Georgian president to visit Armenia
Kavkasia-Press news agency
20 Aug 05
Tbilisi, 20 August: Mikheil Saakashvili will pay an unofficial
visit to Armenia on 21 August on an invitation from his counterpart
Robert Kocharyan, Kavkasia-Press has learnt at the presidential
administration. [Passage omitted]
Saakashvili will return to Tbilisi on 22 August.
Armenian opposition splits over constitutional reform – agency
Regnum, Moscow
18 Aug 05
[No dateline as received] The opposition Justice bloc does not see
any reason to take a positive position on the forthcoming referendum
on constitutional changes in Armenia. However, members of the bloc
decided at a meeting on 18 August to attend an extraordinary sitting
of parliament on 29 August. The sitting is due to discuss the package
of constitutional changes.
Among the members of the bloc, only the Republic Party did not back
this decision. Three MPs representing the party do not intend to stop
boycotting sittings of parliament, which they announced immediately
after the 2003 election. The party leader, Aram Sarkisyan, told
reporters that the party will keep to its position announced earlier
and is still saying “no” to the constitutional reform.
He said the position of other members of the bloc is close to that
of his party. “The Justice bloc today does not see any reason to say
‘yes’ in the referendum on the constitution,” he said.
The secretary of the Justice bloc, Viktor Dallakyan, has confirmed
that the opposition has no reason to back the referendum as almost
all their proposals have been rejected.
The opposition Justice bloc is comprised of nine parties and has 14
seats in parliament.
CELL PHONE NETWORK FAILURE HIGHLIGHTS ARMENIA’S TELECOM WOES
By Emil Danielyan
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
The Jamestown Foundation
Aug 17 2005
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
A small group of protestors outside the ArmenTel headquarters The
long-awaited liberalization of Armenia’s underdeveloped mobile phone
sector could not have had a more unexpected and illogical outcome:
the near-collapse of the country’s main wireless network. ArmenTel,
the unpopular national telecommunications monopoly that operates the
system, has still not clearly explained the causes of the serious
breakdown despite facing heavy government fines. The situation is
indicative of the murky nature of the telecom business in Armenia
due to a lack of government transparency and corruption.
ArmenTel has developed a controversial reputation ever since it
was purchased by the Greek telecom giant OTE in 1998. In return
for $142 million, OTE also gained 15-year exclusive rights on all
forms of telecommunication in Armenia. The Soviet-era fixed-line
phone network was in shambles at the time, and the Greeks have
since made considerable investments to modernize it. However,
they have grossly (and inexplicably) failed to develop wireless
communication. ArmenTel has capitalized on its legal monopoly only by
setting disproportionately high fees, rather than expanding network
capacity and rapidly increasing the number of its subscribers.
Consequently, public demand in mobile phones has by far exceeded
supply, leading ArmenTel to resort to Soviet-style rationing of
prepaid phone cards. Such was the shortage of those cards that they
were at one point worth a staggering $200 each on the black market.
Armenians wishing to buy them at their “legal” price of about $25
had to register with ArmenTel and wait for months, if not years. No
wonder that Armenia had less than 300,000 mobile phone users as of the
beginning of 2005, lagging behind neighboring Azerbaijan and Georgia,
which each boast more than a million users.
That is one of the reasons why relations between ArmenTel and the
Armenian government have been tense over the past seven years. The
government has also accused the Greeks of inflating the volume of
their investments in the Armenian telecom sector and abusing their
monopoly on the country’s Internet connection with the outside world.
Local Internet service providers have long complained about the high
cost and poor quality of connections offered by ArmenTel. The latter
has always denied any wrongdoing.
The two sides were on the verge of litigation at the London-based
International Court of Economic Arbitration before announcing a
compromise settlement last November. Under that deal, ArmenTel
abandoned its grip on the mobile telephone market but retained
its other exclusive rights. The government in Yerevan was quick to
choose a little-known Lebanese-owned firm as Armenia’s second cell
phone operator.
The provider, VivaCell, launched its network on July 1, quickly
attracting tens of thousands of subscribers. The move coincided with
a drastic deterioration of wireless connections provided by ArmenTel.
