“Gul’s congratulation generates discontent of historians”, This is what Azerbayjan’s Azadliq Newspaper wrote on 24 of February.
The newspaper wrote: “Views expressed in the letter are inappropriate”.
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A leading Turkish university based in Istanbul has started offering classes in Armenian language as part of its course load. Following approval by the Bosphorus University’s senate, three new classes in Armenian language are set to enter the curriculum.
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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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Yesterday was the first anniversary of Hrand Dink’s killing in front of Agos weekly. News agencies and different media outlets have reports from Turkey. Thousands of people have once again gathered in Istanbul, carrying signs “we are all Armenians”.
BBC’s Sarah Rainsford has a piece on Hrand Dink and why he is considered a controversial figure in Turkey, still a year after his death. There is a dark tone in the article by karin, Hrand’s friend saying:
“It was one of the darkest years, but what can we do? We have to go on. But I have no reason to be hopeful.”
George Bush today after a phone talk with Turkish Prime Minister again opposed to the resolution in Congress to recognize 1915 killings as Genocide. The reason as usual is the strategic importance of Turkey(for possible attack and pressure on Iran?).
I don’t understand this sentence of president Bush: “the events constitute a genocide should be a matter for historical inquiry, not legislation.”
Wow! Now that’s becoming scarry:
BAKU, AZERPRESS - (May 1, 2007) The head of national NGO Forum, MP Azay Guliyev, has initiated development of a law that bans local NGOs to contact Armenian NGOs.
“A group of local NGOs plans to visit Armenia for cooperation. We have no mechanisms available to bar them from traveling to Armenia. Therefore, I suggest tabling the matter in parliament who could debate a law banning our NGOs to contact the Armenian side,” Guliyev stated at today’s plenary session in parliament.
It is interesting to see the explanation of the MP as to why such visits should be banned:
“It is our land: nothing is bad, that representatives of our NGOs visit Upland Karabag and converse with Azerbaijan nationals of Armenian origin, they are separatists though. But Armenia, taking the first opportunity, will tell the world community that Azerbaijan NGOs enter Upland Karabag without restriction.”
Hmm, is this total paranoia or what?!
Today as I read the newspaper, Serzh Sarkisyan’s comments struck me as unbelievably short sighted and almost comical. I was reading a week old paper and in it Serzh said that he does not see Russia’s acquiring of Armenia’s utilities as dangerous. He continued to say that he does not see Russia using its economic interests, implying that Russia is not using its economic power to control Armenia. What? Serzh, are you living in the same country as I am?
…that probably wasn’t the first point in Sahakashvili’s agenda. Still, that’s what Georgia is clearly getting out of the scandal: according to data from the Regional Electoral Committee of Akhalkalaki (the predominantly Armenian populated town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region in Georgia), Akhalkalaki with 7052 voters will have 1 delegate to the regional sakrebulo (the local representative self-government body), which is as many as the Georgian village Ptena with 204 voters. The elections in Georgia certainly look promising… and will probably go by unnoticed, lost in the overall spy-scandal fuss!!!
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According to reports everyone in the plane has lost their lives, the plane was en route to Sochi when it was refused permission to land, and the craft reportedly tried to emergency land. The craft was one of their new A320 airbuses, recently added to the fleet.
This is a real shame. Many Armenian airlines have fared badly in the past and Armavia seemed to be making great steps. I worry that this may destroy the company and once again we will be left without a national carrier. I have been singing the praises of this airline for their increased capacity and quality and addition of many new flight routes. I would still fly if they started a London > Yerevan route.
This aside, I’m sure I could relay our sincere condolences to all the families, friends and loved ones of the victims who are suffering as a result of this tragedy. I hope Armenia can be in the news for more than events like this.
Here’s an interesting report on the ongoing destruction of the Armenian heritage in Nakhichevan (parts of this appeared in ArmeniaNow.com last year, I think).
Here’s an excerpt of a conversation the author had with the Nakhichevan law enforcement in September 2005:
They asked me why I thought that there was a church in Shorut.
“Because a book had told me”, I said.
“It is wrong, it is lying to you. It is an Armenian book, yes?”
“Yes” I replied.
“You see, Armenians are always lying – they are lying to everyone”.
I couldn’t resist pointing out to them that there were photographs of the Shurut church in the book. To
this they responded by saying “Armenians, they came here and took photographs of Shurut village and
then they went back to Armenia and put into them photographs of a church in Armenia.”
“It is all just Armenian lies. They are lying to you! There never were any Armenian churches anywhere
in Naxçivan. There were no Armenians ever living here - so how could there have been churches here?
There never was a church in Abrakunis, there never was a church in Shurut, there never was a church
in Julfa!”
Hetq brings a good story about a Turkish company involved in gold prospecting work in the Sotk Mines, at Armenia’s strategic corner between Lake Sevan and Kelbajar:
Certain aspects of the work of the Ararat Gold Recovery Company (AGRC), owned by Sterlite Gold, are worrisome. The principal stockholder of the company, Indian-born London billionaire Anil Agarwal, is known for questionable dealings (See also: Anil Agarwal Takes the Shine Off Armenian Gold).
