Armenia Now has a special issue dedicated to environmental concerns in the Republic. Unfortunately, since independence, blockade, corruption, poor governance, the lack of accountability and community involvement in the decision making process, as well as the general decline in the rule of law pose a grave threat to Armenia’s long term future.

Armenia can hardly afford to waste or abuse the precious few natural resources offered the tiny, landlocked republic.

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Government authorities, lawmakers and citizens themselves should heed cautious words of environmentalists. And, advocates for everything green must indulge the crucial condition of a society in which a choice for ecology over economy is as real as clean air versus income.

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In these nine articles we report on one factory that is filling a community’s air with toxins, and another that is clogging plants and people with harmful dust. We look inside reasons why Armenia’s forests are dwindling, and we listen to the debate over whether Armenia’s nuclear power plant is safe.

Hetq Online also has more on the environment here, and my article on the campaign to save the Shikahogh Nature Reserve and Mtnadzor Forest, mentioned in the Armenia Now report on deforestation, is here. Thankfully, environmentalists won in this case, but there is still much work to do.

The international media has plenty of coverage of the meeting between U.S. President George Bush and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev. Previously, it was believed that as with Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Aliyev would never be invited for such a high profile meeting because of serious concerns with his record in the area of democracy and respect for human rights. However, things appear to be changing.

Bush met in the Oval Office with President Ilham Aliev, who succeeded his father 2 ½ years ago in a ballot that the State Department said suffered from “numerous, serious irregularities.”

With Aliev sitting in an armchair next to him, Bush held out Azerbaijan as “a modern Muslim country that is able to provide for its citizens, that understands that democracy is the wave of the future.”

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Berd, Tavoush Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Finally some of the many pics taken during a two day return trip to Berd with Edik Baghdasarian, Editor-in-Chief of Hetq Online. Loads to sort out, but for now two Diasporans who were among those repatriated to Soviet Armenia in 1947. Life is not good for many in Berd, but the situation for these guys is particularly bad.

Few people know the Tutunjyan family in Berd. Nobody visits them, except for Hanna, a German nun. Anahit Tutunjyan eats in the soup kitchen that Hanna runs, and brings warm food home for Harutyun. The brother and sister depend on the soup kitchen, since their monthly income is comprised of a 5,000-dram pension and a 7,000-dram stipend.

Harutyun and Anahit Tutunjyan were born in the Iraqi city of Mosul. They immigrated to Armenia in 1947. Harutyun described in detail how the family made the decision to come to Armenia and how they ended up in the town of Berd in the Tavush Marz.

The full article can be read online in English and Armenian.

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Prkutyun Center for Disabled Children, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

When Zarchka at Life Around Me invited me to attend today’s event at the Prkutyun Center for Disabled Children in the Yerord Mas district of Yerevan I jumped at the chance. Since 2000 I had already worked on the issue of disabled children and adults in Yerevan, Kharberd, Ijevan and Tbilisi, but had never heard of this center.

Our mission is to favor solutions to social, educational and healthcare problems of disabled children and their families through training, consultation, awareness campaigns, provision of medical services, as well as through mediation and humanitarian aid, thus implementing their full integration into the society.

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Siranush, Berd, Tavoush Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

After arriving back to Yerevan and walking straight into a mass protest by Indian students outside of parliament, I haven’t had time until now to go through the photos I took in Berd, a town situated in the north eastern Tavoush region of Armenia and almost cut off from the rest of the country.

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After students called off their sit-in on Yerevan’s Republic Square, Tuesdays’s meeting between Indian students and Yerevan State Medical University’s Rector was meant to be open to the media. However, although only journalists from Hetq Online, Haykakan Zhamanak and Aravot were present, we were eventually requested to leave the hall and later used as reason for YSMU to call off the meeting in our absence.

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Hetq Online is currently trying to investigate the circumstances of the death of Prashant Anchalia, an Indian student from studying in Yerevan, Republic of Armenia. In particular, Hetq Online would like to contact people who knew Anchalia in Siliguri and any students who witnessed the events following his fall.

