STADIUM THREAT
by John Todd
Warsaw Business Journal, Poland
Sept 26 2005
>>From Warsaw Business Journal
Law and Justice (PiS) has Warsaw’s world-famous stadium bazaar in
its sights.
Will the Russian market be closed down?
The traders at the stadium market – described by organizers as the
biggest in Europe – are under threat from the conservative Law and
Justice (PiS) party set to form a coalition government after last
weekend’s election.
“The stadium is known for unsanitary conditions, crime, a lack of any
standards. If we want to be a modern capital city, it can’t go on,”
says Jan O³dakowski of Law and Justice.
Traders from around the world hawk everything from sofa sets to
pirated DVDs and icons to baby ferrets at the defunct football stadium
in Praga.
Warsaw’s mayor Lech Kaczyñski, a fellow PiS member and the party’s
candidate in next month’s presidential election, wants the central
government to shut down the illegal traders, move the legal ones to
a new site and rebuild the stadium.
It’s estimated that 4,500 merchants ply their trade, compared to the
estimated 4,000 at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. Music, film and software
groups say the stadium accounts for 25 to 30 percent of all pirated
material – excluding internet piracy – sold in the country.
Once known as the Russian Market, dominated by traders from the former
Soviet Union selling souvenirs such as nesting dolls and Lenin pins,
today the stadium is a global village.
A Polish woman, who gave her name as Ma³gorzata and who paid her
way through four years of university by selling pirated DVDs, said
the Armenians, Poles and Vietnamese who control the three main areas
don’t stray onto each other’s turf.
Dominic Kinoulty of market-research firm Kinoulty Research says people
who do their daily shopping in expensive malls still visit the stadium
for black-market bargains.
“The people buying clothes there are bazaar buyers because that’s
where you get the cheap stuff,” he said.
“The others are really saying ‘Why am I paying Microsoft … when
I can get 63 programs on a CD-ROM for five z³oty?’ It’s more an
anti-establishment thing than a lack of money.”
The traders aren’t the only foreigners at the stadium, listed in
guidebooks as a tourist attraction, says Janusz Grobicki of the Adam
Smith Center, an economic think-tank.
“I used to live nearby, and I would meet employees from Western
embassies and even the odd ambassador. I don’t think they were there
out of economic necessity.”
In a 2005 report on crime in Warsaw, the stadium was mentioned as a
reason for high crime rates in surrounding areas.
Bazaar operator Damis estimates the market’s annual turnover at
z³.1.5 billion.
After several previous attempts to shut the bazaar failed, Ma³gorzata
is skeptical about the new drive to close it down. “The stadium is an
embarrassment for Warsaw. But there’s just too much money involved –
they’ll never shut it down.”
–Boundary_(ID_xKZtmX7od3nRa+0yLZj3MA)–

ARMENIAN CONFERENCE PROTESTERS TARGET INONU
source: Hurriyet
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Sept 26 2005
The controversial conference on the “Armenians during the Collapse
of the Ottoman Empire” began on Saturday at Istanbul Bilgi University
instead of the original host, Bogazici University.
The conference had been postponed once before and finally, a court
decision was passed to stop Bogazici, a state university, from hosting
the event. Former PM Prof. Erdal Ýnonu, who was among the audience,
was booed by nationalist and conservative left-wing groups while trying
to enter the conference hall. Protesters tried to block Inonu’s way
and shouted at him, “Do not join these traitors!”
On his leaving the building, Inonu rejected security guards and
police forces offered to him and turned down taxis that were hailed
for him. “I will be walking to the Taksim Square, and then go home,”
said Ýnonu, “This is my country and I am walking home.”
Eggs and tomatoes were thrown at nonu, and one egg hit his shoulder.
–Boundary_(ID_Y0pUirDa81KTNoXTtTw/4Q)–

‘AK PARTY MAY SUSPEND RELATIONS WITH EU’
By Ayhan Simsek
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Sept 26 2005
* Former PM Yilmaz: EU declaration is Greek Cypriot victory
ANKARA – Former PM Yilmaz, who led liberal reforms for EU bid,
criticizes the EU’s link between Turkey’s accession and Cyprus in
counter-declaration. ‘The AK Party govt can’t meet excessive demands,
such as moving towards recognizing Greek Cyprus or opening ports,
due to domestic political concerns,’ he says. ‘But my worry is that
given rising nationalism in Turkey, they may go towards suspending
relations with the EU’
Yilmaz criticizes the EU for undermining UN peace efforts and diverting
the issue to the EU, just as the Greek Cypriots wanted.
