ARMENIANOW.COM March 18, 2005
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BEAUTIFUL FINISH: MISS ARMENIA NO. 2 IN EUROPe
By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Armenia’s Lusine Tovmasyan was named Runnerup in last week’s Miss
Europe pageant in Paris. Second only to Germany’s Shermine Shahrivar
(who is of Iranian descent), the 19-year old Armenian beauty queen
beat out competitors from 34 other countries.
Lusine won rights to competing in Miss Europe by being crowned Miss
Armenia, 2003. (There was no Miss Europe nor a Miss Armenia
competition in 2004.)
The 179 centimeter model is a student at Interlingua Foreign Language
University. `I am very happy I could represent Armenia and return
with success,’ she told ArmeniaNow, just back from Paris. `This is the
fist big success for Armenia and I am proud.’
(Lusine is the seventh Armenian beauty taking part in the Miss Europe
competition. Previously only two Armenian beauties had managed to
appear in the best 15 participants).
Among nine jurist for the competition were fashion baron Paco Rabanne
and entertainer Charles Aznavour. `Probably no one can say from
aside, why they chose this one and not the other one,’ says Lusine
Tovmasyan. `But I can say everything was organized very well, and the
atmosphere was very nice.’
The Armenian beauty says to the runnerup honor is a victory for
Armenia and for her, has opened opportunities. `I have received an
evening gown as a prize,’ says Lusine. `And quite a lot interesting
offers for cooperation. Anyhow, I am very happy I took part in Miss
Europe.’
The high finish was also a consolation for Lusine, who was denied a
chance to participate in the Miss Universe 2003 competition in the
year she was named Miss Armenia. The organizers of the Miss Armenia
Pageant were unable to come up with enough money for her
participation.
Her participation in Miss Europe was made possible by sponsors that
included Public Television of Armenia. (It costs 7,000 euros to
participate in Miss Universe, compared to only 500 euros plus expenses
for Miss Europe.) Lusine says participation in this year’s Miss
Universe on May 30 in 2005 is uncertain. `I want to very much, but
there is still nothing clear,’ she says.
RECOGNITION DEMANDED IN GEORGIA: RALLY IN ARMENIAN PROVINCE SEEN AS
`SEPARATIST’
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
A mass action for which more than 10,000 people turned out took place
in the Armenian-populated town of Akhalkalaki in Georgia on March
13. On the threshold of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
in Turkey the rally set itself the task of sending another message to
the Georgian authorities to recognize and denounce the fact of the
Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
It was pointed out during the protest that Georgia is the only country
in the world where, having a 400,000-strong Armenian community, this
issue fails to get even parliamentary consideration.
The rally, which lasted for more than five hours, resulted in a
document addressed to official Tbilisi where the first point regards
the necessity of recognizing the Genocide. The rally also coincided
with the official visit of Georgian Foreign Minister Salome
Zurabishvili to Turkey, during which a protocol on
Georgian-Turkish-Azerbaijani cooperation was signed.
Protestors were angered by news reports that focused primarily on the
venue of the protest – the Samtskhe-Javakheti province. Any
manifestation of national activity in this area is a priori
interpreted by Tbilisi authorities as nationalistic-separatist,
although the Armenian population of the province has never made a
claim to secede from Georgia. They’ve always sought only autonomy.
Situated in the extreme south-west of Georgia, the Samtskhe-Javakheti
region is one of the largest provinces of the country and includes six
administrative regions – Adigen, Aspindz, Borzhomi, Akhaltsikh,
Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda. In the south and south-west it borders
on Armenia (the customs point of Bavra) and Turkey (the customs point
of Vale). Five of the six regions of the province border on Turkey,
and only Ninotsminda (formerly Bogdanov) borders on Armenia. Thus,
geopolitically Samtskhe-Javakheti is a key region of Georgia.
`Demographically, the region is half Armenian, with the number of
Armenians exceeding 30 times the strength of the title nation in
Javakheti proper (Javakhk in Armenian) – in the Akhalkalaki and
Ninotsminda regions. It makes 90%, or 96,000 people there,’ says
Viktor Solakhyan, an expert of the Department for Refugee Affairs and
Migration attached to the Armenian Government. `The
territorial-administrative reform carried out in Georgia in the early
1990s and presupposing the merger of historical Samtskhe and Javakheti
was aimed at the juridical liquidation of `Armenian’ regions of
Georgia. As a matter of fact, this reform provoked new political
developments in the framework of which every national manifestation of
Armenians in Samtskhe-Javakheti began to be taken as a separatist
movement.’
That is exactly how the rally in Akhalkalaki last Sunday was
interpreted. Still four days before the protest the representative of
the President of Georgia in Samtskhe-Javakheti Nikoloz Nikolozoshvili
held a special meeting with the representative of the Armenian
National Public Union (ANPU) in Akhaltsikh Ludwig Petrosyan.
`Besides the governor himself, also participating in the conversation
were the chief of the provincial police with his deputy, the
provincial prosecutor with his deputy and the chief of the provincial
division of Georgia’s National Security Service,’ Ludwig Petrosyan
told ArmeniaNow. `A day before this meeting our organization issued a
statement pointing at the ethnocentric nature of the policy being
conducted by Georgian authorities and also announced the planned
rally, focusing attention also on the necessity of the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide by official Tbilisi. During the meeting I
insisted on my opinion, stating that Georgia should start the
discussion of the Armenian Genocide issue on the parliamentary level.’
