Anoush Armenia

2007-07-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

July 3, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The Armenian parliament has failed to pass a bill that would have placed severe restrictions on foreign broadcast media, particularly RFE/RL.

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/7/BB6F8DCC-A266-43BA-86D9-4DB560DBBD0A.html

Parliament Debates. International Community Chastises. Citizens Galvanize.

2007-07-02T05:47:00.000-07:00

A group of activists organized primarily through the efforts of Sksela, Transparency International, together with the cooperation and participation of many NGOs and media outlets (after we sent out mass emails stressing to each that such a dangerous step regarding restricted media specifically required their attention and action), gathered at Freedom Square and marched to the gates of Parliament on Baghramyan Avenue, with covered mouths symblizing the silencing of free and diverse media, and bearing a 10 meter long poster which proclaimed "Nrank kvyarkelen azadutyan dem" ("They voted against Freedom"), in bold letters and then listed the names of the 100+ members of Parliament who voted for the bill on Friday.

The second reading of the bill was scheduled for this afternoon.

Photos Onnik Krikorian's and mine.

Armenian Parliament Debating Foreign-Media Bill (RFE/RL)YEREVAN, July 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Armenia's parliament is debating the second and final reading of a bill that would restrict foreign-broadcast media, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported.
Several hundred press-freedom advocates, meanwhile, have gathered outside parliament to demonstrate against the law. The bill, which passed its first reading on June 29, would block foreign broadcasters' access to public frequencies and heavily tax the domestic retransmission of foreign-made programs. (more)

Football fuss

2007-06-29T04:24:00.000-07:00

So much for hoping that "the beautiful game" could unite the world...and/or proof that Franklin Foer's thesis in "How Soccer Explains the World" is accurate. In that the game reflects politics and globalization in a microcosm.

Armenian-Azerbaijani Soccer Matches Canceled

BAKU/YEREVAN, June 26, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has ruled that the qualifying matches between Armenia and Azerbaijan for the Euro 2008 soccer championship will not take place.

Europe's soccer governing body said in a June 23 statement that it had decided to cancel the two matches "as no suitable compromise can be found." As a result, both teams will receive zero points.

The two matches were to be played in September. But the soccer associations from both countries couldn't agree on where.

Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been sour since the early 1990s when they fought a war over the predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia did not object to the matches taking place in Armenia and Azerbaijan. But Azerbaijan wanted the games held on neutral territory. Baku said it would be difficult to guarantee the safety of the Armenian players on Azerbaijani territory.

(full article)

To be sure, OSCE is not the only one criticizing.

2007-06-29T03:45:00.000-07:00

OSCE Criticizes Planned Armenian Media Restrictions June 28, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- A top media freedom advocate has criticized proposed amendments to Armenia's legal code that would
severely restrict foreign broadcast media.
Miklos Haraszti, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe's media freedom representative, called on Armenian
lawmakers not to adopt the amendments, saying they
were incompatible with OSCE commitments to media freedoms.
Under the draft amendments, Armenian broadcasters
would have to pay a sharply increased fee for each aired program made by a
foreign media organization.
The legislation would also ban Armenian Public
Television and Radio (HHHR) from retransmitting programs of foreign
broadcasters.
RFE/RL's Armenian Service primarily relies on HHHR's
radio frequencies to air its daily news programs across Armenia.
Haraszti said that as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
is currently the only foreign media outlet using the HHHR frequency, the
adoption of the amendments "would amount to a ban on their programs in
Armenia."
Armenia: Government Moves Against Foreign Broadcast Media June 28, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Armenia's National Assembly is due today to debate government draft amendments that could end Armenian-language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Among the amendments is a proposal to ban, or put a heavy fine on, retransmission of foreign-broadcast programs.
The two draft amendments sent to the parliament late on June 26 were swiftly condemned by local media rights groups and top opposition leaders.
(more) http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/06/e668c742-c73d-4df6-ba43-f6b26db6ac9c.html

La Fête de la Musique en Arménie!

2007-06-22T00:35:00.001-07:00

Held around the world in 130 countries and 400 cities, and this year for the first time in Yerevan, the Fête de la Musique is my new favorite obsession! Concerts held all over the streets, in the open air. As the French have told me "it is the night when no one can tell you to be quiet!" Perfect weather, music resonating off old buildings, diverse bands and musicians playing just meters away from one another...a mass celebration of music all over the world, on the longest days of the year- the summer solstice.

In Yerevan, the philharmonic orchestra played a free concert, children's singing groups performed by Komitas' statue, but later in the evening it was lovely Abovian street whose scene was not to be missed. Reggae-band Reincarnation brought smiles to everyone crowded around Square One, The Beautified Project and of course Bambir brought their unstopable energy out to Charles Aznavour square...and the Fête ended with a finale of a remarkable new jazz band The Zoo playing at the French Terrace (how apropos), under cafe umbrellas while the warm summer rain started to drizzle in, with the smell of wine and strawberry hookah floating in the air...

http://www.21juin2007.net/
http://fetedelamusique.culture.fr/index_flash.php

Yes. Thank you. Finally.

2007-06-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten through 4th-graders at Mid-Prairie Elementary School in Kalona, Iowa (Iowa!) will have the chance to learn Arabic after receiving a federal three-year grant for a language program (full article).

Cary and his classmates are in one of the classes of kindergarten through fifth-grade students who have started to receive lessons in the language this past month. While studies show the benefits of learning a second language at a young age, why Arabic?

Because of the Middle East, increasingly important in world affairs and where Arabic predominantly is spoken, said Susie Swartzendruber, Kalona Elementary's Arabic program coordinator.

“I just feel like this is our way to help our students start looking at that part of the world in a different way,” Swartzendruber said. “I think this is a great way to build understanding.”

art imitates life

2007-06-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

Two nights ago I finished watching a documentary called Gaza Strip, which was recommended to me by a friend. The doc was filmed during the second intifada in 2001, and the camera mostly follows children in east Gaza, where many were wounded and killed by Israeli soldiers- making the devastation of the conflict all the more difficult to swallow. The film particularly follows one 13 year old, Mohammed Hajezi, and his friends, who are a part of "a new generation of Palestian boys who risk their lives hurling stones over barbed wire fences at Israeli tanks, in symblic gesture of resistance to the occupation."

Upon turning off the DVD player and flipping back to tv mode- which is permanently set to CNN- imagine my suprise to see images of the very same streets in Gaza with headlines about the anarchy resulting in a dissolved Palestinian unity government. It hurts me to think that perhaps some of the bemasked faces I was seeing on the live-feed, today, in 2007, could be the very same young teenage boys I had just watched immortalized in Longley's film 6 years ago, now grown into men with unresolved frustrations ceaslessly fueled by the realities of the life they dealt with in childhood. When will children be able to live as children...

Tribeca!

2007-05-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Vardan and Bars Media!!!

Tribeca Film Festival 2007:
Best New Documentary Filmmaker
http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tff-aj-2007-awards.html

http://www.warandpeacefilm.com/

I'd like to think that as a Researcher in the credits of this film, I share part of the award ;-)

ICTs and protests

2007-05-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

Text messaging in Venezuela is now a primary tool of the opposition movement

MIA

2007-05-22T06:51:00.001-07:00

My little brother recently asks me "Done circling the world?"
Well, even with 4 new stamps in my passport my grand total of countries visited is only 8% of the world (18 countries) according to http://douweosinga.com/, so the answer is - no, not quite.

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

In the meantime, dozens of notable things have been happening around me; I will try to resume my habit of blogging with more regularity...

Balkan pop music...

2007-05-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I had hoped/imagined that there would be gypsies dancing on tables, but its actually some modern variation of this going on in the clubs in Bulgaria...even in the charming little town of Plovdiv.

A musical genre that is ready to be exported??

hahah...
Chalga (Чалга) is a form of Bulgarian popular music drawing from Balkan folk traditions and incorporating Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and Roma (Gypsy) influences, as well as motifs from Balkan traditional music, flamenco and klezmer music.

Often indistinguishable from Bulgarian pop music, it remains popular as music played in dance clubs and pubs. It is denigrated as a second-rate musical genre and originating from foreign sources, and its lyrics are gnerally considered to be banal and pointless by most educated Bulgarians. Critics of the genre have frequently complained that chalga fans are uneducated or unrefined; some of them refer to the genre as truck driver or taxi driver music. Chalga is known for repetitious themes and hook-laden dance rhythms. Its commercial exploitation has resulted in a vibrant night scene, especially in Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) and Varna, as well as many televised videos featuring extravagantly glamorized singers. Azis, a Roma cross-dresser, epitomizes the cheap and addictive quality of the genre...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalga

Spending the first days of May in a country without a President :)

2007-05-03T00:14:00.000-07:00

Romania suspends president over abuse claim
POSTED: 1237 GMT (2037 HKT), April 19, 2007

BUCHAREST, Romania (Reuters) -- Romania's parliament suspended President Traian Basescu on Thursday on charges of unconstitutional conduct, deepening the country's political woes and raising the prospect of new presidential elections.

The move deepened political strife in the Balkan European Union newcomer, which analysts say may struggle to meet the bloc's requirements on structural reforms and prepare to absorb billions of euros in aid.

The suspension, passed in a vote of 322 deputies to 108, opens the way for a national referendum on his impeachment within 30 days although Basescu said this week he would resign if suspended.

"Traian Basescu is a political project that failed. He is incapable of pushing the country forward, of uniting it," Mircea Geoana, head of the leftist opposition party PSD, told parliament during the debate.

Basescu has faced numerous accusations of abusing power from the ruling centrists as well as the leftist opposition in recent months as politicians across party lines jostle for influence following EU accession in January.

The suspension was proposed by the leftist opposition party PSD, in what analysts said was an attempt by the Social Democrats to regain power and boost public support badly damaged by corruption scandals.

Their charges against Basescu, which the constitutional court said were groundless, included fomenting political instability, putting pressure on the judiciary and interfering in favour of interest groups.

In a last minute attempt to sway deputies to vote against Basescu, the PSD also accused him on Wednesday of blackmailing constitutional court judges to clear him.
The straight-talking Basescu, Romania's most popular politician, denies the accusations.
Some say political instability has already dented Romania's chances for reaping quick benefits from its new EU membership.

Romania may see the EU refuse to accept the decisions of its courts if anti-corruption reforms do not continue, or it could lose export markets if food safety standards are not met.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Lessons

2007-04-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Analysts say Kyrgyzstan has developed a "culture of demonstrations" that is making stability elusive.

This resonates with other lessons-learned which have been offered from various civic movements around the world- for example Kmara of Georgia. They warn that the biggest mistake was losing momentum after the change in power. The naivity of believeing that simply a change of guard would automatically translate into constructive changes and a properly functioning system.

It may sound hypocritical of me to say, but while rallies and public support are critical, without institutions or a system in place to address the aftermath, it can undermine the success of a democracy.

Thursday, April 12, 2007
Kyrgyzstan: When Is The Revolution Going To End?
By Bruce Pannier

(TASS) April 12, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Whatever one chooses to call it, the "Tulip" or "People's" Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in March 2005 carried hope for many of a better era. But much of the past two years has been tumultuous, characterized by protests, quarrels within the government, and increasingly abusive language between government and opposition politicians.

The word "stability" arises in virtually any discussion of events in Kyrgyzstan, but it appears to be more elusive now than ever.

Opposition groups in Kyrgyzstan are currently holding a rally aimed at forcing President Kurmanbek Bakiev to make way for an early presidential election. The demonstrators are also demanding constitutional reforms.

An Era Of Demonstrations

There have been more demonstrations in Kyrgyzstan since independence in 1991 than in the other four Central Asian states combined. But since the revolution that ousted former President Askar Akaev two years ago, breaks between protests have been rare -- they seem to come one after another. The frequency of rallies in Kyrgyzstan has led some to comment that the country is in danger of becoming a failed state.

"Two years after March 2005, we have to say that many if not most of the slogans of the Tulip Revolution have not been realized," Edil Baisalov, the head of Kyrgyzstan's Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, said of the near-constant protests in Kyrygzstan during a recent appearance at RFE/RL offices in Washington. "For many in Kyrgyzstan, it only turned into a change of a few nameplates on some of the highest floors [of the government building]. But everything else remained; and what we hoped for was to receive a moral revolution that would, first of all,
mean not only change of regime but change in the way the people and government communicate [and] that many of the formerly acceptable levels of corruption and arrogance -- these sort of things would go away. Not only have they not gone away, but many people will tell you that they have multiplied."
[...]

This article brings up another good point- one that a friend who is a part of Sksel a brought up to me in conversation a few weeks ago. Thoughts that I echo, and will summarize here.

It’s not a revolution its "evolution". What needs improvement in our country is first and foremost the citizenry. If the government were overthrown and a new one put in place- we’d still end up in the same place so long as society is the same. What we are aiming for is a social awakening. An engaged citizenry that is alert, engaged, proactive, inquisitive and responsible and feels a sense of ownership. We want to infuse and strengthen a value system. How are we doing this? Through leading by example. Our actions and protests began with 5 and 6 people. We are creating a small model of the type of society we’d like to see. Every subsequent event that gathers us more visibility, more friends, and more interested viewers and eventually more people who join us is a step towards expanding that model a little bit larger. And a little bit larger after that. And larger still. So when people ask us what we mean by “sksel a” it is this movement we mean.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”
-Mahatma Ghandi

It's our city and we'll dance wherever we want to.

2007-04-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

"Baghramyan Avenue is not an appropriate place to dance."

- Serge Sarkissian

(former Defense Minister, recently appointed Prime Minister), 4/12/04

On April 12, 2004, thousands of Armenian citizens filled Baghramyan avenue facing the Parliamentary building, in protest against the fraudulent elections and calling for the President's resignation. Among the masses, a group of patriotic Armenians lifted their friends over their shoulders and began a traditional circle dance in the middle of the street.

Baghramyan Ave. - April 12, 2004

Shortly thereafter, the protest was dispersed by irreprehensible, unnecessary and brutal violence by military police.

On April 12, 2007, around 7:30pm, a group of about 20 Armenians gathered at the intersection of Baghramyan and Demirchyan Avenues, once again facing Parliament, and for just a few minutes ran into the middle the intersection to form a circle and dance.

Baghramyan Ave. - April 12, 2007

The people involved (some of whom were victim to beatings in 2004, some of whom were witness, and others who were not at all present that day) organized this event yesterday to remind the country and this government of what happened just 3 years ago; that violence against peace is always wrong; to demonstrate in solidarity that peoples' freedoms must never be taken away; and to symbollically state that they will not stand for this country's government to pressure their fellow Armenians - not in 1996, not in 2004, not in 2007 and not in 2008.

article in Armenian: http://www.a1plus.am/am/?page=issue&iid=47850

Shocked and in Awe

2007-04-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

Albania : Large Rally in Tirana in Defence of Press Freedom

Around 100,000 people gathered in Tirana's main square on 13 April in protest against government pressure on the news media. Prime Minister Sali Berisha has accused certain media of being in the service of organised crime and, a few weeks ago, the judicial authorities began investigating some news media on suspicion of tax evasion. Press representatives claim that only media critical of the government are being targeted.

www.mjaft.org

The Rose Revolution

2007-04-06T04:07:00.000-07:00

After visiting Tblisi, I couldn't help but notice some very striking differences in the level of development in our neighboring Caucasian capital city. Certainly on the a very surface level the city seems very developed and european. Infrastructure exists, city-planning is paid attention to, the streets are clean, customer service is pleasant, and cops don't take bribes.

It's striking to think that perhaps thanks to the successful Rose Revolution in 2003, Georgia's fate completely turned around while Armenia's attempts to revolt against fraudulent parliamentary elections were violently stamped out in the streets in 2004. How much did that supression affect the will of the Armenian people and undermine their sense of ownership to their state, and how much did the Georgian's success bolster theirs?

There are of course many other factors to consider when comparing the progress of the two countries- such as Georgia's more strategic location with access to the Black Sea, its partership in the Ceyhan-Baku oil pipeline which will undoubtedly make huge profits for the country, and it's very cozy strategic relationship with the US. I also know that Saakashvilli's tactics bordered on authoritarian during the beginning of his presidential tenure, but perhaps that hard-line approach of throwing scores of oligarchs and mafiosos in jail was just the clean-up job that was neccessary.

However, the question is how much of the changes are on the surface. How do actual Georgians' lives compare to their lives pre-rose revolution? Particularly outside of lovely Tblisi?

Just found this very informative, interactive site which discusses progress (or not) in the regions.

"Georgia: Revolution in the Regions"
http://www.eurasianet.org/georgia/index.html

Demonstration cut short...

2007-03-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

The idea is to create a concerned citizenry- one which is aware of what is going on its country, and voices its concerns because it recognizes its right and responsibility to play an active role. The idea is growing momentum as evidenced by the fact that attendance at Sunday's Sksela/Transparency organized demonstration was higher than ever.

The 'cause celebre' of this particular demonstration? The illegal construction happening in downtown Yerevan and the unconstitutional eviction of people from their homes in order to make way for said construction.

Great article about the demonstration...I wish you could all read Armenian:
http://echannel.am/?topic_id=238&PHPSESSID=fcc1229b858c3648ff0a94ec0cf76889

However, just a few blocks short of reaching the Mayor's office (the final destination of the petition which was signed by hundreds), the march was cut short as the following, highly unexpected, news became public:

PRIME MINISTER OF RA ANDRANIK MARGARYAN DIED
[02:01 pm] 25 March, 2007

Today Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, head of the Republican Party of
Armenia Andranik Margaryan died of heart attack.

What does this mean?

YEREVAN, March 26 (RIA Novosti) - Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has accepted the government’s resignation following the death of Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan, a government spokesman said Monday.

PM Markaryan, 55, the leader of the Republican Party, part of a ruling coalition, died of a heart attack March 25.

“The head of state has directed Cabinet members to continue with their duties until a new Cabinet of Ministers is formed,” the spokesman said.

Under Armenia’s Constitution, the president can accept the government’s resignation if the post of prime minister becomes vacant for any reason.

A new prime minister is to be appointed within 10 days, while a new government is to be formed within 20 days following the prime minister’s appointment.

And so, the opportunity arises to appoint a new Prime Minister and government just one and half months away from Parliamentary elections...an interesting new chapter of Armenian politics is sure to unfold right before our eyes.

Skeptics will likely denounce the elections as entirely superflous at this point. Let's just let the new predetermined government assemble itself and get it over with, without going through all the symbolic motions and pretending that the public actually has some say in the whole thing...

Ironically, things come full circle. Sksela: Armenia needs you.

