Armenian News
Agence France Presse
February 27, 2009 Friday 1:48 AM GMT
Armenia marks anniversary of deadliest post-Soviet clashes
Mariam Harutunian
YEREVAN, Feb 27 2009
Armenia's opposition on Sunday marks the first anniversary of the
country's deadliest political clashes since the break-up of the Soviet
Union, with analysts warning the threat of further turmoil remains.
The opposition, which plans to hold an unsanctioned rally Sunday to
mark the March 1 anniversary of clashes that left 10 dead, seems
marginalised and divided.
But analysts say that Armenia, which has suffered repeated bouts of
civil violence since gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in
1991, remains a political powder keg.
"If living standards worsen for a significant part of the population,
the public will lose faith and direct their anger at (President Serzh)
Sarkisian," Yerevan-based political analyst Manvel Sarkisian said.
"He can be forgiven many things, even repression, but not social
problems," he said.
Armen Martirosian, a member of parliament with the opposition Heritage
Party, added: "There is a huge mass of frustrated people within
society, not only the most vulnerable groups but also some in business
circles.
"The current internal political situation is like a volcano waiting to
erupt."
Protesters will call on Sunday for the release of dozens of opposition
supporters jailed following last year's clashes, including a former
foreign minister whose prosecution some observers fear is politically
motivated.
The street battles broke out last March 1 as police moved to disperse
thousands of supporters of former Armenian president Levon
Ter-Petrosian who had rallied for 11 days to denounce Sarkisian's win
in a February election.
Two police officers and eight civilians were killed and dozens more
were injured, many from gunshot wounds. Ter-Petrosian had finished
second in the vote.
The authorities said the protesters were preparing to launch a coup,
but opposition supporters insisted their intentions were peaceful.
In the year since, the opposition has failed to galvanise
anti-government sentiment and when a series of planned protests
flopped, announced a break in public demonstrations.
Sunday's rally will be the first serious attempt at renewing
protests. Analysts are predicting a large turnout but doubt the
protest will mark the beginning of a serious new challenge to the
government.
More worrying for the authorities are the potential losses of
thousands of jobs due to the global economic downturn, analysts said.
The country has already had to turn to close ally Russia for a
500-million-dollar (392-million-euro) stabilisation loan amid reports
of massive job cuts in Armenian industry.
Armenia's important mining sector has permanently or temporarily laid
off at least 2,500 people in recent months, local media have said. One
Yerevan-based chemical factory alone has laid off more than 1,400
workers.
In a country of just under 3 million people, the loss of a few
thousand jobs can have an enormous impact, analysts said.
Government supporters say the number of job cuts is being exaggerated
and that the authorities will manage to keep the economy strong.
"Major employers have said they are not planning mass firings and many
of them are already receiving loans from the government," said Naira
Zohrabian, a parliamentarian with the Prosperous Armenia party, a
member of the country's governing coalition.
But with no signs of a global recovery, analysts said the authorities
will only be able to prop up the economy for so long.
"If the crisis lasts for a longer period and there are major job cuts
this may lead to serious instability," said Alexander Iskandarian, the
director of the Caucasus Media Institute.
February 27, 2009 Friday 1:48 AM GMT
Armenia marks anniversary of deadliest post-Soviet clashes
Mariam Harutunian
YEREVAN, Feb 27 2009
Armenia's opposition on Sunday marks the first anniversary of the
country's deadliest political clashes since the break-up of the Soviet
Union, with analysts warning the threat of further turmoil remains.
The opposition, which plans to hold an unsanctioned rally Sunday to
mark the March 1 anniversary of clashes that left 10 dead, seems
marginalised and divided.
But analysts say that Armenia, which has suffered repeated bouts of
civil violence since gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in
1991, remains a political powder keg.
"If living standards worsen for a significant part of the population,
the public will lose faith and direct their anger at (President Serzh)
Sarkisian," Yerevan-based political analyst Manvel Sarkisian said.
"He can be forgiven many things, even repression, but not social
problems," he said.
Armen Martirosian, a member of parliament with the opposition Heritage
Party, added: "There is a huge mass of frustrated people within
society, not only the most vulnerable groups but also some in business
circles.
"The current internal political situation is like a volcano waiting to
erupt."
Protesters will call on Sunday for the release of dozens of opposition
supporters jailed following last year's clashes, including a former
foreign minister whose prosecution some observers fear is politically
motivated.
The street battles broke out last March 1 as police moved to disperse
thousands of supporters of former Armenian president Levon
Ter-Petrosian who had rallied for 11 days to denounce Sarkisian's win
in a February election.
Two police officers and eight civilians were killed and dozens more
were injured, many from gunshot wounds. Ter-Petrosian had finished
second in the vote.
The authorities said the protesters were preparing to launch a coup,
but opposition supporters insisted their intentions were peaceful.
In the year since, the opposition has failed to galvanise
anti-government sentiment and when a series of planned protests
flopped, announced a break in public demonstrations.
Sunday's rally will be the first serious attempt at renewing
protests. Analysts are predicting a large turnout but doubt the
protest will mark the beginning of a serious new challenge to the
government.
More worrying for the authorities are the potential losses of
thousands of jobs due to the global economic downturn, analysts said.
The country has already had to turn to close ally Russia for a
500-million-dollar (392-million-euro) stabilisation loan amid reports
of massive job cuts in Armenian industry.
Armenia's important mining sector has permanently or temporarily laid
off at least 2,500 people in recent months, local media have said. One
Yerevan-based chemical factory alone has laid off more than 1,400
workers.
