ARMENIANOW.COM April 29, 2005
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`NEED’ OR GREED?: RESIDENTS OF CENTRAL STREETS FORCED OUT UNDER FALSE
GOVERNMENT GUISE
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Residents on two Yerevan city center streets are being forced to sell
properties that fall under a government category of `state needs’.
But residents of Byuzand and Amirayan streets, just off Republic
Square near the foot of the Northern Avenue Project, say they’re being
forced from their homes by greed rather than `need’.
Run down residential buildings will eventually be replaced by luxury
apartments, hopeful of attracting the well- moneyed whose move to the
area is expected to transform the face of central
Yerevan. Construction on Northern Avenue, a pedestrian-only
residential, business and entertainment promenade that will link
Republic Square with the Opera House began three years ago and is
expected to be completed in the next two years. `Central Avenue’, will
run between Byuzand and Amiryan streets.
The Northern Avenue development has already displaced hundreds in
often controversial sales of property from which residents complained
that the allotment they received was not adequate.
It is widely known that, far from `state need’, the current property
is being sought by a few powerful businessmen with government
connections and/or positions. The property stands in the way of
coveted development that will displace several hundred poor or
marginally maintained, while enriching a few.
Human rights activists decry the action as a take over of property
that violates the rights of the current residents.
Buildings on the two streets have been placed under the umbrella of
`state need’, a Government of Armenia stipulation that allows
properties to be bought, without tender, if they are considered
essential to the welfare of the State.
Among seven enterprises buying out the buildings is Vizkon Ltd., whose
shareholders include former Minister of Nature Protection Gevorg
Vardanyan. Another is Griar Ltd., owned by Deputy Head of the National
Security Service, Grisha Harutyunyan. Other companies are owned by
businessmen in Russia and the United States.
According to Article 28 of the Constitution, the alienation of
property for public and state needs can be implemented only in
exceptional cases, and with preliminary commensurate compensation.
Zhora Khachatryan, legal advisor for the RA Ombudsman’s Office says
that the city construction has been implemented and is being
implemented with a number of violations of citizens’ rights.
For example, in 1997 the Constitutional Court made a decision that a
person’s ownership can be alienated on the basis set forth in the
Constitution and in case of the absence of the owner’s consent the
state can terminate ownership through adopting a specific law related
to real estate.
`Both the decision of the Constitutional Court and the Civil Code
consider it obligatory to settle the issue only by law,’ Khachatryan
says. `Meanwhile, there is no such law. Consequently, in considering
these disputes courts must bring forward the issue of the
anti-constitutionality of the government decisions, which has not been
done by a single court.’
As with the North Avenue dispute, Amiryan and Byuzand residents say
the money they are being offered is not sufficient for buying relevant
property – especially as real estate prices in the area have
dramatically increased since the development projects began.
Residents charge, too, that the State Cadastre is smoothing the take
over for developers by understating the actual dimensions of property.
Amiryan Street 4/18 building resident Lida Murdadyan’s apartment is 70
square meters according to the 1997 ownership certificate. But a new
certificate, issued this year, reduced it to 60. Two neighbors’
apartments `shrank’ in the same manner.
Eight residents of Muradyan’s building and the building next to it
(Amiryan 4/16) refused to give the documents related to their
apartments to the developer, former National Assembly Member Melik
Gasparyan. A lower court ruled that the residents must turn the
documents over to developers.
Before residents could appeal the decision, a new lawsuit against them
was lodged with the court of the first instance obliging them not to
hamper the evaluation works and vacate their homes with appropriate
compensation.
Amiryan 4/16 building resident Albert Maksudyan says he will resist
the offered conditions till the end and will defend his ownership
right: `Are they building a road or an airport that they say it is
needed?’
It is estimated that, even without development, Gasparyan stands to
make up to $4 million on the purchase of 5,384 square meters.
At another place, while the residents have been engaged in court
litigations, the enterprises began to tear down buildings without even
waiting for the decisions of the appeals and cassation courts.
Developers cut off water supply to the building at 25/1 Byuzand Street
and began to pull down the roof under which three families still
lived. Ten families of the building had to agree to sign deals and
left their homes. The vacated apartments have already been
destroyed. There are also three families left in the yard amidst the
pits and ruins of their destroyed homes. They had turned down the
conditions offered to them.
`We know from the experience of Northern Avenue that they will also
cut off water supply,’ says building resident Arsen Ghasabyan, who
sent his wife and children to his mother-in-law’s in order to avoid
the anticipated dangers. `We are constantly on the alert waiting for
what is going to happen next.’
The second and third stories were built by the residents of the
building on cooperative bases, and among those residents was also
Ghasabyan’s grandfather. Until recently five of them lived in a
57-square-meter apartment. The agent invited by Griar Ltd. evaluated
the apartment at only $23,640 and they would add $14,000 to this sum
as an incentive, if the deal was agreed upon within five days. The
Ghasabyans first did not agree to the price, but then seeing that they
had no other option agreed before the fifth day expired. However, the
Municipality’s Project Implementation Office (PIO) said that they were
late and consequently they were stripped of the $14,000 incentive.
Even if the incentive sum had been added, they would not be able to
buy an equal home for $34,000 in downtown Yerevan. The court issued a
ruling obliging the residents to sign the offered deals and
vacate. The appeals court left the lower court’s ruling unchanged. The
last hope of the Ghasabyans is the court of cassation, but they hardly
expect anything from it.
In the same situation are also the Gharibyans, who live in the
yard. They had been offered $25,000 ($10,000 of this offer being
incentive money), but they didn’t agree and two court instances ruled
to sign a $15,000 deal with them and evict them from their apartment.
The Galstyan family, who are residents of the same building, agreed
immediately to the conditions offered and got $39,000 (income tax
inclusive). They were convinced that otherwise they would lose the
incentive sum.
