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Wednesday 10, August 2005
Experts Warn Of IT Staff Shortage In Armenia
By Nane Atshemian
Armenia's information technology industry, the most advanced in the
region, is beginning to experience a shortage of skilled labor that
could stall its further growth unless urgent government measures are
taken to reform the education system, IT experts warned on Wednesday.
They said that the number and especially the professional level of young
people graduating from the IT programs of local universities is
increasingly lagging behind the needs of one of the most dynamic sectors
of the Armenian economy.
The sector has seen substantial growth over the past decade, creating
thousands of well-paid jobs in the unemployment-stricken nation. Foreign
and mostly U.S. companies in computer software development and other
IT-related activities have been the main driving force behind the
growth. At least a dozen of them have branches in Armenia.
The existence of relatively cheap and skilled workforce in country that
was once dubbed the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union has been
principal factor behind the foreign investments. But According to the
director of the Armenian Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF), a World
Bank-funded agency promoting the sector's development, Armenia will risk
losing this trump card unless it embarks on a sweeping overhaul of its
system of higher education.
`There are now IT companies that are looking for 50 to 100 specialists,'
Bagrat Yengibarian told RFE/RL. `There is a great need in specialists.
Our task is to create conditions in the university system that will
enable companies to hire qualified specialists. We can not make Armenia
attractive by saying that the private sector itself should prepare
specialists.'
`Big Western firms like Lycos and Synopsis can enter our universities
and train their future cadres. But smaller companies interested in
Armenia cannot do that,' Yengibarian added.
The main sources of IT-related knowledge in Armenia are the computer
science departments of Yerevan State University and the Armenian State
Engineering University. The number of applicants seeking to study there
has risen dramatically in recent years, with high school graduates
attracted by the prospect of finding a job in a sector where the average
monthly wage is currently worth $500. Experienced Armenian programmers
may well earn $1,000 or more these days.
However, the post-Soviet decline in overall educational standards in
Armenia coupled with a lack of government funding for universities has
clearly taken its toll on the quality of IT learning in Armenia.
`Our universities are only now beginning to teach modern technology,'
said Arman Valesian, chairman of the organizing committee of an annual
computer programming contest sponsored by the EIF and other IT
associations. `Kids mainly learn it on their own or through private
courses. If they could do that in university it would be much easier for
the industry to hire staff. But companies now spend at least three
months to retrain university graduates [before hiring them].'
The latest programming contest began this week, featuring about 200
participants below the age of 30. Thirty best-performing programmers
will be short-listed for a special training course to be taught by
specialists from Armenian and foreign IT firms.
`The younger they are, the more flexible is their mind,' Valesian
observed. `For example, we have a 16-year-old boy who solved five
problems in 75 minutes.'
Analysts say another problem is that despite declaring the sector's
development a top priority of its economic policy, the Armenian
government has yet to embark on a radical re-orientation of the
education sector toward IT or at least to expand its existing computer
science programs. Armenia's state-run technical colleges, which were
primarily designed to serve the now defunct Soviet-era heavy industry,
continue to release every year hundreds of mechanical and other non-IT
engineers whose chances of finding a job are slim.
Yengibarian, the EIF director, believes that the government should come
up with an IT development plan tied to a broader strategy for the
country's economic development. That strategy, he said, should provide
answers to the following questions: `In which direction will Armenia
move in the next ten years? Are we going to prioritize cheap or
qualified labor? What steps are we going to take to ensure that the
university system does not lag behind development?'
(Photolur photo)
Bus Fare Increase In Yerevan Raises Questions
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Municipal authorities defended a 30 percent increase in the key public
transportation fare in Yerevan which took effect on Wednesday and
appeared to cause widespread discontent among commuters.
A ride on a privately-owned minibus, the principal means of
transportation in the Armenian capital, will now cost 130 drams (30 U.S.
cents). The decision to raise it from 100 drams, taken by Mayor Yervand
Zakharian on Tuesday, was expected for the last few weeks.
`To be honest, the measure was long overdue. We didn't resort to it in
view of the people's living conditions,' Vrezh Asatrian, a senior
official at the Transport Department of the Yerevan municipality, told
RFE/RL.
