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Issue #36 (158), September 23, 2005 | www.armenianow.com
TRAGIC DEATH FUELS CARELESS GOSSIP: RUMORS OVER TEENAGER'S HANGING SPREAD FEAR
IN YEREVAN
By Suren Deheryan & Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporters
Parents in a north suburban community of Yerevan are concerned about their
children's safety after a schoolboy's violent death has given rise to rumors
about further killings or kidnappings.
Ashot Makaryan, 14, an eighth-former of school N 197 in Yerevan's 9th Nork
district was found hanged on September 6 under the `Victory' bridge (in the
Hrazdan gorge, some 15 kilometers from his home). According to police
information, the boy's hands were tied, though not tightly.
(Though the boy was found two weeks ago, it was only this week that news of
his death began to circulate amid gossip throughout the city. Rumors spread
that messages had been attached to the body, and that there had been previous
but undisclosed similar cases.)
A murder investigation has been launched by the Prosecutor's Office of
Yerevan's Malatia-Sebastia community (who haven't ruled out suicide as a cause
of death).
Since the beginning of school this academic year Ashot attended school only
once - on September 5, the day before he was found dead. Before that,
according to Headmistress of School N 197 Varsenik Tadevosyan, from September
1 to September 3, he was at his grandmother's residence in Echmiadzin.
News of his death was followed by anonymous phone calls and messages to
parents of children attending different schools with threats to their
children's security: `Yours will be next to die' and the like.
Rumors and exaggerated accounts of the boy's death have spread across the city
causing alarm, with nearly every schoolchild, student or parent becoming
security-minded.
Thirty-year-old mom-of-two Gohar Darbinyan's son went to school this year. She
says that different rumors about kidnappings of children had reached her and
other parents recently and these alleged kidnappings are linked with different
religious sects.
`Those parents who have children of school age know about these rumors. My
child's teacher has specially warned the class today that if somebody's parent
was late to pick him or her from school, they should stay close to her,' says
the Nor Nork resident Darbinyan.
On Monday, the press service of Armenia's Police categorically denied the
rumors about other killings or suicides.
`These rumors are absolutely groundless and false and do not correspond to
reality,' the press service of the Police said in a statement.
Headmistress Tadevosyan treats these anonymous threats as `evil jokes' and
pranks and says they are determined not to let similar speculations affect the
schooling process.
`Two parents of our schoolchildren received anonymous threats after the
incident. Of course, with the spread of such rumors there is a tension among
parents and some of them accompany their children to the school. But in any
case the educational process is continuing and there is nothing to worry
about,' Tatevosyan told ArmeniaNow.
The situation was enough to warrant a meeting of school headmasters of the Nor
Nork community with the local prefect yesterday, during which it was learned
that similar signs of panic were registered in several other schools of the
community.
The Ministry of Education and Science says it is an individual case and all
the rest is only rumors that have nothing to do with reality. Ministry
spokesperson Karine Grigoryan says that the Ministry has not undertaken any
special measures to tighten school security.
`Providing security in schools has always been in the center of the Ministry's
attention. We don't think that security in schools needs to be strengthened
today, as in our opinion it is organized well,' Grigoryan said.
She advises parents not to take similar rumors seriously and not to keep their
children back from school.
Both Tadevosyan and Ashot's form-mistress Mariam Hovhannisyan describe Ashot
as a clever boy, who, however, did not have close friends among his fellow
pupils.
`He would run home immediately after school. He didn't eat at our canteen, did
not participate in our events. Twice I managed to talk him into participating
in an event together with his fellow students,' says Hovhannisyan, adding that
at the same time he had the fewest number of absences, had an average progress
as a student and nothing extraordinary was noticed about him.
Meanwhile, Ashot's mother, 42-year-old housewife Karine Makaryan, describes
her son as a lively boy.
`Teachers say that he didn't mix with other children, but at home he was a
very merry boy,' says the mother. `Ashot's murder - and I have no doubt it was
a murder - was a great shock to us all that we haven't quite overcome yet.'
Makaryan says that she and her husband Khachatur rely on police to find those
responsible for the death of their son. `Only in that case will we feel
certain satisfaction. I felt shocked during those days and I don't want any
other parent to feel the same.'
She adds that the boy was not connected with any religious organization and
they had no one among acquaintances who was connected to one.
Karine's other son, Arshavir, is a tenth-former in another school in the same
area. He started to attend school this week.
`We are determined to struggle to the end until this murder is disclosed to
put an end to the circulating rumors and for the parents and children in our
community to feel safe again,' says Karine.
Meanwhile, Ashot's teachers are still coming to terms with his absence when
they come to N12 in their register. The boy would have turned 15 on November
8. His mother says he had wanted to pursue a military career.
IS ANYBODY LISTENING?: OMBUDSWOMAN RELEASES SPECIAL REPORT ON PROPERTY
VIOLATIONS
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Less than six months after she released her annual report, Armenia's
Ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdyan, has released a special report, to address the
property disputes that are going on in central Yerevan.
(Hundreds of residents have been displaced by urban development projects that
many say are violations of human rights and are a misuse of the Armenian
Constitution's provision for `the welfare of the state'. See links below for
previous ArmeniaNow reports.)
The new report entitled `About Ownership, Fair Trial and Violations of the
Rights to Court Protection' is a follow-up to violations raised in the initial
report which, the Ombudswoman says (according to law) should have been
corrected, but were not.
The 24-page, nine-chapter report says it was created because: `Taking into
consideration the fact that the violations of the mentioned right of citizens,
the rights to fair trial and court protection connected with it not only
failed to be removed and no means have been undertaken directed at their
removal, but these violations are continuing, a need has arisen to address
this issue once again through this special report addressed to the authorities
and the public.'
The report (www.ombuds.am) presents in detail all the violations of the law
and human rights that were committed during the construction projects in city
center. In 2004, the Ombudswoman received 176 complaints, and 239 only during
the six months of 2005. The report may serve as a useful document in the hands
of lawyers defending people's right to have property and an apartment. Basing
on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Armenian Constitution,
civil, land, apartment legislations and on the Constitutional Court, the
Ombudswoman at full length presents how citizens' rights were violated.
The critics of the previous report said that it had failed to ground many of
the registered violations with examples. A whole chapter in the special report
deals with examples of violations of the right to court protection and fair
trial wherein court rulings are subjected to a detailed analysis.
The Ombudswoman's special report uses studies and analyses to show that
people's property was alienated without a separate corresponding law for each
owner, which is required by the Constitution and the decision of February 27,
1998 of the Constitutional Court. By government decisions that contradict the
country's Basic Law owners are deprived of the right to manage their property.
They do not get a commensurate compensation, besides the compensations offered
are combined with obligations not envisaged by the law. The right of an
individual and a family to have an apartment is violated, the state not only
fails to assist in the realization of the right of a family to improve their
housing conditions, which is required by the Constitution, but on the contrary
deprives them of their apartment.
The report states that with the violation of the right of universal equality
before the law, an unfair redistribution of property is taking place, with
separate individuals becoming owners of the central parts of Yerevan at
incomparably low prices and the socially vulnerable stratum is driven out
towards the city outskirts. The means by which residents are forced from their
property (i.e., buildings destroyed even while court appeals are being made)
is, the report says, a violation of human rights.
It is also stated that in the studied cases courts do not defend and do not
reinstate citizens in their rights. The right of citizens to get court
protection through a fair trial is violated.
In the report's conclusion, the Ombudswoman states that her special report is
an attempt to invite once again the attention of all chains of the Republic of
Armenia authorities to the recognition of human rights.
DIFFERENT ELECTION, SAME STORY: MONEY FOR VOTES GIVES OLIGARCH'S PROTÉGÉ
CONTROL OF CITY DISTRIC
By Shakeh Avoyan and Astghik Bedevian
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A 26-year-old protégé of one of Armenia's most powerful `oligarchs' will
govern Yerevan's poorest administrative district after winning a weekend local
election that appeared to have degenerated into a vote buying contest.
