Monday 26 February 2018

Armenian News... A Topalian... "Promoting Inclusion for Students with Disabilities in Armenia"


Inclusion for those with disability!
6 March 2018, 7pm 


Holiday Inn London, Kensington High Street, Wrights Lane 
Kensington, London W8 5SP 
Speakers: Dr. Randall Rhodes (American University of Armenia, Provost); Yelena Sardaryan (AUA Counselor); and Dr. Benjamin Barnard (UK mental health charity, SANE) 

Organised by AGBU London 

For more information please contact armineafrikian@hotmail.com 


BBC News
The country breeding a generation of chess whizz kids
25 February 2018 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-43084816 


ARKA, Armenia
Feb 22 2018
Armenian serviceman killed in Nagorno-Karabakh 

The Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) defense ministry said a serviceman, Grigor Egoyan, born in 1998, received a deadly gunshot wound today morning at about 9:40. 

The ministry said the serviceman was killed by Azerbaijani fire at a defensive position of one of the military units stationed in the northeast direction. The ministry has launched an investigation to find out the circumstances of the incident. 

"The Artsakh Defense Ministry shares the bitter grief of the loss and expresses its support to the members of the family of the killed serviceman, his relatives and colleagues," the ministry said. 

The press service of the Nagorno-Karabakh president said Grigor Egoyan was posthumously awarded the medal "For Military Merit" for his courage shown in the protection of the state border of the Artsakh Republic. -0- 


MediaMax, Armenia
Feb 22 2018
We seriously rely on Armenians, Lebanese President says 

President of Lebanon Michel Aoun said that his visit to Armenia will be mainly focused on strengthening the relations between Armenia and Lebanon. 

“The Armenian community has greatly contributed to the development of Lebanon, as well as its prospering. Armenians work seriously in all sectors of activity and responsible circles, and we all rely on them in many issues. We are a large community, and the Armenian part of our population was able to preserve its culture and identity in Lebanon. Of course, we are very proud of this diversity in views and cultures, which helps Lebanon benefit and develop further,” Michel Aoun said during his visit to Yerevan. 

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan remarked that this visit will open a new chapter in bilateral relations. 

“Our interstate relations started to develop only 25 years ago, but our peoples have communicated for centuries now. We are very grateful to Lebanese people and authorities for care and warmth that Armenians have always received in Lebanon. Over the time our compatriots have become citizens of Lebanon, preserving their identity and culture at the same time,” the Armenian President said. 


Public Radio of Armenia
Feb 23 2018
Supreme Spiritual Council calls for elections of Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople 

The Supreme Spiritual Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church has issued a statement, voicing concern over the developments in the life of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Armenian community of Istanbul ever since Patriarch Mesrop Mutafyan fell ill. 

The Council issues a calls for sobriety to Archbishop Karekin Bekchian, Archbishop Aram Ateshian, Bishop Sahak Mashalian and other clergymen, to put the interest of the Patriarchate above their own aspirations and interpersonal relationships and commit themselves to correct the wrong processes and restore peace, unity and solidarity in the wretched life of the Istanbul Armenian community. 

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin urges members of the Religious Council and community members to respect the legitimate demands of the Armenian Church to organize patriarchal elections for the benefit of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople and the “consolation of our devout people.” 

The Spiritual Counsel said it expects the Turkish authorities to support the just demand of the Armenian community to organize elections of the Patriarch. 

The election of Kaarekin Bekchian as Locum Tenens last year inspired hopes that the election of the Armenian Patriarch would move forward. However, shortly afterwards the situation created by the irresponsible actions of the church officials and individuals allowed for external influences and interference by the Turkish authorities. 

In a letter signed by Istanbul’s Deputy Governor Ismail Peltek, sent to the Armenian patriarchate, the local authorities said there were conditions in place for holding new patriarchal elections, considering that Patriarch Mutafyan is alive. 

The letter also said Aram Ateshyan should keep his position as General Vicar, and that all actions that led to the election of Karekin Bekciyan as Locum Tenens were invalid. 


Transitions Online, Czech Rep.
Feb 22 2018
An Armenian Teenager’s Small Olympic Triumph 

When his skis broke, hopes for the country’s only Alpine skier to compete in Pyeongchang looked dim. 

Armenia’s Ashot Karapetyan finished 42 nd in today’s men’s slalom event at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics held in South Korea. 

