Azerbaijani Prisoner of War (PoW), Stepanakert, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1994

RFE/RL reports that the Armenian Foreign Ministry has welcomed Montenegro’s 21 May referendum to determine whether it should declare independence from Serbia. The statement comes just days before the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents are due to meet once again in the hope that a framework agreement to resolve the long standing conflict over Nagorno Karabakh can be agreed upon.

Central to the current proposal on the table is a similar referendum that would be held in Karabakh 10-15 years in the future.

For official Yerevan, the Montenegro referendum sets another important precedent of the principle of self-determination of peoples superseding that of territorial integrity of states. Leaders of some of Armenia’s main political parties said last week that its outcome will make it easier for the Karabakh Armenians to win international recognition of their secession from Azerbaijan.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry statement said: “In this peaceful separation, Armenia considers particularly important the fact that the Montenegrin people’s right to self-determination was expressed by means of a referendum, which proves that in international relations referendum remains a universally accepted and civilized way of resolving such problems.”

The statement clearly referred to an international peace plan currently considered by the parties to the Karabakh conflict. The plan reportedly calls for a referendum on Karabakh’s status within 10 to 15 years from the start of a gradual Armenian withdrawal from six of the seven Azerbaijani districts surrounding the disputed enclave. The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan seem to be facing growing international pressure to accept this formula.

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Kond, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

Another of my long-term personal projects in addition to national minorities such as the Yezidi and children in residential care in Armenia has been the old central Yerevan district of Kond. On Sunday, for example, I took a visiting British-Armenian film maker to the area, so it was an unfortunate coincidence that A1 Plus today reported that a fire had started in a house and was spreading.

At present 6 houses in the district Kond are on fire. 6 fire brigades have arrived on the scene. But they haven’t been able to put out the fire so far.

[…]

The residents are trying to put out the fire by pouring water from buckets. According to them, the fire started in one of the houses because of the gas flowing and spread at a terrible speed. But the representative of gas service noted that there isn’t natural gas there and gas couldn’t be the main cause of fire.

Some of the residents assume that the fire was caused by electricity.

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While RFE/RL reports that Armenia has been prevented from attending a meeting of Defense Ministers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the French President is reported to have urged his Azerbaijani counterpart to accept the latest peace plan mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.

French government official said that president of France, quoting, ‘confirmed the principles of joint statement made by three co-chairs of Russia, the US and France may 25 in Yerevan, which states that the time has come for both the parties to come to an agreement on basic principles of the confliict settlement’.

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Raffi Hovannisian, Opposition Protest Presidential Elections, Matenadaran, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2003

RFE/RL and A1 Plus report that the U.S.-born first Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia Raffi Hovhannisian is refusing to vacate the offices of his Heritage Party in downtown Yerevan. Hovhannisian was locked out of his premises in March in what many consider to be an attack on the popular political figure in the run-up to the 2007 parliamentary elections. RFE/RL has comprehensive coverage of the latest turn of events.

Opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian regained control over the headquarters of his Zharangutyun (Heritage) party on Monday only to be forced to resist fresh eviction orders from the government a few hours later.

Hovannisian and a group of his loyalists were refusing as of late evening to accept bailiffs’ orders to vacate the state-owned premises from which they were controversially evicted three months ago.

[…]

Relations between Hovannisian and the Armenian authorities seriously deteriorated last December after he sent an open letter to Kocharian which effectively implicated the Armenian leader in high-profile political murders and vote falsifications. Hovannisian accused the authorities earlier on Monday of systematically harassing Zharangutyun activists across Armenia and hampering the party’s activities.

“Both the police and National Security Service exert pressure on us, threatening to strip our members of their jobs, arrest and imprison them. That is having a certain psychological impact on people,” he told RFE/RL, adding that at least dozen of them have left Zharangutyun as a result.

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Two weeks ago, fellow blogger Zarchka over at Life Around Me posted what will probably be her last main entry for the next month or so now she is well into exam period. Not the nicest of times, perhaps, but at least something worth blogging about.

This is the period that I like less of all. My quiz and examination session will begin from the next week and will last till the end of June. That means that day in day out I will be doing nothing but swotting up my spot questions hoping to get an excellent mark. Now we are having seminars on every subject and I have 2 quizzes and 6 exams.