According to official results of the vote (ignored by the Armenian
opposition), Mher Hovannisian easily defeated Ruben Asatrian, the incumbent
prefect of the southern Nubarashen district who supports the central
government but is not affiliated with any political party. Asatrian, who held
the post for the past 22 years, won only 13 percent of the vote.
The outcome of the race was all but predetermined by the fact that Hovannisian
is actively backed and sponsored by Gagik Tsarukian (popularly known by his
nickname, `Dodi Gago'), one of the country's richest and most feared men, who
is close to President Robert Kocharian. Hovannisian's father is reportedly a
close partner of Tsarukian and runs the biggest local business, a liquefied
gas station. The tycoon's support for the young man translated into heavy
campaign spending and control of the local election commissions.
There were numerous witness accounts of what is increasingly becoming the
defining feature of Armenian local and national elections: vote bribes. Many
local voters admitted accepting cash and food from both candidates.
Elderly people in particular described how Hovannisian's representatives
collected their passports ahead of the ballot after they agreed to vote for
him in exchange for 5,000 drams ($11). `We got our money and they gave back
our passports,' said one man.
`Five thousand drams,' clarified another, female pensioner. The sum is
comparable to her monthly pension.
Both voters insisted that they were not told to go to cast their ballots on
voting day while they got their passports back. Someone else
presumably `voted' in their place. The passports contain voters' signatures
and other personal information required by election officials.
Hovannisian, who refused to be interviewed inside his campaign headquarters,
acknowledged on Friday that his campaign workers collected passports but
denied handing out cash or other kickbacks. `We are simply clarifying voter
lists with passports,' he told RFE/RL. `There are lots of inaccuracies in the
lists.'
The winner and his campaign managers were not available for comment on the day
after the election (when the RFE report was prepared). `They partied all night
and are probably taking rest now,' explained an aide.
Residents of the run-down area said they have grown accustomed to selling
their votes. `You think he didn't do us any favors when getting elected?' one
woman said, referring to the defeated prefect. `He too paid people to vote for
him. Everyone does that. The same thing happened here.'
`It's assistance, not a bribe,' she added.
Armenian law strictly prohibits election candidates from providing any
material compensation or services to voters. However, vote buying has been
commonplace in the presidential, parliamentary and especially local elections
held in recent years. Nobody has been prosecuted for the practice so far. In
TOUCH WITH TAVUSH: WITH COMMUNICATION PROJECTS NEARING COMPLETION, PRESIDENT
PROMISES FURTHER ATTENTION
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
President Robert Kocharyan made a visit to Tavush last week, with promises
that the strategic region will soon be better connected to important trade and
communication routes.
By the end of this year, villages that border Azerbaijan, and that have been
virtually isolated due to damage left over from the Karabakh War, will be
better connected to each other, and to the main highway linking the border
settlements with Yerevan and Tbilisi.
Already, 16 kilometers of the 23-kilometer Aygehovit - Vazashen - Paravakar
motorway have a new surface. All but one kilometer of the border life-link is
expected to be completed before 2006. The project is financed by 1.5 billion
drams (about $335,000) from the State budget.
The President also promised similar projects for connecting internal villages
and towns.
`During the next two or three years the sections of the Berd-Chambarak,
Dilijan-Chambarak, Chambarak-Shorzha, and the ways connecting Berd with the
remotest villages will be put into operation,' Kocharyan told reporters last
Friday.
The evidence of promises being carried out is welcomed by residents such as
Hakob Poghosyan, of the village of Chinchin.
`Everyone who had a possibility to travel through this mountainous area cannot
but remember the danger that awaited them around each serpentine curve - the
mighty trunks of trees overturned by a night windbreak and slow sliding ground
along which rare transport has to move,' Poghosyan said. `And even in `safe'
Soviet time these places knew only one stable means of movement - a loaded
donkey.'
Situated in the north-east of Armenia, the Tavush region occupies a territory
of 2,700 square kilometers. In addition to being one of the republic's most
scenic regions, it is also the only one that borders Georgia and Azerbaijan.
It is strategic from a defense standpoint, especially considering that, in
addition to bordering enemy territory, its Georgia neighbors are also mostly
Azeri-populated territories - specifically the Marneuli region.
The main settlements of Tavush (including Ijevan and Noyemberyan) bear the
marks of life on a battle front: abandoned railroads, shelled houses, mined
lands and cut-off water lines. The province is home to about 160,000, with
63,000 living in towns (Dilijan - 24,000, Ijevan - 21,000, Berd - 11,500,
Noyemberyan - 6,500).
`Besides the visual reminders of the frontline zone, all this forms a special
psychology of people living on the line of contact of the armed forces of
Armenia and Azerbaijan,' says the region's head Armen Ghularyan. Half of
Tavush's 58 villages are, Ghularyan says `within the radius of a sniper's
shot'. The overwhelming majority of cases of violating the May 12, 1994 cease-
fire between Armenia and Azerbiajan, have taken place in Tavush villages.
`Nearly a 100,000-strong rural population of the region, part of whom still
continue to live in extreme conditions, must feel their link to the midland
areas of the republic,' says Ghularyan. `For this it is necessary to take a
lot of measures on the economic development of the region, such as to create
agricultural infrastructure, install new canals and form sales points for
agricultural produce of border villages. However, the most important is
building road communications without which it is impossible to speak about the
region's economic development seriously.'
Taking into account the specifics of Tavush, the Government of Armenia adopted
a program on the socio-economic rehabilitation of the region in 2002, which
became the first State project applied to a single province.
`The government program on the economic development of Tavush is no doubt a
very important document exactly in the aspect that it is a thoroughly
considered list of all socio-economic priorities of the region,' Kocharyan
said. `This document in fact shows the logic of the rehabilitation of this
area. Meanwhile, Armenian authorities are developing new points on the basis
of the already existing project.
`In particular, we must abandon the `piece-mill policy' in which allocated
funds are spent on reshaping only separate components of several facilities -
repairs of the roof of one school or another, reconstruction of one or another
communication sector, etc. Today it is time for conceptual solutions -
construction of new schools, building new roads...'
And, the President added, time to get telephone service to such areas.
`It is also a strategic task to provide the population, especially of
borderline areas of Armenia, with mobile phone connection,' Kocharyan said. `I
think that in the near future this problem will be solved through the
activities of the new mobile phone operator (VivaCell, see links below for
related ArmeniaNow article). Besides the military-strategic factor, here
another aspect is also important: it is only with the presence of stable
communication that the development of economic infrastructures of the region
is possible.'
The President did not, however, mention that in his own city, Yerevan, proper
mobile phone service has not been available since July, when Viva Cell and
Armentel started fighting over the cell phone market. It is a condition not
lost, however, on villagers such as Zhora Bejanyan, a resident of the village
of Koti, who believes his province deserves special attention.
`The ArmenTel Company, which has undertaken to provide the population of the
country with stable communication, has failed to carry out its functions,'
Bejanyan said. `While this incompetence within the boundaries of the Armenian
capital is taken in the form of social irritation or violation of consumer
rights, then on the frontline it is also the cause of strategic losses.'
BRIDGES: A SURVIVOR REMEMBERS A FATHER'S GOOD WORK AND A TURK'S KINDNESS
By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Red and white grapes twist in the old man's hands, slipping into the bowl.
Andranik Tachikyan begins separating the sweet tasted bunches of grape - one
to eat, one to make wine.
He was a small child when he used to take bunches into his hands squeezing
them and having fun of it.
Andranik's family was well known in the Turkish city of Tripoli (now in
Lebanon).