Petrosyan said that a more powerful and essentially unprecedented
action was planned in Akhaltsikh on April 24. The result of this
action, he said, is to be a document addressed to official Tbilisi
urging it to recognize the Genocide of Armenians on the state level.
`The Armenian community of Georgia is the largest in the world
percentage-wise,’ the ANPU representative in Yerevan and leader of the
`Spiritual Heritage’ public initiative Eduard Enfiajyan told
ArmeniaNow in this connection. `But unfortunately, the issue of the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide on the state level is not on the
cards in Georgia. Why? Russia and the United States try to solve their
issues in Georgia through the Armenian Diaspora as well as through
Abkhazians and Ossetians. Meanwhile, the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide will be a guarantor of the security of the population in
Samtskhe-Javakheti, however it is not being done. I think it is time
for a greater consolidation of Armenians in this direction. It is this
very consolidation that the day of April 24 should usher in.’
TWO CITIZENSHIPS?: MANY QUESTIONS AS CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IS
CONSIDERED
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
In the seven years since Robert Kocharyan first campaigned for the
right to dual citizenship, the questioned has remained unresolved, but
continues to get attention.
Dual citizenship has been prohibited in the Armenian Constitution
since 1995, when the Armenian National Movement spearheaded
legislation. To allow Armenians to have a second citizenship would
lead to problems that included evasion of military service, the ANM
successfully argued.
Others saw the resistance to dual citizenship as a means to limit
Diaspora involvement in politics. `For the former authorities
Diaspora was a sack that should only support the fatherland,: says
National Assembly Deputy Shavarsh Kocharyan. `There was even an
aphorism. `Let not those who eat oranges (who were the privileged)
teach us politics’.’
Today, some attitudes have changed. Three drafts currently addressing
Constitutional reform, and all three include provisions for dual
citizenship – with certain provisions.
The United Labor Party supports dual citizenship in which the holder
would be obliged to pay taxes and perform military service, but would
not have the right to vote or run for office.
`Imagine if a person is entitled with equal authorities including the
right to vote independent of whether he constantly lives in the RA,’
sasy ULP faction MP Grigor Ghonjeyan. `In that case huge problems will
arise in terms of the national security. The fate of the RA in fact
will be decided in the USA or in the Russian Federation.’ Contrary to
the ULP Deputy Arshak Sadoyan believes people holding double
citizenship should have the right for participating in elections.
Shavarsh Kocharyan says the obstacle against dual citizenship should
be lifted only after the issue of dual rights is fixed.
`Upon our draft of the Constitutional reforms any Armenian moving to
Armenia for permanent settlement should immediately receive
citizenship,’ Justice Bloc member Kocharyan says. The party proposes a
dual citizenship with limited rights for political office. Only
single-citizenships would entitle election to top Government offices.
Some young people in Armenia have shown a negative attitude towards
the double citizenship.
`If a person is considered a citizen of a given country he entertains
all the rights fixed in the Constitution for each citizen including
the right to elect and be elected,’ says Sona Harutyunyan, speaker at
the conference on `Constitutional Reforms in the RA’ for young lawyers
organized by the Association of Young Lawyers of
Armenia. `Consequently, that would be bizarre if a citizen who in fact
lives not in the RA but abroad is elected as a Member of Parliament.’
The young lawyer is also concerned whether dual citizenship might lead
to bilateral agreements with other countries, allowing, for example, a
citizen of Armenia to also gain citizenship in France.
`It is interesting which direction will the current take? Will a
citizen of France become a citizen of the RA, or more citizens of the
RA will wish to get citizenship of France?’ asks the student.
According to Senior Expert at the Armenian Center for National and
International Research Hovsep Khurshudyan the question of double
citizenship is a serious touchstone for authorities and the
opposition.
According to Khurshudyan, some see dual citizenship as strengthening
Diaspora involvement.
`But to think the double citizenship will facilitate investments from
the Diaspora is utopia, it is impossible to provide inflow of
investments with only that leverage,’ the expert says. `The conditions
here should be improved, the clan system should be eliminated.’
Khurshudyan also believes dual citizenship should be adopted with
reservations and agrees that the voting/holding issue is pivotal.
On the issue of military service, the drafts have diverse
applications. One suggests military service should be required;
another says service in the military of the primary country would be
considered. One says the dual citizen should take part in some
military exercises.
President of the Inknoroshum Union Paruyr Hayrikyan has a special
attitude; he says besides being a matter of human rights for Armenia
the dual citizenship is also a matter of national security.
`We just need to clarify who is an Armenian. It is difficult to
consider Armenian the Armenian Muslims or Armenian Catholics, as well
as those who have left Armenia for at least seven years.’
TWO CITIZENSHIPS?: MANY QUESTIONS AS CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IS
CONSIDERED
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
In the seven years since Robert Kocharyan first campaigned for the
right to dual citizenship, the questioned has remained unresolved, but
continues to get attention.
Dual citizenship has been prohibited in the Armenian Constitution
since 1995, when the Armenian National Movement spearheaded
legislation. To allow Armenians to have a second citizenship would
lead to problems that included evasion of military service, the ANM
successfully argued.
Others saw the resistance to dual citizenship as a means to limit
Diaspora involvement in politics.