Asatrian claimed that the tariff hike was requested by over 50 private
firms that operate minibus lines across the city of one million. `They
argued that the prices of fuel, spare parts and bus repair have gone
up,' he said. `Their concerns are justified.'
However, minibus drivers disputed the claim, saying that the higher fare
could mean fewer passengers and reduce their revenues. `There is no way
the route operators could do that,' said one of them. `It's the
municipality that took such a decision.'
Citing municipality officials, Armenian newspapers reported earlier that
the price rise will be primarily aimed at boosting the revenues of
state-owned buses that find it difficult to compete with private
carriers. Most of those buses were purchased from Belarus last year with
a loan borrowed by the Armenian government from the Russian-based
Interstate Bank of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The smallish buses were never likely to be cost-effective and the city
authorities have trouble repaying the loan. A top executive of a
state-run company operating them was fired recently for failing to
generate enough revenues. But Asatrian denied any connection between
this and the fare increase.
Critics say that instead of raising fares the authorities should have
limited the disproportionately large number of the mostly old minibuses
that only aggravate the city's chaotic traffic. The minibus business is
highly lucrative and is mostly controlled by government-connected
individuals.
(Photolur photo)
Church Restoration Raises Hopes For Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press Writer
(AP) - Rainwater seeps through the conical dome of Akhtamar's
thousand-year-old church, washing away biblical frescoes from one of the
finest surviving monuments of ancient Armenian culture. Bullet holes
pock the sandstone walls. After a century of neglect and decades of
political wrangling, Turkey has begun restoring the church, a renovation
that comes as Turkish leaders face intense pressure from the European
Union to improve their treatment of minorities.
The 2 million Turkish Lira ($1.5 million) restoration, ordered and paid
for by the Turkish government, began in May and is raising hopes that a
small, cautious thaw in relations between Turkey and neighboring Armenia
could expand.
The church is the lone building on a tiny island in a lake. It is
covered in scaffolding as masons replace fallen roof stones to stop the
rainwater and rebuild the basalt floor, which was dug out by treasure
hunters. Experts also will try to restore the frescoes in the interior.
"This is our positive approach, our message," says Turkey's prime
minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has staked his rule on winning
membership in the EU.
The European Union urged Turkey last year to consider registering
Akhtamar in UNESCO's World Heritage List and is pressing the country to
reopen its closed border with Armenia and re-establish diplomatic ties
with its neighbor. Turkey has taken cautious steps toward improving
connections Armenia and a member of Erdogan's political party visited
its capital earlier this year, but relations remain extremely cool
because of animosities over ethnic bloodletting a century ago.
Eastern Turkey was once a heartland of Armenian culture and more than a
million Armenians lived in the area at the turn of the 19th century. But
they were driven out by what Armenia contends was a policy of genocide
by Turks, a charge the Turkish government vehemently denies.
Akhtamar, called the Church of Surp Khach, or Holy Cross, was one of the
most important churches of those ancient Armenian lands. It was built by
Armenian King Gagik I of Vaspurakan and inaugurated in A.D. 921. Gagik's
historian, Thomas Ardzruni, described the church as being near a harbor
and a palace with gilded cupolas, peacefully surrounded by the lake.
Only the church survived.
By 1113, the church had become the center of the Armenian Patriarchate
of Akhtamar and an inspiration to mystics in the area. The island was
the center of a renowned school of scribal art and illumination. The
region was a thriving center of Armenian culture, but was engulfed in
ethnic conflict as the Turks' Ottoman Empire splintered at the end of
World War I.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered by Turks.
Turkey strongly denies there was any genocide, arguing that the death
toll has been inflated and saying that the Armenians who were killed
died as a result of civil unrest.
Today, there are virtually no Armenians in eastern Turkey, and Akhtamar
has been empty for decades. Some of its reliefs are stained with paint
and eggs thrown by vandals. Bullet holes, apparently from shepherds who
used the site for target practice, mar the walls.
The church is considered one of the most important examples of Armenian
architecture. Elaborate reliefs project up to 10 centimeters (4 inches)
from brownish-red sandstone walls, almost like sculptures. Some depict
biblical stories such as Jonah being swallowed by the whale and Daniel
in the lion's den. Others show cows, lions, birds and other animals to
remind worshippers that the church is an image of paradise.