‘This has come about through support from some EU members opposing
Turkey’s membership,’ he says. ‘They’re using Cyprus to obstruct
or delay Turkey’s membership. If not Cyprus they would’ve used the
Kurdish issue. Failing that, it would have been the genocide claims’
The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party government can’t meet
the European Union’s excessive demands, such as moving towards a
recognition of Greek Cyprus or opening its ports, due to domestic
political concerns, said former Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, in an
exclusive interview with The New Anatolian on Friday.
“But my worry is that, because of rising nationalism in the country,
they may go towards suspending relations with the EU,” he warned.
Yilmaz, a prominent Turkish politician, 1997-99 Motherland Party
(then ANAP) prime minister and later deputy premier who initiated
key EU accession reforms, criticized the EU’s recent Cyprus
counter-declaration for having established a link between Turkey’s
EU membership process and the Cyprus problem, as well as requesting
the recognition of Greek Cyprus during negotiations.
“The EU gave us a commitment at the 1999 Helsinki summit that Turkey’s
membership and the Cyprus issue were separate issues,” said Yilmaz,
referring to the summit at which Turkey officially became an EU
candidate. “However, they tried to retract this at last December’s EU
summit and in doing so benefited from the AK Party’s foreign policy
missteps. Requesting our signature on the Ankara Protocol was, in
fact, aimed at linking the two issues. And we have to admit that
through the counter-declaration, the Greek Cypriots have achieved
a strategic victory. They sidelined the United Nations’ efforts for
peace and moved the issue to the EU.”
According to Yilmaz, downplaying the declaration since it’s not legally
binding would be a mistake. “It’s true that Turkey’s negotiations
framework is more important than the declaration. But the declaration
will be the basis for future EU policies on Cyprus.
Next year the Greek Cypriots will try to push the EU by using it,”
he underlined.
Turkey to pay for AK Party missteps
Yilmaz recalled the warning he made just before last December’s
EU summit that Turkey should maintain a firm stance on the issue
and strongly reject any reference to Cyprus as part of Turkey’s EU
membership process. “Given the AK Party’s short-term policies and
missteps at that time, Turkey is paying a heavy price today. The
Greek Cypriots took advantage of political changes in Europe. The
year before, after the (April 2004) Annan referendum on Cyprus,
Turkey’s position was stronger on the issue but today the overall
climate has changed,” Yilmaz stressed.
Some members using Cyprus as pretext
While decrying the counter-declaration for undermining UN peace efforts
on Cyprus, Yilmaz also criticized several EU members for using the
Cyprus issue as a pretext to obstruct Turkey’s EU membership in the
near future. Underlining that the Greek Cypriots managed to get such a
declaration through the support of those members, Yilmaz said, “They
had the Cyprus issue to use. If they hadn’t had the Cyprus problem,
they would have used the Kurdish issue. Failing that, it would have
been the Armenian ‘genocide’ claims.”
While strongly criticizing the EU’s Cyprus counter-declaration and
maintaining that the AK Party government may go forward and suspend
relations with the EU, Yilmaz adopted a more cautious position on
freezing relations with the EU now.
“It’s better to wait and see the final decision on the negotiations
framework,” he said. “If they also put such clauses on Cyprus in the
framework, it will be unacceptable to Turkey. Otherwise the start of
negotiations will be good for Turkey. But progress can only be made
through a solution on Cyprus. So Turkey has to work hard for that.
And I believe that Turkey will find support for this from the
international community.”

TURKISH PM: DO NOT BE AFRAID OF FREEDOMS
By Cihan News Agency
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Sept 26 2005
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with a female protester
over the Armenian Conference during the opening ceremony at Bahcesehir
University. Erdogan, determining that they want everyone to live free,
called everyone not to be afraid of freedoms.
A forty-year-old woman, who stood up during Erdogan’s speech,
struggled to make her voice heard. The protester also showed her
poster that wrote “Whose prime minister are you that you want the
Armenian Conference to be held so much?”
