Myrthe over at Cilicia.com’s Expat log remarks on the state-controlled media’s congratulations to the Armenian President Robert Kocharian on the occasion of his 51st birthday. She apologizes for comparing the praise heaped upon Kocharian with that on Chairman Mao.

The government paper says Kocharian, who is turning 51, has repeatedly proved that he is guided by “realism” as opposed to “romanticism.” “Skipper Kocharian is steering the ship at a time when the weather is defiant, passengers are impatiently waiting to reach the coast and the ship, which has gone through many ordeals, is in constant need of repairs along the way,” it explains.

Katy over at Blogrel also wishes the Armenian President well on his birthday but more interestingly, quotes a story from RFE/RL’s Press Review. Apparently, the deeply unpopular Mayor of Gyumri got drunk and started shooting at Russian soldiers based in the city while they ate at his brother’s restaurant. Officials in Gyumri, however, deny that the incident took place.

In a widely anticipated move, and although risking incurring the wrath of the U.S. and Europe, RFE/RL also reports that the opposition in Armenia have used televised debates in the Armenian National Assembly on proposed ammendments to the constitution to urge voters to reject them in a referendum to be held during November.

The move dealt a serious blow to Kocharian’s and his governing coalition’s hopes for rallying sufficient popular support for the proposed changes at a referendum due in November. It came on the third day of heated debates on the issue in the Armenian parliament.

The leaders of the opposition Artarutyun (Justice) alliance and the National Unity Party (AMK) reiterated their allegations that the authorities have repeatedly violated the existing Armenian constitution that already guarantees free elections, human rights and the rule of law.

In essence, the opposition are hoping to turn the referendum into a vote of no confidence in the Armenian President Robert Kocharian who they believe falsified presidential elections in 2003 and is responsible for the high level of corruption in the country. Kocharian’s main challenger in those elections, Stepan Demirchyan, urged voters to say “no” to the ammendments and to the “illegitimate regime.” Another opposition leader, Artashes Geghamian, went even further.

“Dear people, if you say ‘no’ to the [amended] constitution — and that’s what National Unity is urging you to do — you will say ‘no’ to the organizers of the October 27 [1999 attack on the Armenian parliament], the falsified elections of 1998-2003, and the barbaric acts of April 2004,” AMK leader Artashes Geghamian declared for his part. “You will also say that real power belongs to the people.”

(more…)

RFE/RL carries a report from AFP saying that prominent Turkish author Orhan Pamuk faces prosecution in Turkey after making “controversial remarks” about the Armenian Genocide. Pamuk faces three years imprisonment if convicted.

Pamuk, the widely translated author of such internationally renowned works as “The White Castle”, and “Snow”, triggered a public outcry when he said in an interview with a Swiss newspaper in February that “one million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”

Interestingly, the award winning author was one of 257 academics and writers that signed a letter in support of Yektan Turkyilmaz, another Turkish scholar who this time faced between four to eight years in prison in Armenia apparently for attempting to “smuggle” books over fifty years old out of the country.

Hopefully the precedent of the international academic community rallying to the support of Turkyilmaz who many believe was arrested by the former KGB in Armenia because of his work on the Genocide can now be expanded to included Pamuk.

The main news carried by Civil.ge is the sentencing of Shalva Ramishvili, co-founder of the Tbilisi-based private TV Channel 202, to three months pre-trial detention. He is charged with attempting to blackmail Koba Bekauri, a parliamentarian from the ruling National Movement party.

According to his lawyer, Ramishvili is now on hunger strike and says that he is innocent of the charges against him. Interestingly, staff at 202 TV refused to allow Georgian police to enter their offices because they lacked a search warrant.

(more…)

According to Today.az, GDP per capita in Azerbaijan now exceeds $1,250. As a result, Azerbaijan has now left the category of a country considered to be poor. I think they must be talking about GNI per capita or GDP per capita not corrected for purchasing power parity but even so, one guesses that the distribution of wealth is another matter.

At the same time, democratization is another issue. The Azerbaijani online publication says that while the Council of Europe recognizes that reform is continuing in Azerbaijan, it is still insufficient. For his part, the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev says once again that there will be no colored revolution in the country.

(more…)

Despite the importance afforded to the imminent referendum on constitutional ammendments by the Council of Europe and the United States, A1 Plus reports that voting on the first reading has been postponed until tomorrow. There weren’t enough parliamentary deputies present. Certainly, from seeing some of the televized proceedings today, it didn’t look as though many of the pro-government MPs could be bothered to turn up. A good example to set to the population on something so important.

RFE/RL has what is probably the funniest story of the day. According to Colonel Hayk Sargsian, the Armenian Traffic Police are not corrupt! I’d go as far to say that every Armenian citizen would dispute his statement and shake their heads in disbelief. The traffic police are particularly notorious for shaking down drivers even if their counterparts in Georgia have now cleared up their act. As if that wasn’t enough to have us all scratching our heads, Sargsian also disagreed that driving in the Armenian capital is chaotic. Unbelievable!

RFE/RL reports that the Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has expressed his relief that the Turkish scholar Yektan Turkyilmaz was not imprisoned after being arrested by the former KGB for apparently attempting to smuggle books out of the country.

Oskanian said he believes that Yektan Turkyilmaz, a doctoral student at the U.S. Duke University, should not have been put on trial for trying to take old books out of Armenia without a government permission required by the law.

Interestingly, Oskanian denied that the Armenian Foreign Ministry did not intervene and influence the verdict passed down that effectively say Turkyilmaz freed. However, I’ve heard differently from reliable sources and no doubt, there were some very high level phone calls to the judge the morning the two year suspended sentence was passed down.

(more…)

As part of research for an article on rock music in Armenia, I’ve been trying to find out more about the rock scene in Azerbaijan and Georgia. In the latter, it’s meant to be very evolved but we know little about the rock music scene in Azerbaijan. Actually, in Armenia and the Diaspora we know very little about Azerbaijan fullstop but that’s another matter. Nevertheless, some searching on the Internet found out some details. For example, and as in Armenia, the Open Society Institute (OSI) have sponsored programs to support the development of the genre.

(more…)

Artashes Geghamian, Opposition Rally, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia

RFE/RL also reports that the Armenian National Assembly has convened final debates over proposed changes to the constitution that will be put to the population in a referendum during November.

Members of the National Assembly’s opposition minority were present at the extraordinary session despite the rejection of their demands for more serious constitutional amendments. Leaders of the parliament’s pro-presidential majority effectively ruled out any changes in Kocharian’s revised constitutional package that were endorsed by the Council of Europe last month. Its approval by the majority of lawmakers and rejection by the country’s two main opposition groups now appear to be a forgone conclusion.

(more…)

Church Service, Stepanakert Theatre, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1994

RFE/RL reports that the continuing negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh remain as secretive as ever and that contradictory statements are instead coming from both sides.

Kocharian, according to his spokesman Victor Soghomonian, came away satisfied from the meeting held on the sidelines of a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States. “The Armenian side assesses the meeting in Kazan positively and considers it a positive development in the negotiating process,” the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Soghomonian as saying.

[…]

Diplomatic sources in Yerevan told RFE/RL last month that the parties have already agreed on the key points of a peace deal that could be formalized as early as this year or at the beginning of next. They said it is based on the idea of a referendum in which the Karabakh Armenians will decide whether they want to be independent, become a part of Armenia or return under Azerbaijani rule. Speaking to RFE/RL in Moscow last week, Mammadyarov admitted that such a peace formula is being discussed by the parties.

(more…)