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Headlines:
NEWS
Plenty to Talk About: Rhetoric continues to rise over appeal for General Assembly debate on Karabakh
The Margaryan Trial: Case of murdered Armenian officer to begin in Hungary
Guarding Against `Grip’: Armenia gets first vaccination for flu season
Football hopes: Armenia sweetens disappointing season
Calling Out Corruption: Youth union aims to reveal wrongdoing in education system
FEATURES
`Til Death Do Us Part’: Golden couple renew vows and recall 50 years together
NOT Outside Eye: An Armenian in America has a foot fight in returning to her heart
Seeing Green After 10 Years: UMCOR celebrates a decade in Armenia with a gift of trees
Outdated: Authorities use Socialist-era law to violate democratic rights
ARTS
Artistic Felons?: Armenian couple charged with crimes in Russia for exhibit on religion
Armenia Underfoot: New guidebook shows where to get high in Hyestan
For complete articles, please, see
NEWS
Plenty to Talk About: Rhetoric continues to rise over appeal for
General Assembly debate on Karabakh
By Aris Ghazinyan
The fact that the issue `On the situation on Azerbaijan’s occupied
territories’ was put on the agenda of the UN General Assembly session
still remains in the center of the attention of all structures
interested in the soonest settlement of the Karabakh problem. The
possible shift of the mediatory initiative from the sphere of the OSCE
Minsk Group to the plane of the UN, in official Yerevan’s opinion,
cannot promote a peaceful and just resolution of the conflict.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Vardan Oskanian has stated that the
inclusion of the Baku-initiated `question about territories’ into the
discussions in the UN format got the approval of only those entities
of international law that are practically against peaceful means of
settling the dispute.
At the end of last week Moscow was drawn into the debate when, during
a meeting of the heads of foreign ministries of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization, Oskanian leveled scathing criticism at
some members for their support of Azerbaijan. Taking the Azeri
viewpoint on the matter `is not consistent with all the details of the
conflict in Nagorno Karabakh as well as other approaches of the OSCE
Minsk Group – a structure that has the most comprehensive information
about the settlement process at its disposal,’ the minister
said. Oskanian further said that the positions of some states –
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan – were `unclear’.
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The Margaryan Trial: Case of murdered Armenian officer to begin in Hungary
By Zhanna Alexanyan
Court hearings are expected to begin November 23 in Budapest in the
trial of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani Army officer charged in the
murder of Armenian Army officer Gurgen Margaryan February 19. The two
were in Hungary to attend a NATO-sponsored English training program.
Safarov attack Margaryan, 26, in his sleep. A second Armenian officer,
Hayk Mkuchyan escaped Safarov’s attack when alert by his Lithuanian
roommate.
Attorney Nazeli Vardanyan has been appointed by the Ministry of
Defense to represent Makuchyan and the family of Margaryan.
The trial will be conducted in Hungarian language, interpreted for the
Armenian and Russian sides. It was to have begun in June, however
Safarov filed an appeal to have the trial moved to Azerbaijan and to
have Safarov released from custody. The motions were denied.
It was only a week ago that Vardanyan learned that the trial was about
to begin. She says she has not had proper time to prepare, especially
as all documents are in Hungarian, and must be translated.
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Guarding Against `Grip’: Armenia gets first vaccination for flu season
By Marianna Grigoryan
Garlic, vodka, raspberry and black currant tea…
Specialists say we should forget these Armenian methods and choose a
more civilized and trustful means of flu prevention.
This year, for the first time, flu vaccinations such as those offered
in many countries are being administered in Armenia. Medical groups
and organizations are sending out notices, letters and announcements,
encouraging the population to guard itself against `grip’.
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Football hopes: Armenia sweetens disappointing season
By Suren Musayelyan
Armenia put a smile on their fans’ faces on Wednesday by ending a
series of four straight defeats and showing their best football of
this otherwise unremarkable 0-4-1 season.