For 18-year-old, merely competing was something of a miracle. Unlike American skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin, who brought 35 pairs of skis, he arrived with just some borrowed skis, and they broke during a training run. 

“I often have problems with equipment,” Karapetyan told News.am, Eurasianet.org reports . “In previous [events] in Turkey and Iran, as well as here in Pyeongchang, I have been using my friend’s skis.” 

Karapetyan, the only Alpine skier in Armenia’s three-person Olympic squad, said new equipment promised by the Armenian Olympic Federation failed to arrive in time for him to begin training. He was not even given a team uniform. 

By the time two new pairs of skis and one pair of boots arrived last week , thanks to the national Olympic committee and the Armenian Ski Federation, it was too late to train for the men’s giant slalom event. 

He managed to get in enough training to start today’s slalom, and although he finished only one place above last, Karapetyan managed to complete both runs, unlike some 60 other racers. 

    • One Yerevan political analyst told Eurasianet Karapetyan’s equipment issues were likely linked to bad feelings over his being chosen to compete ahead of the nephew of the Armenian national head ski coach, Syran Harutyunyan. A flood of social media complaints about Karapetyan’s plight probably goaded the authorities into seeing that he got new skis, analyst Styopa Safaryan said. 
    • Cross-country skiers Mikayel Mikayelyan and Katya Galstyan are also competing for Armenia at the games, which wrap up this weekend. 


Public Radio of Armenia
Feb 23 2018
Aurora goes global 

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative takes the Aurora concept and program to the world. 

“The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, in its third year, is transforming the Armenian experience into a global movement committed to inspiring each of us to protect the humanity and life of our fellow man. It is gratifying to welcome Aurora’s heroes to various venues around the world and witness their impact on others in the humanitarian community, as well as on students, teachers, members of the media,” said Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, on the eve of the second Aurora Dialogues event outside Armenia. 
On March 1, the Aurora Dialogues will be held in New York in collaboration with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. This comes just three months after a successful Aurora Dialogues program was held in Berlin , in collaboration with the Robert Bosch Foundation. These collaborations are yet another way that the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, founded on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, embodies its vision of Gratitude in Action. 

Ruben Vardanyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, explained. “Today, Armenians of our generation and those who come after us, have the opportunity to express our gratitude by taking action and making a difference in people’s lives. Not to use that opportunity to give back would be a sign of immense ingratitude.” 

In December 2017 the inaugural Aurora Prize Laureate, Marguerite Barankitse, together with three Aurora Prize finalists participated in the Aurora Dialogues in Berlin. In March 2018 Aurora Prize Laureate Dr. Tom Catena, together with three Aurora finalists and Marguerite Barankitse will be featured during the New York program. After New York, the Aurora Dialogues will continue to travel around the world, including to Moscow, London, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Beirut and other global centers. 

“In the first two years, we focused on bringing the world to Aurora,” said Vardanyan. “We invited leaders and personalities from around the world to become members of the Aurora Prize Selection Committee, to participate in a prize ceremony that combined the best of human values and the Armenian heritage, to participate in discussions about current issues critical to the future of humanity. Now, in our third year, Aurora’s programs reach five continents and this year’s prize ceremony which will be held in a very different special, highly symbolic venue, will reflect that global presence.” 

Aurora’s greatest impact may be considered the work that is done by the Aurora Prize recipients. Each Laureate is gifted $100,000 and is offered the opportunity to continue the cycle of giving by distributing an additional $1 million award to organizations which support the Laureate’s vision. Over the last two years, 6 organizations in 14 countries have served thousands of women, children and others in need of help to survive. Aurora’s impact from Brazil to Burundi means, in the words of the 2016 Laureate Marguerite Barankitse, “Children in Africa and Latin America know that Armenians are helping to make their lives more hopeful.” 

Aurora’s international reach is also evident through the Aurora Humanitarian Index, which demonstrates that there is a consistently growing awareness of the Aurora name and mission in a dozen cities around the world. The fact that over these three years, the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity has received nearly 1500 nominations from over 125 countries is evidence of Aurora’s global range. 

Beyond the Aurora Prize, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative offers scholarship support to 24 students from 9 countries at United World Colleges and 10 students from 4 countries at American University of Armenia; they will carry the Aurora vision with them throughout their lives. 

The commitment to proactively integrate Armenia into the global conversation is seeing results. The dissemination of the Aurora message around the world is the greatest source of satisfaction and measure of success. 

