built in
Berdzor in 1997.
In 2002, Diaspora benefactors restored a 4 th century church in the
village of Tsitsernavank, however there are no clergy there.
“We need at least three clergymen in the north and three in the
south,” says the only priest of the region Ter Atanas. “People of
the south need just one chapel but there is nobody to give money and
construct it.”
The survival of resettlement
The highest settlement in Kashatagh is 1,700 meters above sea level;
the lowest, 330.
In the mountainous north, life is harsh and most villagers exist from
raising cattle. To the south, however, farms prosper from generous
growing seasons and fertile valleys of the Hakar River.
Faith is on the rebound, too, though there is a lack of clergymen and
churches. It was in such a valley that the first families resettled,
mostly in Tsaghkaberd (formerly Gyuliberd) where 70 families now live.
The Vardanian family, refugees from Kirovabad, were among the first.
“My husband knew that this area was populated and I took my children
and came here,” says Gohar Vardanian. “It was a good time for
collecting fruits. We collected many fruits and I told my husband,
‘Ashot, we will stay here.’ We are here for 10 years now.”
Three Vardanian children finished school here and one now studies at
Stepanakert University.
The family income is, literally, their “cash cow”. Each year the
Vardanians sell a calf to cover essential expenses.
“My children have already finished their service in the army,” Gohar
says. “The only thing left is to pay for my son’s education. I think
this year we won’t sell a calf.”
Like their neighbors, the Vardanians harvest mulberry, fig, quince
and pomegranate in addition to traditional crops. They make about 400
liters of mulberry vodka each year. Residents had hoped that by now
there would be food processing plants in Kashatagh, but investments
haven’t materialized.
And, though nature offers favorable conditions, many villagers rent out
their land because they cannot afford equipment for cultivating it. A
typical lease is about $25 per hectare, plus 200 kilograms of wheat
“The State provided me with land but how can I cultivate it if they
don’t grant credits and don’t give a seeding machine,” says school
director Samvel Sedrakian, a former Yerevan journalist. “I have
eight hectares of land but I can’t sow it. It’s true, villagers
feed themselves, there are not hungry people, but they cannot make
any profits.”
Knarik’s family was among the first to move back into the region Slava
Tokhunts is an exception. He moved to Kashatagh from the Goris region
and brought a seeding machine with him. Every year he sows wheat on
his 5.5 hectare property.
“I don’t ask anything from anybody and I can also help those who are
hungry,” he says. He makes cheese from milk of his six cows and then
barters the cheese for various items such as sugar and clothes. Selling
products out-right is difficult because trading involves going to one
of the towns in Armenia, and most villagers can’t manage such trips.
Over the past five years, the area of cultivated croplands has
increased in Kashatagh from 5,000 hectares to 12,000 hectares. The
number of livestock has increased to about 26,000 head (cattle,
goats, sheep).
At the same time, the stream of migrants has tapered. Between 1997-98,
nearly 800 families moved to the province. Last year, 80 new families
settled there and about the same amount left.
Sometimes I’m sad when people leave. But it’s normal that some of them
will come back,” says Berdzor official Alexan Hakobian. “It shows that
the process of repopulation is free and nobody is forced to live here.”

Pilgrimage to the ‘homeland’
By Monica Deady / Staff Writer
Watertown TAB and Press
Friday, May 21, 2004
St. Stephen’s fifth-graders visit Armenia
Principal Houry Boyamian hugged each child goodbye as they passed
through the doors of their school and boarded the waiting bus. After
a bus ride, two flights and several hours in limbo, the students will
arrive in Armenia, their “homeland.”
Twelve fifth-graders at St. Stephen’s Elementary School in Watertown,
along with their families, left for a 10-day trip to Armenia Tuesday,
marking the first time the school is sending students to visit the
country; it’s also the 20th anniversary of the school.
“We’re not pretty excited, [we’re] very excited,” fifth-grader Tina
Halvadjian said, “just for the fact that we’re gonna see our homeland.”
Halvadjian, who had tears in her eyes as Boyamian hugged her on her
way to the bus, explained that this would be the first time they
“actually see what we’ve studied.”
“This is our first time going and it’s our homeland, too,” Hovig
Karahousaran said. He said he was excited to see cities and everything
on their itinerary.
Other excited students and parents said they could not say a specific
thing they were looking forward to, but that they were just excited
to see their “homeland.”
While in Armenia, the students will stay in Yerevan, the capital, for
a few days. They will tour the foreign ministry, as well as several
museums, visit two schools and meet children there, and see several
important religious places.
In addition, the students will be in the country for Republic Day,
or Armenian Independence Day, and be able to attend celebrations.
To raise money for the trip beforehand, coordinator Shari Melkonian
said the families held several fund-raisers and collected money outside
various stores. Several local vendors also contributed to their trip.
Melkonian said they raised about $15,000, half the total cost of
the trip.
