Azerbaijani cemetary, Malibeyli, Kashatagh (Lachin Region) © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2001

Perhaps not surprisingly, a number of Armenian bloggers have started to post details of the failure of this weekend’s talks in France between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents. Both Artyomize and Blogian post news of the lack of agreement on a proposed one page memorandum setting the framework for a solution to the 18 year old conflict. Blogian, however, dissects a report from the New York Times and puts forward the Armenian perspective.

First of all, Nagorno-Karabakh has not been under “Armenian occupation” since 1994. For the last 2000 or so years the region has been populated by Armenians (if this is what is meant by “Armenian occupation”). It has been part of many united Armenian kingdoms and it has been part of the Armenian Republic of 1918-1920 and later signed off to Soviet Azerbaijan by Soviet tyrant Stalin. In 1991 the population of Nagorno-Karabakh held a referendum, within Soviet legal system, voting for becoming an independent country. When Azerbaijan made clear it would not let Karabakh to be free, local Armenians and Armenians from the Republic of Armenia showed that Karabakh’s freedom could be gained by force.

Whatever the perspective on the conflict from outside the two republics, feelings run high among most Armenians, as they do among most Azeris.

Although a recent opinion poll noted that most Armenians would accept a concessionary deal that afforded Karabakh independence from Azerbaijan and at least some kind of land border with Armenia, most young Armenians I spoke to here were unhappy with the suggestion that a referendum to determine its status would be held 10-15 years in the future rather than at the beginning of a phased withdrawal of Armenian troops from most of the regions surrounding the territory.

In that sense, the opinions of two Diasporan Armenian bloggers in Armenia pretty much sum up the common response I hear from citizens of both Armenian republics. Garo (AKA Christian Garbis) at Notes from Hairenik posts what has been the most common of responses from a few Armenians I have spoken to. That is, even though failure to resolve the conflict will see Armenia become more and more isolated from regional development, there can be no concessions at all.

Basically, as Armenia still holds the upper hand, it should not fold all its cards unless some details make logical sense. But then again, we are dealing with Armenians who seem to have a unique system of logic and who have historically succumbed under pressure. At the end of the day, the Armenian side must still take into account the last 15 or so years and not forget what it essentially won, although the world nations never acknowledged Karabagh’s independence.

When you speak to Armenians, one thing remains clear–Karabagh and the buffer zone surrounding it were won with much spilled blood, and Karabagh especially cannot be returned at any cost. People I have spoken to regard this thought as a given, which is not to be negotiated upon, and furthermore, Karabagh must be reunited with Armenia in a peace deal, if one ever comes to light–something no one really believes.

Ironically, even those charged with the task of regional integration and peace building initiatives feel the same. Tamar from the Civil Society Institute (CSI) in Yerevan says pretty much the same thing on Armyouth. This is a common view held by most of those in civil society and opposition political parties who are supportive of Karabakh’s right to self-determination.

On the other hand, Armenia’s civil society is pointing to the importance of the overall democratization of this region in order to resolve all conflicts. They argue that in order to obtain an agreement that the people will agree with, the people must be involved in the negotiation processes. They must feel that they are being represented in the entire process. It is more important to focus on the implementation of democracy in Armenia and work on issues regarding transparency, corruption and human rights protection.

Ultimately, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is interrelated with the authorities in Armenia and Azerbaijan and their willingness to cooperate with their citizens.

Interestingly, the view from the outside is somewhat different, with Jeff at Voch Me Ban putting forward an idea that I’m sure is not lost on the OSCE’s Minsk Group and the international community. That is, with neither societies ready for concessions, and especially with a rhetoric of war in Azerbaijan, authoritarian leaders with a firm control over the state security apparatus are precisely the type of people you need to make peace deals in the region. However, Jeff says something else is needed.

Can anyone really be shocked by the lack of an agreement between these two leaders? There is going to be no progress made on a final settlement agreement over NK until the U.S. government decides that it is going to seriously get involved. President Bush, in all of his infinite wisdom and desire to promote security and democracy, ought to hold a summit at Camp David, throw Kocharian and Aliyev in a room, and tell them that unless they reach an agreement all forms of foreign aid for their countries will be cut from the U.S. budget.