Yerevan Municipality PIO Director Karen Davtyan (and in rare cases
also developers) sued those who declined the demands of the
enterprises in court. He grounded all steps by the government’s
decisions (according to certain sources, an order is given to courts
not to make decisions against the state). Davtyan yet has a vague idea
of what buildings will be constructed in the territories as their
designs haven’t been approved yet. It is only known that they will be
8-10-storied residential buildings.
Facing a court most believe to be influenced by the very powerful
against whom the charges are brought, the Ombudswoman’s Office becomes
a last hope. Dozens of applications have been filed.
Ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdyan considers the court rulings to be
unjust: `We sounded the alarm still when the territories in Northern
Avenue were under development that if it continues like this, the same
would be repeated in the future and that’s what happened. The full
legal process has been ignored.’
She says that apart from the fact that the requirement of the
Constitution has not been fulfilled, other laws are being constantly
broken: `It is possible that the issue of the constitution would not
have arisen had the sides come to terms. What we witnessed throughout
the process constantly broke the laws.’
`We have examined more than 30 applications and it appears that
compulsion was enforced in different ways,’ Alaverdyan says.
In some cases, those who refused to provide documents or to allow
their apartment to be evaluated have been forcefully evicted by
bailiffs. The prices for apartments are decided by real estate
agencies with which the developers sign contracts. Realtors invited by
the residents refuse to come for fear that oligarchs would revoke
their licenses if they interfered in their intentions.
`Not for Sale’ – reads a sign pasted to a Byuzand 15/4 apartment. The
owner of that apartment, Nune Varduni, and her five neighbors resisted
attempts to evaluate their homes, but the bailiffs broke the door and
allowed the real estate evaluator to take measurements.
`The first time they came I did not let them in, but the second time I
was out. They forced the door and burst into my home.’ Some of the
intrusions were videotaped by one of the TV companies that showed how
bailiffs pushed women and broke doors. Following a lawsuit filed by
Vizkon Ltd., the court decided to oblige the home owners to have their
real estate evaluated.
Varduni appealed the ruling in a higher court. She says that she won’t
agree to any proposal.
`My home is not for sale. End of story. I will not enter any
negotiations with them. I am guided by the Constitution. They are
erecting an elite building to make money under the guise of state
needs. I know they will evict me in the end, but I will struggle to
the end. I’ll take the matter to the European Court.’
Alaverdyan considers the case with the Ghasabyans to be a black stain
for legal practice: `It is physical pressure, a method of
violence. Physical compulsion is not necessarily coming and pulling
somebody by the hair. A person should have rights by the Constitution,
conventions to live peacefully in his apartment.’
The ombudswoman has sent letters to the government and courts. She
sent her latest letter on April 22 to President Robert Kocharyan, in
which she emphasizes that the government did not have the competence
to make similar decisions (the president had confirmed the government
decisions). The Ombudsman may have the option to sue on behalf of the
residents, but it is not yet clear on what grounds. All her efforts
have been futile so far.
Garage over Garden: Residents say Municipality out of line for selling
orchard property
By Arpi Harutyunyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Last fall, residents of Deacon Zakaria Street 151/4 were surprised to
learn that a 3,500 square meter garden they had tended for years was
to be destroyed and replaced by a car repair garage.
Over the years, residents had planted more than 500 apricot, apple,
peach and pear trees. Resident Suren Yeghiyan himself has planted
nearly 100 trees that occupy a 1000 square meter area.
`When in 1986 I got an apartment, the territory around the apartment
block was a total desert, there was not a single notion of greens,’
recalls Yeghiyan, 61. `And in order that our children had at least a
green garden to play in and not breathe only dust, we, the residents,
planted trees there. We cleared the place from stones, cultivated and
planted many fruit trees.’
Residents put a fence around the garden to protect it and, in 2003,
appealed to the local administration to deed the land to them, for
fear that it might become privatized.
The local administration took the residents’ appeal to the
Municipality of Yerevan. The Municipality said it would address the
issue after it completed a mapping project of the community.
Residents learned, though, that the survey had in fact been completed
in 2001, as evidenced in legal documents filed by that office.
`This means the Municipality has intentionally deceived us to organize
an auction and sell the territory in the meanwhile. They gave us an
answer that made us wait to prevent us from taking any measures before
the notorious auction,’ says Suren’s wife Alina Yeghiyan, 55.
Last September the Municipality sold the territory to `Tigran’ Ltd.,
the president of which is Harutyun Karagyozyan a Member of Parliament,
commonly known as `Harut of Caramel’, so named for his `Sweetland’
confectionary company.
ArmeniaNow attempted to reach Karagyozyan, but was told he would not
speak with a journalist.
Hayk Tamrazyan, legal counsel for Sweetland and Tigran Ltd. says the
two companies are not connected and that `Tigran’ Ltd. has been a fair
consumer and has purchased the area in accordance with the law.’
The local administration of Kanaker-Zeytun community did not know
about the sale, until hearing about it from residents.
In October 2004 Suren Yeghiyan appealed to the court of the first
instance at the Kentron and Nork-Marash communities to annul the
results of the auction and to receive the right for privatization of
the 1000 square meter territory he has fenced.
According to the Land Code Article 72 `Citizens and legal persons who
have been diligently using the land either of the state or the
community for more than ten years although without legal formalizing
their rights have the right of priority for getting land areas within
the right for privatization…’
Earlier this year a court annulled the sale, in favor of giving
Yeghiyan a chance to bid.
The Municipality appealed, claiming that Yeghiyan had not `been
diligent in cultivating the area for you have not made payments. (In
some communities, residents are required to pay a usage fee for
gardens. In this case, however, no such fee had been applied.)
Besides, the area has not been aimed for a garden.’