`For the former authorities Diaspora was a sack that should only
support the fatherland,: says National Assembly Deputy Shavarsh
Kocharyan. `There was even an aphorism. `Let not those who eat oranges
(who were the privileged) teach us politics’.’
Today, some attitudes have changed. Three drafts currently addressing
Constitutional reform, and all three include provisions for dual
citizenship – with certain provisions.
The United Labor Party supports dual citizenship in which the holder
would be obliged to pay taxes and perform military service, but would
not have the right to vote or run for office.
`Imagine if a person is entitled with equal authorities including the
right to vote independent of whether he constantly lives in the RA,’
sasy ULP faction MP Grigor Ghonjeyan. `In that case huge problems will
arise in terms of the national security. The fate of the RA in fact
will be decided in the USA or in the Russian Federation.’ Contrary to
the ULP Deputy Arshak Sadoyan believes people holding double
citizenship should have the right for participating in elections.
Shavarsh Kocharyan says the obstacle against dual citizenship should
be lifted only after the issue of dual rights is fixed.
`Upon our draft of the Constitutional reforms any Armenian moving to
Armenia for permanent settlement should immediately receive
citizenship,’ Justice Bloc member Kocharyan says. The party proposes a
dual citizenship with limited rights for political office. Only
single-citizenships would entitle election to top Government offices.
Some young people in Armenia have shown a negative attitude towards
the double citizenship.
`If a person is considered a citizen of a given country he entertains
all the rights fixed in the Constitution for each citizen including
the right to elect and be elected,’ says Sona Harutyunyan, speaker at
the conference on `Constitutional Reforms in the RA’ for young lawyers
organized by the Association of Young Lawyers of
Armenia. `Consequently, that would be bizarre if a citizen who in fact
lives not in the RA but abroad is elected as a Member of Parliament.’
The young lawyer is also concerned whether dual citizenship might lead
to bilateral agreements with other countries, allowing, for example, a
citizen of Armenia to also gain citizenship in France.
`It is interesting which direction will the current take? Will a
citizen of France become a citizen of the RA, or more citizens of the
RA will wish to get citizenship of France?’ asks the student.
According to Senior Expert at the Armenian Center for National and
International Research Hovsep Khurshudyan the question of double
citizenship is a serious touchstone for authorities and the
opposition.
According to Khurshudyan, some see dual citizenship as strengthening
Diaspora involvement.
`But to think the double citizenship will facilitate investments from
the Diaspora is utopia, it is impossible to provide inflow of
investments with only that leverage,’ the expert says. `The conditions
here should be improved, the clan system should be eliminated.’
Khurshudyan also believes dual citizenship should be adopted with
reservations and agrees that the voting/holding issue is pivotal.
On the issue of military service, the drafts have diverse
applications. One suggests military service should be required;
another says service in the military of the primary country would be
considered. One says the dual citizen should take part in some
military exercises.
President of the Inknoroshum Union Paruyr Hayrikyan has a special
attitude; he says besides being a matter of human rights for Armenia
the dual citizenship is also a matter of national security. `We just
need to clarify who is an Armenian. It is difficult to consider
Armenian the Armenian Muslims or Armenian Catholics, as well as those
who have left Armenia for at least seven years.’
BAD NEWS: INTERNATIONAL AGENCY CRITICIZES ARMENIA’S TREATMENT OF JOURNALISTS
By Zhanna Alexanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
On Monday the international organization Committee to Protect
Journalists released `Attacks on Press in 2004′, detailing world-wide
abuse of media. Authorities in Armenia are among those who are targets
of the report’s criticism. Last year, 56 journalists were killed
doing their work, the highest in 10 years (accountable in large part
because of the war in Iraq, the most dangerous destination for
media). The highest number of arrests of journalist was in China. A
special concern has been expressed in regard to the limitation of
freedom of press in the former Soviet Union, except the Baltic States
and recently the Ukraine. The report says the conditions of the press
are worsening in Russia and the majority of the former Soviet
republics. Regarding Armenia, the report says: `The Armenian
authorities have not provided the security of the journalists during
the boisterous demonstrations against President Robert Kocharyan in
April. In some cases the authorities themselves have been involved in
the attacks against the press. `During the demonstration organized by
the opposition on April 5th the police without interfering witnessed
some two dozens of people attacking journalists and cameramen.’
The report also mentions the events on the night from April 12th to
13th where the police are directly accused of beating a cameraman from
ORT and a `Haykakan Zhamanak’ journalist.
The authors of the `Attacks on Press in 2004′ report mention the
impunity that followed the events made the journalists `more
vulnerable’. As an argument, it mentions an attack on Photolur
photographer Mkhitar Kahachatryan in Tsakhkadzor, who was beaten while
photographing the home of a powerful figure in Armenia.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has addressed the coverage of the
opposition demonstrations.
`The coverage of the opposition spring demonstrations and other
politically delicate topics has been advantageous for President Robert
Kocharyan, who has done everything to keep the television channels in
the hands of those who support the authorities or do not criticize the
President’s policies.’
The report also addressed the continued censorship of A1+ TV channel :
`The politicized bodies supervising the air have left out the
independent and influential A1+ TV, which strongly criticized
authorities during 2004, similar to previous years.’
`The National Commission for Television and Radio, made up of
Kocharyan supporters, has deprived A1+ from air since April 2002 and
has denied the A1+ applications to get permission eight times since
then,’ state the authors of the report.
