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Armenian Reporter

Long-lost Armenian ship, the stuff of legend, to become a “living museum” in the Caribbean
Explorers unravel mystery of the “Quedagh Merchant” hijacked in 1698
by Emil Sanamyan
Published: Friday June 05, 2009

Near Catalina Island, Dominican Republic - This has been a mystery three centuries in the making.
Burned and scuttled off the coast of this former Spanish colony, an Armenian merchant ship captured by

British privateer Captain William Kidd has since become the stuff of legend and an elusive prize for treasure

hunters.
Since it was accidentally found in December 2007, the researchers involved have called Quedagh Merchant

an unprecedented discovery of its kind in recent history. They are now working on ascertaining the vessel's

identity and on the creation of a unique museum.

An international mystery
According to British records, Kidd captured the Quedagh Merchant (also known as Cara Merchant) in

January 1698 from Armenian traders near the coast of India and then sailed on it to the Caribbean.
In 1701, after a two-year public trial in London, Kidd was hanged to his death on charges of murder and

piracy - charges based in main part on testimony from the Armenian vessel's owners.
Seeking to bury the evidence after looting much of its precious cargo, Kidd's associates set the ship on

fire and sunk it in 1699. Subsequent efforts sanctioned by the British Crown to find the vessel and its cargo

and compensate the Armenians proved fruitless.

The story of the missing ship became an obsession for numerous historians and explorers in the West.

Among Armenians, however, the Quedagh Merchant - like much of the Armenian maritime heritage - has

remained virtually unknown.

To this day, few Armenian studies of the subject have been attempted. One of these few was a Russian

-language paper by Yuri Barsegov, a Moscow professor with expertise in maritime law, published in an

obscure academic journal in 1984.

"When I first heard of this Armenian ship in early 2007, I thought to myself: right, this is just another fable

that Armenians like to brag about among themselves," recalled Pavel Galoumian, who together with his wife

Isabella Agad, was recognized at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo on June 1 at an event dedicated to

the discovery of the shipwreck.

But after checking British sources, Mr. Galoumian learned that the Armenian provenance of the vessel was

well-documented. Having since gone through a mountain of literature on the Quedagh Merchant, he argues

that its significance goes far beyond public excitement about pirates and treasures.
"Much sought-after internationally, this vessel represents a highly significant but little-studied chapter of

Armenian history," Mr. Galoumian told the Armenian Reporter.

In fact, from the 17th century and well into the 18th, at the dawn of the modern era, Armenian diaspora

communities in Iran and India dominated commerce between Asia and Europe that, in its significance for

the world economy, can be compared to trade between the United States and China today.

(See a forthcoming story on the subject in the Armenian Reporter.)

A search for Armenian treasure

Passion for Armenian history and adventure turned the Galoumians - he a physicist who had worked at the

European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva and she a professional translator - into born-again

sea explorers.

Natives of landlocked Armenia and Switzerland, respectively, Mr. and Mrs. Galoumian purchased a yacht

and decided to embark on a fresh search for the elusive Quedagh Merchant.

They joined with sea enthusiasts from Yerevan's Ayas Nautical Research Club led by Karen Balayan, who

in 2004-6 had sailed around Europe in a replica of the 13th-century Armenian vessel Kilikia.
In a sketch, "The Quest for the Armenian vessel: Quedagh Merchant," prepared in March 2007, Ayas

members said that beginning that December they would undertake an expedition to the Caribbean Sea

aboard a 46-foot yacht, Anahit, sailing under the flag of the Republic of Armenia.

Mr. Galoumian admits that the chances that their four-person team could find the three-century-old relic

underwater were slim.

"But we thought we would ask the local population, focusing primarily on the area between Puerto Rico and

the Dominican Republic, specifically the uninhabited islet of Mona, where Quedagh Merchant was known to

have been hiding at one point, and see what we could find," Mr. Galoumian remembered.

But just days after the Anahit sailed from the United States came the stunning news reports.
Researchers from University of Indiana (IU), acting on a tip to Dominican officials from a local resident, found

what appeared to be the long-lost Quedagh Merchant. (By then, the IU team had been doing archeological

work in the waters of the Dominican Republic for 15 years.)