On April 20 an appeals court ruled in favor of the Municipality, to
which the lower court judge Pargev Ohanyan in announcing the verdict
added that `there is a breech of his [Suren Yeghyan’s] rights enforced
by law’.
Republic of Armenia Ombudswoman, Larisa Alaverdyan, says the
Municipality acted illegally in selling the land before a
determination had been made of Yeghiyan’s rights to ownership.
`It appears both the Municipality and the Court bodies prefer seeing a
car repair service complex instead of green garden with fruit trees,’
says resident Svetlana Davtyan, 67 who has planted dozens of trees in
the garden.
Davtyan is also engaged in a similar court suit, for her portion of
the gardern. The court of the first instance has satisfied her claim
as well. But the Municipality has once again appealed. No court date
is set on the appeal.
`We can already foresee the doom our case will have, for we have seen
the decision the Appeal Court has made over the case of our neighbor,’
says Svetlana’s son Armen Hakobyan, 36.
Residents are disappointed that the Municipality would allow trees –
some more than 10 years old – to be downed in favor of a car repair
service.
`Can you imagine, when an official plants a tree, all the republic is
informed about it, but the same official allows a whole garden to be
cut,’ says Suren Yeghiyan. `You see those trees are like our children;
we have grown them up together. How can they now barbarously destroy
them?’
Residents also point out that their garden is being destroyed in the
year that the Municipality has designated as being for `environment
and green area protection’.
`It is shocking how a green zone – a real garden, created with years
of tremendous efforts and financial means, has been turned into a
construction site by breeching Armenian laws and feeling no regret,’
writes Hakob Sanasaryan, the head of the `Union of Greens of Armenia’,
a state organization, in his letter addressed to the mayor of Yerevan.
BAD BUSINESS: COURT RULES THAT CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE JUSTIFIED IN
NAJARIAN CLAIM
By Zhanna Alexanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
An Armenian higher court has upheld a previous court’s decision that
criminal charges should be pursued in the case of a Diaspora couple’s
two-year legal battle against a former Yerevan associate.
Last week, the Cassation Court for Criminal and Military Cases ruled
that an investigation should continue into whether local businessman
Grigor Igityan is guilty of defrauding well-known American-Armenian
philanthropist George Najarian, of Boston.
The court decision means that the Prosecutor General’s Office must
re-open its investigation into whether Igityan illegally took
possession of property he had purchased on behalf of Najarian. Igityan
has maintained that he had rightful ownership and that assuming the
property was recompense for a loan that he had made to Najarian. (For
details of the claim, read ?????)
The Prosecutor General had appealed a lower court ruling, claiming
that there was no grounds for pursuing prosecution against
Igityan. Without criminal charges, the Najarians might have been able
to reclaim the property, but Igityan would not face punishment.
In addition to a partnership with Igityan in a photo shop, Najarian
invested in two properties in the Yerevan district of Dzoragyugh. At
stake is an investment of $500,000.
If Igityan is found guilty of embezzlement and fraud, he could face up
to eight years in prison.
Igityan, who Carolann Najarian describes as a man who, 10 years ago
was wearing clothes handed down from her husband, has maintained that
he purchased the disputed property with money his wife gained from
inheritance.
Carolann Najarian said at a press conference that Igityan, who had
been the couple’s interpreter, early on had asked the Najarians to buy
him a car and a house – which they refused. She also said the
relations between the three were such that Igityan had called her and
her husband `mamajan’ and `papajan’, terms of endearment.
Najarian lawyer Armen Poghosyan says the case centers around misplaced
trust.
Known for many years of philanthropy in Armenia and Karabakh, the
Najarians’ reaction to their legal problems has been seen as
troublesome for future investment by Diaspora and the case has been
monitored by Non-Governmental Organizations such as Transparency
International and the Eurasia Foundation.
`The outcome of the case is a matter of honor not only for us, but
also for Armenia in general,’ Carolann Najarian said. `These two years
have been a period of moral and psychological suffering for us to a
degree that after 16 years of benevolence we were ready to break off
our ties with Armenia and never return.
`However after a while we realized that we are quite attached to the
people here since those cold and dark years when we supported people
in Armenia and Artsakh.’
She further said that other Diaspora investors are closely observing
their case and that `If we leave they will follow us.’
Though far from settled, Carolann Najarian had praise for the latest
developments, calling the Armenian legislation `good’ and saying she
is confident that the law favors the Najarians’ position.
THE OMBUDSWOMAN SPEAKS: REPORT RELEASED FROM ARMENIA’S FIRST CITIZEN’S
ADVOCATE
By Zhanna Alexanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
This week Armenia’s Ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdyan released a report on
human rights in the republic.
The 200 page report covers March to December 2004 and includes the
period of civil unrest last spring that culminated in a night of
violence April 11 of last year.
Authorities were criticized by international agencies following the
political protests for their abuse of `administrative arrests.’
`Last year’s experience has proved this item should be reviewed and
specified, but not to make it a part of the Criminal Code, but to
adjust it to the European criteria,’ the Ombudswoman’s report reads.
The chapter on elective rights says `the violations made by the law
enforcement bodies during elections have not been studied with
sufficient succession and the people in charge of violations remain
unpunished.’
A chapter on `Tortures and Insult to Dignity’ is largely devoted to
the case of Grisha Virabyan, a protestor who has claimed police abuse
and has been defended by Alaverdyan. The advocate has expressed her
displeasure that the Prosecutor’s Office has not opened a criminal
suit against the policemen who allegedly tortured Virabyan.
The report also cites that the majority of applicants to the office
for human rights are socially insecure. That is, in Armenia the most
unprotected are the most poor. Their number, according to the
ombudswoman, makes 90 percent, if not 98.
`The socially unprotected layer — the polarization that we have today
in social and material terms, is clearly spreading also on matters of
legal protection,’ says Alaverdyan.