In a brief ceremony prior to boarding the bus, archpriest Rev. Torkom
Hagopian gave each child a gold cross, and blessed them.
“It is nice [that they are going],” Hagopian said before the
ceremony. “It is very nice that the children at this age will see
the motherland.”
Boyamian, who has been principal at St. Stephen’s for 16 years, agreed.
“For the past eight years they have learned so much; now they will
see with their own eyes,” she said.
“You don’t get to practice [a language] until you’re in the country,”
said John Altandilian, co-chairman of the board at St. Stephen’s
School and a former French teacher. “They’re going to feel their
whole eight years of school in 10 days.”
While the students are gone, the rest of the school will track their
progress on a map in the lobby, and two fifth-grade students who did
not go will report to the school on their progress each day.
“It’s going to be memorable, definitely memorable,” said Lori
Orchanian, a mother who went with her son, Nicholas, a fifth-grader,
daughter Stephanie and husband Zareh.
Monica Deady can be reached at [email protected].

Amnesty International
May 26 2004
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
External Document
AI Index: POL 10/013/2004 (Public)
News Service No: 122
26 May 2004
Embargo Date: 26 May 2004 09:00 GMT
Europe and Central Asia Regional Overview
Covering events from January to December 2003
Governments across Europe and Central Asia continued to use the
so-called “war on terror” to undermine human rights in the name of
security. Among the steps taken by governments were regressive moves
on “anti-terrorist” legislation, attacks on refugee protection, and
restrictions on freedom of association and expression. Simplistic
rhetoric about security, immigration and asylum, together with an
upsurge in populism, bolstered racism and discriminatory practices
towards minorities across the region. The lack of political will
shown by the European Union (EU) to confront human rights violations
within its own borders was increasingly disturbing, particularly in
light of the planned accession of 10 new member states in 2004. Those
responsible for violations, including torture or ill-treatment,
continued to enjoy impunity.
‘War on terror’
Under the auspices of combating “terrorism” governments continued to
undermine human rights in law and practice. By the end of the year,
14 foreign nationals who could not be deported remained interned in
the United Kingdom (UK) under legislation that allowed for indefinite
detention without charge or trial, principally on the basis of secret
evidence. Those detained in the UK under “anti-terrorism” legislation
were held in high-security facilities under severely restricted
regimes.
Spain continued to ignore long-standing recommendations by various
international bodies to introduce greater safeguards for suspects
held under “anti-terrorist” legislation, and indeed planned to more
than double the time which certain people could be held
incommunicado. The authorities also closed the only entirely
Basque-language newspaper and 10 people associated with it were held
under “anti-terrorist” legislation in moves that appeared to be
injurious to the right to freedom of expression.
The authorities in Uzbekistan used the “war on terror” to justify a
continuing clampdown on religious and political dissent. At least
6,000 political prisoners remained in jail there and members of
independent Islamic congregations were among those who faced
detention and intimidation. In Turkmenistan, a wave of repression
continued, following an alleged assassination attempt in November
2002 on the President, with scores of 198 people convicted after
blatantly unfair trials amid credible allegations of torture and
ill-treatment.
Government efforts to limit asylum provisions and immigration
benefited from the new language of “national security” and
“counter-terrorism”, with an emphasis on control rather than
protection. In Italy, for example, there were fears that some
asylumseekers were forced to return to countries where they risked
grave human rights violations and that some individuals, expelled on
grounds that they posed a danger to national security and public
order, had no opportunity to challenge the decision in fair
proceedings. The human rights perspective remained lacking from the
thinking of the EU on asylum, which continued to promote a further
sealing off of the EU at the expense of international protection
obligations.
Racism
Racism, discrimination and intolerance, including anti-Semitism and
Islamophobia, continued to be a major concern across the region.
Manifestations included institutional racism in the spheres of
economic, social and cultural rights.
Discrimination against Roma was widespread in many states in the
region, often affecting virtually all areas of life including access
to education, housing, employment and social services. Many people
seeking to return home after being displaced by war in the western
Balkans faced discrimination on ethnic grounds, particularly with
regard to accessing employment, education and health care. This acted
as a barrier against the return and reintegration of minorities.
Racist application of citizenship laws in the Russian Federation
meant that certain ethnic minority groups – including members of the
Meskhetian population inone region – remained effectively stateless,
and as such were denied access to pensions, child benefits and higher
education.
Racism continued as a backdrop to human rights abuses by law
enforcement officials in the administration of justice. Reports of
race-related illtreatment by law enforcement officials came from a
distressingly wide range of states, including Belgium, Bulgaria,
France, Greece, Italy, Poland, the Russian Federation, Slovakia,
Slovenia and Spain. There was also a lack of due diligence by some
states in investigating and prosecuting assaults by private actors on
minorities, ethnic as well as religious. In Georgia, for example,
religious minorities continued to face harassment, intimidation and
violent attacks, while the police failed to provide adequate
protection for those targeted or show vigour in prosecuting those
allegedly responsible.