In 2005 a Turkish company, Spektra Jeotek, was commissioned by Sterlite Gold and explored the Sotk mine, located in the region bordering Azerbaijan, for quite a long period of time. Although the official website of Sterlite Gold contains information about the foreign partners that work with the company, there is no information about the work done by this Turkish company in Armenia on the site.
It was a Turkish company, then, that performed the exploration of this strategically important mine. Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia. Moreover, Turkey consistently defends Azerbaijan’s interests and makes various demands on Armenia. It is hard to understand why a Turkish company was chosen to explore the mine. According to our information, the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia was not informed about the Turkish company’s stay in Armenia either. The NSS learned about it just a day before the Spektra Jeotek representatives left the country.
According to Interfax, the natural gas pipeline to Georgia and Armenia has been restored:
Gas supplies to Georgia and Armenia on the North Caucasus-Transcaucasus gas pipeline in North Ossetia resumed at 10:17 a.m., Moscow time, on Sunday, Viktor Krainov, director of Kavkaztransgaz’s Mozdok gas pipeline department told Interfax. “The pipeline has been purged of an explosive gas-air mixture and the tap has been turned. Gas will flow to Georgia and further to Armenia,” he said. Earlier reports said that welding operations at the damaged stretch of the pipeline were over on Saturday evening.
One can only be glad that the Russian-Georgian ‘love-fest’ did not end up hurting Armenia. For some absurd reason, the Georgian government cut off gas supplies to teh Russian embassy in Tbilisi, and backed off only after the Russians promised to reciprocate in Moscow.
Two explosions ripped through Russia’s main natural gas supply pipeline to Armenia and Georgia, halting supplies to the two Caucasus countries for possibly several days, Russian officials said.
They aren’t sure why the explosions occured yet.
Georgia has started importing gas from Azerbaijan. No one is sure yet what Armenia is going to do.
Kocharyan was supposed to go to Russia later this week - he’s likely not to go now.
Blogs:
Ben at neweurasia.net is covering the story. He says that Kazakhstan may benefit from this situation.
Myrthe is covering this too.
In a positive sign from Turkey, 45 minutes of Kurdish language TV will be shown each day. [source]
A good move toward making concessions to the EU.
On a related note, I have a classmate from Turkey (she is ethnically mixed) with whom I discuss minority issues in Turkey. She says that other than Kurds, she believes that the Turkish government thinks that they are already doing plenty for the minorities. With schools, newspapers, radio, and TV, minorities have a lot going on in their languages. My classmate, belonging to a number of different minority groups, feels differently, but it is interesting to know how she perceives the government’s attitude.
She’s also said that the major reason that the Turkish government can’t do the same for the Kurds is sheer numbers. She thinks that the government is really scared of the Kurds.
Kurdish classmates that I had during my undergraduate years said the same thing. Granted, the fact that they were studying in the US and spoke English extremely well means that they are of a certain class, to be sure, but hearing this from a variety of sources is interesting.
Maybe all this fear is a good argument for a Kurdistan?
A resolution passed by Black Sea Economic Council this week called for reopening of the Gyumri-Kars railroad, currently closed due to the Turkish blockade. Surprisingly, the Turkish delegation is said to have voted for it as well. As the Regnum story tells it,
On November 24, a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) in Tirana (Albania) supported a proposition of the Armenian delegation to start of railroad line Kars (Turkey) – Gyumri (Armenia) – Tbilisi (Georgia) – Baku (Azerbaijan). Armenia is motivated by the fact, that the railroad, which is currently idle because of Turkey’s position, could connect four countries of the region – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey.
Head of the Armenian delegation in PABSEC and Chairman of the Armenian Standing Parliamentary Committee on Financial, Credit, Budgetary and Economic Affairs Gagik Minasyan assured that the Turkish delegation also voted for Armenian proposition. It is noteworthy, that Turkey blocked the movement through this railway line because of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and overall hostile relations with Armenia.
The reason for Armenia’s success is the turmoil in Azerbaijan - because of unsettled elections, the Azeri delegation was not even present at the BSEC meeting.
It seems like President Kocharian read Katy’s post on Nagorno Karabakh and decided to rectify the situation with NK being unrecognized. In an interview to a Slovenian newspaper, he mentioned that Armenia could either recognize NK or simply annex it if negotiations with Azerbaijan do not move forward. According to Regnum:
“If the negotiations with Azerbaijan will exhaust themselves without any result, Armenia can recognize the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and let it join Armenia,” said Kocharyan.
According to Kocharyan, de-facto, Armenia recognized Nagorno Karabakh long time ago. “Currently, Nagorno Karabakh uses the Armenian currency – dram. We also have common custom zone, so the integration process continues. Now I can call the relations between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh a disproportional confederation,” stressed Kocharyan.
Another link to the same story.
