Isolated Armenia leans on Iran

By Robin Forestier BBC News, Yerevan Iran does not have too many friends these days, but in a far corner of the Caucasus, on the edge of Europe, it is forming a special relationship. Noy Brandy's wine-tasting sessions are popular with Iranian tourists Deep in the cellar of the Noy Brandy factory in Yerevan, Armenia, there is a pungent, but not unpleasant smell of ageing, fortified wine. On an upturned wooden cask sit a dozen glasses, and a bottle of 1944 sherry. The company's wine-tasting sessions are popular with tourists and most of them, according to tour guide Anna, come from Iran. "Ten metres underground, they think Allah is out of range," she smiles. "They don't want to taste the wine, they want to drink it." Across town, Omid Mojahed is one such Iranian looking for more than just a taste of Armenia. He is a 28-year-old student and an entrepreneur at heart. We attach great importance to our relations with Iran. One can choose one's friends but not one's neighbours Armen Movsisyan Armenian minister He spends most of his time away from his books, working on his businesses, which include a travel agency working exclusively in the Iranian market. "In summer I think that 90% of tourists are Iranian. Armenia is so close by and has attractive things - cafes and nightclubs, and beautiful Lake Sevan." Omid has also just opened a Persian restaurant, catering for locals as well as Iranian expats, keen for some home cuisine. Gathered at the bar around a smoking pipe, a group of Iranian students are relaxing after their exams. Twenty-year-old Mehdez explains that Armenia is popular with thousands of young people who cannot get a place in Iran's over-subscribed higher education system. "I chose to study in Yerevan because it's an easier situation. Here we have more freedom," she says. "But of course anything that we do here, we can do in Iran - just not in public." Geographic isolation Part of that freedom includes an increasingly liberalised economy, and that makes Armenia attractive to foreign investment. The Armenian capital is hardly an international economic powerhouse, but there are signs that Iranian investors sense an opportunity. On one street, many of the stores are Iranian-run. One of them is owned by Muhammad Rahimi. Muhammad Rahimi benefits from Armenia's dependence on Iran He started trading household goods 10 years ago. Business, he says, gets better and better. Practically every item he sells - from pots and pans to air-fresheners - has been imported from Iran. Like many of his compatriots, Muhammad benefits from Armenia's geographical isolation. War with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s led to the closure of its borders with Azerbaijan and an unsympathetic Turkey. That leaves landlocked Armenia looking towards Georgia to the north, and Iran to the south. "Georgia, economically, is worse than Armenia," says Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus Media Institute. "But Iran has a population of 70 million and it has oil and gas. It's rich by regional standards, so you should have normal relations with them. It's dangerous not to do so." Yet trade turnover between the two countries remains modest, at just $200m (£100m) a year, according to the economic department at the Iranian embassy. US disapproval That has not stopped the United States from expressing concern about Armenia's ties with its neighbour. Those ties include the new Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, frequent bilateral talks and state visits, not to mention a sizeable Armenian minority in northern Iran. In this year's Country Reports on Terrorism, the US state department said warming relations between the two countries made Armenia "reluctant to criticise publicly objectionable Iranian conduct". The little country courts the Americans, Europeans and Russians. It is a difficult balancing act to follow. Iranian students say they enjoy more freedom in Armenia But Armenia's unique relationship with the regional power - Iran - is one it cannot afford to abandon. Moreover, the two countries are united by a shared sense of isolation from the rest of the world. "Let's not forget that Armenia is in a virtual blockade. We attach great importance to our relations with Iran. One can choose one's friends but not one's neighbours," says Armen Movsisyan, Armenia's minister of energy. For those Iranians who have chosen to make a home in Armenia, geopolitics may not be foremost in their minds, but they are equally as pragmatic as the politicians. "I'm no expert in international relations. All I know is we always had good relations with Armenia and that's why I like working here," says the trader Muhammad Rahimi. Back in his restaurant, Omid Mojahed has no plans to leave while the going is good. "Everything will be okay for me here, that's why I prefer to stay," he says. "I like Armenian people, and it's difficult for me to want to leave my friends. When you come to Yerevan for a month, you will stay in Yerevan forever!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PACE Chief In Stark Warning To Yerevan By Ruzanna Stepanian The Armenian authorities will risk `catastrophic' consequences if they fail to release all political prisoners and meet other Council of Europe demands by next October, the president of the Strasbourg-based organization's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) said on Thursday. Lluis Maria de Puig issued the stark warning on the second day of his visit to Armenia aimed at assessing its government's compliance with the PACE resolutions on the dramatic post-election developments in the country. The PACE demanded in April that the authorities immediately release all opposition members arrested on `seemingly artificial and politically motivated charges,' restore freedom of assembly and allow an independent inquiry into the March 1 clashes in Yerevan. In a follow-up resolution adopted late last month, the 47-nation assembly reiterated these demands, giving the admini- tration of President Serzh Sarkisian six more months to satisfy them in full. In an interview with RFE/RL, de Puig warned that the PACE could impose political sanctions on Yerevan at its next session due in October if it finds no major progress on the question of opposition detainees. `We need guarantees by