Making or receiving phone calls through its network has since been
extremely difficult and at times impossible. ArmenTel’s Greek managers
have repeatedly apologized to the furious public for the flop, but they
have not yet clearly explained its reasons, pledging only to fully
fix the network by the end of August. The company’s chief executive,
Vasilios Fetsis, admitted on August 11 that failure to do so could
lead to a mass flight of ArmenTel customers to VivaCell. The latter
hopes to have 300,000 subscribers by November.
This, however, did not keep the State Commission on the Protection
of Economic Competition from fining ArmenTel $400,000 on August 12
on the grounds that the company abused its “dominant position” in
the sector. “This is not a phone, I can only use it as a hammer,”
the chairman of the regulatory body, Ashot Shahnazarian, said,
angrily brandishing his handset.
ArmenTel strongly disagreed with the penalty and is now considering
challenging it in court. Yet it is not only criticism that the OTE
subsidiary has heard from Armenian officials. Meeting with Armenian
students in Moscow on June 23, President Robert Kocharian praised
ArmenTel for its investments in the fixed-line phone network that he
said is now the most advanced in the South Caucasus. Kocharian also
downplayed the problems with mobile telephone technology, saying
that competition will sort them out in a matter of months. Indeed,
that competition has already forced ArmenTel to cut its cell phone
tariffs by half.
But nagging questions about the motives for Yerevan’s telecom-related
decisions will remain. ArmenTel was set up in the early 1990s as
a small joint venture of the Armenian government and a U.S.-owned
offshore firm. It handled only external phone calls until August 1997,
when it was mysteriously granted ownership of Armenia’s entire phone
network free of charge. Armenian officials never clarified why they
showed such generosity toward the obscure U.S. investor that received
almost half of the $142 million paid by OTE in an international
tender for ArmenTel a few months later. According to a lawyer privy
to the tender’s details, the Greeks did not submit the highest bid
for ArmenTel at the time but somehow got hold of the company anyway.
The Armenian authorities did not hold any tenders at all for the second
mobile license that was granted to VivaCell for just $7 million. A
competitive tender for that license could have clearly fetched
tens of millions of dollars, a huge sum by Armenian standards. The
cash-strapped government has similarly failed to officially explain
why it has foregone the potential extra revenue to the state budget.
(Aravot, August 16; RFE/RL Armenia Report, August 11-12, June 23;
Armenian Public Television, June 23)
IMAM OF KARS DOES NOT ALLOW ARMENIAN TOURISTS TO LIGHT CANDLES IN CHURCH TURNED INTO MOSQUE
KARS, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. A number of Turkish
newspapers (“Hurriet”, “Milliet” and some others) reported on August
15 that the imam of the city of Kars did not allow a group of tourists
from Armenia to light candles and hold a religious ceremony at the
Church of Twelve Apostles turned into a mosque. The Armenian Apostolic
Church was turned into a mosque in 1998 and called Qumpet Chamii. Imam
Mehmed Altun prohibited the Armenian tourists from lighting candles or
singing in the former church. According to the imam, such ceremonies
are not allowed in a mosque, the newapaper “Marmara” wrote. Later the
tourists intended to light candles in the garden of the former church,
but this time some locals intervened, preventing them from doing
so. The Armenian tourists had to interrupt their ceremony and leave.
Flowers versus power in violent Azerbaijan demonstration
Agence France Presse — English
August 9, 2005 Tuesday 3:47 PM GMT
BAKU Aug 9
Flowers became weapons in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku Tuesday when a
bid by opposition activists to charm pro-government supporters with
fresh bouquets degenerated into a pitched fight.
The confrontation between about 100 pro- and anti-government
demonstrators started as an attempt to make peace, following clashes
on Monday in which the two sides showered each other with bottles
and stones.
Elderly female supporters of the National Front opposition party
brought carnations to a group of pro-government female demonstrators
in conservative Islamic dress. But the gesture was refused and soon
both sides were using the flowers against each other, before resorting
to egg throwing.
The incident was one of the more bizarre signs of growing tension
ahead of a November parliamentary poll in the oil-rich, mainly Muslim
republic.