Karen Dokhoyan’s second-half equalizer snatched a point from group
leaders Romania and raised hopes for a better continuation of his
team’s current qualifying campaign after the winter break.
Armenia coach Bernard Casoni did not hide his satisfaction with the
1-1 draw and the livelier football shown by his rejuvenated side.
***************************************************************************
Calling Out Corruption: Youth union aims to reveal wrongdoing in education system
By Gayane Lazarian
University student councils, political party youth unions,
organizations for young people and numerous Students attended a
roundtable discussion Tuesday (November 16) to discuss corruption in
Armenia’s field of higher education.
`Our goal is to make the causes of this vicious phenomenon known, to
call the public’s attention to this problem,’ said Karen Antashyan, a
member of the `Nikol Aghbalian’ student union of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF), the hosts of the discussion. `We think
that these joint discussions will result in a proper solution to the
problem. Students must overcome the fear inside them, and the managers
of higher schools eventually must realize that corruption phenomena
are displayed because of their inconsistency. Youth organizations and
mass media also have something to do here.’
Part of the meeting’s purpose was to publicize results of a survey
conducted by the union in which 1,100 students from 11 state-run
institutes of higher learning were polled on issues relating to
corruption and education.
FEATURES
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`Til Death Do Us Part’: Golden couple renew vows and recall 50 years together
By Marianna Grigoryan
Her white wedding gown is greeted with kindness and smiles, and with
her white hair gathered up under her veil, the bride, 73-year-old
Margarit Dallakyan paves her way ahead.
Fifty years ago she was a bride for the first time. Last Saturday she
repeated the event. And, both times, Hovanes Chulyan was the lucky
groom. It was in fact the couples `golden’ anniversary, and to
celebrate they duplicated the day they were joined, November 6, 1954.
The `newly’ weds celebrated with music of the zurna and dohl, with
dancing and singing. The wedding party attended in cars decorated in
festive colors; quite a change from the `rainy, sober day’ Margo
recalls from 50 years ago.
`Then, I was taken away in a wagon,’ she recalls. `There was no
wedding gown, nor any proper conditions or gifts, but this latest one
was the most gorgeous.’
In 50 years, Margo and Hovanes have carved out a life, raised a family
and have become grandparents. But on their first wedding, they didn’t
even know each other. Hovanes had repatriated from Aleppo, and had
made up his mind to get married, and the best choice turned out to be
Margo from Ijevan.
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NOT Outside Eye: An Armenian in America has a foot fight in returning
to her heart
By Julia Hakobyan
Visiting the United States was a great challenge for me, but leaving
it turned out to be even more so.
After a month-long fellowship at Duke University in North Carolina, it
was time to go home. I was ready. But only large doses of tolerance
can prepare a person for international travel these days.
If you still doubt whether the US government takes enough measures to
protect the airspace and airports from the terrorist acts I can assure
you it does. Like all travelers, I was treated like a terror suspect.
Dogs sniffed handbags, unattended luggage was confiscated, cameras saw
me, even though I didn’t see the cameras.
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Seeing Green After 10 Years: UMCOR celebrates a decade in Armenia with
a gift of trees
ArmeniaNow news brief
Yerevan’s decreasing `green zone’ got a boost today (November 19) with
the completion of a project that planted 1,000 trees in Motherhood
Park of the Malatsia Sebastia Community.
The trees were a gift from the United Methodist Committee on Relief
(UMCOR) and a ceremonial planting was held to mark the 10th
anniversary of UMCOR’s activity in Armenia.
UMCOR, an agency of the United Methodist Church, has been around since
1940, when it was formed to help alleviate trauma among survivors of
World War II. It now has a presence in about 90 countries. Its
offices were set up in Armenia in 1994 where it initially provided
healthcare aid. Over the past decade it has evolved to address
developmental needs, including offering loans for farmers.
Friday’s tree planting was in cooperation with the Armenian Tree
Project, which has planted some 580,000 trees at sites from Goris to
Gyumri, in an effort to fight Armenia’s serious deforestation problem.