(would you believe how low the Azeri's morality can get 
- other articles too on the same theme)

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Feb 22 2018
Armenian provocation to blame Azerbaijanis in Sumgayit events - senior investigator

Armenians tried to burn down their homes in Azerbaijani city of Sumgayi
t, and blame Azerbaijanis in that, senior investigator of the Investigative Directorate for Serious Crimes under the Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office Nadir Mirzayev said addressing the meeting dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Sumgayit events of 1988.

The investigation ascertained that although former members of security agencies had been discharged from the investigations concerning the Sumgayit events, their analysis showed that a diversion group consisting of 20—25 people and pretending to be “Azerbaijanis expelled from Gaphan” had been acting in the city, Mirzoyev said touching upon the diversion groups’ involvement in the Sumgayit events.

“Some suffered Armenians told them [investigators] about that. Even though the information had been submitted to operative-investigative group of USSR Prosecutor General’s Office, for some reason it wasn’t inspected and was gone fruitless. It was also determined that a group of persons was speaking on the meetings calling to expel Armenians from the city. The persons weren’t residents of Sumgayit and were speaking in Armenian among themselves,” Nadir Mirzayev said.

It was revealed that on the eve of the Sumgayit events a number of cars with Armenian registration numbers had been detected in the city. Moreover, many Armenian individuals had been staying in Baku and Sumgayit hotels and left out right after the events.

It was also determined that Armenians living in Sumgayit tried to provocatively burn down their homes and property and blame Azerbaijanis in that. The investigation ascertained that Armenians knew about the mass disorder in advance. 

The day before the mass disorder special video filming equipment, tripods for video cameras etc., were installed on the rooftops of numerous buildings in different parts of Sumgayit. During the events, robbery of Armenians’ homes, as well as the actions of a naked woman in the street, was recorded with soviet servicemen’s consent by an individual, who presented himself as Armenian. 
These facts prove that the mass disorder in Sumgayit was orchestrated by Armenian nationalists and sympathetic provokers from the Soviet government, the senior investigator said.

Mirzoyev noted that an investigative group conducted a search in the office of USSR’s former Interior Minister Boris Pugo in the framework of the August 1991 coup d’état attempt case. Among the documents found were folders with data on exile of Meskhetian Turks from Uzbekistan, the events in Nagorno-Karabakh etc.

The data in the documents revealed that the Soviet Interior Ministry was being comprehensively informed about the “Krunk” organization, operating in Nagorno-Karabakh, its members and activity. The data included information both from the interior ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan and from the respective agencies of the Soviet Interior Ministry. The Soviet government had known about the events since the very first day but purposely stayed idle.

The criminal case on murder of D.Khudatov, D.Orujov, Y.Gasymov, S.Aliyev and V.Babayev during the mass disorder caused by actions of servicemen and other persons, was closed on Dec. 30, 1988 by Military Prosecutor’s Office of Baku Garrison. It was later merged with the current case No. 60206 [on the Sumgayit events] to continue the investigation.

The investigation determined that Valery Markaryan, an Armenian resident of Baku with extremist ideas, brought soldiers to Sumgayit and used the highly-dangerous situation to drive a bus into civilians, ultimately killing five Azerbaijanis. Markaryan’s connection with Armenian extremist organizations of Sumgayit was also established, Mirzoyev said.

Many Armenians were saved by Azerbaijani neighbors and friends, who had hid them in their homes from robbery, raids and other violence. 

“In spite of the propaganda from dashnak-communist groups creating an image of “wild and bloodthirsty Azerbaijanis”, Armenians exposed to violence from Armenians was saved by their Azerbaijani neighbors. These facts along with the materials of the criminal case were also included in the decisions of the Russian Federation’s special courts,” the senior investigator said.


OC Media
Feb 23 2018
‘Begging is also work’: street children in Armenia
Armine Avetisyan 


In the streets of Yerevan, children begging for money is not an uncommon sight. While parents can face time in prison for child neglect, many join their children in the streets, finding an income any way they can.

‘I will grow up and find a normal job’

Early every morning, 13-year-old native of Gyumri, Karen (not his real name), walks out of his house towards the city dump. Even though he goes with his mother, his face is too serious and too mature for his age. He does not attend school.

‘It’s been two years since I started working with my mother’, he says. ‘We go to the dump. Each of us has our own work area there. We join our group and start digging through the rubbish. We separate glass con­tain­ers, find useful clothes, and some furniture. Sometimes we find tinned food’, Karen says.