September 11 that resolutions can be implemented in this country,' he said. `If we conclude on September 11 that no important progress has been made in Armenia, there will be a very scandalous situation.' September 11 is the day when Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's commissioner on human rights, is expected to report to the PACE's Monitoring Committee on whether Yerevan is complying with the resolutions. `The response to our recommendations is still unsatisfactory,' Hammarberg said at the end of a fact-finding trip to Yerevan on July 15. According to de Puig, Hammarberg's failure to report major progress would create a situation that `can be catastrophic for the country.' `Armenia can not wait until January because things will perhaps be decided before January,' he said. `That is why it is important that Armenia shows very quickly that it is complying with the PACE resolutions.' President Sarkisian clearly did not share the PACE chief's sense of urgency as he spoke at a news conference on Monday. He indicated that the Armenian authorities are not anxious to free the individuals considered political prisoners by the opposition and to fully comply with the PACE resolution by January. `If a certain provision [of the resolution] is not implemented by January, I don't think we will have a calamity as a result,' said Sarkisian. `Of course, it is desirable to solve our problems as soon as possible. But it is a bit wrong to set some deadlines and say that all those problems must be solved by then.' Meeting with de Puig on Thursday, Sarkisian insisted that no oppositionist has been or will be jailed on baseless charges and that Armenia is `determined' to implement the PACE resolutions. `I strongly believe that there is no alternative to Armenia's democratization, and we will consistently follow that path,' he said. De Puig also expressed concern about the fate of several dozen opposition supporters remaining in prison on charges mostly stemming from the March 1 unrest in Yerevan as he met with Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian on Wednesday. According to the Armenian government's press office, he said the Council of Europe can not tolerate the existence of political prisoners in any of its member states. `This does not apply to individuals who committed violent crimes,' de Puig was quoted as saying. `Those detainees who have nothing to do with those crimes should be released,' he added. Prime Minister Sarkisian assured him that the Armenian authorities `fully understand the seriousness of the issue.' `It is obvious to everyone that politicization of trials is extremely dangerous for the country,' he said. `Therefore, everything is being done to ensure that no legal norm is violated in Armenia.' Opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian claimed the opposite when he met de Puig later on Wednesday. He accused the authorities of doing nothing to address the PACE concerns. `Thus, the authorities have no intention to restore democracy in Armenia and are treating the Council of Europe demands with disdain,' Ter-Petrosian's Popular Movement said in a statement on Thursday. `In this situation, the Armenian people are left with no choice but to mount a powerful wave of protest and defiance with the aim of reclaiming their trampled rights.' The statement urged Armenians to `actively' participate in Ter-Petrosian's next Yerevan rally scheduled for August 1. In a related development, law-enforcement authorities released on Thursday a well-known opposition supporter accused of plotting a coup d'etat and inciting `mass disturbances.' Arshak Banuchian, deputy director of Yerevan's famous Matenadaran institute of ancient manuscripts, was not cleared of what he sees as trumped-up charges and may still go on trial. Another, more prominent, opposition figure, Ararat Zurabian, was transferred from a Yerevan prison to a heart clinic the previous night after being diagnosed with a serious cardiac disease. Zurabian is the chairman of the Armenian Pan-National Movement, a party that governed the country from 1990-1998. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Armenian Ombudsman Concerned About `Witness Torture' By Karine Kalantarian Armenia's human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutiunian, said on Thursday that he is receiving growing complaints from citizens claiming to have been intimidated and mistreated by law- enforcement agencies to give alse incriminating testimony against arrested opposition members. `We can't say whether or not that is true,' he told RFE/RL. `But the fact is that such complaints have increased.' Harutiunian said he has sent letters to the chiefs of the Armenian police and the Special Investigative Service (SIS) to investigate the claims and, in particular, to look into the case of one man, identified as Gagik Avdalian. In a letter to the ombudsman, Avdalian claimed that he went into hiding after being tortured to testify against parliament deputy Miasnik Malkhasian and several other oppositionists arrested in connection with the March 1 clashes in Yerevan between opposition protesters and security forces. He said local courts should therefore not use the testimony as evidence. Under Armenian law, the police and SIS chiefs have to reply to Harutiunian within 10 days. Harutiunian's letter is the latest example of the human rights defender of questioning the legality of the Armenian authorities' post-election crackdown on the opposition that followed the March 1 unrest. His criticism of the use of lethal force against opposition protesters was rejected by Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian and other Armenian officials. Earlier this month, Harutiunian described as illegal SIS chief Andranik Mirzoyan's March directive to regional prosecutors to round up participants of the opposition rallies in Yerevan, wire-tap their conversations and interrogate their neighbors. Mirzoyan insists that the order was legal and justified. Harutiunian said he shared his concerns with the visiting president of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Lluis Maria de Puig, at a meeting earlier on Thursday. `[De Puig] noted that not everyone in Armenia understands the gravity of the situation,' he said.

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