"We felt shock." Mr. Galoumian was candid about his first reaction. "I felt like a dog that lost a bone he didn't

know he could have."

But when the Anahit crew made contact with the American team, they began to collaborate. The Armenian

Nautical Association has since become one of the main sponsors of the research effort.

Examining the discovery
In the past 18 months, the IU team, led by Professor Charles Beeker, has been examining the wreck. They

have identified at least 26 cannons and what may be the vessel's wooden keel. One cannon has since been

removed from the water for lab examination.

Evidence gathered so far, the general location of the wreck, and the location of the cannons - which were piled

together to force the burning vessel underwater - are consistent with contemporary descriptions of the Quedagh

Merchant's last sighting off the coast of the present-day Dominican Republic.

IWPR

YEREVAN ELECTION CONDEMNED AS "AMORAL AND CYNICAL"
International watchdog monitoring poll said it "witnessed the collapse of the Armenian electoral

system as an institution".
By Sara Khojoian in Yerevan

The Yerevan city elections were hailed as a chance to spread power beyond the hands of just the governing party,

but ended up condemned as the "most illegal, amoral and cynical elections in all the history of Armenia".

That was the damning assessment of the watchdog Transparency International, as the opposition's hopes to win

power in the Armenian capital collapsed amid claims of intimidation, ballot stuffing, multiple voting, and more.

The May 31 polls came just over a year after the government declared a state of emergency to stop angry

Armenians from protesting the results of a presidential election, held last February, which resulted in ten deaths

and hundreds of arrests. Critics of the authorities say the Yerevan ballot shows little has changed in the months

since, despite government promises to take action.

The mayor of Yerevan, which dominates the country's economy, has been an appointed position since 1992.

Under a new system, city residents elected a Council of Elders, which in turn named presidential ally Gagik

Beglarian as mayor.

The Armenian National Congress, HAK, the only opposition grouping to win seats in the Council of Elders,

announced on June 1 it would not be taking up its posts. HAK Leader Levon Ter-Petrosian accused the

authorities of organising "the ugliest election in Armenia's history".

Journalists at polling stations claimed they witnessed multiple violations of the electoral law, and IWPR

reporter Anahit Danielian said she was even threatened by a candidate from the Prosperous Armenia party.

Prosperous Armenia is a member of the ruling coalition with President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party

of Armenia, HHK. The alliance won with 47.39 per cent of the vote.

Danielian took photographs of Artak Avetisian, a candidate from the Prosperous Armenia party, chatting to

voters inside the grounds of polling station 2/4 in the Nor Norq suburb, which is technically illegal under

Armenian law. She said he challenged her, and demanded to know if she was following him. "I'll take you to

court, I'll have you sacked," he shouted, recounted the journalist.

When asked about Avetisian's alleged actions, a spokesman for Prosperous Armenia dismissed Danielian's

account as a fabrication, although the photographs clearly show both Avetisian and a poster advertising his

candidacy inside the polling station, which is also against electoral law.

"If this reporter saw this, why did she not immediately report it to the police," asked party spokesman

Baghdasar Mherian.

"Now I have the full right not to believe this reporter, because there is not proof of it. Could they not work out

to the centimetre how close the candidate was to the polling station, for example 479 metres, 60 centimetres?"

"As for the posters, then I have never heard such an extreme lie, because Prosperous Armenia did not print

individual posters with the image of its candidates," he added. IWPR sent him the photo of the poster, but he

did not respond.

Danielian said she also saw a senior official in the commission monitoring the count at polling station 8/17

add spoiled ballots to the pile for the HHK party, and was told to certify that the commission as a whole had

decided this.

Several other journalists told IWPR they had been insulted and beaten by guards for candidates, when they

asked them why they were inside a polling station. Nelly Gregorian, a reporter from the Aravot daily, said she

saw a young man threatening the opposition observer.

"When I entered the polling station, I had a camera in my hand. I tried to take shots, but that boy saw me, left

the observer, grabbed me by the shoulders and started pushing me around. All the while he was screaming 'who

a re you and who let you photograph this'," Gregorian told IWPR.

