Speaking in Yerevan, ArmInfo quotes Arif Yunusov as saying that the majority of Azeris don’t want to see renewed conflict with Armenia (yet). According to the Azeri analyst and activist, 40% of the population of Azerbaijan want to see the war resume while 30% don’t. The remainder are undecided.

Visiting Armenia for an International Conference on the Caucasus, Yunusov said that recent skirmishes on the contact line resulted in approximately fifty deaths on both sides. Stressing the need to nurture closer contact between Armenians and Azeris, he was also resigned to continuing stalemate over Karabagh.

http://www.arminfo.am/news.htm##3

The NATO message is very clear: today the Black Sea is a new geographical and political package comprising South Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Moldavia), the South Caucasus and Turkey.

The EU has been seeking to establish a security strategy to protect its new borders from disorder and instability and thus concentrate on its internal affairs… The economic aspect is also essential. The EU hopes to expand its zones of influence beyond its new eastern borders, as it is interested in the energy resources of Central Asia, as well as those of the Caspian Sea.

— from caucuz.com

Which membership should Armenia be pursuing more agressively? Georgia and Azerbaijan have already committed to NATO’s program to get countries included and Armenia has applied for this program as well.

Civil.ge reports that US President George Bush will address Georgian citizens from Tbilisi’s Freedom Square on 10 May.

Georgian authorities installed number of banners and billboards in capital city, as well as in some other towns, welcoming the U.S. President. The banners also call on the Georgian citizens to attend George W. Bush’s address at Freedom Square.

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9748

Incidentally, Katy recently blogged that Saakashvili would announce the venue for the next revolution but I’m not sure if he ever did. However, Civil.ge also reports that Bush might meet with the leader of the Belarus opposition.

In an interview with the Rustavi 2 television Vice-Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Mikheil Machavariani confirmed that he personally invited Anatoly Lebedko to visit Tbilisi on May 10 in an attempt to meet with George W. Bush.

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=9749

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EurasiaNet has an article and photo essay on the Baku Jazz Festival. The photos are by Rena Effendi. Anyway, it’s always interesting to see what’s going on in the two other S. Caucasus Republics and although I’m not a big jazz fan, I do like Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, daughter of Vagif who was considered a pioneer of soviet jazz and who are both mentioned in the article.

Today, Mustafazadeh’s daughter, Aziza, ranks as a star on the global jazz circuit with a fusion of classical and jazz scat styles. Another celebrity who has crossed the musical divide between East and West is Rain Sultanov, the 39-year-old jazz saxophonist whose band, The Syndicate, is based in Baku. For Sultanov, jazz is a family affair: Sultanov’s two older brothers, Rauf, a highly accomplished bass player, and Ramin, a percussionist, also perform with The Syndicate.

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On the same subject of land being taken for real estate development without appropiate compensation, photos from Kond are now online. For those of you that don’t know, Kond is one of the last remaining parts of old Yerevan remaining and is also earmarked for development.

While there are those that consider that Kond should be redeveloped with its historical significance preserved, the main issue is that if residents are to be evicted that they receive compensation enough to move into new apartments. Incidentally, Kond and the issues at hand remind me very much of what seems to be happening in Azerbaijan. See Rena Effendi’s work on Mahalla in Baku here.

The photos of Kond accompanied by an article from Hetq Online can be found here.

ArmeniaNow.com has yet another distressing story about the current construction boom in the center of the Armenian capital. Unfortunately, these types of stories are now commonplace and rather than represent “development,” are perhaps testimony to everything that is wrong in the country.

It is widely known that, far from “state need,” the current property is being sought by a few powerful businessmen with government connections and/or positions. The property stands in the way of coveted development that will displace several hundred poor or marginally maintained, while enriching a few.

Human rights activists decry the action as a take over of property that violates the rights of the current residents.

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Assyrian kids in Armenia are taught in Russian, not Assyrian. For a minority that is so large in Armenia, is this acceptable?

The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor has just published an article on fresh calls for “revolution” in Armenia. To be honest, I’m not sure what will happen and when but am inclined to believe that if anything does it will be when the next Parliamentary Elections are held but in particular, if they are falsified.

At stake then will be the issue of succession to Kocharian or perhaps, as some consider is possible, that the incumbent will seek a third term in office. However, I am not sure that the Council of Europe would tolerate that and it’s more likley that Kocharian will try to handpick his successor. There are other flashpoints, however.

Opposition leaders hope that the upcoming referendum on amendments to Armenia’s constitution, drafted by the authorities, or local elections due in October, will serve as a catalyst for a massive pro-democracy movement. Kocharian may yet move to scrap a constitutional provision barring him from seeking a third term of office in 2008.

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Press the go go go button for Georgia…

The U.S. government is expected soon to approve a large aid package to Georgia through its new Millennium Challenge Account program. A top Georgian official says the program — aimed at rewarding poor countries that are thought to be governed honestly and transparently — has already triggered a dramatic change in the way Georgians approach economic development. A nationwide consultative process has produced initiatives to improve road and energy infrastructure, agriculture and tourism. Funding is likely to be approved this summer.

