© UNICEF Armenia / Onnik Krikorian

Environmental Protest Action, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online

On Saturday 29 October, a small group of people gathered for a demonstration and march staged to protest the destruction of Yerevan’s green zones, and in particular the devastation of the capital’s parks in clear violation of the law. The action follows last week’s protests against the expansion of a cafe adjacent to the Chamber Music Hall.

Environmental Protest Action, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online

The action was organized by Jeffrey Tufenkian and the Armenian Forests NGO [see correction], but also in attendance were Susan Klein from the Armenian Tree Project, Vahan Artsruni, Lilit Pipoyan, Eduard Zorikyan, and Artur Ispirian.

Environmental Protest Action, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online

It was also encouraging to see a number of Diasporans such as Alex Sardar and Madlene Minasian present, as well as local youth. Unfortunately, however, apart from a few journalists from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Max Liberty, Hetq Online, and other paper or online based media, the main TV news did not cover the event.

Transparency International and other NGOs also attended the action. For more environmental stories from Armenia access: http://www.hetq.am/eng/ecology/. A1 Plus also reports on the forum SOS Yerevan held yesterday.

Lilit Pipoyan, Environmental Protest Action, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online

Eduard Zorikyan, Environmental Protest Action, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online

Vahan Artsruni, Environmental Protest Action, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online

Last week, while visiting Georgia, this joke was doing the rounds:

U.S. President George W. Bush, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and Mikhail Saakashvili were called to heaven for a meeting with God. “The world will end next week and you must prepare your nations for judgement day,” God told the assembled Presidents.

Bush returned to the United States and addressed the nation. “There’s good news and there’s bad news,” he said. “The bad news is that the world will end next week. The good news is that there is a God.”

Putin returned to Moscow and spoke to his people. “There’s bad news and there’s even worse news,” he said. “First, next week the world will end. Even worse, as there are still many atheists among us, there is a God.”

The Georgian President went back to Tbilisi and gave a press conference.

“There’s good news and there’s even better news. Today, you will be pleased to hear that I, Mikhail Saakashvili, head of state of the Republic of Georgia, attended a private meeting with God and the Presidents of the U.S. and Russia.

“The other good news is that next week, all your troubles will finally be over…”

Eurasianet reports that the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has agreed to introduce the inking of voter’s fingers in advance of next week’s parliamentary elections.

“We should consider the possibility of marking fingers with invisible ink at the time of receiving voting lists on . . .election day,” so that there will be no doubts about whether “transparent elections” have been held, Aliyev added. He called the measure “exceptional and temporary.”

During an October 26 telephone conversation with US Vice President Dick Cheney, Aliyev insisted that “every condition has been created for the transparent and fair conduct of the election in the country,” according to the Azerbaijani presidential press service.

Others, including local NGOs and diplomatic missions, are not so convinced:

The director of the non-governmental organization Society for Civilian Solidarity, Eldar Ismailov, voiced concern that the CEC will not be able to provide all the election stations with ink and special ultra-violet lamps by election day. “They have not bought them yet. How will they deliver this to election commissions located in the mountains one week ahead of voting?” Ismailov asked. “Definitely, there will be technical problems. Members of election commissions are not aware how to use this stuff and who will observe whether they use it correctly,” he said.

Norwegian Ambassador Steinar Gill is also concerned about the lack of time for implementing the decree’s provisions. “Use of indelible ink demands relevant technical equipments, special torches and other devices. All of them should be ordered, obtained and distributed, but little time is left,” Gill told Trend news agency.

The full item can be read online here.

Connie Müller-Gödecke left a comment on a previous post made today and I think she’s done such a good job in highlighting the greed and corruption devastating Yerevan that it’s worth a post in itself. Apart from a handful of others living abroad, if only the large Armenian Diaspora sent a clear message to the government that it’s time to stop the pillaging of Armenia and the capital NOW.

Constantly, the destruction of the traditional city houses and their replacement by soviet prefabricated buildings is claimed, but if you walk through the city today, 15 years after the collapse of the SU, you might find that the demolitions of the last years count in bigger numbers.

I tend to say that the country, the city, fell amidst wolfes. Private enrichment, illegal aquisition of public property, destruction of central parts of the city to give space for faceless and nameless corporate companies to give them the possibility to erect speculation objects like luxury-apartments or office-buildings - that’s what’s happening today.

Corruption becomes more and more obvious, it can’t be legal: multi-stored houses are built into the green harmonic yards of Mashtots Avenue, everybody knows the price for one vote at the communal elections (some flour or 5.000 DRAM), complete forests are cut although that is absolutely forbidden….

[…]

Everybody knows the names and companies of the Oligarchs, everybody knows the car numbers which protect the driver from police controls, the young generation accepts corruption more and more, as there are advantages as well…

Complete city quarters are demolished to give space for new rich houses, people are forced to leave their houses, lawyers who try to defend them are emprisoned with faked accusatins (for sure faked), more and more “elitnie villas” are build on the hill beside the Cascade, and at the corner of Demirkhian-Street and Marshall-Baghramian-Street private villas are built into the public park. The parks, which like a “green horseshoe” surround the city center, meant as a green lung for the city, is ruined.

