Armenian News... A Topalian 8 editorials
Armenpress.am
11 September, 2019
Azerbaijan opens cross-border gunfire at Armenia and Artsakh in 43 ceasefire breaches in two days
The Azerbaijani military violated the ceasefire regime 43 times at the Armenia border and Artsakh Line of Contact in the past two days, head of communications at the Armenian military’s General Staff Administrative Apparatus Samvel Asatryan told ARMENPRESS.
He said Azerbaijani armed forces opened cross-border gunfire from small arms, including Istiglal, PK and SVD weapons, at Armenian military positions near Aygepar, Barekamavan (Tavush), Yeraskhavan, Paruyr Sevak, Zangakatun (Ararat), Areni, Chiva (Vayots Dzor), and Vahan (Gegharkunik). Azerbaijan breached the ceasefire at the Armenia border 23 times September 9-11.
At the Artsakh Line of Contact, the Azerbaijani military breached the ceasefire 20 times and opened gunfire at military positions of the Martakert, Martuni, Askeran and Hadrut regions.
“The Armenian Armed Forces are confidently controlling the border situation at the entire length of the border, are strictly adhering to the ceasefire regime and are taking actions adequate to the situation only in case of the adversary’s targeted violations”.
Asatryan did not report injuries.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
RFE/RL Report
Gyumri Residents Rattled By Earthquake
September 11, 2019
Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Residents of Gyumri ran into the streets and stayed there for hours after a 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Armenia late on Tuesday.
According to the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations, the epicenter of the earthquake was about 50 kilometers north of Gyumri, on the border with Georgia. The tremors were felt not only in the surrounding Shirak province but also other parts of Armenia, including Yerevan.
The ministry’s National Seismic Defense Service also registered two less powerful quakes and more than 30 aftershocks overnight. No injuries or serious damage were reported as a result.
In Ashotsk, a small town 25 kilometers from the epicenter, the tremors caused plaster to partly come off the façade of a local school. Authorities there cancelled school classes for two days because of that.
Karen Mkhitarian, head of the regional branch of National Seismic Defense
Service, said on Wednesday that the quake also led to an upsurge in phone calls
by local residents which overwhelmed wireless networks. “We did not manage to
quickly contact the ministry or our supervisors [in Yerevan,] because of that,”
Mkhitarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
In Gyumri, there was panic among residents of apartment blocks and, in particular, Soviet-era buildings that were damaged by a 1988 earthquake which killed 25,000 people and devastated much of the country’s second largest city. Scores of them rushed out of their homes and spent hours in the streets, fearing more powerful aftershocks.
“Everyone was on the street with their kids,” said one Gyumri resident.
News.am, Armenia
Sept 12 2019
Government approves bill: Smoking in indoor places banned in Armenia
The government today approved a draft law on the reduction and prevention of health damage due to the use of tobacco products and their substitutes.
It would ban smoking in indoor places. Certain restrictions are also envisaged in public transport, children's playgrounds, health, cultural, educational institutions, as well as restrictions on the sale and promotion of cigarettes and promotion of tobacco products and advertising.
Health Minister Arsen Torosyan, speaking at a government meeting, recalled the negative impact smoking has on people's health. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in turn, said 80 percent of government members and 100 percent of governors do not smoke, which is an important indicator. The prime minister also admitted that he smoked until 2004, after which he gave up smoking.
Tobacco use in Armenia and its high morbidity and mortality rates create serious health, social and economic problems.
Armenia is characterized as a country with a high burden of non-communicable diseases.
About 55,000 new cases of cardiovascular disease are reported each year in our country, one of the main causes of which is smoking. The introduction of the anti-tobacco policy package will save thousands (7,000) lives over 15 years, improve the health of the population as thousands of cases of ischemic heart disease, stroke and heart disease are prevented.
Sept 12 2019
Long-awaited trial of Armenian ex-president begins in Yerevan
Ani Mejlumyan
Robert Kocharyan was challenged by victims’ families, but said the proceedings would go down in textbooks as the worst trial in Armenian history.
The long-awaited trial of former president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan for his role in the violent breakup of protests in 2008 has begun, with both Kocharyan and relatives of the victims testifying in court.
In a packed courtroom with dozens of spectators and twenty police officers watching over the proceedings, Kocharyan sat in the front row, just feet away from people who blame him for the deaths of their loved ones.
Sargis Qloyan, the father of one of the victims, in his testimony directly addressed Kocharyan, asking him why there was no proper investigation into the events and why no one was arrested. “You are a man, go and serve the full punishment as a man,” Qloyan told the ex-president. The spectators, divided between Kocharyan supporters and opponents, erupted in boos and cheers, respectively.
Kocharyan, for his part, dismissed the entire September 12 proceeding as a politicized vendetta.
“This is the most shameful criminal case in the history of the Republic of Armenia,” he told the judge. “One day it will be documented in schoolbooks and I have no doubt who the anti-hero will be.”
The events of March 1-2, 2008, were one the darkest periods in Armenia’s recent history. Demonstrators gathered in Yerevan to protest elections that they believed were stolen by Kocharyan, then the president, and his ally Serzh Sargsyan, who had just won the vote. Police and military units broke up the protests violently; two policemen and eight protesters were killed.
One of the leaders of the protests was Nikol Pashinyan, then a journalist and opposition politician, who spent nearly two years in prison as a result. But after Pashinyan led protests that toppled Sargsyan’s government last year, and then himself became prime minister, he has placed a priority on punishing the perpetrators.
In court with Kocharyan were several other former top officials who also have been accused in the case: Seyran Ohanyan, the former defense minister; Armen Gevorgyan, the former secretary of the National Security Council; and Yuri Khachaturov, the chief of the Yerevan military garrison during the crackdown.