Alaverdyan’s office has received appeals from 2,346 citizens for the
period from March 1 to December 2004. The appeals mostly refer to
legal problems. In criminal cases there are a large number of appeals
regarding the court decisions made upon evidence obtained by illegal
means.
`A case has been registered when the court trial and the sentence were
made without the presence of the defendant, which is an unprecedented
thing in court practice,’ the report states.
The advocate’s survey has shown that verdicts are reached based on
artificial grounds and sometimes even disregarding undeniable
evidence.
Many of the complaints – the office received an average of about 12
per day – relate to court cases in which the Military Prosecutor’s
Office has been involved.
The report does not cover issues referring to the violation of
soldiers’ rights or statistical data; the ombudswoman plans to do this
in the future.
The human rights defender has reflected also on the circumstance of
the lack of responsibility for the persons who have caused physical,
moral and material damage to journalists last April; however, the
report lacks reflection on the `A1+ problem’.
`The problem I was concerned with was the way the commission was
formed,’ explains the ombudswoman, referring to the
Presidential-appointed State Radio and Television Commission.
The report says in one line: `the participation of the President of
the republic in the formation of the national Commission for
Television and Radio gives way to distrust towards the independence of
the commission.’
PRESS REPORT: FREEDOM HOUSE CALLS ARMENIAN MEDIA `NOT FREE’
By Julia Hakobyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Although Armenia has a significant independent and opposition print
media and the Constitution protects freedom of speech and of the
press, the government continues to restrict full media freedom in the
country, says the annual report of the U.S based Freedom House
organization.
Armenia’s mass media was ranked as `not free’ along with ten states of
the former USSR and Eastern Europe by the `Freedom of the Press 2005′,
the annual press freedom survey of Freedom House.
The report was released yesterday /should be two days ago/ (April 27)
in advance of the World Press Freedom Day on May 7.
In terms of population 17 percent of the world’s inhabitants live in
countries that enjoy a free press, while 38 percent have a partly free
press and 45 percent have `not free’ press.
The survey, first launched in 1980 assesses the degree of print,
broadcast and Internet freedom worldwide. This year the survey covered
194 countries, rating each as `Free,’ `Partly Free’ or `Not Free.’
Rating is determined by examining three categories: the legal
environment in which media operates, political influence on reporting
and economic pressures on the content and dissemination of news.
This year the organization rated the press of 75 countries as `Free’,
(39 percent) 50 as `Partly Free,’ and 69 as `Not Free’.
The report says that no significant changes to the existing legal
framework for media were made in Armenia during 2004, but there have
been some important court cases where the limits of journalists’
rights have been tested.
For the first time there has been a conviction in a case where
journalists were attacked and prevented from carrying out their
professional work. The report refers to the incident with
photojournalist Mkhitar Khachatryan who was attacked last year by
several men when working on a story about illegal forest cutting and
house constructions.
A court sentenced one of the attackers to six months in prison for
physically assaulting Khachatryan. However, the report mentions `the
people who allegedly ordered the assault never appeared in court.’
The report also cites that the President’s Office continues to provide
policy guidance to Armenia’s Public TV.
It further says that most newspapers are privately owned, but few have
full independence from Government or business interests and major news
sources are pro-government.
There are also signs of decreasing access to alternative sources of
information. In April the Russian television channel NTV had its
broadcasts suspended throughout Armenia after broadcasting footage of
opposition protests. The official explanation given for the suspension
was `technical problems.’ When NTV had not resumed broadcasting by the
end of September, the government gave its broadcasting frequency to
another Russian channel, Cultura, which does not have political or
social news programming. The private Armenian TV station Kentron
started a news and analysis program produced by Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) but the show was cancelled only three
days after it began broadcasts.
The governments of Armenia’s neighbors Georgia and Azerbaijan were
also critized for restricting mass media in their
countries. Azerbaijan was ranked as `not free’ but Georgia maintained
its `partly free’ assessment.
The report says that Ukraine moved from Not Free to Partly Free after
the orange revolution which `led to the relaxation of the pressures on
the media’.
The study revealed a decline in global press freedom. While it
registered important gains in some key countries in 2004, notable
seatbacks occurred in the United States and elsewhere in
America. While the United States remained one of the strong performers
in the survey, its performance declined due to a number of legal cases
in which prosecutors sought to compel journalists to reveal sources of
materials they gathered during the investigation.
`Even in established democracies, press freedom should not be taken
from granted,’said Jennifer Windsor, the Executive Director of Freedom
House. `It must be defended and nurtured.’
ARTSDIGEST:
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
INSTEAD OF PERFORMANCES: Today the chamber music theater is at the
edge of collapse. The theater staff has divided into two parts trying
to give way to conflict via mass media. The problems is that 3 months
ago by decree of the Minister of Culture head of Alfa El producing
center Levon Abrahamyan was appointed new director. According to his
words, he had made big contributions to the development of the
theater. However the artistic director Armen Meliksetyan charges that
the new director does not have the slightest idea about the structure
of the theatre.
On April 18 well known artists Sos Sargsyan, Alexander Grigoryan, Vahe
Shahverdyan and Yervand Ghazanchyan addressed a letter to Robert
Kocharyan calling him to pay attention to the situation created in the
theater. They share Armen Meliksetyan’s opinion that the director
candidature should be presented by the theater members.
JUBILEE CONCER: Concert dedicated to the 14th anniversary of
“Serenade” chamber orchestra – prize-winner of international contests
and festivals – will take place in Armenian National Picture-Gallery
on Apr 29. As Arminfo reported, at the Picture-Gallery, well-known
opera singers of Armenian origin will arrive in Yerevan specially for
this day. Izabel Bayrakdaryan (Canada) and Souren Shahijanyan (France)
will perform “Seville Barber” by Rossini jointly with “Serenade”
orchestra.
