Two different bloggers have coincidentally made two separate posts on the subject of motoring in Armenia. First up is freelance writer Joshua Kucera, en route to China from Istanbul via Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Central Asia, who couldn’t help but notice the love affair many young Armenians have with the ubiquitous Niva.

As some of you know, I have for a long time had a car-crush on the Lada Niva. It’s a Russian 4x4 car, and I think the style is incredibly cool. Here’s one in Tbilisi, in front of the Anchiskhati church. I took this photo because it seemed very representative of Georgia, with the palm tree, Soviet car and old church.

[…]

Anyway, most places these cars have no particular cultural significance; they’re bought by people who want a cheap 4x4. But Armenia, I’ve discovered that they are a real symbol. The first day I was in Yerevan, I saw this Niva, and I thought it was funny to have a Niva with these fancy rims, so I took a photo:

[…]

So asking around, I discovered that there is a certain kind of person who drives these fancy white Nivas. It was described to me by one young cosmopolitan Yerevan woman as: “macho, has money but not a lot, wears a gold chain and expensive clothes but in strange combinations, and has a girlfriend with fake blonde hair.” And he generally listens to rabiz music, the Armenian equivalent of Serbian turbofolk, Bulgarian chalga, Turkish arabesque and whatever other countries have this sort of thing.

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Now that Lightstalkers have upgraded the portfolio section of each photographer represented on the site, I’ve quickly thrown together a new portfolio of images for my page. If you’re looking for a photojournalist to work in Armenia, Georgia, or anywhere else for that matter, please take a look at http://lightstalkers.org/oneworld.

There are also more images available for viewing on my personal site at http://www.oneworld.am. Incidentally, both sites are always accessible at any time from under the Resources section in the column to the right. My Yahoo email address is there as well.

Etchmiadzin, Vagharshapat, Armavir Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2003

Joshua Kucera has posted another entry as he continues on his travels through most of the South Caucasus and Central Asia. This time, the EurasiaNet freelancer has some interesting observations on Christianity in Armenia and Georgia, especially as the latter seems to be more religious than here. This has certainly been my take on things when comparing the two countries and its churches, and Josh seems to have reached the same conclusion.

So, earlier I reported that Georgia is undergoing a big religious resurgence. I can report that the same is not happening in Armenia. One person here told me that “there is not a single practicing Christian in Armenia,” which is obviously an exaggeration, but it is striking how little religious activity there is. Armenians hate it when I compare them to Georgians (more on that later) but anyway, there are several analogues, especially when it comes to Christianity.

For one, Yerevan also has a huge new cathedral, like the Sameba church in Tbilisi. But unlike Sameba, which was packed with people kissing icons and so on, the cathedral here was only sparsely attended when I went one Saturday. Armenians believe that getting married in May is bad luck, so I have not seen any weddings, but even taking that into account, the church was pretty dead. It seemed to be mainly kids chatting quietly in the pews or texting on their cell phones.

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Artyom will be pleased. Finally, I managed to track down a copy of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on DVD in Yerevan. Up until now, shops only had it in Russian and it most definitely wasn’t shown at the cinema here.

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15.2 km South of Lachin, Kashatagh Region, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

Now that the parliamentary election appears to be behind us, it’s no surprise that the international community is once again turning to what is perhaps the number one problem in the region — unresolved frozen conflicts and in particular, Nagorno Karabakh. Although the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway self-declared Republic is one that could be described as stable, there are concerns that failure to resolve the conflict is leading to an arms race in the South Caucasus and the continuing isolation of Armenia from regional projects which could frustrate efforts to closer integrate with Europe.

It’s therefore also no surprise to discover that mediators from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were in Yerevan earlier in the week before moving on to Baku. According to RFE/RL’s report posted on the day of their departure, the OSCE Minsk Group mediators have said they hope that the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents will meet on the sidelines of a summit to be held in St. Petersburg on 10 June. With presidential elections set to take place in both Armenia and Azerbaijan next year, there really is very little time and only a small window of opportunity for a long anticipated breakthrough framework agreement.

“Assuming that the [Saint-Petersburg] meeting is a success, we don’t exclude that there will need to be another meeting [of the two presidents] for finally agreeing the basic principles of a settlement,” he said.

Merzlyakov stressed that agreement on those principles would fall short of a comprehensive peace accord. “We are working on the basic principles of a settlement which are not quite an agreement,” he said. “If they are approved by both parties, that will only allow us to start working out the text [of a peace accord,] which will take a lot of time. But there will have been created a base from which the parties will not retreat, as was the case in the past.”

