Kosovo is an independent country now, not still recognized by any country but I am sure, some will start that very soon,starting from United States to European Union. Russia opposes the move furiously,Georgia too and Azerbaijan too. Armenia may welcome that,though i am not sure since Armenia buys weapons from Serbia and that for sure will upset Serbs.
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Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish Nobel laureate, was in London to promote his new book, other colors. He was accompanied by his daughter and his translator Maureen Freely who was also hrand dink’s friend.
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Had to do a round of introductions today on issues in Democracy for an international group of people representing various countries with similar or worse democratic problems than those of ARmenia. As we had 12 presenters, the speaches had to be done in 5 minutes max, and had to include our vision of Democracy in the UK and Democracy Problems in our countries. Really really tight - isn’t it? I had to choose carefully what to say and how to convey a more or less general picture. As we didn’t really have time to prepare the little impromptu speech I made was rather one sided, still, I guess I ought to publish it here - for public shame and comments… more…
On October 12, 2006 – French Parliament passed a bill criminalizing the denial of the fact, that the Ottoman Turkish Empire committed Genocide against Armenians in 1915. On the same date the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.
It is indisputable, that Turkey should acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and bear the full consequences as stated by the International Law after a subsequent action at the International Criminal Court.
Censorship and lynching are not appropriate anymore, not in Europe! And this is something the ‘European’ Turkey should remember before making all the fuss about the Genocide Bill in France. As OKTAY EKSI has duly noted in HURRIYET, “We stress that France is a disgrace to the civilised world. However, it is a precondition for Turkey, which tells others that ‘what you are doing is shameful in terms of freedom of expression’ first of all to get rid of its own sources of shame.”
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I saw this report fromon Groong Lonely Planet - It’s a pretty good picture of Armenia today.
For an unfair first impression of a country, try arriving at an
unrenovated Soviet airport in the middle of the night. Armenia’s
Zvartnots airport looked like a space station from the outside and
a disused factory on the inside. Mercifully, this ancient country
revealed its authentic — and attractive — nature very quickly.
Okay, so this NGO International Crisis Group puts out press releases on NK occasionally.
Their website says:
Crisis Group’s approach is grounded in field research. Teams of political analysts are located within or close by countries at risk of outbreak, escalation or recurrence of violent conflict. Based on information and assessments from the field, Crisis Group produces regular analytical reports containing practical recommendations targeted at key international decision-takers. Crisis Group also publishes CrisisWatch, a 12-page monthly bulletin, providing a succinct regular update on the state of play in all the most significant situations of conflict or potential conflict around the world.
Crisis Group’s reports and briefing papers are distributed widely by email and printed copy to officials in foreign ministries and international organisations and made generally available at the same time via the organisation’s Internet site, www.crisisgroup.org. Crisis Group works closely with governments and those who influence them, including the media, to highlight its crisis analyses and to generate support for its policy prescriptions.
And, more importantly, here’s what Wikipedia says:
Crisis Group is chaired by former British politician and European Commissioner for External Affairs, Chris Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes). Its President and Chief Executive since January 2000 has been former Foreign Minister of Australia, Gareth Evans.
Crisis Group is funded through donations by western governments, various foundations and organisations (many based in the US), corporations, and individuals.
So far, doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
Well, defacto.am reports in ICG today:
From the very beginning the Group’s representatives have behaved very cool. For a short period of time they managed to “deal” with an ancient bloody conflict and presented a report with their recommendations. Moreover, the ICG representatives’ reports are becoming more and more imperative, categorical and even provocative. What kind of organization is International Crisis Group that it actually speaks on behalf of RA government?
What’s the crime in being cool? When has it spoken on behalf of the Armenian government?
MORTON ABRAMOVITS, one of the founders of ICG: former Assistant of the U. S. State Secretary, the U. S. ex Ambassador to Turkey. Morton Abramovits visited Ankara as a member of International Crisis Group. A quotation from an article published in Hurriet:”Till Turkish soldiers are in Cyprus violation is ruled out there”.
So what? That quote sounds badly translated. It doesn’t even make sense.