The report also mentions that contrary to television channels `the
printed media are not supervised that strong by the state, but the
majority of them is controlled by political parties and rich people,
which sets prejudice about their independence and professional
criteria.’
The report also mentions the evaluation given by IREX ProMedia on the
low salaries facilitating the large-scale spread of corruption in the
press.
`In Russia and the South Caucasus the authorities become more and more
intolerant towards independent journalism,’ Alex Lupis, program
coordinator for European and Central Asian issues at the Committee to
Protect Journalists told Radio Liberty. `They ground more and more on
state officials, politicized courts, police, office of prosecutor and
special services, trying to terrify and frighten journalists, forcing
them to self-censorship.’
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERN: US-IRAN GOODWILL VITAL FOR CAUCASUS STABILITY
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmenianNow Reporter
Failure to negotiate agreement in United States-Iran differences would
have grave consequences for the South Caucasus, including Armenia,
says a Washington-based expert and local analysts.
At a round-table discussion hosted by Caucasus Media Institute in
Yerevan Monday, Shireen Hunter, PhD., director of the Islamic Program
of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said mistrust
between the US and Iran bodes ill for the region.
In the discussion `American Policy Towards Iran’, Hunter said now is a
crucial moment in the settlement of differences that have dogged the
two nations for nearly three decades.
`Europe is acting as a mediator, but let’s not forget that Europe
cannot do anything without a green light from the United States,’ said
Hunter. `I hope that Iranians, Europeans and Americans will pursue
these negotiations seriously and with intent to resolve issues through
negotiations.’
According to Hunter, who is Iranian by origin but has lived in the
United States since 1978, there has emerged a great wall of mistrust
between the two countries over the years. Among the incidents that
marred relations between the two nations she mentioned the hostage
takings in Iran and the accidental shooting down of an Iranian
passenger plane by Americans.
`We have to start shifting this wall of mistrust and start healing the
wounds of the past,’ she said.
Another problem in the US-Iran relations, according to Hunter, is lack
of synchronization of relations.
Thus, for example, in the mid-1990s Iran signaled its readiness to
allow a US oil company to work in Iran, but the US Administration
missed that signal. And after the devastating earthquake in the
Iranian town of Bam, President Bush offered to send a senior senator
to Iran, but at that time the Iranian government rejected that offer.
Now, according to Hunter, there is a positive signal coming from the
US and the West and it is important for Iran not to miss it again.
`If diplomatic efforts fail and if military operations begin, everyone
will be losers,’ said Hunter. `There will be negative consequences for
Iran and the region and it will complicate the US efforts to stabilize
the region and promote democracy here.’
The roundtable was also attended by a number of Armenian politicians
and political analysts who also took part in the discussion that
followed Dr Hunter’s lecture.
Stepan Safaryan of the Armenian Center for National and International
Studies thinks that the US and European interests have coincided at
this moment. `The US thinks: `very well, Europe, if you want to solve
the problem peacefully, go on then!’ But if Europe fails in the
negotiations with Iran, then naturally, the US will have incomparably
more freedom of action, although it is not desirable for anyone,’ he
said.
At the same time, the political analyst thinks that a `mass signal’ is
being sent to Iran that this is another great opportunity to bargain
over issues (that recently have focused on the US objection to Iran
having nuclear weapons). `Europe is interested in achieving results in
the current situation, but Iran should be careful not to set Europe
and the US against each other,’ said Safaryan.
According to Safaryan, the developments around Iran will have an
immediate consequence for Armenia. `If the matter will go as far as a
military scenario, then it will be pointless to speak about political
consequences, because the consequences of military operations will be
pushed to the forefront, and they will essentially affect Armenia,’ he
said.
Politician Vazgen Manukyan (leader of the National Democratic Union)
agrees that a military solution is the most terrible scenario that
will be disastrous for Iran, the US and everyone else. `It is clear
that in every country there are different forces and in the US there
are also forces that will try to seek military solutions,’ he
said. `Therefore it is vital that moderate forces in the US, Europe
and Iran should be able to find a common language before it is too
late, because the consequences will concern all of us.’
Manukyan doesn’t think there will be any drastic changes during the
upcoming presidential elections in Iran. But as Hunter said, if a
secular candidate is elected in Iran, `many problems will be
resolved.’
According to Manukyan, religious orientation aside, Iran has been
Armenia’s friend in the region for thousands of years. And: `Iran has
been a very important partner for us during the last 15 years when two
of our four neighbors have closed the roads,’ he said. `We’ve had very
good economic relations and we should never forget the state which
during difficult years lent us its helping hand.’
CONNECTING THE DOTS: PROGRAM HOPES TO MAKE KARAKERT VILLAGE A MODEL OF SUCCESS
By John Hughes
Editor
>From a rosy monochrome television screen in the corner of a crumbling
room a music video is the entertainment for a crumbling family
gathered on one bed in another corner.
`Baby if you give it to me, I’ll give it to you. I know what you want,
you know I got it,’ sing Busta Rhymes and Mariah Carey.
In this Karakert village home that couldn’t be farther from the world
on that screen, it is hard to imagine that this is anything anybody
would want. Six children, including a four year old with a pulmonary
illness, live here. The father left for Russia; the mother and kids
aren’t leaving for anywhere.
Mary, 17, is the oldest. Crossing through the livingroom to check on a
crying sibling in the other room, she makes her way over the wooden
floor pushing pads of carpet, cut out to replace house slippers.