Staying on the theme of Karabakh, Blogian also has a few other posts of interest. In the first, Simon reminds us of the savage murder of an Armenian soldier in Budapest by an Azeri counterpart taking part, ironically enough, in a NATO Partnership for Peace programme in the Hungarian capital. He also says that the Armenian Secret Organization for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), a left-wing terrorist organization that was responsible for the assassination of Turkish diplomats in the 1970’s and 80’s, still exists and has transformed itself into a more peacefully-orientated structure.

A report from Noyan Tapan News agency (7 February 2006), as www.armeniangenocide.com posts, informs that former political prisoners and fighters of ASALA have joint in “Ukht Ararati” (Oath of Ararat) non-governmental organization to peacefully continue their fight for reinforcing the treaty of Sevres, which granted Armenians of modern eastern Turkey the right to have a united republic within a large area of historic Armenia.

Quite unexpectedly, but in a move to be welcomed, Blogian also posts about the desecration of a Jewish Holocaust memorial in Yerevan and asks readers to contribute to the construction of a new monument.

One will argue that Israel has almost officially denied the Armenian genocide, so why should Armenians act otherwise? Well, shouldn’t the first official Christian nation follow Jesus’ command to “Do unto others as you would have them do to you”?

[…]

I personally think the Holocaust memorial should be placed in Tsitsernakaberd, next to the Armenian Genocide Memorial, because both of these tragedies have many commonalities. I know that Israeli government would never do the same in Tel-Aviv, but I prefer to go with “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”

On the same subject matter, and in light of recent reports highlighting the destruction of Armenian khachkars in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, Blogian also posts two of my photographs of Azeri graveyards in and around Karabakh. From my own experience, Blogian’s assertion that Armenians largely kept Azeri monuments intact during and after the war is correct.

Well, after that, back to non-Karabakh related posts, and where better to start with Tim Russo’s continuing serialization of his memoirs detailing the time he spent in Armenia working for the National Democratic Institute (NDI). In another fascinating post, Tim continues to dwell on the 1998 presidential elections that brought then Prime Minister Robert Kocharian to power.

This time, however, Tim highlights the sometimes farcical role that international organizations play in Armenia.

IFES will often purchase equipment for the conduct of an election in a developing democracy where money is scarce, purchase ballot boxes or ballots or other things that can help keep an election smooth, clean, well organized, and technically sufficient. Normally, the technical assistance is desperately needed in places like Armenia, and IFES is very eager to provide it, its donor governments happy to encourage it.

But in the context of the kid with the erasers and the bottle caps being hired to preside over an impending national electoral fraud, IFES’s eagerness was matched by Bezerjian’s eagerness to seem more and more important, capable, interested in a free and fair election. There’s money for updating voter lists? We’re happy to accept. Never mind that none of it got very far down the pipeline, evidenced by the soon to be discovered woeful inaccuracy of the voter lists on election day. Keep the money flowing. Money for computers? Bring it on. We love computers. Computers make elections free and fair. Let’s have lots of them.

Completing the circle of peculiar dysfunctional dependency between IFES and Bezerjian was the need for IFES to justify the money spent. Like all international organizations, NDI included, IFES needs to show that it gets results with its funds in order to keep the funds coming from their donor governments. The donor organization often becomes less interested in the legitimacy of the process than its appearance of legitimacy. In the end, what IFES often becomes, both in the eyes of people like Bezerjian, and in fact, is a cash cow which helps cover the election with a phony veneer.

IFES is often not alone among international NGOs finding themselves in this trap. The investing donor agency or government suddenly has a stake in the process being perceived as free and fair, rather than actually being free and fair. The resulting pressure imperceptibly weaves opaque blinders to reality. What begins as a sincere effort to promote a free and fair election through technical assistance becomes warped into a spiral of money spent, impact unseen, more money spent to maybe achieve the impact, impact still unseen; yet more money spent, still no impact.

Until finally, the dupe is complete, the process ending up as illegitimate as it would have been absent the investment, but the donor left with a massive debit in the accounts payable column that needs justifying. A clean, objective, honest call on the fairness of an election suddenly doesn’t seem so urgent. Often, this spiral can descend into the absurd, as Gegham and I learned as Carlos spoke to Bezerjian.