Erdogan's government asked the Armenian Christian patriarch in Istanbul,
where nearly all of Turkey's remaining 65,000 Armenians live, to name an
architect to help with the restoration. Zakarya Mildanoglu, the
architect picked, says he hopes the restoration helps improve relations
between Armenia and Turkey, but adds: "We need to be patient. Things
that happened a century ago cannot be healed overnight."
Mesrob II, the Armenian patriarch, wants the government to open the
church for religious services and special festivities once a year. The
church is officially closed to services since there are no Armenian
Christians in the region. "I think that Akhtamar is a symbol for
perfection in Armenian architecture and also mysticism," Mesrob II says.
Azeri Opposition Group Attacked For `Ties With Armenian Intelligence'
(AFP) - Some 200 supporters of a pro-government group in Azerbaijan
attempted to storm the headquarters of an opposition party Wednesday in
a new sign of tension ahead of November 6 parliamentary elections, an
AFP correspondent on the scene said.
Protestors chanted "Shame!" as they pushed against a police cordon in
the ex-Soviet republic's capital Baku while trying to break into the
opposition National Front party building. The crowd, from the Muasir
Musavat (Modern Unity) party, said they were incensed by an opposition
leader's alleged contacts with agents from Azerbaijan's neighbor
Armenia.
The leader of the Yeni Fikir opposition movement, Ruslan Bashirli, was
arrested last week and charged with allegedly accepting Armenian money
to finance a revolution in Azerbaijan. Yeni Fikir has an office in the
National Front headquarters.
The opposition has denied the accusation, which is potentially damaging
because of tense relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, rivals that
fought a war in the 1990s over the territory of Nagorno Karabakh. The
last two days have already seen scuffles and stone throwing between pro-
and anti-government supporters in Baku.
Europe's top election-monitoring body, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), on Tuesday condemned violent attacks
directed at the opposition. The head of the OSCE office in Baku,
Maurizio Pavesi, called on the authorities to prevent "violent and
unauthorized public meetings" or risk causing the "deterioration" of the
electoral campaign.
PRESS REVIEW
Most Armenian newspapers have suspended their publication due to the
period of summer holidays.
Experts Warn Of IT Staff Shortage In Armenia
By Nane Atshemian
Armenia's information technology industry, the most advanced in the
region, is beginning to experience a shortage of skilled labor that
could stall its further growth unless urgent government measures are
taken to reform the education system, IT experts warned on Wednesday.
They said that the number and especially the professional level of young
people graduating from the IT programs of local universities is
increasingly lagging behind the needs of one of the most dynamic sectors
of the Armenian economy.
The sector has seen substantial growth over the past decade, creating
thousands of well-paid jobs in the unemployment-stricken nation. Foreign
and mostly U.S. companies in computer software development and other
IT-related activities have been the main driving force behind the
growth. At least a dozen of them have branches in Armenia.
The existence of relatively cheap and skilled workforce in country that
was once dubbed the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union has been
principal factor behind the foreign investments. But According to the
director of the Armenian Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF), a World
Bank-funded agency promoting the sector's development, Armenia will risk
losing this trump card unless it embarks on a sweeping overhaul of its
system of higher education.
`There are now IT companies that are looking for 50 to 100 specialists,'
Bagrat Yengibarian told RFE/RL. `There is a great need in specialists.
Our task is to create conditions in the university system that will
enable companies to hire qualified specialists. We can not make Armenia
attractive by saying that the private sector itself should prepare
specialists.'
`Big Western firms like Lycos and Synopsis can enter our universities
and train their future cadres. But smaller companies interested in
Armenia cannot do that,' Yengibarian added.
The main sources of IT-related knowledge in Armenia are the computer
science departments of Yerevan State University and the Armenian State
Engineering University. The number of applicants seeking to study there
has risen dramatically in recent years, with high school graduates
attracted by the prospect of finding a job in a sector where the average
monthly wage is currently worth $500. Experienced Armenian programmers
may well earn $1,000 or more these days.
However, the post-Soviet decline in overall educational standards in
Armenia coupled with a lack of government funding for universities has
clearly taken its toll on the quality of IT learning in Armenia.