According to the journalist, nobody from the polling station interfered. The young man and two others then left the

polling station, taking her camera with them, she said.

"They returned the camera, but the memory chip was gone," she said.

Gregorian told IWPR that an electoral commission official refused to accept the report she submitted on the

incident, saying that he did not personally witness it. Transparency International said such events were frequent.

"We have witnessed the collapse of the Armenian electoral system as an institution. Instead, another institution

proved to be strong and 'functional' - clans and neighbourhood criminals," said Amalia Kostanian, chair of

Transparency International's Anti-Corruption Centre.

"The elections for the Council of Elders of Yerevan were the most illegal, most amoral and cynical elections in

all the history of Yerevan. If in the country the elections are held as they were in the 8th electoral district [of the

capital], then soon the government must announce that the electoral system as an institution was just destroyed

in Armenia."

Opposition parties sent long lists of alleged violations to the general prosecutor's office, including accounts of state

buses with police escorts bringing voters from outside Yerevan to cast their votes in the city's election.

Such allegations were strongly denied by the ruling parties which will take up the seats they won in the election.

"The president has stressed that the elections were free and fair, and that, despite occasional violations, they

complied with European standards," said Eduard Sharmazanov, HHK spokesman.

"President Serzh Sargsian pointed out that the registered violations could not have affected the final outcome of

the elections."

But the leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which came fifth in the poll and which was until two

months ago in the government coalition, approved HAK's decision to abandon its seats in the council in protest

against the alleged rigging of the election. It said it would not recognise the ballot results as legal.

Other observers were more measured in their criticism, but most seemed to agree that Armenia had missed a

chance to make good on promises it made this year to the delegates from the Parliamentary Assembly for the

Council of Europe to reform electoral legislation, and ensure polls were free and fair.

"Our satisfaction in seeing the citizens electing their city council has been tempered by deficiencies in the conduct

of the vote," said Nigel Mermagen, head of a delegation observing the poll for the Council of Europe's Congress of

Local and Regional Authorities.

"Democracy is not only about the organisational framework of elections. It is about electoral conduct and culture.

Elections have to be clear, fair and transparent even beyond polling stations."

Sara Khojoian is a journalist from Armenianow.com, and a participant in IWPR's Cross Caucasus Journalism Network.

Anait Danielian is a correspondent for the Karabakh magazine Analitikon, for the Armenian agency www.hetq.am,

and is a member of IWPR's Cross Caucasus Journalist Network.

IWPR country director Seda Muradian also contributed to this report.

IWPR

RUSSIA-GEORGIA TENSIONS HARM ARMENIA
Continued closure of Russian-Georgian border crossing leaves Armenia cut off from its most important market.
By Naira Melkumian in Yerevan

The Armenian economy, already reeling from the global financial crisis, has suffered a new blow from Georgia's refusal

to re-open a frontier crossing with Russia - Armenia's only link with its major ally.

The Upper Lars border post, where the road between Tbilisi and Vladikavkaz crosses the central Caucasus, was closed

unexpectedly by Russia in 2006, a major setback to Armenian exporters.

Now, Russia has re-opened its side of the frontier but Georgia has declined to allow goods to pass through. Georgia,

which fought a brief war with Russia last year, says it wants Swiss mediation before it will trust its northern neighbour.

That leaves Armenia, which currently has to use a lengthy export route via Bulgaria to reach Russia, cut off from its

most important market.

"We are desperately keen that this road should operate. Russia has assured us that on its side all work has been

completed. They gave a high priority to Upper Lars functioning, especially since they have provided the customs points

with all modern facilities," said Armenian prime minister Tigran Sarksian.

The complex geopolitics of the South Caucasus leave Armenia uniquely dependent on this crossing point. The rest of

the Georgian border with Russia is closed, either being too mountainous, or controlled by Abkhazia or South Ossetia,

which have had their independence recognised by Russia but not by Georgia.

