Have you downloaded Google Earth yet? It is so cool. Mac and PC friendly, but requires a pretty serious amount of computing power. They recommend that your computer is less than 2-4 years old for it to work.

Want to know more about a specific location? Dive right in — Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.

You can add all sorts of different variables - dining, shopping, etc. are much more detailed in the US than in other places, but it is still really fun to chart the distance from your home to Yerevan or “fly” from one place to another.

For FY 2006 the U.S. House of Representatives is giving both Armenia and Azerbaijan US$5 million. The Senate version and the House version will have to be reconciled but it looks like this is going to pass through.

PanArmenian coverage
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Wow, technology is on all of our minds this week! ArmenTel’s PR rep told RanArmenian.net that the price for backend internet is going down as of July 1 (i.e. not for individual business or personal ISPs just yet.)

A 2MB fiber optic line used to be $21,000 and now it is $16,000. [editorial comment: still outrageous] Burlington Vermont telecom is $550 for the same line.

Arminco responded by saying that they’d reduce their fees down the road.

In an unbelievably clumsy yet characteristic way, a high-level Azeri official claimed today that the opening of Armenian-Turkish border “would raise tensions in the region and worsen the current situation in the Caucasus.” In a report published by the Turkish official propaganda outlet, Journal of Turkish Weekly, Novruz Mehmedov, Senior Adviser to the President of Azerbaijan, went on to note:

On the so-called Armenian Genocide that until recently Turkey has remained indifferent, Mehmedov suggested, “Turkey could have brought about a solution before entering the 21st century.”

Such rhetoric from Baku may betray a high level of anxiety about the prospects for opening the Armenian-Turkish border. Not that Turkey wants to do that, but there are now reports that the EU may make it a condition of accession talks with Turkey. The normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations will have both immediate and long-term impacts, mostly on Azerbaijan’s willingness to accept the inevitable resolution of the NK conflict.

Although most Armenian experts, including the much-respected former Economy Minister Armen Yeghiazarian, view the Armenian-Turkish border opening from purely economic perspective, the political dimension of border - including NK settlement - is more important as it was the reason for Turkey’s closing the border in 1993.

Just as I thought they would, the former ruling party ANM announced today its vehement opposition to any changes in the Armenian Constitution. As the RFE/RL report notes,

The Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh), the main support base of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, said it will actively campaign against the passage of the current government’s constitutional amendments even if they are endorsed by the Council of Europe.

…The HHSh leadership and other Ter-Petrosian allies staunchly opposed to President Robert Kocharian have always defended the Armenian constitution widely criticized for vesting sweeping powers in the presidency. They say the basic law has been key to “political stability” in the country.

Fortunately, the HHSh is a marginal force at best. Meanwhile, the Armenian opposition, at least those who are least susceptible to HHSh viewpoint, have already indicated their willingness to work towards a new draft along the lines agreed upon by the CoE and the Armenian delegation.

If the draft is approved by the parliament and the opposition factions do return to the parliament, it will raise the level of political stability in Armenia significantly. The level of cooperation between the opposition and the coalition parties in the parliament will be unmatched since before the 2003 elections. Whether the referendum will pass or not is a different matter.

The second cell phone operator in Armenia, which will use Viva Cell as its logo, announced its prices today for service to commence July 1. The press release, translated into English by ARKA news, is available here.

Not surprisingly, Armentel countered with an announcement of reduction in cell phone charges. Still, the Armentel prices are significantly higher.

Armentel will have an advantage in that it already has coverage in substantial part of Armenia (their website claims to service 82% of populated areas of Armenia). Going against it is almost everything else, from years of poor service and atrocious marketing to pent up anger among the many Armentel users. Viva Cell promises to put its prepaid phone cars on sale through several banks and post offices.

One may hope that Viva Cell will not turn into the second Armentel. I think it has already missed a chance by selecting a non-Armenian sounding logo and trademark.

As discussed before, there are a number of issues in higher education in Armenia. A presidental investigation was published today and it appears that Kocharyan’s plan is to eliminate bribery for getting into different graduate programs especially those bribes paid by young men avoiding military service.

While this may sound minor, the language Kocharyan used regarding this issue is very interesting:

“the field must be regulated within months, so that next year the process is fair, clear and transparent for everyone.”

Fair, clear and transparent, Robert?

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media to hold Internet Conference in Amsterdam

/noticias.info/ VIENNA, 13 June 2005 - Media freedom and human rights issues on the Internet will be the focus of a conference organized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, in Amsterdam from 17 to 18 June.

The event, entitled Guaranteeing Media Freedom on the Internet, will take place in the City Hall of Amsterdam.

This year’s conference will discuss the situation in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asian regions.

In addition, government and NGO experts from other regions, including Belarus and Russia, will address the conference along with other leading international experts on information and communication technologies.

A joint declaration of the OSCE Media Representative and Reporters Without Borders is envisaged.

This is the third Amsterdam Internet Conference hosted by the OSCE Media Representative.

