Tweet
ARMENIANOW.COM
Administration Address: 26 Parpetsi St., No 9
Phone: +(374 1) 532422
Email: [email protected]
Internet: www.armenianow.com
Technical Assistance: (For technical assistance please contact Babken
Juharyan)
Email: [email protected]
FIGHTING TRADITION: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS FABRIC IN THE FAMILY CLOTH
Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
`If the day ends up without a fight and I have no blood on my body, I am happy
that day,' says Varduhi Khachatryan, 47, resident of the village of Burastan
in the Artashat region.
Such days are too few in Varduhi's life. Seventeen years ago, while she was
pregnant, her husband beat her with a stick. Varduhi gathered her things and
fled to her parents' home.
`My father did not accept me, he said: `Go, he is your husband. He may happen
to beat you from time to time . . .'
`I had nowhere to run. I came back. From that time on, the day without beating
is not a day,' says Varduhi.
She is the mother of four. They witness the beatings and the mother says they,
too, are the victims of her husband's anger.
Yeranuhi Khachatryan is 12. She tells about a time when her father had thrown
the mother downstairs from the first floor, then held his foot on her throat
to strangle her.
`What can we do? We can't escape; he will later catch us and kill us. We can't
call the police. It's a shame. The neighbors will laugh at us,' says Yeranuhi.
Experts say such cases of violence against women in Armenia are widespread,
but the traditional stereotypes do not allow women a proper recourse against
them.
`When we raise the question of violence against women in high places to pass a
law, they say there is no such problem in Armenia; that it is artificially
imported from foreign countries,' says Director of the Women's Rights Center
Susanna Vardanyan.
`We are even blamed for having sold ourselves to the foreigners and for making
our traditionally strong families deteriorate.'
At least one Armenian scientist says the blame is legitimate.
Ethno-sociologist Mihran Galstyan, of the Institute of Ethnography of the
Armenian Academy of Sciences, says, too, that claims of domestic violence are
exaggerated.
`Many organizations just extort grants from abroad, the foreign mediation into
Armenian families is quite dangerous, if the woman is constantly told her
husband has no right to reprimand on her, we will not have families,' says
Galstyan.
Research favors the opinion that domestic violence is a serious issue.
Independent sociological survey center `Sociometer' conducted research in
Yerevan and eight towns and eight villages. Among 1,200 women, 75 percent said
they are victims of husbands' violence. The survey also found that in one out
of four cases, children witness the violence.
(By comparison, a World Health Organization study puts the number of women
physically abused by their partners or ex-partners at 30 per cent in the UK,
and 22 per cent in the US.)
`Unfortunately many seem to feel that humiliating a woman is a casual thing,
because thinking that violence is an indispensable part of family life is
formed since childhood,' says Director of the `Sociometer' Aharon Adibekyan.
But Galstyan has also held a sociological survey in 1,626 settlements across
all the marzes of Armenia. According to his research, only 7.3 percents are
exposed to family violence.
According to the survey answers and tables they ask nearly the same questions.
Adibekyan explains that the numbers are so different because of the skills of
survey takers.
`Such surveys need a delicate approach. Not every woman will tell all her
family problems to a person who she sees at first time. That's why we involve
in our survey teachers of villages, workers from communities, who are well
known in villages and in different city communities, so a woman's answers to
their close people could be as sincere as possible. That's why our numbers are
so high'.
During the seven-year existence of the Women's Rights Center 10,181 women have
sought help from their hotline service (080 080 850), of which 4,174 have been
exposed to domestic violence.
Additionally, 3,000 women who have undergone violence have appealed to
the `Motherhood Fund' during the 4 years of its existence.
`These figures are quite high for Armenia, if we take into account that women
who have undergone violence more frequently appeal to relatives and friends
for help, and only those who have found themselves in a desperate situation
appeal to the help of such organizations,' says Anna Badalyan, psychologist at
the `Motherhood Fund'.
Badalyan says many do not even realize there can be a family without violence.
For many, a `beating' is within the scope of family life.
According to statistical data 45 percents of women who have been exposed to
violence keep silent trying to alleviate the situation; 0.3 percents of them
appeal for divorce and 0.4 percent appeal to law enforcement bodies.
`There is a need for a law to make the training of police specializing in
family violence possible; no one today appeals, for no one trusts in it; they
think police will come and bring an action against, and then they will have to
pay money to have the case closed,' says Vardanyan.
Besides, Vardanyan says it is fixed in our national mentality that the woman
is always to blame, adding that violence against women is fixed even in
Armenia's linguistic mentality.
There are, for example, folks sayings: `Woman is wool; the more you comb it,
the softer it gets.' Or `A husband's beating is like a rose's pricking.'
Serob Mesropyan, 78, Varduhi Khachatryan's neighbor, has a refined test for
trying woman; he has used this test while choosing wives for his sons.
`If the woman escapes in a corner of the house when you beat her, then she
will become a wife; if she runs out, then she will not. I have chosen my wife
that way, and the test proved right when I chose wives for my sons,' the old
man says.
At the beginning of the 20th century, writer Yervand Otyan wrote a literary
essay, `Should the Woman be Beaten?':
`As a result of the wrongly interpreted modernization, women get less beating
than in the good old times. ... The day the habit of beating women totally
disappears among us, `the gentle women of the Armenian world' will cease to
exist.'
In her call for legislation protecting women, Vardanyan says it is this
mentality that must be overcome. She says her attempts to gain the attention
of lawmakers have been fruitless, because they maintain that there isn't any
domestic violence in Armenia.
TRADEOFF: PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES GAS TARIFF CONCESSIONS AS RUSSIA TAKES ANOTHER
SLICE OF ARMENIAN ENERGY
By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
In the heated atmosphere of gas price and politics, President Robert Kocharyan
said on Wednesday that Armenia will not be hurt as much as predicted by the
Russians' tariff increases.
As of Monday (April 10), household gas prices are to rise by 52.5 percent and
85.2 percent for industrial consumption, as announced last month by the
Commission for Regulation of Public Services.
On Wednesday (April 5), however, Kocharyan stated during a visit to
HyeRusGazard company that prices would grown by no more than 10-15 percent.
`We are planning to realize a big investment project with the Russian side in
Armenia regarding the fifth power bloc of the Hrazdan thermal power plant, as
a result of which the government will have money for compensating the price
growth in the next three years for the people, alleviating its influence both
on the people and the business,' the President said. `Parallel to that the
construction works of the thermal plant will be finished, it will be
modernized resulting in a higher efficiency.'
The government has agreed to sell another portion of the Hrazdan plant to
Russia's Gazprom energy agency.
On Thursday, matters became more clear as to concessions on the Armenian side,
as Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom announced a 25-year deal for control of
part of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline that is to be completed this year. It
has been widely speculated that such a deal might take place, but as of Friday
(April 7), the Armenian Government had not confirmed that it had been made.
Presidential press secretary Victor Soghomonyan told ArmeniaNow that: `If all
the details were known, the President would have told them.This is a
continuing process that has not been brought to its end yet; the details will
be clarified in the future.'
The cost of the power bloc, according to Minister of Energy Armen Movsisyan,
has been evaluated $60 million higher than the value defined for the
compensation. It has been sold for $248.8 million, with $188 million of the
expected sum expected to subsidize consumer prices, while $60.8 million will
go to the state budget. Besides, the Russian side has been obliged to make
$150-160 million investments in the Hrazdan thermal power plant within a two
year term.
According to the decision approved by the government, 25 drams of the demanded
90 for one cubic meter of gas that will enter into force beginning April 10
will be subsidized by the state. Meanwhile, enterprises consuming more than 10
thousand cubic meters of gas per month, will be compensated $52.01 of the
$146.51 charge. The subsidies are to be in place for three years.
The Minister of Energy thinks there will be no great changes in three years
(by which time Armenia should be benefiting from the Iran pipeline). According
to Movsisyan, the Russians have pledged to not increase the gas price in the
next three years.
The decision, however, has caused complaints within political circles.
`Each time another project of property for debt is realized, the same
reiterated expression is voiced on that the Russian investments will modernize
the Armenian economy, but nothing is `modernized' as a result,' says political
expert Suren Surenyants. `That is, here there is a very simple logic - the
Russians are ready to alleviate their price policy seizing in exchange another
stake in the Armenian energy system that is dramatically significant for the
energy security of Armenia.'
The Chairman of the National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan also
doesn't have a positive attitude to the compromise scenario with Russia and
believes Armenia - like Georgia and Azerbaijan - shouldn't have complied with
favors on the Russian side, for the sake of its independence.
`If Armenia gives the alternative opportunity of importing natural gas to the
HyeRusGazard to provide low prices of gas for a few more years, then we,
having no guarantees for sustaining that price for a long-term period, will
put our descendants in a unilateral dependence on a foreign state,' said
Paruyr Hayrikyan during a press conference Thursday.
Kocharyan, though, is confident Armenia will benefit from the cooperation and
will have much less energy generated by gas owing to the modernization of the
5th power bloc of the Hrazdan thermal power plant that will facilitate the
development of lower energy costs.
CASH CRIMES: YEREVAN EXCHANGE OUTLETS TARGETED IN ROBBERIES AND MURDERS
Arpi Harutyunyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
In less than the past three months, four Yerevan currency exchange kiosks have
been the target of robbery.
The latest occurred on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. when two men armed with a gas
pistol tried to rob 32-year-old agent Arman Hovhannisyan at his outlet on
Komitas street in the Arabkir community.
Hovhanissyan managed to thwart the robbery attempt by taking the gun from the
men, but not before he'd been struck on the head and later required medical
attention. He was also aided by an alarm system that alerted police, who
arrived after the would-be robbers fled.
Passersby at the scene said the men were speaking Russian and Georgian.
On January 21 police officer Artur Lazarian was killed during a robbery on
Baghramyan Avenue in the same general area of Wednesday's attempt. Four men
were arrested, including two citizens of Georgia.
Six days later another exchange outlet operating on the ground floor of 1
Azatutyun Avenue in the same Arabkir community was robbed, this time without
casualties or injuries.
The series of crimes continued on February 3 with the attack on Hyeinkassatsia
cash exchange driver Alexan Davtyan, 49, who was killed during a robbery, shot
in the head, around 7:30 p.m. near the Arabkir branch of Unibank at Komitas
Street 22.
Before reaching the bank, Davtyan had made several currency exchange stops.
The killers stole his car and made of with more than $100,000.
Four hours later police found the car in the yard of 19 Hrachya Kochar, not
far from the scene of the crime.
Police offer few details on the series of robberies, but are offering rewards
for information leading to arrests.
LIGHT YEARS BEHIND: SCIENTIFIC PROJECT FAILS TO SPARK FOUR YEARS AFTER
PLANNING
By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
This July Armenian scientists will organize a workshop dealing with the
scientific project CANDLE, which will be held under the auspices of NATO. The
project (the name of which stands for Center for the Advancement of Natural
Discoveries using Light Emission) was internationally acclaimed when it was
announced four years ago. But it has not gotten past the planning stage, due
to a lack of funding.