`UMCOR believes that improving the environment is something that will
have a lasting effect on the families that live in Armenia and we are
honored to support such an important initiative in commemoration of
our 10 years of service to Armenia,’ said Warren Harrity, head of
UMCOR’s Armenia Mission.
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Outdated: Authorities use Socialist-era law to violate democratic rights
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
In the political calm of autumn that has replaced the contentious and violent outbreak of unrest last spring, a look back at how authorities reacted to oppositional party demonstrations shows a pattern of
oppression that lawyers and human rights specialists say must be abolished if Armenia is ever to become a legitimate independent republic.
Arrests, detainments, harassments carried out from April till June were a repeat of actions taken against citizens in 2003 when Armenia’s presidential elections turned into an international embarrassment for
the manner in which law enforcement and judicial bodies disregarded human rights, applied the law according to political expediency and disregarded the republic’s commitment to align itself with international
standards of civil behavior.
During the winter of 2003 and the spring of this year, more than 600 citizens were arrested and fined by courts for taking part in political rallies or for independently making public statements against ruling
parties. Most charges, an investigation of the cases has found, proved to be validated by application of a legal code adopted when Armenia was a Soviet Republic.
The infamous `Administrative Offense’ code was widely enforced to quell and discourage anti-government outcry. By it, a person can be jailed for 15 days, virtually without cause and according to the whim
of law enforcement.
ARTS
Artistic Felons?: Armenian couple charged with crimes in Russia for exhibit on religion
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
If painters Narine Zolyan and Harutyun Zulumyan were in Moscow now,
the wife and husband would likely be sitting in a court dock as
defenders.
The artists are facing criminal charges for an exhibition they put on
last year in Russia.
The exhibition, entitled `Beware, Religion!’ featured the work of 40
painters from several countries, whose installations commented on
religion.
The show was supposed to run for 20 days at the Andrey Sakharov
Center, but on the third day, a mob of religious zealots attacked the
exhibition, spraying paint onto some of the pieces and spraying onto
the walls: `You are cursed! You hate orthodoxy!’ Police had to come to
the center to disburse the angry mob.
Among the works attacked was Zolyan’s video in which she constantly
writes in black over a saying of a Zen Buddhist monk’s words: `I am
the only one in the sky and under the sky who deserves honor.’ Then
she washes the words away and with the clean fabric forms
handrails. Over the remnants of Zolyan’s exhibit, vandals wrote
`sacrilege’. (Click here to see images
)
A court in Moscow acquitted the vandals of charges and then initiated
a case against organizers of the exhibition, charging them with
creating ethnic and religious discord.
A trial began on November with three of the organizers in court, while
Zolyan and Zulumyan are in Yerevan, hoping to avoid prosecution.
Armenia Underfoot: New guidebook shows where to get high in Hyestan
ArmeniaNow newsbrief
Visitors to Armenia now have a guide for discovering the republic from
the side of a mountain, up the face of a rock wall or from naturally
adorned paths in 26 locations that accommodate expert climbers or
those who simply want a pleasant hike.
`Adventure Armenia’ is a 116-page guide sized to fit in a backpack,
that offers meticulous research, trail maps, color photographs of each
destination, tips and safety precautions for discovering Armenia in a
way that is far from the cafe and museum scene.
Co-written by ecological preservation advocate Jeffrey Tufenkian (a
native of Oregon) and Carine Bachmann, who grew up in the shadow of
the Swiss Alps, the guide is the result of three years of hiking and
climbing by the authors.
At a reception Wednesday at Artbridge Cafe in Yerevan, Tufenkian said
one purpose of the book is to re-introduce Armenia as a premier hiking
and climbing destination, a distinction it held during Soviet times.
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Consequently, journalists bound to the very practical need of survival, are encouraged to produce reports that satisfy the agenda of party politics.
The result is an atmosphere of distrust by readers, perpetuated by journalists and editors who, having inherited a legacy of State propaganda or opposition fanaticism, have never had a chance to practice
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