Karen has engaged in physical labour and begged for money from an early age. He says he was only six years old when he started helping his parents, by tearing labels off collected bottles. When he was a bit older, he went out to the street to offer his services wiping the windows of parked cars.

‘I asked ֏50 ($0.10) for cleaning windows. There were drivers who used my services. There were men who paid ֏50, which was as much as I wanted. And there were others who paid more. There were also many bad people who made me work and didn’t give me my money. They even cursed at me if I demanded to be paid for my work’, Karen remembers.

Talking about his time begging for money is difficult for Karen. Initially, he says he was ashamed, but then came up with a way to get around that feeling.

‘I have a large shirt with a hat attached to it. I wear it when I go out col­lect­ing money so that I can cover my face. This a temporary job, nobody should see what I’m doing now. I will grow up and find a normal job. Right now we don’t have enough money, so on weekdays I go to the dump and on the weekends I beg’, he says.

Karen mostly begs around churches. There is usually a wedding at at least on church per week, which he says earns him the most money.

‘I’m not the only one. There are some other boys with me, and also adults. You have to be resource­ful in this case, because the first one to approach a person giving money keeps it. Sometimes, not everybody gets money, so someone might try to take it from the rest of us, by either per­sua­sion or using force’, the boy says.

An underestimated problem?

Official sta­tis­tics appear to under­es­ti­mate the number of children working as beggars. According to the National Sta­tis­ti­cal Service, there were just 13 beggar and vagrant children reg­is­tered in 2016. Seven of them were in Yerevan and the rest from the regions.

The police are the main state agency working with vagrant and beggar children.

‘It’s very important that there an envi­ron­ment that is attentive to the needs of children. We must realise that we share respon­si­bil­i­ty for every child. For example, no children working as beggars were found in Vayots Dzor Province [in southeast Armenia]. There are rarely beggars to be found in the provinces of Lori and Shirak [in northern Armenia]’, Colonel Nelli Duryan, told OC Media .

Duryan is the head of the Depart­ment for the Pre­ven­tion of Juvenile Delin­quen­cy and Domestic Vio­la­tions at the General Depart­ment of Criminal Intel­li­gence. She says her depart­ment consults with parents of children who beg, and provide psy­cho­log­i­cal support. If the problem is not resolved, the parents can be found crim­i­nal­ly liable.

In 2015, a woman in Vanadzor was found guilty of having her 8-year-old son beg. She was sentenced to a year in prison, and her son was taken into care. ‘Many success stories’

The Orran Day Care Centre helps children living on the streets and those without proper parental care, working with both the state and other NGOs. The charity was founded in 2000, helping 16 children in its first year. Since then, the organ­i­sa­tion has helped hundreds of children. They now have centres in Yerevan and Vanadzor, with 105 children housed in the former and 118 in the latter.

‘We give them hot food, we deal with their health issues and psy­cho­log­i­cal problems, we do homework together, teach hand­i­crafts’, Susanna Manukyan, the Public Relations Manager of Orran tells OC Media .

The children are also provided with money for transport and par­tic­i­pate in clubs, she says. They host courses on carving and pottery, which teach the children a craft and help them to earn their living.

She adds that they are trying to give these children proper attention and care, even without offering financial assis­tance. According to Susanna Manukyan, they have helped many children: and about 500 have learned a trade and obtained stable jobs.

‘Of course, we can’t publicise personal infor­ma­tion, but we help to ensure that many children live a pros­per­ous life; one has his workshop already, another works in a factory, there are many success stories’, says Manukyan. ‘Begging is also work’

11-year-old Narek (not his real name) can often be found in the centre of Yerevan. He walks the streets as if he was selling things, but in reality he begs for money. Missing even a day of begging will result in the whole family going hungry.

‘I have pocket napkins with me and my hand-made drawings. I offer them to the passers-by. Both my mother and brother beg for money. We don’t walk together; we always walk apart, but not far from each other. My mother always keeps her eye on me’, Narek says. During his interview with OC Media, she always kept an eye on him.

They have worked out signals in case someone is trying to hurt or kidnap him. If police or other officials come to detain him, his mother approach­es them and tells them they are together.

Narek manages to collect about ֏2,000 ($4) per day, which they use to buy bread and some other food. The money his mother and brother earn is used to pay rent and for utilities.