While security guards took the female protester away from the incident
area, the Turkish Prime Minister changed the topic of his speech and
said protests aimed to prevent Turkey’s European Union (EU)membership:
“Freedoms turn green in places where there are people who do not
respect opposition views against those who could not digest opposition
views. Whether you accept it or not, freedoms develop through
respecting opposition views and providing opportunity for those views.”
Erdogan pointing that people should not be scared of freedoms added:
“If we trust our views and beliefs, we should not be afraid of those
kinds of freedoms. As I explained before, I do not approve the court’s
decision on the Armenian Conference. I want to live in a Turkey where
freedoms are widely extended. This is my dream for Turkey.”
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan expressed that he found the discussion
to be held just before the start of EU negotiation’s meaningful.
“Precipitation of the discussions on the eve of EU negotiations
is intentional, according to me. I perceive them as provocative
movements,” Erdogan concluded.

MONTEBELLO PAIRS WITH ARMENIAN CITY
By Nisha Gutierrez, Staff Writer
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
Whittier Daily News, CA
Sept 26 2005
MONTEBELLO — Members of the Armenian community joined Montebello city
officials Sunday as they announced the inauguration of Stepanakert,
as their next sister city.
The Armenian city of Stepanakert , is the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh,
which is home to about 40,000 people.
Serge Samoniantz, committee member for Montebello’s Sister City
Program, said that the need for an Armenian sister city came as a
request from Montebello residents.
“There is a large Armenian presence here,” Samoniantz said. “They
came to us with the idea about four years ago. Since then we chose
the city and came up with a plan.”
The plan, according to city officials, is to embrace cultural exchange.
“It’s for two different worlds of people to get to know each other’s
culture and come together as the world gets smaller,” said Mayor
William Molinari.
The committee will be requesting the City Council to formally vote
on acquiring Stepanakert as a sister city at the Oct. 12 meeting.
However, Samoniantz said he is confident about the vote.
“We didn’t jump the gun by having this inauguration,” he said. “We
are confident the city of Stepanakert will be approved and when it
(is), the work will have already been started.”
The program with Stepanakert will be made up of cultural, educational,
health care and trade exchange so people can be exposed to how things
are done in a different part of the world.
The committee is inviting members of the public to attend the council
meeting to show their support for the program.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower began the U.S. Sister City Program in
1956 as a partnership between different groups of people, created
to promote cultural understanding, increase global cooperation and
enhance economic development.
Montebello’s first sister city, Ashiya, Japan, was established in 1961.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES SALE OF ELECTRICITY NETWORK TO UES
RIA Novosti, Russia
Sept 26 2005
YEREVAN, September 26 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) – The Armenian
government has authorized Midland Resources Holding Ltd., a British
company, to sell its 100% stake in Armenian Electricity Networks
(AEN) to Russia’s Unified Energy Systems (UES), a spokesman for the
Armenian Energy Ministry said Monday.
In accordance with Armenian energy legislation, Midland Resources
requested permission from the Armenian government and the Public
Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia to sell its stake to
Interenergo B.V., an offshore subsidiary of UES.
Midland Resources had acquired 100% of AEN shares at $40 million
and lent the shares to Interenergo for a 99-year term in June at an
estimated cost of $73 million, while retaining ownership of the stock.
Interenergo is a joint venture of UES subsidiary Inter UES (60%)
and state-owned Rosenergoatom (40%), the world’s largest nuclear
energy company.
Inter UES, an import-export electricity operator, has electricity
supply contracts with Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, China,
Moldova, Mongolia, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Ukraine,
and Finland. The company also manages energy facilities in Armenia,
Georgia, Moldova, and Russia.

TURKEY URGES ARMENIA TO ORGANIZE A CONFERENCE ON ARMENIAN TERRORISM IN YEREVAN
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Sept 26 2005
ISTANBUL – After the controversial Armenian Conference in Istanbul,
Turkish media and public demand a conference in Yerevan on Armenian
terrorism and on the civilian Turks massacred by the Armenians.
Hurriyet daily’s headline today was “Discuss Yerevan All These”
implying Armenia should be open to discuss Armenian terrorism and
Armenian attacks against the Turkish civilians during the First World
War. Armenian terrorists killed more than 40 Turkish diplomats during
the 1970 and 1980s.