Cultural Diplomacy

2007-03-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

Interesting website. "The think tank for everyday democracy"- DEMOS' thoughts on "cultural diplomacy":

Cultural Diplomacy argues that the huge global reach and potential of Britain’s world class artistic and cultural assets – from Razorlight to the Royal Ballet - should be at the heart of government relationship building abroad.

Cultural Diplomacy argues that, more than ever before, culture has a vital role to play in international relations. This stems from the wider, connective and human values that culture has: culture is both the means by which we come to understand others, and an aspect of life with innate worth that we enjoy and seek out. Cultural enables us to appreciate points of commonality and, where there are differences, to understand the motivations and humanity that underlie them.

As identity politics exert an increasing influence on domestic and international exchanges, culture is therefore a critical forum for negotiation and a medium of exchange in finding shared solutions. Cultural contact provides a forum for unofficial political relationship-building: it keeps open negotiating channels with countries where political connections are in jeopardy, and helps to recalibrate relationships for changing times with emerging powers such as India and China. In the future, alliances are just as likely to be forged along lines of cultural understanding as they are on
economic or geographic ones.

However, culture should not be used as a tool of public diplomacy. The value of cultural activity comes precisely from its independence, its freedom and the fact that it represents and connects people, rather than necessarily governments or policy positions. Cultural Institutions and others in the cultural sector must not only retain their independence, but also be brought more into the policy-making process.

A little olive branch, but not a cross

2007-03-26T06:55:00.001-07:00

It should be spelled "Akh-Tamar"

Turkey fixes Armenian church as gesture
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
AKDAMAR ISLAND, Turkey - An ancient Armenian church, perched on a rocky island in a vast lake, has become a modern symbol of the divisions and fitful efforts at reconciliation between Turks and Armenians whose history of bloodshed drives their troubled relationship.

The Akdamar church, one of the most precious remnants of Armenian culture 1,000 years ago, deteriorated over the last century, a victim of neglect after Turks carried out mass killings of Armenians as the Ottoman Empire crumbled around the time of World War I. Rainwater seeped through the collapsed, conical dome, treasure-hunters dug up the basalt floor, and shepherds took potshots with rifles at the facade.
[...]

Next week, the church will showcase Turkey's tentative steps to improving ties with its ethnic Armenian minority, as well as neighboring Armenia. Turkey completed a $1.5 million restoration of the sandstone building, and invited Armenian officials to a ceremony there on March 29 to mark what Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has called a "positive" message.

[...]

"A positive sign and a move on the part of Turkey ...would be the opening of the border with Armenia and establishment of diplomatic relations," the news agency Armenpress quoted Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian as saying this week. He said the Armenian delegation could reach the church by
land in just a few hours if the border were open, but instead will have to fly to Istanbul, and then take another flight back toward the Armenian border.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a Muslim ally of Ankara. The move hurt the economy of tiny, landlocked Armenia. Turkey also lobbied against a proposed U.S. congressional resolution that would recognize the killings of Armenians in the last century as genocide. Some of Turkey's 65,000 Armenian Orthdox Christians say they endure harassment in Turkey, which has an overwhelmingly Muslim population.
Hrant Dink, the ethnic Armenian journalist murdered in Istanbul in January, was apparently targeted by nationalists for his commentaries on minority rights and free expression.
Patriarch Mesrob II, the spiritual head of the Armenian Orthodox community in Turkey, has asked the government to mount a cross on top of the church, which used to have one, and to allow periodic eligious services there.
The government has yet to respond, but placement of a cross could be sensitive for Erdogan, who plans to attend the inauguration ceremony, and his Islamic-rooted government. The symbolism could upset some Muslims, and Turkey's powerful military, might regard it as a concession to Armenia and the Armenian diaspora.

moderation

2007-03-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

From Well-Having to Well Being
Nathan Gardels, Fall 2000

To raise the notion of frugality in the midst of the greatest consumer boom in economic history may seem wildly out of place. But if globalization only half succeeds in lifting many more millions into the middle class in this century, by necessity frugality will become a virtue.

[...]

The technological promise that we can have our cake and eat it too may well substitute for self-limitation up to a certain threshold. In the end, however, the expectation that some kind of planetary liposuction will save us from ourselves can be no substitute for a lean ethos that emphasizes the art of living over the ideology of consumerism.

Clearly, the answer is not technology but a cultural transformation that redefines wealth as well-being instead of well-having. The alternative of frugality does not mean poverty. It means living intelligently instead of wastefully as if there were no tomorrow, as if the polar icecap would never melt no matter how hot the fevered pitch of industrialized desire...

Proper Education
Eric Prydz, Winter 2006

2007-03-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

NPQ | What set of policies in the advanced countries can make globalization work?

Stiglitz | The prescription for making globalization work is what is generally called “the Scandinavian model.” That means high levels of investment in education, research and technology plus a strong safety net. That, of course, also entails, as in the Scandinavian countries, a highly progressive income tax.

Far from making these countries less competitive, it has made them more so. Though it may seem a contradiction to conservative ideologues who think cutting taxes is the answer to everything, the fact is that people are more willing to take entrepreneurial risks if they can count on a safety net and if they have the training to be innovative.

From "Making Globalization Work" NPQ Winter 2007

"The revolution will not be televised...it will be You-Tubed"

2007-03-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

It continues :)

2007-03-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

I'll just copy and paste from Onnik's report from Transparency International's blog for now since he summed it up so extremely well. Barring any further internet and technical difficulties, my video footage from the event will be up soon...

It’s been included in the Oxford English Dictionary since 2004, but it’s unlikely that more than a handful of people in Armenia know what a flash mob is. It’s even less likely that anybody actually cares, but nonetheless, history was made in Yerevan today when Sksel a, an informal grouping of civil society activists working to activate youth in time for the May parliamentary election, organized Armenia’s first ever flash mob.
In modern usage, flash mob describes a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly disperse. They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or other communications networks.
The term has also been applied to distributed mobs, who use similar means to coordinate sudden large scale simultaneous actions in multiple locations. An example of such an action is the widespread use of mobile phones in the 2005 civil unrest in France to coordinate widespread social disruption.
Usually, the organizers of such events don’t tell participants what exactly will happen and why, and today’s event was no exception. Apart from a non-descriptive advert posted on various blogs such as this one, no other details were announced prior to the
event. Even so, after two previously successful events, enough interest was aroused to attract around 150-200 young Armenians to turn up at the park opposite Yerevan’s Conservatory.

Of course, most of those attending were also present at Sksel a’s Barekendan and Կես կատակ կես լուրջ ցուՅցահանդես events, but for Armenia even this is impressive given the level of apathy and non-involvement in society. However, when interviewed by one journalist, a 15-year-old girl said she had attended all three events so far, but wasn’t too sure what this one was hoping to achieve. Still, perhaps that’s not too surprising.
Standing at the corner of each intersection leading into the roundabout opposite Yerevan’s Opera House, as well as circling the grassy area in its center, each participant stood with a newspaper reading separate articles of their choice out aloud. Also wearing hats made out of newspapers, the sight and sound of that alone was surreal and unexpected enough for Armenia even in this day and age.
As were leaflets handed out asking “are you satisfied with yourself, or with the person next to you?,” “are you guilty?,” and “are you afraid, or don’t you care?”
Tamar Palandjian, Youth Program Coordinator at the Civil Society Institute (CSI) says that the purpose of the event was straightforward enough. Under banners that asked “Shall We Read?” the event was aimed at encouraging the population to read newspapers. With all of the television stations under direct or indirect government
control, the only plurality of opinion and diversity of information can be found in the print media.
Even so, newspaper circulation remains low with actual readership even lower, and even the most popular of papers can publish only a few thousand copies each day. Nevertheless, if the purpose of the event was to get people to take interest in the press, then the flash mob achieved its goal. Cars and public transport passing by stopped to take copies of the newspapers participants were handing out until the police asked the organizers to stop in case traffic was disrupted.
Once again, there were even a few members of the Diaspora in attendance, including representatives of two significant organizations albeit there in a personal capacity, and most observers were overall impressed with the new approaches taken by Sksel a with regards to activating society, and in particular youth. However, many still remain unsure as to where Sksel a is heading, and whether it’s ultimate goal is clear enough.
One participant attending for the first time, for example, said that she wanted to be involved with something, but wasn’t entirely sure what. Still, such events might help direct young Armenians in that sense, and it was interesting to see that after the initial action itself, participants were encouraged to cut out those articles they found most interesting to paste to a large board erected in the park.
“They’re making their own newspaper,” remarked one young Armenian from the Diaspora. “I wonder what it says?”
More events are planned in the very near future.

Free Hugs campaign

2007-03-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

'Global Civil Society'

2007-03-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

"As major new challenges like climate change and escalating religious conflict threaten our common future, people from around the world are coming together to take global politics into their own hands.

Avaaz.org (Our name means "Voice" or "Song" in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, Nepalese, Dari, Turkish, and Bosnian) is a community of global citizens who take action on the major issues facing the world today. Our aim is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people -- and not just political elites and unaccountable corporations -- shape global decisions. Avaaz.org members are taking action for a more just and peaceful world and a vision of globalization with a human face."

World Press Photo of the Year 2006

2007-03-13T03:04:00.000-07:00

Do you remember last summer?

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=823&Itemid=146

Sksela...

2007-03-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

On March 4th Sksela organized a "Half-silly/Half-serious" public exhibition.

The goal of this event was to transform the park surrounding Komitas’ statue near the Opera into an enclosed environment, which contained many opportunities to provoke thought. The circle was physically divided in to two sections: one half represented things satirical and comedic, while the other half presented facts about Armenia’s reality today.

For example, on the “serious” side an exhibition of photojournalistic photos of Armenia was set up, while on the “silly” side blank pages were put up with markers- allowing participants to write whatever they wanted. On the “serious” side an information booth was set up where publications and information packets from reputable NGOs and IOs were distributed, while on the “silly” side a storyteller read from a book of Armenian fairy tales. On the “serious” side a large exhibition of critical recent news articles was set up, while on the “silly” side satirical headlines were exhibited. On the “serious side” colored signs boldly declared positive civic values (“honesty” “integrity” “hard work” “education” “responsibility”) while the “silly” side hosted artificial values (“materialism”, “cheating”). All the while, alternative and progressive music with messages of action echoed through the entire area.

All in all, the elements inside the “Half-silly/Half-serious Exhibition” were intended to engage participants and raise questions about whether they are satisfied with the reality around them.

In the end however...perhaps this quote by Milan Kundera, one of my favorite writers, which Bella found, summarizes everything best:

"Circle dancing is magic. It speaks to us through the millennia from the depths of human memory.
Madame Raphael had cut the picture out of the magazine and would stare at it and dream. She too longed to dance in a ring. All her life she had looked for a group of people she could hold hands with and dance with in a ring.
First she looked for them in the Methodist Church (her father was a religious fanatic), then in the Communist Party, then among the Trotskyites, then in the anti-abortion movement (A child has a right to life!), then in the pro-abortion movement (A woman has a right to her body!); she looked for them among the Marxists, the psychoanalysts, and the structuralists; she looked for them in Lenin, Zen Buddhism, Mao Tse-tung, yogis, the nouveau roman, Brechtian theater, the theater of panic; and finally she hoped she could at least become one with her students, which meant she always forced them to think and say exactly what she thought and said, and together they formed a single body and a single soul, a single ring and a single dance".
- Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.

changing the world, one letter at a time

2007-03-11T23:32:00.000-07:00

Haha...is it egotistic to think i had something to do with this ;-)

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/11/france.chirac.reut/index.html

POSTED: 0206 GMT (1006 HKT), March 11, 2007

STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

• NEW: Chirac urges nation to reject "extremism, racism, anti-Semitism...rejection"
• NEW: Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen calls Chirac departure "a great joy"
• NEW: Chirac says he would have liked to have modernized France more rapidly
• Nicolas Sarkozy, Segolene Royal, Francois Bayrou lead contenders for president

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- President Jacques Chirac announced on Sunday he would not seek re-election next month after 45 years in frontline politics and made a final appeal to French voters to shun extremism.

Chirac, 74, has served as head of state since 1995 and leaves behind a checkered record that consists as much of symbolic gestures as concrete policies.

This article is first on this list of "Top Stories" in the Latest News section of CNN international's home-page and was reported among the headlines of World News as I watched this morning.

Letter to CNN

2007-03-09T00:08:00.000-08:00

After days of bitching to my roomate and anyone else who will listen, I tried complaining directly to the source.

To Whom It May Concern:
I am disappointed with the complete lack of coverage regarding the French presidential elections which are now almost ONE-month away.

Unfortunately, I could fathom why domestic US CNN may not carry much content on anything not of direct interest to the general American public. However, as a US citizen living and working abroad, I watch CNN INTERNATIONAL frequently and am very disappointed to have seen not one segment or report on this critical election happening in a very important EU state.

Instead, CNN International IS saturated with news of the US's 2008 election...still TWENTY-ONE months away.

My French friends tell me that their country is in the midst of a serious identity crisis and these elections could prove pivotal for the future.

As Chirac held the post of Prime Minister and then Mayor of Paris before taking Presidential office, my friends in their 20s have not yet lived a day when Jacques Chirac was not a dominant figure in political life. This is France's first chance in over two decades to have a change in leadership.

My friends also describe candidate Sarkozy as "the French George Bush." In the meantime candidate Bayrou labels himself as the French version of a Bill Clinton or a Tony Blair.
If even these comparisons aren't enough to make our American-centric news agencies pay some attention, I'm not sure what is.

If CNN International truly intends to report global news, I implore you to report much more about elections happening outside the US.

Thank you.

Sent today via http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?37. Send one, it's fun.

In the meantime, here's at least one article worth reading about France's ignored Presidential race.

Dear Diaspora,

2007-03-05T00:25:00.000-08:00

Take Action! Become an Election Observer in May

The 2007 Parliamentary Election scheduled for 12 May is considered critical to the process of democratization in Armenia.

Some even consider that the election is the most important parliamentary vote in Armenia’s recent 15-year history as an independent nation. However, international observers have continually reported that elections in Armenia fail to meet international standards.

When asked to prioritize possible solutions to improve the situation in the country, the Center for Regional Development/Transparency International Armenia’s 2006 Corruption Perceptions Survey identified that most respondents pointed to the necessity of ensuring free and fair elections.
As more and more ethnic Armenians living in the Diaspora connect with the modern-day Republic, what can a citizen of another country do to help make the coming election in May free and fair for the citizens of this country?

Take Action! Become an ELECTION OBSERVER this Spring!

It’s Your Choice, the largest domestic election observation organization in the Republic of Armenia, and the Center for Regional Development / Transparency International Armenia invite Armenians from abroad to take part in this critical and historical event. Communities in the Diaspora are particularly encouraged to send representatives to monitor the conduct of the vote.

Details:
• Training and official certification will be provided by IYC.
• Observers will receive preparation packets on how the process works ahead of Election Day, and checklists to follow at the polling stations they can monitor on 12 May.
• Small stipend for food on Election Day provided by IYC.

Requirements:
• Observers must be able to read and speak Armenian or Russian.
• Observers must be non-partisan.
• Register at least 25 days in advance by email at iyc@arminco.com.
• Arrive in Armenia by 2 May 2007.

For Armenians from the Diaspora living outside of Armenia, we regret that It’s Your Choice and CRD/TI Armenia are unable to contribute to the cost of visas, flights or accommodation. However, information on locating affordable accommodation in Armenia is available on request. Contact IYC for more details at iyc@arminco.com.

Morality

2007-03-03T03:48:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK TIMES
INTERNATIONAL / EUROPE March 3, 2007
Rebellious Diplomat Finds Work as Envoy of the Voiceless
PRISTINA, Kosovo

GUILT is not a word that most diplomats would choose to sum up their careers, but Carne Ross uses just that as he looks back at much of his work over 15 years. Guilt, frustration and anger.

Until about two years ago, this 40-year-old with closely cropped hair had a promising career ahead of him in the most prestigious ministry in British government, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. By his 30s, he had done foreign service in Germany and Afghanistan and held a senior post in the British delegation at the United Nations Security Council, where he was responsible for Iraq policy.

He seemed headed toward an ambassadorship as a member of the elite, fast stream of the Foreign Office, followed by a comfortable retirement.

But things fell apart in the most public fashion, unusual among the tight-lipped mandarins of Britain’s foreign service.

Unhappy with American and British claims that Iraq was developing unconventional weapons, Mr. Ross testified in June 2004 at an official inquiry into the British government’s use of intelligence. Two months later, convinced he could no longer work in the foreign service, he resigned. Since then he has written many articles criticizing the American and British rationale for going to war.

But it is his broad critique of the way international diplomacy is conducted that has ruffled feathers the most.

In a book released in April, “Independent Diplomat: Dispatches From an Unaccountable Elite,” he takes the foreign service to task. He says it routinely made “bad decisions in closed rooms” and acted “with little or no consultation of the people in whose name those decisions are made.”

The British Foreign Office scrutinized the book before publication to see if it breached the Official Secrets Act. It deleted some parts and concluded that Mr. Ross “risks damaging the credibility and morale of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the relationship of confidence and trust within the government,” according to a statement later released to the news media.

MR. ROSS seems to relish the controversy. The rupture of his career over Iraq, he says, made him realize that much of what he did in the foreign service gave scant thought to the people he was affecting, and that realization gave rise to his anger.
“Diplomacy is too closed a box,” Mr. Ross said, dominated as it is by the big powers on the United Nations Security Council. Its permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — create policies without insight into their impact, Mr. Ross argues.

“More often than not, we took decisions with little understanding of the situation,” he said. “The people we were discussing were not present, whether it was Iraq, Palestine or the Western Sahara.”

That prompted to him to find a way to help those countries and regions he considered to be excluded from the world of international diplomacy.

The result is a nonprofit agency called Independent Diplomat, like his book. It offers advice to inexperienced or politically marginalized regions and groups. Its motto is “a diplomatic service for those who need it most,” a phrase that some former colleagues derided, he said.

Full article here.

Reminds me of Confessions of an Economic Hitman and Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and its Discontents, among others.

I wonder if these critiques and exposés coming from insiders mean our institutions must prepare to make some changes? Or ar they just attempts by a few individuals to personally repent for what they have been a part of, while accepting that the big wheel keeps on turning.

Free Media? What's that?

2007-03-03T02:18:00.000-08:00

Screening the Message: Ruling on Parliamentary broadcast sharpens debate about TV bias
ArmeniaNow

A weekly live broadcast of questions and answers in the National Assembly has been ruled unconstitutional by Armenia’s Constitutional Court.