On the other hand, Sanne at Things that keep my busy in life reflects on her recent stay as a volunteer in Armenia. She compares her opinion on Armenians upon first arriving in the country, and then upon her departure. Interestingly, she understands the way a ‘clan mentality’ defines the form of corruption and nepotism that manifests itself in the countries of the South Caucasus.

It is significant that my first idea about Armenians, in my first few weeks, was different from the idea I had when i left the country. It is also significant that it took me a few months even to really get a picture about ‘the Armenian’. People, walking in the streets, don’t display their emotions, they don’t smile, they don’t cry, they keep everything to themselves. I had expected emotion display to be a very important part of the Armenian life, as I had seen in southern European countries, like Spain and Italy. Whether this is a typical Armenian thing or that it is influenced by their Soviet history, I dont know. My interpretation is that during the Soviet time it was hard to really trust people around you and that it was best to not show anything that might give something away about yourself. This distrust still seems an important part of the Armenian society, as since Soviet times corruption is still an important feauture of Armenian society. Besides this there might also be no reason to laugh a lot, in these harsh times where everyone has to take care of themselves in order to survive.

This first sight influenced my first impression about Armenians and Armenia and I even thought I would maybe never feel at home here. This was a wrong conclusion.

I got to know more people around me: the BEM-volunteers, colleagues and friends outside BEM, the people you meet in the streets, the people in the regions. I found out that Armenians might look distanced from the outside, they are very welcoming and hospitable, even to strangers. But especially when you are inside the ‘network of friends’ you are regarded and treated like family. This is a very important feature of Armenia: everything seems to work inside the ‘network’. If you need help, support or any other need, there is no way you are alone. I find it hard to really describe it. Armenia felt like one big family, where relations between people are very important for a lot of things: support, but also access to jobs, companies etc. . This can both regarded as negative and positive. Knowing the right people (and having the right amount of money) is sometimes more important than skills for jobs, which is especially bad in case of government positions. Also tight ties between family and friends can lead to social control over familymembers, and especially girls seem to have troubles with it, by not having the freedom that boys have. But this is something important I might talk about in a later post.

She also says that Armenia is where east meets west, although I would argue that the country is more a mixture of Asian and Middle Eastern values and lifestyle. In fact, many people say that Georgia reminds them of a more European-orientated country, Azerbaijan is dictated by a more Asian mentality, while Armenia resembles Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon.

I found it funny when Myrthe, a Dutch girl living in Armenia, pointed me out that there is an interesting mix of European and Middle-Eastern influences. And ever since she told me that I was convinced about it. Both in minds as in appearance: Almost all men are dressing conservatively; pointy shoes, white or black coloured clothes and short haired. All the same way. Women are the same in winter, but in summer it’s all bright colours. (The same for every season: High heels. Horror!)

This mix of different influences in history and present from East, West, South and North, the family tradition, the conflicts with neighbours, it all leads to a very complex mind of the Armenian. And is therefor very hard to understand and describe.

Anyway, European-Middle Eastern or Asian-Middle Eastern it probably doesn’t matter. Sanne correctly points out the fusion of cultures here. Interestingly, I sometimes consider Armenia to be somewhere between Georgia and Azerbaijan in its democratic development and in terms of its mentality so perhaps Myrthe and Sanne actually have it right.

UNICEF HIV/AIDS poster © Onnik Krikorian / UNICEF Armenia

Talking, as Sanne does, of the freedom that males have in comparison with females in Armenia, Katy posts something on HIV/AIDS in the republic over at New Eurasia.

UNICEF estimates, as of 2003, that around 2600 people in Armenia are living with HIV, with a low estimate being 1200 and a high estimate being 4300. In a 2005 report, according to UNESCO, men constituted 77.4% of all people living with HIV (244 cases) and women represented 22.6% (71 cases); there were sex cases of infection among children, with the first such case registered in January 2001 (National Center for AIDS Prevention).