She dropped out of school after seventh grade. She tells a visitor it
was because she was ashamed to go to school without proper
clothes. The words are a repeat of what her mother had said just
moments before, and while it may be the truth, it may also be a truth
to be exploited.
`I don’t really see any future for the kids if things continue like
this,’ says 35-year old Narine Baghoyan, the head of this
household. `Every time outsiders enter, we have some hope that
something will change eventually.’ Eventually is coming sooner,
thanks to a project underway designed to make this village an hour
west of Yerevan a model for restoration of Armenia’s struggling
provincial settlements.
A coalition of international agencies led by the Children of Armenia
Fund (COAF) have united to reclaim Karakert, then aim to repeat the
process in other villages throughout the country.
On a good day, there is wood for heating and cooking in Karakert, but
cow dung and straw is the more common fuel supply. There are no
telephones; no water delivery system.
In Soviet times Karakert was home to a cheese factory, a food
processing plant, a building materials production plant. It also
produced 500 tons of grapes a year bought by wine and cognac
factories. Now it produces less than 10 percent of that amount, partly
because irrigation systems corroded and collapsed.
The demise of socialism signaled the unpredicted demise of villages
like Karakert. Artavazd Karapetyan, 27, spent his formative years
watching Karakert shrink through emigration. In February he became
village head, and hopes now to lead its rebuilding. `This is my land,
my water’ says Karapetyan. `My ancestors are buried here. I cannot be
unhappy to live here.’ The future Karapetyan sees is only two years
away and includes a village where gas and water and new schools and a
reconstructed medical clinic and better roads make Karakert a place
worth staying.
If for the village leader it is a vision, for the leader of COAF, it
is already becoming reality. New York businessman, COAF founder Garo
Armen saw the conditions of Karakert and took its restoration as a
challenge. The Fund devised a comprehensive plan incorporating
Karakert’s variety of needs into one package of remedies, ranging from
basics such as delivery of clothes to the major tasks of building
schools and installing irrigation systems. `No one is really sitting
down and connecting the dots,’ Armen said in a recent visit to COAF’s
Yerevan offices, adding that by integrating programs, assistance is
unified and recovery comes sooner and is more complete. For example,
what is the point of building new schools if children don’t have
proper clothes for attending? And what is the value of a reformed
education program, if students aren’t properly nourished for effective
studying? To realize his goal, Armen said he sat out to `construct a
Karakert puzzle and identify all outside agencies that can take part
in a piece.’
COAF’s `model village’ program gained the attention and support of
international aid agencies that include the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID). Through grants, some $3 million are expected to
be allocated through next year.
Already in its first phase, one school has been renovated and a new
school is being built that will open this summer. A medical clinic
has been renovated with personnel trained in contemporary issues such
as nutrition and pre-natal care, water pipes have been laid to bring
(non-potable) water to the village. An apricot orchard has been
planted, sponsored by an American-Armenian on land donated by a
villager.
`Some of these ideas came through the villagers,’ Armen says. `When we
go to the village, we listen. I may try to guide them a little, but
they tell us what they need.’ The first thing Karakert needed was
garbage pickup, something it hadn’t had since the late `80s until COAF
bought two garbage trucks and hired locals to do the cleaning.
`For many years people did not have a means of getting rid of
garbage,’ says 41-year old villager Petros Manukyan. `It created huge
problems that tremendously hindered people’s lives. The difference now
is that when they clean the garbage themselves, they are very careful
not to throw down rubbish where they stand.’
Cleaning up Karakert was a step on a path that has a long way to go
before people like those six kids in two rooms will enjoy the
result. Already, though, some residents of Karakert are seeing change.
`The beginning is very hopeful,’ says Anna Ghubaryan, 45, who runs
Karakert’s Spiritual Center. `Real work is being done. Schools are
being built, which is a guarantee that improvements will continue. The
more bright a childhood is, the higher the child will go in life.’
Armen says that his plan was first met with skepticism, but has now
changed to an `action-oriented optimism. The attitude no longer is
`What is our fate going to be?”
For families like Narine Baghoyan’s (and there are others worse off in
Karakert), the habit of asking strangers for a handout is a survival
instinct. The single mother says she `can only trust God.’
But, now, she also trusts the routine food ration program set up by
COAF and has participated in its clothes distribution, and could take
her children to its new health clinic, and could use its garbage
service . . . Petros Manukyan, who is raising three children in
Karakert, has traveled in parts of Europe as a member of a sports
delegation.
`I always envied those countries when I saw how much attention those
kids received,’ Manukyan says. `Now I can see that our kids will get
the same kind of care. They can project their lives and know that they
can stay and have a normal life in this village.’
HEALTHY HELP: MSF COMES TO AID OF VILLAGE CLINICS
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Before, when Karine Sirakanyan’s children were taken ill they didn’t
go to see a doctor. There was no doctor in their village of Tsovak,
and they had no possibility to reach Vardenis. But last week when her
son, two-year-old Alen, had temperature, she took the child to the new
outpatient clinic in Tsovak, where treatment was made free of charge.
The Belgium arm of Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) has opened five
medical centers in the Vardenis region of Gegharkunik marz. It is
repairing the buildings of outpatient clinics, supplies medicines and
ensures medical service. Another three medical centers will be opened
in the Chambarak region. The `Free Medical Aid to Everyone’ program
launched this year will be in effect for five years and will treat 70
percent of illnesses in provinces.