The aim of the proposed $48 million project is to establish a scientific
center in Yerevan with at least five experimental stations (in the fields of
biophysics, material studies, micro-construction, biomedicine and
nanotechnologies) where scientists would be able to research molecules,
biological objects and materials, using high-intensity light.
In 2002, optimistic Armenian scientists expressed a hope that by 2007 Yerevan
would have an environmentally-safe accelerator center unprecedented for the
post-Soviet countries, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The US State
Department spent $500,000 to fund plans for the project.
A year short of its bright hopes, CANDLE remains dark.
CANDLE project head Vasili Tsakanov says the project must be viewed as a
national priority if it is to be realized.
`The world is moving ahead,' says Tsakanov. `Due to the realization of CANDLE
Armenia will gain a program for a long-term science-intense development. Its
construction will be carried out completely at the expense of international
funds. All Armenia has to do is to recognize this project and provide
corresponding privileges for its unhampered realization.'
Construction of similar accelerator centers began in Spain, China, Australia,
and in Britain and France they will be ready soon. The British and French
projects were realized in the same time frame as the failed Armenian project.
For the purpose of the implementation of CANDLE the Armenian government
provided scientists with a building in Yerevan and 4.5 hectares of territory
adjacent to it on 50-year free lease.
`Territory alone is not enough for the U.S. State Department to fund it,'
writes American-Armenian doctor of sociology Murad Muradyan in his article
published in the American Observer magazine last autumn. `Sources of funding
and mechanisms of the CANDLE project are blocked. For unclear reasons Armenia
did not include it into the U.S. Millennium Challenges program either.'
He stated in his article that the U.S. State Department was ready to finance
this project, however demanded that Armenia show serious willingness to assist
in the implementation of such a project.
According to the Armenian Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, the
Armenian government did not assume any obligation regarding this project.
`CANDLE is not included in any program financed by international donor
organizations as there was no proposal for the financing of such large
scientific centers.' says a Trade Ministry official, who wished to remain
anonymous. `The Millennium Challenges program was originally aimed at the
development of rural communities, and not scientific.'
About a year ago, heads of Armenia's scientific hubs signed an application
addressed to the international community, asking for assistance in the
implementation of the project. Hundreds of scientists, from about 140
scientific organizations in 38 countries, responded to this request for
assistance on the official site, www.candle.am.
One of them is Professor Borys Kierdaszuk from Poland who says that a
successful completion of the CANDLE project will be very important for
scientific cooperation and peaceful relations between countries in the region
of the Caspian Sea.
The international expert council mentioned several important positive factors
of the project's impact for Armenia - creation of new jobs, a stable political
atmosphere for potential investors, development of the hi-tech industry, at
least a threefold increase in the entry of sums into the Armenian budget from
external sources.
Muradyan concludes his article with the following paragraph: `Armenia may lack
oil, but CANDLE is the project that can clear the way for prosperity.
Indifference is inadmissible, because if CANDLE fails, another country will
bridge this gap, and probably will use the knowledge of Armenian scientists.'
The CANDLE creators today, too, express a hope that, even if it gets underway
this year, it will be unprecedented in 2012 with a radius of about 2,000
kilometers.
They hope that the 5-day `Brilliant Light Facilities and Research in Life and
Material Sciences' workshop will be beginning of a brighter future for CANDLE.
LEGAL LOOP HOLE FOR NKR?: EXPERT ON KARABAKH QUESTION SAYS AZERIS HAVE NO
RIGHT TO TERRITORY
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Sixteen years ago the USSR Supreme Soviet (Parliament) adopted a law whose
importance is impossible to underestimate in today's negotiations over Nagorno
Karabakh.
Yerevan State University professor Alexander Manasyan, a top expert on NK
legal affairs, says present peace debates are hampered by an interpretation of
the law that makes it inapplicable to autonomous regions such as Karabakh. The
professor also suggests that official Yerevan should utilize the law in the
international community, as it provides a loop-hole of sorts for settlement of
the `Karabakh Question'.
The Law `On the Order of Solving Problems Connected with the Secession of a
Union Republic from the USSR' adopted on April 3, 1990, determined the legal
platform of the breakup of the Soviet Union and legalized and organized the
existing chaotic movement. It also concretized the fundamental provisions
connected with the prospect of autonomous units. In other words, the law
became a legal motivation for the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The logical result of the law was the fact of the declaration of independence
by each of the 15 Union republics of the USSR accepted by the international
community. In particular, article 2 of the law read: `The decision on a Union
republic's secession from the USSR is made through a free expression of will
by the peoples of the union republic by way of a referendum. The decision on
holding the referendum is made by the Supreme Soviet of the union republic
upon its own initiative or at the request signed by a tenth of USSR citizens
permanently residing in the territory of the republic and eligible to vote
under the USSR legislation...'
`It is on the basis of the mentioned provision that the organized collapse of
the Soviet power took place,' says Manasyan. `If the struggle of peoples for
independence was a factual movement, then the law gave it the required
juridical contents. However, the international community, which complied with
the provision of the law in relation to 15 union republics, ignored the same
law in the case with autonomous units.'
Article 3 of this law is noteworthy in the aspect of the unresolved nature of
the Karabakh issue. The development of that article undoubtedly was dictated
by the struggle of the Armenian people of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous
Region (NKAR) to secede from Azerbaijan. `In a union republic that includes
autonomous republics, regions and areas, a referendum is held in each autonomy
separately. The peoples of autonomous republics and autonomous entities
reserve the right to an independent decision on their stay within the USSR or
within the union republic quitting it, as well as on raising the question
about its state-legal status...'
`One should particularly emphasize that the law was adopted after consistent
but futile efforts of the Center to freeze the struggle of the Armenian
people, in particular after the notorious consideration of the issue at the
meeting of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet on July 18, 1988,'
Manasyan says. `Moreover, it came into effect after a special form of
government had been introduced in the NKAR according to which the region in
fact was out of subjection to Azerbaijan. Thus, the law adopted on April 3,
1990 in practice stated the futility of the preceding efforts of the Center
and proved the concluding act allowing for a legal withdrawal of the NKAR from
the Azerbaijanian SSR.'
The referendum on independence held in Nagorno-Karabakh on December 10, 1991
was a legal consequence of the law under which Azerbaijan itself gained
independence. `However, Baku ignored separate points of the law enabling
Nagorno-Karabakh to quit Soviet Azerbaijan, and responded to the results of
the referendum with a new war,' the professor says.
The question was raised a few years ago by Manasyan, who created the so-called
legal package of Karabakh settlement in which this provision was singled out.
For years this provision has been periodically raised, however not by official
Yerevan, but by a number of NGOs. Officially Yerevan adopted another
provision. The legal package includes the following - on 30 August 1991 the
Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijani SSR adopted a declaration on state
independence in which it called new Azerbaijan a successor of the Azerbaijani
republic existing in 1918-20 and rejected the Soviet heritage. On the basis of
this provision, it is said in the legal package of Manasyan that if Azerbaijan
considers itself a legal successor to the original state then one should know
that this country was not recognized by the League of Nations, the predecessor
of the United Nations, and Nagorno-Karabakh was never part of this state.
Simultaneously, if Azerbaijan rejects its Soviet heritage it also
automatically gives up Karabakh, as Karabakh was only part of Soviet
Azerbaijan. This point has mostly been used by official Yerevan over the last
three years.
Official Baku has never spoken about this law and never touched on it. Baku
will have an official position only if it has to respond to questions raised
by the Armenian side, but the Armenian side does not raise this question
officially.
Taking into account the fact that 1992-93 was a chaotic period time, Russia
did not have a clear position then. Nor does it today. As this question has
never been raised, Russia appears to have forgotten about that law a long time
ago.
By strict interpretation of the law, the Azerbaijani SSR that declared its
independence on the basis of this law had no right to unilaterally spread its
political influence on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. In particular,
article 6 of the law states that `in a Union republic that includes autonomous
republics, autonomous regions, autonomous areas or places of compact residence
of national groups the results of the referendum are considered by the Supreme
Soviet of the Union republic jointly with the Supreme Soviet of the autonomous
republic and corresponding soviets of people's deputies.' In other words,
Azerbaijan was not entitled to declare its independence in the territory of
the title Soviet republic.
`The world history knows precedents of the functioning in international
instances of representatives of states that are not members of the UN,'
Manasyan says. `The Palestine Liberation Organization is the most known of
them, but not the only example. However, we did not make a single step for our
rights to be recognized. I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that the
United Nations is not an organization of united states, but it is the
organization of united nations. If the NKR today applies to the UN having all
attributes of state power, I see no reason why they can reject us.'
The political scientist argues that the Armenian sides do not try to spread
their documents at the UN, even though they have all rights to do that. `The
realization of the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-
determination on the basis of the Union law of April 3, 1990 and the
referendum of December 10, 1991 is in full compliance with the voluminous
definition of the right of nations to self-determination designated by the
UN.'
OLYMPIC GOLD: AFTER POOR SHOWING IN TURIN, ARMENIAN ATHLETES GET CASH
INCENTIVES
By Siranouish Gevorgyan
Special to ArmeniaNow
Armenians didn't bring a single medal home from the Winter Olympic Games in
Turin this year, but many athletes are already preparing for the Summer
Olympics that will take place in Beijing 2008.
To encourage Armenian athletes and their coaches, the president of Armenia's
National Olympic Committee, Gagik Tsarukyan, has assigned monthly stipends to
about 100 of the country's best athletes in summer sports.
They are divided into three groups. The best 12 will get $1,000, the second
group will get $500, and third group will get $100. Coaches of these athletes
will also get a monthly stipend -- half of the sum assigned to their trainees.
The overall sum of stipends, which began being paid on April 1, is $30,000 per
month.
Tsarukyan wants the athletes to train well and raise the Armenian flag in
Beijing.
However, the Armenian athletes have not made their fans happy with victories
in big international competitions recently.
During Soviet times, Armenia had Olympic champions such as Hrant Shahinyan
(gymnastics), Vladimir Yengibaryan (boxing), Yury Vardanyan (weightlifting),
Albert Azaryan (gymnastics), Ogsen Mirzoyan (weightlifting), Levon Julfalakyan
(wrestling) and others.
`We were getting tired of writing, say, about Yuri Vardanyan because wherever
he'd go, he'd win,' says Yuri Alexanyan, a former sports reporter and now the
president of Sport Reporters' Federation.
Many coaches who worked during Soviet times say that the reason for their
achievements were the financial support, the discipline, experienced coaches,
sufficient sports equipment and facilities, rich competition experience and
also the major interest in sports during that period.
`Now teenagers prefer to sell things in the market rather than go for in
sports especially when they have to pay monthly fees to the sport schools,'
says Alexanyan.
The rector of Yerevan State Institute of Physical Culture, Vahram Arakelyan,
also mentions that in the Soviet era, Armenian athletes were training with
representatives of 50 nations from 15 Soviet republics.
`They were able to gain big competition experience. Now it is sometimes even
hard to gather 20 athletes during training periods,' he says.