His parents and ancestors, Andranik says, were wealthy famous people
possessing a big garden, a pharmacy, endless fields of wheat and tobacco and a
mansion that they lost in one day when the mass extermination of Armenians
began.
`My father was Dutch, his name was Pierre Van Moorsel. He was a famous man, a
doctor and engineer, who had built several bridges,' tells Andranik, taking
his father's visit card from a pile of papers. `My mother was Armenian, her
name - Arshaluys. She was a kind woman, who lost almost everything during the
genocide and stood against all the pain and trouble alone.'
`When the bridge was ready all our family used to sit under the brand new
bridge and loaded cars used to pass over it,' remembers Andranik, who is now
94. `That was the way and the bridge builder knew that building a bad bridge
will first of all threaten the life of his family. But everyone knew about the
strong bridges my father used to build. We were confident nothing will happen
to us, but neither his fame nor his descent saved him.'
Fixing his eyeglasses Grandpa Andranik brings the military green tie and
garment into order and begins bothering with his documents.
The old man who served in the Military Registration and Enlistment Office for
55 years tries to substantiate everything he says, bringing arguments showing
the shabby-yellow documents or photographs.
`This is the only picture of the massacre times,' he tells. `This is the only
thing that has remained from our wealth, years and life.'
Mother Arshaluys is in the middle, and Andranik and his sister Mariam are on
the sides.
The faded photographs are as old as the fading remembrance, the childhood
memories and difficulties of genocide times.
`I was small; there are some dates and names I can't remember, but there are
several things I remember very well,' tells Andranik. `The Turks on horses
with swords in their hands either killed people or threw them into the river.
The scene was horrifying. Although my father was a Dutch, they killed him and
my older brother as Armenians. We were shocked and horrified. We did not know
where to go and what to do without father. We left home, fame, wealth and took
the way of refuge - starving and barefooted.'
Andranik remembers their gardener, a Turk, reached them in a difficult moment
and `saved us away from the sword'.
`Our Turkish gardener was very loyal to my father and our family, because we
treated all of them very well. As soon as the massacres began, he saved us,
endangering his own life. He took my mother, my sister and me under a bridge
my father had built,' he says. `Everything went wrong, people could not save
their children from the Turks' swords; we would not survive if it were not for
the gardener.'
Andranik remembers the grass was high under the bridge and the gardener kept
them there.
`We stayed there for a while. Every day our gardener would secretly bring us
sunflower seeds, hazelnut oil cake and we ate it until the Americans entered
Tripoli,' he says. `Then the Americans found us and sent us to Greece by sea.'
Andranik says he remembers the orphans and the exhausted people gathered by
the ship.
`Everyone cried by the ship, for they couldn't believe they have been saved at
last. My mother would also cry, she would squeeze us to her breast and cry
loudly,' he remembers. `Then the ship took us to Greece. We move to Armenia
from Greece.'
Andranik says they saw many difficulties in Armenia at the beginning.
`We had a marvelous big house in Tripoli and lived in gorgeous conditions.
When we came to Armenia we were allotted an barn in one of the suburban
sovkhozes (state farms) of the city.'
And then he adds: `But we were happy we were alive.'
`Although my mother never forgot our house, my father and my brother, however,
after many years, life changed and we started everything over again. We worked
and had a home; we married and tried to live and to continue our life in the
Motherland.'
CLUSTERED FOR INFORMATION: SYMPOSIUM INTRODUCES ARMENIAN SUPER COMPUTER
By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
During a five-day gathering of Information Technology (IT) programmers and
scientists this week in Yerevan, specialists from 12 countries exchanged ideas
about developments in their field and heard some 135 reports, 40 of which came
from the symposium hosts.
Like the recently-completed conference on genetics that drew similar
international participation, the symposium at the National Academy of Sciences
of Armenia provided a fertile environment for debate and discussion of IT
issues, and especially their relevance in Armenia's burgeoning scientific
field.
Apart from reports on traditionally developing applied studies, one day of the
symposium specifically dealt with the creation of a high-performance computer,
ArmCluster, recently implemented in Armenia.
It was announced during the meeting that Armenia is now home to a powerful
supercomputer center, which beginning from 2006 will constitute a core for the
republic's specialists working in the field of sciences and education for the
purpose of establishing a common computing infrastructure.
`The ArmCluster system will be a unique machine supplied with huge computing
resources that will make it possible to make intricate calculations in
different scientific spheres of Armenia,' says researcher of the Institute for
Informatics and Automation Problems of NAS of Armenia, Hrachya Astsatryan.
`Such complicated problems are impossible to solve by means of separate
computers, which was the reason for Armenian scientists so far to search for
solutions to their scientific problems abroad. Now there is no need for that,'
the scientist says.
The high-performance computing ArmCluster system will allow 128 processors to
work on one task at the same time, calculating larger amounts of data.
At present, ArmCluster is the largest supercomputer in the Caucasus region,
and the fifth most powerful among such clusters existing in CIS countries. The
first place is occupied by the Russian-Belarus computing system, and the next
three places are occupied by the Russians.
The system was implemented at the Institute for Informatics and Automation
Problems, based on a project of the International Scientific Technology Center
(ISTC). Seven Armenian institutes, as well as the Tbilisi State University
(Georgia) participated in the realization of the project.
The cost of the 2.5-year grant project is $270,000, which was funded by the
ISTC. According to the project executives, it was considered as one of ISTC's
most successful projects.
`Thus, the field for researches has been extended for Armenian scientists. It
will enable them to compute more complicated and new types of problems with
the aid of the computer,' says project director Vladimir Sahakyan, of the
National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Institute for Informatics and
Automation Problems.
According to him, a skilful programmer will be able to solve more complicated
problems with this computer system. `And we have good programmers and have
always been proud of their high level, and it is the field where they ought to
display their level. And the possibilities of the ArmCluster are so great that
it can be employed to solve several problems at a time,' says Sahakyan.
Services of the high computing system are also available online, with
registration on the official website www.armcluster.am in advance.
According to Sahakyan, certain scientists in Armenia have already defended
their theses on the bases of the ArmCluster.
`Scientists make big databases for their spheres in high-performance
computing, and research hypothesis in such a server environment, which are
worked up only in such big systems,' says Sahakyan
`MYSTICAL AND LYRICAL': THE `DALIEST' OPENS EXHIBIT IN YEREVAN
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
The world's most famous surrealist once called Iranian-Armenian artist Onik
Sahakian `the Daliest man I know'.
For the first time in Sahakian's 30-year career, Yerevan art lovers will have
a chance to judge whether Dali's remark was praise or criticism, when an
exhibition by Sahakian opens at the Gevorgyan Gallery.
Sahakian has had 52 solo exhibitions, in such places as the Museum of World
Culture at Gotheborg, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Moscow, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Tehran, his home. The
Gevorgyan exhibit, however is his first in the motherland.
`I have a strange feeling. I have always identified myself as an American, and
only here I understood I belong to this land, as if I have lived especially
here in my past life,' Sahakian, age 69, told ArmeniaNow.
His has been a life immersed in art, starting from age seven, when he became
acquainted with Indian dance, and began staging his own performances. He later
studied at the Yelena Avetisian School of Choreography, while also studying
painting (Persian miniatures) at the Tehran Institute of Fine Arts.
In 1956, and by then a skilled ballet dancer, Sahakian moved to the United
States, where he appeared in more than 100 dance performances over 10 years.
In 1958, he met Dali. Sahakian's nephew was a hairdresser to Iranian Queen
Farah, and to another famous client . . .
The nephew introduced Sahakian to a certain client who fancied having enormous
rollers in his hair, Salvador Dali. That day was the beginning of a unique
friendship that was to last 20 years.
`The Spaniard cast a spell upon me so that I began painting again,' Sahakian
says. `A moment came when painting became my way of self-expression. A
dancer's life is as short as that of a butterfly. Art is a means of self-
expression to me. After dance, painting became the world where I become candid
and express myself.'