NEW MUSEUM: The Armenian government has released funds for publication
of collection of letters, sent by world famous American Armenian
painter Arshile Gorky to his sister. The 50 letters will be published
in English and Armenian in 1000 copies.
Also before the end of the year a museum displaying some of his
pictures will open in Etchmiadzin. Some 55 pictures are supposed to be
on display, which his sister donated to the Church and which are kept
now in Gulbenkian Center in Lisbon.
ROCK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: On April 24, the System of a Down (SOAD),
played the third annual “Souls” benefit concert at the Gibson
Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, reported Armradio.
The “Souls 2005” benefit concert was organized and headlined by SOAD,
who are of Armenian descent and who all lost family members to the
Armenian genocide, and aimed to help benefit organizations that work
to eliminate genocides and promote human rights.
The tickets for the 6,000-seat hall were long sold out. Booklets on
the Armenian Genocide were placed on each seat. The night started
with a short video explaining the background of the Armenian Genocide.
BOOKSHELF: The Paris based Febus publishing house issued the French
translation of Peter Balakian’s “The Burning Tigris,” the well-known
documentary book. The Armenian Mirror Spectator report mentioned that
the hard copy of the book has been reprinted six times in the US. The
Independent newspaper called the book “influential,” while The Irish
Times characterized it as “an extremely essential book that
annihilated denials.”
OUTSIDE EYE: A NON-ARMENIAN’S VIEW OF LIFE IN HIS ADOPTED HOME
By John Hughes
Editor
If you pay attention, this can often be a danged amusing place . . .
The silver Mercedes Brabus (retail price is six figures – and not in
drams) is stopped in its lane on Tumanyan Street, forcing a line of
lesser traffic to await its movement. This is noteworthy for a couple
of reasons, not the least of which is that, in Armenia, luxury cars
stop for no one, nor for traffic regulations that the rest of us live
by.
It is the time of morning that could be qualified as `rush hour’, if
rush were part of the vocabulary here. But on one of the capital’s
busiest streets a round man in a square SUV has altered the flow of
traffic, to accommodate a decidedly Armenian condition:
Simply, Bossman is talking on his cell phone. Therefore he must wave
the other hand that is not holding the phone. Even heavyweights have
only two hands, so how can he possibly steer the luxury machine in
traffic? A hand on the phone and a hand in the air, Thick Neck has
brought himself and traffic to a halt because he needs his free hand
to gesticulate. The louder he talks, the faster he moves his hand. It
is no longer a surprising phenomenon. And I’m guessing that somewhere
else in the city, the situation is being copied, wherever that
satellite link ends — very likely with another round man in a square
truck waving a free hand to express whatever his words fail to `say’.
I’m tickled by the scene, not only for its entertainment value and the
fact that it enforces a stereotype, but because it reminds of the way
this city has changed. A place where progress moves like a glacier in
so many ways, goes at warp speed in others.
The period some of us have spent in Armenia is hardly a blink in a
place as old as this, yet we feel like oldtimers, considering the
change we’ve seen.
When I was even more an outsider than I am now, there were no cell
phones here. There were round men in square cars, but the cars were
the lowly Niva – and few enough that street crossing time was half
what it is now.
I remember the day cell phone service arrived – May 20, 1997 (I
think). I remember because friends and I were at a concert by the
honored conductor/violinist Vladimir Spirakov in the Opera House (in
the days before the grand building became hidden from view by what is
now the Mall of Cafés).
During a musical moment when silence should have held the drama, a
cell phone (perhaps in the first episode of public annoyance from
which millions more would follow) rang while Spirakov’s baton froze
aloft.
Soon after that I saw two teenagers in the same restaurant talking to
each other on their cells. And, yes, their free hands were waving, as
surely as their world was changing.
Anyway. Thanks to Mr. Brabus’ traffic jam, I was able to freely
negotiate Tumanyan into one of Yerevan’s newest supermarkets, from
which I thought I would treat Friday’s staff to some exotic fruit.
The shelf held kumquat, a bittersweet citrus I’d developed a fondness
for while in exile in Miami.
This is not a big deal, if you live in a part of the world where
`normal’ has replaced `extravagant’. Here, though, where bananas were
not so long ago the Brabus of the Armenia fruit world, a shelf on
which is stocked nectarines, star fruit, and Spanish apricots (at $18
per kilo) is worthy of comment. (It is the same shop in which smoked
crocodile goes for $245.)
As I looked at the exotics, I thought of my first trip here, when,
staying in a diplomatic guest house, the servant on hand served boiled
wieners and chopped Snickers for breakfast – on gold trimmed plates.
The price on the kumquat tray looked reasonable – less than a
dollar. So I grabbed a handful of the little nut-sized delicacies,
eager to introduce them in the newsroom. I was grabbing my third
handful, when an attendant tapped my shoulder, pointed at the price on
the basket and said `mi hat’. She wanted me to know that the price was
for one kumquat, not for a kilo.
The lot I held would have cost about $30. I dumped the bag and any
pretense of being the big American spender back into the tray and
sheepishly shuffled back into the street still blocked by a
`suffering’ Armenian who no doubt would have put a fourth handful into
his bag.
I know what you are thinking. I think it, too.
What a pity that there is such extravagance in the face of so many who
struggle just to have much less. Welcome to the world, Armenia.
MARGO’S STORY: 7 `HAPPY’ YEARS OUT OF 94
By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Editor’s note: Through the remainder of this commemorative year,
ArmeniaNow will present regular profiles of Armenians who survived the
1915-18 Genocide. The stories become familiar, but each is told by an
individual — a fact that should never be forgotten as fewer remain
whose eyes hold history.
Margo Hakobyan was born on April 24, 1911, four years before her
people became an endangered species in Igdir, part of what is now
Turkey.