FINANCES PLAY MAJOR ROLE
The independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union and the economic crises that
followed have greatly affected sports, too.
The Armenian government budgets 1.2 billion drams (about $2.6 million) for
sports, which goes to the National Committee of Physical Education and Sports,
a government-appointed body.
Money is also donated by various businessmen who are interested in sports,
such as Tsarukyan himself, (who in addition to be president of the NOC is a
member of National Assembly), and Samvel Alexanyan, president of the Wrestling
Federation and also a member of National Assembly.
Finding money is especially hard for those athletes who train abroad but
compete under the flag of Armenia, such as the ice skaters Anastasia
Grebenkina and Vazgen Azroyan. They train at Odintsovo Skate Center in Moscow.
They finished 20th in the Winter Olympics in Turin out of 24 pairs.
`What we need each year in order to prepare and compete normally is
approximately $100,000 at minimum. For example, the complete set of new
costumes alone can easily amount to $20,000. What we do get today is another
story. Certainly, the Armenian Federation is not capable of covering even the
small part of the costs; nevertheless, we are very thankful for whatever help
the Federation sporadically provides,' Grebenkina and Azroyan said in an e-
mail.
A figure skating pair competing internationally has expenses that include ice
rink rental, choreography, costume design, coaching fees and soundtracks.
There are also expenses for consultations, travel for coaches, medical
expenses and purchase of equipment.
Other athletes do not have to deal with expenses such as choreography, costume
design or soundtracks, but the overall expenses are similar. Not many athletes
like to talk about their financial expenses. For example, popular super
heavyweight lifter Ashot Danielyan, who is currently competing for Armenia,
refused to talk about that.
Another weightlifter, Tigran Martirosyan, says that any highly qualified
athlete usually gets an amount of money that is enough to live on if he wins
international competitions.
`I got $100 from Sports Committee and $300 from the mayor of Gyumri when I won
the 3rd prize in the Weightlifting Cup competitions this year,' he says.
Martirosyan is in the second group for the new Olympic stipends and will get
$500 per month.
`I am going to order some expensive vitamins from abroad because they are not
available in Armenia and that sum will hardly cover those expenses,' he said.
Another problem is that many good athletes prefer to work in other countries
because of higher payments from those countries.
`About five years ago, we had more than 20 athletes leaving Armenia every
year. But now this problem is not that sharp,' says the rector of Physical
Culture Institute.
But still a lot of qualified athletes compete for other countries, such as Vic
Darchinyan (boxer, competing for Australia), and Arthur and Alexan Abrahams
(boxers, competing for Germany). Bringing them back to Armenia may be very
difficult.
SMALL SALARIES FOR COACHES
The salary of an ordinary coach in Armenia is 23,000 drams ($50) monthly.
Those who have experience and have produced champions get about 50,000 ($100)
drams.
Mostly because of the low salaries, now there is need for qualified coaches.
`Many highly qualified coaches from Soviet school have died, others have left
the country. We still don't have good coaches because of these difficult
years,' said Arakelyan, the rector of the Physical Culture Institute.
In developed countries usually three coaches -- technical coach, tactical
coach and physical preparedness coach -- plus a psychologist and a doctor work
with each athlete.
`In our country only one coach does the work of these three people and
sometimes ridiculous situations happen,' said sports reporter and entry-level
football referee Varazdat Ghazaryan.
`For example, if a football player says that he has hurt his leg and if his
coach knows nothing about medicine, he will probably think that the player
wants just to skip the training. So in two days the player is going to have
health problems,' Ghazaryan said.
REBUILDING PROCESS
During the last year, 16 sports schools have been rebuilt and furnished with
new equipment in Yerevan and in the regions for a total cost of 857 million
drams ($1.9 million). The rebuilding of the regional schools was financed by
the Armenian government. The Lincy Foundation rebuilt the Yerevan schools.
A new ski lift in Tsaghkadzor gives fresh opportunities for developing winter
sports. It takes skiers up to a 12.5-kilometer ski run. It cost 4.2 billion
drams ($9.3 million). The major part of the money was given by Kajaran Copper-
molybdenum factory and the rest from Hayastan Pan-Armenian Foundation and Hye
Yerkatughi Company.
For a training period held in Tsaghkadzor, the government spends 15,000 drams
($33) daily for each athlete.
The Physical Culture Institute every year accepts about 2,000 students. The
departments of boxing, wrestling and weightlifting have the most students. The
departments that have the least students are gymnastics, fencing and sport
journalism.
Arakelyan believes that Armenia will have Olympic champions in the 2016
Olympic Games, because by that time, he says, the work of new coaches and
their influence on their trainees will be seen.
Siranouish Gevorgyan is a journalism student at Yerevan State University and
participates in a training program sponsored by the International Center for
Journalists (www.icfj.org) and supported by ArmeniaNow.
DIRTY BUSINESS: MIS-MANAGED WASTE CREATES HEALTH RISK IN ARMENIA
Arpi Harutyunyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Yerevan has a garbage problem. Refuse spills from overloaded dumpsters, and
plastic bags in flight have become the new urban bird of the capital.
Officials say public health is at risk as a result.
Annually, Yerevan produces 285,000 tons of garbage - 70 percent of the entire
republic. Some 200,000 tons make it to dump sites. The rest simply piles, or
is discarded wherever it might be convenient by collection companies.
`The areas neighboring Yerevan - the by-road territories to the towns of
Artashat, Ararat, Abovyan have turned into garbage dumps since many
enterprises load their wastes into those ravines,' says Vardges Yeghiazaryan,
deputy head of the Construction, Improvement and Communal Services Department
at the Yerevan Municipality.
Chairwoman of the Social-Environmental Association Srbuhi Harutyunyan confirms
official assessment.
`In Armenia and especially in Yerevan there are organizations operating in the
shadow market, who secretly dump their wastes in different places and cover it
with a layer of soil,' says Harutyunyan. `Those enterprises do not undergo
even the Evaluation of the Influence over Environment (pollution standard),
since they don't have exact kinds of production: the production is dictated by
the order.'
Experts say health is at risk because of toxic fumes that escape when plastic
is burned.
The Chairwoman of Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment NGO Yelena
Manvelyan thinks the increase in incidence of tumors - from 11.1 per 1,000 in
1988 to 22.9/1,000 in 2002 - is a result of air pollution caused by burning
garbage.
`One can unambiguously insist the garbage does affect the human health to a
certain extent,' says Karine Danielyan, chairwoman of For Sustainable
Development NGO.
Danielyan also says the malignant tumors are spread in Armenia several times
more than in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
According to a governmental decision garbage should be collected in the city
every one to three days. In some communities, however, pickup occurs less than
once per week.
The Arabkir community in Yerevan is notorious for its bad performance of waste
cleaning. Sometimes the dumpsters serving a dozen buildings placed on the
corner of Khachatryan and Gyulbenkyan streets (only a few meters from the
residential blocs) are not cleaned for a full week. Garbage penetrates even
into the entrances of the buildings during windy weather.
City authorities say such conditions are due to negligence by residents to pay
the small fee - less than 25 cents per resident per month - for garbage
service.
`Besides the problems with payments the Nubarashen waste dump is also a
problem,' says Yeghiazaryan. `The city waste dump has been exhausted long ago.
It should be closed. The city authorities also realize the fact. But there is
no company in Armenia today that would be ready to invest in utilizing the
waste dump so that we could think of a new place.'
According to the Yerevan Municipality the central waste dump of the city in
Nubarashen has concentrated 7 million tons of waste since the 1950s and that
the accumulation of methane gas there could be a source for conversion into
electric power.
Azniv Mkhitaryan, leading specialist at the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development says some companies have shown and interest in the utilization of
household wastes, but only the Japanese `Shimidzu' company is in a promising
stage.
`Companies interested in the matter frequently address our Ministry. We
forward the appeals to various agencies to get proper conclusions. As a rule
none of the ministries has given positive evaluation and the deals do not take
place,' explains Mkhitaryan.
Businessman, refuse expert Hovsep Poghosyan says the government needs to make
private investment into waste management more appealing to companies.
`It is natural every businessman aims at getting profit, but it seems
impossible within the modern day conditions of Armenia. The government should
at least define some privileges for those kind of companies or take measures
for creating joint companies. But today neither the first nor the second are
done,' says Poghosyan.
Meanwhile, environmentalists are concerned that unless people don't take
measures to eliminate the overspread waste, the waste will try to eliminate
the people.
GESTURE FOR RECOGNITION: ACTIVISTS WANT TO CONVEY MESSAGE THAT REFUGEES HAVE
RIGHTS
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Human rights protection organizations and individual social activists in
Armenia have signed a declaration calling on Azerbaijan to allow Armenian
refugees to participate in that country's lawmaking.
The president of Azat Hayk, a Non Governmental Organization, Ruben
Mnatsakanyan, says some 600-700,000 Armenians fled Azerbaijan in the early
1990s - a number that `could ensure five or six deputies in the country's
legislature'.
`We want to set up a faction in Azerbaijan's Milli Mejlis [parliament]. And
the declaration will make it possible to specify the strategy of reinstating
the refugees in their social and economic rights,' he says
Mnatsakanyan says a delegation representing the declaration wants to hand over
the document in Baku.
The activists, however, are not hopeful that they or their idea will be
received.
Ahazang NGO President Juleta Yeremyants says that even if Azerbaijan does not
accept their application, they will all the same raise their voice and will
keep the world aware that after deportation from Azerbaijan they still have
there many rights which they want to be protected.
`It is not only that we left our houses and belongings and emigrated. We had
contributed our whole lives to building that country. Together with them we
had been building cities and towns, villages, scientific centers, plants. We
are successors of all that, and we stand by our rights,' says Yeremyants.
The authors of the declaration want to assure that their family successors are
granted entitlement.
Mnatsakanyan says that they have evaluated the situation and expect a negative
response, after which they will apply to the European Court.
Angin Arakelyan was deported from Baku and came to Yerevan in 1989. She says
that they were still there when they saw Armenian cemeteries being destroyed.
Before leaving, Arakelyan wanted to take a handful of soil from her father's
grave, but instead of the cemetery she found a huge market.
`Today, 18 years later, Azerbaijan continues its barbarian activities against
the Armenian nation and culture. That cultural genocide is a criminally
punishable deed,' she says. `That country must finally give an answer at
international instances. We all have a large contribution to any sphere of
that country. Azerbaijan must compensate for the moral and material damage
that we incurred.'
(Theoretically, the same accommodations should apply to Azeris who fled
Karabakh. In practical terms, no one expects a literal application of such
law, but the Armenian NGOs say it is an important issue to raise, if only
symbolically.)
Yeremyants says that the settlement of this problem does not only concern high-
level officials. It is necessary to make diplomatic access available to common
citizens.
The authors of the declaration also said that their step is a reply to Azeri
claims of having been subjected to genocide by Armenians - claims that have
been renewed in recent demonstrations by Azeri Diaspora.