Over the years Sahakian assisted Dali with his collages, paintings and
sculptures. He also designed exquisite jewelry for Dali and his wife. Then he
moved to New York City, where he set up a consulting agency for art and
jewelry design, known as `Onik Design Ltd'. (He now lives in New York and
Lisbon.)
Dali also once told Sahakian: `You are crazy; but a good kind of crazy'.
The super surrealist's `crazy' friend says his life has been one of a constant
search for meaning.
His search through art took him from miniatures to Dutch classics into
impressionism (with easy and slight touches).
Of course he could not escape the influence of the powerful surrealist, but
Sahakian soon found his own style and means of expression.
`My works are mystical and lyrical, Dali's are aggressive and shocking, if
critics compare us, they must have never known him,' says Sahakian. `I do not
aim at shocking people with my art. Life is cruel by itself; on the contrary
art should embrace people's hearts with quietness and harmony.'
In his book `Prodigy' Explanation' , art critic Ghoncheh Tazmini writes that
Sahakian `infuses in the disjuncture of the surrealist imagination elements of
hope, faith and comfort. Onik's talent lies in his ability to reconcile two
disparate orientations bringing to his audience a sense of harmony and
equilibrium.'
The painter's series of faceless Madonnas puts the revered figure in gorgeous
garments with an empty oval instead of the face that allows people, the artist
says, to feel the spiritual essence, to ascend from the material and the body
and see not beautiful eyes, nose or mouth, but an unearthly spirit.
`And who knows how Madonna's or Christ's faces looked? For every man the face
of the Lord is inside himself, within the limits of his conscience,' says the
artist.
Stairs are also a frequently repeating theme in Sahakian's paintings - Place
of Silence, Enigma. Stairs going up to the endless sky symbolize each step of
the man, every single kind thing done that step by step lead to cosmic
eternity and quietness.
`In arts, and especially in painting, the most important thing is the positive
energy the art should express,' Sahakian says. `I get hundreds of letters from
different people mostly saying their souls calm down in front of my paintings.
I think this is a big achievement.
Sahakian's 16-piece exhibit will continue through the middle of October at the
Gevorgyan Gallery. The painter says that in October he will travel throughout
Armenia, collecting impressions for future works.
According to Sahakyan, the stated program of Armenia is to create a network of
computers with compatible software packages that connect all research
scientists.
The State Engineering University of Armenia and the Yerevan State University
are the first in the queue to join the central cluster.
FROM HERE TO SINGAPORE?: 2020 PROJECT HOLDS FURTHER DEBATES ON ARMENIA'S NEAR
FUTURE
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
In 15 years, Armenia will have a standard of living comparable to today's
Singapore, China.
Perhaps.
Or: In 2020, Armenia will be hardly better off than it is today, with a per-
capita income of about $5,000.
These are the extremes calculated by the Armenia 2020 Project, and discussed
in its forum `Strategy of Armenia's Stable Development: Competitiveness and
Productivity Growth', held Wednesday at the Armenia Marriott Hotel.
The forum attracted about 350 participants, and some of Armenia's top
officials, including President Robert Kocharyan, who hailed the
research/analysis think tank as `playing an important part in the amendment of
the policy of Armenia's economic development'. Also attending were members of
the Armenian business community who discussed issues such as Information
Technology, tourism, healthcare, jewelry, diamond-cutting, etc.
Over the past 3 and a half years, Armenia 2020 (link to apri's story, 9/09)
has tried to answer the basic question from which its name is drawn: `Where
will Armenia be in 2020?'
`Singapore' may be one answer, where the average citizen now has about $12,000
per year spending power. (The 2020 Project calculates "spending power"
according to currency value and cost of living. Armenia's current spending
power is about $5,000, while the actual per-capita income is about $1,315.)
But whether that or other scenarios end up fitting future Armenia, 2020
members say it is not the project's mission to be psychics, but only to gather
and analyze data that might offer worthwhile avenues for the country to
pursue.
`Our first step is to try to understand in what ways Armenia can develop, what
is the program of Armenia's development that will be presented not only by
Armenia 2020 Project members, but also by the government, the public, the
people living in Armenia,' said Ruben Vardanyan, Project Board member,
Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of the Russian Troika-Dialogue
Group. `And after this it will become possible to create a mechanism to help
bring Armenian and non-Armenian money to Armenia to work for the country's
development.'
Diaspora businessman and Armenia 2020 Board member Noubar Afeyan said the goal
of the second stage, beginning now, is the establishment of a national
competitiveness trust to shore up economic growth in Armenia.
For his part, Vardanyan added that board members and others could bring
investments from abroad ranging to more than $2 billion for promoting
Armenia's economic growth and ensuring the country's development in the next
decade and a half.
(Initially, the trust structure needs $300 million and the Board members said
they had an opportunity to ensure this sum).
But at the same time Vardanyan said: `We think that the idea of the trust can
work only if you have a strategic idea of where Armenia is going, what program
is there for Armenia for the next 15 years. In that case the establishment of
the structure has sense, as it is already clear in what directions to invest.'
Director of the Armenia 2020 Project Artashes Kazakhetyan said the
participants had useful working meetings and discussions both during the forum
itself and on its sidelines. `The main subject concerned ways of ensuring
Armenia's competitiveness in various fields,' said Kazakhetyan. `We also
discussed the idea of establishing a trust structure of Armenia's
competitiveness and all issues connected with the strengthening of the `second
wave' of economic growth.'
Founded in 2001, the Armenia 2020 Project works to develop models of
development for Armenia and help transform them into concrete scenarios. (Such
programs have had good results in Russia, Portugal and Belgium.)
The project is funded by business persons of Armenian descent from Armenia,
Russia, the United States and Europe. So far, Armenia 2020 has spent about $2
million developing patterns that might be instructional for future policy.
SPORT DIGEST:
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Football
Debut for Edgar: Armenian national team striker Edgar Manucharyan played his
first official match for Ajax Amsterdam in the national championship as an 84-
th minute substitute for Dutch international Rayan Babel. (In that away match
Ajax lost to Alkmar 2-4.
Before that Manucharyan played for Ajax only in one friendly (Barcelona),
during which he broke his leg. (A1 Plus)
Boxing
An Australia-based Armenian boxer Vic (Vakhtang) Darchinyan, who retained his
2004 International Boxing Federation and 2005 International Boxing
Organization flyweight titles, told during a rare visit to his homeland he was
preparing to defend one of his titles versus Damian Kelly from Ireland.
Vic Darchinyan retained his International Boxing Federation flyweight title
with a fifth-round technical knockout on August 24 over Jair Jimenez at the
Sydney Entertainment Center.
This is Darchinyan's first visit to Armenia in two years, and he was on hand
for the opening of a boxing school in his hometown, Vanadzor. Darchinyan has
won all 24 of his fights, 19 by knock out. He also said he may move from
Australia to US where professional boxing is more developed. (Armenpress)
Weightlifting
Armenia's Cup in weightlifting was contested in Gyumri recently, with 39
leading weightlifters of the country taking part in the competition.
Eventually, the Cup was won by heavyweight Ashot Danielyan, who showed the
result of 455 kg in the snatch, clean and jerk combination. Gevorg Davtyan was
second, and Tigran Martirosyan was third. Armenia's national weightlifting
team began its preparations after this tournament for the world championships
to be held in Qatar in November. (A1 Plus)
Cycling
A tournament after well-known cyclists Kepekyan brothers was held in Yerevan
for the 8th time last week. Six cyclists from Georgia also participated in the
event. In the competition among 16-year-olds the first prize went to Nerses
Shirinyan, and the second place was won by Suren Petrosyan. Among the 18-year-
olds the winner was Edgar Gasparyan, followed by Georgi Nodiradze from
Georgia. (The Cycling Federation of Armenia, www.cycling.am
TRAGIC DEATH FUELS CARELESS GOSSIP: RUMORS OVER TEENAGER'S HANGING SPREAD FEAR
IN YEREVAN
By Suren Deheryan & Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporters
Parents in a north suburban community of Yerevan are concerned about their
children's safety after a schoolboy's violent death has given rise to rumors
about further killings or kidnappings.