Lack of human rights protection
Torture and ill-treatment were reported from across the region,
including in Albania, Moldova, Romania and Serbia and Montenegro,
where reports of such treatment were common and credible. In Turkey,
torture and ill-treatment in police detention remained a matter of
grave concern, despite some positive legislative reforms. In Germany,
an intense public debate on the permissible use of torture occurred
after it emerged that a senior police officer had ordered a
subordinate to use force against a criminal suspect. Some states,
such as Belgium, Italy and Switzerland, lacked fundamental safeguards
against ill-treatment in police custody.
In other states, such as Greece, Macedonia, Portugal and Spain, there
were reports of reckless or excessive use of firearms, sometimes
resulting in deaths. In several countries, conditions in prisons as
well as in detention facilities holding asylum-seekers and
unauthorized immigrants, were cruel and degrading. In some states,
people with mental disabilities were treated inhumanely – in social
care homes in Bulgaria, and through the use of cage beds in the Czech
Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Many states lacked independent
scrutiny mechanisms to address such violations, a problem compounded
by the continued failure to accept accountability at EU level for
human rights observance by member states.
In some states impunity for human rights violations continued. In
Turkey, the ratio of prosecutions of members of the security forces
to complaints of torture and ill-treatment filed by members of the
public continued to be pitifully low. Russian Federation security
forces continued to act with virtual impunity in the conflict in the
Chechen Republic, amid ongoing reports of their involvement in
torture and “disappearances”. Continued impunity for wartime
violations remained a concern in the western Balkans. Although some
people suspected of war crimes were transferred to the custody of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, others
continued to evade arrest, some apparently protected by authorities
in Bosnia- Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro. Thousands
of “disappearances” that occurred during the 1992-1995 war remained
unresolved. Although there were some domestic prosecutions for war
crimes, lack of political will and deficiencies in the domestic
justice systems led to continued widespread impunity.
In Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, dissent from official
policies in civic, religious and political life was systematically
and often brutally repressed. Human rights defenders in a number of
countries faced threats and detention, including in Turkey where a
range of laws and regulations was used to frustrate their activity,
and in Azerbaijan where a campaign by the state-sponsored media
against several prominent human rights defenders culminated in
violent attacks on their offices and raised fears for their safety
and that of their families. In both these countries, as well as in
other states such as Italy, Greece and Switzerland, police were
reported to have used excessive force against demonstrators.
The lack of effective redress for human rights violations in
countries in Europe compounded concerns about proposals under
consideration which Amnesty International Report 2004 would have the
effect of curtailing redress available at the regional level in the
European Court of Human Rights. Member states of the Council of
Europe proposed adding new admissibility criteria to the only
international human rights court where individuals enjoy the right of
direct petition.
Violence against women
Human rights violations against women and girls continued across the
region. In the context of trafficking and forced prostitution, there
were concerns that victims were being failed by the judicial systems
in source, transit and destination countries. Domestic violence was
also an entrenched problem across Europe and Central Asia, from
Belgium to the Russian Federation. Contributory factors included
states regarding domestic violence as belonging to the “private
sphere”; a lack of legal provisions in some states specifically
prohibiting or criminalizing domestic violence; a lack of specialist
police units and training; insufficient provisions to provide
protection to victims; and court decisions which did not always
reflect the gravity of such offences.
Death penalty
There were some positive moves on the death penalty during the year.
Armenia abolished capital punishment in peacetime, Kazakstan
announced a moratorium on executions pending legislation on
abolition, and Kyrgyzstan maintained its moratorium on executions.
Tajikistan, while retaining the death penalty, reduced its scope.
However, in recent years Tajikistan and the two other retentionist
states in the region, Belarus and Uzbekistan, have continued to carry
out executions. The level of executions was believed to be
particularly high in Uzbekistan, where scores of people have been
executed in recent years after unfair trials, frequently amid
allegations of torture, and with corruption an integral part of the
investigation, trial and appeal in such cases. In Belarus, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan, the clemency process and executions themselves were
shrouded in secrecy, compounding the punishment inflicted not only on
the prisoners but also on their families. Executions took place in
secret, with family members and friends denied the chance to say
goodbye; in many cases families were not told for months whether
their relative was alive or had been executed. They were also not
told where their loved one was buried. None of these three countries
published comprehensive statistics on their use of the death penalty.
Action for human rights
Although human rights remained under attack across the region, action
to promote and protect fundamental rights continued. Many voices
highlighted that human rights and security are not incompatible, but
indivisible and interdependent. Human rights defenders continued
their work despite harassment, intimidation and detention. Social
movements responded to a range of human rights concerns in the
region, bringing together activists across borders, with forums such
as the Second European Social Forum in Paris, France, in November
providing opportunities for regional coordination of popular
activism. Strong regional intergovernmental bodies, including the
Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe, continued to play key roles in promoting and protecting
human rights. 200 Amnesty International Report 2004.
Public Document
****************************************
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress