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May 8, 2009
1. **Meeting in Prague: Mediators report progress in Armenian-Azeri
talks
2. Legitimate concerns: Stepanakert in a move to hold Armenia
responsible?
3. Survey: Global economic crisis effects on Armenian economy and
population
**4.** Bracing up to H1N1: Armenia responds to threat of swine flu
pandemic with strict measures at air terminals
5. On the campaign trail: Candidates in mayoral polls embark on
four-week electioneering
6. Pollster's predictions: Sociologist finds himself on the hot seat
again as city elections approach
7. Weathering the Storm: the economic promise of the `Eastern
Partnership'
8. Iranian inmate: IREX Armenia employee fights for release from
Tehran jail
9. `Spartacus' on stage: A world famous ballet comes to Yerevan again
**
10. Sport: Italian ref to officiate Armenian Cup final; Mexican boxers
cancel trip to Yerevan over swine flu
******************************************* *********************************
1. **Meeting in Prague: Mediators report progress in Armenian-Azeri talks
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
International mediators brokering a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict spoke of progress made by President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and
President Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan after their meeting on the sidelines of
a European Union summit in Prague May 7.
At a press conference following the meeting hosted by the U.S. embassy in
the Czech capital, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Matthew Bryza, who chairs
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group
on behalf of the United States, said the two Caucasus leaders had managed
`to
reduce their differences on basic principles and generally agree on the
basic ideas they came here to discuss.'
`For the first time the presidents agreed on basic ideas surrounding these
points,' Bryza told reporters.
AFP quoted the French cochairman of the group, Bernard Fassier, as saying:
`We are preparing a breakthrough, we are in a position to identify what
could be the break, but we are not yet through.'
The mediators, also including Russia's Yuri Merzlyakov, said the leaders
of
Armenia and Azerbaijan might hold another meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia,
early next month. Before that, they said, negotiations would continue on a
lower level.
Yerevan described the meeting in Prague as `useful'.
`The meeting enabled the sides to specify approaches on basic principles
of
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement as well as bring their positions closer on
some points,' the Armenian president's press service said in an official
statement.
It said the Sargsyan-Aliev meeting in Prague began in the presence of the
two countries' foreign ministers, Edward Nalbandyan and Elmar Mamedyarov, as
well as the three Minsk Group co-chairs and the OSCE Chairman-in-Office's
personal representatives Andrzej Kasprzic, but then proceeded in a
face-to-face format for more than two hours.
`The foreign ministers of the two countries were instructed to continue
work, jointly with the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen, on coordinating the
basic principles of settlement basing on the Madrid proposals as well as
prepare the next meeting of the two countries' presidents,' the statement
added.
The meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders took place on the
sidelines of a European Union summit during which a cooperation programme
for six former Soviet states, including the two Caucasus rivals, was
launched.
While on a working visit to Prague, President Sargsyan has also held a
series of bilateral meetings and was scheduled to make a speech at the EU
summit of `Eastern Partnership'.
After a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul late on Thursday,
Sargsyan reportedly reiterated official Yerevan's position that Armenia and
Turkey are normalizing their relations `without any preconditions.'
********************************* *******************************************
2. Legitimate concerns: Stepanakert seeking to regain negotiating party
status?
By Naira Hairumyan
The Nagorno-Karabakh parliament for now has failed to adopt a statement that
would formally urge for stripping Armenia of the right to represent
Stepanakert's interests at internationally mediated peace talks with
Azerbaijan. But even this failed move is widely seen as a sign that
politicians in Karabakh are increasingly concerned that Yerevan, as a party
negotiating on behalf of Stepanakert, is leading the process into a `wrong
direction'.
The Karabakh parliament on May 4 was supposed to convene for an
extraordinary session, which had been announced as historic. The Karabakh
parliament members were to adopt a statement calling for depriving Armenia
of the right to present Karabakh's interests at negotiations on the Karabakh
settlement.
Despite the fact that the session did not take place (11 out of 20 MPs in
the 33-seat parliament who initiated sessions withdrew their applications),
this phenomenon is in itself truly unprecedented, as, starting from 1998,
Armenia has been representing Karabakh at negotiations, and the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) has never objected to that. It is true,
however, that Karabakh voiced its desire to take part in the negotiations,
not very loudly, but constantly, but no harsh statements, moreover, on
depriving Armenia of delegated rights, have ever been made.
The MPs invited NKR Foreign Minister Georgi Petrosyan to parliament and
submitted claims to him, saying that the settlement process is not moving in
a direction favorable for Karabakh. Georgi Petrosyan himself announced that
NKR is categorically opposed to the so-called `Madrid principles' of
settlement. `It is not a secret that Karabakh does not agree with some of
the provisions of the Madrid principles,' said Petrosyan. The position of
Karabakh authorities has not changed, moreover, it may become somewhat
tougher, the Minister said.
MP, Advisor to the Karabakh President, retired general Vitali Balasanyan
pointed out that external forces are profiteering on the issue of the
liberated territories recorded as an inseparable part of the NKR by the
Constitution. In the MP's opinion, this places the statehood and security of
the Karabakh people under threat.
`Don't you think it's time to hold Armenia responsible? It has been a
negotiating party without the agreement of the NKR,' Balasanyan asked. He
noted that there is no written agreement that Armenia can represent the NKR
at negotiations. The Foreign Minister replied that nothing prevents the
parliament from coming up with a legislative initiative on holding Armenia
responsible for not looking out for the NKR's interests.
After the signing, by the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, of
the Meiendorf Declaration (November 2, 2008) Karabakh clearly stated that no
decisions can be made without its participation. Karabakh has always
insisted that without its participation the format of negotiations cannot be
complete, and it is necessary that NKR be involved in the process. However,
nothing is being done in this direction, on the part of Armenia, either, and
this gives Karabakh the right not to comply with decisions made without its
participation, the Minister said.
`Responsibility for one or another solution of the Artsakh issue should be
borne by all the previous and current presidents of Armenia and NKR, and all
those present here,' announced Zhanna Galstyan, leader of the `Democracy'
faction. She announced that the parliament is getting ready to invite the
Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Karabakh to the discussion to `solve our
common problems together.'
`Artsakhatun' faction MP Rudolf Martirosyan, who also re-called his
application, said his motivation was that `the process is frozen' until the
time the Armenian Foreign Minister and MPs are invited to the session.
Leader of the `Free Homeland' faction Artur Tovmasyan gave an incoherent
explanation to the decision to re-call the application. He said that because
the initiative of summoning the session belonged to the president's advisor
Balasanyan, they thought that the `president agrees as well', and they
made
a decision, but, `after some clarifications' they changed it.
`Absence of reaction to our demand to include NKR in the negotiating process
leaves to us the right not to obey the decisions made behind our backs,'
this was the harsh statement made by Georgi Petrosyan at the parliament
session.
There is a hypothesis that the current speed of Karabakh parliament appeared
not without the awareness of Armenia's president, who is in a tight corner
because of the international pressure on Armenian-Turkish relations.
Karabakh's demarche can become a good way out of the situation. To what
extent this hypothesis corresponds to reality is not known, moreover, as on
May 8 Serzh Sargsyan is going to Karabakh to take part in the events devoted
to May 9 -Day of Shushi Liberation, according to official sources.
The cause of the trip is undoubtedly the disagreement of a part of Karabakh
elite with the policy of Armenian authorities in the Karabakh settlement.
But, besides this, Karabakh also voiced harsh statements on rejection of
Armenia's policy on normalizing relations with Turkey. `We declare that
decisions made in the narrow circle of the political leadership of the
Republic of Armenia on the `roadmap' of Armenian-Turkish relations, while
being formally legitimate, are completely illegal from the point of view of
the national interests of the Armenian people,' says the declaration of
influential NGOs of Karabakh adopted on April 30.
********************************************* *******************************
3. Survey: Global economic crisis effects on Armenian economy and
population
By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Representatives of the Economy and Values Research Center insist that in
Armenia the world economic crisis started and was rapidly spread parallel to
the one in the USA and European countries.
As the Armenian authorities insisted, Armenia did not suffer from the first
wave of the crisis, yet unlike other countries where the financial market
was affected first and the crisis occurred as a result of its turmoil, in
Armenia the crisis started in the real sector.
Manuk Hergnyan, Head of the Economy and Values Research Center on Wednesday,
presenting to journalists the impact of the global crisis on the Armenian
economy, said that actually the reason why the crisis was spread so rapidly
is the fact that `our economy is strongly interconnected with the world
economy.'
`The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fall in Armenia started along with GDP
falls in the United States and Europe, when Russia's economy did not
register such a rapid fall, though the economic downturn during the first
quarter of 2009 was rather deep in this country,' said Hergnyan.
In March-April 2009, the Center conducted surveys in different provinces of
Armenia and in Yerevan among 1,000 residents and 60 big and small business
enterprises to find out how they were affected by the crisis and what
expectations they had.
About 50 percent of Armenia's households and about 80 percent of
entrepreneurs are sure that the crisis will deepen during the coming months
of this year.
Moreover, households are more optimistic than entrepreneurs, because if only
70 percent of the population felt the impact of the crisis, then 90 percent
of the entrepreneurs had the same experience.
As of March 2009, 44 percent of the households registered a decrease in
incomes, 15 percent - delays of in receiving salaries, 11 percent got
temporary laid off, and seven percent became totally unemployed. The
situation is almost the same in the provinces of Armenia and in Yerevan.
About 70 percent of the quizzed enterprises mainly had problems with falling
sales, delays of payments or non-payment; and 30-45 percent did manage to
involve funds into their own business.
Even though the head of the Economy and Values Research Center mentions that
the results of the enterprises' survey cannot be representative for the
country, yet he argues they can show the general situation, the expectations
and tendencies.
`A large part of enterprises decided to reduce administrative expenses and
postpone making investment in order to confront the global crisis. About 40
percent of the quizzed enterprises are planning to dismiss their employees;
moreover the dismissals will be more extensive at small and medium-sized
enterprises. Reduction in salaries is envisaged at only 20 percent of
companies, especially at industrial companies,' explains Hergnyan.
He says that recently it was possible to reap the fruits from the crisis.
Due to the estimations of the Center, because of the devaluation of the
Armenian national currency, the dram, that took place in March, several
branches of the domestic production registered growth. `This, however, will
extensively be reflected in the indexes of the second quarter of the year,'
the Center's experts say.
As for the confidence towards government anti-crisis measures, citizens tend
to trust the government more unlike entrepreneurs.
According to the study, while 31 percent of households said that `the impact
of the crisis would not be essential, since the Government can ease its
negative influence,' then only 15 percent of surveyed enterprises trusts
the
Government.
Referring to one of the predictions concerning the global economic crisis,
according to which the crisis may last three-four years, Hergnyan gives
frugal estimation to the indexes of Armenia's economy in 2009.
`This year it will be almost impossible to post an economic growth in
Armenia: the best scenario will be to conclude 2009 with non-essential
economic downturn,' the head of the Economy and Values Research Center says.
`And taking into consideration Armenian economy's peculiarity of responding
so rapidly, it is possible to suppose that the recovery of our economy will
take place simultaneously with the recovery of the world's major economies.'
************************************ ****************************************
4. Bracing up to H1N1: Armenia responds to threat of swine flu pandemic
with strict measures at air terminals
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Armenia has put in place sanitary-quarantine measures at its air terminals
thus joining in the global effort to contain the spread of Influenza A virus
subtype H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, that has already affected more
than a thousand people and killed at least 26 in 20 countries of the world.
Those in charge of healthcare matters say no swine flu case has yet been
reported in Armenia and give assurances that all possible measures have been
taken to prevent the virus from penetrating the country. But some arriving
passengers are still sceptical about the effectiveness of the measures taken
at airports, while others point out that no such controls are put in place
at other gateways, including bus routes from Turkey.
Last week the issue of preventing the infection was discussed at the
government session and Health Minister Harutyun Kushkyan announced that `the
Ministry has all necessary drugs in stock to combat swine flu' despite the
fact that there's no efficient drug against this kind of flu in the world
yet.
To prevent the entry of the infection to Armenia, sanitary-quarantine
inspection has been set up at the Zvartnots and Shirak international
airports located near Yerevan and Gyumri respectively.
Gayane Sahakyan, chief specialist of the Department of Epidemiology of
Contagious and Non-Contagious Diseases at the Health Ministry's State
Hygiene-Epidemiological Inspection, says during the past five days about
3,500 passengers at Zvartnots airport have been examined to for the H1N1
virus.
`As soon as a plane lands, the sanitary control group at the border crossing
unit boards the plane and conducts a medical examination of passengers. For
instance, they take people's temperature,' Sahakyan said to ArmeniaNow,
adding that no one has been detected with swine flu yet.
Meanwhile, some travellers are still sceptical about the strictness and
effectiveness of medical checkups at airports.
In fact, some of the passengers who have arrived in Armenia in recent days
said examination per se is not actually being conducted.
`What examination are you talking about? They give you a paper to fill out,
you write your name, permanent address, telephone, etc, but this is not
strictly controlled, that is, the majority of tired passengers who have come
a long way for a few hours just throw the paper away and hurry to leave,'
says Hasmik Hambartsumyan, who came back from Germany on May 1.
Hambartsumyan says no one boarded the plane and took their temperature.
However, Health Ministry spokesperson Ruslana Gevorgyan says there is
special control for flights of some countries, which are transit flights
-
London, Paris, Vienna, and Germany.
`If what I saw was special, I can imagine what the others would be like,'
says Vahan Simonyan, who returned from London on May 6.
Nelly Cherchinyan, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Department of
Armenia, assured ArmeniaNow that guards watch at the airport, and if any of
the passengers' eyes are reddened or he or she has flu, then the
sanitary-quarantine service workers carry out a more detailed examination.
Another passenger who has also arrived from Germany - Arpi Harutyunyan also
points out that `it's true the control was not ideal, it was not mandatory
to fill out the papers and it was a matter of the passenger's
conscientiousness,' but it was surprising for her that afterwards the
doctors were quite consistent.
`The district doctor phoned me the next day, I wasn't thinking that in
Armenia's conditions the data would be so rapidly transferred to districts
and they would be so consistent,' Harutyunyan says.
If at the airport they check one way or another, no control is carried out
with regard to those arriving by bus from Turkey, while five days ago in the
city of Antalia in Turkey, which is the most favorite holiday spot of
Armenians, a patient with swine flu died.
`There we heard about a lethal outcome, although on our bus no one was sick,
but additional supervision is necessary,' says Marine Karapetyan who was
in
Turkey for trading and returned on May 5.
The Armenian State Revenues Committee's Duty Statistics, Analysis and Risk
Management Department Head Garnik Mirzoyan retorts by saying that `all
passengers crossing all border points are strictly controlled, food is also
controlled.'
However, passenger Karapetyan is surprised that they have not seen the
inspection.
`I don't know, maybe they saw there are no sick people and didn't check, but
I believe the buses from Turkey, Greece, Iran must be seriously inspected,'
says Karapetyan.
Earlier, on April 27, the Food Safety Inspection of Armenia's Ministry of
Agriculture announced a ban on imports of swine, pork meat, poultry meat,
fodder from Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican
Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica and Salvador.
H1N1 virus epidemic started in Mexico City, Mexico, several cases were
registered in March, but their number grew dramatically in April. World
Health Organization experts announced that in the past week a decline in the
spread of the virus is observed, but they are making an appeal to the
authorities not to weaken attention and prevention measures.
Last time something like flu - a pandemic of virus spreading from humans
to
humans happened in 1918, and it took the lives of about 50 million people.
The main symptoms of swine flu are headaches, high temperature, muscle
aches, diarrhoea, and vomiting, swelling of the eyes.
To make the body more immune and to prevent infection, doctors recommend
using vitamin C, garlic, onion, and lots of fruit and vegetables.
No case of avian flu was reported in Armenia during the outbreak of the
disease several years ago.
******************************************** ********************************
5. On the campaign trail: Candidates in mayoral polls embark on four-week
electioneering
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Six political parties and one bloc last weekend officially started
campaigning for what is going to be Yerevan's first mayoral elections in
nearly two decades.
Among the political forces running for the capital city's Assembly are the
governing Republican Party of Armenia (RPA; led by incumbent appointed mayor
Gagik Beglaryan), pro-establishment Prosperous Armenia and Orinats Yerkir,
the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF) as well as the People's Party
and the Labor-Socialist Party of Armenia.
The only woman candidate that tops a party ticket is Orinats Yerkir's
Heghine Bisharyan.
`Being the only woman among the seven [top] candidates I had the courage
to
participate in the electoral campaign and struggle for this high post that
will represent the city of Yerevan and it is highly important for Yerevan's
future,' Bisharyan said during a meeting with Yerevan residents earlier this
week. `In families women solve problems by carefully planning the
expenditure of financial means. I promise to be such a mayor: having little
financial means at my disposal I will put Yerevan in good order through
effective management.'
The political forces launched their campaigns with a variety of promises
that are almost identically replicated in each one's platform - to improve
public facilities in the city, to plant trees, to asphalt roads and make
Yerevan a more beautiful city.
Gagik Beglaryan, the top candidate on the Republican Party's slate, said
during his meetings that he would do everything possible in the capacity of
a new mayor to make Yerevan residents' problems solvable, from Yerevan's
lightening to different problems connected with high-rise buildings.
`We do not want to make tall promises, however, we will do everything
possible to restore the hope of each of you in the city authorities, in
community authorities,' said Beglaryan. `We are going to have a fair
approach, it is going to be equally distributed in all spheres, and for
everyone.'
ARF started its electoral campaign planting trees in the Erebuni district of
Yerevan. Later the presentation of the election program took place at Moscow
Cinema House. It was mentioned in the program that the social life of
Yerevan's residents would be improved, the green areas would be restored
and
the budgets of Yerevan's municipality and districts would become
transparent.
Yet before the start of the election campaign several political forces
defined the Yerevan City Council elections as political. On May 1, at the
rally of the opposition ANC, Armenia's first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan
said that `it is high time to finally realize that there is no non-political
issue in the country, since the form of life of the State is politics.'
`The official electoral machine, besides blaming the ANC for politicizing
the elections, tries to create another uncomfortable situation for us, using
another funny means - giving a mayor merely the degrading role of a
dustman,' said Ter-Petrosyan.
According to him, if a mayor's only responsibility is collecting garbage,
then how to explain the fact that in the huge 60-page Law on Yerevan only
one line deals with this issue, whereas the rest refers to politics.
RPA campaign manager Harutyun Pambukyan reiterated in a televised appearance
that the Republicans do not politicize elections.
`We are going to elect a City Council and the City Council will choose a
mayor. The mayor should deal mainly with city issues, and not foreign policy
or the economy of the country. And as for garbage collecting, I assure you
that 70 percent of Yerevan's residents are concerned about Yerevan's garbage
collection, greenery planting, etc. The newly elected mayor will take care
of those issues,' Pambukyan says.
ARF, which quit the government coalition only a few days before the start of
the election campaign, says the two extremely different approaches are not
acceptable for them and that these extremes are meant to mislead the
electorate rather than serve their main objective.
ARF's Armen Rustamyan says: `It is patently clear that these elections
have
political essence, but on the one hand it is necessary to avoid extremely
underestimating that essence, and on the other hand - its overestimation. We
should clearly understand what kind of elections we are involved in.'
According to the senior ARF representative, these elections should have a
healing role in the authorities.
Meetings with Yerevan's residents organized by the Prosperous Armenia Party
have been particularly well-attended. While presenting the election program
of the party, the party's chairman Gagik Tsarukyan said that while
developing the program they had taken into consideration the suggestions
sent by residents of the capital.
`I am a resident of Yerevan, and I am aware of the worries that Yerevan's
residents have; some of them have not been solved yet. However, I am sure
that we together will be able to settle finally and effectively all those
problems,' said Harutyun Kushkyan, who heads Prosperous Armenia's slate.
A total of 439 election precincts in 13 electoral districts in Yerevan will
operate on Election Day, May 31.
Norayr Muradkhanyan, head of the Passport and Visa Department of the Police,
says that according to preliminary voter registers, 771,353 people are
eligible to go to the polls in Yerevan. Muradkhanyan rejected speculations
suggesting that the number of voters in the city has been inflated, saying
that from July 1, 2008 to January 1, 2009 the number of eligible voters in
Yerevan increased by 4,274, and by 30,490 countrywide.
`This index increased not only in Yerevan, but also in other provinces of
the country. According to the more recent data, from January 1, 2009 to
April 21, 2009, the number of eligible voters in Yerevan increased by 7,570,
and in the whole country - by 19,942,' said Muradkhanyan.
*********************************** *****************************************
6. Pollster's predictions: Sociologist finds himself on the hot seat
again as city elections approach**
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
A majority of Yerevan residents want to see incumbent mayor Gagik Beglaryan
as the city's next elected head, according to a leading pollster's data.
Aharon Adibekyan, who heads the `Sociometer' Sociological Research Center,
told the media that their monitoring results show that 26.5 percent of
Yerevan voters want the Republican candidate to succeed. Among other
candidates, according to the sociologist, are opposition leader Levon
Ter-Petrosyan to whom 7.6 percent of the electorate would give their votes
and Harutyun Kushkyan representing the pro-establishment Prosperous Armenia
party that 5.7 percent would vote for.
Six political parties and one bloc are contesting the election of Yerevan's
municipal assembly due on May 31. The 65-seat body elected under the
proportional system of representation is then to choose the new mayor. The
top candidate on a party list will automatically become mayor if his or her
party manages to poll more than 40 percent of the popular vote.
Adibekyan also suggested based on corresponding poll data that 30 percent of
Yerevan's residents will not go to the polls, and only part of the rest 70
percent is aware that municipal elections are actually planned in Yerevan.
`Election campaign organizers and media should inform the population who
are
going to participate in the elections about who the top candidates on party
lists are, who are in the second and third places,' says the sociologist,
adding that only 25 percent of the poll participants knew that ex-president
Levon Ter-Petrosyan tops the slate of the opposition bloc.
According to the sociologist, only 1,650 of the approached 2,332 residents
of Yerevan agreed to participate in the polls.
In a political show on television earlier this week, Chairman of the
Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan challenged Adibekyan either to
prove the data giving his [Tsarukyan's] party a low popularity rating and
get a one-million-dollar prize or, otherwise, apologize.
At a later press conference, Adibekyan said he did not intend to offer any
apology.
`I gave six ratings out of the 20, and they did not relate to whether he
would get votes or not. I simply described where the opponents stand now. I
have not presented the rating of the Prosperous Armenia Party,' said
Adibekyan. `These indexes still mean nothing, because there are 14 other
factors, which will finally define whether they would get votes or not.
And since there are discontents, I will not publish the final rating, even
though I have it. Besides, this is our working one,' says Adibekyan.
The sociologist believes that sociologists are necessity for serious
political figures and he reminds President Serzh Sargsyan's words: `Serious
players cannot do without sociologists in the sphere of politics.'
Adibekyan said he regretted that such a politician as Tsarukyan is trying to
make his way to the top of the political establishment with a what he termed
a `restaurant' way of thinking and that as head of a political force which
is going to be `if not the first, then at least the second' Tsarukyan still
compares sociology with a `restaurant band' that can sing an ode for him
about a `king brother.'
`If he is so `tough' that he can give me one million dollars, let he
give
the five percent of the amount to Gallup Poll or buy Gallup Poll with ten
percent of that amount so that Gallup Poll confirms that Tsarukyan is the
most talented figure and that his Prosperous Armenia is the party having the
highest rating, and that Kushkyan is the most probable mayor,' says
Adibekyan.
The sociologist is also sure that Tsarukyan must say `I am sorry' not to him
but rather to sociology, since the 20th century gave two important sciences
connected with informatics - sociology and cybernetics.
Adibekyan also presented the results of the recent researches and said there
are only three political forces that look likely to clear the seven-percent
hurdle to enter the Yerevan City Council, namely the Republican Party of
Armenia, the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and Prosperous Armenia.
According to him, there might be room for another party, and that, he said,
could be either Orinats Yerkir or the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF, Dashnaktsutyun) depending on how effectively they conduct their
electoral campaigns.
Adibekyan argues research data shows 39.8 percent of Yerevan residents would
trust the Republicans to solve their social problems, 23 percent to
Prosperous Armenia and 11 percent to the opposition ANC.
According to Adibekyan, there are two factors that may affect the upcoming
elections' process and result - the politicization of the elections and the
crisis.
As for the question what chances Orinats Yerkir and Dashnaktsutyun have, in
a few days Adibekyan's team is planning to hold another poll to figure out
how Dashnaktsutyun's withdrawal from the government coalition may affect
the
rearrangement of votes and the party's rating in general.
Adibekyan practically discarded the chances of two other parties running in
the election - Tigran Karapetyan's People's Party and the Labor-Socialist
Party of Armenia. He said the latter was known only to one in 100, according
to the latest survey.
***************************************** *********************************
7. Weathering the Storm: the economic promise of the `Eastern
Partnership'**
By Richard Giragosian
For the Armenian authorities, the strain from the impact of the global
economic and financial crisis continues to burden an already weakened
government, which continues to be saddled with an unresolved domestic
political crisis of confidence, as well as a severe economic downturn.
In light of the structural vulnerability of the Armenian economy,
exacerbated by a sharp fall in remittances, or money from abroad, an end to
years of positive economic growth and a virtual blockade of closed borders,
any opportunity to engage the broader global economy is seen as a welcome
alternative.
For this reason, Armenia is especially hopeful for a new opportunity to draw
closer to the Europe and, more specifically, to benefit from the European
Union's new `Eastern Partnership.' This new program is also seen as
a
graduated step beyond the so-called European Neighborhood Policy (ENP),
which remains the preeminent vehicle for bilateral relations between the EU
and each partner country. In this way, the new Eastern Partnership offers
an `enhancement of the ENP' and potentially providing a more direct and
practical chance for integration and alignment with the EU.
As one of only six countries identified in the Eastern Partnership program
(including Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan, in addition to
Armenia), a senior Armenian delegation led by President Serzh Sarkisian
traveled to Prague to join a high-level EU summit on 7 May that included all
27 of the European Union leaders.
As a `prospective partner' of the EU, Armenia's holds an important place
within the Eastern Partnership framework. For the EU, however, such a new
program of engagement is not easy, especially as only two of the six
countries slated for the Eastern Partnership have held reasonably democratic
elections (Georgia and Ukraine), and most fell far short of the very
democratic and rights standards promoted so strongly by the EU.
Obviously, Armenia is in a rather weak positioning terms of any likelihood
for integrating itself with the EU on a political level. But the economic
aspects of the Eastern Partnership offer Armenia a significant new avenue
for greater integration with the EU market.
Ironically, the first potential benefit for Armenia actually holds little
appeal for the Armenian authorities. This benefit, pertaining to easing
visa restrictions on access to the EU, is much more popular with the
ordinary Armenian citizen, while the authorities may be much more focused on
maintaining the ease of travel for `oligarchs' and other members of the
Armenian `business club' within parliament. Additionally, the Armenian
authorities have failed to demonstrate any real concern with either helping
or hindering the travel of ordinary Armenians, at times, even reflecting a
lack of concern over the serious demographic problem of emigration from the
country.
But the second opportunity, representing the real substance of the EU offer,
stems form the offer of a new "association agreement" with Armenia,
including the potential for `free trade provided relevant EU legislation
is
adopted.'
Third, the Eastern Partnership offers support to institution-building, a key
area for the longer-term development of Armenia, and the promise of
financial aid that the EU can leverage as a new `carrot' for Armenian
reforms.
In addition, the economic benefits also downplay any political
preconditions, including an EU decision to delicately avoid the issue of the
conflicts besetting four of the six `partners,' stating only that
"protracted conflicts impede cooperation activities" and recommending their
"earliest peaceful settlement on the basis of norms and principles."
Overall, the opportunity of the Eastern Partnership offers Armenia with a
way to at least meet some of the economic challenges. But Armenia faces
another threat, mainly form Russia's strong opposition to any EU engagement
in the region, which it sees as a threat almost on the same scale of earlier
plans for NATO engagement. Thus, the real test for Armenia will be whether
Russia will truly allow Armenia to garner the opportunities from a lead role
as a `preferred partner' within the EU's Eastern partnership.
************************************ ****************************************
8. Iranian inmate: IREX Armenia employee fights for release from Tehran
jail
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
An Iranian-Armenian aid worker convicted of an attempted `soft revolution'
to overthrow the government and currently serving a prison term in Iran
looks increasingly unlikely to achieve an early release after she recently
lost an appeal against the controversial verdict. But the family and
colleagues of Silva Harotonian, an employee of IREX's office in Yerevan,
say
they are not halting their effort to secure her safe return to her loved
ones.
Harotonian, 34, was detained by authorities in Tehran last June. Later, in
January, an Iranian court found her guilty as charged and sentenced her to
three years in prison.
Harotonian, who holds an Iranian citizenship, was employed by the Yerevan
office of American IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) where she
was the main organizer of the Maternal and Child Health Education and
Exchange Program. (IREX is an international nongovernmental not-for-profit
organization with a 40-year history of international academic and
people-to-people exchange programs. Since it was established in 1968, it has
provided leadership and innovative programs to improve the quality of
education <http://www.irex.org/education/index.asp>, strengthen independent
media, <http://www.irex.org/media/index.asp> and foster pluralistic civil
society development <http://www.irex.org/civilsociety/index.asp> in more
than 50 countries.)
Previously, Harotonian taught Armenian literature at `Azad' University
in
Tehran, Iran. She also worked for insurance companies and the Armenian
Prelacy Church in Iran.
ArmeniaNow learned from `Arax' (http://araxmag.blogspot.com), a literary and
cultural public weekly published in Iran, that Iranian state bodies spread
almost no information about Harotonian.
The weekly states: `There was only a brief statement that Silva [Harotonian]
and several other Iranians were detained on charges of organizing a `soft
revolution.''
The editor-in-chief of the weekly believes that taking into consideration
the shortage of information, it is hard to correctly and impartially comment
on Harotonian's imprisonment.
`Taking into consideration the fact that she was sentenced to three years in
prison, we suppose that her charge was not very serious. We believe that she
would never have deliberately been involved in such a `game,' otherwise a
three-year prison term would be a very mild punishment for such a grave
charge.'
Harotonian's family considers her detainment and imprisonment to be a tragic
misunderstanding. They continue to do everything possible to achieve her
release from jail.
Klara Moradkhan told ArmeniaNow that her cousin is currently in Evin Prison
in northwestern Tehran <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran>. This prison is
notorious for its `political
prisoner<http://en.wikipedia.org/wik i/Political_prisoner>wing' where
people have been kept for their views both before and after the
1979 Revolution.
Roxana Saberi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxana_Saberi> , a 31-year-old
American-Iranian journalist who was arrested in January 2009 for reporting
without press credentials and charged with espionage in favor of the United
States, is also being kept in Evin Prison.
Moradkhan says Silva's mother has an opportunity to visit her daughter in
the prison every week.
`Being in prison is a life changing experience and Silva is doing as well as
can be expected,' says her aunt.
Moradkhan created a website (www.FreeSilva.org <http://www.freesilva.org/>)
with an appeal to the public to support a petition to the Iranian government
for her cousin's release.
In the e-mail written to ArmeniaNow Moradkhan says that Silva [Harotonian]
was charged with acting against the security of Iran through communications
with the United States and having membership in groups adverse to the
Iranian government.
`I have no idea what evidence was produced by the court to prove her guilt.
Yet, I do know that Silva was very excited to be working on this
humanitarian program and saw it as a chance to give something back to the
country she loved; she would not have participated in anything that opposed
the government, she is proud to be an Iranian,' writes Moradkhan.
She hopes that the court will review her cousin's case taking into
consideration the positive attitude that Iran has always had towards
Armenians.
`For decades Iran has ensured the safety and religious freedom of its
Armenian community. My family hopes that Silva will be released as part of
the generosity of spirit the Iranians have shown to this loyal and
historical Christian minority,' writes Moradkhan.
IREX and the United States Government have also made efforts towards
Harotonian's release.
In February IREX President Robert Pearson turned to the Islamic Republic
asking Tehran to grant Harotonian freedom. In his letter Pearson said that
Silva `had no intention of harming or threatening the government of Iran, a
country she loves, or any of her fellow citizens.'
`Neither IREX nor Silva herself was part of any effort to work against the
Iranian government or its leadership. Silva's role as a program
administrator involved explaining logistics for the two-week exchange
program, translating documents between Armenian and English into Farsi, and
answering telephone inquiries,' the IREX president said.
The United States is also calling on Iran to release Harotonian. In April,
U.S.
Department of State spokesman Robert Wood called the attempted `soft
revolution' charge brought against Harotonian `baseless' and said her health
was deteriorating in prison.
***************************************** *********************************
9. `Spartacus' on stage: A world famous ballet comes to Yerevan again
By Karine Ionesyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
On May 5, Yerevan's National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet after
Alexander Spendiaryan was full of ballet lovers and ballet dancers - after
18 years of break the `Spartacus' Ballet was again performed on a Yerevan
stage.
Staged by the well-known Russian choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, the ballet
was attended by the first lady of Armenia Rita Sargsyan and her Russian
counterpart Svetlana Medvedeva, who arrived specially to watch the ballet.
Spartacus is one of the two ballets of the famous Armenian composer Aram
Khachatryan, along with `Gayane'.
A year ago, when Armenia's First Lady Rita Sargsyan was in Russia, she
attended the `Bolshoi' (big) Theatre to be present at the 40th anniversary
of `Spartacus' staged and an idea occurred to stage the ballet in Yerevan,
too.
The author of the third stage production of Spartacus believed to be the
best in the world since 1968 is the only one who worked with Aram
Khachatryan. He remembers Khachatryan struggling for each note `as a lion',
and he, in his turn, for each of his ideas. As a result, the Armenian
audience was offered a chance to enjoy a new Spartacus production this week.
The last two productions of Spartacus on Armenian stage were in 1977 and
1982, by famous Armenian dancer and ballet master Vilen Galstyan. Before
that, Spartacus was staged in Armenia by Russian choreographer Yevgeniy
Changa in 1962.
He is currently being replaced by 20-year-old Ruben Muradyan for the part of
Spartacus. Muradyan believes that this is one of his most responsible parts,
because as a rule female parts lead ballet, but in this case it is the man,
and as Grigorovich put it in front of journalists, `My Spartacus,' who
leads
it.
`The part is very difficult, since you have to create different emotional
states on stage, you should live, struggle, die, die naturally. At the same
time, it is very inspiring and responsible, because when you see how
84-year-old Grigorovich easily raises and keeps in his arms the heroine, at
the same time managing to give everybody commands and even after crying
loudly he does not lose his energy, you try to perfect yourself as much as
possible,' says Muradyan.
And ballet dancer Jacqueline Sarkhoshyan (who plays Frigia, the female lead)
also says she was happy to work with a living legend like Grigorovich.
`Grigorovich brought his wife's - Natalia Bessmertnova's clothes from his
theater for Frigia's part for the third act. I believe that those clothes
are sacred for him. I am very proud to wear them on stage,' says
Sarkhoshyan.
This ballet is also important for ballet master Elvira Mnatsakanyan, who
used to be Frigia. Now she follows her students' work from behind the scenes
as a teacher. However, she is concerned that `the ballet was created, but
now it is necessary to keep it.'
Armenia feels the lack of male ballet dancers: 41 are abroad. `Spartacus'
could not be created if six ballet dancers were not returned from the army,
and if the dancers of the `Barekamutyun' (friendship) Armenian Dance Troupe
and Yerevan State Choreographic College were not used.
`The lack of male dancers is a serious problem in Armenian ballet,'
Grigorovich said at a meeting with journalists. `Though, in such a ballet
powerhouse as Russia, boys too prefer leaving for Germany and earning a
lot of money there. Anyway, it is necessary to prevent it by means of
improving their social state, otherwise I ask them to come to the rehearsal
in the evening, and they tell me that they cannot, because they work in
other places. This is wrong.'
Significant funds were spent on the `Spartacus' performance - a well-paid
choreographer was invited, two groups of dancers were prepared, they were
additionally paid, the ballet was widely advertised.
For the first time the production of a ballet was sponsored not only by the
State, but also by six businessmen. About 20 million drams (more than $
54,000) were assigned from the state budget of Armenia. And as for the
amount of money allotted by businessmen, neither Armenia's Minister of
Culture nor the sponsor businessmen themselves want to publicize it.
Prices of tickets for the `Spartacus' Ballet are available from 5,000 drams
(about $14), while the tickets for other ballets start from 1,000 drams
(about $3).
Only three performances of `Spartacus' had been planned, the last one on
Sunday, May 10.
********************************************* *******************************
10. Sport: Italian ref to officiate Armenian Cup final; Mexican boxers
cancel trip to Yerevan over swine flu
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Soccer
An Italian referee and his two assistants will officiate Armenia's 2008/2009
Cup final this weekend, according to a report by the Armenian Football
Federation press service.
Serie A referee Paolo Dondarini and two linesmen, Masimiliano Grili and Luca
Ciancarioni, thus will become the first FIFA qualified referee team to
officiate a match between two Armenian teams at this level.
The current leaders of Armenia's national championship, Pyunik and Banants
(both representing Yerevan), will decide the winner of the 18th Cup
tournament on May 9.
Banants have so far won the Cup twice. Remarkably, they were the winners of
the first Cup tournament in independent Armenia played back in 1991/92.
Longtime champion Pyunik have so far won in the Cup tournaments only three
times. The last time Pyunik won the trophy was in 2004 and in that final
they beat Banants only on penalties after goalless 120 minutes of play.
The Saturday match is at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium. Kickoff is
at 8.00 pm Yerevan time.
Meanwhile, in the league Pyunik extended their record to six straight wins
after routing Gyumri's Shirak 4-0 last weekend. Pyunik remain three points
clear from second-placed Banants that beat Ulis 1-0. Mika retains the third
spot after a 2-1 victory against Kilikia.
In the bottom, Gandzasar managed to beat Ararat 2-0 thus leaving last year's
league runner-up in the last place with six defeats in as many games and a
0-10 goal difference.
Two of the four league games scheduled for May 10, in particular, involving
Pyunik and Banants, in action against Mika and Kilikia respectively, will
instead be played on May 13.
The other two league games scheduled for Sunday are Shirak v Gandzasar and
Ararat v Ulis.
Meanwhile, on May 6, international football's governing body, FIFA,
published its latest rankings of nations in which Armenia dropped by one
position and now is 125th among about 200 nations. European champions Spain
continue to top the rankings, followed by the continent's vice-champion
Germany and the Netherlands.
(Source: Football Federation of Armenia; www.ffa.am)
Boxing
The recent outbreak of swine flu, a disease threatening to become a
pandemic, has interfered with the plans of the Mexican Boxing Federation to
send its athletes to International Boxing Association (AIBA) junior boxing
championships to be hosted by Yerevan later this month, the Boxing
Federation of Armenia reported on Tuesday.
In a letter Mexican Boxing Federation President Ricardo Contreras invokes
`a
heavy plight of Mexico', the country believed to be the `hotbed' of the
disease, as a reason for the decision to skip the championships scheduled
for May 23-30.
`Although the health condition of all our athletes is stable, we don't
want
to expose other participants in the championships to risk,' the Mexican
boxing boss reportedly explained.
So far, Mexico is the only country that has officially refused to
participate in the championships. According to the Armenian Boxing
Federation, the number of countries that have applied for participation is
now 51.
(Source: Boxing Federation of Armenia)
Meanwhile in professional boxing, Universum Box Promotions announced earlier
this week that WBA Middleweight champion Felix Sturm (32-2-1, 14 KOs) will
have his next defense against Armenia-born Khoren Gevor (30-3, 16 KOs), the
current European middleweight champion who represents Germany. The fight is
scheduled to take place at the Nuerburg Ring in Germany on July 11.
Gevor is coming off a 7th-round TKO over the Finnish former European
champion Amin Asikainen to capture the vacant European middleweight title.
Last
August, Gevor, in his first world title fight, lost to another Armenian-born
German Arthur Abraham, the current IBF middleweight champion. (Source:
www.digitaljournal.com)
Chess
Armenian grandmasters Tigran Kotanjyan and Ashot Anastasyan successfully
finished in the big open which was held in Dubai, UAE. They, as well as the
Russian grandmaster Dmitri Bocharov, scored 7 points each out of 9, reports
www.armchess.am. Kotanjyan took the first place and the Sheikh Rashid Bin
Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup with a tie-break. Bocharov took the second, Anastasyan
took the third place.
Hrant Melkumyan scored 6, David Arutinian (Georgia) and Suren Poghosian - 5.5,
Aghasi Inants and Vardan Khojayan - 4.5 points each. **
Meanwhile, Armenian GM Giorgi Bagaturov scored 7 points out of 9 and took
the first prize in the open which was held in Theassaloniki, Greece. The
tournament had brought together 45 chess players.
(Source: www.armchess.am)
******************************** ********************************************
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************************* ************************************************** *
May 8, 2009
1. **Meeting in Prague: Mediators report progress in Armenian-Azeri
talks
2. Legitimate concerns: Stepanakert in a move to hold Armenia
responsible?
3. Survey: Global economic crisis effects on Armenian economy and
population
**4.** Bracing up to H1N1: Armenia responds to threat of swine flu
pandemic with strict measures at air terminals
5. On the campaign trail: Candidates in mayoral polls embark on
four-week electioneering
6. Pollster's predictions: Sociologist finds himself on the hot seat
again as city elections approach
7. Weathering the Storm: the economic promise of the `Eastern
Partnership'
8. Iranian inmate: IREX Armenia employee fights for release from
Tehran jail
9. `Spartacus' on stage: A world famous ballet comes to Yerevan again
**
10. Sport: Italian ref to officiate Armenian Cup final; Mexican boxers
cancel trip to Yerevan over swine flu
******************************************* *********************************
1. **Meeting in Prague: Mediators report progress in Armenian-Azeri talks
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
International mediators brokering a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict spoke of progress made by President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia and
President Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan after their meeting on the sidelines of
a European Union summit in Prague May 7.
At a press conference following the meeting hosted by the U.S. embassy in
the Czech capital, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Matthew Bryza, who chairs
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group
on behalf of the United States, said the two Caucasus leaders had managed
`to
reduce their differences on basic principles and generally agree on the
basic ideas they came here to discuss.'
`For the first time the presidents agreed on basic ideas surrounding these
points,' Bryza told reporters.
AFP quoted the French cochairman of the group, Bernard Fassier, as saying:
`We are preparing a breakthrough, we are in a position to identify what
could be the break, but we are not yet through.'
The mediators, also including Russia's Yuri Merzlyakov, said the leaders
of
Armenia and Azerbaijan might hold another meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia,
early next month. Before that, they said, negotiations would continue on a
lower level.
Yerevan described the meeting in Prague as `useful'.
`The meeting enabled the sides to specify approaches on basic principles
of
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement as well as bring their positions closer on
some points,' the Armenian president's press service said in an official
statement.
It said the Sargsyan-Aliev meeting in Prague began in the presence of the
two countries' foreign ministers, Edward Nalbandyan and Elmar Mamedyarov, as
well as the three Minsk Group co-chairs and the OSCE Chairman-in-Office's
personal representatives Andrzej Kasprzic, but then proceeded in a
face-to-face format for more than two hours.
`The foreign ministers of the two countries were instructed to continue
work, jointly with the OSCE Minsk Group cochairmen, on coordinating the
basic principles of settlement basing on the Madrid proposals as well as
prepare the next meeting of the two countries' presidents,' the statement
added.
The meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders took place on the
sidelines of a European Union summit during which a cooperation programme
for six former Soviet states, including the two Caucasus rivals, was
launched.
While on a working visit to Prague, President Sargsyan has also held a
series of bilateral meetings and was scheduled to make a speech at the EU
summit of `Eastern Partnership'.
After a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul late on Thursday,
Sargsyan reportedly reiterated official Yerevan's position that Armenia and
Turkey are normalizing their relations `without any preconditions.'
********************************* *******************************************
2. Legitimate concerns: Stepanakert seeking to regain negotiating party
status?
By Naira Hairumyan
The Nagorno-Karabakh parliament for now has failed to adopt a statement that
would formally urge for stripping Armenia of the right to represent
Stepanakert's interests at internationally mediated peace talks with
Azerbaijan. But even this failed move is widely seen as a sign that
politicians in Karabakh are increasingly concerned that Yerevan, as a party
negotiating on behalf of Stepanakert, is leading the process into a `wrong
direction'.
The Karabakh parliament on May 4 was supposed to convene for an
extraordinary session, which had been announced as historic. The Karabakh
parliament members were to adopt a statement calling for depriving Armenia
of the right to present Karabakh's interests at negotiations on the Karabakh
settlement.
Despite the fact that the session did not take place (11 out of 20 MPs in
the 33-seat parliament who initiated sessions withdrew their applications),
this phenomenon is in itself truly unprecedented, as, starting from 1998,
Armenia has been representing Karabakh at negotiations, and the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) has never objected to that. It is true,
however, that Karabakh voiced its desire to take part in the negotiations,
not very loudly, but constantly, but no harsh statements, moreover, on
depriving Armenia of delegated rights, have ever been made.
The MPs invited NKR Foreign Minister Georgi Petrosyan to parliament and
submitted claims to him, saying that the settlement process is not moving in
a direction favorable for Karabakh. Georgi Petrosyan himself announced that
NKR is categorically opposed to the so-called `Madrid principles' of
settlement. `It is not a secret that Karabakh does not agree with some of
the provisions of the Madrid principles,' said Petrosyan. The position of
Karabakh authorities has not changed, moreover, it may become somewhat
tougher, the Minister said.
MP, Advisor to the Karabakh President, retired general Vitali Balasanyan
pointed out that external forces are profiteering on the issue of the
liberated territories recorded as an inseparable part of the NKR by the
Constitution. In the MP's opinion, this places the statehood and security of
the Karabakh people under threat.
`Don't you think it's time to hold Armenia responsible? It has been a
negotiating party without the agreement of the NKR,' Balasanyan asked. He
noted that there is no written agreement that Armenia can represent the NKR
at negotiations. The Foreign Minister replied that nothing prevents the
parliament from coming up with a legislative initiative on holding Armenia
responsible for not looking out for the NKR's interests.
After the signing, by the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, of
the Meiendorf Declaration (November 2, 2008) Karabakh clearly stated that no
decisions can be made without its participation. Karabakh has always
insisted that without its participation the format of negotiations cannot be
complete, and it is necessary that NKR be involved in the process. However,
nothing is being done in this direction, on the part of Armenia, either, and
this gives Karabakh the right not to comply with decisions made without its
participation, the Minister said.
`Responsibility for one or another solution of the Artsakh issue should be
borne by all the previous and current presidents of Armenia and NKR, and all
those present here,' announced Zhanna Galstyan, leader of the `Democracy'
faction. She announced that the parliament is getting ready to invite the
Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Karabakh to the discussion to `solve our
common problems together.'
`Artsakhatun' faction MP Rudolf Martirosyan, who also re-called his
application, said his motivation was that `the process is frozen' until the
time the Armenian Foreign Minister and MPs are invited to the session.
Leader of the `Free Homeland' faction Artur Tovmasyan gave an incoherent
explanation to the decision to re-call the application. He said that because
the initiative of summoning the session belonged to the president's advisor
Balasanyan, they thought that the `president agrees as well', and they
made
a decision, but, `after some clarifications' they changed it.
`Absence of reaction to our demand to include NKR in the negotiating process
leaves to us the right not to obey the decisions made behind our backs,'
this was the harsh statement made by Georgi Petrosyan at the parliament
session.
There is a hypothesis that the current speed of Karabakh parliament appeared
not without the awareness of Armenia's president, who is in a tight corner
because of the international pressure on Armenian-Turkish relations.
Karabakh's demarche can become a good way out of the situation. To what
extent this hypothesis corresponds to reality is not known, moreover, as on
May 8 Serzh Sargsyan is going to Karabakh to take part in the events devoted
to May 9 -Day of Shushi Liberation, according to official sources.
The cause of the trip is undoubtedly the disagreement of a part of Karabakh
elite with the policy of Armenian authorities in the Karabakh settlement.
But, besides this, Karabakh also voiced harsh statements on rejection of
Armenia's policy on normalizing relations with Turkey. `We declare that
decisions made in the narrow circle of the political leadership of the
Republic of Armenia on the `roadmap' of Armenian-Turkish relations, while
being formally legitimate, are completely illegal from the point of view of
the national interests of the Armenian people,' says the declaration of
influential NGOs of Karabakh adopted on April 30.
********************************************* *******************************
3. Survey: Global economic crisis effects on Armenian economy and
population
By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Representatives of the Economy and Values Research Center insist that in
Armenia the world economic crisis started and was rapidly spread parallel to
the one in the USA and European countries.
As the Armenian authorities insisted, Armenia did not suffer from the first
wave of the crisis, yet unlike other countries where the financial market
was affected first and the crisis occurred as a result of its turmoil, in
Armenia the crisis started in the real sector.
Manuk Hergnyan, Head of the Economy and Values Research Center on Wednesday,
presenting to journalists the impact of the global crisis on the Armenian
economy, said that actually the reason why the crisis was spread so rapidly
is the fact that `our economy is strongly interconnected with the world
economy.'
`The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fall in Armenia started along with GDP
falls in the United States and Europe, when Russia's economy did not
register such a rapid fall, though the economic downturn during the first
quarter of 2009 was rather deep in this country,' said Hergnyan.
In March-April 2009, the Center conducted surveys in different provinces of
Armenia and in Yerevan among 1,000 residents and 60 big and small business
enterprises to find out how they were affected by the crisis and what
expectations they had.
About 50 percent of Armenia's households and about 80 percent of
entrepreneurs are sure that the crisis will deepen during the coming months
of this year.
Moreover, households are more optimistic than entrepreneurs, because if only
70 percent of the population felt the impact of the crisis, then 90 percent
of the entrepreneurs had the same experience.
As of March 2009, 44 percent of the households registered a decrease in
incomes, 15 percent - delays of in receiving salaries, 11 percent got
temporary laid off, and seven percent became totally unemployed. The
situation is almost the same in the provinces of Armenia and in Yerevan.
About 70 percent of the quizzed enterprises mainly had problems with falling
sales, delays of payments or non-payment; and 30-45 percent did manage to
involve funds into their own business.
Even though the head of the Economy and Values Research Center mentions that
the results of the enterprises' survey cannot be representative for the
country, yet he argues they can show the general situation, the expectations
and tendencies.
`A large part of enterprises decided to reduce administrative expenses and
postpone making investment in order to confront the global crisis. About 40
percent of the quizzed enterprises are planning to dismiss their employees;
moreover the dismissals will be more extensive at small and medium-sized
enterprises. Reduction in salaries is envisaged at only 20 percent of
companies, especially at industrial companies,' explains Hergnyan.
He says that recently it was possible to reap the fruits from the crisis.
Due to the estimations of the Center, because of the devaluation of the
Armenian national currency, the dram, that took place in March, several
branches of the domestic production registered growth. `This, however, will
extensively be reflected in the indexes of the second quarter of the year,'
the Center's experts say.
As for the confidence towards government anti-crisis measures, citizens tend
to trust the government more unlike entrepreneurs.
According to the study, while 31 percent of households said that `the impact
of the crisis would not be essential, since the Government can ease its
negative influence,' then only 15 percent of surveyed enterprises trusts
the
Government.
Referring to one of the predictions concerning the global economic crisis,
according to which the crisis may last three-four years, Hergnyan gives
frugal estimation to the indexes of Armenia's economy in 2009.
`This year it will be almost impossible to post an economic growth in
Armenia: the best scenario will be to conclude 2009 with non-essential
economic downturn,' the head of the Economy and Values Research Center says.
`And taking into consideration Armenian economy's peculiarity of responding
so rapidly, it is possible to suppose that the recovery of our economy will
take place simultaneously with the recovery of the world's major economies.'
************************************ ****************************************
4. Bracing up to H1N1: Armenia responds to threat of swine flu pandemic
with strict measures at air terminals
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Armenia has put in place sanitary-quarantine measures at its air terminals
thus joining in the global effort to contain the spread of Influenza A virus
subtype H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, that has already affected more
than a thousand people and killed at least 26 in 20 countries of the world.
Those in charge of healthcare matters say no swine flu case has yet been
reported in Armenia and give assurances that all possible measures have been
taken to prevent the virus from penetrating the country. But some arriving
passengers are still sceptical about the effectiveness of the measures taken
at airports, while others point out that no such controls are put in place
at other gateways, including bus routes from Turkey.
Last week the issue of preventing the infection was discussed at the
government session and Health Minister Harutyun Kushkyan announced that `the
Ministry has all necessary drugs in stock to combat swine flu' despite the
fact that there's no efficient drug against this kind of flu in the world
yet.
To prevent the entry of the infection to Armenia, sanitary-quarantine
inspection has been set up at the Zvartnots and Shirak international
airports located near Yerevan and Gyumri respectively.
Gayane Sahakyan, chief specialist of the Department of Epidemiology of
Contagious and Non-Contagious Diseases at the Health Ministry's State
Hygiene-Epidemiological Inspection, says during the past five days about
3,500 passengers at Zvartnots airport have been examined to for the H1N1
virus.
`As soon as a plane lands, the sanitary control group at the border crossing
unit boards the plane and conducts a medical examination of passengers. For
instance, they take people's temperature,' Sahakyan said to ArmeniaNow,
adding that no one has been detected with swine flu yet.
Meanwhile, some travellers are still sceptical about the strictness and
effectiveness of medical checkups at airports.
In fact, some of the passengers who have arrived in Armenia in recent days
said examination per se is not actually being conducted.
`What examination are you talking about? They give you a paper to fill out,
you write your name, permanent address, telephone, etc, but this is not
strictly controlled, that is, the majority of tired passengers who have come
a long way for a few hours just throw the paper away and hurry to leave,'
says Hasmik Hambartsumyan, who came back from Germany on May 1.
Hambartsumyan says no one boarded the plane and took their temperature.
However, Health Ministry spokesperson Ruslana Gevorgyan says there is
special control for flights of some countries, which are transit flights
-
London, Paris, Vienna, and Germany.
`If what I saw was special, I can imagine what the others would be like,'
says Vahan Simonyan, who returned from London on May 6.
Nelly Cherchinyan, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Department of
Armenia, assured ArmeniaNow that guards watch at the airport, and if any of
the passengers' eyes are reddened or he or she has flu, then the
sanitary-quarantine service workers carry out a more detailed examination.
Another passenger who has also arrived from Germany - Arpi Harutyunyan also
points out that `it's true the control was not ideal, it was not mandatory
to fill out the papers and it was a matter of the passenger's
conscientiousness,' but it was surprising for her that afterwards the
doctors were quite consistent.
`The district doctor phoned me the next day, I wasn't thinking that in
Armenia's conditions the data would be so rapidly transferred to districts
and they would be so consistent,' Harutyunyan says.
If at the airport they check one way or another, no control is carried out
with regard to those arriving by bus from Turkey, while five days ago in the
city of Antalia in Turkey, which is the most favorite holiday spot of
Armenians, a patient with swine flu died.
`There we heard about a lethal outcome, although on our bus no one was sick,
but additional supervision is necessary,' says Marine Karapetyan who was
in
Turkey for trading and returned on May 5.
The Armenian State Revenues Committee's Duty Statistics, Analysis and Risk
Management Department Head Garnik Mirzoyan retorts by saying that `all
passengers crossing all border points are strictly controlled, food is also
controlled.'
However, passenger Karapetyan is surprised that they have not seen the
inspection.
`I don't know, maybe they saw there are no sick people and didn't check, but
I believe the buses from Turkey, Greece, Iran must be seriously inspected,'
says Karapetyan.
Earlier, on April 27, the Food Safety Inspection of Armenia's Ministry of
Agriculture announced a ban on imports of swine, pork meat, poultry meat,
fodder from Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican
Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica and Salvador.
H1N1 virus epidemic started in Mexico City, Mexico, several cases were
registered in March, but their number grew dramatically in April. World
Health Organization experts announced that in the past week a decline in the
spread of the virus is observed, but they are making an appeal to the
authorities not to weaken attention and prevention measures.
Last time something like flu - a pandemic of virus spreading from humans
to
humans happened in 1918, and it took the lives of about 50 million people.
The main symptoms of swine flu are headaches, high temperature, muscle
aches, diarrhoea, and vomiting, swelling of the eyes.
To make the body more immune and to prevent infection, doctors recommend
using vitamin C, garlic, onion, and lots of fruit and vegetables.
No case of avian flu was reported in Armenia during the outbreak of the
disease several years ago.
******************************************** ********************************
5. On the campaign trail: Candidates in mayoral polls embark on four-week
electioneering
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Six political parties and one bloc last weekend officially started
campaigning for what is going to be Yerevan's first mayoral elections in
nearly two decades.
Among the political forces running for the capital city's Assembly are the
governing Republican Party of Armenia (RPA; led by incumbent appointed mayor
Gagik Beglaryan), pro-establishment Prosperous Armenia and Orinats Yerkir,
the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF) as well as the People's Party
and the Labor-Socialist Party of Armenia.
The only woman candidate that tops a party ticket is Orinats Yerkir's
Heghine Bisharyan.
`Being the only woman among the seven [top] candidates I had the courage
to
participate in the electoral campaign and struggle for this high post that
will represent the city of Yerevan and it is highly important for Yerevan's
future,' Bisharyan said during a meeting with Yerevan residents earlier this
week. `In families women solve problems by carefully planning the
expenditure of financial means. I promise to be such a mayor: having little
financial means at my disposal I will put Yerevan in good order through
effective management.'
The political forces launched their campaigns with a variety of promises
that are almost identically replicated in each one's platform - to improve
public facilities in the city, to plant trees, to asphalt roads and make
Yerevan a more beautiful city.
Gagik Beglaryan, the top candidate on the Republican Party's slate, said
during his meetings that he would do everything possible in the capacity of
a new mayor to make Yerevan residents' problems solvable, from Yerevan's
lightening to different problems connected with high-rise buildings.
`We do not want to make tall promises, however, we will do everything
possible to restore the hope of each of you in the city authorities, in
community authorities,' said Beglaryan. `We are going to have a fair
approach, it is going to be equally distributed in all spheres, and for
everyone.'
ARF started its electoral campaign planting trees in the Erebuni district of
Yerevan. Later the presentation of the election program took place at Moscow
Cinema House. It was mentioned in the program that the social life of
Yerevan's residents would be improved, the green areas would be restored
and
the budgets of Yerevan's municipality and districts would become
transparent.
Yet before the start of the election campaign several political forces
defined the Yerevan City Council elections as political. On May 1, at the
rally of the opposition ANC, Armenia's first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan
said that `it is high time to finally realize that there is no non-political
issue in the country, since the form of life of the State is politics.'
`The official electoral machine, besides blaming the ANC for politicizing
the elections, tries to create another uncomfortable situation for us, using
another funny means - giving a mayor merely the degrading role of a
dustman,' said Ter-Petrosyan.
According to him, if a mayor's only responsibility is collecting garbage,
then how to explain the fact that in the huge 60-page Law on Yerevan only
one line deals with this issue, whereas the rest refers to politics.
RPA campaign manager Harutyun Pambukyan reiterated in a televised appearance
that the Republicans do not politicize elections.
`We are going to elect a City Council and the City Council will choose a
mayor. The mayor should deal mainly with city issues, and not foreign policy
or the economy of the country. And as for garbage collecting, I assure you
that 70 percent of Yerevan's residents are concerned about Yerevan's garbage
collection, greenery planting, etc. The newly elected mayor will take care
of those issues,' Pambukyan says.
ARF, which quit the government coalition only a few days before the start of
the election campaign, says the two extremely different approaches are not
acceptable for them and that these extremes are meant to mislead the
electorate rather than serve their main objective.
ARF's Armen Rustamyan says: `It is patently clear that these elections
have
political essence, but on the one hand it is necessary to avoid extremely
underestimating that essence, and on the other hand - its overestimation. We
should clearly understand what kind of elections we are involved in.'
According to the senior ARF representative, these elections should have a
healing role in the authorities.
Meetings with Yerevan's residents organized by the Prosperous Armenia Party
have been particularly well-attended. While presenting the election program
of the party, the party's chairman Gagik Tsarukyan said that while
developing the program they had taken into consideration the suggestions
sent by residents of the capital.
`I am a resident of Yerevan, and I am aware of the worries that Yerevan's
residents have; some of them have not been solved yet. However, I am sure
that we together will be able to settle finally and effectively all those
problems,' said Harutyun Kushkyan, who heads Prosperous Armenia's slate.
A total of 439 election precincts in 13 electoral districts in Yerevan will
operate on Election Day, May 31.
Norayr Muradkhanyan, head of the Passport and Visa Department of the Police,
says that according to preliminary voter registers, 771,353 people are
eligible to go to the polls in Yerevan. Muradkhanyan rejected speculations
suggesting that the number of voters in the city has been inflated, saying
that from July 1, 2008 to January 1, 2009 the number of eligible voters in
Yerevan increased by 4,274, and by 30,490 countrywide.
`This index increased not only in Yerevan, but also in other provinces of
the country. According to the more recent data, from January 1, 2009 to
April 21, 2009, the number of eligible voters in Yerevan increased by 7,570,
and in the whole country - by 19,942,' said Muradkhanyan.