The latest confrontations followed the arrest last week of Ruslan
Bashirli, leader of the Yeni Fikir (New Thought) youth opposition
group, for his alleged contacts with secret agents from Azerbaijan’s
enemy neighbour Armenia.
Anti-government parties have dismissed those allegations as part of
a state-sponsored smear campaign.
The last national vote, the 2003 presidential elections in which
Ilham Aliyev took over from his father Heydar Aliyev, ended in two
days of rioting and hundreds of arrests.
Azerbaijan lost a war against Armenia in the early 1990s in which
about 25,000 people on the two sides died. No peace deal has been
signed and an armed standoff continues.
VARTAN OSKANIAN: ARMENIA IS COMMITTED TO MAKING PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTION
TO GLOBAL PROCESSES
YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia is committed to making
practical contribution to the global processes – democracy, human
rights defence and the establishment of a lawful state. Armenian
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated this at the August 12 meeting
with the newly appointed UN Resident Representative to Armenia
Consuelo Vidal Bruce. He noted that Armenia takes an active part in
the activities carried out within the framework of the UN and
cooperates with many bodies and links of this organization. According
to the RA MFA Press and Information Department, Consuelo Vidal Bruce
in his turn appreciated the efficiency of the UN-sponsored programs
implemented in Armenia. Consuelo Vidal Bruce was born in 1959, he is a
citizen of Peru, a graduate of the University of Sussex (England).
Fluent in Spanish and English. He has been working in the UN system
since 1992. In 1992-1994, he was UNDP program executive in Namibia. In
1994-1996, he worked as Assistant to UNDP Resident Representative to
Bolivia. In 1996-2002, C. Vidal Bruce held the position of UNDP Deputy
Resident Representative in Costa Rica, later in Salvador and
Belize. In 2002-2005, he was UNDP Deputy Resident Representative to
Macedonia.
Armenpress
ARMENIAN FM RECEIVES STATE SECRETARY OF SWEDISH PM’S STAFF
YEREVAN, AUGUST 12, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister Vartan
Oskanian received today delegation headed by the state Secretary of Swedish
prime minister’s staff Lars Danielsson Gunnar who is in Armenia within the
frameworks of regional visit.
Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry press service said during the meeting
the sides underscored the necessity of development of bilateral relations
and organization of mutual visits in this respect. Armenian foreign affairs
minister pointed out the support of the Swedish side in promoting the
involvement of Armenia in the EU New Neighborhood policy. The sides also
underscored the successful pace of implementation of technical programs
which have launched in Armenia since 1995 funded by Swedish International
Development Agency.(SIDA).
Speaking about the peaceful regulation of the Karabagh conflict, Gunnar
noted that his country is interested in regulation of all the conflicts in
the region as soon as possible. He also pointed out that Sweden is ready to
support the sides both politically and economically for reaching agreement
on the conflict regulation. With the request of the guest, Oskanian
presented the current cooperation programs implemented with EU and NATO, as
well as issues on the Armenian-Turkish relations.
HANDS ARE NOT FOR BEATING
By Onnik Krikorian /UNICEF Armenia
YEREVAN, Armenia – Mane Tonoyan might seem a little too young to concern
herself with the problem of violence against children in Armenia but
this 16-year old is somehow “different.” A member of the Manana
Youth-Cultural non-governmental organization, she has already made a
one-minute-film on the subject and at the beginning of July, was one of
25 child participants at the regional consultation for the UN Study on
Violence Against Children in Europe and Central Asia.
The consultation held from 5-7 July 2005 was hosted in Ljubljana, the
Slovenian capital, and organized by UNICEF as well as other UN agencies.
It was one of nine such consultations that will eventually contribute to
a major study of the problem by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan next
year. Accompanying Mane was Naira Avetisyan, UNICEF’s Child Protection
Officer in Armenia, and three representatives of various government
agencies.
“We were asked to find someone familiar with child rights and
experienced with making films and writing articles,” says Avetisyan.
“That is why we chose Mane. Taking into account that Manana is
experienced in producing materials to distribute among peers we thought
it best to select a child from this organization. We will also be
holding a round table in Armenia at the end of July.”