‘There have been times when people came and offered to take me to a special care centre. They said the place was warm and had tasty food. But I didn’t go. Why should I? To sit idly and wait for a piece of bread? I earn money for my bread thank you’, says Narek. Не says that begging is also a job.


The Guardian
Reproductive rights (developing countries)
Women's rights and gender equality
‘We lose 1,400 girls a year. Who will our boys marry?’: Armenia's quandary
Suzanne Moore in Yerevan 

Sex selection may have been outlawed, but a shortage of women threatens the very survival of a country where boys are traditionally seen as an investment and girls as a loss

Sometimes it seems there are so many ways to destroy women that the methods become invisible to us. There are some women you will never see because they will never be born.

Amartya Sen talked of “missing women” in his famous 1990 essay because of technologies that enable prenatal sex selection.

Most people are aware this happens in China and India , but I am in Armenia, talking to a nervy woman in her early 30s. We are in the eastern region of Gavar, which is second only to China in the number of female foetuses that are aborted. Here, 120 boys are born for every 100 girls.

The woman, who has two young daughters, tells me her girls say: “Let’s go to church to light a candle to get a little brother.” They want a boy, she wants a boy, her husband wants a boy. This is why she has had nine or 10 abortions – she is not sure exactly, and is vague about a “vascular condition”, given as a reason to terminate the pregnancies.

She droops slightly when asked for more detail. “If I get pregnant again and it’s a girl …” She trails off. She is not sure what she will do. She has heard of doctors in the capital, Yerevan, who could help her. Sex selection, for that is what we are talking about, became illegal in Armenia in 2016.

The woman says that if she gets rid of the next baby, she will not be sad. “My husband will be sad. He accuses me of eliminating all these children.” He is away for more than half the year working in Russia, as many Armenians are. “But,” she says defiantly, “in some years my girls will leave. I will be all by myself.” 

This is one part of what propels prenatal sex selection – a need to ensure the family lineage, and the belief that boys will provide in old age. Girls grow up, marry and leave. They move in with the husband’s family. Boys are an investment. Girls are a loss. This I hear repeated over and over again. It is hard to reconcile with the modern women – doctors, journalists and politicians – who are everywhere in Yerevan. Some of the biggest pressures on women to have sons come from other women: mothers–in–law.

Dr Hrachya Khalafyan, who runs the Sevan medical centre in Yerevan, was shocked when he first heard about Armenia’s sex imbalance. “We all were,” says Sevan, who instructs his staff that there can be no terminations on these grounds.

If the trends are not reversed, Armenia will have lost almost 93,000 women by 2060

Where once they used to have seven or eight children, women in Armenia today give birth just once , on average. In the past, if the last child was a girl, she might be called the Armenian word for “Enough”, as if no one could be bothered to name her. Doctors now encourage women to celebrate carrying a girl, yet I hear the stories of what happens in “other places” where women are not allowed to be told the sex of their child at the 12-week scan. There are ways to find out, apparently, such as the pocket in which the doctor puts their pen – left for a girl, right for a boy.

Armenia really needs its missing women. “We lose 1,400 girls a year. In the long term who will our boys marry? How will we consolidate the Armenian nation? We are only 3 million people. We have no right to such losses. There will be no mothers to give birth to girls,” says Khalafyan.

The sex imbalance

“Son preference” is a euphemism, maybe, but a necessary one. Sex selective abortion has been steadily growing across the Caucuses and Asia (Armenia has the third highest rate in the world, behind China and Azerbaijan) and it will continue to happen as fertility levels drop. When green campaigners talk of population growth being the world’s biggest problem, they need also to factor in gender. When people have fewer children, they want boys.

Data collected in Armenia in 2010 started to bring home the sex imbalance: there were 115-120 boys being born for every 100 girls. Anecdotally, people talked of school dances in which boys were forced to dance with one another as there were so few girls.

In 2011, the UN population fund began its advocacy work around sex selection, and in 2017 it launched a global programme to prevent gender-biased sex selection. After initial resistance, the Armenian government backs the UNFPA campaign. The country is already seeing results. In 2014, the ratio was 114 boys for 100 girls; last year, the figure stood at 110 boys for every 100 girls.
Sunday Mass at the Etchmiadzin cathedral
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sunday mass at the Etchmiadzin cathedral, the mother church of the Armenian Apostolic church and a holy pilgrimage site for Armenians

Efforts by the UNFPA and humanitarian agencies such as Save the Children are proving successful because they look at the specific conditions that lead to pre-natal sex selection: contraception, emigration, men as the key breadwinners, inheritance, family lineage and conflict.