*********************************** *****************************************
6. Pollster's predictions: Sociologist finds himself on the hot seat
again as city elections approach**
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
A majority of Yerevan residents want to see incumbent mayor Gagik Beglaryan
as the city's next elected head, according to a leading pollster's data.
Aharon Adibekyan, who heads the `Sociometer' Sociological Research Center,
told the media that their monitoring results show that 26.5 percent of
Yerevan voters want the Republican candidate to succeed. Among other
candidates, according to the sociologist, are opposition leader Levon
Ter-Petrosyan to whom 7.6 percent of the electorate would give their votes
and Harutyun Kushkyan representing the pro-establishment Prosperous Armenia
party that 5.7 percent would vote for.
Six political parties and one bloc are contesting the election of Yerevan's
municipal assembly due on May 31. The 65-seat body elected under the
proportional system of representation is then to choose the new mayor. The
top candidate on a party list will automatically become mayor if his or her
party manages to poll more than 40 percent of the popular vote.
Adibekyan also suggested based on corresponding poll data that 30 percent of
Yerevan's residents will not go to the polls, and only part of the rest 70
percent is aware that municipal elections are actually planned in Yerevan.
`Election campaign organizers and media should inform the population who
are
going to participate in the elections about who the top candidates on party
lists are, who are in the second and third places,' says the sociologist,
adding that only 25 percent of the poll participants knew that ex-president
Levon Ter-Petrosyan tops the slate of the opposition bloc.
According to the sociologist, only 1,650 of the approached 2,332 residents
of Yerevan agreed to participate in the polls.
In a political show on television earlier this week, Chairman of the
Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan challenged Adibekyan either to
prove the data giving his [Tsarukyan's] party a low popularity rating and
get a one-million-dollar prize or, otherwise, apologize.
At a later press conference, Adibekyan said he did not intend to offer any
apology.
`I gave six ratings out of the 20, and they did not relate to whether he
would get votes or not. I simply described where the opponents stand now. I
have not presented the rating of the Prosperous Armenia Party,' said
Adibekyan. `These indexes still mean nothing, because there are 14 other
factors, which will finally define whether they would get votes or not.
And since there are discontents, I will not publish the final rating, even
though I have it. Besides, this is our working one,' says Adibekyan.
The sociologist believes that sociologists are necessity for serious
political figures and he reminds President Serzh Sargsyan's words: `Serious
players cannot do without sociologists in the sphere of politics.'
Adibekyan said he regretted that such a politician as Tsarukyan is trying to
make his way to the top of the political establishment with a what he termed
a `restaurant' way of thinking and that as head of a political force which
is going to be `if not the first, then at least the second' Tsarukyan still
compares sociology with a `restaurant band' that can sing an ode for him
about a `king brother.'
`If he is so `tough' that he can give me one million dollars, let he
give
the five percent of the amount to Gallup Poll or buy Gallup Poll with ten
percent of that amount so that Gallup Poll confirms that Tsarukyan is the
most talented figure and that his Prosperous Armenia is the party having the
highest rating, and that Kushkyan is the most probable mayor,' says
Adibekyan.
The sociologist is also sure that Tsarukyan must say `I am sorry' not to him
but rather to sociology, since the 20th century gave two important sciences
connected with informatics - sociology and cybernetics.
Adibekyan also presented the results of the recent researches and said there
are only three political forces that look likely to clear the seven-percent
hurdle to enter the Yerevan City Council, namely the Republican Party of
Armenia, the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and Prosperous Armenia.
According to him, there might be room for another party, and that, he said,
could be either Orinats Yerkir or the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF, Dashnaktsutyun) depending on how effectively they conduct their
electoral campaigns.
Adibekyan argues research data shows 39.8 percent of Yerevan residents would
trust the Republicans to solve their social problems, 23 percent to
Prosperous Armenia and 11 percent to the opposition ANC.
According to Adibekyan, there are two factors that may affect the upcoming
elections' process and result - the politicization of the elections and the
crisis.
As for the question what chances Orinats Yerkir and Dashnaktsutyun have, in
a few days Adibekyan's team is planning to hold another poll to figure out
how Dashnaktsutyun's withdrawal from the government coalition may affect
the
rearrangement of votes and the party's rating in general.
Adibekyan practically discarded the chances of two other parties running in
the election - Tigran Karapetyan's People's Party and the Labor-Socialist
Party of Armenia. He said the latter was known only to one in 100, according
to the latest survey.
***************************************** *********************************
7. Weathering the Storm: the economic promise of the `Eastern
Partnership'**
By Richard Giragosian
For the Armenian authorities, the strain from the impact of the global
economic and financial crisis continues to burden an already weakened
government, which continues to be saddled with an unresolved domestic
political crisis of confidence, as well as a severe economic downturn.
In light of the structural vulnerability of the Armenian economy,
exacerbated by a sharp fall in remittances, or money from abroad, an end to
years of positive economic growth and a virtual blockade of closed borders,
any opportunity to engage the broader global economy is seen as a welcome
alternative.
For this reason, Armenia is especially hopeful for a new opportunity to draw
closer to the Europe and, more specifically, to benefit from the European
Union's new `Eastern Partnership.' This new program is also seen as
a
graduated step beyond the so-called European Neighborhood Policy (ENP),
which remains the preeminent vehicle for bilateral relations between the EU
and each partner country. In this way, the new Eastern Partnership offers
an `enhancement of the ENP' and potentially providing a more direct and
practical chance for integration and alignment with the EU.
As one of only six countries identified in the Eastern Partnership program
(including Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan, in addition to
Armenia), a senior Armenian delegation led by President Serzh Sarkisian
traveled to Prague to join a high-level EU summit on 7 May that included all
27 of the European Union leaders.
As a `prospective partner' of the EU, Armenia's holds an important place
within the Eastern Partnership framework. For the EU, however, such a new
program of engagement is not easy, especially as only two of the six
countries slated for the Eastern Partnership have held reasonably democratic
elections (Georgia and Ukraine), and most fell far short of the very
democratic and rights standards promoted so strongly by the EU.
Obviously, Armenia is in a rather weak positioning terms of any likelihood
for integrating itself with the EU on a political level. But the economic
aspects of the Eastern Partnership offer Armenia a significant new avenue
for greater integration with the EU market.
Ironically, the first potential benefit for Armenia actually holds little
appeal for the Armenian authorities. This benefit, pertaining to easing
visa restrictions on access to the EU, is much more popular with the
ordinary Armenian citizen, while the authorities may be much more focused on
maintaining the ease of travel for `oligarchs' and other members of the
Armenian `business club' within parliament. Additionally, the Armenian
authorities have failed to demonstrate any real concern with either helping
or hindering the travel of ordinary Armenians, at times, even reflecting a
lack of concern over the serious demographic problem of emigration from the
country.
But the second opportunity, representing the real substance of the EU offer,
stems form the offer of a new "association agreement" with Armenia,
including the potential for `free trade provided relevant EU legislation
is
adopted.'
Third, the Eastern Partnership offers support to institution-building, a key
area for the longer-term development of Armenia, and the promise of
financial aid that the EU can leverage as a new `carrot' for Armenian
reforms.
In addition, the economic benefits also downplay any political
preconditions, including an EU decision to delicately avoid the issue of the
conflicts besetting four of the six `partners,' stating only that
"protracted conflicts impede cooperation activities" and recommending their
"earliest peaceful settlement on the basis of norms and principles."
Overall, the opportunity of the Eastern Partnership offers Armenia with a
way to at least meet some of the economic challenges. But Armenia faces
another threat, mainly form Russia's strong opposition to any EU engagement
in the region, which it sees as a threat almost on the same scale of earlier
plans for NATO engagement. Thus, the real test for Armenia will be whether
Russia will truly allow Armenia to garner the opportunities from a lead role
as a `preferred partner' within the EU's Eastern partnership.
************************************ ****************************************
8. Iranian inmate: IREX Armenia employee fights for release from Tehran
jail
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
An Iranian-Armenian aid worker convicted of an attempted `soft revolution'
to overthrow the government and currently serving a prison term in Iran
looks increasingly unlikely to achieve an early release after she recently
lost an appeal against the controversial verdict. But the family and
colleagues of Silva Harotonian, an employee of IREX's office in Yerevan,
say
they are not halting their effort to secure her safe return to her loved
ones.
Harotonian, 34, was detained by authorities in Tehran last June. Later, in
January, an Iranian court found her guilty as charged and sentenced her to
three years in prison.
Harotonian, who holds an Iranian citizenship, was employed by the Yerevan
office of American IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) where she
was the main organizer of the Maternal and Child Health Education and
Exchange Program. (IREX is an international nongovernmental not-for-profit
organization with a 40-year history of international academic and
people-to-people exchange programs. Since it was established in 1968, it has
provided leadership and innovative programs to improve the quality of
education <http://www.irex.org/education/index.asp>, strengthen independent
media, <http://www.irex.org/media/index.asp> and foster pluralistic civil
society development <http://www.irex.org/civilsociety/index.asp> in more
than 50 countries.)
Previously, Harotonian taught Armenian literature at `Azad' University
in
Tehran, Iran. She also worked for insurance companies and the Armenian
Prelacy Church in Iran.
ArmeniaNow learned from `Arax' (http://araxmag.blogspot.com), a literary and
cultural public weekly published in Iran, that Iranian state bodies spread
almost no information about Harotonian.
The weekly states: `There was only a brief statement that Silva [Harotonian]
and several other Iranians were detained on charges of organizing a `soft
revolution.''
The editor-in-chief of the weekly believes that taking into consideration
the shortage of information, it is hard to correctly and impartially comment
on Harotonian's imprisonment.
`Taking into consideration the fact that she was sentenced to three years in
prison, we suppose that her charge was not very serious. We believe that she
would never have deliberately been involved in such a `game,' otherwise a
three-year prison term would be a very mild punishment for such a grave
charge.'
Harotonian's family considers her detainment and imprisonment to be a tragic
misunderstanding. They continue to do everything possible to achieve her
release from jail.
Klara Moradkhan told ArmeniaNow that her cousin is currently in Evin Prison
in northwestern Tehran <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran>. This prison is
notorious for its `political
prisoner<http://en.wikipedia.org/wik i/Political_prisoner>wing' where
people have been kept for their views both before and after the
1979 Revolution.
Roxana Saberi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxana_Saberi> , a 31-year-old
American-Iranian journalist who was arrested in January 2009 for reporting
without press credentials and charged with espionage in favor of the United
States, is also being kept in Evin Prison.