The court said that Public Television could not be obliged to show the four-hour broadcast because it would contravene laws separating the operation of television from government control.
[...]
Opposition politicians also criticized the ruling, but suggested that it was linked to the forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007 and 2008 respectively. They argue that the weekly broadcast provides one of the few opportunities for opposition parties to get their messages across to the electorate without interference from pro-government TV stations.
[...]
Public TV, known as the First Channel, plans to summarize the
question-and-answer session, rather than allow unedited broadcast, selecting the questions considered most important to the viewers.

and my favorite part:

Alexan Harutyunyan the chairman of the Public Television and Radio Council, considers the court’s ruling to be fair. He says it helps to improve the general quality of the legislation governing media by bringing it closer to conformity with European standards.

what???

La femme d'armenie

2007-02-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

Ever gone skiing with French diplomats? Without standing in crowded lines...without borders and barriers preventing you to feel like the mountain is truly yours...on freshly fallen powder snow...with Lake Sevan in front of you and Mt. Ararat behind?....Ohh la-la!

Watchdogs

2007-02-27T00:19:00.000-08:00

Recently had an internal debate with myself about the role of media, of the effect that barrages of negative and apocolyptic news has on the psyche of a society (ie- the "culture of fear" firmly taking root in the US), about constantly drumming the beat of warning without offering constructive solutions... And then I read this article.

In the west, Politkovskaya's honesty brought her a measure of fame and a string of awards, bestowed at ceremonies in hotel ballrooms from New York to Stockholm. At home, she had none of that. Her excoriations of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, ensured isolation, harassment, and, many predicted, death. 'I am a pariah,' she wrote in an essay last year. 'That is the result of my journalism through the years of the second Chechen war, and of publishing books abroad about life in Russia.'

Despite the fact that Politkovskaya was articulate, attractive and accomplished, she was barred from appearing on television, which is the only way the vast majority of Russians get news. To the degree that a living woman could be airbrushed out of post-Soviet history, she had been. 'People call the newspaper,' she wrote, 'and send letters with one and the same question: "Why are you writing about this? Why are you scaring us? Why do we need to know this?"' She provided an answer as much for herself as for any reader: 'I'm sure this has to be done, for one simple reason: as contemporaries of this war, we will be held responsible for it. The classic Soviet excuse of not being there and not taking part in anything personally won't work. So I want you to know the truth. Then you'll be free of cynicism.'

So, thanks to the Guardian for publishing this very intriguing in depth two-part article (really worth the read) and confirming what I deeply always believed. In countries like these- where information is not clear and poorly disseminated, media outlets are controlled, facts are dubious, and unfounded conspiracy theories are rampant- it is all the MORE important for journalists, and researchers and organizations like Transparency to report the facts and the results of their research- even if it is disconcerting and frightening.

"A problem from hell"

2007-02-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

Perhaps in the 21st century, closure on the issue of genocide can be somewhat provided by international legal structures- even if emotional scars remain. Fascinating process which exposes the politics, symantics, nuances, guilt, victimization, collective hurt and retribution on a grand, human scale.

New York Times
February 27, 2007
Court Declares Bosnia Killings Were Genocide
By Marlise Simons

THE HAGUE, Feb. 26 — The International Court of Justice on Monday for the first time called the massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 an act of genocide, but determined that Serbia itself was not guilty of the enormous crime.

Nonetheless, it faulted Serbia, saying it “could and should” have prevented the genocide and, in its aftermath, should have punished the Bosnian Serbs who systematically killed close to 8,000 men and
boys in July 1995.

The ruling resulted from a civil lawsuit Bosnia had brought against Serbia, the first in which one country sued another for genocide.

The 15 international judges who held nine weeks of hearings and deliberated for nearly 10 months relied in part on evidence presented in criminal cases heard by the United Nations Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which has found two Bosnian Serb officers guilty of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre.

In the end, the lawsuit resolved Monday may have been the most complex case handled in the 60-year history of the World Court, which the United Nations set up to resolve legal disputes between
states.

The ruling appeared to give some satisfaction — and frustration — to both sides. It freed Serbia of the stigma of being a genocidal nation and absolved it from having to pay war reparations, as demanded by
Bosnia.

At the same time, Bosnia obtained what it said it wanted from the outset: a recognition of Serbia’s guilt.

[...]

In a statement after the session, Judge Higgins noted that the findings did not completely satisfy either side. “That does not mean, of course, that the court has been seeking a political compromise,” she
said.

All the same, the ruling, even if strictly based on the law, hews close to the political wishes of Western
countries that want to pull Serbia into a wider Western European community, rather than see it isolated as a pariah state, possibly accused of genocide, with its extreme nationalists growing in strength.

[...]

Lawyers for Bosnia had tried to convince the court that the pattern of atrocities across many communities in Bosnia demonstrated the intention to commit genocide, not only by killing, imprisoning
and deporting the population, but also by destroying evidence of their presence.
Andras Riedlmayer, a historian testifying for Bosnia, said the Serb campaign to purge 26 municipalities of Bosnia of non-Serbs had destroyed or damaged 958 mosques and close to 300 Roman Catholic churches and monasteries.

But the judges ruled that demonstrating a pattern of conduct or of atrocities was “too broad” to qualify for the definition of genocide. The crime of genocide required showing convincingly there was a specific plan or the specific intention to destroy the group or part of it, they ruled.

In essence, they did not answer the question often asked in The Hague: when does ethnic cleansing become genocide?

After LENGTHY national debate, some form of dual citizenship is here

2007-02-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

Dual citizenship law passed
26.02.2007 15:36
YEREVAN (YERKIR) - With 66 pro, 5 con votes and 1 abstention, Armenian National Assembly adopted the amendments to the Law on dual citizenship at second reading. The United Labor party voted against. The opposition did not participate in the voting.

Let us remind that this amendment establishes the institute of dual citizenship in the republic and our compatriots residing in different sites of the world gain the right to elect and be elected.

Dual citizens cannot run for president and parliament, they will not be allowed to be members of the Constitutional Court.

According to Justice Minister David Harutyunyan, political agreement has been reached on the following issue: “Dual citizens who have no place of registration in Armenia will not participate in elections. Correspondingly, dual citizens having a place of registration in Armenia attain franchise. In fact, no additional precincts will be opened for citizens not registered in Armenia.

Sksel-a

2007-02-19T09:31:00.000-08:00

It's official: Sksel-a.

Sksel-a means "it has begun" in Armenian, and we used this as our phrase in advertising for Barekendan and every "action" we plan on organizing from here on out because, quite frankly, it has. And what a better way to start things than with a lot of energy, a lot of color, a LOT of noise, and a lot of young people. Anyone who has been here will acknowledge that this alone is a huge feat in Armenia.

What were our goals? Many. As Barekendan/carnival as a tradition stands as a platform for being theatrical, for being over the top, for breaking expectations and for laughing at ourselves and questioning social constructs, it was the perfect opportunity to bring up issues in our young civil society's collective mind. Tongue-in-cheek posters like "El Che'" ("el che" in Armenian meaning "no more") or "Keech Gerek" ("eat less" alludes to the colloquial use of the word "eating money" in reference to corruption) were meant both to make people laugh and make them think. Chanting "wake up!", blowing on hundreds of whistles and passing out alarm clocks were a call the public to action, to shake them out of their slumber. Alarm clocks were passed out to passers-by each with a small piece of paper asking a single inquisitive question of the recipient ("are you ready?" "how long will it be this way?" "where is your voice?" "aren't you concerned?"). Using the phrase "yegek tser yegh ou brinzin der ganknek," from Tumanyan's famous Barekendan folk-tale about the foolish man and wife who were duped by the sneaky theif, encourages the public to take ownership of their country- of their future- lest they share the same fate as Tumanyan's characters.

Passerbys may have been confused, and some participants may have missed the deeper meanings, but it was a sight, a spectacle and it made people smile, and what is more, we hope it made people think. Thus, I consider the day a tremendous success. Out of the tumult of amorphous, uninhibited energy is often where large innovative changes begin.

Other comments and photos about the event:

"As for the Barekentan event itself, few important things need to be said: Ancient festivals are, before anything, a ritual — just like elections in ancient Athens were a ritual… They don’t have a meaning in themselves unless you invest that meaning yourself. The same goes for political life, political conciousness and politicization.

Every such event and every alarm clock handed out is a seed of liberty. And very often that seed will land on rocks. Other times it will land on soil and maybe (given the right type of atmosphere and provided that it is not stamped out at an early age) it will grow into a tree … but rarely.

[...]

Every such ritual, every such event is a step forward in cultivating a vibrant political culture, but they must be backed by action! Yes, action. A prior type of activity by the people in their everyday life, that generates a type of conciousness that when an alarm clock is handed out it spartks a thought. Conciousness is not the same as idea. "

More here http://blog.transparency.am/?p=30
here http://azat.wordpress.com/2007/02/19/barekendan-yesterday-is-reported-as-a-success/
here http://bekaisa.livejournal.com/210698.html
and here http://www.armeniadiaspora.com/gallery/barekendan/frameset.html

i told you, barekendan is coming...

2007-02-15T06:55:00.000-08:00

Barekendan is an old Armenian traditional festival that we are seeking to revive as a form of civil action by calling upon the citizens to “wake up” and become involved in social processes in Armenia. In particular, this holiday is an occasion in which traditional norms and routines are rejected and reversed. People wear masks, costumes and participate in games, performances and jokes as a way of truly expressing their opinions. In other words, it is an occasion in which people are urged not to be passive and instead alert. As Lent begins the day after Barekendan, it is the final call for people to be uninhibited in their actions prior to the start of a period of fasting.

Seeing as how the Parliamentary elections of 2007 are critical for the democratization processes in Armenia, Barekendan serves as an ideal occasion for the civil society activists to call upon their fellow dormant citizens to “wake up” and become involved. We are seeking to accomplish this goal by organizing a parade and day of festivities on February 18, 2007. On this day, we plan on dressing in costumes, offering face painting, passing out sweets and candies among other treats.

http://Barekendan.tripod.com

http://azat.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/barekentan/

http://blog.transparency.am/?p=13

http://www.a1plus.am/en/

http://www.hra.am/eng/?page=issue&id=16388

http://dr4m4qu33n.blogspot.com/2007/02/barekendan.html

http://armyouth.blogspot.com/2007/02/sksel-jhoghovurt-httpbarekendan.html

http://mkdotam.livejournal.com/271001.html

http://ditord.wordpress.com/2007/02/13/come-and-get-your-share-of-oil-and-rice/

http://bekaisa.livejournal.com/209027.html

Love

2007-02-14T01:38:00.000-08:00

BAREKENDAN!

2007-02-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

Charles Aznavour Square, One week ago

2007-02-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

Letter to fall/winter '06 volunteers

2007-02-12T05:17:00.000-08:00

December 20, 2006
Yerevan

Dear Volunteers,

I recall a discussion some of us had over dinner in November. We talked about how the informal societal pressures on citizens here are so great; about how for some, interactions have been reduced nearly to those of basic survival (do whatever you must to get something, anything); about how people with any kind of power (monetary, resources, violence, contacts) hold that power over others to keep what they have –thus resulting in a society that is immobile; about how there is fear in people preventing them to stand up against what has become a nearly feudalistic hierarchy; about our friend Krikor’s opinion that the only way out of this denigrating stagnation is massive social action whereby thousands of people refuse to put up with the status quo any longer.

Armenian people are known for creating their own support systems- in the absence of a properly functioning government, healthcare system, etc. people support one another. The social and familial ties are deep and profound. However, in the same breath, today they are destroying each other. Why? Because of fear. At a round-table discussion on social change in Armenia, a local Armenian activist told me that in his opinion, Armenian citizens feel that they finally have SOMETHING, and they are scared to death of losing what little bit they have managed to hold on to. When days of having nothing (NOTHING) are still in recent memory (it was only 10 years ago that my taxi driver Sako remembers carrying his daughter on his shoulders up 11 flights of stairs in ’93. He remembers vividly burning book, furniture, whatever they had in the house because there was no heat or gas, and not a day when the snow did not fall between November and March), it is impossible for average people to risk whatever little achievements they have made by now.

And THIS is exactly the importance of your presence here.

That same young activist impressed upon me that the best thing the diaspora can do is set up businesses here, be here, and challenge those immoral systems that are pervading society here today. Perhaps, a diasporan businessperson can open up a legitimately run business in Armenia, with the knowledge that more than likely he will lose money on this endeavor, or in the best-case scenario, break even. But if he or she is in any position to make such an investment without risking his own self and family’s security, then Armenia beseeches him to try because there is scarcely an Armenian citizen today who can afford this kind of loss. Because by running a legitimate business, employing people, and teaching them skills, etiquette and professional culture that is not based on cronyism or personal connections, one can start a critical ripple that can slowly but inevitably expand towards more social change, security, and a normal way of life for Armenian citizens.

This echoes a theme we talked about in our training session in October. As a diasporan, what you uniquely have is power in the form of resources: of your citizenship, of your personal contacts, of your security. This is why efforts like those of JL’s at fighting the corrupt hospital administration where he is volunteering are so enormous: the work he is trying to achieve could not be done by anyone else. It could not have been initiated by any of the local employees of the hospital who are under the powerful grip and influence of the hospital’s administration. They have too much too risk. By being an Australian citizen, with home and family continents away, with money and resources that he can fall back on in case this whole plan falls apart, JL has less to lose.

By being a volunteer for 2 months, 4 months, a year, you won’t be able to change everything. But it should give you an introduction; an introduction of the reality here, and the possibilities here. So that you can disseminate this information, or marinate on it for the next few years and return, armed with your knowledge and new skills you will have by then acquired.

The social revolution in Armenia will be a slow one, a quiet one at first- but believe me- you are a part of it.

With great love and respect,
Anoush

Welcome back to the USSR

2007-02-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

hahahaha. anyone who's been to Russia, Easten Europe, the Caucasus, the Baltics...the Soviet bloc in general...will find this amusing. hilarious for those like me who have never even tried the vile looking liquid.

Kvas is it!
Coke taps Soviet brew
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Tuesday February 6, 2007 The Guardian

It is seen as a quintessentially Russian item, on a par with vodka, felt boots and troikas. But now Coca-Cola, the ultimate symbol of western capitalism, is to start producing kvas, the Russian drink made from fermented bread which is sometimes called "the Coke of Communism".

The soft drinks giant is in talks with beverage companies in Moscow over bottling the drink, a murky concoction that is often sold from tankers in the street.

Kvas, which can contain berries, fruit or birch sap, has been supped by peasants since the middle ages.

For some older Russians, Coca-Cola's muscling in on the kvas market may be hard to stomach, bearing in mind the company once symbolised the great cold war enemy, the United States.

A popular Soviet anecdote has Russian cosmonauts calling their leader, Leonid Brezhnev, to tell him they have reached the Moon and painted it red. A month later the cosmonauts call back in despair, saying: "The Americans have brought white paint and written Coca-Cola on it."
[...]

full article here.

The date is set; and so it begins

2007-02-07T02:59:00.000-08:00

As if it hasn't already been said enough times, this election season is extremely critical: it needs to come off clean and fair, most notably so that people have a semblance of restored faith in the system to give them a reason to vote in the VERY crucial presidential elections next year in '08.

Most observers say that if this country has one, maximum two, more fraudulent elections then that's it. It will be nearly impossible to alter the course Armenia is on (a corrupt system of feudalism, servitude to Russia, and no freedom or defense of citizens' rights) after that.

This article presents just some of the story. But there's so much more...

Decision 2007 Comes May 12: Will it be fair?
ArmeniaNow
By Gayane Abrahamyan

A decree signed this week by President Robert Kocharyan places the Parliamentary elections on May 12.

Now that the date has been settled, the over-riding question remains whether these elections – unlike any in independent Armenia – can be fairly executed.

Garegin Azaryan, chairman of the Central Electoral Commission believes the new electoral code gives an opportunity to hold free, fair and transparent elections.

[...]

Last week the representatives of the oppositional forces met the US Deputy Vice State Secretary, American co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk group Matthew Bryza and shared their opinions on the upcoming election in Armenia.

“Bryza said the adoption of the new code seems to be a step forward; I disagree with the assessment. Elections are falsified independent of the code,” says Manukyan.

Artak Zeynalyan of the Political Council of Hanrapetutyun (Republic) Party has also shared his party’s concerns about the falsifications with Bryza.

“We brought proper arguments supporting the idea that the changes in the electoral code will just facilitate the frauds in the coming election and will make them less discernible,” says Zeynalyan.

[...]
Politicians and ordinary citizens lack hopes for having free elections alike.

The recent survey held jointly by the Armenian Sociological Association and the Gallup Institute among 1,200 residents of Armenia has shown 69 percent of the respondents are confident the elections will be neither free nor fair, while 61 percents believe the authorities in Armenia undertake no sufficient measures to prevent the falsifications in elections.

2006 Corruption Perceptions Survey

2007-02-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday I attended a presentation, held by Transparency International and UNDP, of the highly anticipated results of TI's Corruption Peceptions Survey (the last survey was taken in 2002).

Side-note: check out the majority of women heading up international organizations in my photo.

From left to right: Director of Transparency International, Head of UNDP in Armenia, Secretary General of Counsel of Europe in Armenia, Head of OSCE, and Head of International Organizations and Human Rights divison of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia.
Welcome to the feminist theory of International Relations...

The survey revealed some concerning statistics, particularly alarming and revealing to me as we approach parliamentary elections- approximately 90 days away.

Consider the following two statements from the Executive Summary:

"Most of the 2006 respondents were alarmed by a negative impact of corruption on the legitimacy of the Armenian authorities and the moral of the society, which did not come across in 2002..."

"While prioritizing the solutions to improve the current situation, most respondents pointed to a necessity of ensuring free and fair elections"

SO, if everyone realizes that the existing corrupt system is bad, and that free and fair elections is a way to improve the situation, then why does it seem like such an uphill battle to convince people to get out and vote this Spring. To sign up to become election observers. To protest when their rights to dissent are put into jeopardy. RIGHT NOW is the perfect opportunity for citizens of Armenia to do something.

However.
Disconcerting is the following:

"In 2006, the majority of interviewees still believe that the President of the country could play a determining role in reducing corruption in Armenia, whereas more than half of them [58.8%] assume that people themselves cannot do anything...The public opinion regarding the possibility to fight corruption in Armenia has not changed since 2002. Nearly a third of respondents said again that corruption cannot be eliminated."