Turkish studies specialist Katy Gundakchyan says: `This step we are making is
not useless,' says Turkish studies specialist Katy Gundakchyan. `Now we must
raise a noise, and it doesn't matter what instances it will reach. From the
very beginning it is clear that they will not allow it, but sitting silently
we won't achieve anything.'
BAD INFO: REPORT PUTS ARMENIA BEHIND NEIGHBORS IN IT SECTOR
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
An independent international organization's report on Information Technology
(IT) giving Armenia a low ranking raised questions among specialists in
Armenia, with some of them questioning the integrity of the study.
The study of the Geneva-based World Economic Forum for 2005-2006
(http://www.weforum.org) for the first time reviewed Armenia's position in the
IT world and found that among 115 countries it occupies the 86th place, and
ranks lower than rival Azerbaijan.
The report assisted by the Economy and Values Research Center from Armenia
points at the scarce availability of information technologies for both
individuals and businesses as the main reason for the country's low ranking.
Manuk Hergnyan, chairman of the Economy and Values Research Center, presented
to local specialists and media Armenia's stand in the IT world this week,
citing findings from the 2005-2006 Global IT Report.
Armenia is fifth among nine CIS countries reviewed in the report. Ahead of
Armenia in the CIS are: Kazakhstan (60th place), Russia (72nd), Azerbaijan
(73rd) and Ukraine (76th).
Hergnyan explained that this is the result of the extremely low level of
application of information technologies in Armenia, including by the private
sector.
Some of the participants in the discussion disagreed with the findings of the
report, and some were particularly dissatisfied by Armenia's ranking that
yields to Azerbaijan in this sphere.
IT has been declared a priority sector in Armenia, a country of few natural
resources, but one that boasts a vast intellectual potential and highly
skilled human resources.
The Armenian government has repeatedly stated that the sphere must lead the
way for the country's economic development.
`It is a very authoritative report accepted by prestigious structures of the
world. And some investment-related decisions are made on the basis of this
report. When it shows Armenia in an unfavorable situation, then something is
clearly wrong,' Hergnyan said.
Synopsys Armenia Executive Director Hovik Musayelyan said that over the last
1.5 years their company has invested some $400 million-worth of hi-tech
equipment in Armenia and that the total investment in Armenia's IT sector now
reaches $1 billion. In that respect he questioned the methodology used by
those who prepared the report.
`If we review the telecommunications sphere then Armenia is one of the last,'
Musayelyan said. `If we review in terms of the programming industry, then
Armenia is somewhere in the middle. But as far as the microelectronics
industry is concerned, Armenia is in quite leading positions and technologies
made available in Armenia through a number of companies today make it possible
to speak about serious achievements in the microelectronic industry, in which
Armenia has had good traditions since the Soviet times.'
Synopsys, a world leader in electronic design automation software for
semiconductor design that has offices in more than 60 locations in the world,
entered Armenia's market in late 2004. It is known to have made a sizable
investment in Armenia's IT industry and is rendering support to specialized hi-
tech education.
Meanwhile, the authors of the report insist that in order to have a higher
rating Armenia should ensure a broader use of information technologies in
other spheres.
`The report was about networked readiness. Today we have created an oasis,
which is this industry, but it is not connected with other spheres. The report
is on that and not on the IT sector itself,' Hergnyan said.
At the same time, he noted that the study was based on the situation before
the entry of the second mobile phone operator, VivaCell, into Armenia's market
and that explained why Armenia was ranked lowly in particular in the part
regarding telecommunications.
Garegin Chugaszyan, the Competitive Armenia Private Sector Program IT Cluster
Coordinator, for his part urged everyone to be more realistic. `We have
reached a stage when we must realize that business does not grow by itself.
There should be a strategy on establishing an e-society in Armenia, something
that, unfortunately, we don't have now.'
The authors of the report suggested Israel (ranked 19th in the current report)
as a model for Armenia's IT sector development.
While agreeing with some similarities, such as the existence of large
diasporas, unstable regions and hostile surroundings, some of the participants
disagreed that Israel may serve as a short-term development model for Armenia.
Israel is known to have turned its IT sector in one of the most competitive in
the world largely due to large foreign (Jewish Diaspora) investments and about
1.5 million emigrants, including highly-skilled specialists, to Israel from
the USSR.
Armenia, on the contrary, has been subjected to a continuing brain-drain as
highly-skilled specialists have been leaving the country since the collapse of
the Soviet Union against the background of general emigration tendencies.
Advisor to the RA Prime Minister Ara Hakobyan said the example of Israel would
be good enough if Armenians stopped leaving and tried to apply their potential
in their homeland.
`Repatriation is part of culture in Israel. We have a different picture. We
seem to have another culture, which is leaving the homeland. I think there is
a need to change this culture, and the government has much to do in this
matter,' he concluded.
HAVEN FOR KIDS: AT-RISK CHILDREN IN GYUMRI FIND A REFUGE FROM POVERTY, PROBLEMS
By Sara Khojoyan
Special to ArmeniaNow
In a city all too familiar with tragedy, a young Gyumri boy writes a hopeful
note to his late mother, offering her wishes on the recent international
women's day.
`Dear Mother, I want you to be happy. I wish you never get sick or leave me
alone: In a word, I congratulate you on March 8th,' wrote Hovhannes, 11, one
of 150 children who have participated in a daycare program for youngsters who
have lost parents, are from troubled families or who have difficulties fitting
into mainstream schools.
At the Gyumri Care Center for Children at Risk, the blue-eyed, ruddy-cheeked
boy draws his dream home - a three-storey castle with open windows, which is
painted in red and orange, a spruce tree next to the castle, with the Sis and
Masis mountains in the background.
Hovannes' mother died in 2004 and before that his father abandoned the family,
so he lives with his grandmother, spending his days at the daycare center
getting special attention and exercising his creative skills. (ArmeniaNow is
not publishing his family name to protect his privacy.)
The Armenian government, citing the success of the center in helping at-risk
children, plans to replicate it in the coming year. A second center is planned
in Gyumri and one in Yerevan.
The need here in Gyumri is especially acute. Nearly 18 years after the
earthquake that killed at least 25,000 people, the city and surrounding Shirak
region remains an epicenter of economic and social problems.
According to the World Bank, poverty in that region is 48.8 percent, compared
to 34.6 percent overall in Armenia.
Despite progress made over the past five years to provide thousands of new and
rebuilt apartments, local officials say more than 4,000 families are still
without shelter and live in temporary homes - or `domiks,' the Russian word for
little houses.
`Today it's children who suffer from poverty most of all in Armenia', says
Diana Martirosova, a statistician in the National Statistical Service.
Today, 45 children attend the Gyumri Care Center for Children at Risk. Since
its founding in 2001 with the help of the United Nations children's
organization, UNICEF, some 105 other children have passed through the center
and moved on to mainstream schools.
`The extremely poor condition of a family, parents' unemployment, a child not
attending school, going about begging - all these are the criteria for being
listed in the risk group,' says Geghanush Gyunashyan, president of the center.
The center provides other services for families. Seminars explain what rights
parents or guardians have in the care of children, and specialists help
parents prepare documents for social assistance or employment.
Psychological and material support is given so that children can stay with
family members rather than being sent to children's centers or orphanages.
`We have tried to find an alternative for the children who spend most of their
lives in orphanages. Statistically, due to hard conditions parents prefer
taking their kids to an orphanage', says Naira Avetisyan, manager of UNICEF's
Children's Rights Protection Project.
At the Gyumri center, Hovhannes and other young boys and girls work at
computers, read or do arts and crafts. On this day, International Women's Day,
there is a special program put on by the children in honor of mothers.
`We wish you never cry', the children in the center expressed to all the
mothers in the world. `Let your eyes always shine.'
Sara Khojoyan is a journalism student at Yerevan State University and
participates in a training program sponsored by the International Center for
Journalists (www.icfj.org) and supported by ArmeniaNow.
SPORT ROUNDUP: WISMAN JOINS LIST OF FOOTBALL FOREIGNERS EXILED
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
FOOTBALL
Dutch specialist Henk Wisman on Thursday was sacked as head coach of Armenia's
national football team and FC Pyunik Yerevan less than a year after he took up
the duties.
`The President of the Federation did not prolong the contract with head coach
of the national football team of Armenia Henk Wisman after the latter failed
to come to an agreement during negotiations with the Football Federation of
Armenia,' the Football Federation said in a press release later that day.
New President of FC Pyunik Karen Harutyunyan, who took over from Khoren
Hovhannisyan last month, also decided not to extend the contract with Wisman.
Wisman's duties at FC Pyunik are currently performed by Armenia U-21 team head
coach Samvel Petrosyan. The position of the national team's head coach is
still vacant.
The contract with Wisman, 48, was due to end in July. Under Wisman, Armenia
played eight matches, losing six, drawing one and winning only in one (over
Andorra's semi-professional team). The Dutchman has been repeatedly subjected
to scathing criticism by the Armenian media and football specialists for his
bad record and defensive tactics.
Wisman-led Pyunik won the national championship, but was eliminated in the
first stage of the Champions' League.
Wisman is the fourth foreign coach of Armenia. Like him, none of his
predecessors -- Argentina's Oscar Lopez, Romania's Mihai Stoichita and
France's Bernard Casoni -- served out their contract.
The same day, Wisman told reporters that he didn't want to leave his post and
that it was the Federation's decision. `I wanted to stay and work,' Wisman
said, adding that now he is not going to leave Armenia.
Quoting sources at the Football Federation, the A1 Plus website reports that
Federation President Ruben Hayrapetyan is currently holding negotiations with
about 10 foreign coaches.
Armenia are due to play their first Euro-2008 qualifier in September.
Armenia Cup: The first leg of the quarterfinals of the 2006 Armenian Cup took
place on April 5 and 6. Kapan's FC Gandzasar beat Armenia's vice-champion Mika
Ashtarak - 1-0, Yerevan's FC Kilikia drew with Yerevan's Banants-2 - 1-1.
Yerevan's FC Pyunik drew with Yerevan's FC Ararat - 1-1, and Gyumri's FC
Shirak drew with Yerevan's FC Banants - 0:0. (Source: the Football Federation
of Armenia)
Armenia's grandmaster Levon Aronyan (2756) is now the 3rd player in the world
after Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov (2804) and India's Viswanathan Anand (2803).
Among the world's top 100 chess players are also GM Vladimir Hakobyan - 16th
place (2706), GM Karen Asryan - 61st (2646) and GM Smbat Lputyan - 94th
(2619).
Among the world's top 50 women chess players are Lilit Lazarian - 21st place
(2453) and Elina Danielyan - 38th place (2422). The women's list is topped by
Hungary's Judith Polgar (2711).
FIDE has also announced the new average ratings of FIDE member countries.