Armenia and Azerbaijan meanwhile, have not signed a formal treaty to end their war over the breakaway region of

Karabakh, leaving the other half of Russia's southern border closed to Armenian exporters. At the same time, Armenia

lacks diplomatic ties with its other main neighbour Turkey, although relations are thawing and may prove a way out of the

impasse.

"Now the question is one of a political decision, and the problem is Russian-Georgian relations. I hope that soon relations

between Georgia and Russian normalise and thaw, which will be good for all countries in the region," said Armenian

transport

and communications minister Gurgen Sarksian.

The Russians blame the Georgians for the crossing point being closed, but the Georgians say they cannot trust the

Russians to behave honourably.

"All negotiations in connection with the opening of the crossing point must take place in the presence of the Swiss,

in as far as we cannot rule out provocations from the Russians," said Georgian foreign minister Grigol Vashadze.

That position, and the inevitable delays that will accompany it, is not likely to please Armenia, which has already

seen its economy slump disastrously this year and has had to call on funding from the International Monetary Fund.

The country's central bank has predicted the economy will contract by 5.8 per cent this year, following a 6.1 per cent

decline in the first quarter.

The mining sector has been particularly hard-hit, and several companies have been forced to shed labourers.

The stand-off has reminded Armenians that their country's economy is too dependent on Georgia for its own good.

Only in August last year, when the war interrupted Armenia's export trade, the country lost 600-700 million US dollars.

At the moment, 70-80 per cent of Armenian exports travel to Russia, leaving the Georgian port of Poti for Bulgaria, then

shipped to Novorossiisk on Russia's southern coast. The whole journey can take eight or ten days, whereas the road

through the mountains and Upper Lars is relatively quick.

"If for a long time our goods go only via ship from Poti, then it will create financial problems, increase the cost of our

exports, and if you add the economic crisis to this, then you create a situation that is disadvantageous to Armenia,"

said Vardan Aivazian, head of the economic committee of the Armenian parliament.

The stand-off has also added impetus to talks to open the Armenian border with Turkey. The two countries lack

diplomatic relations, and have major differences over whether the Ottoman Empire's slaughter of Armenians in the

First World War constituted genocide, but the two sides agreed a so-called road map last month which could kick-start

a normalisation of relations.

Turkish-Armenian unofficial trade via Georgia almost doubled in 2008 to 270 million dollars, although almost all of this

consisted of Turkish textiles, building materials and domestic goods. If the border was opened, these goods could travel

directly into Armenia.

"The opening of the border would legalise the trade, which currently goes on between the two countries via Georgia, and

would reduce the high transit fees. Currently, Turkish goods are widely used in Armenia, including foodstuffs and products

of light industry," said Aivazian.

However, the idea of opening the border between Armenia and Turkey has serious opponents, particularly the nationalist

Armenian party Dashnaktsutiun, which fears Turkey could dump its products in Armenia and swamp domestic producers.

"We have studied the economic policies of Turkey and Armenia, and the protectionist policies which Turkey conducts in

defence of its own producers clearly bear witness to the fact that we, with our liberal policy, will not benefit from this,"

said Ara Nranian, a member of parliament from the party.

Naira Melkumian is a freelance journalist.

eTurboNews
June 13 2009
New visa policy facilitates visits to Armenia
By eTN Staff Writer | Jun 12, 2009


In unprecedented steps to boost tourist arrivals, Armenia has
introduced a new shorter-stay visa for guests.

Until recently, most visitors to the country could only obtain a
120-day visa at a cost of around US$40. The new legislation means that
21-day visas can also be obtained at the airport in Yerevan upon
arrival at a cost of AMD 3000 or just over US$8.

Although the majority of visitors to Armenia do require visas, they
are easy to obtain from Armenian embassies overseas, at the border
points, and online as e-visas.

For more information, contact the Armenian Tourism Development Agency
at info@armeniainfo.am.

About ATDA

The Armenian Tourism Development Agency (ATDA) was established as the
governmentâ??s tourism promotional arm in June 2001. In
partnership with private businesses, it aims to market Armenia in
local and international markets and create programs aiding the overall
development of Armeniaâ??s tourism industry.
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