ZBIGNEV BZHEZINSKI, former National Security Adviser to the U. S. President, a member of American – Azeri Trade House Honorable Board.
Okay, worth noting, but not worth freaking out about.
STEFEN SOLARTS is also one of the founders and ICG vice President. He is one of the most influential lobbyists in the U.S., actively defends Turkish interests.
Never heard the name. I’d need to see a reference to this information.
Then there are some people who work on Turkish EU groups… not a big deal.
WILLIAM SHOWCROSS – his name is mentioned among those who unleashed a war in Iraq.
So what does that have to do with NK?
KENNETH ADELMAN – a member of American Committee for Peace in Chechnya. Isn’t it strange for the organization positioned itself as a peacemaking one?
Who cares?
Levon Ter – Petrosyan’s former press secretary is International Crisis Group representative in Armenia.
I’m glad s/he has a job!
Defacto says “due to the newspaper space’s limited character we do not make a reference to the information’s primary sources” — well, publish them on the internet then!
I’m not trying to defend the ICG, rather, question the reporting of defacto. If they’d show sources, I’d be a-okay, but not showing sources? What the heck?
After having so much fun at the Girl Geek Dinner last week, I am going to attend the plain ol’ regular for everyone Geek Dinner on Monday. Once again, any readers in the London area interested in attending, just let me know!
So here it is, according to Armenian Public TV company, Andre will be representing Armenia at Eurovision.
I’m not happy about this for a number of reasons :
1. There was meant to be an internet contest, where the winner would be voted by Armenia itself.
2. Andre’s english is poor, and I don’t think we stand much chance.
Nevertheless, we must support!
Okay, I’m sorry for saying that the Armenian Hockey Team sucks, but we can all agree that they have some work to do. All the hockey experts that I’ve spoken to say that a score of 6 is considered high and that anything above 10 is extremely rare, similar to soccer/football. Therefore their scoring is really really unusual.
Here are the latest scores from the tourney that they’re participating in:
21-2 loss to Bulgaria
47-1 loss to Lithuania
28-3 loss to Turkey
I think that scoring 3 goals on Turkey is impressive. I wonder how the game went? Did people protest? Did the Armenian players play with more vigor?
I wish I could find out more about all of this!
This blog has more details of the games. I don’t understand hockey well enough to know what most of the terms he uses are. This blog has some details too.
Earlier this week it was announced that the Armenian Meri Voskanian was picked for the Eurovision Song Contest. This young woman was a contestant on Germany’s Pop Idol program, as I understand it.
But as they put it in the original article, “German tabloid Bild… The newspaper, not always noted for its accuracy, reported…”
Today, a follow up came up that the story was untrue. Another story followed from another source.
The Public Television Company of Armenia has been forced to rush through an announcement about how it will select its song after the German tabloid Bild reported that the job of singing for the country had already gone to talent show reject Meri Voskanian.
So, hopefully there will be a fair contest to decide who will represent Armenia at this, its first year, at Eurovision.
You may like ‘em, you may not, but either way, the Armenian Navy Band is up for a BBC World Music Award right now. You can vote online if you like.
The EU has offered to lend a hand in the Nagorno Karabakh negotiations. As if there weren’t enough actors involved!
“If we are asked to get more involved, we will,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said at a joint news briefing with the foreign ministers of the South Caucasus republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
STATEMENT ON THE CONFLICT DEALT WITH BY THE OSCE MINSK GROUP
We take note with satisfaction of the progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations through the “Prague Process” in 2005, and in particular the two meetings of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Warsaw and Kazan under the auspices of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. We believe that the Parties are now poised to make the transition from negotiation to decision and that there are serious benefits within reach for all. We encourage the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to use the current promising window of
opportunity in order to attain within the coming year significant achievements in the settlement of the conflict in the framework of the OSCE Minsk process.
According to PanArmenian.net, with 1901 out of 1922 precincts processed, the Central Electoral Commission reports that the turnout in the referendum was 65%, and over 93% voted for the Constitutional referendum.
This is of course the most lopsided poll result ever in Armenia’s post-independence history. Very curious results. Equally (but positively) surprising is the amazing speed with which the results were posted by the CEC.