And perhaps finally, we should reflect on the fact tht 96% of the public says they get their information from television.

And 0% of TV in Armenia is independent since A1+ was shut down by the government five years ago this April.

The up-hill battle continues.

The beautiful game?

2007-02-03T06:21:00.000-08:00

What the hell is wrong with people. I've tried to educate myself and understand the fanaticism surrounding football (albeit only from one source thus far: Franklin Foer's 2004 book, outlining his, arguably, wobbly theory "How Soccer Explains the World"). I've heard of the English hooligan ("On a smaller scale, the English hooligan has become like the gangsta rapper or the Mafioso, a glamorized, commodified criminal. When the BBC finds itself in need of a ratings boost, it airs one of its many hooligan documentaries."). Read of the notoriously violent fans of Belgrade's Red Star club and their perceived complicity in the Balkan Wars of the 1990's ("But at Red Star the violent fans occupy a place of honor, and more than that...From Red Star's own ranks, a hooligan paramilitary force was organized and armed. Krle, who took a bullet in his leg, would serve in this army. The Red Star fans would become Milosevic's shock troops, the most active agents of ethnic cleansling, highly efficient practitioners of genocide").

But in bella italia? The most scathing thing Franklin Foer had to say about Italian soccer in the book was just "To understand the importance of refereeing requires a brief word on the paradox of Italian soccer. As everyone knows, Italian men are the most foppish representatives of their sex on the planet. They smear on substantial quantities of hair care products and expend considerable mental energies color-coordinating socks with belts [sidebar- did anyone see that the spokesperson for the Italian football federation was wearing a matching pink collared shirt under his pink sweater during the press conference?]. Because of their dandyism, the world has Vespa, Prada, and Renzo Piano. With such theological devotion to aesthetic pleasure, it is truly perplexing that their national style of soccer should be so devoid of this quality."

Now, I have personally seen the crowd rush the field, rip up grass and break down the goal-posts during Fiorentina's closing match of the season...but fatalities? Tear gas thrown onto the field while the game is in play?

Violence erupts in Italy

All matches suspended after officer killed in fan riot

CATANIA, Sicily (AP) -- A police officer was killed Friday when fans rioted at a Serie A game between Sicilian sides Catania and Palermo, prompting the Italian soccer federation to suspend all league matches in the country's top two divisions this weekend.

Fans rioted outside Catania's Angelo Massimino stadium during the second half. Police fired tear gas, which wafted into the stadium and forced the match to be temporarily suspended in the 58th minute with Palermo leading 1-0.

Police said the officer died after an explosive device was thrown inside his vehicle.

The violence continued after the game, in which Palermo beat Catania 2-1, trapping hundreds of fans inside the stadium as authorities sought to avoid further violence and stop people from leaving.

So, understanding that Sicily is a whole separate animal, I wonder, Franklin, how does soccer explain the world in such a deplorable situation?

"...[S]occer clubs represent communities or neighborhoods. And when you're representing a neighborhood, you're representing a very specific segment of the population. Soccer clubs become proxies for ethnicity, class, religion, or social caste. That makes them inherently more political. So soccer matches usually signify a clash of religions, classes, and castes. To me, that's what makes the game so thrilling to watch. There's always some elevated stake to the game.

Do you think that's part of why soccer has gotten such a firm grip on the world's imagination?

I do. For all the globalization that it obviously embodies, in most cases soccer is still firmly rooted in the local. Your identification with a particular soccer club has a lot to do with how you define yourself as a human being. That's part of why the game is responsible for so much violence. It has this dark side associated with its fan culture, because the clubs represent so much more than just what city you live in."

When its cold outside, Yerevan moves inside.

2007-02-02T01:25:00.000-08:00

For many diasporan Armenians who have only visited the place between June and August - Yerevan is a land of outdoor lifestyle. Streets full of people strolling at dusk, parks and fountains as congregation areas, days at the pool for those fortunate enough to have a membership, outdoor barbeques and picnics, hiking and of course- countless outdoor café’s packed to capacity with friends and families relaxing with cocktails and fresh juice smoothies until all hours of the morning.

A vision most have not seen is the snowy and boots/hat/gloves clad side of Yerevan. You may ask yourself- what do people do all winter aside from trudging through the snowy streets on a hunt for heat? I have found ample answers to that question in just 2 weeks of being back in town. The atmosphere of being bundled up together with close friends in a warm cozy place has been charming. And the number of unique places where we have managed to convene, and the varying activities we have found to occupy ourselves, is remarkable. There is a secret bond with people who have survived the winter together and a certain level of respect that is earned for it. These photos do not document the many pleasant evenings spent just hanging out at eachother’s apartment and passing the time with tea, conversation and the occasional DVD.

Upstairs at Kino Nyiri
Huge finders fee should go out to Mano for discovering the VIP level of this movie theater, which can be rented out for private screenings!

New Irish Pub (yes, Irish Pub in Yerevan) Shamrock’s grand opening
Guiness is now readily available in Hayastan. Guest musical appearance by Nareg- the craziest musician I have ever met – with a medley of original Armenian songs, the Beatles, the Stones and Pink Floyd to finish.

Bambir concert at Stop Club
Welcome back to the 1970’s. Rock music with an attitude, alternatively-dressed kids letting lose and acting out freely, and people dancing to James Brown (RIP) during intermissions between sets…Stop Club is the breeding ground of Yerevan’s youth rock and roll revolution- mark my words. It is also the Yerevan equivalent of DC’s 9:30 club- for those familiar- replete with a balcony level overlooking the stage and that feeling as though the artists are giving this concert just for you and a couple of their close friends.

BAMBIR is Armenia’s one and only rock band, which has gained popularity as it moves through generations. Originally started by the father’s of some of the current boys in the band- the Gyumri based group began jamming after the earthquake of 1988. If you stick around here long enough you’ll discover that there’s something about Gyumri that produces great artists, and Bambir is a living, breathing, rocking, example.

Avant Garde Music Club
This intimate venue is still booking great musical acts from around the world...

Amiryan Karaoke
Armenian style Karaoke bars save you the embarrassment of standing up on a stage with everyone staring at you. It’s much more bearable when the mic is brought to your table. With the protection of your friends surrounding you on all sides it feel more like singing along to the radio in the backseat of a car.

Club ONE
...is SO exclusive that it doesn't even have a sign outside. Most people don't even know that the new (dare I say, "state of the art") club opened up just 2 months ago because their parties are never advertised and generally you must have an invitation to get in. Contrasted to the other "discoteque"-choices which are cave-like and unventilated (and generally feature a few mirrors), Club One makes you feel transported out of the South Caucasus for a night...choice of music, however: still house. all the time.

(isn't my photo impressive!)

Culinary and Earthquake Diplomacy

2007-01-30T04:47:00.000-08:00

This New York Times article's main focus is on the symbolism of a Turkish restaurant established at a newly opened mall in Athens...and the relative success it has enjoyed as Greek patrons enjoy dining there:

All is definitely not forgiven, but a warmer climate between Greece and Turkey is showing up in the daily lives of Greeks. From pricey stores to growing tourism, from belly dancing to a Turkish television show popular here with its Romeo-and-Juliet theme played out by a Greek man and a Turkish woman, cultural barriers are eroding here. Such things are changing faster, perhaps, than the political differences that still divide the two nations.

What Greeks say they are learning in this glasnost of food, fashion and travel is that, for good and bad, much still unites the two countries — one at the edge of Europe, the other at the edge of Asia.

Both share a fascination for baklava and the stuffed leaves known as dolmades. And then there is kokoretsi (if you are Greek) or kokorec (if you are Turkish). Both nations claim this dish — lamb intestines, heart, liver and lungs or kidneys, or both.

The Turkish version is on the menu at Tike, an upscale chain restaurant popular in Turkey, and now doing well in Greece, too.

“Turkish food is very close to our tradition,” said Alexandros Louvaris, 37, a prominent Greek businessman who opened the restaurant in northern Athens two years ago with Turkish partners and 11 imported Turkish chefs and other employees. “O.K., so we had the Turks here for 400 years. Some things stayed.”

Aside from cuisine (which, like music, art, fashion and general culture is often leaps and bounds ahead in helping build bridges among people and nations), the article highlights other elements of what clever political scientists would call "Soft Power" which are at work beginning a slight warming of rleations between Greeks and Turks.

But the changes are broader. They began in many ways in 1999, when a pair of earthquakes — one in Turkey, one in Greece — spurred mutual rescue teams and sympathy.

The “earthquake diplomacy” was followed by a rise in tourism: 540,000 Greeks visited Turkey in 2005, up from 350,000 in 2001 (though the number dropped last year to 480,000, after several attacks in Turkey and worries about the Iraq war, tourism officials say).

I found this reference to "earthquake diplomacy" to be timely, as I first heard of it just a few days ago. A colleague drew the parallel between 1999's "earthquake diplomacy" with the tragedy of Hrant Dink's assasination which seemed (seemed) to have brought Armenians and Turks together- if for a moment. It's unfortunate to realize that sadness and tragedy are often the impetus to bring people together. Nonetheless, a shared sentiment is a shared sentiment, and the first way to feel connected to other human beings is to recognize that they are more similar than different from you.

They said it, not me...

2007-01-30T00:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't even had the time to write my own comments on what I think of the coverage, reaction and symbolism of Hrant's death and IHT has already gotten to a core conclusion that I think was already on the tip of most Armenians' tongues...mine included.

Hopes for reconciliation fade following funeral of slain Turkish journalist

The Associated Press

Thursday, January 25, 2007

ANKARA, Turkey

As waves of mourners rolled through the streets of Istanbul this week in honor of slain ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, many liberal Turks were swept up in a sense that an unprecedented chance for ethnic reconciliation was at hand.

But just two days later, a darker reality was setting in: Many Turks are rejecting the appeals for solidarity and democratic reform as ultranationalists — some inspired by hardcore Islam — become ever more strident and daring.

A large proportion of the tens of thousands who joined Dink's funeral procession were urban intellectuals, hardly representative of a nation of more than 70 million people where conservative Islamic values are deep-seated and the military is the most trusted institution.

In fact, many Turks support the views of nationalists who are becoming increasingly vocal in their condemnation of Western values they feel are being imposed on them by the European Union, which is considering Turkey's membership bid.

Dink had been forced to stand trial by nationalists angered by his calls to recognize the killings of Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire as a genocide. He was gunned down Friday in front of the offices of his bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper — allegedly by a teenager who had been incited to the crime by ultrarightists.

During his funeral procession on Tuesday, mourners chanted "We are all Armenians," urged liberal reform and called for the repeal of the law used to convict Dink on charges of "insulting Turkishness."

However, most Turks interviewed by The Associated Press on Thursday said the marchers did not represent the country and said they were against making concessions to Armenians on the sensitive issue of the killings.

"They should speak for themselves, they cannot speak on behalf of Turks," said Filiz Un, 32. "I am sorry for him as a human but they cannot pretend that all the Turkish public is behind them."

Turkey's expulsion and killings of Armenians during World War I — which Armenians say claimed 1.5 million lives — is a dark chapter rarely discussed publicly in Turkey or taught in its schools.

Turkey vehemently denies it was genocide and is battling Armenian diaspora groups that are pushing European governments and the United States to declare the killings genocide.

A headline in the right-wing newspaper Tercuman said that those who aren't proud to be Turkish "should clear off and leave." The article ran a day after a threat against Nobel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk by a handcuffed suspect charged with inciting the murder of Dink.

Turkey's largest nationalist party responded to the mourners' chants by posting its own slogan — "We are all Turks" — on a digital display outside a local party branch in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya.

...

"There is a fault line passing right through the middle of society," wrote Turker Alkan, a columnist for the center-left Radikal newspaper. "Those who cannot reconcile Hrant Dink's murder with humanity, consciousness and moral values are on the one side; those who don't really oppose the murder because of their nationalist sentiments and their religious beliefs are on the other."

Selami Ince, news editor of the Istanbul-based Alawite television, Su TV, explained that few of the marchers at the funeral were Turks with roots in the Anatolian heartland.

"Unfortunately, they do not represent the Turkish public," Ince said. "The Turkish public has not filled the streets with demands of democracy and freedom. They were leftists, Armenians, Kurds and those intellectuals who favor multiculturalism."

....

full article here: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/26/europe/EU-GEN-Turkey-Nationalist-Backlash.php

Like Water

2007-01-30T00:51:00.000-08:00

"the idea is to remain in a state of constant departure, while always arriving; it saves on introductions and goodbyes."
- waking life

More on the troubling story...

2007-01-19T14:54:00.000-08:00

i will save my comments for later...

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Angry, saddened Turks took to the streets of Istanbul and other cities Friday night to mourn the death of a prominent Turkish journalist of Armenian descent who was gunned down earlier in the day in front of his newspaper office.

Hrant Dink was editor of the Armenian-Turkish-language weekly Agos newspaper. He was known for speaking out against the killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire early in the last century and being in trouble with the law because of his remarks about that topic.
The killing shocked all of Turkey, where Dink also has earned a reputation for promoting dialogue between Turks and Armenians, backing open borders between Turkey and the nation of Armenia, and expressing a love of his Turkish homeland.

Protesters in Istanbul walked slowly and somberly Friday night, holding candles, wielding banners and waving flags. They carried signs and chanted phrases such as "We are all Hrant Dink and we are all Armenians."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other government officials denounced the crime, and authorities vowed to find the killer.

Erdogan said the attack was a "shock" and an "insult" to the Turkish nation and a "dark day" -- not only for Dink's family but also for all of Turkey.

"The dark hands that killed him will be found and punished," Erdogan said in televised remarks.
Authorities are looking into a lead that Dink was shot by a man who appeared to be 18 or 19 years old. Dink's body could be seen covered with a white sheet in front of the newspaper's entrance before an emergency vehicle came to take it away.

He was said to be in his early 50s.

Editor addressed Armenian-Turk issues squarely

Described as a "well-known commentator on Armenian affairs," Dink had been called into court a number of times on allegations of "insulting" the Turkish state in his writing.
"Some of the trial hearings have been marred by violent scenes inside and outside the courtrooms, instigated by nationalist activists calling for Dink to be punished," says a profile on the Web site of PEN American Center -- the writers' group that defends free expression.
Agos was established in 1996, and Dink didn't shy away from dealing with the controversies in that region over the killings of Armenians from 1915 through 1917 -- a hot-button issue in Turkey.

Armenians and other countries regard those killings as genocide, a claim rejected by the Turkish government, which says Armenians and Turks were killed in civil warfare.

Andrew Finkel, a journalist in Turkey and a friend of Dink's, emphasized that Dink's killing was "a tragedy" for a country attempting to come to terms with its past.

Finkel said resentment toward Dink existed among ultranationalist Turks, and the people who staged "ugly scenes" at his trials are the same ones who staged rallies directed at Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish writer who faced charges of insulting Turkishness as well.
He described Dink as a bright and brash man who was a well-known figure in Istanbul and an advocate for Turkey's small Armenian community -- a once-populous group now numbering around 60,000 or 70,000.

"If anything, he was a great Turkish patriot," Finkel told CNN.

"Mr. Dink, for all the libels against him, for all the opposition that was against him in certain sections of the right-wing Turkish press, was really in favor of Turkish and Armenian neighbors being able to look each other in their face and recognize their past histories. He was a courageous man who died in a terrible way."

Joel Campagna, Mideast program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said, "Like dozens of other Turkish journalists, Hrant Dink has faced political persecution because of his work. Now it appears he's paid the ultimate price for it."

Campagna said that Turkey "must ensure that this crime does not go unpunished like other cases in the past and that those responsible for his murder are brought to justice."
He said that over the last 15 years, 18 Turkish journalists have been killed -- making the country the eighth deadliest in the world for journalists in that period. He said many of the deaths took place in the early 1990s, at the peak of the Kurdish separatist insurgency.

Reporters Without Borders, another journalists' advocacy group, also said a proper investigation is needed, underscoring its position that "this will be a key test for a country that hopes to join the European Union. No one would understand if Turkey failed to do everything possible to shed light on this tragedy."

Turkey has long sought membership in the EU.

Provocative articles prompt charges

PEN American Center said Dink's publication sought to "provide a voice to the Armenian community and create a dialogue between Turks and Armenians."

The group said that before his killing, "Dink had complained of death threats he was receiving from nationalists."

"We are horrified," said Larry Siems, director of Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center. "Hrant Dink was one of the heroes of the nonviolent movement for freedom of expression in Turkey."

PEN listed some of the cases that made Dink a controversial figure:

In 2001, the Turkish government suspended publication of Agos when Dink advocated acknowledgement of genocide. He was acquitted and publication resumed.

In 2004, the government interpreted part of a Dink article as anti-Turk; he received a six-month suspended sentence. In his appeal, Dink said, "As long as I live (in Turkey), I will go on telling the truth, just as I always have.'"

In February 2006 he was acquitted of insulting the Turkish state for his criticism in 2002 of a verse in the Turkish national anthem.

In July 2006 he received another six-month suspended sentence after writing an article that called for Armenians to "now turn their attention to the new life offered by an independent Armenia."

One week later, the Istanbul public prosecutor opened a new case against Dink for referring to the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide during a July 14 interview with Reuters. Dink was awaiting his trial on those charges when he was killed.

Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, told CNN that the case is the "product of the environment that the Turkish government has created" -- its persistent denial that the killings of the Armenians last century did not amount to genocide.
Said Hamparian: "Turkey needs to come to grips with its past."

Murder of Hrant Dink, Journalist

2007-01-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

a somewhat incomplete article, but it's the first one I could find. more to follow.

Outspoken journalist shot dead in Istanbul
POSTED: 10:48 a.m. EST, January 19, 2007

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- A prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist who spoke out against the killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire early last century was shot to death Friday.
Hrant Dink, 53, editor of the Armenian-Turkish language weekly Agos newspaper, was shot dead in front of the Istanbul publication as he was leaving.

The killing prompted swift denunciation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the attack was a "shock" and an "insult" to the Turkish nation and a "dark day" -- not only for Dink's family but for all of Turkey as well.

"The dark hands that killed him will be found and punished," Erdogan said, in televised remarks.

Authorities are looking into a lead that he was shot four times by a young man who appeared to be 18 or 19 years old.

Described as a "well-known commentator on Armenian affairs," Dink has faced a number of cases in connection with "insulting" the Turkish state for his writings.

"Some of the trial hearings have been marred by violent scenes inside and outside the courtrooms, instigated by nationalist activists calling for Dink to be punished," said a profile on the Web site of Pen American Center -- the writers' group that promotes free expression.
Agos, an Armenian-Turkish language weekly, was established in 1996.