UNESCO says that in Armenia AMONG REGISTERED HIV+ PEOPLE, the main modes of HIV transmission are through injecting drug use(54.0%) and unprotected heterosexual practices (37.8%). The majority of all REGISTERED HIV-positive men (69.9%) are individuals who practice injecting drug usage, whereas the main transmission mode for REGISTERED women is unprotected heterosexual contact (91.5%). Again, among REGISTERED people, There is a correlation between the regional spread of the epidemic and development trends. Regionally, registered cases are concentrated in the capital city of Yerevan, with half of them residing within the city.

Some interesting information regarding the knowledge about HIV and AIDS throughout the general population: 56% of men and 41% of women between the ages of 15-24 (surveyed between 1998 and 2004) that know that use of a condom can prevent HIV, via UNICEF. UNESCO says that in 2000, a survey showed that 62% of women and 73% of men think that the HIV infection is preventable.

However, sexual behaviour among youth is changing in Yerevan especially, and knowledge about HIV/AIDS does not necessarily affect habits. In fact, last year UNDP issued a warning that the risk of an HIV/AIDS epidemic is now very, very real indeed. It’s something I touched upon in two articles here and here for UNICEF last year.

In a report released last year, the United Nations warned that the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) faced one of the fastest rates of HIV infection in the World. In fact, it is believed that 1.8 million people are carriers of the disease in the region. Yet, even though countries such as Armenia are considered to have a low prevalence of HIV/AIDS, there are concerns that this might not remain the case for much longer.

Naira Sargsyan, UNICEF’s Young Person’s Health and Development Officer, says that the situation is already beginning to change, but not necessarily for the better.

“We have all the factors necessary for HIV to spread,” she says. “We are already in the second, concentrated state of the epidemic, and high risk groups are particularly in danger of infection. Already we have a high prevalence of infection among high risk groups such as intravenous drug users, and there are no programmes that specifically target Most at Risk Adolescents aged between 10 and 18 years of age.”

And with that, on to what I think is one of the best examples of blogs being used to highlight corruption and abuse of power in countries such as Armenia.

After wondering whether the Armenian President Robert Kocharian doesn’t have a few things in common with his counterpart in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Garen at Armenian Deck of 52 touches upon the recent firebomb attack on the car of a veteran sports commentator in Yerevan. Some wonder if oligarch and MP Ruben Hayrapetyan (aka Nemetz Rubo) isn’t behind the incident.

The feud between the powerful AFF Chief and his rival, veteran sports broadcaster, has escalated, as the latter is now accusing the former of torching his SUV. Interestingly enough, Hayrapetian denies his involvement, blaming his opponent for being propped up by some mysterious figures from the sport world. Now, how could this be possible? Hayrapetian controls AFF, while his pal Tsarukian in in charge of the National Olympic Committee. Serzh Sarkisian, to my knowledge is firmly in charge of the Chess world, while all the sports involving skis and boards (both water and snow) and sails shold be under Kocharian’s control. Basketball? Tough one. True, Kocharian played it for his 1998 PR stunts, but it was (and maybe still is) patronised by none other than Hrant Vardanian, the tobacco tycoon at odds with Hayrapetian over their interest in the cigarettes business.

Well, to round up this summary of the Armenian blogosphere, it has to be none other than Glendale Chick. With Valentine’s Day approaching, her boyfriend’s plans to celebrate the occasion don’t appear to fit in with her own.

I told him not to bother with the flowers and chocolates. Flowers are just as nice any other day of the year and chocolate will make me fat. This whole Valentines thing is a big huge commercial capitalist holiday. And this year, I’m just not into it. I have been so busy lately with a million zillion things that all I want is nothing. For those with significant others, Valentines day just creates this artificial pressure to be romantic and deeply passionately in-love; please, there’s just too much other stuff going on right now to pretend to be passionate. Let me tell you what I’m really passionate about right now — going someplace all by myself and reading my new pulitzer prize book, The Kiterunner.

So, in passing… I’ve mentioned to The Boyfriend that I don’t really feel like doing anything at all this weekend to which he didn’t exactly respond…and yet, made it clear that he wasn’t satisfied. Well, what am I supposed to do?

So, there we go. Another interesting week in the Armenian blogosphere. As usual, if you’d like to help promote Armenian-related blogs, please link to this weekly roundup and also, feel free to post any blogs that you think I’ve missed in the comments section.