Last Sunday, while Armenians world wide commemorated the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Margo reflected on the history
of her 94 years. A passing link to a horrible history, and honored, if
that’s the right word, with the title `survivor’, Margo maintains
still that the first seven years of her life were the happiest.
The period ended, though when, among millions, Margo earned another
title: `exile’. What followed was deportation, famine, hardship, that
led the family to Echmiadzin, where Margo remains.
When Margo was born, her parents called the day happy, and her
relatives considered her to be the fourth lucky child, since she was
born into the large family of the rich Igdir trader Arshak agha (a
title of prestige), where a child was supposed only to enjoy all the
good things in life.
And that was the way life went on – happy, peaceful and
carefree. Arshak agha was trading in textile in his shop and also
operated a watermill, and Mother Khanum was a housewife. Another three
girls were born into the family after Margo and the first two girls
and one boy went to study at Tbilisi’s gymnasium.
`We had a one-storied stone house in Igdir. Today I remember our large
orchard – with pear-trees, and the furnished house. Every Sunday my
dad’s friends gathered for kef parties at our house,’ says Margo,
falling into the lap of her memories.
`Eh, what tables we laid on Easter! Hardly will anyone lay such a
table today. There was pakhlava, gata (oriental pastry), we put a lamb
wholly cooked in a tonir in the middle of the table. We lived very
well before emigration. After that we were hungry. We didn’t live a
good life.’
The `bloody wave’ that swept Turkey from east to west since 1915,
exterminating and displacing Armenians on its way, reached Igdir, one
of the remote populated areas in the east of the country, in 1918.
`I was playing in the yard with my sisters when suddenly my dad came
breathing hard and declared that war had broken out,’ remembers
Margo. `He said: `Children, hurry up, get into the carriage, we have
to flee.’ Before we got into the carriage, my dad went to the house
after my mum,’ tells Margo.
With her eyes in tears and a bundle in her hand, Margo’s mother also
got into the carriage and the Hakobyans went off along the road of
deportation.
`We left all of our belongings behind. My mother had time only to take
her valuables and money in a bundle. While on the road we heard a
bomb. The Turks had launched their attack. The Turks poured into Igdir
after we had left. There were deportees all over the road, they were
in confusion, crying,’ says Margo.
According to Margo, before the Turks made their way into the town,
mainly Kurds, Armenians and Yezdis lived there. `When the massacres
began many Armenians fled to Igdir. They were hungry and half-bare
people. They told of horrible things. In Igdir people helped one
another as much as possible. My father kept a few of them in our house
before our deportation: one was a woman with three children, whose
husband was killed on the road and one young man whose father had been
murdered.’
The Hakobyans reached Echmiadzin and the following day moved to
Tiflis, to Margo’s uncle’s house where the Hakobyans were expected by
their two girls and one son who studied there.
After a year spent in Tiflis the Hakobyans relocated to Yerevan in
search for good living conditions in Armenia. Margo and her younger
sisters, having said good-bye to their happy childhood, were now
struggling to earn their living.
`It was 1920, the worst times. Emigrants were dying of hunger and
diseases in the streets, they even didn’t have time to bring coffins
to bury them all. Cholera was rampant and people were in a very bad
situation. Famine was everywhere. My uncle and the valuables from my
mother’s bundle helped us. And then the Soviets came in 1921 and they
began to pressure people in a different way.’
The Bolsheviks had surprises in store for people like the
Hakobyans. As a formerly rich family they were stripped of many
privileges. The father did not have suffrage, and the children were
not allowed to study. The former Arshak agha became a watchman to
maintain his family. And Margo, in order to receive education, had to
work at a tobacco plant for five years to obtain that right.
Margo’s marriage to a military man that promised her a happy future
proved to be another delusion. In the seventh year marriage, in 1939,
her husband was arrested as a betrayer of the homeland and a year
later he was exiled to a corrective labor camp in Siberia. There
followed eighteen years of hardship when Margo was alone raising her
three children – two daughters and one son.
`Those who knew that my husband had been exiled were afraid even to
approach us. When my husband was exiled I was fired from my job but
reinstated a year later, and for 17 years I worked as a kindergarten
manager. During those years I was able to bring up my children so that
all three received higher education.’
Margo’s husband, who was acquitted and returned home from exile in
1956, lived only for three years. `His parents had emigrated from
Erzrum. He didn’t see a normal life either,’ says Margo.
Today, only Margo is alive from the seven children of the Hakobyan
family, and the material proof from Igdir is the only photograph dated
1912, which, although looks old, has quite well preserved the images
of Margo’s maternal family. In the picture Margo is the youngest – a
serene-looking chubby one-year-old sitting in the first row next to
other children and protected by a whole family from the back.
Every time Margo looks at the photo she admires the dresses of her
grandma, mum and auntie. `They are dressed very smartly, it is a
Tiflis-style dress, no one dresses like this nowadays,’ she says.
Now the daughter of an `agha’ lives off a 10,000 dram (about $22)
pension each month. Beginning next month she is to receive an extra
5,000, as compensation for being a deportee.
`That’s money to be spent within three days if my children didn’t help
me. Life is very expensive now,’ she says.
Though Margo’s birthday is a day of mourning, her relatives always
gather on that day to make Margo’s sad life a little bit happier, to
disperse the bitter memories of her life the beginning of which was a
happy day for Arshak agha but ill-fated for the whole Armenian nation.
Margo’s descendants are three children, seven grandchildren and 14
great grandchildren, of whom the youngest is three months old. While
the parents did everything for little Margo to have a happy childhood,
now it is her grandchildren who look after grandmother Margo so that
she could live the last years of her life if not happily, at least
without cares.