Armenia is the 5th among 140 countries. The top ten are:
1. Russia 2716
2. Ukraine 2663
3. USA 2625
4. France 2623
5. ARMENIA 2616
6. Hungary 2616
7. China 2611
8. Israel 2609
9. Germany 2607
10. Netherlands 2605
(Sources: www.armchess.am, Armenpress)
Administration Address: 26 Parpetsi St., No 9
Phone: +(374 1) 532422
Email: [email protected]
Internet: www.armenianow.com
Technical Assistance: (For technical assistance please contact Babken
Juharyan)
Email: [email protected]
FIGHTING TRADITION: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS FABRIC IN THE FAMILY CLOTH
Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
`If the day ends up without a fight and I have no blood on my body, I am happy
that day,' says Varduhi Khachatryan, 47, resident of the village of Burastan
in the Artashat region.
Such days are too few in Varduhi's life. Seventeen years ago, while she was
pregnant, her husband beat her with a stick. Varduhi gathered her things and
fled to her parents' home.
`My father did not accept me, he said: `Go, he is your husband. He may happen
to beat you from time to time . . .'
`I had nowhere to run. I came back. From that time on, the day without beating
is not a day,' says Varduhi.
She is the mother of four. They witness the beatings and the mother says they,
too, are the victims of her husband's anger.
Yeranuhi Khachatryan is 12. She tells about a time when her father had thrown
the mother downstairs from the first floor, then held his foot on her throat
to strangle her.
`What can we do? We can't escape; he will later catch us and kill us. We can't
call the police. It's a shame. The neighbors will laugh at us,' says Yeranuhi.
Experts say such cases of violence against women in Armenia are widespread,
but the traditional stereotypes do not allow women a proper recourse against
them.
`When we raise the question of violence against women in high places to pass a
law, they say there is no such problem in Armenia; that it is artificially
imported from foreign countries,' says Director of the Women's Rights Center
Susanna Vardanyan.
`We are even blamed for having sold ourselves to the foreigners and for making
our traditionally strong families deteriorate.'
At least one Armenian scientist says the blame is legitimate.
Ethno-sociologist Mihran Galstyan, of the Institute of Ethnography of the
Armenian Academy of Sciences, says, too, that claims of domestic violence are
exaggerated.
`Many organizations just extort grants from abroad, the foreign mediation into
Armenian families is quite dangerous, if the woman is constantly told her
husband has no right to reprimand on her, we will not have families,' says
Galstyan.
Research favors the opinion that domestic violence is a serious issue.
Independent sociological survey center `Sociometer' conducted research in
Yerevan and eight towns and eight villages. Among 1,200 women, 75 percent said
they are victims of husbands' violence. The survey also found that in one out
of four cases, children witness the violence.
(By comparison, a World Health Organization study puts the number of women
physically abused by their partners or ex-partners at 30 per cent in the UK,
and 22 per cent in the US.)
`Unfortunately many seem to feel that humiliating a woman is a casual thing,
because thinking that violence is an indispensable part of family life is
formed since childhood,' says Director of the `Sociometer' Aharon Adibekyan.
But Galstyan has also held a sociological survey in 1,626 settlements across
all the marzes of Armenia. According to his research, only 7.3 percents are
exposed to family violence.
According to the survey answers and tables they ask nearly the same questions.
Adibekyan explains that the numbers are so different because of the skills of
survey takers.
`Such surveys need a delicate approach. Not every woman will tell all her
family problems to a person who she sees at first time. That's why we involve
in our survey teachers of villages, workers from communities, who are well
known in villages and in different city communities, so a woman's answers to
their close people could be as sincere as possible. That's why our numbers are
so high'.
During the seven-year existence of the Women's Rights Center 10,181 women have
sought help from their hotline service (080 080 850), of which 4,174 have been
exposed to domestic violence.
Additionally, 3,000 women who have undergone violence have appealed to
the `Motherhood Fund' during the 4 years of its existence.
`These figures are quite high for Armenia, if we take into account that women
who have undergone violence more frequently appeal to relatives and friends
for help, and only those who have found themselves in a desperate situation
appeal to the help of such organizations,' says Anna Badalyan, psychologist at
the `Motherhood Fund'.
Badalyan says many do not even realize there can be a family without violence.
For many, a `beating' is within the scope of family life.
According to statistical data 45 percents of women who have been exposed to
violence keep silent trying to alleviate the situation; 0.3 percents of them
appeal for divorce and 0.4 percent appeal to law enforcement bodies.
`There is a need for a law to make the training of police specializing in
family violence possible; no one today appeals, for no one trusts in it; they
think police will come and bring an action against, and then they will have to
pay money to have the case closed,' says Vardanyan.
Besides, Vardanyan says it is fixed in our national mentality that the woman
is always to blame, adding that violence against women is fixed even in
Armenia's linguistic mentality.
There are, for example, folks sayings: `Woman is wool; the more you comb it,
the softer it gets.' Or `A husband's beating is like a rose's pricking.'
Serob Mesropyan, 78, Varduhi Khachatryan's neighbor, has a refined test for
trying woman; he has used this test while choosing wives for his sons.
`If the woman escapes in a corner of the house when you beat her, then she
will become a wife; if she runs out, then she will not. I have chosen my wife
that way, and the test proved right when I chose wives for my sons,' the old
man says.
At the beginning of the 20th century, writer Yervand Otyan wrote a literary
essay, `Should the Woman be Beaten?':
`As a result of the wrongly interpreted modernization, women get less beating
than in the good old times. ... The day the habit of beating women totally
disappears among us, `the gentle women of the Armenian world' will cease to
exist.'
In her call for legislation protecting women, Vardanyan says it is this
mentality that must be overcome. She says her attempts to gain the attention
of lawmakers have been fruitless, because they maintain that there isn't any
domestic violence in Armenia.
TRADEOFF: PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES GAS TARIFF CONCESSIONS AS RUSSIA TAKES ANOTHER
SLICE OF ARMENIAN ENERGY
By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
In the heated atmosphere of gas price and politics, President Robert Kocharyan
said on Wednesday that Armenia will not be hurt as much as predicted by the
Russians' tariff increases.
As of Monday (April 10), household gas prices are to rise by 52.5 percent and
85.2 percent for industrial consumption, as announced last month by the
Commission for Regulation of Public Services.
On Wednesday (April 5), however, Kocharyan stated during a visit to
HyeRusGazard company that prices would grown by no more than 10-15 percent.
`We are planning to realize a big investment project with the Russian side in
Armenia regarding the fifth power bloc of the Hrazdan thermal power plant, as
a result of which the government will have money for compensating the price
growth in the next three years for the people, alleviating its influence both
on the people and the business,' the President said. `Parallel to that the
construction works of the thermal plant will be finished, it will be
modernized resulting in a higher efficiency.'
The government has agreed to sell another portion of the Hrazdan plant to
Russia's Gazprom energy agency.
On Thursday, matters became more clear as to concessions on the Armenian side,
as Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom announced a 25-year deal for control of
part of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline that is to be completed this year. It
has been widely speculated that such a deal might take place, but as of Friday
(April 7), the Armenian Government had not confirmed that it had been made.
Presidential press secretary Victor Soghomonyan told ArmeniaNow that: `If all
the details were known, the President would have told them.This is a
continuing process that has not been brought to its end yet; the details will
be clarified in the future.'
The cost of the power bloc, according to Minister of Energy Armen Movsisyan,
has been evaluated $60 million higher than the value defined for the
compensation. It has been sold for $248.8 million, with $188 million of the
expected sum expected to subsidize consumer prices, while $60.8 million will
go to the state budget. Besides, the Russian side has been obliged to make
$150-160 million investments in the Hrazdan thermal power plant within a two
year term.
According to the decision approved by the government, 25 drams of the demanded
90 for one cubic meter of gas that will enter into force beginning April 10
will be subsidized by the state. Meanwhile, enterprises consuming more than 10
thousand cubic meters of gas per month, will be compensated $52.01 of the
$146.51 charge. The subsidies are to be in place for three years.
The Minister of Energy thinks there will be no great changes in three years
(by which time Armenia should be benefiting from the Iran pipeline). According
to Movsisyan, the Russians have pledged to not increase the gas price in the
next three years.
The decision, however, has caused complaints within political circles.
`Each time another project of property for debt is realized, the same
reiterated expression is voiced on that the Russian investments will modernize
the Armenian economy, but nothing is `modernized' as a result,' says political
expert Suren Surenyants. `That is, here there is a very simple logic - the
Russians are ready to alleviate their price policy seizing in exchange another
stake in the Armenian energy system that is dramatically significant for the
energy security of Armenia.'
The Chairman of the National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan also
doesn't have a positive attitude to the compromise scenario with Russia and
believes Armenia - like Georgia and Azerbaijan - shouldn't have complied with
favors on the Russian side, for the sake of its independence.
`If Armenia gives the alternative opportunity of importing natural gas to the
HyeRusGazard to provide low prices of gas for a few more years, then we,
having no guarantees for sustaining that price for a long-term period, will
put our descendants in a unilateral dependence on a foreign state,' said
Paruyr Hayrikyan during a press conference Thursday.
Kocharyan, though, is confident Armenia will benefit from the cooperation and
will have much less energy generated by gas owing to the modernization of the
5th power bloc of the Hrazdan thermal power plant that will facilitate the
development of lower energy costs.
CASH CRIMES: YEREVAN EXCHANGE OUTLETS TARGETED IN ROBBERIES AND MURDERS
Arpi Harutyunyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
In less than the past three months, four Yerevan currency exchange kiosks have
been the target of robbery.
The latest occurred on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. when two men armed with a gas
pistol tried to rob 32-year-old agent Arman Hovhannisyan at his outlet on
Komitas street in the Arabkir community.
Hovhanissyan managed to thwart the robbery attempt by taking the gun from the
men, but not before he'd been struck on the head and later required medical
attention. He was also aided by an alarm system that alerted police, who
arrived after the would-be robbers fled.
Passersby at the scene said the men were speaking Russian and Georgian.
On January 21 police officer Artur Lazarian was killed during a robbery on
Baghramyan Avenue in the same general area of Wednesday's attempt. Four men
were arrested, including two citizens of Georgia.
Six days later another exchange outlet operating on the ground floor of 1
Azatutyun Avenue in the same Arabkir community was robbed, this time without
casualties or injuries.
The series of crimes continued on February 3 with the attack on Hyeinkassatsia
cash exchange driver Alexan Davtyan, 49, who was killed during a robbery, shot
in the head, around 7:30 p.m. near the Arabkir branch of Unibank at Komitas
Street 22.
Before reaching the bank, Davtyan had made several currency exchange stops.
The killers stole his car and made of with more than $100,000.
Four hours later police found the car in the yard of 19 Hrachya Kochar, not
far from the scene of the crime.
Police offer few details on the series of robberies, but are offering rewards
for information leading to arrests.
LIGHT YEARS BEHIND: SCIENTIFIC PROJECT FAILS TO SPARK FOUR YEARS AFTER
PLANNING
By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
This July Armenian scientists will organize a workshop dealing with the
scientific project CANDLE, which will be held under the auspices of NATO. The
project (the name of which stands for Center for the Advancement of Natural
Discoveries using Light Emission) was internationally acclaimed when it was
announced four years ago. But it has not gotten past the planning stage, due
to a lack of funding.