Andrew Finkel, a journalist in Turkey and a friend of Dink's, emphasized that the killing was "a tragedy" for a country attempting to "come to terms with its past."

Finkel said resentment toward Dink existed among ultranationalist Turks, and said the same people who staged "ugly scenes" at his trials are the same people who staged rallies directed at Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish writer who faced charges of insulting Turkishness as well.

He described Dink as a "bright" and brash" man who was a "well-known figure in Istanbul" and an advocate for Turkey's small Armenian community -- a once-populous group now numbering around 60,000 or 70,000.

"If anything, he was a great Turkish patriot," Finkel told CNN in an interview.
Pen's profile said that in 2005, Dink "had been charged for an article published in Agos in which he discussed the impact on present day Armenian diaspora of the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman army in 1915-17."

Hot-button issue

This is a hot-button issue in the region, Pen notes.

Armenians and other countries regard the killings of Armenians in the early 20th century as a a genocide, a claim rejected by the Turkish government, which says Armenians and Turks were killed in civil warfare.

Dink was one of the most prominent voices of Turkey's shrinking Armenian community.
A Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, he had received threats from nationalists, who viewed him as a traitor.

In an earlier interview with The Associated Press, Dink had cried as he talked about some of his fellow countrymen's hatred for him, saying he could not stay in a country where he was unwanted.

Joel Campagna, Mideast program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said, "Like dozens of other Turkish journalists, Hrant Dink has faced political persecution because of his work. Now it appears he's paid the ultimate price for it."

Campagna said that Turkey "must ensure that this crime does not go unpunished like other cases in the past and that those responsible for his murder are brought to justice."

He said that over the last 15 years, 18 Turkish journalists have been killed -- making the country the eighth deadliest in the world for journalists in that period. He said that many of the deaths took place in the early 1990s "at the peak of the Kurdish separatist insurgency."

He said killings, other attacks against journalists that don't result in deaths, and the many cases of Turkish journalists facing criminal charges under "vague statutes" create a "chilling effect" among media workers.

Private NTV television said police were searching for the suspected murderer, believed to be a teenager wearing a white hat and a denim jacket, but the identity and motivation of the shooter were unknown, AP reported.

Dink's body could be seen covered with a white sheet in front of the newspaper's entrance. NTV said four empty shell casings were found on the ground and that he was killed by two bullets to the head.

Fehmi Koru, a columnist at the Yeni Safak newspaper, said the murder was aimed at destabilizing Turkey.

"His loss is the loss of Turkey," Koru said.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

For Araz.

2006-12-20T06:20:00.000-08:00

July the 24th 2006 at about 1:30am, my friend Araz, a 17-year old girl, was with some friends at a dance club in Yerevan.

On their way home, they had to stop off at a friend's home to pick up some of their belongings. They were in a taxi, which they got out of on Baghramyan Street, and when Araz and her sister were crossing the street, Araz was hit by a reckless driver.

This was a split-second after she let go of her sister's hand.

They tried calling an ambulance, but there was no phone connection. They tried stopping passing cars, but nobody stopped. Her brother carried Araz and ran to a car that drove them to the hospital, but it was too late. Araz wasn't breathing anymore.

A 3-month long trial was held to punish the driver, and in the end the man received 2 years of probation, not allowed to leave the country and drive for 2 years. Not even 6 months after the incident, the man's sentence was annulled since it was his first such crime.

Araz was just about to turn 18, and had just graduated from high school, and looking forward to university.There is NOTHING being done in Armenia to prevent dangerous driving.

The majority of police seem to care less about preventing such accidents. Anyone who has been to Armenia knows how bad the situation is.

Please sign petition titled Araz Petition hosted with free Petition hosting site.

2006-12-01T05:39:00.000-08:00

For $150, Third-World Laptop Stirs Big Debate

When computer industry executives heard about a plan to build a $100 laptop for the developing world’s children, they generally ridiculed the idea. How could you build such a computer, they asked, when screens alone cost about $100?

...Ms. Jepsen, a former Intel chip designer, found a way to modify conventional laptop displays, cutting the screen’s manufacturing cost to $40 while reducing its power consumption by more than 80 percent. As a bonus, the display is clearly visible in sunlight

That advance and others have allowed the nonprofit project, One Laptop Per Child, to win over many skeptics over the last two and a half years. Five countries — Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand — have made tentative commitments to put the computers into the hands of millions of students, with production in Taiwan expected to begin by mid-2007."

...One factor setting the project apart from earlier efforts to create inexpensive computers for education is the inclusion of a wireless network capability in each machine.
The project leaders say they will employ a variety of methods for connecting to the Internet, depending on local conditions. In some countries, like Libya, satellite downlinks will be used. In others, like Nigeria, the existing cellular data network will provide connections, and in some places specially designed long-range Wi-Fi antennas will extend the wireless Internet to rural areas.

...When students take their computers home after school, each machine will stay connected wirelessly to its neighbors in a self-assembling “mesh” at ranges up to a third of a mile. In the process each computer can potentially become an Internet repeater, allowing the Internet to flow out into communities that have not previously had access to it.

...“I think it’s wonderful that the machines can be put in the hands of children and parents, and it will have an impact on their lives if they have access to electricity,” Larry Cuban, a Stanford University education professor, said in an interview. “However, if part of their rationale is that it will revolutionize education in various countries, I don’t think it will happen, and they are naïve and innocent about the reality of formal schooling.”

On the way to work

2006-11-28T07:15:00.000-08:00

Cultural Diplomacy

2006-11-22T00:10:00.000-08:00

It is the Saison Française en Arménie; for the last two months it’s been everything French in Yerevan. The French Embassy in Armenia has been hosting French concerts at venues large and small, art exhibits at everything from the high-brow National Gallery to the edgy NPAK Center for Contemporary Experimental Art. French-themed lectures, French films, French fashion shows. And the crème de’ la crème: a hugely impressive alfresco show (replete with lighting and stage construction at caliber likely never before seen in this country), free to the public, in the middle of Republic Square featuring the legendary Charles Aznavour.

Who doesn’t love Charles Aznavour? That’s exactly what the French were banking on. Everyone loves Charles. And who was in attendance for that open-air performance together with the thousands of Yerevantsis, enjoying the artistry of the beloved 82 year-old entertainer and symbol of Armenian-French unity? None other than President Jaques Chirac himself. It was brilliant. Coupled with the serendipitously well timed of the Parliament's passage of a pro-Armenian bill last month: now everyone loves the French.

I was left stunned at how much more effective of a way to create allies by winning the hearts and minds of a population this was than the American model. US presence has been here literally since day one of independence. The US government provides more aid per capita to Armenia than to almost any other nation aside from Israel. But by being so pervasive, they’ve effectively shot themselves in the foot. Now, every USAID funded project and every US backed initiative, even when well-intentioned, is greeted with skepticism. Peace Corps volunteers are considered spies by the general public. The gigantic new US Embassy complex, with its barbed wire fences, is an eye-sore. And what is going on inside is worse: Turkish laborers were brought in, and paid double that of local Armenian builders, to work on the construction. If not recognizing (or chosing to ignore) the gravity of insult related to this centuries-old wound isn’t the most culturally insensitive move that could ever have been made, just this summer, Ambassador Evans was "recalled" from his diplomatic post and will likely be forced to 'retire' from the State Department for suspiciously undisclosed reasons. It is general knowledge that the reason is because he spoke publicly with compassion about recognition of the Armenian Genocide. People complain about the US government, mock its leadership, and make fun of its citizen’s obnoxious mannerisms. To much of the populous here, America is ignorant and insensitive. It’s crass and it’s arrogant.

But yet, in the end, it’s a love/hate relationship (or rather: “hate to love”). It’s like some kind of guilty-pleasure complex. A great number of people are employed by the NGOs that are funded by USAID and learn a great deal in their jobs; US films, music, videos and products are still desired and consumed; and people still on some level believe in “the American dream.” Hundreds of people go to great lengths to leave this country and get visas to live in the US…but never without a grumble. One last jab, even when lady liberty is waving you in.

Perhaps it’s just easier to love Europe.

Again?

2006-11-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

photos by Onnik Krikorian

November 17th, 2006.
Ministry of Foreign Affiars, YEREVAN.

My fingers are numb and my nose is bright red from the cold, and I recall that last time I was standing here it was so hot outside that fellow protesters were complaining about the heat and trying to reassemble our picket line to fall within the shade of the trees.

We’re still speaking out about the same thing- 7 months later.

However, this is no tirade or complaint. I’m happy to see that there are young people here in Yerevan that WILL organize and protest again, and again. I answered to so many passers-by who said “this is useless,” “they aren’t going to stand up to Russia,” “they’re not going to listen to you,” “the government doesn’t care,” that we aren't necessarily here for immediate results, but voicing your concern is the fist step.

Encouraging widespread civic participation and convincing citizens of the efficacy of that participation is a large task, and I’m not expecting it to happen any time soon. But with every one, two, or dozen, of those passersby who were convinced by the pleas of our picketers to stop and sign the petition, we are making progress.

Pictured above are two of the organizers: Isabella, an articulate local activist with the Helsinki Committee, and Tamar, a good friend from Providence who has been doing research on youth and civil society the Fulbright for the last year and a half.

RFE/RL: Published on November 17, 2006

YOUTH CALLS FOR ACTION TO STOP KILLINGS OF ETHNIC ARMENIANS IN RUSSIA

About three dozen young men gathered near the Armenian Foreign Ministry building on Friday to denounce the recent killings of ethnic Armenians in Russia and call for Yerevan’s official response to what they believe to be crimes committed on ethnic grounds. They said their previous protest actions near the Russian Embassy in Yerevan were followed by more murders of ethnic Armenians in Russia with clearly ethnic motives that they said had been covered up by Russian law officials as hooligan actions. This time around the young activists addressed their appeal to Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian.

“The Year of Armenia in Russia is being accompanied with brutal murders of young Armenians,” a letter addressed to Oskanian reads. “We are full of grief and anger with the criminal inaction under the pretext of the so-called complementary policy.” The letter was originally signed by nine activists. About 200 passers-by also joined in the demand by putting their signatures to the appeal.

One of the activists, Izabela Sarkisian, cited statistics according to which some 3,000 Armenians have been murdered in Russia in the past ten years. “All those murdered are qualified as hooliganism and not as murders on racist grounds. We call for Armenia’s clear stance on this matter,” she told RFE/RL. “We believe that under the constitution the Republic of Armenia has the obligation to take care of its every citizen and do everything for our compatriots to feel more secure in foreign countries.”

Head of the Ministry’s Russia Division Marina Balayan accepted the letter from the protestors and promised them to forward it to Minister Oskanian.

Also check out a short release printed the very next day:
Russian MFA Will Attain Detailed Investigation of Armenian Teenager Murder

"Never Again"

2006-11-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

"The Holocaust, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur….

And every time a U.S. president, a British Prime Minister, a U.N. Secretary General says, "Never again."

Yet it happens-again, and again, and again….Why?

Because, our leaders say, We didn't know.Yet they did know-recent studies have shown that the British knew conclusively what was going on at Auschwitz…yet buried that knowledge in their files because it would have forced them to change their war plans.

Everyone knew what was going on in Cambodia, post-the Vietnam War, as the Academy Award-winning movie "The Killing Fields" demonstrates … yet the powers that be declined to admit it, for fear they would have to do something.

In Carla Garapedian's powerful new film, "Screamers," Pulitzer prize-winner Samantha Power says President after President, Democrat and Republican, have known about genocides as they were happening … but have chosen not to act.

In Iraq, Reagan did not want the horrors of Saddam Hussein's massacre against the Kurds to come out, because then he would have to do something to stop him. In Bosnia, world television coverage of the genocide convinced the international community to step in…but only after 200,000 had been murdered.

In Rwanda, Bill Clinton did not want the true horrors to come out …because then he would have to do something.

And now, in Darfur, George Bush has finally declared the desolation of the Southern Sudan a "genocide"-yet refused to do what it takes to stop it.

Why? Because, once again, as in 1915, when the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, first reported the wholesale extermination of the Armenian population by the Ottoman Turks in Anatolia, it was denied so the United States would not be forced to act. That reaction gave Hitler his impetus for the Holocaust: "Who remembers the Armenians?" he declared in 1939, before ordering the murder of 6 million European Jews.

In "Screamers," Garapedian traces the history of modern-day genocide-and genocide denial- from the fertile "Holy Mountains" of Anatolia to the current atrocities in Darfur . This documentary is as shattering as it is powerful, which includes interviews and live performance footage with System Of A Down, the multi-platinum, Grammy-Award winning rock band, all of whose members are Armenian-American. The film is laced with seven of the band's songs from "Holy Mountains" to "P.L.U.C.K." to the #1 hit "B.Y.O.B." that illuminate the band's views on political and social issues."

The film opens Dec. 8th in L.A., but hopefully it will open nation/world-wide before long.

www.screamersmovie.com

The modern middle eastern woman's plight

2006-11-03T02:41:00.000-08:00

a common problem. thanks Eva.

"Over the last two decades, the Persian Gulf has become the economic pole, and its pull has only grown stronger since the monthlong war this summer between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. With the political situation here still so uncertain, investment and work opportunities are growing even scarcer, and the gender imbalance worsens.

For young women here, dressing fashionably is a competitive game; stare-down contests between young women in restaurants and malls are common, particularly, say the girls, when one of the women is accompanied by an attractive Lebanese man.

...“The social pressures on young women are just huge,” Ms. Yazbek continued. “The focus is more and more on being beautiful, on pleasing other people. The competition is intense, conformity is a big thing, and everyone, rich and poor, gets plastic surgery. You can go to parts of Beirut where almost every young woman has the same little nose.”

...“The guys that remain in Lebanon are the stupid ones!” exclaimed Nayiri Kalayjian, 19, who was hitting the bars on Monot Street, in central Beirut, with three girlfriends.

“We’re too good for them,” she said. “The ones who remain in Lebanon are the ones with closed mentalities, the ones who just want a virgin girl. You start to feel that the men who stay in Lebanon are the ones with no ambition in their work, and so you wonder, why are they still here?”

my fellow americans...

2006-11-02T06:08:00.000-08:00

happy early election day.

once again i find myself overseas during a decision-making turning point in america. in italy, during the decision to go into iraq in the spring of 2002, i watched impassioned anti-war displays. in armenia, during the election in 2004, i watched the international community bemused by the outcome. and once again today, i am moved to remind you that the rest of the world is watching.

here's the latest of what is being widely circulated and creating perceptions abroad. i'm disappointed to say that it is in a very similar vein to all those things i saw and heard before...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11799.htm

Furthermore, since the "moral divide" has been discussed ad nauseam once again as a potential "wedge issue" during this mid-term election, it is highly appropriate that i publicly promote the documentary SEEING RED. I met the director Leah Belsky in DC and listen to her explain the goal of this film:

Two Jews, a Hindu,and a born-again Christian, disillusioned after the 2004 electionand troubled by the idea that their nation is bitterly divided over morality, set out to investigate the power of evangelical Christianity in American political life.

Coming off 6-months in Armenia trying to explain the "Red-Blue" divide to all the non-Americans I conversed with, I found the topic fascinating and volunteered to help work on this film last year- through the fall and winter of 2005- as an assistant producer.

I think the title is brilliant and shows the power of documentary: you can take something in quickly, in sound bites and make a rash interpretation ("seeing red!"), or you can really explore a topic and try to understand its complexities ("SEEING red").

If interested, contact the director and find out about setting up a screening. www.seeingredthemovie.com

thankfully

2006-10-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

one evening back in a january or february i started to feel sick to my stomach as i watched a music video on mtv. i thought of how many thousands of dollars must have been spent to make that video...so that maybe some young kids would salivate at how hot mariah carey is...so that maybe some of those kids' interest would be peaked enough to listen to the rest of the tracks on the album...and so that maybe a few of them would like what they heard enough to buy an album for $12.99.

i called a friend and complained. i wondered why execs thought such an investment would have enough of a return to make it worth the expense. and further, i wondered why society doesn't think its a worthwhile investment to invest in PEOPLE. even when considered within the framework of a consumerist society - wouldn't giving an underprivelidged person a better life and education make that person employable, make them a tax payer, consumer and contributing member of society. Isn't that a more important return on investment??

and then, this week while i was back home in DC, during a conversation expressing my frustration with selfish motivations of wealth-accumulation with one of my favorite unconventional souls, i brought up this point again. and the response i received from him was one which i am so grateful for. it seems i'm not the only person who thinks this way:

http://www.worldonfire.ca/

Armenia from Above

2006-10-31T01:04:00.000-08:00

Armenie vue du Ciel.

Amazing pictures...

http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com/yann2/affichage.php?reference=armenie_016&pais=Armenie

serene yerevan night

2006-10-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

Blood, Sweat and Tears

2006-10-13T04:03:00.000-07:00

The fruit of our efforts from last week's ATHGO International Symposium. Out of 200+ international participants, 16 of us were elected to create a "Resolution Committee," which was charged with drafting a concrete and innovative UN resolution proposal which will be distributed to UN missions worldwide, and other governmental and non-governmental bodies for consideration. As the moderator of the resolution committee, I have to say I was extremely impressed with the vision of our group, and truly think we have a remarkable idea to propose to the developing world. I hope you can work your way through the formal language and grasp the ultimate idea we have proposed. Mr. Surbuland Khan, executive Director of the UN GLobal Alliance for ICT and Devleopment (UNGAID) was impressed, so on behalf of my group, I hope you are too.

To Whom it may Concern:

Attached please find the Resolution Committee's final draft of the resolution emergent from the 2006 Symposium in Yerevan, Armenia. We proudly present it to you as a plan of action to bring before all organizations and governments you see fit.

Accompanying this resolution is a supporting document outlining in further detail our vision of the solutions we present. If further clarification is needed, please do not hesitate to ask.

We would like to thank ATHGO International and its distinguished guests for allowing us the opportunity to participate in this symposium. Events such as this allow our voices to be heard with greater impact within the global community, and provide a point of inspiration for further individual action. We would, with pleasure, enjoy presenting our position at any and all future events, including the Cairo Summit in May, as suggested by Mr. Khan.

Thank you once again.