Georgia is going to zoom past Armenia and Azerbaijan. But will it look back? Can there be positive side effects for Armenia?

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Court of Intellectual Rights of Ankara rejected the claim of the Yerevan Brandy Factory against the resolution by the Turkish Patent Institute banning import of Armenian brandy to the Turkish market, Yerkir online reported. Its decision the court conditioned by the fact that “the image of Ararat Mountain printed on the label deludes the consumers.”

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In Freedom House’s draft 2005 country report on freedom of the press, Armenia is considered to be “Not Free” with a combined score of 64.

Although Armenia has a significant independent and opposition print media and the constitution protects freedom of speech and of the press, the government continues to restrict full media freedom in the country.

In particular, the reports lists concerns surrounding last year’s attacks on journalists (including myself) in Armenia by members of the internal security services and the bodyguards of oligarchs close to the authorities. The lack of success of A1 Plus and Noyan Tapan in competing for frequencies to a commission appointed by the President is also noted.

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Talking of the Police, yesterday’s RFE/RL Press Review quoted some of what the Deputy Chief of Police said in an interview with the 168 Zham newspaper.

“In the history of the humankind police have never betrayed a government which they serve,” the controversial deputy chief of the Armenian police, General Hovannes Varian, tells “168 Zham.”

However, the Police are meant to be independent and their duty is to uphold the law — NOT to serve the Government. Perhaps this says a lot about how the role of the police is viewed in Armenia.

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A few days ago my car stereo was stolen from my Niva while parked in the common area behind my apartment building, located on Nalbandyan Street, across from the Republic Square metro station in Yerevan. As a result I filed a complaint with the Central Yerevan Police, and as can be predicted the 40-minute experience was most chaotic. I documented my conversation with the detective handling the case. Here’s an excerpt:

Detective Merouj: Okay, well let me take the cell phone number down. [to someone else] Hey get that thing out of here! So anyway, what was it, a car stereo?

Me: That’s right.

Detective Merouj: And it was in your car? What kind of stereo was it, a regular one or one of those that has the front thing that comes off?

Me: The kind with the thing that comes off.

Detective Merouj: Well, why didn’t you take it with you? Let me get you number down so that someone will come to your house later.

Me: My car is just outside if that’s any help to you?

Detective Merouj: What should I do about your car being outside? That doesn’t matter, we’ll have someone go over to your house to check things out.

Me: Okay.

Detective Merouj: So do you have the registration for the car stereo?

Me: For the car stereo? I have the car registration, but for the stereo?

Detective Merouj: You don’t have it? Well, wasn’t it you that installed the stereo?

Me: No it was installed when I bought the car, about three months ago.

Another detective: What happened? Are you the one with the stolen car stereo? [standing in the office doorway]

Both of us: Yes.

Another detective: Do you have the registration for the stereo?

Me: No, I don’t. I never knew that such a thing existed. This is the first time I’m hearing about it.

Another detective: Yeah? [walks away]

To read the transcript in full, click here.

India’s gift to Armenia, a four-year-old elephant, will not be delivered, thanks to sustained agitation by animal rights activists and the timely intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday. — Deccan Herald

This is English/German bi-lingual. Check it out!

Mehmana, Nagorno Karabagh © Onnik Krikorian

The Institute of War & Peace Reporting has an article on the village of Mehmana in northern Karabagh.

There are other villages like this, but Mehmana is remarkable for another reason – uniquely, in this overwhelmingly Armenian territory, it is still home to a small community of Greeks, who founded the village almost 300 years ago.

However, this beautifully situated village is going through hard times, and many wonder whether it can survive.

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Hetq also reports that there are plans to build a dog shelter in Yerevan even though every winter, dozens of homeless people are left to die on the streets. Of course, there’s money involved and Hetq reports that the process of establishing the shelter is already far from transparent.

We asked why there was such a sudden surge of interest in building animal shelters, when for example, there are so many homeless humans, and no one seems to be in a rush to do anything for them. Torosyan explained, “I don’t know what objective the interested organizations are pursuing, but in any case, this isn’t about solving the problem of stray animals; this is just business. The Mayor’s Office has money to spend.” The Mayor’s Office pays out 20 million drams to have dogs shot every year. That amount is now up for grabs, and everyone wants a piece of it, even Damiark, an organization that carries out dog shootings.

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Hetq Online has a story on what has been one of my biggest fears in recent years — the redevelopment of Kond. While it is true that families living in what is one of the few remnants of old Yerevan left in the center have been waiting for proper accomodation since the soviet days, I’ve been dreading the day when development would start and these families thrown out onto the street without appropiate compensation. I’ve mentioned this countless times to many people including my fellow bloggers, Katy and Garo, who I’ve taken through the area in the past.

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This is a human interest story I wrote about my experiences in traveling from and to Yerevan through Moscow and my troublesome dealings with Aeroflot airlines. To read the article, click here.

This post is a couple of days late, but anyway I wrote an article addressing the question of what Armenians expected as a result of recognition by Turkey about committing the Armenian Genocide. To read the article, click here.