Ashot Makaryan, 14, an eighth-former of school N 197 in Yerevan's 9th Nork
district was found hanged on September 6 under the `Victory' bridge (in the
Hrazdan gorge, some 15 kilometers from his home). According to police
information, the boy's hands were tied, though not tightly.
(Though the boy was found two weeks ago, it was only this week that news of
his death began to circulate amid gossip throughout the city. Rumors spread
that messages had been attached to the body, and that there had been previous
but undisclosed similar cases.)
A murder investigation has been launched by the Prosecutor's Office of
Yerevan's Malatia-Sebastia community (who haven't ruled out suicide as a cause
of death).
Since the beginning of school this academic year Ashot attended school only
once - on September 5, the day before he was found dead. Before that,
according to Headmistress of School N 197 Varsenik Tadevosyan, from September
1 to September 3, he was at his grandmother's residence in Echmiadzin.
News of his death was followed by anonymous phone calls and messages to
parents of children attending different schools with threats to their
children's security: `Yours will be next to die' and the like.
Rumors and exaggerated accounts of the boy's death have spread across the city
causing alarm, with nearly every schoolchild, student or parent becoming
security-minded.
Thirty-year-old mom-of-two Gohar Darbinyan's son went to school this year. She
says that different rumors about kidnappings of children had reached her and
other parents recently and these alleged kidnappings are linked with different
religious sects.
`Those parents who have children of school age know about these rumors. My
child's teacher has specially warned the class today that if somebody's parent
was late to pick him or her from school, they should stay close to her,' says
the Nor Nork resident Darbinyan.
On Monday, the press service of Armenia's Police categorically denied the
rumors about other killings or suicides.
`These rumors are absolutely groundless and false and do not correspond to
reality,' the press service of the Police said in a statement.
Headmistress Tadevosyan treats these anonymous threats as `evil jokes' and
pranks and says they are determined not to let similar speculations affect the
schooling process.
`Two parents of our schoolchildren received anonymous threats after the
incident. Of course, with the spread of such rumors there is a tension among
parents and some of them accompany their children to the school. But in any
case the educational process is continuing and there is nothing to worry
about,' Tatevosyan told ArmeniaNow.
The situation was enough to warrant a meeting of school headmasters of the Nor
Nork community with the local prefect yesterday, during which it was learned
that similar signs of panic were registered in several other schools of the
community.
The Ministry of Education and Science says it is an individual case and all
the rest is only rumors that have nothing to do with reality. Ministry
spokesperson Karine Grigoryan says that the Ministry has not undertaken any
special measures to tighten school security.
`Providing security in schools has always been in the center of the Ministry's
attention. We don't think that security in schools needs to be strengthened
today, as in our opinion it is organized well,' Grigoryan said.
She advises parents not to take similar rumors seriously and not to keep their
children back from school.
Both Tadevosyan and Ashot's form-mistress Mariam Hovhannisyan describe Ashot
as a clever boy, who, however, did not have close friends among his fellow
pupils.
`He would run home immediately after school. He didn't eat at our canteen, did
not participate in our events. Twice I managed to talk him into participating
in an event together with his fellow students,' says Hovhannisyan, adding that
at the same time he had the fewest number of absences, had an average progress
as a student and nothing extraordinary was noticed about him.
Meanwhile, Ashot's mother, 42-year-old housewife Karine Makaryan, describes
her son as a lively boy.
`Teachers say that he didn't mix with other children, but at home he was a
very merry boy,' says the mother. `Ashot's murder - and I have no doubt it was
a murder - was a great shock to us all that we haven't quite overcome yet.'
Makaryan says that she and her husband Khachatur rely on police to find those
responsible for the death of their son. `Only in that case will we feel
certain satisfaction. I felt shocked during those days and I don't want any
other parent to feel the same.'
She adds that the boy was not connected with any religious organization and
they had no one among acquaintances who was connected to one.
Karine's other son, Arshavir, is a tenth-former in another school in the same
area. He started to attend school this week.
`We are determined to struggle to the end until this murder is disclosed to
put an end to the circulating rumors and for the parents and children in our
community to feel safe again,' says Karine.
Meanwhile, Ashot's teachers are still coming to terms with his absence when
they come to N12 in their register. The boy would have turned 15 on November
8. His mother says he had wanted to pursue a military career.
IS ANYBODY LISTENING?: OMBUDSWOMAN RELEASES SPECIAL REPORT ON PROPERTY
VIOLATIONS
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Less than six months after she released her annual report, Armenia's
Ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdyan, has released a special report, to address the
property disputes that are going on in central Yerevan.
(Hundreds of residents have been displaced by urban development projects that
many say are violations of human rights and are a misuse of the Armenian
Constitution's provision for `the welfare of the state'. See links below for
previous ArmeniaNow reports.)
The new report entitled `About Ownership, Fair Trial and Violations of the
Rights to Court Protection' is a follow-up to violations raised in the initial
report which, the Ombudswoman says (according to law) should have been
corrected, but were not.
The 24-page, nine-chapter report says it was created because: `Taking into
consideration the fact that the violations of the mentioned right of citizens,
the rights to fair trial and court protection connected with it not only
failed to be removed and no means have been undertaken directed at their
removal, but these violations are continuing, a need has arisen to address
this issue once again through this special report addressed to the authorities
and the public.'
The report (www.ombuds.am) presents in detail all the violations of the law
and human rights that were committed during the construction projects in city
center. In 2004, the Ombudswoman received 176 complaints, and 239 only during
the six months of 2005. The report may serve as a useful document in the hands
of lawyers defending people's right to have property and an apartment. Basing
on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Armenian Constitution,
civil, land, apartment legislations and on the Constitutional Court, the
Ombudswoman at full length presents how citizens' rights were violated.
The critics of the previous report said that it had failed to ground many of
the registered violations with examples. A whole chapter in the special report
deals with examples of violations of the right to court protection and fair
trial wherein court rulings are subjected to a detailed analysis.
The Ombudswoman's special report uses studies and analyses to show that
people's property was alienated without a separate corresponding law for each
owner, which is required by the Constitution and the decision of February 27,
1998 of the Constitutional Court. By government decisions that contradict the
country's Basic Law owners are deprived of the right to manage their property.
They do not get a commensurate compensation, besides the compensations offered
are combined with obligations not envisaged by the law. The right of an
individual and a family to have an apartment is violated, the state not only
fails to assist in the realization of the right of a family to improve their
housing conditions, which is required by the Constitution, but on the contrary
deprives them of their apartment.
The report states that with the violation of the right of universal equality
before the law, an unfair redistribution of property is taking place, with
separate individuals becoming owners of the central parts of Yerevan at
incomparably low prices and the socially vulnerable stratum is driven out
towards the city outskirts. The means by which residents are forced from their
property (i.e., buildings destroyed even while court appeals are being made)
is, the report says, a violation of human rights.
It is also stated that in the studied cases courts do not defend and do not
reinstate citizens in their rights. The right of citizens to get court
protection through a fair trial is violated.
In the report's conclusion, the Ombudswoman states that her special report is
an attempt to invite once again the attention of all chains of the Republic of
Armenia authorities to the recognition of human rights.
DIFFERENT ELECTION, SAME STORY: MONEY FOR VOTES GIVES OLIGARCH'S PROTÉGÉ
CONTROL OF CITY DISTRIC
By Shakeh Avoyan and Astghik Bedevian
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
A 26-year-old protégé of one of Armenia's most powerful `oligarchs' will
govern Yerevan's poorest administrative district after winning a weekend local
election that appeared to have degenerated into a vote buying contest.