Armenian newspapers report that National Assembly Speaker Artur Baghdasaryan said he had been invited to speak at the Kiev Independence Square - The Maidan - by the country’s president Viktor Yuschenko on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Orange Revolution. Made it sound like he didn’t really want to go but what could he do? Yuschenko really begged him to come since he (Yuschenko) knows Artur is a big-time democrat.
Amusing, actually, how all Armenian politicians are clamoring for a piece of orange revolution credentials.
Links:
Regnum
A new website, funded by the US and British Embassies, for exploration… newneighbors.am… here’s what they have to say about themselves:
The situation in the South Caucasus changes dynamically. Neighboring countries today and several years ago – are different units, with different role and different approach towards their future. Today we all percept each other as New Neighbors – countries, which are in a new situation and have the necessity for new approaches towards their mutual relations.
There is something else tha is new in our region: it’s the European Neighborhood Policy, which has created a new prospect for the development of our region. The European integration and aspirations towards Western values are the main links to join the neighbors, divided by various problems.
Three Southcaucasian countries are involved in the European Neighborhood Policy. Turkey – the most powerful country of the South Caucasus, has been tending to join the EU for decades. All these processes of course have a deep impact on the formation of a new profile for the region, creating a need to communicate in a new way.
The partnership between Armenia and Georgia, Georgia and Turkey can play an increasingly important role, bridging the separated neighbors through new links, becoming mediators for the establishment of peace and cooperation in the region. The first thing to achieve this is the establishment of really open and positive dialogue between the peoples.
The Public Dialogue will allow discussing all the painful issues in a tolerant atmosphere, showing the world that South Caucasus is ready to integrate into the discourse of societies and civilizations, initiated after the WW II. The Center for Public Dialogue and Development has initiated this project to unite the efforts of all the people, who are not indifferent towards the future of our region, who have something to say in this large dialogue and who know the real value of tolerance and peaceful neighborhood.
The Azeri view on NK? Well, based on a combination of my time with FLEX students from Azerbaijan and conversations that I’ve had over the past days, certainly people seem ready to compromise. Some less than others, of course.
As I’ve mentioned before, institutionalized propaganda against Armenians seems to be stronger here. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the practical nature of many Azeris that I’ve spoken to about this issue.
It seems that most people (that I’ve discussed this with) just want to make sure that Azerbaijan gets something out of it so that the President (or whoever negotiates the deal) doesn’t look like a chump. If the Azeri prez gives everything up to Armenia, his people will hate him. Seems logical, right?
Some people here (that I’ve discussed this with) seemed to be okay with the solution, proposed a few years back, where Armenia got NK, Lachin, and Azerbaijan got the occupied territories back and a strip of land connecting it with Nakichevan. Remember this plan? Remember what happened to the people in Armenia that thought that this was okay? Yeah. Well, Azeris (that I’ve discussed this with) were okay with this plan and say that Armenia and Iran would still have that border and international troops would patrol it.
Seems fair. I don’t want to get into the NK battle with anyone, but at this point, everyone could benefit from a resolution. Azeri established businesses want to get into Armenia. Armenia needs more trading partners. Both economies and societies would benefit from having less troops. It would be great if people could travel back and forth!
Look at Germany. It did terrible things during WWII, right? Does France, today, still hold a grudge against Germany for occupying it? Obviously the Armenian-Azeri issue is a bit more complicated, with the Armenian sentiment against Turkey and Azeribaijan and Turkey’s relationship. But I hope that at some people the countries can collaborate again. Older people that I’ve talked to here remember going to Armenia during Soviet times and enjoying it.
We all need to ask if long-term, having a chunk of Armenia in the middle of another country is a good idea, but for the shorter long-term, it seems to be alright.
Do I think that this will happen soon? Who knows. But I remain positive.
Day 4, 2am: After an evening of blogging, I’m back home. Today after running around to polling locations, I ate at a downtown place next to the cinema. Sunrise Cafe, I believe. Pretty good menu, but $7.50 for a veggie burger and fries? Woah. I would barely pay that in the States. Loads of ex-pats and locals. So many locals have the money to do things that I would consider dominated by ex-pats in Yerevan, it is really interesting - many many more interactions. I also got to see the main shopping area in the light today. There was a Quiksilver store — and its logo and products were similar to those in the London store, from afar. I took a camera photo, but will try to take a real one tomorrow. I’ll also investigate more tomorrow. Burton, you need to catch up! NYC, now. Baku next? (Ha!)
Baku has the sort of shopping that you’d sort of expect in an oil town. They had a lot of the major chains. Benetton, Mothercare,
Adidas, Puma… will see more tomorrow.
Yerevan can barely sustain a Swatch store and a Puma place.
What will this town that is already rocking be like when the BTC oil starts seriously flowing?
I’ve also found a number of Azerbaijanis interested in discussing practical solutions to NK. More on this later.
If only I could communicate with strangers more easily, it’d be a bit easier, but otherwise I am having a fantastic time. I’m really glad that I came.
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