Connie, perhaps you love Armenia more than those who not only overlook this destruction and theft, but openly condone, justify and rationalize it. Ultimately, these same people benefit from it at the expense of the country, its citizens, and the rule of law. And while they hold it all up as “progress.” it represents the formation of what one regional analyst calls a “mafia state” in Armenia to others.

The Armenian must learn, that you cannot only cry foul and point to others, who destroy armenian churches (like in Turkey), they must accept that they themselves destroy their own cultural heritage as well.

Read more at http://www.avantart.com/armenia/2005/kultur.htm

Armenia Now has more on the detention of the human rights lawyer arrested by the former KGB allegedly on fraud charges. It’s probably only coincidence that Vahe Grigoryan stood in the way of the massive land grab in central Yerevan that will enrich corrupt officials and oligarchs still further.

Residents of Yerevan’s Buzand Street – holding out against what they see as violations of the Constitution against them – have received another blow now that their attorney, Vahe Grigoryan, has been jailed with a two-month sentence.

Grigoryan has been charged with extortion and forgery of documents (unrelated to Buzand), in what other lawyers, some public figures who sympathize with the Buzand residents, and his clients are saying are fabricated charges made up to deter his defense of Buzand.

[…]

On March 1, Grigoryan stopped bailiffs from entering the Buzand 15/9 apartment where according to the court’s decision they wanted to fix an obligatory price. Grigoryan insisted that the bailiffs were outside the law in demanding to enter.

The result was that Grigoryan and the owner of the apartment were beaten, but Grigoryan was singled out for special force. Yerkir Media TV showed Grigoryan with a bloody face after the beating.

“They mainly beat Vahe. If we got one blow then Vahe got 15,” says Zhorik Vahanyan, a resident.

Grigoryan has also been victimized by the National Security Service (the former KGB).

On May 31, two NSS agents entered Grigroyan’s office, claiming to be representatives of the Ombudsman’s Office, and demanding data on clients.

The “agents” were acting on information they had obtained after a raid on the Ombudsman’s Office, during which computer files were taken.

(more…)

A1 Plus reports that the former Chief Architect of Yerevan, Narek Sarkisian, has said that a 22-story building planned to be built opposite the Cinema House is illegal. Instead, permission was only given for a 4-story building. Of course, when you realize who’s doing the building in central Yerevan, it becomes obvious that the rule of law and safety regulations means nothing. And as these people are part of the system governed by the Armenian President, nothing will be done to rectify matters.

RFE/RL also reports in more depth on the former Chief Architect speaking out.

Narek Sarkisian, with whom the most controversial construction projects in the Armenian capital in recent years are connected, in particular admitted that he had signed the permission for the construction work in the area near the House of Chamber Music, which became a matter of serious controversy between the House’s administration and the developer last week, but added: “I am sure some deviations have been made from the original design.”

Sarkisian expressed the opinion that distortions were made also in the originally approved plan of construction near the Opera House, an area in central Yerevan now replete with open-air cafes and other nightspots.

[…]

To RFE/RL’s observation that the emerging buildings in the avenue more resemble the high-rise buildings of the Stalin period than modern city constructions, Sarkisian said: “Unfortunately, I must agree with you in the main.”

(more…)

Almost everybody in the Armenian capital understands that the boom in the number of cafes in the city center reflect growing corruption among senior officials, their relatives and government connected businessmen. Even if most Diasporans are oblivious to the fact, civil society in Armenia has long battled against the destruction of Yerevan’s parks.

Now, according to Hetq Online, classical musicians are involving themselves after one such cafe now makes it impossible for them to practice.

On October 18 the musicians who gathered near the Yerevan Chamber Music House demanded the immediate termination of the constructions of a cafe which stretches from the entrance of the Chamber Music House to Abovyan street, because it is disturbing their work.

[…]

“It is time to wake up and think not so much about our stomachs but also about our souls. All countries are flourishing in terms of their culture and we are representing Armenian culture properly. Until now, devoted people keep Armenian culture at a proper and high level but today, they may be appear in the streets and slowly the Last Mohicans will go from here, because they really need us there. I am calling everyone to seriously think about this issue,” said the famous soprano, Anna Mayilyan.

http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/0510-kamer.html

(more…)

The First Step, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Everychild / Onnik Krikorian

(more…)

Shelter for Vulnerable Mothers and Children, Infant House, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Everychild / Onnik Krikorian

As part of the process of de-institutionalization in the Republic of Georgia, the Tbilisi Infant House has a shelter for single and vulnerable mothers and children. The shelter is a joint project between Everychild, UNICEF and World Vision.

The groundbreaking PIAD project, a partnership between World Vision, UNICEF, EveryChild and the Georgian Ministries of Health & Education aims to prevent infants and children from being abandoned, create alternatives to institutions and develop policies to create and sustain a social network system throughout Georgia.

More on the shelter can be read here and here.

Infant House, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Everychild / Onnik Krikorian

(more…)