Prof. Cengiz Kutay said “We support strongly the Armenian Conference in
Istanbul though we do not share the speeches made in the Conference. It
is strange that Armenians keep the events so-called happened90 years
ago. However all the Turkish diplomats who were killed by the Armenian
terrorists and the Armenian attacks against the Turkish civilians
are forgotten.”
More than 520.000 Turkish villagers were massacred by the Armenian
armed groups in order to establish an independent Armenian in the
eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

FIGURE SKATING: CHAIT, SAKHNOVSKY, SEROV SHINE AT SKATE ISRAEL
By Lionel Gaffen
Jerusalem Post
September 26, 2005
In front of a wildly cheering, highly partisan crowd at Skate Israel,
Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovsky captivated the audience and Roman
Serov vaulted into first place to earn gold medals Sunday at the
Canada Center in Metulla.
The International Skating Union sanctioned event is the only
international figure skating tourney in Israel.
Chait and Sakhnovsky, the sixth ranked pair in the world, performed
for the first time this year in competition. Their intricate movements
in the Free Dance to Ravel’s Bolero earned them a score of 99.69 –
which combined with their scores from the Compulsory Dance and Original
Dance gave them a total of 209.50.
The Israeli stars impressed everyone in attendance, including the
judges.
Chief referee Christopher Buchanan of Great Britain told The Jerusalem
Post that he was “very happy to see the level of the skating that
I’ve seen here this week… There has been a great improvement in
[Chait and Sakhnovsky’s] style, – they appear to have benefited from
the change in their training as they have a very interesting program
that was very well skated.”
The duo is now coached by Evgeny Platov, the only two-time Olympic gold
medalist in Ice Dancing, and Alexander Zhulin, a former world champ.
Gary Hoppe, another one of the judges, called their Free Dance
performance “wonderful.”
“Their choreography and interpretation were very good, and they had
very nice lifts,” Hoppe said.
Russians Oxana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, ranked eighth in the world,
took silver in their first appearance on Israeli ice with a 179.57
score. Armenia’s Anastasia Grebinkina and Vazgen Azroyan scored
172.06 for the bronze, followed by Israeli siblings, Alexandra and
Roman Zaretsky (155.06) and Hungarians Zsuzsanna Nagy and Gyorgy Elek
(130.23).
In the Ladies dancing, Israel’s Tamar Katz was shut out of a medal,
as she finished fourth with a total score of 96.38.
Viktoria Pavuk of Hungary was easily the best of the Ladies on the
ice and demonstrated a graceful presence in winning the gold medal
with a 152.41 total. Sara Falotico of Belgium (113.31) was second
and Russia’s Elena Zhitkova (101.51) third.
Roman Serov came from behind with a vibrant and nearly flawless Free
Skate performance to the music of “World of Technology” sandwiching
in Robert Miles’s “Children” to bypass his competition and vaulting
into a well deserved first place with a 169.51 score.
“It was very hard to begin my full training program this summer,
because the rink always seemed to be packed, so most of my training
was confined to the early morning hours,” Serov said. “So far, I’ve
been working without a coach, but my coach, Viktor Kudriavtsev,
will come from Russia before the Grand Prix events.”
Platov thinks that Serov can do better. “Serov certainly has the
potential, and needs a coach that will push him even harder.”
Hot on his skates was Alexander Magerovski of Russia, who moved up to
second after the Short Program with a 168.57 total, while countryman
Alexander Shubin dropped from first place after the Short Program to
third with a 168.50 combined score.
The 2005 Skate Israel came to a close with a beautifully displayed
Gala event.
Both Dance couples and Serov have been invited to two Grand Prix
events this year, the level that ranks only below the European and
World Championships.
All of them will be at the Cup of China on November 3-6, with Chait
and Sakhnovsky then taking part in the Cup of Russia on November
24-27. The Zaretskys and Serov will compete in the NHK Trophy in
Japan in early December.

PRESIDENT HALONEN TO CAUCASUS FOR A WEEK
Helsingin Sanomat, Finland
Sept 26 2005
President Tarja Halonen, who recently returned from a one-week visit
to New York and a brief trip to St. Petersburg, is off again on Monday.
This time, the President will visit three South Caucasian countries –
Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, all of which have had fairly little
official contacts with Finland.