MSF has invited doctors to work in three villages and pays their
salaries, and in two villages former doctors continue to work
receiving additional salaries from MSF. Nurses are also paid
extra. For example, Evelina, a nurse in the village of Tsovak, gets a
salary of 4,000 drams (about $7) from the state and MSF pays her an
additional 13,000 drams (about $24). If any of the medical personnel
charges money from patients he or she will be removed from the
program. About 3,000 people have visited the outpatient clinics
during the two months. The program will serve 15,000 people and this
number is expected to quadruple in the future. About 400,000 euros
will be spent annually. Like in many regions of Armenia, rural
healthcare structures in Gegharkunik are also in a state of decay
(see???…): `We have chosen Gegharkunik because it is one of the
poorest regions of Armenia,’ says program coordinator Laila
Lochting. `Healthcare indices are the worst here.’
Fifty out of 1,000 newborns in Armenian rural regions, in particular
in Gegharkunik, die (the general index for the republic is 36 per
1,000), 31 percent of children suffer from anemia. Half of pregnant
women do not receive medical service, half of childbirths take place
at home.
During Soviet times there was constantly a doctor at Tsovak’s
outpatient clinic who also served the surrounding villages. But the
last time Tsovak had medical care was in 2000, when it had a dentist.
The two-storied building of the outpatient clinic was a half-ruined
structure, its parquet floor was destroyed, with only one room used
and that room was for vaccinations only.
MSF repaired the outpatient clinic. On the first floor villagers queue
for examination. The second floor is where 30- year-old doctor from
Yerevan Tigran Varderesyan lives. He receives up to 30 patients a day.
`Respiratory, chronic diseases are spread among children,’ Varderesyan
says presenting the healthcare situation in the village. `This is
because when they were taken ill they didn’t receive a course of
treatment. There are also a lot of hypertensive patients. Ninety
percent of people aged above 45 suffer from high blood pressure. There
are also such patients among young people. It is also a serious matter
that women have many abortions. There is one woman who has had 20.’
Shoghik Petrosyan, 68, visits the doctor for the second time. She
suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes. In the past she went to
Yerevan to see the doctor and stayed at her daughter’s: `I will not go
to Yerevan anymore. I can’t afford it. I get a pension of 5,000 drams
and the electrician will come and take it (electricity bill).’ The
outpatient clinic is simply a salvation for her 10-member family.
There were 698 visits to the outpatient clinic during the two
months. It also serves the nearby villages. When snow blocks roads in
winter and it becomes impossible to reach Tsovak, MSF supplies
medicines to the other villages. Another goal of the MSF program is
that childbirths take place in Vardenis, whose maternity hospital was
repaired by a French organization. MSF is creating opportunities for
pregnant women to be taken from village to town. But one of the
reasons for refusing to go to the maternity hospital is that the
medical personnel there charge money from patients (under the law
childbirths are included in the state order). Giving birth to one
child may cost a family $50-100. Lochting says that obstetricians
have promised not to charge money for child deliveries: `I hope that
they will keep their promise.’
MSF has also renovated conditions in Mets Masrik. During the last two
years the only goods in the outpatient clinic was absorbent cotton and
syringes. Now MSF supplies it with about 80 types of medicines
received from Europe and provides for a doctor there.
MSF hopes that after the program is completed it will be continued by
the Armenian government or local organizations: `It is important to
show that it is possible to work this way, to keep the government
aware of the ways to improve the healthcare situation,’ says
Lochting. `We hope that in five years the government will be able to
go the way that we’ll have paved.’
But how far are her hopes justified? The French Red Cross launched a
similar program in Mets Masrik in the 1990s. It built a one-storied
outpatient clinic there, fitted it out with equipment and supplied
medicines: `We worked in the same luxury during the time of the French
program,’ doctor Hasmik Ghazaryan remembers. `For example, pregnant
women were under constant supervision. They left and everything
disappeared. And now we again started to keep pregnant women under
supervision, provide them with necessary vitamins and minerals.’
After two years of work the French Red Cross left and handed over the
building to the Armenian Red Cross. However from that point on the
door of the building’s entrance has been locked and never opened. The
doctor remembers that people from the Armenian Red Cross came once a
long time ago and took the equipment from the building.
STEPS FOR RECOVERY: TESTED ADDICTION TREATMENT TO BE INTRODUCED IN ARMENIA
By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Mental health specialists are hoping to introduce radical changes in
how drug and alcohol addiction is treated in Armenia.
Currently, drug and alcohol abusers find help through a mixture of
medicine and institutionalization. It is hoped that soon a more
psycho-therapeutic system will be implemented. `The Minnesota Model’
that, according to the specialists, has proved successful throughout
the world including former USSR countries, is to be tested here also.
According to the new method several specialists work at the treatment
of the patient at the same time – an expert in narcology,
psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and a consultant, who
should, by the way, be either a former drug or alcohol addict.
`The Minnesota Model’ treatment course is comprised of 12
stages. During 4-6-8 months each of the prisoners is being exposed to
only three stages, i.e. three psychological approaches. In the future
he should continue the rest of the stages with the help of the same
specialist.
This is a unique method that utilizes the “Twelve Steps” of Alcoholics
Anonymous, including meetings and confessions plus psychological
therapy.