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Yellow Bird Indian Dancers, Cascade, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

I’ve just returned from a night out in Yerevan and quite a spectacle by the Casdade — Native American Indian dancers. Unfortunately, whenever I’m behind a camera I generally forget to fully immerse myself in any show that I’m photographing, but what I did take in was impressive as well as refreshing. Of course, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia was in attendance along with other foreign diplomats and a few hundred Armenians sitting on the steps of the Cascade.

Yellow Bird Indian Dancers

Saturday, May 27, 20:00

The Cascade, Yerevan

The US Embassy is organizing and sponsoring a Native American Indian cultural performance tour. The “Yellow Bird Indian Dancers” hail from Arizona and will tour Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In Armenia the group will travel and perform in Yerevan, Gyumri and Ararat. You are invited to attend the Yerevan concert with your family and friends. This will be an outdoor concert, open to the public, free of charge, and appropriate for all ages. No tickets are necessary; seating is on a first-come, first-served basis on the Cascade steps.

The Yellow Bird Indian Dancers are respected in America and around the world for continuing the traditions of ancient cultures through their family. In their dance, in the sharing of eternal wisdom through storytelling, and in their preservation of traditional Apache craftworks, they sustain ageless Native American art forms so that they may be shared with the people of today and tomorrow. The U.S. Embassy is proud to bring the Yellow Bird Indian Dancers to Armenia so that they may mingle the ancient and beautiful traditions of the first peoples of America with the equally ancient and beautiful traditions of Armenia.

For more information about the group go to: http://www.yellowbirdindiandancers.com/

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Police block a side road leading to Parliament, A1 Plus Protest Rally, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

In the continuing saga that perhaps best represents the way the authorities have destroyed freedom of speech in the broadcast media, A1 Plus has once again been denied a broadcasting frequency. The TV station, considered to be the most independent and popular for its news, was taken off the air in a controversial tender for new frequencies in April 2002.

RFE/RL reports on yet another blow to press freedom in a country that Freedom House considers “Not Free” when it comes to the media.

The National Commission on Television and Radio, a regulatory body appointed by President Robert Kocharian, rejected the A1+ station’s application for one of two radio frequencies put on a tender. The commission voted unanimously to give both frequencies to two little-known companies.

Its chairman, Grigor Amalian, insisted that A1+ was again denied a frequency because its competitors submitted stronger bids. “This was an absolutely just decision,” he said.

A1+ representatives dismissed the explanation, saying that Amalian and seven other members of the body simply upheld a political decision made by the authorities. “Today’s decision was not unexpected,” said journalist Karine Asatrian. “I would be surprised if they gave us a frequency.”

One of the frequency winners, Ulis Media, is based at the Yerevan premises of the Armenian Public Radio. Its chief executive, Norayr Mukhoyan, said the company simply rents office space there and has no ties with the government-controlled broadcaster. “I am happy that we won. The tender was definitely fair,” he told RFE/RL.

Reports in the Armenian press have linked the other winner, Radio Pro, with Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s Republican Party.

A1+, the only national channel that was not loyal to the Kocharian administration, was forced off the air in April 2002 just hours after losing a first-ever frequency tender administered by Amalian’s commission. It has since participated in 11 other biddings and lost all of them.

The commission’s decisions have been denounced as politically motivated by Armenian and international media watchdogs. They as well as the Council of Europe consider A1+’s de facto closure as a serious blow to press freedom in Armenia.

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

RFE/RL reports that momentum towards a Karabakh peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues. Although largely ignored until the end of last year by the local media with the notable exception of RFE/RL’s Emil Danielyan, failure to reach agreement at a presidential summit in Rambouillet doesn’t seem to have slowed down the process. In fact, given that 2006 is seen as the last opportunity to reach a settlement for some time, the pressure on both sides appears to be increasing.

International mediators urged Armenia and Azerbaijan on Thursday to take the final step towards a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying that a framework peace accord is now within their reach.

High-level diplomats from France, Russia and the United States made the appeal as they wrapped up an extraordinary joint visit to Baku and Yerevan which produced agreement on the next Armenian-Azerbaijani summit on Karabakh. A spokesman for President Robert Kocharian told RFE/RL that the Armenian leader and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliev, will meet on the sidelines of a summit of Black Sea nations which is scheduled to take place in Romania’s capital Bucharest on June 5.

In a joint statement read out to the media after their talks with Kocharian, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and a top French diplomat, Pierre Morel, indicated that they expect that meeting to yield a breakthrough in the prolonged peace process. They stressed that “now is the time for the sides to reach agreement on the basic principles of a settlement.”

The decision by the three men to accompany lower-level American, French and Russian diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group on their latest round of shuttle diplomacy is quite significant in itself. The three mediating powers seem to be making a last-ditch attempt to secure a Karabakh peace deal before the end of this year. They have warned that their failure to do so would delay a settlement until after presidential elections due in Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2007 and 2008.

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The Oneworld.am site has now moved to a new server after a year of problems with two local hosting providers in Armenia. Hopefully, the site should now be significantly faster for users accessing outside of Armenia. Anyway, the site needs a redesign and it’s not completely there, but fullscreen flash galleries and a free book written, photographed and designed for UNICEF, which can be downloaded in PDF format, are.

The site can be accessed at http://www.oneworld.am.

I’ve just received an update on the ongoing saga of Diasporan philanthropists George and Carolann Najarian who were allegedly defrauded in Armenia by a businessman rumored to have close contacts with individuals in the General Prosecutor’s Office. If there was any case that illustrated why the Diaspora must come down hard on the authorities regarding the lack of rule of law and increasing high-level government corruption in Armenia it’s this one.

Najarian vs. Igityan: Court rulings ignored by Prosecutor General’s Office

Summary May 2006

In September 2003, K. George Najarian brought criminal charges against Grigor Igityan, a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, for embezzling investments Najarian made in Armenia starting in 1996. Briefly, Igityan acted as Najarian’s representative in two land development projects (1998-2002), and was a partner with him in a Yerevan photo shop which Najarian purchased in 1996 and financed through 2002. Using the limited Power of Attorney Najarian had granted to him, Igityan illegally privatized the land and buildings in question as well as the photo shop in his name. To this day, despite nearly three years of ongoing investigations and five court decisions rendered by Armenia’s criminal courts (including the Court of Cassation), all confirming Najarian’s claims, this case has not been prosecuted and Igityan still holds full title to Najarian’s properties.

On January 25, 2006 the Court of Appeals handed down the 5th decision confirming that this case is a criminal case, and ordered the case to be reopened by the Prosecutor General’s Office. The Court of Cassation, Armenia’s highest court has refused to hear an appeal of this decision, and therefore the Court of Appeals decision stands as law.

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Garo (AKA Christian Garbis) over at Notes from Hairenik has more on the continuing destruction of Hin Erevan (Old Yerevan). The destruction of cultural and historical monuments is something that is raised constantly by nationalists in Armenia and Diaspora when it is done by Azeris or Turks, but few seldom say anything when it is done by corrupt or connected businessmen and state officials in the Republic.

A few months ago I had posted an entry revealing that a historic building, with a history dating as far back as the late 19th century, was in danger of being destroyed by a developer and multi-millionaire with government connections. The building housed at least two families, both of whom operated small door-step stores selling sandwiches, bottled soda, candy, and other snacks. To my dismay while walking to work this morning past the Yerevan Hotel, across from which the building is located, I found that two thirds of the two-floor apartment building has been completely demolished, virtually overnight. It was still standing yesterday.

The person responsible for the demolition of the site, according to a story published by Hetq Online earlier in the year, is Gagik Tsarukian, an “oligarch” who is infamously known as “Dodi Gago.” He used to own the majority of the shares in the Kotayk brewery until he sold them off over a month ago. He is considered to be the outright owner of the “Kentron” television station and the conglomerate “Multigroup,” which has a broad area of business interests, with stakes in dairy products, a wine factory, cement, real estate, gasoline stations, and other businesses. He is also a member of parliament, and it is generally accepted that he became one in order to escape any kind of prosecution, as all National Assembly members are apparently immune.

Now he is the head of his own political party called “Prosperous Armenia.” He is also closely linked to the top leadership of Armenia, which is another reason why he can do virtually anything he wants.

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