Certainly, Mane seems to have benefited greatly from the consultation.
“Before going to Ljubljana, I was concerned about violence against
children although I wasn’t as well informed as I am now,” she says. “In
particular, I learned more about the consequences that violence can have
on children. For example, even a slap on the face can emotionally damage
a child. Before the consultation, I don’t think that I would have ever
considered it as violence.”
According to Mane, almost all children in Armenia are subjected to
violence in some shape or form. In particular, she says, it is
particular evident in schools and institutions – something that others
attending the consultation also concluded. Unfortunately, she says, when
violence becomes “acceptable” in the classroom it can then also manifest
itself in the form of bullying.
“In Armenia, there is very little awareness of this problem,” explains
Mane. `But violence exists – in the family, in schools and particularly
in institutions. Beating is considered an acceptable way of disciplining
children. However, it’s terrible if a teacher hits a child in front of
others. It’s humiliating and can have a serious impact on their self-esteem.
I want to raise awareness of this problem among other children but also
parents and teachers. First of all, however, it is necessary to raise
awareness among the public at large.”
“Of course,” concludes Mane, “parents have the right to discipline their
children when it is necessary and it is important that nobody attempts
to challenge their authority. However, I would like to remind parents
that they were children once and their actions now might have an impact
on how future generations are also raised. Violence is not the way to
bring up children.”
For more information:
Emil Sahakyan, Communication Officer, Armenia
Tel: (374 10) 523-546, 566-497
E-Mail: [email protected]
—
PRESS RELEASE
The National Citizens’ Initiative
75 Yerznkian Street
Yerevan 375033, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 27.16.00, 27.00.03
Fax: (+374 – 10) 52.48.46
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
August 10, 2005
National Citizens’ Initiative Examines Likelihood of Revolution in Armenia
Yerevan–The National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) today convened a roundtable
on “The Probability of Revolution in Armenia: Preconditions and
Consequences.” The meeting brought together public figures, policy makers,
media representatives, analysts and experts.
NCI coordinator Hovsep Khurshudian welcomed the audience with opening
remarks and wished the participants fruitful work. “The final hopes that
Armenia’s rulers would find strength and decency in themselves to change the
destructive course which is taking the country toward the Middle Ages, and
that they would initiate the first steps to the public demand for
fundamental transformation seem to be thwarted. Consequently, headed by the
progressive political powers, the society itself must engage in fundamental
value metamorphosis, and in the outcome, Armenia would find its rightful
place in the family of free, dignified and prosperous societies,”
Khurshudian said.
During her policy intervention, National Press Club chairperson Narine
Mkrtchian put an emphasis on the implementation of socio-political changes,
and the historical necessity for the establishment of a new political
system. She talked in detail about the existing preconditions in the
country, which, in her view, would cause a revolution. And these are: the
absence of authoritative legitimacy; the political elite’s ineptitude to
form a progressive social order; corruption; clan-based rule; dilapidation
of ethics at all levels; and other abuses upon which economic,
intra-governmental and parliamentary crises have also accumulated; resulting
in one general systemic emergency. “In countries like Armenia, the resolving
of systemic crises is possible only by means of revolution,” Mkrtchian
mentioned.
ACNIS analyst Hovhannes Vardanian made a breakdown of the domestic and
external preconditions for a rebellion. According to his observations, the
revolts that have taken place in the post-Soviet region are primarily a
consequence of the public’s extreme social polarization, poverty, widespread
corruption, an atmosphere of arbitrariness and rights for the privileged,
and other adverse phenomena. In the words of Vardanian, revolutionary
developments in Armenia are being nourished by the factor that the incumbent
administration is not capable, in any way, of carrying out true systemic
reforms. “The current situation, which can be characterized by the
inactiveness and ineffectiveness of state authorities, unbridled
arbitrariness by high-level bureaucracy, advanced level of bribery and
corruption, and the explicit violation of law and order, is leading the
country toward anarchy and chaos, and the rule of the jungle, when the big
and strong eats up the small and weak, and this makes the chance of a
revolution in Armenia simply inevitable,” Vardanian said. Among external
stimuli, he set forth the “snowball effect.” In his opinion, from this
vantage point, the parliamentary elections to be held in Azerbaijan this
fall might turn into a serious test for Armenia.