On Behalf of the 2006 ATHGO International Yerevan Symposium, Respectfully Submitted by:

Andranik Ayvazyan
Nina Balayan
Chiara Bortoluzzi
Justine Espiritu
Vadim Gordienko
Gohar Grigorian
Kirsten Hildonen
Amalia Horsepyan
Iman Kamali
Ani Koeharyan
Logan Koffler
Marilisa Lorusso
Stefano Mosso
Arpine Sargsyan
Anoush Tatevossian
Charlotte Von Dewall

ATHGO International
13 October 2006

QUESTION OF ICT DEVELOPMENT IN LANDLOCKED DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Recalling the United Nations Millennium Declaration, resolution 55/2 adopted 8 September 2000, and resolution 57/295 of 4 March 2003, in which Member States pledged to financially and technically support the formation of a global partnership for development, and subsequently identified the need to establish a comprehensive United Nations information and communication technology (ICT) strategy, recognized the importance of global networks and stressed the implementation of training programs to ensure maximum use of technology in developing nations,

Guided by the additional challenges extant in Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) due to their geographic orientation, including small domestic markets physically isolated from the world economy, it is understood to be paramount to use ICTs to virtually connect their local markets to global ones, thus establishing a link that will reduce demands on both LLDCs and their transit countries regarding physical access,

Fully aware many LLDCs do not possess the requisite infrastructure to take full advantage of ICT connectivity, it is nevertheless necessary to proceed with ICT development in areas already so equipped to handle it, while acknowledging attention still must be allocated to infrastructure and transit solutions such as outlined in the Almaty Programme of Action,

Emphasizing the mandate for partnerships among public, private and civic sectors within individual states to ensure ICT programs are both appropriate to and cognizant of unique domestic demands,

Believing a state’s own educated youth are a crucial and underutilized resource for advancing ICT presence, and one that can be depleted by a lack of opportunities for employment and career advancement within LLDCs,

Deeply convinced LLDCs should not remain bound by and dependent upon international intervention to maintain ICT program viability, but instead organizations providing ICT assistance should forge partnerships with national institutions and local communities to ensure ICT initiatives will create self-reliant and sustainable development, respectful of national identity, traditions and heritage and in avoidance of harmful cultural imperatives, by focusing on networks among LLDCs and self-perpetuating liberal economic growth,

1. We call for the establishment of a nationally coordinated network involving public, private and civil society under the mentorship and coordination of UNGAID;

a) This body should be sustained by a mixed financial system consisting of international, national and private sector funds;
b) Funding should be structured in a way that all parties have an equal voice in the designated goals for the fund, meaning there should be no connection between the amount of money contributed and voting share;
c) UNGAID should assume mentoring responsibility in incubating these national bodies, grant legitimacy and provide valuable leadership and guidance from the experience of UNGAID’s inclusive, decentralized, multi-stakeholder network;

2. We further recommend the primary operational task of this body should be to implement a national volunteer program utilizing each country’s own youth to educate rural and distant populations in ICTs;

a) Volunteers are students pursuing or possessing higher education, are subject to a rigorous selection process and intensive training program;
b) After comprehensive research, conducted by the parent body, a customized training curriculum is developed that addresses rural and distant populations’ specific needs and offers ICT solutions to be introduced by volunteers

3. We further encourage follow-up actions to ensure future sustainability whereby ICT knowledge augmentation will perpetuate through continued training and certification of qualified individuals within the local population, and through the initiation of an international Business Development Initiative;

a) Individuals showing the most aptitude throughout the training will be given additional instruction by the volunteer, culminating in certification as a local instructor to continue to advance ICT education within the population after the volunteers’ departure;
b) The Business Development Initiative will be an international program for LLDC trained communities wherein individuals within the local population may utilize electronic resources to design and submit business plans for potential start-up grants to establish local businesses;

4. We further support continuous program enhancement through volunteer evaluation and an independent monitor measuring regional progress;

a) Volunteers will be evaluated by both the parent organization and trainees within local populations to ensure effectiveness;
b) An independent monitoring agency or individual will be assigned within each country, subject to the approval of UNGAID, to revisit trained populations at predetermined intervals to assess the permanent impact of ICT training, gather statistical data and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the local economic impact of the program.

i concur in astonishment at such disconfirmed expectations

2006-10-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

“We thought after 9/11, 5 years ago, that there would be a move towards understanding in the region, the adopting of responsible middle-east policy, and realization that in order to put an end to fundamentalism, to extremism, to jihadism, you must resolve the issues from which they stem. Instead we got a politicized simplistic policy of angels versus deamons, with-us or against-us.”

- Palestinian Member of Parliament

To answer the question: "why"

2006-09-30T02:07:00.000-07:00

Anoush Tatevossian

Yerevan, Armenia: ATHGO International Symposium
Information & Communication Technology:
Opportunities and Challenges in Landlocked Developing Countries

Personal Statement: Describe your unique qualities and passion for your advocacy work and what let you toward that work or schooling

When geography fates you as a land-locked country with little to no exportable and sustainable natural resources, you must become innovative to survive. And the further the developed world gets from the developing world, the more imperative it becomes that a nation identify its most malleable and flexible resources to attempt to bridge that ever-growing chasm, lest it find itself doomed to be left behind. It is my job as the Executive Director of the Armenian Volunteer Corps (AVC), a registered non-profit based in Yerevan, to incubate one of Armenia’s most dynamic resources: people.

The Armenian nation is a unique one in that only one-third of its people actually live within the physical borders of modern-day Armenia. Due to several devastating events in its long history, the Armenian people have been severed from one another and scattered across the entire globe. Finally today, Armenia is a free and independent Republic with opportunities to grow into a country that its entire people can be proud to align with. However, ideologically or nostalgically connecting with this country will not help it advance. There are many real-world issues looming over whether Armenia can break out of its current stagnant level of democratization and development, many of which must first be tackled internally. My organization calls on Diasporan Armenians of all ages to volunteer their time, knowledge and energy by living and working in Armenia from one month to one year as an investment of hope in the future of our nation.

By running AVC, I act as a facilitator to help Diasporan Armenians seamlessly integrate into society here because I firmly believe that in a developing country such as Armenia, the presence of each volunteer leaves a footprint in the country's malleable future. I know that the exchange of ideas, values and experience between Diasporans and native Armenians connects human, informal and capital resources which will help rebuild our country.

This is the best and fastest way that Armenia can at least conceptually break out of its land-locked, blockaded position, and actually reach all around the globe. Technology and communication has made it infinitely easier to connect people to resources, to other people, to networks, to opportunities for collaboration. This year I brought AVC to the 21st century by marketing not only the old fashioned word-of-mouth way, but by opening a blog site, bolstering the website, tapping into media outlets, and reaching out electronically to Diasporan Armenians across the world to alert them of this very important call to action. I know that each person who has spent their life abroad, but now comes here and contributes their skills and ideas, is sewing seeds of innovation that create more and more potential opportunities for this country’s growth. And as any gardener can tell you, the more seeds you sew, the more opportunities there are that some will flourish.

I sometimes see myself as that gardener. I take the responsibility of introducing influences into a nascent and changing society very seriously. I carefully and thoroughly scrutinize the motivation of each volunteer applicant before accepting them into our program, and throughout their entire term of service in country I communicate to them that they must be mindful of the delicate nature of the challenge they have taken on.
In today’s globalized and competitive world, where innovation is a necessity for survival, the following ancient saying has regained popularity: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.” It is my responsibility as a concerned Armenian to play my part in ensuring that Armenia runs faster.

Been working too hard lately... ;-)

2006-09-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

Word of the Day for Friday, September 29, 2006

monomania \mon-uh-MAY-nee-uh; -nyuh\, noun:

1. Pathological obsession with a single subject or idea.
2. Excessive concentration of interest upon one particular subject or idea.

One of the themes in the book was the necessity for a leader to be passionate about the work. And sometimes in a corporate setting, passion becomes monomania.
-- "Balancing the Personal and the Professional", New York Times, October 10, 1999

Happy Belated

2006-09-30T01:45:00.000-07:00

A few photos from the Independence Day Parade on Sept. 21st. Apparently, there hadn't been a parade of any kind here for about 8 years. Historic day. The "parade" was more a show of the Republic's hardware and military might, than floats and flowers...but it drew a big crowd to Republic Square for an afternoon of patriotic solidarity.

Though, to be honest, of several dozen photos taken that day, my absolute favorite of this adorable little boy impossibly wedged between the knees of hundreds of people trying to watch the parade. Little man, I feel your pain.

No small feat

2006-09-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

15 years of independence. phew. a BIG congratulations is in order.
Here is my favorite photo from the eve-of.

contrast

2006-09-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

contrast noun |ˈkänˌtrast| the state of being strikingly different from something else, typically something in juxtaposition or close association

both sets of these photos are armenia. both sets of photos are of places you one can stay: a camping area in the northern region of Tavush, and the Golden Palace Hotel in Yerevan. traditional v. modern. pastoral v. cosmopolitan. both sets of photos were taken in September of the year 2006.

i love juxtaposition. uniformity is stagnant, so interest is created by conflict is it not? it's beautiful that both of these spaces exist simultaneously.

Goodbye "Mer Hyrenik"??

2006-09-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

Wow. I didn't know about this one. Apparently there's a heated debate "over whether Armenia should ditch its current national anthem and adopt something more modern, more attuned to today's national aspirations. There have been complaints that the song is too wimpy and gloomy." Ha! And it's more than just a debate- there's a commison already in full swing that has reduced the choices down to 5 finalists! I'll have to thank William in Tblisi for even calling my attention to it.

On an initial level I think it's an absurd idea, and will have to agree with Felix Bakhchinian, director of the Charents Literature and Art Museum in Yerevan. In this RFE/RFL article he is quoted as saying: "We need to solve more pressing problems before we begin talking about the anthem and other state attributes. Right now we have higher priorities to meet."

Though, the meat of that article is enlightening as I never realized that other post-soviets have also gone through the same nationalistic face-lift debacle. In the end though, i'm not budging on this one, so I guess you should just call me a Dashnak.

To a new beautiful generation

2006-09-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a blog intended to make everyone smile. The streets of Yerevan are full of cute children. All the time they can be spotted tottering along side their parents down the crowded streets. School started on September 1st, so now there are even more children out with their backpacks and combed hair cruising around town. Here are some pictures of really adorable kids that I've taken over the last few months.

Interesting cultural trademark whereby we flourish only under someone else's rule...

2006-09-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

A big thank you Raffi for leading me to this article.

Two years ago a friend told me an article in an Armenian paper which discussed the trend that Armenians tend to be highly successful living in other countries, under other people's rule.

Generally the Armenian Diaspora flourishes. And yet, Armenians cannot get it together when it must govern itself. This is applicable to every little Armenian community that spends more time having tiffs and skirmishes about petty things than producing actual results, and it is applicable to the fact that we can't seem to govern our country properly.

Furthermore, the Armenians that are successful in the Diaspora seem to do it alone. They are generally not heavily involved with the community, and only use their Armenian-ness as a trump card when it's useful, or once they've already made it for themselves.

At any rate, the positive news is that Armenians are notably doing well for themselves in the UK. Maybe we should just give up our little land mass here in the Caucasus and take over the world by living in other countries ;-)

The Sunday Times

September 10, 2006

Found: migrants with the mostestRobert Winnett and Holly Watt
Survey pinpoints ethnic winners and losers in 'melting pot' Britain

ARMENIAN immigrants and their descendants are the most successful ethnic group in the country, according to an analysis of “melting pot” Britain.

They are followed by the Japanese, Dutch and Greek Cypriots among the groups who are economically and socially most successful. Bangladeshi Muslims and migrants from Sierra Leone and Syria have fared worst.

The new analysis places the 42.2m adults registered to vote in mainland Britain in 200 ethnic groups — on the basis of a person’s surname and first name....

Of the 2,651 people of Armenian descent in Britain, more than 1,600 run businesses and a high proportion live in expensive parts of west London.

Among the most successful is Bob Manoukian, property developer and former agent for Prince Jefri of Brunei. He has a family fortune of £300m, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.
Other successful people with Armenian roots include David Dickinson, presenter of the BBC’s Bargain Hunt, and Ara Palamoudian, chairman of the Armenian community & church council of Great Britain.

He said: “Armenians have always tried to be self-sufficient and not to be a burden on any country. It could be the history of the Armenian people, the way their lives have been over centuries. They had to find shelter around the world.”

Many Armenians fled to England after the first world war, during which up to 1.5m died, amid allegations of genocide by the Turks. Other waves arrived in the 1970s and 1980s.

Full article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2350633,00.html

La Bella Figura

2006-09-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

I seem to have a penchant for living in countries with similar social complexes.

Of course, as far as geography goes, land-locked, at the cross-roads of East and West resulting in centuries of territorial wars, Armenia surely got the raw end of the deal, but some of the nuances in the cultural-psyche are oddly familiar.

As the President of Nagorno-Karabagh, Arkady Ghukasian, so rationally and calmly explained to my group when we had a special audience with him in Stepanakert recently: "This is our jagatagir (a lovely armenian phrase which means fate). Of course we would love for Germany and France to be our neighbors. But this is not the case. We have to accept our position in the world, understand who our neighbors are, and be smart enough and prepared enough to deal with our reality."

Anyway, who wants to ship me this book so I can read it and continue draw comparisons between the popular mentalities and structural inefficiencies of my lovely stone garden which is Armenia and mia bella Italia...

August 23, 2006
Books of The Times
An Insider Explains Italy, Land of Cheery Dysfunction
By WILLIAM GRIMES

In Italy, red lights come in many varieties. A rare few actually mean stop. Others, to the Italian driver, suggest different interpretations. At a pedestrian crossing at 7 a.m., with no pedestrians around, it is a “negotiable red,” more like a weak orange. At a traffic intersection, red could mean what the Florentines call rosso pieno, or full red, but it might, with no cars coming, be more of a suggestion than a command. It all depends.

The red-light mentality, as the journalist Beppe Severgnini sees it, explains volumes about Italy and the Italians. “We think it’s an insult to our intelligence to comply with a regulation,” he writes in “La Bella Figura,” his witty, insightful tour of the Italian mind. “Obedience is boring. We want to think about it. We want to decide whether a particular law applies to our specific case. In that place, at that time.”

This principle applies to traffic regulations, taxes, solemn laws and personal behavior. Everything is personal and open to discussion. As a result, Italy totters along in a state of amiable chaos, its situation desperate but not serious, which is more or less the way Italians like it, those in charge and those, in principle, being led. “Controllers and controlled have an unspoken agreement,” Mr. Severgnini writes. “You don’t change, we don’t change, and Italy doesn’t change, but we all complain that we can’t go on like this.”

Mr. Severgnini, a columnist for the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera, turned a fond eye on the United States in his last book, “Ciao, America!,” but this time around, on his home turf, he bites harder and deeper. The paradoxes of Italian life engage him. They bring out the reflective wit that, he argues, is native to most Italians and may be their most potent weapon in the struggle with bureaucracy and social dysfunction. Intertwined with native wit is a strong sense of self-esteem enjoyed by even the humblest Italian, as well as a fatal weakness for beauty and surface appeal, “la bella figura.”

Italians, in other words, would just as soon look good as be good. The country suffers from an ethics deficit, most clearly visible in the attitude toward taxes. Lying outrageously about one’s income is considered normal. In the United States the public regards tax evasion as morally reprehensible. If he were to cheat on his taxes in Italy, Mr. Severgnini writes, “two neighbors would come round to ask me how I did it, and two more would loathe me in silence.” No one would report him.

Mr. Severgnini presents his guide as a tour that is partly geographical and partly conceptual. Over the course of 10 days, he travels from Milan to Tuscany to the far south: Sicily and Sardinia. But the places are merely excuses for little treatises on beaches, restaurants, cellphones, airports, condominiums, piazzas, gardens and offices, all sprinkled with clever observations and telling statistics.

The differences between Italian and British flight attendants, illustrated in a hilarious vignette, help explain the Italian sense of personal drama and the national talent for creatively responding to small crises. Italian flight attendants are poor at serving you coffee but good at cleaning it up and sympathizing when you spill it. Some of this is merely glib. Mr. Severgnini, himself no stranger to the lure of la bella figura, would just as soon turn a beautiful phrase as make a point, and he might do well to heed one of his own points about the restlessly fertile Italian brain: “you can’t amaze everyone every three minutes.”

At the same time, Mr. Severgnini, as he skips lightly from one topic to the next, manages to sneak in some revealing statistics. One in three Italians finds a job through a relative. One in five has moved in the last 10 years, half the European average. Telecommuting is virtually nonexistent, engaged in by only 0.2 percent of the work force — in part, Mr. Severgnini theorizes, because it deprives Italians of the social drama of the workplace.

The Italy that Mr. Severgnini describes seethes with frustration. Government works poorly. The legal system barely functions. Too many Italians are crowded into too little space. Fear of failure stymies innovation. Mr. Severgnini is dismayed at the national genius for enjoyment and the Italian inability to plan for the future. “Our sun is setting in installments,” he writes. “It’s festive and flamboyant, but it’s still a sunset.”

Yet in many areas Italians have jumped at modernity and thrown over tradition almost casually. Cellphones are a national mania. They allow Italians to be Italian in new, entertaining ways. The shopping mall (but not Internet shopping) is popular because Italians pretend that it’s a piazza. New nonsmoking laws, widely predicted to be an absolute failure, have been accepted without a fuss. They created new gathering places and new forms of conviviality. One young man cited by Mr. Severgnini started smoking as a way to meet girls. Restaurants go in for all sorts of newfangled gadgets in their bathrooms, and Mr. Severgnini has a field day with the automated sinks, concealed light switches and baroque flush technology that challenge the Italian diner today.

There is one rule, by the way, that cannot be violated. It is wrong, and possibly illegal, to order a cappuccino after 10 a.m. This is worse than eating pizza in the middle of the day. It is nonnegotiable. Discussion over. Rosso pieno.

Fuuutbooollll

2006-09-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

ARMENIA v. BELGIUM!!
2008 European Soccer Championship qualifying game!

Ehh...yes, we lost (1-0), but the excitement just comes from hearing the chant: "Ha-ya-stan! Ha-ya-stan!"

Nation's got its eye set on winning the match against Azerbaijan next year...

Corruption, taxation and car bombs

2006-09-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

Recently was informed that the oligarchs, mafia and government are all one in the same here. That they as a collective whole make it virtually impossible for a regular citizen to start even a small or mid size business because they will come after you with ludicrous tax rates unless you pay them off. And if you refuse to bribe, then they will fabricate other reasons why you will be charged extra fees for, in addition to creating other “complications” the business owner. Of course, the money that the “tax department” “collects” does not go to fund social services or pensions, but instead lines the pockets of those well-connected oligarchs with pull in the government.