Tarja Halonen has visited the area before. She was in Georgia in the
Soviet period in 1980, and in Armenia and Azerbaijan as Finland’s
Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1996, when Finland was actively
involved in seeking a solution to the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh.
Halonen’s visit this week will be the first by a Finnish head of
state to the countries since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991
led to their independence.
Armenia has had to examine its official protocol arrangements more
than usual, as Halonen will be the first woman president ever to
visit the country.
In addition to opening high-level contacts between the countries and
Finland, a key purpose of the visit is to acquire fresh information
on the situation in the countries, and on crisis areas, with respect
to Finland’s turn at the rotating EU Presidency in the second half
of next year.
The EU is heavily involved in the development of the three
countries. Georgia is especially keen to develop its ties with the
West, and all three are seen as likely to join the EU at some time
in the future.
President Halonen’s host in Armenia will be President Robert
Kotsharian. In Georgia, the host will be the young (37 years old)
and notoriously impulsive Mikhail Saakashvili, whose Dutch wife Sandra
is pregnant. In Azerbaijan the host will be President Ilham Aliyev.
Halonen will be granted an honorary doctorate in the Armenian capital
Yerevan, and she will also meet the leader of the Armenian Orthodox
Church, Karek II.
In the Georgian capital Tbilisi she will get a chance to visit
outside the city, and in the Azeri capital Baku she will take part
in a business seminar.
Among the speakers at the seminar will be President Halonen herself and
the Finnish Minister of Trade and Industry, Mauri Pekkarinen (Centre).

RISE OF LAKE SEVAN COULD DRAIN ARMENIA’S TREASURY
By Arevhat Grigorian
Environment News Service
Sept 26 2005
YEREVAN, Armenia, September 26, 2005 (ENS) – Armenian ecologists fear
a rare environmental triumph is in danger of going wrong. Buildings
and beaches around Lake Sevan are rapidly disappearing under water
as efforts by scientists and environmentalists to reverse the decline
of this huge freshwater reservoir pay off more quickly than expected.
Despite the fact the encroaching waters could soon be lapping at
their windows, many who live and work around the Armenian lake are
delighted to see it returning to former levels.
“I’d like to see the water rise as much as possible, and if necessary,
we’ll just move the building to another place,” said Norik Simonian,
a bookkeeper at a motel located on the lake.
Azat, who rents part of the beach, where he has set up cafes and
other visitor attractions, agreed, “What would happen if the water
level did not rise, and the lake turned into a swamp? There’d be no
business then anyway.”
Lake Sevan, one of the highest altitude lakes in the world, began
dwindling in the 1930s under a plan to use its waters for irrigation
and hydroelectricity. A paradise of beach resorts and holiday villas
sprang up along the lake’s edge.
Trees and summerhouses around Lake Sevan disappear from view as
lake waters rise. (Photo Michael Gfoeller courtesy Virtual Armenia)
But as the water levels began to fall, changes in temperature
and oxygen supply depleted fish reserves. In particular, several
varieties of trout vanished and other species are on the verge of
extinction. Birds also abandoned the area as the nests they had once
built close to the water’s edge were left stranded far from the newly
exposed shoreline. The lake itself was used as a waste dump.
Faced with this ecological disaster, environmentalists have been
campaigning for years to get the government to take action to restore
the water to its former levels.
The government stopped using Lake Sevan for energy in 1999 and two
years later parliament passed a law decreeing the water should be
raised to 1,903 meters (6,243 feet) above sea level, the height at
which experts say it will be possible to regulate the temperature
and oxygen levels and restore the ecological balance.
“Beginning in the 1930s we ‘borrowed’ 26 billion cubic meters (34
billion cubic yards) of water from Lake Sevan in order to satisfy
our energy and food production needs,” said Vladimir Movsisian,
vice-president of the Expert Commission on Lake Sevan and a member of
the National Council of Water. “We should now return at least eight
billion to the lake so that we can take water from it in the future
if the needs arises.”
Water is now flowing into the lake through tunnels from the Arpa and
Vorotan rivers, and 410 hectares (1,013 acres) of land have already
disappeared.
By the time the lake hits its target level, 10 times that amount will
be under water, of which 3,130 hectares (7,734 acres) are forest and
the rest resorts, private mansions, arable land and 30 kilometers
(20 miles) of highways.