Susanna Barseghian, another ACNIS analyst, deemed the printed media’s role
important in the formation of public opinion, and by means of a
content-analysis made a distinction among the ideas the media could form
when portraying the likelihood or unlikelihood of a revolution in Armenia.
“When reflecting on the probability of a revolt in Armenia, on the one hand,
the oppositional and pro-governmental press keeps talking about choosing the
‘right time’ for a democratic revolution, and on the other hand, it
refreshed the topic of inevitability of a ‘state coup,'” Barseghian
maintained, pointing out the important findings of her analysis. According
to it, in May alone, 13 Armenian periodicals have printed 153 articles, or
one report per one and a half issue, on the likelihood of a revolution, and
that constitutes 2.8% of total publication space printed in the researched
newspapers.
The remainder of the session was devoted to exchanges of views and policy
recommendations among the public figures and policy specialists in
attendance. Noteworthy were interventions by former minister of state and
board member of the Heritage Party Hrach Hakobian; Edward Antinian of the
Liberal Progressive Party; Noyan Tapan news agency political analyst Davit
Petrosian; Moushegh Lalayan of the Republican Party; ACNIS analyst Alvard
Barkhudarian; Artak Zeinalian of the Republic Party, Ruzan Khachatrian of
the People’s Party; “Areg” Youth Association chairman Gerasim Barseghian;
Alexander Butaev of the National Democratic Union; and many others.
The National Citizens’ Initiative is a public non-profit association founded
in December 2001 by Raffi K. Hovannisian, his colleagues, and fellow
citizens with the purpose of realizing the rule of law and overall
improvements in the state of the state, society, and public institutions.
The National Citizens’ Initiative is guided by a Coordinating Council, which
includes individual citizens and representatives of various public,
scientific, and educational establishments. Five commissions on Law and
State Administration, Socioeconomic Issues, Foreign Policy, Spiritual and
Cultural Challenges, and the Youth constitute the vehicles for the
Initiative’s work and outreach.
For further information, please call (37410) 27-16-00 or 27-00-03; fax
(37410) 52-48-46; e-mail [email protected]; or visit
Alienation of the Islamic Diaspora in Europe
By Fawaz Turki
Arab News, 8/10/05
The Daily Telegraph of London, a respected conservative paper,
published a survey on July 23 of British Muslim opinion and found that
though the vast majority of the respondents condemned the bombings in
the capital, a substantial minority are so alienated from their
objective world that they are prepared to justify terrorist acts.
According to the poll, 88 percent of Muslims, evidently moderate,
law-abiding citizens or residents of the United Kingdom, abhorred the
attacks and evinced no support for the perpetrators. However, 6
percent claimed that the bombings were justified. That’s clearly 6
percent too many, representing roughly 100,000 people who mean their
native or adopted country harm, individuals who, though not prepared
to carry out terrorist acts themselves, are ready to support those who
do.
The survey revealed other figures that are both reassuring and
disturbing. Before we consider what all this says about the Muslim
community in Britain, and perhaps by extension in the rest of Europe,
let’s step back a little and take stock.
Public pollsters, like statisticians, can be manipulative with their
figures. In other words, before we trust the results of a survey such
as this, where 526 Muslim adults across Britain were interviewed
online July 15 and again on July 22, we have to ask some relevant
questions here. Who conducted the poll? Who should have been
interviewed but was not? What was the sampling error for the results?
Did the pollsters avoid the pitfall of wording questions in such a way
as to suggest an answer by the respondents? Was a cross-section of the
entire community interviewed (randomly rather than selectively)? Were
other polls done on the subject, and if so, were the figures
different? And if they were different, then why?
All we get from the Telegraph is that its survey was conducted by a
group called YouGov. We have to accept the findings on faith, though
few of the direct questions or respondents’ answers were in quotes,
which is obviously troubling.
Yet, since we refuse to believe that a highly respected publication
would cook the books, because it has an ideological ax to grind or
deliberately promote a skewed view of the Muslim community, then we’ll
let its findings stand as credible ones indeed.