Clearly, said oligarchs would not be pleased if their practices were put to an end. So, yeah, I guess assasination is one way to deal with it.

"The Armenian government’s top official in charge of detecting and investigating tax evasion was killed in a car explosion in downtown Yerevan early on Wednesday."

However, I really don’t know what to make of the whole thing. If you read through the whole article, the scenario sounds more and more suspicious. I’m sure no one can with good conscience say that Hovasapian was just an innocent civil servant who was martyred for his diligent work at trying to stop corruption in the interest of the average citizen of Armenia.

Problem is that most everything related to the rule of law here seems to fall in that murky grey area…

joy of motion

2006-08-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

Over the last week I've had the pleasure of visiting two arts schools- one in the outskirts of Yerevan (Hayortads Doon), and the other in Etchmiadzin (Hye Miyutyan Khatch) to see if there is a way we (AVC) can collaborate with them.

These schools offer classes in almost every Armenian art or craft (including painting, clay work, wood-work, weaving, carpet-making, painting, traditional dance, singing, theater...), and follow through with them for many years, molding their students to truly master their skill.

Walking through the hallways and observing classes in progress, seeing the children's faces, and observing humbly the small presentations they have arranged for me as their guest I can't help but smile, but at the same time feel a tug at my heart. Listening to their instructors speak about what they teach the students in a tone with such urgency moves me because I understand what they are not saying. The passing on of traditional art forms is so important to preserving the Armenian culture because it is the only thing which defines us. Beyond all the riffs in politics, and "Eastern" or "Western" dialects and traditions, in the end the traditional arts and crafts are one of the only remaining unifiers that define the culture: an Armenian carpet is an Armenian carpet for all of us. Furthermore, the nation is so sprawled across the globe and becomes difussed more and more by each generation. And so, those teachers who are passing on the trades, crafts, and skills realize that they are in fact preserving a nation with every student that learns how to use the loom, that learns a dance or a song.

Additionally if anyone has spent a lot of time with Armenians you'll notice a sort of stoicism or mysticism which surrounds the way they talk about Art. It is almost held in as high regard (perhaps higher for some people) as religion. The way Komitas composed Armenian church music to be so beautiful that it feels miles above the secular world, Armenians consider their art as something higher than mundane reality.

A very frequent preface I've heard from artists in Armenia is "if you are close to art, you'll understand..." and then they continue with whatever it is they were explaining- but meanwhile their eyes are searching your face to see if you are someone "close to art". To see if you do have that depth in your soul to truly see through the surface and understand what he or she is showing you.

I found myself beginning to tear when one of the dance groups performed for me. They danced a lovely modern choreography to one of Ara Gevorgian's arrangements, and the lights, the stage, the movements, the corrections made by their choreographer, the rehearsal attire, all took me back to so many years where I too shared that world of dance. I remember once writing in a journal about how I feel about dance after a particularly frustrating performance: "I know it's love because it makes me cry every time."

Inappropriate

2006-07-24T02:04:00.000-07:00

It is inappropriate for me to address this in a post right after I blogged about my pool.

It is inappropriate that my volunteer and friend Shogher from Beirut has to sit here and contemplate her dwindling life options. She's here safely, and her mother thankfully arrived in Yerevan two nights ago, but her father is still in Lebanon. She tells me that the relief situation with her friends and family in Beirut is miserable and getting worse still as there is a growing shortage of food and supplies (http://www.unicef.org/emerg/index_35034.html). Everything she had planned for her life continues to escape her. She's left an unfinished dissertation, and can't exactly go back to Beirut to graduate and continue her studies. She called the Lebanese Embassy today and asked them if any other countries aside from Armenia offer asylum to Lebanese nationals and the man on the other end laughed at her.

It is inappropriate for Armavia airlines to be profiting from the poor people displaced as a result of this disastrous conflict. Two nights ago two Armavia airliners arrived in Yerevan with 219 people on board. Most of them were Lebanese citizens of Armenian descent. Armavia looks like a hero for helping to evacuate these people- but as it turns out, the company is profiting from these traumatized people in several ways. First they required the refugees to purchase the Beirut-Yerevan ticket, even though they were physically to be flying out of Aleppo, Syria. Why? Because the Beirut ticket is more expensive. Passengers were still required to pay the Lebanese air taxes, AND in the middle of the night, all the refugees were required to pay for visas upon entry at Yerevan's International airport even though they had been told that they'd be granted asylum. It's appalling enough whenever we get ripped off here, it's just disgusting to take advantage of people in a war situation.

It is inappropriate for western media to spin Condolezza Rice's visit to the Middle East in any kind of positive light as a huge step of diplomacy. How can the US pretend to be a peace-broker when it is simultaneously supplying arms to one side!

Most inappropriate is for Israel to continue this ferocious and utterly unjustifiable attack which ultimately victimizes innocent Lebanese citizens.

Decadence

2006-07-21T04:55:00.000-07:00

Don't be decieved. Even we in the business of non-profit work spoil ourselves once in a while. Meet the luxurious paradisal escape from the Yerevan hustle and bustle otherwise known as the Congress Hotel Pool where the self-proclaimed "pool crew" made a wise investment by purchasing memberships, and has spent many an afternoon for the last 1.5 months and counting...Just don't tell my volunteers... ;-)

Cousins

2006-07-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

This is easily one of my favorite of all pictures I've taken thus far. I set up the shot by adjusting the white balance and using a really slow exposure. Then set the timer and let it go...

Habitat for Humanity

2006-07-18T03:43:00.000-07:00

Perfect day for a humanitarian (and hilarious) collaboration...with my predominantly North American AVC volunteers in their 20s, local Armenian residents of Gavar village, and 26 protypical teenagers from Buenos Aires...

Most of the sunny day was spent shoveling sand into buckets, then through longest and loudest assembly line ever (leave it to the Argentinians to sing and dance while doing manual labor...really would you expect anything less?), pass the buckets all the way up to the third, then second, and then first floor bathrooms where the sand will be used for cementing and putting up tiles in this apartment building.

AVC

2006-06-26T03:02:00.000-07:00

I'm a professional blogger now. Opening up blogs left and right...

A few weeks ago we launched a new site for my organization, the Armenian Volunteer Corps. It gives more of an up to date picture of what we're up to here in Armenia than our official website does.

www.armenianvolunteer.blogspot.com

Activism without Borders

2006-06-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

I will once again reiterate why I love living in a still maleable and nebulous democracy such as Armenia-- because you can actually play a role in what happens. Your actions can have tremendous ripple effects. In our case- something organized haphazardly in a matter of a few days rippled all the way to the president's office and resulted in a Government response.

Let me try to set up a timeline of exactly what's been going on this month on the civic action front:

1. Arsen Kharatyan, son of a member of parliament, and a die-hard optimist for the progress of Armenia, is a close friend of the Armenian Volunteer Corps. He brought to my attention the issue of several violent racially motivated murders of Armenian young people committed by so-called skinheads in Russia in recent months.

He informed me that the Russian government had largely been looking the other way, barely investigating or arresting anyone for these crimes, and not bringing any of the accused murders to justice. Perhaps worse still was that the Armenian government had not made any formal comments or condemnation of these acts for fear of disrupting the delicate (subservient...) political relationship it has with Russia.

Arsen's organization- the For Science Development Initiative- approached me and asked if we could mobilize the diasporan Armenians (Armenians who were not born in the country) in town to join in and organize a demonstration publicizing this issue.

He asked for our help because he was convinced that people with a Western experience would be more likely to take a pro-active stance and join the demonstration.

I obliged.

2. Below is an excerpt from the e-mail I sent out to dozens of people in Yerevan asking them to join us at the protest:

“A 19-year-old ethnic Armenian man was knifed to death on a Russian passenger train last week by a group of youths shouting "Glory to Russia", Ekho Moskvy radio station reported yesterday…A wave of killings and beatings in cities across Russia has raised concerns about the rise of racist groups in the country.”
– Rueters, May 31 2006

The Issue:
Fellow Armenians, as you may already know, in the last 10 days 2 more Armenian teenagers have been murdered in Moscow, which proves that Russian xenophobia runs deep.

Anti-Caucasus sentiment has reached a new level. We believe that we cannot remain silent about this matter and if the Foreign Ministry and our politicians are not going to speak out, then we as citizens must do something!

The Action:
The Armenian Helsinki Committee and For Science Development Initiative Group are organizing a DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY ON MONDAY JUNE 5th.
3. Here's a photo of me getting harrassed by a police officer outside the Russian Embassy on the day of the protest. Apparently "free speech" doesn't mean much to him. He asked rudely to see all of the photos I had taken. I asked him why, and he told me that it's "illegal" to take pictures of the Russian Embassy building. I, obviously pissed off, angrilyscrolled through all the pictures I had taken and said "SEE!" Then he left me alone.
A few minutes later he got right in the face of one of my volunteers and screamed at her "Don't take pictures!!" Before she even had a chance to put the camera down, much less respond, he lunged at her and tried to swipe the camera out of her hands into the ground! I managed to catch it before it fell and shattered and started yelling at this cop like I've never yelled at anyone here before. It earned me quite a bit of attention and now I'm sortof considered a bad-ass...

The demonstration didn't bring an enormous crowd, but there were a fair amount of concerned people there, and a LOT of media. After 25 minutes of hectic interviewing and disorganized clumps of people only half-enthusiastically holding up their signs I made the executive decision that there MUST be a more effective use of our time. Truly it didn't look like a demonstration- if someone drove by they would have no idea what this group of people was assembled for. So, I grabbed a few volunteers and we dragged everyone into a solid formation- we formed one long line facing the Embassy, holding our signs. We stayed like this for another 25 minutes, and I think it ended up fairly effective.

4. Here's one of many articles that was published about our protest. Myself and many of our AVC volunteers were interviewed by journalists that afternoon. They spoke about their disgust as such racist acts, and that they felt the Armenian citizens should be more pro-active in asking the government to respond. This is just one of many ways in which the presence of our volunteers makes an effect on the development of Armenian society.

Armenian Civic Groups Protest Racist Killings In Russia
By Anna Saghabalian
Published in Human Rights in Armenia

Several dozen people staged a rare demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Yerevan on Monday to condemn and protest against the continuing racially motivated killings of Armenians and other dark-skinned residents of Russia.

The protesters, most of them representatives of several Armenian civic groups, accused Moscow of connivance and even complicity in the xenophobic violence widely blamed on tens of thousands of neo-Nazi skinheads operating across Russia. They also denounced the Armenian government’s reluctance to bring the Kremlin to task over the killings.
The protest was sparked by the fatal stabbing of a Russian citizen of Armenian descent by a group of rampaging youths on a train in a Moscow suburb. Artur Sardarian, 19, is the sixth ethnic Armenian reportedly killed in Russia this year.
Russian human rights organizations say a total of at least 15 people from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Africa have lost their lives in racist attacks since January. The death toll for the last year is estimated at 28.
Few of the perpetrators of those killings have been arrested and brought to justice, with Russian law-enforcement agencies and courts notoriously lenient towards them. A case in point was the trial in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg of seven teenagers who were convicted of collectively stabbing to death a 9-year-old Tajik girl but were sentenced to only between 18 months and five years in prison last February.
In a petition handed to Russian embassy officials, the organizers of the Yerevan protest suggested that the neo-Nazi groups guilty of the attacks are openly operating “with the sponsorship of some Russian state structures.”
“There is no way such illegal acts could have been carried out for so long and so indiscriminately without the backing of some state structures,” said Avetik Ishkhanian of the Armenian Helsinki Committee.
The protesters also marched to the Armenian Foreign Ministry to condemn its failure to publicly criticize the Russian authorities for their failure to stop the violence. Armenia’s ambassador in Moscow and other diplomats say they regularly raise the issue with Russian officials. But the organizers of the protest insisted that Yerevan is scared of openly challenging its ex-Soviet master and closest ally.
“I am convinced that if the Armenian authorities took a tougher line the situation would not be so grave,” said Ishkhanian.
“The Armenian authorities are not doing anything to stop the killings,” charged another protester, Arsen Kharatian. “Their failure to speak out is a crime in itself.”
Sardarian’s violent death came in the wake of an uproar caused by the killing of another young Armenian. The 17-year-old Vigen Abramiants was stabbed to death on a Moscow subway platform on April 22. The crime, which has still not been solved, prompted an outburst of anti-Russian rhetoric in the Armenian media which dealt a further blow to the traditionally strong pro-Russian sentiment in Armenia.
5. Below is our first yardstick measuring a succesful effect of our demonstration. I've highlighted in blue the sentences that I believe refer directly or indirectly to our efforts in Yerevan at the beginning of this month. I will once again reiterate why I love living in a still maleable and nebulous democracy such as Armenia-- because you can actually play an active part in its future.

Kocharian, Markarian Press Russians To Tackle Racist Murders
By Emil Danielyan
Published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (www.ArmeniaLiberty.org)
Official Yerevan stepped up its hitherto timid pressure on Moscow to prevent further racist killings of ethnic Armenian residents of Russia, with President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Andranik Markarian raising the issue with a visiting senior Kremlin insider on Friday.
The two men told President Vladimir Putin’s representative to southern Russia, Dmitry Kozak, that they expect tougher action against Russian neo-Nazi groups responsible for the increasingly serious violence, indicating their dissatisfaction with measures taken by the Russian authorities so far. Kocharian said the Russian law-enforcement bodies, widely accused of inactivity and even connivance in the deadly attacks, should act in a more “quick, steadfast and understandable” manner. “
The interlocutors condemned nationalist murders committed in Russia in recent months and noted that they do not stem from the interests of Russia and the Russian people,” his office said in a press release.
Markarian, for his part, urged Moscow to take “serious steps to identify and bring the guilty to justice as well as to avert more such incidents.” At least six ethnic Armenians were beaten, stabbed or shot to death this year in a wave of xenophobic extremism targeting dark-skinned immigrants from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Africa that has plagued Russia. The Russian authorities’ failure to solve the vast majority of those crimes has is increasingly raising eyebrows in Armenia, contributing to the erosion of a traditionally strong pro-Russian sentiment there.
The Armenian government has been attacked by local civic groups, opposition parties and prominent intellectuals for its reluctance to bring the Kremlin to task. Kocharian’s and Markarian’s remarks were apparently Yerevan’s first high-level criticism of Moscow’s handling of the violence. They came the day after an official announcement that senior diplomats from the two countries will hold a special meeting in the Russian capital on the issue later this month.
According to Markarian’s press service, while condemning the racists murders, Kozak said that “they are not specifically directed against Armenians” and that “the Russian authorities are doing everything to solve and rule out such crimes.” He also cited a “good treatment” of hundreds of thousands of Armenians living in Russia’s southern regions.
However, reports of vandals desecrating Armenian churches and cemeteries in the area have not been uncommon in recent years, and at least one of the local governors, Aleksandr Tkachev of the Krasnodar Region, has irked Armenian community leaders and Russian human rights activists in the past with xenophobic statements.
Kozak, who was accompanied by Russian regional officials, also discussed with the Armenian leaders economic cooperation between Armenia and southern Russia. Kocharian and Markarian pointed to the persisting high transportation costs involved in bilateral trade, with the latter urging the Russians to do more to restore rail communication between Russia and Armenia via Georgia.
Kocharian was quoted by his press office as noting with satisfaction that the lack of “efficient transport communication” between the two countries does not prevent Russian companies from “playing an increasingly large role” in the Armenian economy.

In the Company of Artists

2006-06-10T07:04:00.000-07:00
Meet the impressive crowd with whom I spent an enchanting evening last weekend. I love them.

Michael: the Emmy-winning television and film actor/director from LA (you may recognize him from Party of Five, Leaving Las Vegas, episodes of House, CSI, or as the director of Illusions starring Kirk Douglas)
Ivana: the miniature-manuscript artist and theater actress from Belgrade
Vrej: the professional cartoonist/caricaturist from Syria
Bella: the print and television journalist
Vaughan: the Cambridge/Oxford/Harvard educated (not kidding) filmmaker from London
Eric: the Newsweek journalist from Paris
Arzvin: the Armenian film scholar and critic, organizer of the International Golden Apricot Film Festival
Serj/“Ioj”: the extremely-animated pantomimist and stage actor
Mika: the film and stage director

The stylish cocktail party at Vrej's studio continued on into a fantastic night of ridiculous dancing at Monte Cristo...

International Childrens' Day and First Republic Day

2006-06-04T22:44:00.000-07:00
Yerevan celebrated International Childrens' Day by setting up a major show on the Cascade. I don't know if I've ever seen so many people buzzing around one place in Armenia before. The Cascade is a fantastic venue. The peformances were great(including my favorite, the Armenian Navy Band). The city was filled with energy. It made me so happy and hopeful to be a part of such a vibrant and colorful evening solely devoted to celebrating children. For all those who complain that the development process is too slow here and that it will still take another generation to really see some changes: here are those children who will make those changes.

Another cause to celebrate recently was May 28th. This marks the independce day of Armenia's First Republic (1918-1920). The Dashnagtsutyun (the political party who won that victory and ran the Armenian government during the first republic) organized a performance up at "victory park," complete with dancing and fireworks late into the night...

Geo-politics

2006-06-02T04:22:00.000-07:00
Stephanie has a cousin in Tblisi, Georgia. Her cousin has a friend from the UK. This friend from the UK became my friend last week when he came to visit Yerevan.

His name is William, and he has a degree in post-Soviet studies, and now works in Tblisi as the editor of an English language weekly newspaper. While we were strolling through Yerevan and chatting I gave him my opinions and various insights on the country, which are generally illicited from me by visitors as I am their de-facto expert resident.

I pointed out where the old US embassy was and mentioned that with the completed construction of the new Embassy compound, Armenia houses the 2nd largest embassy in the world second only to Iraq. I mentioned that per capita, Armenia receives more US aid per capita than almost any other country, probably thanks to the strong Armenian lobby that exists in the United States. The aid money is an achievement (or perhaps consolation prize), even though the US continues to avoid recognizing the Genocide because of it's friendly relationship with Turkey. We discussed the fact that because of Armenia's closed borders with Turkey, it has forged good trade relations with Iran. We discussed Armenia's good relations with Russia (Russian troops help patrol some of Armenia's borders)- manifested most recently by the results of Euro-vision song competition where Russia gave it's highest votes to Armenia and Armenia likewise gave its highest votes to Russia.