According to official results of the vote (ignored by the Armenian
opposition), Mher Hovannisian easily defeated Ruben Asatrian, the incumbent
prefect of the southern Nubarashen district who supports the central
government but is not affiliated with any political party. Asatrian, who held
the post for the past 22 years, won only 13 percent of the vote.
The outcome of the race was all but predetermined by the fact that Hovannisian
is actively backed and sponsored by Gagik Tsarukian (popularly known by his
nickname, `Dodi Gago'), one of the country's richest and most feared men, who
is close to President Robert Kocharian. Hovannisian's father is reportedly a
close partner of Tsarukian and runs the biggest local business, a liquefied
gas station. The tycoon's support for the young man translated into heavy
campaign spending and control of the local election commissions.
There were numerous witness accounts of what is increasingly becoming the
defining feature of Armenian local and national elections: vote bribes. Many
local voters admitted accepting cash and food from both candidates.
Elderly people in particular described how Hovannisian's representatives
collected their passports ahead of the ballot after they agreed to vote for
him in exchange for 5,000 drams ($11). `We got our money and they gave back
our passports,' said one man.
`Five thousand drams,' clarified another, female pensioner. The sum is
comparable to her monthly pension.
Both voters insisted that they were not told to go to cast their ballots on
voting day while they got their passports back. Someone else
presumably `voted' in their place. The passports contain voters' signatures
and other personal information required by election officials.
Hovannisian, who refused to be interviewed inside his campaign headquarters,
acknowledged on Friday that his campaign workers collected passports but
denied handing out cash or other kickbacks. `We are simply clarifying voter
lists with passports,' he told RFE/RL. `There are lots of inaccuracies in the
lists.'
The winner and his campaign managers were not available for comment on the day
after the election (when the RFE report was prepared). `They partied all night
and are probably taking rest now,' explained an aide.
Residents of the run-down area said they have grown accustomed to selling
their votes. `You think he didn't do us any favors when getting elected?' one
woman said, referring to the defeated prefect. `He too paid people to vote for
him. Everyone does that. The same thing happened here.'
`It's assistance, not a bribe,' she added.
Armenian law strictly prohibits election candidates from providing any
material compensation or services to voters. However, vote buying has been
commonplace in the presidential, parliamentary and especially local elections
held in recent years. Nobody has been prosecuted for the practice so far. In
TOUCH WITH TAVUSH: WITH COMMUNICATION PROJECTS NEARING COMPLETION, PRESIDENT
PROMISES FURTHER ATTENTION
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
President Robert Kocharyan made a visit to Tavush last week, with promises
that the strategic region will soon be better connected to important trade and
communication routes.
By the end of this year, villages that border Azerbaijan, and that have been
virtually isolated due to damage left over from the Karabakh War, will be
better connected to each other, and to the main highway linking the border
settlements with Yerevan and Tbilisi.
Already, 16 kilometers of the 23-kilometer Aygehovit - Vazashen - Paravakar
motorway have a new surface. All but one kilometer of the border life-link is
expected to be completed before 2006. The project is financed by 1.5 billion
drams (about $335,000) from the State budget.
The President also promised similar projects for connecting internal villages
and towns.
`During the next two or three years the sections of the Berd-Chambarak,
Dilijan-Chambarak, Chambarak-Shorzha, and the ways connecting Berd with the
remotest villages will be put into operation,' Kocharyan told reporters last
Friday.
The evidence of promises being carried out is welcomed by residents such as
Hakob Poghosyan, of the village of Chinchin.
`Everyone who had a possibility to travel through this mountainous area cannot
but remember the danger that awaited them around each serpentine curve - the
mighty trunks of trees overturned by a night windbreak and slow sliding ground
along which rare transport has to move,' Poghosyan said. `And even in `safe'
Soviet time these places knew only one stable means of movement - a loaded
donkey.'
Situated in the north-east of Armenia, the Tavush region occupies a territory
of 2,700 square kilometers. In addition to being one of the republic's most
scenic regions, it is also the only one that borders Georgia and Azerbaijan.
It is strategic from a defense standpoint, especially considering that, in
addition to bordering enemy territory, its Georgia neighbors are also mostly
Azeri-populated territories - specifically the Marneuli region.
The main settlements of Tavush (including Ijevan and Noyemberyan) bear the
marks of life on a battle front: abandoned railroads, shelled houses, mined
lands and cut-off water lines. The province is home to about 160,000, with
63,000 living in towns (Dilijan - 24,000, Ijevan - 21,000, Berd - 11,500,
Noyemberyan - 6,500).
`Besides the visual reminders of the frontline zone, all this forms a special
psychology of people living on the line of contact of the armed forces of
Armenia and Azerbaijan,' says the region's head Armen Ghularyan. Half of
Tavush's 58 villages are, Ghularyan says `within the radius of a sniper's
shot'. The overwhelming majority of cases of violating the May 12, 1994 cease-
fire between Armenia and Azerbiajan, have taken place in Tavush villages.
`Nearly a 100,000-strong rural population of the region, part of whom still
continue to live in extreme conditions, must feel their link to the midland
areas of the republic,' says Ghularyan. `For this it is necessary to take a
lot of measures on the economic development of the region, such as to create
agricultural infrastructure, install new canals and form sales points for
agricultural produce of border villages. However, the most important is
building road communications without which it is impossible to speak about the
region's economic development seriously.'
Taking into account the specifics of Tavush, the Government of Armenia adopted
a program on the socio-economic rehabilitation of the region in 2002, which
became the first State project applied to a single province.
`The government program on the economic development of Tavush is no doubt a
very important document exactly in the aspect that it is a thoroughly
considered list of all socio-economic priorities of the region,' Kocharyan
said. `This document in fact shows the logic of the rehabilitation of this
area. Meanwhile, Armenian authorities are developing new points on the basis
of the already existing project.
`In particular, we must abandon the `piece-mill policy' in which allocated
funds are spent on reshaping only separate components of several facilities -
repairs of the roof of one school or another, reconstruction of one or another
communication sector, etc. Today it is time for conceptual solutions -
construction of new schools, building new roads...'
And, the President added, time to get telephone service to such areas.
`It is also a strategic task to provide the population, especially of
borderline areas of Armenia, with mobile phone connection,' Kocharyan said. `I
think that in the near future this problem will be solved through the
activities of the new mobile phone operator (VivaCell, see links below for
related ArmeniaNow article). Besides the military-strategic factor, here
another aspect is also important: it is only with the presence of stable
communication that the development of economic infrastructures of the region
is possible.'
The President did not, however, mention that in his own city, Yerevan, proper
mobile phone service has not been available since July, when Viva Cell and
Armentel started fighting over the cell phone market. It is a condition not
lost, however, on villagers such as Zhora Bejanyan, a resident of the village
of Koti, who believes his province deserves special attention.
`The ArmenTel Company, which has undertaken to provide the population of the
country with stable communication, has failed to carry out its functions,'
Bejanyan said. `While this incompetence within the boundaries of the Armenian
capital is taken in the form of social irritation or violation of consumer
rights, then on the frontline it is also the cause of strategic losses.'
BRIDGES: A SURVIVOR REMEMBERS A FATHER'S GOOD WORK AND A TURK'S KINDNESS
By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Red and white grapes twist in the old man's hands, slipping into the bowl.
Andranik Tachikyan begins separating the sweet tasted bunches of grape - one
to eat, one to make wine.
He was a small child when he used to take bunches into his hands squeezing
them and having fun of it.
Andranik's family was well known in the Turkish city of Tripoli (now in
Lebanon).
His parents and ancestors, Andranik says, were wealthy famous people
possessing a big garden, a pharmacy, endless fields of wheat and tobacco and a
mansion that they lost in one day when the mass extermination of Armenians
began.