RINGING IN RESTRAINT: OFFICIALS MAKE UNOFFICIAL ATTEMPT TO DOWN-SIZE
`LAST BELL’ FESTIVITIES
By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
As expendable cash has become a luxury for Yerevan elite, the gap
between the haves and have nots is demonstrated each spring when youth
celebrate `Last Bell’, the end of the school year.
A tradition that, dating back to Soviet times, was a quaint but
heartfelt opportunity for classmates to say goodbye for the summer and
thank teachers with bouquets, has become a fashion show and an
exercise in excess that is damaging to the psyche of those unable to
spend freely.
That, anyway, is the opinion of education officials, who are taking
measures (though unofficially) to discourage excess during this year’s
Last Bell.
`We want the graduates to feel themselves equal,’ says Silva Achoyan,
Deputy Head of Education and Science Department at the Municipality
Administration. `The inequality is becoming more and more obvious with
each year.’
Achoyan says that for several years each Last Bell has seen an
increase of extravagance – from formal wear for celebrating students,
to expensive gifts for teacher – that leaves many students feeling
unworthy because they cannot afford the same as the well-off. The
result is that more and more students are choosing to not attend
school functions, rather than be embarrassed. Some family go into
burdensome debt in order to give the appearance that their children
have just as much as the others.
`Many parents say they have been waiting for ten years to organize a
Last Bell ceremony for their kid, but the notion of the Last Bell
should first of all refer to learning, when a period in life is over
and another begins,’ says Silva Achoyan. `And this event turns into a
restaurant feast and a period full of dangers.’
Despite the special control of the police during those days accidents
still increase during the period, often when teenagers drive
unsupervised, frequently under the influence of alcohol.
`Everything should be regulated; this has been decided during a
special meeting and although there will be no official order, however
there is a special decision the school principles, the parents and the
school children are informed about,’ says Achoyan.
According to the Municipality officials the decision prohibits
organizing feasts in restaurants within the frameworks of last bell
celebrations, and seeks to crack down on teenage drivers and general
hooliganism that has been widely ignored during Last Bell
celebrations.
`Giving extravagant gifts to teachers has also become a generally
adopted matter which is still unacceptable. According to the decision
those kinds of things have also been advised to stop,’ says the
expert. `In case of extreme desire to make a present a teacher may be
presented with flowers or a book or a touching verse, which is an
invaluably luxurious present.’
Achoyan says both the teacher and the student should be advised to
tone down the Last Bell festivities.
And in case when the students still decide to override the decision
and have a Last Bell feast, teachers should avoid taking part.
`We are confident it is pedagogically wrong when the teacher goes to a
restaurant with the school children, take alcohol and then take exams
a few days later from the same pupils,’ says Achoyan. `In this case
neither the pupil seems to treat teacher seriously nor teacher
himself. Even if they decide to have a feast and invite the teacher
they should do it after the exams.’
Karine Grigoryan, head of the Public Relations Department at the
Ministry of Education and Science, says the Ministry and the
Municipality hope the decision will bring at least some restraints in
the row of the Last Bell events.
Grigoryan says, not the Last Bell events, but the overindulgences and
improper luxury will be eliminated.
`When teachers told us one shouldn’t dream of celebrating in the
restaurant because of the ban we were upset,’ says Arpine Mikaelyan, a
10th grade pupil. `But our parents were very happy about it for they
could avoid additional expenses.’
Mikaelyan says they have even held a discussion with schoolchildren
and although they were upset they still agreed with the perspective to
give up the idea of the restaurant.
`All of us have witnessed what was happening during the Last Bell
ceremonies in the last years; I think nothing should be treated that
close,’ says another 10th grade pupil Liana Khachatryan. `Although we
have heard about the decision we have still decided to celebrate our
Last Bell at a restaurant, though modestly. The possibility for
celebrating in a restaurant is acceptable to me, but there’s no need
to go too far.’
Achoyan says the school principals have expressed different attitudes
toward the decision; however, most of them have voiced their consent.
`We are well aware we can’t change anything in our days but we hope
everything will settle down in a natural way as the time passes and
all these are for the sake of the pupils,’ says Achoyan.
REWRITING HISTORY: TURKISH AUTHOR WORKS TO UNDO HIS COUNTRY’S POSITION
ON GENOCIDE
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow Reporter
Last week Armenian writers hosted a Turkish author and human rights
activist, Dogan Aqhanla, who was exiled from his own country for not
denying the Armenian genocide.
`I was condemned by the Turkish authorities for condemning and
recognizing the genocide. In spent the years of 1985- 1987 in
Istanbul’s jail as a political prisoner together with my wife and
newborn child,’ says Dogan Aqhanla.
He is one of a few intellectuals of his time who doesn’t turn a blind
eye to the historical facts and speaks openly about it, putting to
shame the Turkish intelligentsia.
Aqhanla says: `Turkey’s whole intelligentsia is now in shame for
distorting the historical reality and not recognizing the Armenian
Genocide. There is only one mention about the genocide in modern
Turkish literature and the author is Nazim Ikmet. I should say that
recently an opera piece was produced on the basis of that work, but
the part (about genocide) was withdrawn.’
According to the Turkish writer, his country’s policy of negating and
distorting the facts turns Turkey into a criminal state today. One
cannot say that the generations born after the Second World War are
personally responsible, however the same generations must be ready to
answer the question of how they view the crimes committed by their
ancestors.
`I am here today to declare that I assume historical
responsibility. Recognition for me is not only a moral but also
political and public matter, because as German Bernhard Schlink says:
`The one who lives in peace with the criminal also becomes
responsible,’ he says.
In May 1998, Aqhanla lost his Turkish citizenship because of his
political views and his position on the Genocide. Since 2001 he has
been a citizen of Germany and lives in Cologne and from time to time
contributes to a Turkish- language newspaper. In 1998-99, Istanbul’s
Belge Publishing House published the writer’s `Seas that Disappeared’
trilogy in Turkish. His latest book `The Judges of the Doomsday’
touches upon the subject of the genocide committed against Armenians.