Conflict was an issue raised by the headteacher of a school in Gavar, where the classes have more boys than girls. Araxia Verdanyan says the impact of the war hangs over its people. Armenia is at war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. “Our soldiers are killed on a daily basis. We need girls to reproduce. We need boys to defend the border,” she says. Here a boy child is always another soldier.

Ministers explain the political strategy to raise the profile of girls. Contraception and health are promoted as priorities. All key professionals are trained in giving a positive message about girls. And a woman has three days to change her mind after she has requested an abortion at 12 weeks.
Varduhi Vardumyan from Tavush region, with her three day-old daughter at Republican Maternity Hospital in Yerevan
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Varduhi Vardumyan from Tavush region, with her three day-old baby at Republican maternity hospital in Yerevan. The child, as yet unnamed, is her second daughter

I go to a puppet show, Ne’s Journey, performed by the Armenian Center of International Union of Puppeteers, in a high school where national folk tales are given a twist. It is the girl’s wisdom that saves the day. Girls defeat the demons and save themselves, too. The charismatic puppet master, Armen Safaryan, tells his young audience: “God decides whether we are girls or boys. Respect and love are contagious. I speak from travel and experience, and I treat men and women as the same. We are just beginning and we need our girls. We must end this murder.”

‘The word is your weapon’

Some of the most impressive work I see being done is in a seminary, by an amazing psychologist called Inga Harutyunyan. In a classroom in the Gevorkian seminary in Vagharshapat, in the complex of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, eager young priests are trained. These are highly educated young men.

Harutyunyan has established a relationship with the church. Privately, she tells me about ancient Armenian matriarchies and goddesses. But the key is in the way she talks to the priests. “You are clergymen,” she tells them. “The word is your weapon,” and then she gives them texts from the Bible that emphasise respect for women.

Inga Harutyunyan leads a psychology class in the town of Vagharshapat
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Inga Harutyunyan leads a psychology class in the town of Vagharshapat, where she teaches priests how to communicate with families about the value of girls

Getting the church on side, along with the government and civil society is quite something. This is the strategy in Armenia: to work with everyone; not to alienate any group, but to promote the value of girls and women right across the culture. And it’s working.

Vahan Asatryan of the International Center for Human Development thinktank
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vahan Asatryan, of the International Centre for Human Development, says fertility rates are the key issue

“We are not ‘girl averse’, as they are in India,” says Vahan Asatryan, a researcher at the International Centre for Human Development. He suggests the answer to ending sex selection lies in looking at the issue in specific contexts. How it works in Nepal, for instance, is different from what’s happening in Vietnam.

He talks about fertility rates as the big issue. Everyone stresses this is about not being for or against abortion. Abortion, he repeats, is simply the mechanism by which sex selection happens. The right to abortion is an achievement of civilisation. Armenia allows termination up to 12 weeks without restrictions.

The introduction of ultrasound in the mid-90s has exacerbated sex selection across all the former Soviet republics, however.

The key to change is situating this debate at the very heart of Armenian society, to ensure the survival of the nation.

If the trends are not reversed, Armenia will have lost almost 93,000 women by 2060. That’s an awful lot of potential mothers. Everyone talks of extending choice and opportunity for women. Interestingly, “no one is blamed for what is happening … Everyone is part of the solution,” says Asatryan.

“We can’t change gender stereotypes in two years, but we can look at the data. We can talk about human rights.”
Hasmik Margaryan with her daughter Vika, born four days earlier, at the maternity ward in Sevan
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hasmik Margaryan with her daughter Vika, born four days earlier, at the maternity ward in Sevan

At a conference to advance gender equality and combat prenatal sex selection in Tsaghkadzor, a ski resort, community workers, activists and doctors from across the country share their experiences. Many men blame women for the sex of their own children, not realising that the Y chromosome responsible for the male sex is transferred from the man’s genome.

I have coffee with Margaret, a young women who works with children with disabilities. She believes everyone has a right to life.

She loves all children, she explains. She tells the women she works with: “You know when you want your husband to buy you an expensive handbag and you persuade him to? Well surely you can do that with a baby? Talk to him, tell him you want to have a girl. Persuade him. Tell him you want her to live.”

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