`My father was Dutch, his name was Pierre Van Moorsel. He was a famous man, a
doctor and engineer, who had built several bridges,' tells Andranik, taking
his father's visit card from a pile of papers. `My mother was Armenian, her
name - Arshaluys. She was a kind woman, who lost almost everything during the
genocide and stood against all the pain and trouble alone.'
`When the bridge was ready all our family used to sit under the brand new
bridge and loaded cars used to pass over it,' remembers Andranik, who is now
94. `That was the way and the bridge builder knew that building a bad bridge
will first of all threaten the life of his family. But everyone knew about the
strong bridges my father used to build. We were confident nothing will happen
to us, but neither his fame nor his descent saved him.'
Fixing his eyeglasses Grandpa Andranik brings the military green tie and
garment into order and begins bothering with his documents.
The old man who served in the Military Registration and Enlistment Office for
55 years tries to substantiate everything he says, bringing arguments showing
the shabby-yellow documents or photographs.
`This is the only picture of the massacre times,' he tells. `This is the only
thing that has remained from our wealth, years and life.'
Mother Arshaluys is in the middle, and Andranik and his sister Mariam are on
the sides.
The faded photographs are as old as the fading remembrance, the childhood
memories and difficulties of genocide times.
`I was small; there are some dates and names I can't remember, but there are
several things I remember very well,' tells Andranik. `The Turks on horses
with swords in their hands either killed people or threw them into the river.
The scene was horrifying. Although my father was a Dutch, they killed him and
my older brother as Armenians. We were shocked and horrified. We did not know
where to go and what to do without father. We left home, fame, wealth and took
the way of refuge - starving and barefooted.'
Andranik remembers their gardener, a Turk, reached them in a difficult moment
and `saved us away from the sword'.
`Our Turkish gardener was very loyal to my father and our family, because we
treated all of them very well. As soon as the massacres began, he saved us,
endangering his own life. He took my mother, my sister and me under a bridge
my father had built,' he says. `Everything went wrong, people could not save
their children from the Turks' swords; we would not survive if it were not for
the gardener.'
Andranik remembers the grass was high under the bridge and the gardener kept
them there.
`We stayed there for a while. Every day our gardener would secretly bring us
sunflower seeds, hazelnut oil cake and we ate it until the Americans entered
Tripoli,' he says. `Then the Americans found us and sent us to Greece by sea.'
Andranik says he remembers the orphans and the exhausted people gathered by
the ship.
`Everyone cried by the ship, for they couldn't believe they have been saved at
last. My mother would also cry, she would squeeze us to her breast and cry
loudly,' he remembers. `Then the ship took us to Greece. We move to Armenia
from Greece.'
Andranik says they saw many difficulties in Armenia at the beginning.
`We had a marvelous big house in Tripoli and lived in gorgeous conditions.
When we came to Armenia we were allotted an barn in one of the suburban
sovkhozes (state farms) of the city.'
And then he adds: `But we were happy we were alive.'
`Although my mother never forgot our house, my father and my brother, however,
after many years, life changed and we started everything over again. We worked
and had a home; we married and tried to live and to continue our life in the
Motherland.'
CLUSTERED FOR INFORMATION: SYMPOSIUM INTRODUCES ARMENIAN SUPER COMPUTER
By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
During a five-day gathering of Information Technology (IT) programmers and
scientists this week in Yerevan, specialists from 12 countries exchanged ideas
about developments in their field and heard some 135 reports, 40 of which came
from the symposium hosts.
Like the recently-completed conference on genetics that drew similar
international participation, the symposium at the National Academy of Sciences
of Armenia provided a fertile environment for debate and discussion of IT
issues, and especially their relevance in Armenia's burgeoning scientific
field.
Apart from reports on traditionally developing applied studies, one day of the
symposium specifically dealt with the creation of a high-performance computer,
ArmCluster, recently implemented in Armenia.
It was announced during the meeting that Armenia is now home to a powerful
supercomputer center, which beginning from 2006 will constitute a core for the
republic's specialists working in the field of sciences and education for the
purpose of establishing a common computing infrastructure.
`The ArmCluster system will be a unique machine supplied with huge computing
resources that will make it possible to make intricate calculations in
different scientific spheres of Armenia,' says researcher of the Institute for
Informatics and Automation Problems of NAS of Armenia, Hrachya Astsatryan.
`Such complicated problems are impossible to solve by means of separate
computers, which was the reason for Armenian scientists so far to search for
solutions to their scientific problems abroad. Now there is no need for that,'
the scientist says.
The high-performance computing ArmCluster system will allow 128 processors to
work on one task at the same time, calculating larger amounts of data.
At present, ArmCluster is the largest supercomputer in the Caucasus region,
and the fifth most powerful among such clusters existing in CIS countries. The
first place is occupied by the Russian-Belarus computing system, and the next
three places are occupied by the Russians.
The system was implemented at the Institute for Informatics and Automation
Problems, based on a project of the International Scientific Technology Center
(ISTC). Seven Armenian institutes, as well as the Tbilisi State University
(Georgia) participated in the realization of the project.
The cost of the 2.5-year grant project is $270,000, which was funded by the
ISTC. According to the project executives, it was considered as one of ISTC's
most successful projects.
`Thus, the field for researches has been extended for Armenian scientists. It
will enable them to compute more complicated and new types of problems with
the aid of the computer,' says project director Vladimir Sahakyan, of the
National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Institute for Informatics and
Automation Problems.
According to him, a skilful programmer will be able to solve more complicated
problems with this computer system. `And we have good programmers and have
always been proud of their high level, and it is the field where they ought to
display their level. And the possibilities of the ArmCluster are so great that
it can be employed to solve several problems at a time,' says Sahakyan.
Services of the high computing system are also available online, with
registration on the official website www.armcluster.am in advance.
According to Sahakyan, certain scientists in Armenia have already defended
their theses on the bases of the ArmCluster.
`Scientists make big databases for their spheres in high-performance
computing, and research hypothesis in such a server environment, which are
worked up only in such big systems,' says Sahakyan
`MYSTICAL AND LYRICAL': THE `DALIEST' OPENS EXHIBIT IN YEREVAN
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
The world's most famous surrealist once called Iranian-Armenian artist Onik
Sahakian `the Daliest man I know'.
For the first time in Sahakian's 30-year career, Yerevan art lovers will have
a chance to judge whether Dali's remark was praise or criticism, when an
exhibition by Sahakian opens at the Gevorgyan Gallery.
Sahakian has had 52 solo exhibitions, in such places as the Museum of World
Culture at Gotheborg, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Moscow, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Tehran, his home. The
Gevorgyan exhibit, however is his first in the motherland.
`I have a strange feeling. I have always identified myself as an American, and
only here I understood I belong to this land, as if I have lived especially
here in my past life,' Sahakian, age 69, told ArmeniaNow.
His has been a life immersed in art, starting from age seven, when he became
acquainted with Indian dance, and began staging his own performances. He later
studied at the Yelena Avetisian School of Choreography, while also studying
painting (Persian miniatures) at the Tehran Institute of Fine Arts.
In 1956, and by then a skilled ballet dancer, Sahakian moved to the United
States, where he appeared in more than 100 dance performances over 10 years.
In 1958, he met Dali. Sahakian's nephew was a hairdresser to Iranian Queen
Farah, and to another famous client . . .
The nephew introduced Sahakian to a certain client who fancied having enormous
rollers in his hair, Salvador Dali. That day was the beginning of a unique
friendship that was to last 20 years.
`The Spaniard cast a spell upon me so that I began painting again,' Sahakian
says. `A moment came when painting became my way of self-expression. A
dancer's life is as short as that of a butterfly. Art is a means of self-
expression to me. After dance, painting became the world where I become candid
and express myself.'