The aim of the proposed $48 million project is to establish a scientific
center in Yerevan with at least five experimental stations (in the fields of
biophysics, material studies, micro-construction, biomedicine and
nanotechnologies) where scientists would be able to research molecules,
biological objects and materials, using high-intensity light.
In 2002, optimistic Armenian scientists expressed a hope that by 2007 Yerevan
would have an environmentally-safe accelerator center unprecedented for the
post-Soviet countries, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The US State
Department spent $500,000 to fund plans for the project.
A year short of its bright hopes, CANDLE remains dark.
CANDLE project head Vasili Tsakanov says the project must be viewed as a
national priority if it is to be realized.
`The world is moving ahead,' says Tsakanov. `Due to the realization of CANDLE
Armenia will gain a program for a long-term science-intense development. Its
construction will be carried out completely at the expense of international
funds. All Armenia has to do is to recognize this project and provide
corresponding privileges for its unhampered realization.'
Construction of similar accelerator centers began in Spain, China, Australia,
and in Britain and France they will be ready soon. The British and French
projects were realized in the same time frame as the failed Armenian project.
For the purpose of the implementation of CANDLE the Armenian government
provided scientists with a building in Yerevan and 4.5 hectares of territory
adjacent to it on 50-year free lease.
`Territory alone is not enough for the U.S. State Department to fund it,'
writes American-Armenian doctor of sociology Murad Muradyan in his article
published in the American Observer magazine last autumn. `Sources of funding
and mechanisms of the CANDLE project are blocked. For unclear reasons Armenia
did not include it into the U.S. Millennium Challenges program either.'
He stated in his article that the U.S. State Department was ready to finance
this project, however demanded that Armenia show serious willingness to assist
in the implementation of such a project.
According to the Armenian Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, the
Armenian government did not assume any obligation regarding this project.
`CANDLE is not included in any program financed by international donor
organizations as there was no proposal for the financing of such large
scientific centers.' says a Trade Ministry official, who wished to remain
anonymous. `The Millennium Challenges program was originally aimed at the
development of rural communities, and not scientific.'
About a year ago, heads of Armenia's scientific hubs signed an application
addressed to the international community, asking for assistance in the
implementation of the project. Hundreds of scientists, from about 140
scientific organizations in 38 countries, responded to this request for
assistance on the official site, www.candle.am.
One of them is Professor Borys Kierdaszuk from Poland who says that a
successful completion of the CANDLE project will be very important for
scientific cooperation and peaceful relations between countries in the region
of the Caspian Sea.
The international expert council mentioned several important positive factors
of the project's impact for Armenia - creation of new jobs, a stable political
atmosphere for potential investors, development of the hi-tech industry, at
least a threefold increase in the entry of sums into the Armenian budget from
external sources.
Muradyan concludes his article with the following paragraph: `Armenia may lack
oil, but CANDLE is the project that can clear the way for prosperity.
Indifference is inadmissible, because if CANDLE fails, another country will
bridge this gap, and probably will use the knowledge of Armenian scientists.'
The CANDLE creators today, too, express a hope that, even if it gets underway
this year, it will be unprecedented in 2012 with a radius of about 2,000
kilometers.
They hope that the 5-day `Brilliant Light Facilities and Research in Life and
Material Sciences' workshop will be beginning of a brighter future for CANDLE.
LEGAL LOOP HOLE FOR NKR?: EXPERT ON KARABAKH QUESTION SAYS AZERIS HAVE NO
RIGHT TO TERRITORY
By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Sixteen years ago the USSR Supreme Soviet (Parliament) adopted a law whose
importance is impossible to underestimate in today's negotiations over Nagorno
Karabakh.
Yerevan State University professor Alexander Manasyan, a top expert on NK
legal affairs, says present peace debates are hampered by an interpretation of
the law that makes it inapplicable to autonomous regions such as Karabakh. The
professor also suggests that official Yerevan should utilize the law in the
international community, as it provides a loop-hole of sorts for settlement of
the `Karabakh Question'.
The Law `On the Order of Solving Problems Connected with the Secession of a
Union Republic from the USSR' adopted on April 3, 1990, determined the legal
platform of the breakup of the Soviet Union and legalized and organized the
existing chaotic movement. It also concretized the fundamental provisions
connected with the prospect of autonomous units. In other words, the law
became a legal motivation for the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The logical result of the law was the fact of the declaration of independence
by each of the 15 Union republics of the USSR accepted by the international
community. In particular, article 2 of the law read: `The decision on a Union
republic's secession from the USSR is made through a free expression of will
by the peoples of the union republic by way of a referendum. The decision on
holding the referendum is made by the Supreme Soviet of the union republic
upon its own initiative or at the request signed by a tenth of USSR citizens
permanently residing in the territory of the republic and eligible to vote
under the USSR legislation...'
`It is on the basis of the mentioned provision that the organized collapse of
the Soviet power took place,' says Manasyan. `If the struggle of peoples for
independence was a factual movement, then the law gave it the required
juridical contents. However, the international community, which complied with
the provision of the law in relation to 15 union republics, ignored the same
law in the case with autonomous units.'
Article 3 of this law is noteworthy in the aspect of the unresolved nature of
the Karabakh issue. The development of that article undoubtedly was dictated
by the struggle of the Armenian people of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous
Region (NKAR) to secede from Azerbaijan. `In a union republic that includes
autonomous republics, regions and areas, a referendum is held in each autonomy
separately. The peoples of autonomous republics and autonomous entities
reserve the right to an independent decision on their stay within the USSR or
within the union republic quitting it, as well as on raising the question
about its state-legal status...'
`One should particularly emphasize that the law was adopted after consistent
but futile efforts of the Center to freeze the struggle of the Armenian
people, in particular after the notorious consideration of the issue at the
meeting of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet on July 18, 1988,'
Manasyan says. `Moreover, it came into effect after a special form of
government had been introduced in the NKAR according to which the region in
fact was out of subjection to Azerbaijan. Thus, the law adopted on April 3,
1990 in practice stated the futility of the preceding efforts of the Center
and proved the concluding act allowing for a legal withdrawal of the NKAR from
the Azerbaijanian SSR.'
The referendum on independence held in Nagorno-Karabakh on December 10, 1991
was a legal consequence of the law under which Azerbaijan itself gained
independence. `However, Baku ignored separate points of the law enabling
Nagorno-Karabakh to quit Soviet Azerbaijan, and responded to the results of
the referendum with a new war,' the professor says.
The question was raised a few years ago by Manasyan, who created the so-called
legal package of Karabakh settlement in which this provision was singled out.
For years this provision has been periodically raised, however not by official
Yerevan, but by a number of NGOs. Officially Yerevan adopted another
provision. The legal package includes the following - on 30 August 1991 the
Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijani SSR adopted a declaration on state
independence in which it called new Azerbaijan a successor of the Azerbaijani
republic existing in 1918-20 and rejected the Soviet heritage. On the basis of
this provision, it is said in the legal package of Manasyan that if Azerbaijan
considers itself a legal successor to the original state then one should know
that this country was not recognized by the League of Nations, the predecessor
of the United Nations, and Nagorno-Karabakh was never part of this state.
Simultaneously, if Azerbaijan rejects its Soviet heritage it also
automatically gives up Karabakh, as Karabakh was only part of Soviet
Azerbaijan. This point has mostly been used by official Yerevan over the last
three years.
Official Baku has never spoken about this law and never touched on it. Baku
will have an official position only if it has to respond to questions raised
by the Armenian side, but the Armenian side does not raise this question
officially.
Taking into account the fact that 1992-93 was a chaotic period time, Russia
did not have a clear position then. Nor does it today. As this question has
never been raised, Russia appears to have forgotten about that law a long time
ago.
By strict interpretation of the law, the Azerbaijani SSR that declared its
independence on the basis of this law had no right to unilaterally spread its
political influence on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. In particular,
article 6 of the law states that `in a Union republic that includes autonomous
republics, autonomous regions, autonomous areas or places of compact residence
of national groups the results of the referendum are considered by the Supreme
Soviet of the Union republic jointly with the Supreme Soviet of the autonomous
republic and corresponding soviets of people's deputies.' In other words,
Azerbaijan was not entitled to declare its independence in the territory of
the title Soviet republic.
`The world history knows precedents of the functioning in international
instances of representatives of states that are not members of the UN,'
Manasyan says. `The Palestine Liberation Organization is the most known of
them, but not the only example. However, we did not make a single step for our
rights to be recognized. I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that the
United Nations is not an organization of united states, but it is the
organization of united nations. If the NKR today applies to the UN having all
attributes of state power, I see no reason why they can reject us.'
The political scientist argues that the Armenian sides do not try to spread
their documents at the UN, even though they have all rights to do that. `The
realization of the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-
determination on the basis of the Union law of April 3, 1990 and the
referendum of December 10, 1991 is in full compliance with the voluminous
definition of the right of nations to self-determination designated by the
UN.'
OLYMPIC GOLD: AFTER POOR SHOWING IN TURIN, ARMENIAN ATHLETES GET CASH
INCENTIVES
By Siranouish Gevorgyan
Special to ArmeniaNow
Armenians didn't bring a single medal home from the Winter Olympic Games in
Turin this year, but many athletes are already preparing for the Summer
Olympics that will take place in Beijing 2008.
To encourage Armenian athletes and their coaches, the president of Armenia's
National Olympic Committee, Gagik Tsarukyan, has assigned monthly stipends to
about 100 of the country's best athletes in summer sports.
They are divided into three groups. The best 12 will get $1,000, the second
group will get $500, and third group will get $100. Coaches of these athletes
will also get a monthly stipend -- half of the sum assigned to their trainees.
The overall sum of stipends, which began being paid on April 1, is $30,000 per
month.
Tsarukyan wants the athletes to train well and raise the Armenian flag in
Beijing.
However, the Armenian athletes have not made their fans happy with victories
in big international competitions recently.
During Soviet times, Armenia had Olympic champions such as Hrant Shahinyan
(gymnastics), Vladimir Yengibaryan (boxing), Yury Vardanyan (weightlifting),
Albert Azaryan (gymnastics), Ogsen Mirzoyan (weightlifting), Levon Julfalakyan
(wrestling) and others.
`We were getting tired of writing, say, about Yuri Vardanyan because wherever
he'd go, he'd win,' says Yuri Alexanyan, a former sports reporter and now the
president of Sport Reporters' Federation.
Many coaches who worked during Soviet times say that the reason for their
achievements were the financial support, the discipline, experienced coaches,
sufficient sports equipment and facilities, rich competition experience and
also the major interest in sports during that period.
`Now teenagers prefer to sell things in the market rather than go for in
sports especially when they have to pay monthly fees to the sport schools,'
says Alexanyan.
The rector of Yerevan State Institute of Physical Culture, Vahram Arakelyan,
also mentions that in the Soviet era, Armenian athletes were training with
representatives of 50 nations from 15 Soviet republics.
`They were able to gain big competition experience. Now it is sometimes even
hard to gather 20 athletes during training periods,' he says.