“What we can hope to achieve before the end of the year is a breakthrough towards a settlement, but not a full peace accord,” agreed Fassier. He said he hopes Aliev and Kocharian have the “political will” to cut a framework peace deal.

[…]

In Merzlyakov’s words, the “circle of unresolved issues is narrowing” and there are now “objective conditions” for eliminating the remaining sticking points. “If the Saint-Petersburg meeting is successful, then the number of principles that have not yet been fully agreed on will be practically brought down to zero,” he said.

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HFH Armenia Beneficiaries, Rind, Vayots Dzor, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Habitat for Humanity 2006

Yesterday’s Armenia Now reports that Habitat for Humanity have started up construction again now that the spring is here. The organization helps families with sufficient income enough to pay back an interest free loan to build their own home or complete those they’ve already started. I blogged extensively about Habitat for Humanity last year when I documented their work in Aghavnadzor, and especially Gavar for an exhibition that was launched to mark the final phase of the Karekin II Catholicos Work Project.

Anyway, Habitat for Humanity are particularly successful in Armenia in part because of the interest in such activities from Diasporan Armenians who volunteer to take part in the construction activities usually through their churches. Of course, that’s not to say that foreigners don’t come to get involved. As with other countries that Habitat work, they do. There are also some local volunteers too.

Volunteers of different ages and professions from Armenia and United States came to the village specifically to help rural families to raise their house, representing Habitat for Humanity international organization which provides long-term, non-profit loans for the contraction of the houses. While the organization deals with legal issues, the volunteers put their backs to the task of getting up houses.

The Aronyan family is one of the three families being supported by Habitat for Humanity in Khor-Virap and is one of 297 families’ who have benefited from the Armenian office of Habitat throughout the country. The organization has allocated 3 million dram ($8,500) to complete the works on the house which the Aronyans started to construct 10 years ago.

“For 10 years each year we were managing to go little ahead,” says Sahak Aronyan, the head of the family of five.

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“Already hopeless we learned about the organization which provides loans for 20 years. We applied and it worked. We hope to finish by August,” says Aronyan who currently with his family live in the basement of his relatives’ house.

The Armenian Habitat for Humanity supports community development in the country by assisting in building and renovating decent and affordable homes. Homeowner families are chosen by Family Selection Committee according to their need and ability to repay a loan.

The full article is here, and some of my posts and many more photographs taken last year of HFH Armenia working in Aghavnadzor and Gavar, which includes links to additional information, click here.

Just a reminder that you can vote for this blog (One World) under the CIS category of the Third Annual Satin Pajama Awards here. Thanks in advance to anyone who feels like doing so.

Gyumri, Shirak Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

As one of the volunteer editors for the Oneworld.net Country Guides I’ve finally gotten round to updating the Armenia page and it’s now online. Oneworld.net, which has no other connection with me despite the name, “is the world’s favourite and fastest-growing civil society network online, supporting people’s media to help build a more just global society.” Established in 1995, it brings together over 1,500 minor and major local and international organizations and publications “to promote sustainable development, social justice and human rights.”

Anyway, as I said, the revised Armenia Country Guide, which includes brief sections on Gender, Politics, Human Rights, Conflict, Health, Education, Information and Media, Economy and the Environment, is now online.

In August 2003, the Armenian government finalized its long-awaited Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) which aims to reduce poverty to 19% by 2015. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), most of the PRSP’s objectives are in line with achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which include combating poverty, improving the environment and addressing other pressing social issues.

However, the 2005 MDG progress report produced jointly by the government and UN agencies states that it is unrealistic for Armenia to halve the number of people living in poverty by 2015 compared to 1990 levels. It also believes that because of insufficient funding levels and inadequate access to healthcare for the poor, reducing infant and maternal mortality by 2015 might also prove unreachable.

Given the rate of deforestation in Armenia, UNDP also believes that it is unlikely for the Republic to ensure environmental sustainability by 2015. Otherwise, UNDP believes that Armenia is able to achieve the remaining MDGs.

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[…] parliamentary elections held in May 2007 were greeted with enthusiasm from both local and international observers who considered them a step forward and largely in compliance with international standards. The election, which consolidated the power of the ruling Republican party in the form of an overall parliamentary majority, was nevertheless not considered democratic by opposition forces and civil society who alleged widespread vote buying.