But this Armenian environmental solution is in danger of taking a
wrong turn.
Scientists had predicted it would take 30 years to refill the lake,
but now forecast that could happen in just 15, as water pours in faster
than expected, helped by unexpectedly high levels of precipitation.
View of Lake Sevan from space (Photo courtesy NASA) Though they do
not know if the water will continue to rise at this rate, it seems
likely that money will have to be found sooner than expected to carry
out crucial preparatory work along the shoreline.
This could be a problem as the government has only a fraction of the
estimated US$30 million needed to remove trees, shrubs and buildings
from areas that will eventually be flooded.
So far, just US$150,000 have been allocated to clear an area of 100
hectares (247 acres) already under water, with work scheduled to
begin in November. Early estimates suggest another US$200,000 will
be needed next year.
Environmental campaigners are worried that if money is not found
to sweep up the rest of the rapidly disappearing land, the flooded
forests will begin to rot and poison the lake.
“We’ve seen this since Soviet times when water reservoirs were filled
without a prior cleanup,” said Karine Danielian, chairperson of the
nongovernmental organization For Sustainable Human Development.
“The water became toxic and the reservoirs became useless for drinking
water. It’s those who are responsible for clearing the land, but who
don’t want to take responsibility for it, who say the damage will
be minimal.”
Movsisian is also concerned.
“The rotting of the forest mass is not a danger to the lake now. But
if no measures are taken in the future and 3,700 hectares of forest
go under water, then it will become a problem,” he said.
Boris Gabrielian, deputy director of the Institute of Hydro-Ecology
and Ichthyology at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, agrees
that additional organic matter could harm the lake and cause swamps to
form. However, he points out, “the raised water level would improve
the quality of the water, and the benefit from this will be greater
than any damage caused by the forests going underwater.”
Artashes Ziroian, head of the governmental Agency for the Preservation
of Biological Resources, appeared relaxed about the situation,
suggesting there is no need to begin clearing trees immediately.
“Next year the water level might not go up by so much, and the forests
will have been cut prematurely,” said Ziroian.
Armenian Environment Minister Vardan Aivazian is also wary of
ecological doom-mongers, suggesting the flooded shoreline poses no
current threat.
A beached boat left behind long ago by the recession of Lake
Sevan’s shoreline (Photo by Tim Jones courtesy Ramsar Convention)
Environmentalists, however, are suspicious of Aivazian who raised
concerns in June when he said that new “scientific substantiation
of the environmental impact of the increase of water in Lake Sevan
should be given.”
Some speculated this meant the government wanted to stop the water
rising as it could not afford to clear the shore.
“To demand new scientific research today for Lake Sevan is like
treachery for the simple reason that the problem has been painstakingly
studied over a period of many years by many specialists in all the
relevant scientific establishments, not only in Armenia but in the
Soviet Union before that,” said Hakob Sanasarian, chairman of the
Union of Greens of Armenia. “Huge amounts of government money were
spent on this and they all reached the same conclusion – that the
water levels of Lake Sevan must be raised.”
The former chairman of the environmental committee of the National
Assembly of Armenia, now permanent member of the European Commission
for the Fight Against Desertification, Gagik Tadevosian, said,
“The survival of Armenia depends on Sevan. Where there is Sevan,
there is Armenia.”
Back on the lakeshore, Flamingo Beach has lost half its territory in
two years. Parts of the aquatic park are now under water though manager
Artur Avetisian dismantled all metal structures as the water rose.
He is now cautious about re-erecting them elsewhere as he has no idea
how fast, or how far, the water is going to rise.
Minister Aivazian said that the Armenian government will compensate all
those who own property which may be flooded, though he has received
no requests so far. He added that the silence could be because some
of the buildings were put up illegally.
“The increase in the water level of Sevan is more valuable than a
few peoples’ houses,” said Aivazian. To bring his message home, he
quoted one of Armenia’s richest businessmen, Gagik Tsarukian, who told
Aivazian that he would be ready to move his house to another location,
“if only, God willing, the water level of Lake Sevan increases.”
{Published in cooperation with the Institute for War and Peace
Reporting. Arevhat Grigorian is a reporter for the Hetq online
newspaper in Yerevan.}