FINANCES PLAY MAJOR ROLE
The independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union and the economic crises that
followed have greatly affected sports, too.
The Armenian government budgets 1.2 billion drams (about $2.6 million) for
sports, which goes to the National Committee of Physical Education and Sports,
a government-appointed body.
Money is also donated by various businessmen who are interested in sports,
such as Tsarukyan himself, (who in addition to be president of the NOC is a
member of National Assembly), and Samvel Alexanyan, president of the Wrestling
Federation and also a member of National Assembly.
Finding money is especially hard for those athletes who train abroad but
compete under the flag of Armenia, such as the ice skaters Anastasia
Grebenkina and Vazgen Azroyan. They train at Odintsovo Skate Center in Moscow.
They finished 20th in the Winter Olympics in Turin out of 24 pairs.
`What we need each year in order to prepare and compete normally is
approximately $100,000 at minimum. For example, the complete set of new
costumes alone can easily amount to $20,000. What we do get today is another
story. Certainly, the Armenian Federation is not capable of covering even the
small part of the costs; nevertheless, we are very thankful for whatever help
the Federation sporadically provides,' Grebenkina and Azroyan said in an e-
mail.
A figure skating pair competing internationally has expenses that include ice
rink rental, choreography, costume design, coaching fees and soundtracks.
There are also expenses for consultations, travel for coaches, medical
expenses and purchase of equipment.
Other athletes do not have to deal with expenses such as choreography, costume
design or soundtracks, but the overall expenses are similar. Not many athletes
like to talk about their financial expenses. For example, popular super
heavyweight lifter Ashot Danielyan, who is currently competing for Armenia,
refused to talk about that.
Another weightlifter, Tigran Martirosyan, says that any highly qualified
athlete usually gets an amount of money that is enough to live on if he wins
international competitions.
`I got $100 from Sports Committee and $300 from the mayor of Gyumri when I won
the 3rd prize in the Weightlifting Cup competitions this year,' he says.
Martirosyan is in the second group for the new Olympic stipends and will get
$500 per month.
`I am going to order some expensive vitamins from abroad because they are not
available in Armenia and that sum will hardly cover those expenses,' he said.
Another problem is that many good athletes prefer to work in other countries
because of higher payments from those countries.
`About five years ago, we had more than 20 athletes leaving Armenia every
year. But now this problem is not that sharp,' says the rector of Physical
Culture Institute.
But still a lot of qualified athletes compete for other countries, such as Vic
Darchinyan (boxer, competing for Australia), and Arthur and Alexan Abrahams
(boxers, competing for Germany). Bringing them back to Armenia may be very
difficult.
SMALL SALARIES FOR COACHES
The salary of an ordinary coach in Armenia is 23,000 drams ($50) monthly.
Those who have experience and have produced champions get about 50,000 ($100)
drams.
Mostly because of the low salaries, now there is need for qualified coaches.
`Many highly qualified coaches from Soviet school have died, others have left
the country. We still don't have good coaches because of these difficult
years,' said Arakelyan, the rector of the Physical Culture Institute.
In developed countries usually three coaches -- technical coach, tactical
coach and physical preparedness coach -- plus a psychologist and a doctor work
with each athlete.
`In our country only one coach does the work of these three people and
sometimes ridiculous situations happen,' said sports reporter and entry-level
football referee Varazdat Ghazaryan.
`For example, if a football player says that he has hurt his leg and if his
coach knows nothing about medicine, he will probably think that the player
wants just to skip the training. So in two days the player is going to have
health problems,' Ghazaryan said.
REBUILDING PROCESS
During the last year, 16 sports schools have been rebuilt and furnished with
new equipment in Yerevan and in the regions for a total cost of 857 million
drams ($1.9 million). The rebuilding of the regional schools was financed by
the Armenian government. The Lincy Foundation rebuilt the Yerevan schools.
A new ski lift in Tsaghkadzor gives fresh opportunities for developing winter
sports. It takes skiers up to a 12.5-kilometer ski run. It cost 4.2 billion
drams ($9.3 million). The major part of the money was given by Kajaran Copper-
molybdenum factory and the rest from Hayastan Pan-Armenian Foundation and Hye
Yerkatughi Company.
For a training period held in Tsaghkadzor, the government spends 15,000 drams
($33) daily for each athlete.
The Physical Culture Institute every year accepts about 2,000 students. The
departments of boxing, wrestling and weightlifting have the most students. The
departments that have the least students are gymnastics, fencing and sport
journalism.
Arakelyan believes that Armenia will have Olympic champions in the 2016
Olympic Games, because by that time, he says, the work of new coaches and
their influence on their trainees will be seen.
Siranouish Gevorgyan is a journalism student at Yerevan State University and
participates in a training program sponsored by the International Center for
Journalists (www.icfj.org) and supported by ArmeniaNow.
DIRTY BUSINESS: MIS-MANAGED WASTE CREATES HEALTH RISK IN ARMENIA
Arpi Harutyunyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Yerevan has a garbage problem. Refuse spills from overloaded dumpsters, and
plastic bags in flight have become the new urban bird of the capital.
Officials say public health is at risk as a result.
Annually, Yerevan produces 285,000 tons of garbage - 70 percent of the entire
republic. Some 200,000 tons make it to dump sites. The rest simply piles, or
is discarded wherever it might be convenient by collection companies.
`The areas neighboring Yerevan - the by-road territories to the towns of
Artashat, Ararat, Abovyan have turned into garbage dumps since many
enterprises load their wastes into those ravines,' says Vardges Yeghiazaryan,
deputy head of the Construction, Improvement and Communal Services Department
at the Yerevan Municipality.
Chairwoman of the Social-Environmental Association Srbuhi Harutyunyan confirms
official assessment.
`In Armenia and especially in Yerevan there are organizations operating in the
shadow market, who secretly dump their wastes in different places and cover it
with a layer of soil,' says Harutyunyan. `Those enterprises do not undergo
even the Evaluation of the Influence over Environment (pollution standard),
since they don't have exact kinds of production: the production is dictated by
the order.'
Experts say health is at risk because of toxic fumes that escape when plastic
is burned.
The Chairwoman of Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment NGO Yelena
Manvelyan thinks the increase in incidence of tumors - from 11.1 per 1,000 in
1988 to 22.9/1,000 in 2002 - is a result of air pollution caused by burning
garbage.
`One can unambiguously insist the garbage does affect the human health to a
certain extent,' says Karine Danielyan, chairwoman of For Sustainable
Development NGO.
Danielyan also says the malignant tumors are spread in Armenia several times
more than in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
According to a governmental decision garbage should be collected in the city
every one to three days. In some communities, however, pickup occurs less than
once per week.
The Arabkir community in Yerevan is notorious for its bad performance of waste
cleaning. Sometimes the dumpsters serving a dozen buildings placed on the
corner of Khachatryan and Gyulbenkyan streets (only a few meters from the
residential blocs) are not cleaned for a full week. Garbage penetrates even
into the entrances of the buildings during windy weather.
City authorities say such conditions are due to negligence by residents to pay
the small fee - less than 25 cents per resident per month - for garbage
service.
`Besides the problems with payments the Nubarashen waste dump is also a
problem,' says Yeghiazaryan. `The city waste dump has been exhausted long ago.
It should be closed. The city authorities also realize the fact. But there is
no company in Armenia today that would be ready to invest in utilizing the
waste dump so that we could think of a new place.'
According to the Yerevan Municipality the central waste dump of the city in
Nubarashen has concentrated 7 million tons of waste since the 1950s and that
the accumulation of methane gas there could be a source for conversion into
electric power.
Azniv Mkhitaryan, leading specialist at the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development says some companies have shown and interest in the utilization of
household wastes, but only the Japanese `Shimidzu' company is in a promising
stage.
`Companies interested in the matter frequently address our Ministry. We
forward the appeals to various agencies to get proper conclusions. As a rule
none of the ministries has given positive evaluation and the deals do not take
place,' explains Mkhitaryan.
Businessman, refuse expert Hovsep Poghosyan says the government needs to make
private investment into waste management more appealing to companies.
`It is natural every businessman aims at getting profit, but it seems
impossible within the modern day conditions of Armenia. The government should
at least define some privileges for those kind of companies or take measures
for creating joint companies. But today neither the first nor the second are
done,' says Poghosyan.
Meanwhile, environmentalists are concerned that unless people don't take
measures to eliminate the overspread waste, the waste will try to eliminate
the people.
GESTURE FOR RECOGNITION: ACTIVISTS WANT TO CONVEY MESSAGE THAT REFUGEES HAVE
RIGHTS
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Human rights protection organizations and individual social activists in
Armenia have signed a declaration calling on Azerbaijan to allow Armenian
refugees to participate in that country's lawmaking.
The president of Azat Hayk, a Non Governmental Organization, Ruben
Mnatsakanyan, says some 600-700,000 Armenians fled Azerbaijan in the early
1990s - a number that `could ensure five or six deputies in the country's
legislature'.
`We want to set up a faction in Azerbaijan's Milli Mejlis [parliament]. And
the declaration will make it possible to specify the strategy of reinstating
the refugees in their social and economic rights,' he says
Mnatsakanyan says a delegation representing the declaration wants to hand over
the document in Baku.
The activists, however, are not hopeful that they or their idea will be
received.
Ahazang NGO President Juleta Yeremyants says that even if Azerbaijan does not
accept their application, they will all the same raise their voice and will
keep the world aware that after deportation from Azerbaijan they still have
there many rights which they want to be protected.
`It is not only that we left our houses and belongings and emigrated. We had
contributed our whole lives to building that country. Together with them we
had been building cities and towns, villages, scientific centers, plants. We
are successors of all that, and we stand by our rights,' says Yeremyants.
The authors of the declaration want to assure that their family successors are
granted entitlement.
Mnatsakanyan says that they have evaluated the situation and expect a negative
response, after which they will apply to the European Court.
Angin Arakelyan was deported from Baku and came to Yerevan in 1989. She says
that they were still there when they saw Armenian cemeteries being destroyed.
Before leaving, Arakelyan wanted to take a handful of soil from her father's
grave, but instead of the cemetery she found a huge market.
`Today, 18 years later, Azerbaijan continues its barbarian activities against
the Armenian nation and culture. That cultural genocide is a criminally
punishable deed,' she says. `That country must finally give an answer at
international instances. We all have a large contribution to any sphere of
that country. Azerbaijan must compensate for the moral and material damage
that we incurred.'
(Theoretically, the same accommodations should apply to Azeris who fled
Karabakh. In practical terms, no one expects a literal application of such
law, but the Armenian NGOs say it is an important issue to raise, if only
symbolically.)
Yeremyants says that the settlement of this problem does not only concern high-
level officials. It is necessary to make diplomatic access available to common
citizens.
The authors of the declaration also said that their step is a reply to Azeri
claims of having been subjected to genocide by Armenians - claims that have
been renewed in recent demonstrations by Azeri Diaspora.