In 2008, Armenia will face the next test of its democratic credentials in a presidential election. Under the Constitution, the incumbent president, Robert Kocharian, cannot remain in office for more than two terms and it remains to be seen whether he will follow the example of other developing and former Soviet republics by allowing free and fair elections or by simply hand-picking his successor. Many in Armenia suspect that the May 2007 parliamentary election has made it more likely he will choose to pass on power to the Prime Minister, Serzh Sarkisian.

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Negotiations to find a lasting peace under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group continue to be held between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but renewed attempts to broker a peace deal failed in 2006 just before Armenia’s parliamentary election. Minsk Group mediators as well as the European Union believe that there is the possibility for securing a deal now that the 2007 election is over. However, with presidential elections due in both Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2008, the window of opportunity will not be open for long.

The full guide, accompanied by photographs, is available here.

Myrthe just sent me an email to let me know that this blog has been nominated in the Best CIS weblog category of the 3rd Annual Satin Pajama European weblog awards. I didn’t know until she did, so my thanks to her for that. The awards were established by the A Fistful of Euros webzine and blog.

Its purpose – as well as that of the other afoe-family blogs - is to provide a venue for informed commentary on European politics and culture from a pan-European perspective. We are writing about important developments from NATO to UEFA, from the EU to Eurovision. The “tagged” version of the last sentence might read like this - European politics, economics, culture, and current events, demography, literature, sports.

I’m up against some strong competition such as Siberian Light, Registan and Neeka’s Backlog, but it’s nice to be nominated. Anyway, go take a look and vote if you like.

Not one for those who haven’t lived in the U.K. for much of their lives, but while photographing Nikol Pashinian’s recent sit-in strike at Yerevan’s Liberty Square two tourists asked if I spoke English and could explain what was going on. After discovering that Norman, the father, now lived in Bristol where I spent a lot of my life as well, and that his daughter, Tamara, was half-Armenian from a former marriage, it didn’t take long before we were sitting at a nearby cafe, drinking a beer or two, and arranging to meet up for the next.

Anyway, interesting guys the both of them. Norman spent his time divided between the U.K. and India while Tamara was also a seasoned traveler who was making her first voyage to discover one side of her ethnic roots in Armenia. Interestingly, for many soap addicts in the U.K. at least, Norman was an actor and his most prominent role of recent years had been Frank Tate in ITV’s Emmerdale. There’s something about his career on Wikipedia.

Born on August 1, 1932 in London he became a member of the 1950s Soho set alongside such as John Minton, Francis Bacon and Daniel Farson, Norman Bowler played a variety of bit parts and single episode roles throughout the 1960s. He feaured in one episode of The Avengers and stared alongside James Caan in the 1968 war film “Submarine X-1″ about World War Two British midget submarines.

From 1966 to 1976 Bowler played Det. Sgt. and later Det. Chief Inspector Harry Hawkins for the entire run of the BBC TV police drama “Softly, Softly” (later “Softly, Softly: Taskforce”).

More recently, he is best known for playing the part of Frank Tate in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale between 1989 and 1997; when his character was killed off after suffering a heart attack, his TV wife Kim could have saved his life but chose to let him die as he begged for help.

Today, Bowler is very active in charity work and adult education in the Bristol area (where the original “Softly, Softly” series was filmed in the 60s)

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Via Tirami Su, Armenia’s largest domestic observation organization, It’s Your Choice, has updated its web site and posted a short preliminary report on the 12 May parliamentary election. Although I’ve already posted about their press conference announcing that the 12 May vote was an improvement over past elections here, it’s worth linking to the full statement now it has been made available online.

On the election day the electoral procedures and vote counting process were organized in a comparatively quieter environment. However, there were shortcomings and violations outside the polling stations.

“It’s Your Choice” NGO monitors observed the parliamentary elections in all the polling stations and precincts of Armenia.

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IYC finds that on the election day the voting and vote count processes in most polling stations were organized comparatively in a quieter environment. Voter lists were comparatively improved and there were fewer shortcomings in them. During these elections there were fewer voters recovering their suffrage through court appeal than during the previous elections. Also, the commissions have started relating to proxies and monitors in a better manner. According to the monitors, also the police was legally neutral and did not intimidate in electoral processes.

Notwithstanding, in parallel with the mentioned positive improvements there were also electoral violations and other shortcomings, which affected the legitimacy of the elections and are not considered democratic.

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IYC finds that the electoral procedures have been significantly improved in Armenia, but meanwhile states that Armenia still has to take efforts to improve the democratic electoral traditions. There is a need to improve the Electoral Code to fully comply it with the international standards and create such mechanisms, which will provide adequate independence and balance in electoral commissions.

The full text of the statement is here.