In a country of just under 3 million people, the loss of a few
thousand jobs can have an enormous impact, analysts said.
Government supporters say the number of job cuts is being exaggerated
and that the authorities will manage to keep the economy strong.
"Major employers have said they are not planning mass firings and many
of them are already receiving loans from the government," said Naira
Zohrabian, a parliamentarian with the Prosperous Armenia party, a
member of the country's governing coalition.
But with no signs of a global recovery, analysts said the authorities
will only be able to prop up the economy for so long.
"If the crisis lasts for a longer period and there are major job cuts
this may lead to serious instability," said Alexander Iskandarian, the
director of the Caucasus Media Institute.
Agence France Presse
February 25, 2009 Wednesday 4:01 PM GMT
World Bank says to loan 85 mln dollars to Armenia
YEREVAN, Feb 25 2009
The World Bank will grant ex-Soviet republic Armenia 85 million
dollars (67 million euros) in loans to ease the effects of the global
financial crisis, the head of its Yerevan office said Wednesday.
The loans include 50 million dollars (39 million euros) for the
development of small- and medium-sized businesses, the World Bank's
director in Armenia, Aristomene Varoudakis, told journalists.
Others include 25 million dollars (19 million euros) to build 100
kilometres (62 miles) of motorways and eight million dollars (six
million euros) for social projects, he said.
The 50-million-dollar loan was given with a repayment period of 26.5
years, with a five-year grace period, at an annual interest rate of
four percent.
The other loans were given with 20-year repayment periods, 10-year
grace periods, and interest rates of 0.75 percent.
February 25, 2009 Wednesday 4:01 PM GMT
World Bank says to loan 85 mln dollars to Armenia
YEREVAN, Feb 25 2009
The World Bank will grant ex-Soviet republic Armenia 85 million
dollars (67 million euros) in loans to ease the effects of the global
financial crisis, the head of its Yerevan office said Wednesday.
The loans include 50 million dollars (39 million euros) for the
development of small- and medium-sized businesses, the World Bank's
director in Armenia, Aristomene Varoudakis, told journalists.
Others include 25 million dollars (19 million euros) to build 100
kilometres (62 miles) of motorways and eight million dollars (six
million euros) for social projects, he said.
The 50-million-dollar loan was given with a repayment period of 26.5
years, with a five-year grace period, at an annual interest rate of
four percent.
The other loans were given with 20-year repayment periods, 10-year
grace periods, and interest rates of 0.75 percent.
The World Bank has loaned about 1.1 billion dollars (860 million
euros) to Armenia since 1992.
euros) to Armenia since 1992.
Father sues Turkish Education Ministry over Armenian 'genocide' DVD
Suna Erdem in Istanbul
A father is suing the Turkish Education Ministry for forcing his
11-year-old daughter to watch a `racist' and `disturbing' film
countering claims that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against
Armenians in 1915 with graphic allegations of Armenian atrocities
against Turks.
The landmark case takes on what human rights activists have called the
State's militarist policy of brainwashing Turkey's schoolchildren to
the point of racist paranoia, aiming to preserve a nationalist status
quo criticised by the European Union, which Turkey is keen to join.
`My daughter was very disturbed and frightened by the documentary and
kept asking me if the Armenians had cut us up,' said Serdar Kaya, an
ethnic Turkish doctor, who is suing the ministry and the child's
school for inciting racial hatred.
`There are many mass graves, bones and skulls in the DVD. They have
interviewed old grandads who inspire confidence and compassion. When
they say things like 'They cut off his head' and 'They used it instead
of firewood', that is bound to stay with the children,' Serdar
Degirmencioglu, a psychologist, told the Armenian newspaper Agos when
news first broke that the documentary was being shown to primary
school children - including ethnic Armenian Turks.
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The Education Ministry says that it has stopped the distribution of
the documentary, Sari Gelin (Blonde Bride), named after an Armenian
folk song. But it has apparently not recalled it and critics say that
it remains part of the curriculum.
Some MPs are bringing up the case in Parliament. The education union
Egitim-Sen has condemned the film, and the History Foundation has
dismissed it as baseless propaganda.
Another lawsuit has been filed by a foundation set up in honour of the
murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. The former editor of
Agos was murdered in 2007 by a young nationalist whose links to a
group of ultra-nationalists, codenamed Ergenekon, operating within the
security forces and state bureaucracy are now being investigated. `In
the whole of the documentary the word 'Armenian' has been used
thousands of times and only with negative connotations,' the
Foundation said.
Mr Dink had been one of several high-profile intellectuals, also
including Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel literature laureate, and Elif Shafak,
the bestselling author, who had been sued by nationalist lawyers over
comments and writings alluding to the mass Armenian deaths. `You can
see that all those cases were part of a project of manipulation ...
There is a sick, abnormal tissue of Turkish society that is poisoned
by a nationalist, racist virus,' said Ufuk Uras, an independent MP who
backs Mr Kaya's case.
Many historians class the 1915 events as genocide, but even those who
reject the term accept that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died
when the Ottoman Turks deported them from eastern Anatolia. According
to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the death toll
was `more than a million'.
`You go and kill more than a million Armenians, wipe the traces of
Armenians from Anatolia, grab their property, and then show children
videos about 'What the Armenians did to us' ... We are cutting these
children off from the rest of the world,' said Ahmet Altan, editor of
the independent newspaper Taraf.
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