During the first stage the patient confesses he is ill and is unable
to struggle against it alone, in other stages the patient analyses his
life trying to understand why he developed a passion for alcohol or
drugs. During one of the consequent stages the patient makes a list
where he indicates the names of all those people he has caused
suffering and pain in order to compensate in the coming stages.
Gradually with these stages the patient reaches to the 12th stage
which is already a `spiritual revival’. In Armenia `the Minnesota
Model’ will first of all be applied to inmates.
Minister of Justice David Harutyunyan explains the idea of starting
the model in prisons is because of the number there whose crimes are
connected with addiction.
`The criminal executive institutions are those interesting
institutions where appropriate conditions are created to support
efficient treatment,’ says the Minister. Treatment, he says, will not
be compulsory.
Grigor Grigoryan, head of the `Prisoners’ Hospital’ narcological
department at the criminal executive institution (the method will
first be applied in this institution), says although inserting and
realization of the method will take years, it is still a real
salvation for efficient treatment of such patients.
`Through talking and analyzing their lives the people will create
their philosophy,’ says Grigoryan. `Talking to each other and
remembering their lives helps the patients. I have seen it in Poland,
where the method is applied since 1992 and which has helped millions
of ill people to restore and recover.’
Grigoryan is hopeful the method will succeed and will spread across
Armenia.
`Although we speak little of it, alcohol and drug addiction becomes a
big problem in Armenia,’ Grigoryan says. `Earthquake, bad social
conditions have facilitated it, as a result of which many young people
have chosen that way. We are a very little nation not to pay attention
to such things.’
Grigoryan says the method will be applied as soon as possible.
`We don’t have specialists in this field, and there is a big problem
of re-qualification,’ says Grigoryan. `If the Western specialists
support us with advice and experience, lectures and practical works
are organized, everything, I thing, will be very successful. And we
will have the opportunity to save families with this method in
Armenia.’
OF GOD AND MAN: FAITH AT THE CROSSROADS IN HAGHPAT
By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Accompanied by the mild and pleasant rays of the spring sun the car
climb a serpentine road through rocks and slopes towards the village
of Haghpat, closer, it seems, to God than to earthly creatures.
This small village located in the upland region of Lori marz at a
height of more than 1,000 meters is a settlement full of
surprises. Local villagers claim to be atheists, although every day
they have the 12th century Armenian cloistral complex of Haghpat
situated in the village before their eyes.
A village of atheists surrounding a monastery is also home to the
Revolution Museum of Haghpat communists. This building was the house
of shopkeeper Tandilyan in 1904 and was a place of gatherings for
likeminded oppositionists struggling against the regime.
Communists resigned their power a long time ago, but the museum’s
signboard keeps stubbornly reading that the building belongs to the
Ministry of Culture of Soviet Armenia, for which it seems to have been
punished with locked doors. The villagers living in the epicenter of
the clash of Christianity and atheism, having such rich historical
past, today say that they are in a chaotic state; they don’t know what
to believe in and why. God, who they say sees their problems from
heaven, is no help. And the `earthly’ government `simply turns a blind
eye to these problems’.
According to the villagers, during the communist rule the village was
provided with all sorts of utilities. Today many here are deprived of
water-supply, telephone facilities and even there is no passenger
transport to establish a link with the nearest town of Alaverdi. The
only faithful is the spring running from a monument preserved since
1258. They say that this water was bestowed upon Haghpat by God (even
though they deny His existence), but its flow is now twice as weak as
it used to be.
The majority of 500 villagers carry water from here several times a
day to satisfy the needs of their families. The queue that lines up
near the spring since early in the morning decreases only by
midday. In the afternoon the village’s cattle also uses the spring.
Mariam Paremazyan, 42, who has come to the spring for the fourth time
today with her 10-liter water tanks, says she must bathe her
children. The school teacher does not allow children to attend school
without having taken a bath. However, leaving all problems aside, the
villagers like boasting about the famous visitors of their
village. From among well-known Armenian communists the village was
visited by Stepan Shahumyan, from well-known Armenian filmmakers
Sergey Parajanov shot a part of his `Color of Pomegranate’ film
here. And singer and musician Sayat-Nova served in the local cloistral
complex’s chapel for 20 years.
The huge cloistral complex is an open-air museum today. The Haghpat
monastery was one of the largest cultural centers of medieval
Armenia. Today, it is considered to be a valuable historical and
cultural monument and is under UNESCO protection.
In fact, though, it is already 16 years that the role of protecting
the cloistral complex has been assumed by 66-year- old resident of
Haghpat Maxim Baghryan, who is the watchman of this complex as well as
the guide and candle seller – in other words the local `ghost’, always
inhabiting the complex.
He will cordially meet every visitor and will show around the pages of
royal Armenia as if by a time machine. Locking the heavy doors of the
complex’s every structure he tells about the history of a given
building and its meaning, certain episodes from the lives of noblemen
and priests.
Maxim is ready to answer any question without hesitation. His
narrations are so articulate that it seems he witnessed the events of
the 10th century himself.
He inherited this information from his father, who was also the local
watchman for 15 years, but during the communist rule. Maxim never asks
money for his services.
`If my stories satisfy the visitors they will give something, if not,
it is important that they should appreciate what wonderful place
they’d come to,’ says Maxim.