As it turns out, it's true that you never know what seeds you have planted. Little did I know, that the journalist in William was taking mental notes that evening. See the op-ed William wrote which was printed this week:

Armenia: having their cake and eating it too
By William Dunbar

Outside every public building in Georgia the flag of Europe flutters awaynext to the five crosses of Georgia - a testament to the nation's westernambitions. But Georgia is paying a price for its occidental inclination; thedrive west has incurred the wrath of the northern neighbor, and with everystep Georgia takes towards 'Euro-Atlantic structures' a reprisal is issuedfrom Moscow. Be it visa regimes, embargoes on wine and mineral water, orincreasingly vocal support for the separatists in Abkhazia and SouthOssetia, Russia-like a jealous lover-seems determined to punish Georgia forgetting too friendly with the west.

The Georgian authorities are at pains to point out just how far the countryhas come on the road to western integration, and significant progress hascertainly been made. Inclusion in the new European Neighborhood Policy(ENP), the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and the solidarity shownGeorgia by Dick Cheney at the recent Vilnius summit of Baltic-Black Seanations-not to mention last year's Bush visit, and the praise he heaped onthe ' beacon of democracy'-all of these are achievements the Georgiangovernment can be proud of.

However, each of these achievements has been accompanied by deterioration in the relationship with Russia. Both the Russian and Georgian authorities aretrapped in a lose-lose situation. They each see influence in Georgia as being like a cake: if the West gets more cake then Russia gets less, there is only so much cake to go round, after all. This 'zero-sum' thinking is economically and/or tarnishing their international image, and it seems it can only get worse.

Yet there is a prime example to the south reminding us that influence doesn''t have to be like a cake at all. Armenia is living proof that you canhave it both ways. Armenia-a small, impoverished and landlocked country of some three million people-is home to the second largest US embassy in theworld (Iraq is number one). Little Armenia receives more US government aid per capita than or almost anywhere else (including Georgia), it is also signed up to the ENP and the MCA. And how are Armenian/Russian relations? Well they're just peachy. No visa regime, no trade embargoes, no fiery rhetoric, and Armenian cognac is still readily available in Moscow.

The historical hatred they continue to bear towards their Turkic neighbors notwithstanding, the Armenians are quietly getting along with the realpowers that be; they even manage to have friendly relations with Iran and still get a huge slice of military assistance from the US. Armenia should be a lesson to both Russia and Georgia, politics doesn''t have to be a zero sumgame, and everyone can be a winner. You really can have your cake and eat it too.

The newest "Stansi"

2006-05-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

I am officially a "hayastansi".

Just got my Armenian Passport :-)

I have official "special residency status" for 10 years...to quote the Ministry of Foreign Affiars: "The Special Residency Status is granted by the President of Armenia to the foreign citizens of Armenian ancestry and other distinguished individuals, who have provided significant services to the Armenian nation and/or are engaged in economic and cultural activities in Armenia."

Clearly, I'm ecstatic

Caught in the hype

2006-05-20T15:46:00.000-07:00
Armenia's debut in the Eurovision contest was VERY fun to witness...and even more fun to celebrate tonight as our own Ricky-Martin-esque Andre took Armenia to the top 10 finalists, guarunteeing us a spot in the contest next year! Find the music video online somewhere, it's very amusing.
lalallal without your love...
This contest has all the fun of any where nations compete against one another like the Olympics or World Cup, plus the pressure and feeling of involvement as American idol, because each country gives its top votes to the other countries to determine the winners. I also thoroughly enjoyed hearing english song lyrics sung with a multitude of accents. adorable. what a united colors of benetton evening.

"Best of" Day 2

2006-05-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

How to show 2 non- Armenians a fabulous time in Armenia, Day 2

1. Grab a professional repat who really knows his way around because he has been living in Armenia for 7 years already and has even written his share of travel books on the country (Raffi), AND your favorite tour guide/collegue (Arshak) and plan a road trip for the day!

2. Start by renting a car from Lemon Rent-a-Car (rest assured that all the Americans here have already acknowledged the humor in the name of this company). Our trusty volkswagen is pictured below.

3. First stop: the always stunning Lake Sevan from the vantage point of the peninsula, where the monastery of Sevanavank stands. Lake Sevan covers 5% of Armenia's surface area and is nestled inside the Geghama mountain range at 2,000 meters above sea level. The waters seem to change from crystal blue, to deep purple to turqouise depending on the time of day. We point out to our guests that it's customary for the locals to sell fish that they have caught from the lake on the side of the road. How do you know who's fish are best? Apparently size does matter and each vendor tries to boast by showing you through his armspan just how big the fish he caught are!

5. Stop for another meal of Khorovats, on the banks of a river that runs through Dilijan. We happened to catch the photo-op of the year as a group of WWII veterans were assembled in honor of May 9th, victory day.

6. Cruise further north still into the depths of the lush Tavush region and check out Haghartsin Monastary nesstled in the rolling hills...a stop made even more amusing if you manage to stumble upon a group of locals throwing themselves a party in the middle of the mountain, complete with accordion playing, singing and drinking. You must, of course, join in for a toast or two!

7. Meet the old man and woman who bake sweet bread and sell it by the church, and offer to help them...chop wood?!

8. Stop through the actual town of Dilijan and walk around. The Tufenkian foundations is renovating this old street to make it a site for artisans to set up workshops and sell their crafts.

9. Head back to Yerevan in time to catch the ARMENIAN NAVY BAND's last performance in town for the season! They play at their own venue, called Avante-Gard which is always cozy and packed with the Navy Band's adoring fans. There really isn't a way to describe how incredible and unique this band is, so you'll just have to come see one of their shows for yourself.

Editorial

2006-05-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

Check out this editorial about the Armenian genocide that was published in the New York Times today (I can't figure out who wrote it however...). In case you can't open the link, here is the full text:

May 16, 2006
Editorial
Turkey, Armenia and Denial
Turkey's self-destructive obsession with denying the Armenian genocide seems to have no limits. The Turks pulled out of a NATO exercise this week because the Canadian prime minister used the term "genocide" in reference to the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during and after World War I. Before that, the Turkish ambassador to France was temporarily recalled to protest a French bill that would make it illegal to deny that the Armenian genocide occurred. And before that, a leading Turkish novelist, Orhan Pamuk, was charged with "insulting Turkish identity" for referring to the genocide (the charges were dropped after an international outcry).
Turkey's stance is hard to fathom. Each time the Turks lash out, new questions arise about Turkey's claim to a place in the European Union, and the Armenian diaspora becomes even more adamant in demanding a public reckoning over what happened.

Granted, genocide is a difficult crime for any nation to acknowledge. But it is absurd to treat any reference to the issue within Turkey as a crime and to scream "lie!" every time someone mentions genocide. By the same token, we do not see the point of the French law to ban genocide denial. Historical truths must be established through dispassionate research and debate, not legislation, even if some of those who question the evidence do so for insidious motives.

But the Turkish government considers even discussion of the issue to be a grave national insult, and reacts to it with hysteria. Five journalists who criticized a court's decision to shut down an Istanbul conference on the massacre of Armenians were arrested for insulting the courts. Charges against four were subsequently dropped, but a fifth remains on trial.

The preponderance of serious scholarship outside Turkey accepts that more than a million Armenians perished between 1914 and 1923 in a regime-sponsored campaign. Turkey's continued refusal to countenance even a discussion of the issue stands as a major obstacle to restoring relations with neighboring Armenia and to claiming Turkey's rightful place in Europe and the West. It is time for the Turks to realize that the greater danger to them is denying history.

"Best of" Day 1

2006-05-12T22:46:00.000-07:00
How to show 2 non-Armenians a fabulous time in Armenia in just 3 days:

1. First and foremost, those people should be wonderful people themselves who have the open mind and itch to find out more about the world! Let me introduce mine: Steph, my best friend from high school and Dace (pronounced Dat-sey) from Riga, Latvia.
2. When they come in tired and broken from being squeezed into a mini-bus sharing seats with babushkas and being married off by said babushkas on a 7 hour ride from Tblisi, Georgia take them out for their first taste of KHOROVATZ (armenian bbq) and Armenian red wine at the Caucasus Tavern.
3. Let the weary traveler's sleep in and head out for a day of touring after tea and breakfast. Hire a driver to take you to three of the heavy hitters: The pagan temple of Garni, 13th century Geghart Monastery, and the Holy See- Etchmiadzin (the Vatican of the Armenian church). In retrospect, interestingly enough, this little triumvirate makes for a nice breezy tour of the relgious progression of Armenia as a nation...

Of course the travelling day couldn't be complete without a stop at a local store to purchase fresh bread, cucumbers, tomatos and cheese for an open air picnic on the road!

4. Come back to Yerevan, and have authentic DOLMA (stuffed grapeleaves) for dinner at the adorable The CLUB restaurant.

Furthermore, if your guest shows even an inkling of interest in finding out what Tutti Oghi might be (mulberry vodka), it would be unfathomable not to have a shot or two so she can taste the potent liquor (80% alcohol!) for herself. Be prepared to stumble around for the rest of the night...it's not suprising to find yourselves acting like fools at a local bar later on...

Long-winded entry on Urban Planning

2006-05-07T07:35:00.000-07:00
Clearly I have spent a lot of time in the villages and rural areas of the country, and I tend to take more photographs out there as I find those areas so picturesque. But, I realize that it’s only fair that I take some pictures of my city as well. Yerevan is the largest city in Armenia (population of about 1 mil.), and is growing to be quite metropolitan. Girls, it’s true: there’s even the Spanish-retailer MANGO here.

These are pictures of Republic Square (which is very close to my apartment) at dusk: my favorite time of day. It’s not quite dark yet, but the lights are turned on, and the sky is always lovely at this hour and leaves a blue haze. These pictures are very unique for one reason: there are no people in them! In about a month or so, seeing the Square so empty will be a virtual impossibility. Bring on tourist season!

There is a LOT of construction underway as the new “Northern Boulevard” slowly breaks ground. Apparently, the original plans for Yerevan, as conceived by the architect Alexander Tamanyan, foresaw a street that went directly from Republic Square to the Opera House (the two main features of the city). So now, this plan is being actualized. The street will be pedestrian-access only (this is a GREAT idea), and will feature many modern (and very expensive- think $100,000-$150,000 2 bedroom apartments) apartment buildings, and shops/cafes.

Though it will certainly be good for business, attracting tourists, upping the overall aesthetic of the city, and encouraging investors, this whole project has been rather controversial. One reason is because many people were ejected from the homes they’d been living in for generations, to make way for the developers to put up new buildings. These displaced people were compensated minimally for their troubles. They weren’t paid anything near market value, and thus in most circumstances, the money they were given won’t be enough to purchase another home in Yerevan as real estate continues to skyrocket. Furthermore, if you simply ask around, you’ll come to find out that it is common knowledge that most of the buildings going up on the Northern Boulevard are being financed by the Russian mafia. People in government and so-called “oligarchs” are going to profit handsomely however. To be sure, there is a lot of money to be made in construction here. It is a grand scheme of money laundering and personal profit for the very few, and there’s really nothing anyone can do about it (case in point: the one lawyer who tried to defend the displaced people who were being kicked out of there homes on human rights/anti-corruption grounds, was thrown in jail for months on trumped up charges. The government’s message to “shut up” is clear).

And finally, the design is rather controversial as there is no unified plan for the architectural style of the Boulevard. It seems each developer is building in whatever style they want without heed to what the others are doing, or to preserving the historical aesthetic of the city (one of the finished buildings closest to the Opera looks more like a Tyson’s Corner-style corporate office building than anything else): thus, the result may be a rather motley sight of buildings completely dissimilar to one another…but only time will tell.

Still hugging trees

2006-05-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

Photos from another AVC tree-planting trip, this time in Kotayk Village, this time with the Armenian Forests NGO (http://www.armenianforests.am/). The trees are Apricot trees, and so in the future, hopefully, under the care and watering of the villagers hired by Armenian Forests, they will grow to be handsome trees which will fulfill not only environmental and aesthetic purposes, but will be utilitarian as well.
And...finally, here are some pictures to make your mouth-water :-) My cousins decided to have a Khorovatz party on Monday, as it was a national holiday and no one had to go to school or work (May 1st- "May Day" or Worker's Day)

I'm a tree-hugger

2006-05-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

There is a big effort from environmental NGOs here to work on the reforestation of Armenia. During the early 90s after the collapse of the Soviet system, there was no power or heat for almost 2 years, and in that time practically all the trees and forests were cut down and used to burn for heat. The threat of complete deforestation is dire if nothing is done to curtail it.
Above and to the left are photos from a tree-planting trip we did in Gegharkunik Region (near Lake Sevan) about two weeks ago . The impetus for getting AVC involved with reforestation projects is largely thanks to Sayat and Maral (in blue and yellow jackets, respectively), our volunteers from Istanbul who came to Armenia with the concern and zeal to plant trees for the benefit of Armenia's future.

Trip to Lori Region

2006-05-02T06:13:00.000-07:00
These posts are all a little outdated, so I'll go ahead and continue the trend. Working backwards- here are some photos from a trip (4/8/06) the AVC and Birthright Armenia organized out to the Northern region of Lori, which is, in my opinion, the most beautiful region in Armenia. The land is verdant and the atmosphere peaceful and idyllic. I even made some friends...a few of the village girls gave me yellow daffodils in honor of "Beauty and Motherhood Day" which is an Armenian holiday on April 7th.

The pictures above are from Dsegh Village which is the birthplace of the famous Armenian writer Hovhannes Tumanian. It is not suprising that one who lived amongst such beautiful nature came to be such an inspired artist. He wrote the famous "Anoush" opera, and legend has it that the tragic conclusion of the opera, where Anoush throws herself over a cliff and ends her life because she can not be with her love, was inspired by the villagers who lived around cliffs and mountains near Tumanian's house. Luckily I didn't share the same impulse as that Anoush when I saw those cliffs!

Below are pictures from Sanahin Monastary. This monastic complex was founded in 966 AD! It, and another nearby monastery complex, Haghpat (which is a world heritage UNESCO site) are two of my favorite churches in Armenia. I think the photos came out well...

Easter Eggs

2006-05-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the easter egg dying party i had at my apartment. The pictures pretty much show the whole process from start to finish: we tried it the traditional way...with onion peels. I went to a market and begged about 10 different vendors if they'd give me onion peels! Then i bought some pretty greens...and the secret ingredient: panty hose! you take the uncooked egg, put a piece of pretty greenery on it, and wrap the panty hose around the egg and tie it to hold the green in place. then you fill a pot with water, onion peels, salt, and the eggs, and set the pot to boil on low heat for almost 45 minutes...the result speaks for itself i think!
Oh! and i forgot to mention that on Easter Sunday, I received a text message from Etchmiadzin. For those who don't know, Etchmiadzin is the Holy See of the Armenian church. Essentially, Etchmiadzin is to the Armenian Apostolic Church, as the Vatican is to the Roman Catholic Church. So basically, I got the equivalent of a text message from the Pope.

Thoughts on visiting Armenia, before my first trip in 2004

2006-05-01T01:09:00.000-07:00
My favorite word in Armenian has no English equivalent: “ser”. Literally, it does mean “love”, but this is just the book-definition. The beauty of really knowing a language is that you become familiar with the flavors of words, understand their secondary meanings, you learn that when something is expressed in a certain way in can mean something else

My grandmother always used the word “ser” with a very specific intonation and inflection, particularly in reference to Armenia. I remember her eyes even changing to a specific gaze when she said the word; her eyebrows would raise and her head would slightly nod forward, as if in urgency; as if a physical impulse was necessary when speaking that word, because it was so much more powerful than just a word- it was a feeling, a full experience. A challenge- as if only if you were ready for the responsibility, the burden, and the strength it takes, could you really utter that word and the whole meaning of it.

Perhaps this word is so deep in Armenia, because the emotion is so deep in Armenians. Perhaps my grandmother had it right- it is somewhat of a menacing word, a challenge. It’s not to be thrown around lightly- because the Armenian cause is not a matter to be taken lightly. We are a people of perseverance and strength. That strength comes from our passion derived from out devotion and our sense of pride and duty. That love is a love of a people, a culture, a land. It is my love.

Welcome

2006-05-01T00:54:00.000-07:00
Bari Yegak Ungerner! Welcome friends.

I have been back in Armenia for exactly 30 days now. According to some sociologists and anthropologists, this is how long it takes to undergo the 5 stages of culture shock and adaptation.

Now that I'm fully re-adjusted, i thought it high time to create an outlet so that you can see what i see...

Anoush Armenia

Parliament Debates. International Community Chastises. Citizens Galvanize.

Football fuss

To be sure, OSCE is not the only one criticizing.

La Fête de la Musique en Arménie!

Yes. Thank you. Finally.

art imitates life

Tribeca!

ICTs and protests

MIA

Balkan pop music...

Spending the first days of May in a country without a President :)

Lessons

It's our city and we'll dance wherever we want to.

Shocked and in Awe

The Rose Revolution

Demonstration cut short...

Cultural Diplomacy

A little olive branch, but not a cross

moderation

"The revolution will not be televised...it will be You-Tubed"

It continues :)

Free Hugs campaign

'Global Civil Society'

World Press Photo of the Year 2006

Sksela...

changing the world, one letter at a time

POSTED: 0206 GMT (1006 HKT), March 11, 2007

Letter to CNN

Dear Diaspora,

Morality

Free Media? What's that?

La femme d'armenie

Watchdogs

"A problem from hell"

After LENGTHY national debate, some form of dual citizenship is here

Sksel-a

i told you, barekendan is coming...

Love

BAREKENDAN!

Charles Aznavour Square, One week ago

Letter to fall/winter '06 volunteers

Welcome back to the USSR

The date is set; and so it begins

2006 Corruption Perceptions Survey

The beautiful game?

Violence erupts in Italy

All matches suspended after officer killed in fan riot

When its cold outside, Yerevan moves inside.

Culinary and Earthquake Diplomacy

They said it, not me...

Like Water

More on the troubling story...

Murder of Hrant Dink, Journalist

For Araz.

On the way to work

Cultural Diplomacy

Again?

"Never Again"

The modern middle eastern woman's plight

my fellow americans...

thankfully

Armenia from Above

serene yerevan night

Blood, Sweat and Tears

i concur in astonishment at such disconfirmed expectations

To answer the question: "why"

Been working too hard lately... ;-)

Happy Belated

No small feat

contrast

Goodbye "Mer Hyrenik"??

To a new beautiful generation

Interesting cultural trademark whereby we flourish only under someone else's rule...

La Bella Figura

Fuuutbooollll

Corruption, taxation and car bombs

joy of motion

Inappropriate

Decadence

POSTED: 0206 GMT (1006 HKT), March 11, 2007