Over the years Sahakian assisted Dali with his collages, paintings and
sculptures. He also designed exquisite jewelry for Dali and his wife. Then he
moved to New York City, where he set up a consulting agency for art and
jewelry design, known as `Onik Design Ltd'. (He now lives in New York and
Lisbon.)
Dali also once told Sahakian: `You are crazy; but a good kind of crazy'.
The super surrealist's `crazy' friend says his life has been one of a constant
search for meaning.
His search through art took him from miniatures to Dutch classics into
impressionism (with easy and slight touches).
Of course he could not escape the influence of the powerful surrealist, but
Sahakian soon found his own style and means of expression.
`My works are mystical and lyrical, Dali's are aggressive and shocking, if
critics compare us, they must have never known him,' says Sahakian. `I do not
aim at shocking people with my art. Life is cruel by itself; on the contrary
art should embrace people's hearts with quietness and harmony.'
In his book `Prodigy' Explanation' , art critic Ghoncheh Tazmini writes that
Sahakian `infuses in the disjuncture of the surrealist imagination elements of
hope, faith and comfort. Onik's talent lies in his ability to reconcile two
disparate orientations bringing to his audience a sense of harmony and
equilibrium.'
The painter's series of faceless Madonnas puts the revered figure in gorgeous
garments with an empty oval instead of the face that allows people, the artist
says, to feel the spiritual essence, to ascend from the material and the body
and see not beautiful eyes, nose or mouth, but an unearthly spirit.
`And who knows how Madonna's or Christ's faces looked? For every man the face
of the Lord is inside himself, within the limits of his conscience,' says the
artist.
Stairs are also a frequently repeating theme in Sahakian's paintings - Place
of Silence, Enigma. Stairs going up to the endless sky symbolize each step of
the man, every single kind thing done that step by step lead to cosmic
eternity and quietness.
`In arts, and especially in painting, the most important thing is the positive
energy the art should express,' Sahakian says. `I get hundreds of letters from
different people mostly saying their souls calm down in front of my paintings.
I think this is a big achievement.
Sahakian's 16-piece exhibit will continue through the middle of October at the
Gevorgyan Gallery. The painter says that in October he will travel throughout
Armenia, collecting impressions for future works.
According to Sahakyan, the stated program of Armenia is to create a network of
computers with compatible software packages that connect all research
scientists.
The State Engineering University of Armenia and the Yerevan State University
are the first in the queue to join the central cluster.
FROM HERE TO SINGAPORE?: 2020 PROJECT HOLDS FURTHER DEBATES ON ARMENIA'S NEAR
FUTURE
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
In 15 years, Armenia will have a standard of living comparable to today's
Singapore, China.
Perhaps.
Or: In 2020, Armenia will be hardly better off than it is today, with a per-
capita income of about $5,000.
These are the extremes calculated by the Armenia 2020 Project, and discussed
in its forum `Strategy of Armenia's Stable Development: Competitiveness and
Productivity Growth', held Wednesday at the Armenia Marriott Hotel.
The forum attracted about 350 participants, and some of Armenia's top
officials, including President Robert Kocharyan, who hailed the
research/analysis think tank as `playing an important part in the amendment of
the policy of Armenia's economic development'. Also attending were members of
the Armenian business community who discussed issues such as Information
Technology, tourism, healthcare, jewelry, diamond-cutting, etc.
Over the past 3 and a half years, Armenia 2020 (link to apri's story, 9/09)
has tried to answer the basic question from which its name is drawn: `Where
will Armenia be in 2020?'
`Singapore' may be one answer, where the average citizen now has about $12,000
per year spending power. (The 2020 Project calculates "spending power"
according to currency value and cost of living. Armenia's current spending
power is about $5,000, while the actual per-capita income is about $1,315.)
But whether that or other scenarios end up fitting future Armenia, 2020
members say it is not the project's mission to be psychics, but only to gather
and analyze data that might offer worthwhile avenues for the country to
pursue.
`Our first step is to try to understand in what ways Armenia can develop, what
is the program of Armenia's development that will be presented not only by
Armenia 2020 Project members, but also by the government, the public, the
people living in Armenia,' said Ruben Vardanyan, Project Board member,
Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of the Russian Troika-Dialogue
Group. `And after this it will become possible to create a mechanism to help
bring Armenian and non-Armenian money to Armenia to work for the country's
development.'
Diaspora businessman and Armenia 2020 Board member Noubar Afeyan said the goal
of the second stage, beginning now, is the establishment of a national
competitiveness trust to shore up economic growth in Armenia.
For his part, Vardanyan added that board members and others could bring
investments from abroad ranging to more than $2 billion for promoting
Armenia's economic growth and ensuring the country's development in the next
decade and a half.
(Initially, the trust structure needs $300 million and the Board members said
they had an opportunity to ensure this sum).
But at the same time Vardanyan said: `We think that the idea of the trust can
work only if you have a strategic idea of where Armenia is going, what program
is there for Armenia for the next 15 years. In that case the establishment of
the structure has sense, as it is already clear in what directions to invest.'
Director of the Armenia 2020 Project Artashes Kazakhetyan said the
participants had useful working meetings and discussions both during the forum
itself and on its sidelines. `The main subject concerned ways of ensuring
Armenia's competitiveness in various fields,' said Kazakhetyan. `We also
discussed the idea of establishing a trust structure of Armenia's
competitiveness and all issues connected with the strengthening of the `second
wave' of economic growth.'
Founded in 2001, the Armenia 2020 Project works to develop models of
development for Armenia and help transform them into concrete scenarios. (Such
programs have had good results in Russia, Portugal and Belgium.)
The project is funded by business persons of Armenian descent from Armenia,
Russia, the United States and Europe. So far, Armenia 2020 has spent about $2
million developing patterns that might be instructional for future policy.
SPORT DIGEST:
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Football
Debut for Edgar: Armenian national team striker Edgar Manucharyan played his
first official match for Ajax Amsterdam in the national championship as an 84-
th minute substitute for Dutch international Rayan Babel. (In that away match
Ajax lost to Alkmar 2-4.
Before that Manucharyan played for Ajax only in one friendly (Barcelona),
during which he broke his leg. (A1 Plus)
Boxing
An Australia-based Armenian boxer Vic (Vakhtang) Darchinyan, who retained his
2004 International Boxing Federation and 2005 International Boxing
Organization flyweight titles, told during a rare visit to his homeland he was
preparing to defend one of his titles versus Damian Kelly from Ireland.
Vic Darchinyan retained his International Boxing Federation flyweight title
with a fifth-round technical knockout on August 24 over Jair Jimenez at the
Sydney Entertainment Center.
This is Darchinyan's first visit to Armenia in two years, and he was on hand
for the opening of a boxing school in his hometown, Vanadzor. Darchinyan has
won all 24 of his fights, 19 by knock out. He also said he may move from
Australia to US where professional boxing is more developed. (Armenpress)
Weightlifting
Armenia's Cup in weightlifting was contested in Gyumri recently, with 39
leading weightlifters of the country taking part in the competition.
Eventually, the Cup was won by heavyweight Ashot Danielyan, who showed the
result of 455 kg in the snatch, clean and jerk combination. Gevorg Davtyan was
second, and Tigran Martirosyan was third. Armenia's national weightlifting
team began its preparations after this tournament for the world championships
to be held in Qatar in November. (A1 Plus)
Cycling
A tournament after well-known cyclists Kepekyan brothers was held in Yerevan
for the 8th time last week. Six cyclists from Georgia also participated in the
event. In the competition among 16-year-olds the first prize went to Nerses
Shirinyan, and the second place was won by Suren Petrosyan. Among the 18-year-
olds the winner was Edgar Gasparyan, followed by Georgi Nodiradze from
Georgia. (The Cycling Federation of Armenia, www.cycling.am