According to these findings, a large majority of Muslims believe that
the time has come when they must shoulder their share of the
responsibility for preventing and punishing those who commit terrorist
acts such as those in London, and as many as 70 percent said they took
it as their duty to go to the police if they saw something in the
community that made them feel suspicious.
A majority, 60 percent, believed that Western society may not be
perfect but Muslims should live with it and not seek to harm
it. Nevertheless, a third of British Muslims, 32 percent, are
dismissive, claiming that `Western society is decadent and immoral and
that Muslims should seek to bring it to an end,’ one of the few
answers in the survey, incidentally, presented in quotes.
Among those who hold this view, almost all go on to say that Muslims
should only seek to bring about social change by non-violent means,
but one percent, about 16,000 individuals, declared themselves ready,
willing and able, even eager, to embrace violence.
So does that mean that the Muslim Diaspora in Britain, and along with
it the rest of Europe, have a problem with integration?
Clearly, this Diaspora, numbering roughly 20 million, has effected a
demographic shift on the Continent, altering its social landscape. All
of which is not surprising.
Cultural flow and population transfers have always been an integral
part of human history, and copious research has been done, by
historians, sociologists and anthropologists, of diasporic societies,
of forced or voluntary migration of Greeks, Armenians, Africans,
Palestinians and Puerto Ricans.
We also read of the Chinese Diaspora (60 million in Southeast Asian
countries), the French Diaspora in Canada, and the Irish Diaspora in
the US, Australia and the UK. And most recently the Muslim Diaspora in
Europe, whose members hail from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Somalia and a wide range of other Asian, North African and
Middle Eastern countries.
For Muslims in Europe, if we can generalize about them, it has been a
constant battle with alienation ‘ how to see the world around you in
terms that redefine your relationship with the Other, how to live in
and be not just from but of those societies that continue to refuse to
accept you, that thrust upon you a range of hybrid images.
The young in particular are socialized from an early age on the need
to deal with integration conflict and racist bias ‘ a heavy lot of
cargo for a youngster to have to carry on his back growing up.
You don’t have to have written a dissertation on the psychology of
alienation to discern these youngsters’ human response: If you’re a
young Turk, Pakistani, Yemeni or any other kind of Muslim born in a
European country that thrusts a sense of otherness on you, your
identification with Islam, as a pan-ethnic identity, becomes more
strongly felt than with your ancestral national heritage.
Then the defense mechanisms kick in. You feel pride in this otherness
than had been thrust upon you by the Other, and turn upside down those
racist labels, that define you, into labels of pride.
Consider how in Germany, the term `barbaren,’ used by some (note, I
say some) Germans to dismiss foreigners, is co-opted and embraced by
ethnic Turkish gangs to describe themselves, where the term here
connotes power, inclusiveness and acceptance. To call yourself
`barbaren’ is a means to challenge a culture that rejects you, denying
you its solidarity and connection to a reference group.
Diaspora, a word from classical Greek that means a `scattering or
sowing of seeds,’ is a sad term ‘ sad because it implies an uprooting
of a community, a struggle by its members to reassemble their inward
preoccupations in order to fit in their new locale.
The Muslim Diaspora in Europe, representing 56 nationalities speaking
over 100 languages, feels, it has to be admitted, an emotional
distance from the societies they inhabit, loss of a robust sense of
identity, and a crippling numbness at their core.
So the answer to the question, whether the Muslim Diaspora in Britain,
and along with it the rest of Europe, have a problem with integration,
is yes, it does. It definitely does.
But that is a problem for Britain and the rest of Western Europe to
deal with, not Islam.
The integration of millions of well-adjusted Muslims in places like
the US, Canada and Australia, countries with a tradition of welcoming
and assimilating immigrants, must surely tell you something here. In
America, we don’t use terms like barbaren, wog, bicot or the N-word ‘
not unless we want to go to jail.
An opinion poll, such as that in the Daily Telegraph two weeks ago,
may reveal the sentiments, `disturbing’ and `alarming,’ as the paper
called them, that a segment of the community harbors. What triggered
them in the first place is the real revelation.