`Our universities are only now beginning to teach modern technology,'
said Arman Valesian, chairman of the organizing committee of an annual
computer programming contest sponsored by the EIF and other IT
associations. `Kids mainly learn it on their own or through private
courses. If they could do that in university it would be much easier for
the industry to hire staff. But companies now spend at least three
months to retrain university graduates [before hiring them].'
The latest programming contest began this week, featuring about 200
participants below the age of 30. Thirty best-performing programmers
will be short-listed for a special training course to be taught by
specialists from Armenian and foreign IT firms.
`The younger they are, the more flexible is their mind,' Valesian
observed. `For example, we have a 16-year-old boy who solved five
problems in 75 minutes.'
Analysts say another problem is that despite declaring the sector's
development a top priority of its economic policy, the Armenian
government has yet to embark on a radical re-orientation of the
education sector toward IT or at least to expand its existing computer
science programs. Armenia's state-run technical colleges, which were
primarily designed to serve the now defunct Soviet-era heavy industry,
continue to release every year hundreds of mechanical and other non-IT
engineers whose chances of finding a job are slim.
Yengibarian, the EIF director, believes that the government should come
up with an IT development plan tied to a broader strategy for the
country's economic development. That strategy, he said, should provide
answers to the following questions: `In which direction will Armenia
move in the next ten years? Are we going to prioritize cheap or
qualified labor? What steps are we going to take to ensure that the
university system does not lag behind development?'
(Photolur photo)
Bus Fare Increase In Yerevan Raises Questions
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Municipal authorities defended a 30 percent increase in the key public
transportation fare in Yerevan which took effect on Wednesday and
appeared to cause widespread discontent among commuters.
A ride on a privately-owned minibus, the principal means of
transportation in the Armenian capital, will now cost 130 drams (30 U.S.
cents). The decision to raise it from 100 drams, taken by Mayor Yervand
Zakharian on Tuesday, was expected for the last few weeks.
`To be honest, the measure was long overdue. We didn't resort to it in
view of the people's living conditions,' Vrezh Asatrian, a senior
official at the Transport Department of the Yerevan municipality, told
RFE/RL.
Asatrian claimed that the tariff hike was requested by over 50 private
firms that operate minibus lines across the city of one million. `They
argued that the prices of fuel, spare parts and bus repair have gone
up,' he said. `Their concerns are justified.'
However, minibus drivers disputed the claim, saying that the higher fare
could mean fewer passengers and reduce their revenues. `There is no way
the route operators could do that,' said one of them. `It's the
municipality that took such a decision.'
Citing municipality officials, Armenian newspapers reported earlier that
the price rise will be primarily aimed at boosting the revenues of
state-owned buses that find it difficult to compete with private
carriers. Most of those buses were purchased from Belarus last year with
a loan borrowed by the Armenian government from the Russian-based
Interstate Bank of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The smallish buses were never likely to be cost-effective and the city
authorities have trouble repaying the loan. A top executive of a
state-run company operating them was fired recently for failing to
generate enough revenues. But Asatrian denied any connection between
this and the fare increase.
Critics say that instead of raising fares the authorities should have
limited the disproportionately large number of the mostly old minibuses
that only aggravate the city's chaotic traffic. The minibus business is
highly lucrative and is mostly controlled by government-connected
individuals.
(Photolur photo)
Church Restoration Raises Hopes For Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press Writer
(AP) - Rainwater seeps through the conical dome of Akhtamar's
thousand-year-old church, washing away biblical frescoes from one of the
finest surviving monuments of ancient Armenian culture. Bullet holes
pock the sandstone walls. After a century of neglect and decades of
political wrangling, Turkey has begun restoring the church, a renovation
that comes as Turkish leaders face intense pressure from the European
Union to improve their treatment of minorities.
The 2 million Turkish Lira ($1.5 million) restoration, ordered and paid
for by the Turkish government, began in May and is raising hopes that a
small, cautious thaw in relations between Turkey and neighboring Armenia
could expand.
The church is the lone building on a tiny island in a lake. It is
covered in scaffolding as masons replace fallen roof stones to stop the
rainwater and rebuild the basalt floor, which was dug out by treasure
hunters. Experts also will try to restore the frescoes in the interior.
"This is our positive approach, our message," says Turkey's prime
minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has staked his rule on winning
membership in the EU.