Hetq Online would also like to contact members of Anchalia’s family in India. Please email papermoonmic@yahoo.com if you have any information to share or can provide any other assistance. All correspondence will be treated in the strictest confidentiality.

Tsitsernakaberd (Genocide Memorial), Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

By Nessuna

On April 24 Armenians all over the world honor the memory of the one half and a million victims of atrocities that qualify as “the first genocide of the XXth century.” The Armenian genocide was planned and carried out during between the years 1915 and 1923 by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.

The present-day Republic of Turkey adamantly denies that genocide was committed against the Armenians. Fortunately, there are now historians in Turkey who speak out about the Armenian Genocide. I will refrain from going into the timeline of the events because there is large amount of information online.

The history books are open. You need only to open your mind.

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After the appalling manner in which the highest levels of authority at Yerevan State Medical University (YSMU) treated its Indian as well as other foreign students after last week’s protests, I’m glad to see what might be one of the best examples of using blogs effectively in Armenia. Now that talks between Indian students and YSMU have broken down, Nanyaar? has set up a blog for students to write about the University.

Fantastic stuff, especially when you consider how the institution is run, and it probably comes as no surprise to discover that the aftermath of the recent protests takes center stage.

We were not sure of what’s happening, whether the decisions that are being taken, are they one voice or not. We saw us united on the first day, second day but from 3rd day we started dividing. It was the point we got weakened. How can we let all the efforts go in vain? I believe if now we cannot do anything, we can never because it was the first and the only time we all were together Death is the ultimate thing as well as the worse thing that can happen to anyone and his family. How can we forget that the person was alive for 45 min. How can we forget that he could be saved but was not? How can we take orders from the person due to whose mistake we lost our friend, and who is none other but our dean , a doctor. How can we forget that when we went to rector to listen clarifications we listened nothing but abusive words. How can we forget all this?

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As I was recently attacked for not writing about the murder of an ethnic Armenian in Moscow at a time when I had no time to do anything other than my work in Yerevan, maybe it’s time to highlight what the Armenian press is saying on the matter.

“Aravot” condemns as “odd and outrageous” the failure by the Armenian embassy in Russia to react to the weekend killing of an ethnic Armenian teenager in Moscow. The paper says that neither Ambassador Armen Smbatian nor his Russian opposite number in Yerevan have expressed sympathy to the family of the 17-year-old Vahan Abrahamiants. “Also silent are those Armenian political and public organizations that react very sharply and promptly to attacks on ethnic Armenians in any other country of the world, including Georgia. It is not clear whether this is the result of the Armenians’ inferiority complex vis-à-vis the Russians or other motives such as a slave mentality or unwillingness to pour scorn on [Armenia’s] strategic ally.”

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State Medical University, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Nayaar? has posted an update on yesterday’s meeting held at Yerevan’s State Medical University (YSMU). The meeting was agreed upon by six representatives of Indian students in Armenia and YSMU’s Rector.

The attendance in the meeting turned out to be approximately 350 students. The students spoke among themselves first clarifying all what had been discussed with the rector earlier that day and on April 23rd.The dean arrived later, along with the pro-rector only to blame us of playing with her honesty. She spoke of what she did at that moment, telling us that she was stunned and could do nothing because the boy’s state was already out of reach. All I still want to ask her is why at that moement, didnot even stoop down for a second to check his pulse and ensure us standing around that he was alive.

It was meant to be attended by representatives of the mass media in Armenia, but only myself and two journalists from Haykakan Zhamanak and Aravot newspapers were there. However, I had to fight to be allowed in after YSMU showed no interest in recognizing my Hetq press pass. I rang Edik Baghdasarian and spoke loudly so I could be overheard about lodging a complaint with the Yerevan Press Club for refusing to allow me into what was agreed to be a press conference. This worked and I was finally allowed in.

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