Following the 2004 conference, the the “Media Freedom Internet Cookbook” was published.

WiFi on a city-wide level makes SO much sense for Armenia and I’ve been waiting to see if anyone would jump on the bandwagon.

PanArmenian.net reports today that Yerevan is almost completely covered and that Gyumri and other cities are covered as well.

Weird point though — big buildings and mountains get in the way… aren’t there so many ways around that? Last spring I covered 10 square miles of a ski resort with homemade WiFi. And why does Yerevan need 50 access point?

Wouldn’t it have been cool if the U.S. Government or heck, even the Armenian government, had gone with citywide free WiFi?

While I am glad that the coverage is there, I wish that they had done it more smartly!

As my last ever post on Blogrel, finally some good news. Under unprecedented pressure from environmentalists in Armenia and individuals and organizations in the Diaspora, the government has backed down. Shikahogh is saved. A truly remarkable precedent has been set that will hopefully result in people standing up to the government when they try to circumvent the law and the constitution in the future. Writing for Hetq Online, Tigran Paskevichyan, puts it simply.

I am sure that the cooperation between Armenian NGOs and experienced, respected Diaspora Armenians will not end here, because it is time to put a stop to the government’s hostility toward society, their placing of the interest of the state over that of society, thereby infringing the rights of the possessors of that state, the people.

Mtnadzor is unique as a virgin forest but it is not unique as an event in which a group of officials turns public property and national treasures into objects of sale. It happened in Haghtanak Park when they cut down all the trees to build a hotel; it happened in the park near the Opera House when they poured concrete on the green areas and turned them into cafes; it happened with Northern Avenue, when along with people’s huts and cottages they destroyed buildings that were historical and architectural treasures. Now it’s about to happen to Komitas Park and the Pantheon, which they want to move, in order to use the land for public and private construction.

In every one of these cases, ordinary citizens and non-governmental organizations were alone in the struggle against the authorities, and they were defeated. Their defeat, however, was not a disgrace for them, but for the government who paid a disgraceful $14,000 to the owners of the houses they demolished in the center of Yerevan , a sum too small to buy an apartment on the outskirts of town.

I am sure that the experienced, respected Diasporans see and understand all this, and, having lived all their lives in democratic countries, they know that oppressing society and silencing public opinion never works in the long run. They know that the state, so long dreamed of, is stable and safe when negative processes are noticed right away, talked about, and put an end to.

These Diasporans have demonstrated their patriotism though their actions, and in doing so, their love for their homeland has grown stronger.

http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/0506-diaspora.html

Real change in Armenia will only happen when more and more people stand up and demand that the law functions and their rights are protected. The next flash point will come when the constitutional ammendments are put up for referendum towards the end of the year. The Council of Europe have already demanded that the government implement real changes to the constitution and society will soon determine whether the government’s promises to do are genuine or not.

Anyway, more coverage of Shikahogh and the imminent constitutional ammendments is available over on my blog at http://onnik.blogspot.com.

Yerkir online posted the most recent in its series of public forum interviews. This one is with Alexander Iskandaryan, Director of Caucasus Media Institute. He has an interesting take on regional issues.

Unfortunately, only several of Q&A are available in English, and for those of our readers who can read the full text in Armenian , it is posted here.

This week’s carnival of revolutions is up!

Despite many predictions, the voters in Iran elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as their next President. According to BBC, he’ll be the first non-cleric President of Iran since 1981.

Ahmadinejad is considered a hardliner, although that is such a Western term that I am not sure how it applies to the Iranian reality. He’s also said to be personally modest and intolerant of corruption. The problem is that in the Iranian context corruption means not only bribery and embezzlement but also adherence to Western values.

I am not sure what Ahmadinejad’s victory means for Armenia - I am sure most Armenians in Iran would have voted for the other candidate, Rafsahjani. At any rate, all the ingredients for confrontation between the U.S. and Iran are now set in place. The U.S. has a priori declared the Iranian election illegitimate (although it was probably more free and fair than elections in, say, Azerbaijan or Armenia), which means they will refuse to deal with the new administration.

IREX released its Media Sustainability Index Report for 2004 yesterday.

Here are the results for Armenia:

Free Speech dropped from last year, Professional Journalism rose, Plurality of Sources dropped, Business Management dropped slightly, Supporting Institutions rose slightly.

And a few highlights:

- pirated films being aired on TV are no longer allowed
- concern for political/business (and sometimes both!) sponsors for media hindering objective news coverage
- lack of diverse media sources, especially outside Yerevan
- the journalist beatings of Spring 2004 signify a backslide of free speech

There is also a comparison chart for the South Caucasus that is worth reading.

I stumbled across a blog posting that analyzes a BP yearly report on world energy sources from a political standpoint.

Notice that even though the US sourced only 7% of oil imports from this region, Eurasia has about 35% of proved global gas reserves (in addition to significant proved oil reserves). So why is it that despite not importing significant quantities of gas or oil from Eurasia or Central Asia, the US still has military bases in Kyrgyzstan (landlocked country which borders China), Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; and has struck direct unspecified military cooperation agreements with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan?