The European Union urged Turkey last year to consider registering
Akhtamar in UNESCO's World Heritage List and is pressing the country to
reopen its closed border with Armenia and re-establish diplomatic ties
with its neighbor. Turkey has taken cautious steps toward improving
connections Armenia and a member of Erdogan's political party visited
its capital earlier this year, but relations remain extremely cool
because of animosities over ethnic bloodletting a century ago.
Eastern Turkey was once a heartland of Armenian culture and more than a
million Armenians lived in the area at the turn of the 19th century. But
they were driven out by what Armenia contends was a policy of genocide
by Turks, a charge the Turkish government vehemently denies.
Akhtamar, called the Church of Surp Khach, or Holy Cross, was one of the
most important churches of those ancient Armenian lands. It was built by
Armenian King Gagik I of Vaspurakan and inaugurated in A.D. 921. Gagik's
historian, Thomas Ardzruni, described the church as being near a harbor
and a palace with gilded cupolas, peacefully surrounded by the lake.
Only the church survived.
By 1113, the church had become the center of the Armenian Patriarchate
of Akhtamar and an inspiration to mystics in the area. The island was
the center of a renowned school of scribal art and illumination. The
region was a thriving center of Armenian culture, but was engulfed in
ethnic conflict as the Turks' Ottoman Empire splintered at the end of
World War I.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered by Turks.
Turkey strongly denies there was any genocide, arguing that the death
toll has been inflated and saying that the Armenians who were killed
died as a result of civil unrest.
Today, there are virtually no Armenians in eastern Turkey, and Akhtamar
has been empty for decades. Some of its reliefs are stained with paint
and eggs thrown by vandals. Bullet holes, apparently from shepherds who
used the site for target practice, mar the walls.
The church is considered one of the most important examples of Armenian
architecture. Elaborate reliefs project up to 10 centimeters (4 inches)
from brownish-red sandstone walls, almost like sculptures. Some depict
biblical stories such as Jonah being swallowed by the whale and Daniel
in the lion's den. Others show cows, lions, birds and other animals to
remind worshippers that the church is an image of paradise.
Erdogan's government asked the Armenian Christian patriarch in Istanbul,
where nearly all of Turkey's remaining 65,000 Armenians live, to name an
architect to help with the restoration. Zakarya Mildanoglu, the
architect picked, says he hopes the restoration helps improve relations
between Armenia and Turkey, but adds: "We need to be patient. Things
that happened a century ago cannot be healed overnight."
Mesrob II, the Armenian patriarch, wants the government to open the
church for religious services and special festivities once a year. The
church is officially closed to services since there are no Armenian
Christians in the region. "I think that Akhtamar is a symbol for
perfection in Armenian architecture and also mysticism," Mesrob II says.
Azeri Opposition Group Attacked For `Ties With Armenian Intelligence'
(AFP) - Some 200 supporters of a pro-government group in Azerbaijan
attempted to storm the headquarters of an opposition party Wednesday in
a new sign of tension ahead of November 6 parliamentary elections, an
AFP correspondent on the scene said.
Protestors chanted "Shame!" as they pushed against a police cordon in
the ex-Soviet republic's capital Baku while trying to break into the
opposition National Front party building. The crowd, from the Muasir
Musavat (Modern Unity) party, said they were incensed by an opposition
leader's alleged contacts with agents from Azerbaijan's neighbor
Armenia.
The leader of the Yeni Fikir opposition movement, Ruslan Bashirli, was
arrested last week and charged with allegedly accepting Armenian money
to finance a revolution in Azerbaijan. Yeni Fikir has an office in the
National Front headquarters.
The opposition has denied the accusation, which is potentially damaging
because of tense relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, rivals that
fought a war in the 1990s over the territory of Nagorno Karabakh. The
last two days have already seen scuffles and stone throwing between pro-
and anti-government supporters in Baku.
Europe's top election-monitoring body, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), on Tuesday condemned violent attacks
directed at the opposition. The head of the OSCE office in Baku,
Maurizio Pavesi, called on the authorities to prevent "violent and
unauthorized public meetings" or risk causing the "deterioration" of the
electoral campaign.
PRESS REVIEW
Most Armenian newspapers have suspended their publication due to the
period of summer holidays.