His sixth `Dialogue, Alienation and Memory’ book will be published in
Turkey in May. The ending of the book takes place in Tsitsernakaberd
(the Genocide Monument in Yerevan).
He writes: `If I hadn’t come to Germany, most probably I would not
become a writer and would not write a book that ends in Yerevan, near
the monument to the memory of the Genocide victims. And I wouldn’t
have found the courage and strength to stand here today in front of
Mount Ararat and speak.
`I thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to
participate in the commemoration of the Genocide victims on the 90th
anniversary. I am grateful to you also for allowing me, a man
representing a society that committed crimes, to remember and pay
homage to the memory of every victim and to ponder about the disgrace
and dishonor of my nation.’
Aqhanla says that his struggle is against the policy of negation
assumed by Turkey and for the recognition of the genocide committed
against Armenians. He wants to feel again that the country where he
was born is his country.
Aqhanla works for an organization that has set out to alter the
mentality of the rising generation of Turks in Germany.
`Last year we took a group of young German-based Turks to the street
in Berlin where Soghomon Tehlerian killed Taleat pasha. We worked with
them for three days. There were also five young people from Turkey in
the group. In that very street those who came from Turkey started to
debate, saying that there was no such thing. But the German-Turks
countered, saying that the whole world knows about it,’ Aqhanla says.
In the end, two of the five young people changed their position upon
return to Turkey. One of them organized a collection of signatures to
condemn the Armenian genocide. The other changed the topic of his
doctoral thesis, choosing the 1915 Armenian Genocide. The Turkish
writer considers this to be their achievement.
`We took the young people to the German archives, which are open to
everyone. We studied Armenian case N183 that indisputably presents
Germany’s real participation in the genocide on the state level. I
also feel ashamed for Germany, which once took part in the crime and
hasn’t admitted and condemned it to date,’ he says.
Aqhanla says he dreams of a day when Turkey will consider
`recognition’ to be the beginning of the re-evaluation of its past
before 2015. And he dreams of one and a half million pomegranate trees
to be planted in Turkey in memory of each victim.
`I dream that every Armenian who lost his or her ancestor during the
years of the genocide will return and find a secure place in the
country that is called Turkey today. I hope that my dreams will come
true. If it is fulfilled, and that must be fulfilled, at that time I
will apply for Turkish citizenship and will say: I am yours. And I am
here again.’
SPORT DIGEST: KILIKIA V. MIKA IN MAY 9 ARMENIA CUP FINAL
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter
FOOTBALL
CUP 2005: The finalists of Armenia Cup 2005 have become known this
week.
In the first two-leg semifinal Kilikia from Yerevan defeated the
second Yerevan side that reached this year’s semifinal stage, Banants,
on the aggregate due to scoring more away goals – winning 3-2 away and
losing 1-2 at home.
In the other semifinal Mika from Ashtarak hosted Esteghlal Kotayk
having a one-goal deficit after a 1-2 defeat in Abovian.
In the second-leg match that took place on April 26, when Mika were
leading 2-1 after the first half, the referee made a decision to
postpone the match because of torrential rain.
Following the FFA decision, the match was replayed on April 28, with
Mika proving the winner – 2-0.
Thus, this year’s Cup will be contested by Yerevan’s Kilikia and
Ashtarak’s Mika. The final will take place in Yerevan’s Vazgen
Sargsyan Republican Stadium on May 9.
Mika have won the Armenian Cup three times, while it is the first time
that Kilikia have reached the final.
U-19: Armenia’s U-19 team will participate in the second qualification
round of the European championship in Hungary on May 27-30. Armenia
are in the same group with Italy, Hungary and Belgium. In last
season’s first qualification round in Macedonia the Armenian juniors
finished 2nd.
Currently, the Armenian footballers are actively preparing for the
tournament playing friendlies against Armenian clubs. The first match
in a series this week ended in a frustration for the Armenian juniors
as they lost 0-4 to Premier League side Dynamo-Zenit.
TRAINING THE TRAINERS: The first theoretical training under the JIRA
project for coaches is being held at the Football Federation of
Armenia through May 16. About 25 coaches of Armenia’s Premier League
and Division One clubs will participate in practical sessions at the
sport base of FC Pyunik.
A senior UEFA instructor Zdenek Sivek (Czech Rep.) arrived in Yerevan
for this purpose.
The JIRA project enables coaches to improve their skills and get
corresponding licenses without which coaches will not be able to work
in any European country in the near future.
(Source: the Football Federation of Armenia).
WEIGHTLIFTING
Twice European champion Ashot Danielyan (105 kg and more) earned a
bronze medal in the European championships that ended in Sofia
(Bulgaria) recently. In snatch, clean and jerk combination the
Armenian weightlifter showed the result of 447 kilograms.
Another Armenian weightlifter, Sydney 2000 Olympics bronze medalist
from Gyumri Arsen Melikyan, performing in the weight category of 85
kg, also earned a bronze medal for Armenia.
Six weightlifters from Armenia participated in the
championships. (Armenpress, A1+)
CHESS
Armenia’s chess championships started in Yerevan on April 28. The
results of the championships will also determine the participants of
the upcoming European chess championships who will represent Armenia.
According to the Chess Federation of Armenia, five male chess players
will represent Armenia in the European chess championships among men
that begin in Warsaw (Poland) on June 17, and four Armenian female
chess-players will participate in the women’s championships that begin
in Chisinau (Moldova) on June 10.
According to the Armenpress news agency, the European chess
championships are an open tournament and all those wishing can
participate. It is possible that there will be more than nine chess
players representing Armenia in the men’s and women’s championships
this summer.