Is it really in support of the so-called “War on Terror” in Afghanistan, as claimed by the Bush regime? Isn’t it a little odd that so much money is being spent on bases all around this region, to find one guy - Osama Bin Laden? And despite the enormous resources expended, they still can’t find this guy. Maybe they don’t want to find him. After all, if Bin Laden is found, what publicly acceptable reason is there for the US bases to remain in Central Asia?

On the other hand, if these bases remain, direct or proxy control of these resource rich countries places a powerful choke hold on energy supplies to the neo-cons’ next big future enemy - China. Now there’s a really plausible reason for spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars…

Food for thought, I guess.
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In view of what has recently been written about the removal of residents in Kond and Buzand areas in downtown Yerevan to make way for fancy housing (there were many reports in the Armenian websites, including reports in ArmeniaNow.com, HETQ, and postings on our own Blogrel), it’s interesting how the same problem came up in the United States this week. A decision of the U.S. Supreme Court this week dealt with a similar issue. An economically depressed town of New London in Connecticut decided in 1998 to force residents of one of its districts to move out to make for Pfizer and other high-scale development project, to boost the city’s tax revenues.

Not surprisingly, the residents being forced to moved sued, and the case eventually reached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s finding expands the powers of municipalities to use ‘eminent domain,’ or the power of the state to alienate private property without the owner’s consent for ‘demonstrable public use.’

I am not sure whether this means that Armenia has reached a point where its problems are the same as America’s. On the other hand, it’s clear that it doesn’t pay to be poor in either country.

Vazgen Manoukian, Opposition Rally, April 2004, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia

Talking of revolution, a politician and former government official who RFE/RL calls “a prominent voice of moderation within the Armenian opposition” has apparently launched what the radio station’s web site calls “a blistering attack against the authorities, calling for “public mobilization” for regime change.”

He described the ruling establishment as a clique of “plunderers” who are “at war” with the rest of the country’s population. “Unless there is a mobilization of our type [of people] who will fight for the future of the country, the country will not change,” he said. “And as the AZhM leader, I set the task of mobilization before the AZhM.”

Asked by one of the delegates whether that means he supports a popular uprising against President Robert Kocharian, Manukian replied: “It depends not only on ourselves. It also depends on the extent of the opposite side’s resistance. If we consolidate, the opposite side will have two options: either to provoke a revolution or retreat. God willing, we will have revolutionary change without a revolution.”

more…

Today’s edition of ArmeniaNow continues the tourism outside of Yerevan series. One article hit home: the lack of public restrooms at tourist attractions. The summer that I took classes during the week and traveled all over the country on the weekend was the most time I had ever spent using “nature’s facilities” in my life. We’d bring tissues in our pocket where ever we went and really learned how to hold it.

Arthur Voskanyan, the president of Armenian Tourism Organization says that the absence of toilets and fast food outlets, along with the poor quality of many roads, affects the development of tourism no less that the lack of well-trained hotel personnel and accessible accommodation.

“Solving the toilet problem does not require a big investment,” he says. “Biotoilets can be found in local markets, they are not so expensive, about $200.”

The article continues with a discussion of the need for investment in marketing Armenia as a tourist destination abroad.

In 2004, 268,000 tourists visited Armenia, mostly from Russia, the United States, Germany and France. According to Petrosyan, the figure indicates healthy growth given that the number of tourists to Armenia in 1992-1993 hardly reached 5,000. In 2003 it was 206,000.

Petrosyan says that tourism accounts for 4 to 6 percent of Armenia’s GDP, with an average visitor spending some $500 per week. However, that amount is not enough to make the infrastructure better.

Wow. I never spent $500/week. Isn’t there a happy in-between? Public toilets but nothing too fancy?

A new Armenian Peace Corps blog has started.

They just arrived, so it should be fun to read about their adventures.

I already commented that they should find out what “Peace Corps” means in Armenia.

The Messenger reports that a revolution in Azerbaijan is imminent.

We’ve all heard this before, but an interesting point is made:

The situation also resembles that of Azerbaijan in the run-up to its 2003 elections, just one month before those in Georgia. But in contrast to Shevardnadze’s government, the Azerbaijani authorities were able at that time to prevent sporadic demonstrations from developing into fully-fledged revolution. This year may be different, not least because of the precedents set in Tbilisi, Kiev and Bishkek, which have demonstrated to people across the whole post-Soviet space that corrupt governments that hold onto power through conducting fraudulent elections can in fact be removed without resort to bloodshed.

The article also states that there are two roads to take when a government feels that a wave of uprising and demonstrations may be near:

Kazakhstan: Nazarbayev is seeking to introduce a number of reforms in an effort to prevent the sort of revolutionary change seen in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

Uzbekistan: Police reportedly massacred hundreds of protesters in Andijan last month

Which road is Armenia taking or would it take?