Maxim, who narrates stories descending from Biblical times, says he is
an atheist like the other residents of Haghpat, but he confesses that
every week he lights a few candles for his grandchildren.
Already another villager, relative of revolutionary Tandilyan,
75-year-old Hrachya Tandilyan tells with great pleasure about the
period of transition from Christianity to atheism.
Tandilyan lives alone at the beginning of the village and he invites
everyone who knocks at his door into his house, and treats his guests
to vodka made of fruits from his orchard.
Everything in the house is old – the kitchen cupboard, chairs, a
Soviet-type TV-set and a VEF (Soviet era) radio-set. Before the meal
on the wood stove boils, he takes a warmed bread loaf from the stove
and a heated conversation begins with the presence of two types of
village cheese and one bottle of 70-degree vodka on the table.
According to Tandilyan, at the beginning of last century the Haghpat
villagers got tired of the humiliating life, which became the main
cause for the revolution. He tells of what brutal acts of terrorism
were committed against priests and local authorities.
Unlike the watchman Maxim, Tandilyan likes not inheriting history, but
personally reading it. Reading is his most favorite occupation. Books
by Dumas, Vakhtang Ananyan, Hovhannes Tumanyan are seen on the old
bookcase. He says he has read them many times.
After working for many years in Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) Tandilyan
returned with his wife to his birthplace, Haghpat, and began to build
his house. His house remained half-constructed after the death of his
son, an architect, in 1992 and the death of his wife a year
before. But overcoming difficulties Tandilyan continues to create his
household even today, at the same time helping the family of his
daughter living in Vanadzor with rural goods. He says that he has
discovered the secret of longevity. While other villagers bring water
to their dry homes Tandilyan has water from a pipe. And every evening,
in summer or winter, the 75-year old takes a cold shower in the open
air from a douche he had installed in front of his house.
Whether the water comes from God or the Government seems of little
consequence . . .
BUILDING UNREST: NEIGHBORS WORRY THAT HIGH-RISE CONSTRUCTION THREATENS SAFETY
By Arpi Harutyunyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Ofelia Meliksetyan, a resident of Isahakyan 24 in Yerevan, is
concerned and anxious not only as an apartment owner but also as a
specialist when she sees the new high-rise building going up next her.
For 20 years Meliksetyan taught constructional mechanics at the
Polytechnic Institute and by her professional estimate sees the
building going up in her neighborhood as a threat to her own safety.
Meliksetyan and others in her central Yerevan neighborhood worry that
construction of the 12-story residential building at the corner of
Isahakyan and Teryan streets is disturbing the structural integrity of
the adjacent one. Their fears are supported by a report by the
Research Institute for Seismically Reliable Construction and Premise
Maintenance. According to the research institute, the eight-meter deep
excavation only two meters from the existing building `has created a
very dangerous situation for building Number 24′.
The results of the investigation have obliged Globus Ltd., the
builders, to fortify the foundation of N. 24. But Meliksetyan is sure
the fortification is just a formal thing.
`They say they have fortified it, but I am confident to insist it
could not change a thing. The basis of our building has been weakened
so deeply that its strength is impossible to be restorable any more,’
she says. `Even the specialists from HyeSeismShin Institute told us to
pray for escaping a 3-4 magnitude earthquake for otherwise the
building will collapse. The only right decision would be to stop the
construction of the building. But we can’t even dream of it.’
Builders, though, say the concerns are unfounded.
`This building is not a threat to the neighboring buildings at all and
there can not be a word about creating an unsafe situation. We
fortified the basis of the building number 24 just for alleviating the
dwellers’ concerns. We have facilitated more to the strengthening of
the building that to its weakening. This means the risk level is equal
to zero,’ says the `Globus’ ltd. founding director Gagik Hakopjanyan.
Permission for construction of the 12-stored building was given by
Yerevan Municipality in 2002. Construction began last year.
Residents such as Meliksetyan say that they were not advised about the
intention of the building, in violation of a 1998 law requiring that
neighborhood residents be informed about proposed construction.
`One day in the morning I approached the window to see what noise was
there outside. The beautiful 5-storied building by Alexander Tamanyan
(on the site at 66 Teryan) was ruined in one night, the trees around
have been cut. It appeared that instead, a huge residency will be
built at the expense of our own security,’ Meliksetyan says.
Building N. 24 has already suffered questionable
construction. Originally built in the 1940s as a three-story unit, it
grew to nine during Soviet times. Now residents worry that the latest
building boom in the capital further threatens their building.
They are disappointed, too, with the loss of trees and scenery that
has been a result.
`We realize that in few years Yerevan will become a construction pile,
the architectural face of the city will be lost,’ says resident
Konstandin Malkhasyan, with concern. `But at present the concerning
thing is not only that the building under construction will threaten
the stability of our building, but will also deprive the neighboring
buildings of sunlight.’
While the former teacher worries about the potential impact of the new
construction, she also frets that its permission was granted by one of
her former students, the previous chief architect of Yerevan, Narek
Sargsyan. `At least my students shouldn’t have allowed such illegal
things. I haven’t taught them this way. I do not know…I fell heavily
ill because of all my emotions and lied in the bed for months,’ says
Meliksetyan. `Do you understand we have worked for this state for
dozens of years to find the oligarchs who have enriched themselves
with robbery ignore us and threaten our lives?’
The stockholders of the new building aren’t known publicly. It is
expected that apartments in the new unit will sell for $200-250,000.
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