Turkish studies specialist Katy Gundakchyan says: `This step we are making is
not useless,' says Turkish studies specialist Katy Gundakchyan. `Now we must
raise a noise, and it doesn't matter what instances it will reach. From the
very beginning it is clear that they will not allow it, but sitting silently
we won't achieve anything.'
BAD INFO: REPORT PUTS ARMENIA BEHIND NEIGHBORS IN IT SECTOR
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
An independent international organization's report on Information Technology
(IT) giving Armenia a low ranking raised questions among specialists in
Armenia, with some of them questioning the integrity of the study.
The study of the Geneva-based World Economic Forum for 2005-2006
(http://www.weforum.org) for the first time reviewed Armenia's position in the
IT world and found that among 115 countries it occupies the 86th place, and
ranks lower than rival Azerbaijan.
The report assisted by the Economy and Values Research Center from Armenia
points at the scarce availability of information technologies for both
individuals and businesses as the main reason for the country's low ranking.
Manuk Hergnyan, chairman of the Economy and Values Research Center, presented
to local specialists and media Armenia's stand in the IT world this week,
citing findings from the 2005-2006 Global IT Report.
Armenia is fifth among nine CIS countries reviewed in the report. Ahead of
Armenia in the CIS are: Kazakhstan (60th place), Russia (72nd), Azerbaijan
(73rd) and Ukraine (76th).
Hergnyan explained that this is the result of the extremely low level of
application of information technologies in Armenia, including by the private
sector.
Some of the participants in the discussion disagreed with the findings of the
report, and some were particularly dissatisfied by Armenia's ranking that
yields to Azerbaijan in this sphere.
IT has been declared a priority sector in Armenia, a country of few natural
resources, but one that boasts a vast intellectual potential and highly
skilled human resources.
The Armenian government has repeatedly stated that the sphere must lead the
way for the country's economic development.
`It is a very authoritative report accepted by prestigious structures of the
world. And some investment-related decisions are made on the basis of this
report. When it shows Armenia in an unfavorable situation, then something is
clearly wrong,' Hergnyan said.
Synopsys Armenia Executive Director Hovik Musayelyan said that over the last
1.5 years their company has invested some $400 million-worth of hi-tech
equipment in Armenia and that the total investment in Armenia's IT sector now
reaches $1 billion. In that respect he questioned the methodology used by
those who prepared the report.
`If we review the telecommunications sphere then Armenia is one of the last,'
Musayelyan said. `If we review in terms of the programming industry, then
Armenia is somewhere in the middle. But as far as the microelectronics
industry is concerned, Armenia is in quite leading positions and technologies
made available in Armenia through a number of companies today make it possible
to speak about serious achievements in the microelectronic industry, in which
Armenia has had good traditions since the Soviet times.'
Synopsys, a world leader in electronic design automation software for
semiconductor design that has offices in more than 60 locations in the world,
entered Armenia's market in late 2004. It is known to have made a sizable
investment in Armenia's IT industry and is rendering support to specialized hi-
tech education.
Meanwhile, the authors of the report insist that in order to have a higher
rating Armenia should ensure a broader use of information technologies in
other spheres.
`The report was about networked readiness. Today we have created an oasis,
which is this industry, but it is not connected with other spheres. The report
is on that and not on the IT sector itself,' Hergnyan said.
At the same time, he noted that the study was based on the situation before
the entry of the second mobile phone operator, VivaCell, into Armenia's market
and that explained why Armenia was ranked lowly in particular in the part
regarding telecommunications.
Garegin Chugaszyan, the Competitive Armenia Private Sector Program IT Cluster
Coordinator, for his part urged everyone to be more realistic. `We have
reached a stage when we must realize that business does not grow by itself.
There should be a strategy on establishing an e-society in Armenia, something
that, unfortunately, we don't have now.'
The authors of the report suggested Israel (ranked 19th in the current report)
as a model for Armenia's IT sector development.
While agreeing with some similarities, such as the existence of large
diasporas, unstable regions and hostile surroundings, some of the participants
disagreed that Israel may serve as a short-term development model for Armenia.
Israel is known to have turned its IT sector in one of the most competitive in
the world largely due to large foreign (Jewish Diaspora) investments and about
1.5 million emigrants, including highly-skilled specialists, to Israel from
the USSR.
Armenia, on the contrary, has been subjected to a continuing brain-drain as
highly-skilled specialists have been leaving the country since the collapse of
the Soviet Union against the background of general emigration tendencies.
Advisor to the RA Prime Minister Ara Hakobyan said the example of Israel would
be good enough if Armenians stopped leaving and tried to apply their potential
in their homeland.
`Repatriation is part of culture in Israel. We have a different picture. We
seem to have another culture, which is leaving the homeland. I think there is
a need to change this culture, and the government has much to do in this
matter,' he concluded.
HAVEN FOR KIDS: AT-RISK CHILDREN IN GYUMRI FIND A REFUGE FROM POVERTY, PROBLEMS
By Sara Khojoyan
Special to ArmeniaNow
In a city all too familiar with tragedy, a young Gyumri boy writes a hopeful
note to his late mother, offering her wishes on the recent international
women's day.
`Dear Mother, I want you to be happy. I wish you never get sick or leave me
alone: In a word, I congratulate you on March 8th,' wrote Hovhannes, 11, one
of 150 children who have participated in a daycare program for youngsters who
have lost parents, are from troubled families or who have difficulties fitting
into mainstream schools.
At the Gyumri Care Center for Children at Risk, the blue-eyed, ruddy-cheeked
boy draws his dream home - a three-storey castle with open windows, which is
painted in red and orange, a spruce tree next to the castle, with the Sis and
Masis mountains in the background.
Hovannes' mother died in 2004 and before that his father abandoned the family,
so he lives with his grandmother, spending his days at the daycare center
getting special attention and exercising his creative skills. (ArmeniaNow is
not publishing his family name to protect his privacy.)
The Armenian government, citing the success of the center in helping at-risk
children, plans to replicate it in the coming year. A second center is planned
in Gyumri and one in Yerevan.
The need here in Gyumri is especially acute. Nearly 18 years after the
earthquake that killed at least 25,000 people, the city and surrounding Shirak
region remains an epicenter of economic and social problems.
According to the World Bank, poverty in that region is 48.8 percent, compared
to 34.6 percent overall in Armenia.
Despite progress made over the past five years to provide thousands of new and
rebuilt apartments, local officials say more than 4,000 families are still
without shelter and live in temporary homes - or `domiks,' the Russian word for
little houses.
`Today it's children who suffer from poverty most of all in Armenia', says
Diana Martirosova, a statistician in the National Statistical Service.
Today, 45 children attend the Gyumri Care Center for Children at Risk. Since
its founding in 2001 with the help of the United Nations children's
organization, UNICEF, some 105 other children have passed through the center
and moved on to mainstream schools.
`The extremely poor condition of a family, parents' unemployment, a child not
attending school, going about begging - all these are the criteria for being
listed in the risk group,' says Geghanush Gyunashyan, president of the center.
The center provides other services for families. Seminars explain what rights
parents or guardians have in the care of children, and specialists help
parents prepare documents for social assistance or employment.
Psychological and material support is given so that children can stay with
family members rather than being sent to children's centers or orphanages.
`We have tried to find an alternative for the children who spend most of their
lives in orphanages. Statistically, due to hard conditions parents prefer
taking their kids to an orphanage', says Naira Avetisyan, manager of UNICEF's
Children's Rights Protection Project.
At the Gyumri center, Hovhannes and other young boys and girls work at
computers, read or do arts and crafts. On this day, International Women's Day,
there is a special program put on by the children in honor of mothers.
`We wish you never cry', the children in the center expressed to all the
mothers in the world. `Let your eyes always shine.'
Sara Khojoyan is a journalism student at Yerevan State University and
participates in a training program sponsored by the International Center for
Journalists (www.icfj.org) and supported by ArmeniaNow.
SPORT ROUNDUP: WISMAN JOINS LIST OF FOOTBALL FOREIGNERS EXILED
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
FOOTBALL
Dutch specialist Henk Wisman on Thursday was sacked as head coach of Armenia's
national football team and FC Pyunik Yerevan less than a year after he took up
the duties.
`The President of the Federation did not prolong the contract with head coach
of the national football team of Armenia Henk Wisman after the latter failed
to come to an agreement during negotiations with the Football Federation of
Armenia,' the Football Federation said in a press release later that day.
New President of FC Pyunik Karen Harutyunyan, who took over from Khoren
Hovhannisyan last month, also decided not to extend the contract with Wisman.
Wisman's duties at FC Pyunik are currently performed by Armenia U-21 team head
coach Samvel Petrosyan. The position of the national team's head coach is
still vacant.
The contract with Wisman, 48, was due to end in July. Under Wisman, Armenia
played eight matches, losing six, drawing one and winning only in one (over
Andorra's semi-professional team). The Dutchman has been repeatedly subjected
to scathing criticism by the Armenian media and football specialists for his
bad record and defensive tactics.
Wisman-led Pyunik won the national championship, but was eliminated in the
first stage of the Champions' League.
Wisman is the fourth foreign coach of Armenia. Like him, none of his
predecessors -- Argentina's Oscar Lopez, Romania's Mihai Stoichita and
France's Bernard Casoni -- served out their contract.
The same day, Wisman told reporters that he didn't want to leave his post and
that it was the Federation's decision. `I wanted to stay and work,' Wisman
said, adding that now he is not going to leave Armenia.
Quoting sources at the Football Federation, the A1 Plus website reports that
Federation President Ruben Hayrapetyan is currently holding negotiations with
about 10 foreign coaches.
Armenia are due to play their first Euro-2008 qualifier in September.
Armenia Cup: The first leg of the quarterfinals of the 2006 Armenian Cup took
place on April 5 and 6. Kapan's FC Gandzasar beat Armenia's vice-champion Mika
Ashtarak - 1-0, Yerevan's FC Kilikia drew with Yerevan's Banants-2 - 1-1.
Yerevan's FC Pyunik drew with Yerevan's FC Ararat - 1-1, and Gyumri's FC
Shirak drew with Yerevan's FC Banants - 0:0. (Source: the Football Federation
of Armenia)
Armenia's grandmaster Levon Aronyan (2756) is now the 3rd player in the world
after Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov (2804) and India's Viswanathan Anand (2803).
Among the world's top 100 chess players are also GM Vladimir Hakobyan - 16th
place (2706), GM Karen Asryan - 61st (2646) and GM Smbat Lputyan - 94th
(2619).
Among the world's top 50 women chess players are Lilit Lazarian - 21st place
(2453) and Elina Danielyan - 38th place (2422). The women's list is topped by
Hungary's Judith Polgar (2711).
FIDE has also announced the new average ratings of FIDE member countries.
Armenia is the 5th among 140 countries. The top ten are:
1. Russia 2716
2. Ukraine 2663
3. USA 2625
4. France 2623
5. ARMENIA 2616
6. Hungary 2616
7. China 2611
8. Israel 2609
9. Germany 2607
10. Netherlands 2605
(Sources: www.armchess.am, Armenpress)