Moradkhan says Silva's mother has an opportunity to visit her daughter in
the prison every week.
`Being in prison is a life changing experience and Silva is doing as well as
can be expected,' says her aunt.
Moradkhan created a website (www.FreeSilva.org <http://www.freesilva.org/>)
with an appeal to the public to support a petition to the Iranian government
for her cousin's release.
In the e-mail written to ArmeniaNow Moradkhan says that Silva [Harotonian]
was charged with acting against the security of Iran through communications
with the United States and having membership in groups adverse to the
Iranian government.
`I have no idea what evidence was produced by the court to prove her guilt.
Yet, I do know that Silva was very excited to be working on this
humanitarian program and saw it as a chance to give something back to the
country she loved; she would not have participated in anything that opposed
the government, she is proud to be an Iranian,' writes Moradkhan.
She hopes that the court will review her cousin's case taking into
consideration the positive attitude that Iran has always had towards
Armenians.
`For decades Iran has ensured the safety and religious freedom of its
Armenian community. My family hopes that Silva will be released as part of
the generosity of spirit the Iranians have shown to this loyal and
historical Christian minority,' writes Moradkhan.
IREX and the United States Government have also made efforts towards
Harotonian's release.
In February IREX President Robert Pearson turned to the Islamic Republic
asking Tehran to grant Harotonian freedom. In his letter Pearson said that
Silva `had no intention of harming or threatening the government of Iran, a
country she loves, or any of her fellow citizens.'
`Neither IREX nor Silva herself was part of any effort to work against the
Iranian government or its leadership. Silva's role as a program
administrator involved explaining logistics for the two-week exchange
program, translating documents between Armenian and English into Farsi, and
answering telephone inquiries,' the IREX president said.
The United States is also calling on Iran to release Harotonian. In April,
U.S.
Department of State spokesman Robert Wood called the attempted `soft
revolution' charge brought against Harotonian `baseless' and said her health
was deteriorating in prison.
***************************************** *********************************
9. `Spartacus' on stage: A world famous ballet comes to Yerevan again
By Karine Ionesyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
On May 5, Yerevan's National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet after
Alexander Spendiaryan was full of ballet lovers and ballet dancers - after
18 years of break the `Spartacus' Ballet was again performed on a Yerevan
stage.
Staged by the well-known Russian choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, the ballet
was attended by the first lady of Armenia Rita Sargsyan and her Russian
counterpart Svetlana Medvedeva, who arrived specially to watch the ballet.
Spartacus is one of the two ballets of the famous Armenian composer Aram
Khachatryan, along with `Gayane'.
A year ago, when Armenia's First Lady Rita Sargsyan was in Russia, she
attended the `Bolshoi' (big) Theatre to be present at the 40th anniversary
of `Spartacus' staged and an idea occurred to stage the ballet in Yerevan,
too.
The author of the third stage production of Spartacus believed to be the
best in the world since 1968 is the only one who worked with Aram
Khachatryan. He remembers Khachatryan struggling for each note `as a lion',
and he, in his turn, for each of his ideas. As a result, the Armenian
audience was offered a chance to enjoy a new Spartacus production this week.
The last two productions of Spartacus on Armenian stage were in 1977 and
1982, by famous Armenian dancer and ballet master Vilen Galstyan. Before
that, Spartacus was staged in Armenia by Russian choreographer Yevgeniy
Changa in 1962.
He is currently being replaced by 20-year-old Ruben Muradyan for the part of
Spartacus. Muradyan believes that this is one of his most responsible parts,
because as a rule female parts lead ballet, but in this case it is the man,
and as Grigorovich put it in front of journalists, `My Spartacus,' who
leads
it.
`The part is very difficult, since you have to create different emotional
states on stage, you should live, struggle, die, die naturally. At the same
time, it is very inspiring and responsible, because when you see how
84-year-old Grigorovich easily raises and keeps in his arms the heroine, at
the same time managing to give everybody commands and even after crying
loudly he does not lose his energy, you try to perfect yourself as much as
possible,' says Muradyan.
And ballet dancer Jacqueline Sarkhoshyan (who plays Frigia, the female lead)
also says she was happy to work with a living legend like Grigorovich.
`Grigorovich brought his wife's - Natalia Bessmertnova's clothes from his
theater for Frigia's part for the third act. I believe that those clothes
are sacred for him. I am very proud to wear them on stage,' says
Sarkhoshyan.
This ballet is also important for ballet master Elvira Mnatsakanyan, who
used to be Frigia. Now she follows her students' work from behind the scenes
as a teacher. However, she is concerned that `the ballet was created, but
now it is necessary to keep it.'
Armenia feels the lack of male ballet dancers: 41 are abroad. `Spartacus'
could not be created if six ballet dancers were not returned from the army,
and if the dancers of the `Barekamutyun' (friendship) Armenian Dance Troupe
and Yerevan State Choreographic College were not used.
`The lack of male dancers is a serious problem in Armenian ballet,'
Grigorovich said at a meeting with journalists. `Though, in such a ballet
powerhouse as Russia, boys too prefer leaving for Germany and earning a
lot of money there. Anyway, it is necessary to prevent it by means of
improving their social state, otherwise I ask them to come to the rehearsal
in the evening, and they tell me that they cannot, because they work in
other places. This is wrong.'
Significant funds were spent on the `Spartacus' performance - a well-paid
choreographer was invited, two groups of dancers were prepared, they were
additionally paid, the ballet was widely advertised.
For the first time the production of a ballet was sponsored not only by the
State, but also by six businessmen. About 20 million drams (more than $
54,000) were assigned from the state budget of Armenia. And as for the
amount of money allotted by businessmen, neither Armenia's Minister of
Culture nor the sponsor businessmen themselves want to publicize it.
Prices of tickets for the `Spartacus' Ballet are available from 5,000 drams
(about $14), while the tickets for other ballets start from 1,000 drams
(about $3).
Only three performances of `Spartacus' had been planned, the last one on
Sunday, May 10.
********************************************* *******************************
10. Sport: Italian ref to officiate Armenian Cup final; Mexican boxers
cancel trip to Yerevan over swine flu
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Soccer
An Italian referee and his two assistants will officiate Armenia's 2008/2009
Cup final this weekend, according to a report by the Armenian Football
Federation press service.
Serie A referee Paolo Dondarini and two linesmen, Masimiliano Grili and Luca
Ciancarioni, thus will become the first FIFA qualified referee team to
officiate a match between two Armenian teams at this level.
The current leaders of Armenia's national championship, Pyunik and Banants
(both representing Yerevan), will decide the winner of the 18th Cup
tournament on May 9.
Banants have so far won the Cup twice. Remarkably, they were the winners of
the first Cup tournament in independent Armenia played back in 1991/92.
Longtime champion Pyunik have so far won in the Cup tournaments only three
times. The last time Pyunik won the trophy was in 2004 and in that final
they beat Banants only on penalties after goalless 120 minutes of play.
The Saturday match is at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium. Kickoff is
at 8.00 pm Yerevan time.
Meanwhile, in the league Pyunik extended their record to six straight wins
after routing Gyumri's Shirak 4-0 last weekend. Pyunik remain three points
clear from second-placed Banants that beat Ulis 1-0. Mika retains the third
spot after a 2-1 victory against Kilikia.
In the bottom, Gandzasar managed to beat Ararat 2-0 thus leaving last year's
league runner-up in the last place with six defeats in as many games and a
0-10 goal difference.
Two of the four league games scheduled for May 10, in particular, involving
Pyunik and Banants, in action against Mika and Kilikia respectively, will
instead be played on May 13.
The other two league games scheduled for Sunday are Shirak v Gandzasar and
Ararat v Ulis.
Meanwhile, on May 6, international football's governing body, FIFA,
published its latest rankings of nations in which Armenia dropped by one
position and now is 125th among about 200 nations. European champions Spain
continue to top the rankings, followed by the continent's vice-champion
Germany and the Netherlands.
(Source: Football Federation of Armenia; www.ffa.am)
Boxing
The recent outbreak of swine flu, a disease threatening to become a
pandemic, has interfered with the plans of the Mexican Boxing Federation to
send its athletes to International Boxing Association (AIBA) junior boxing
championships to be hosted by Yerevan later this month, the Boxing
Federation of Armenia reported on Tuesday.
In a letter Mexican Boxing Federation President Ricardo Contreras invokes
`a
heavy plight of Mexico', the country believed to be the `hotbed' of the
disease, as a reason for the decision to skip the championships scheduled
for May 23-30.
`Although the health condition of all our athletes is stable, we don't
want
to expose other participants in the championships to risk,' the Mexican
boxing boss reportedly explained.
So far, Mexico is the only country that has officially refused to
participate in the championships. According to the Armenian Boxing
Federation, the number of countries that have applied for participation is
now 51.
(Source: Boxing Federation of Armenia)
Meanwhile in professional boxing, Universum Box Promotions announced earlier
this week that WBA Middleweight champion Felix Sturm (32-2-1, 14 KOs) will
have his next defense against Armenia-born Khoren Gevor (30-3, 16 KOs), the
current European middleweight champion who represents Germany. The fight is
scheduled to take place at the Nuerburg Ring in Germany on July 11.
Gevor is coming off a 7th-round TKO over the Finnish former European
champion Amin Asikainen to capture the vacant European middleweight title.
Last
August, Gevor, in his first world title fight, lost to another Armenian-born
German Arthur Abraham, the current IBF middleweight champion. (Source:
www.digitaljournal.com)
Chess
Armenian grandmasters Tigran Kotanjyan and Ashot Anastasyan successfully
finished in the big open which was held in Dubai, UAE. They, as well as the
Russian grandmaster Dmitri Bocharov, scored 7 points each out of 9, reports
www.armchess.am. Kotanjyan took the first place and the Sheikh Rashid Bin
Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup with a tie-break. Bocharov took the second, Anastasyan
took the third place.
Hrant Melkumyan scored 6, David Arutinian (Georgia) and Suren Poghosian - 5.5,
Aghasi Inants and Vardan Khojayan - 4.5 points each. **
Meanwhile, Armenian GM Giorgi Bagaturov scored 7 points out of 9 and took
the first prize in the open which was held in Theassaloniki, Greece. The
tournament had brought together 45 chess players.
(Source: www.armchess.am)
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