The opposition (which boycotted the vote and gave up its right to monitor the vote through precinct commissions) suggests that the turnout is heavily inflated. According to PanArmenian.net:
According to the Public Information Center of the United Opposition, as of 8:00 p.m. local time 374667 constituents have voted throughout the territory of Armenia, which makes 16.3% of the total number of electors. «The referendum is not legitimate and constitutional amendments were not passed, If the authorities cannot normally and legitimately organize a process, there is no choice except revolution» New Times opposition party leader Aram Karapetyan said during a news conference in Yerevan today, in which leaders of united opposition parties also took part.
The protest rally/civic forum called by Armenia’s popular opposition leaders Aram Sargsian and Raffi Hovannisian (among others) brought together about 1200 people, and had to disperse for lack of momentum (and lack of support from popular opposition leaders Stepan Demirchian and Artashes Geghamian). We are assured that Monday will be (another) decisive day for the opposition.
The most curious comment, however, came from Turkey where one of the newspaper bemoaned the removal of ban on dual citizenship which will give ‘evil Diaspora’ more leeway in Armenian politics.
Things to watch for today: the turnout at the opposition rally; the statements by the U.S. and PACE; who will take credit for the Yes victory and how.
Pamuk didn’t win.
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2005 is awarded to the English writer Harold Pinter
“who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”.
Winning the Nobel may have saved Pamuk from going to jail. Oh well, there’s always next time.
This weeks pop culture roundup begins with a look at a new TV show that has hit the screens of Armenia with a bang. It’s called the cube, and according to people who’ve seen it, its a new reality TV show that features contestants living in a tv set environment. There has been much criticism of this in Armenian press , including claims that its graphic references to sex from the contestants are distasteful.
This sort of thing graces the screens of every country in the world and when TV is a business, this makes money. It’s airing on TV 5, which is now run by popstar Nune Yesayan, after its rights were handed to her by big businessman Bagrat Sargsyan, joint owner of CS media holding.
I mentioned last time that Armenia needs more trashy tv shows, tv shows that meant nothing, and allow for a pop culture to develop around ads and this will gradually improve the quality of tv shows.
Whilst TV 5 had the cube up its sleeve, Public TV H1’s new broadcast season was a major dissappointment compared with all previous years. It seems they purchased 3 new plasma screens for the Haylur set, and have dubbed a load of films into Armenian- aside from that, no new shows, and nothing to talk about. Shame.
Elsewhere in news:
A new, hip, trendy pop act has suddenly appeared on the scene. His name is Armeni, and whilst his material was somewhat boring, this release marks a milestone in Armenian pop culture: For the first time a massive TV, Radio, and billboard ad campaign was mounted, and a single released, which is very rare. I am not sure if Armenia is ready for people to be buying singles on CD, mainly due to the extremely relaxed piracy “laws”. It will be interesting to see if this develops.
Another well managed pop act, Andre, is having a concert in the national opera house on October 11th at 19.30 - considering he only recently had a concert that was repeated the next night due to huge demand, it looks like this guy could be set to make a lot of money. He is talented, and deserves success in my eyes.
Apologies for the shorter post this week, I too have moved into London, and have managed to write this post in between evacuating a tube station and going home. Off topic - I have always loved London, and am blessed to be studying here, but its lifestyle and mood makes me miss Yerevan more than I ever have. Its very, very strange.
Please feel free to comment on anything I’ve written.
If there is one thing that I have learned about living in the UK it is queuing.
Why does the UK require so much waiting in line?
I did some research and the best information online is this link and this link.
I’ve never waited in line so much and so often in my life!
I promise to never again complain about red-tape in Armenia. The UK seems to have Armenia beat at this game!
[slightly tongue-in-cheek]
The Finnish President is visiting Armenia and got into some trouble at YSU:
Later on when Halonen spoke to students at the Yerevan State University a question about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh - an ethnically Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan - came up. I don’t really know what she was thinking, but she offered as a solution the model of the autonomous status of Finland’s Åland Islands. A fiery-eyed Armenian student responded to this: “Azerbaijan is not Sweden“.
Via Current World Affairs Blog
D’oh!
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