But all the attention was on Kocharyan, who appeared relaxed in court, wearing a blue suit with no tie and on occasion turning back to smile at the spectators in the courtroom.
Most of the proceedings on the first day of the trial were procedural, dealing with a motion by the defense to release Kocharyan because, as the head of state, he enjoyed immunity from prosecution. The judge said a ruling on that motion would be issued September 17.
The case against Kocharyan has been a touchstone for the struggle between Pashinyan and the judicial system, which is staffed by judges inherited from the former regime and which the current authorities believe remain loyal to them.
The ex-president was first arrested in July 2018, after flying himself from Russia to be questioned as part of the then-new government’s investigation into the March 2008 events. He has since been on a legal odyssey, in and out of jail three times.
In May, after a court ordered Kocharyan to be released, Pashinyan called on his supporters to rally and block the entrances of court buildings, leading many to accuse the prime minister of the same kind of political interference of which his predecessors were guilty.
But the next month, an appeals court ordered that he be arrested again and the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest judicial body, said that it would consider a request from Kocharyan’s legal team to examine whether the charges against him were constitutional. On September 4, that court ruled that Kocharyan’s arrest was unconstitutional, but he remained in jail.
Throughout, Russia has regularly signaled its disapproval of the process. Last summer, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the proceedings against Kocharyan “can not not concern us.” And Russian President Vladimir Putin has twice pointedly sent warm, public birthday greetings to his embattled former counterpart, most recently less than two weeks before the trial started.
Outside the courtroom, the scene was chaotic, as more supporters and opponents gathered with megaphones, and music. Kocharyan opponents carried signs reading “Life Sentence for Rob,” and depicting him in a Turkish fez with a hammer and sickle.
“I was a participant in those events [of 2008] and brutally beaten by police,” one, Arus Hovhannisyan, told Eurasianet.
Another, Henrik Hartanyan, said he believed the courts were biased in favor of the former authorities. “This has been going on for too long,” he said. “I can’t talk about my expectations, since no one trusts the courts.”
The Kocharyan supporters had signs reading “Freedom” and depicting Pashinyan with an exaggerated paunch, gorging on hot dogs. “We want justice for Kocharyan,” said one, Mikael Aghajanyan, who said he was confident the former president would be released. “None of these charges have any basis, if they had any proof he would have been in prison a long time ago.”
Following the hearing there was a clash between the two sides; witnesses said that some of the Kocharyan supporters attacked the opponents. Several were taken to the police station and one man was taken to the hospital.
Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.
Armenpress.am
12 September, 2019
Record number expected in road-construction amid massive restoration works
The Government of Armenia is planning to renovate more than 330km of roads in 2019, Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Suren Papikyan said at the September 12 Cabinet meeting.
“Currently the work is underway on renovating 307km of roads, another 70km is completed. In addition we have works in Yerevan which we haven’t spoken about. Works that are implemented also as part of subvention programs,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan added that the government will over-perform this year’s program and certain programs projected for 2020 will be included in the 2019 program. “Our plan by 2023 is that there will be a minimum of 2500km of inter-state and republican roads where renovation, reconstruction and medium restoration works will be done. This doesn’t include the North-South road section. This year we will have a record number in the road construction sector,” Avinyan said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that this means that nearly 500km of road restoration must be planned for 2020. “We are announcing this so that many of our countrymen who are engaged in these kind of works in Russia, Kazakhstan and are skilled in modern technologies to participate in the tenders. Therefore we must guarantee that the tenders will be won only by the kind of companies who are technically capable to deliver the work in time and quality,” the PM said.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Panorama, Armenia
Sept 13 2019
Number of homeless people grows in Armenia
As of September 2019, around 100 people live in the homeless shelter of the Armenian-Danish Kofoed Charitable Foundation, Director at the Foundation Shavarsh Khachatryan told Panorama.am. In his words, the number of people asking for shelter will grow in September as the cold season approaches. Homeless people aged 18-65 with a disability are accommodated at care centers through the assistance of the Foundation, while elderly aged above 65 - at elderly care homes. The number of homeless people has grown over the past years which is conditioned with poor social conditions and low wages of the people, Khachatryan said.
“In the most typical situation people are unable to take care of their family, sell their houses and leave the country to find a better life abroad. After a refused citizenship they are back in the country where they face the problem of housing,” Khachatryan said.
Since 2014, the homeless shelter has operated through co-founding by state means. The state pays salaries of 28-member staff at the shelter, 2 meal times daily and utility fees, while the Danish charity foundation cares for clothes, the property and the equipment. Since 2018, the state allocations were curtailed and the Foundation itself reduced the funding as the agreement had been violated.
“Today, the Yerevan Municipality is our partner and provides assistance since most of the homeless are from Yerevan,” said the director, pointing to the necessity to open similar shelters in Gyumri and Vanadzor with already high number of homeless in those cities as well.
The center accommodates only people aged 18 and above and no families. Residents may stay in the shelter up to three months, yet in certain cases they may live longer and return after some time. In Khachatryan’s words their primary mission is to get them back to families, reconcile with relatives, integrate into the society, help them through finding a job and renting an apartment.
The Facebook page of the foundation shared a story a day ago how the representatives of “Armenian Santa Claus” charity foundation visited Svetlana Ivanovna, one of the residents at the shelter. The elderly women recalled stories of her youth, memories with lost family members and relatives.. “When the visitors were about to live, she looked at them with a bright smile, asking – Will you come again?” “Find a time and visit Svetlana Ivanovna and other residents at the shelter, it is important,” the post said.
AHVAL News
Sept 13 2019
Jews, Armenians are focus of hate speech in Turkish media - stud
Jews and Armenians are the two most frequent targets of hate speech in Turkish media in 2018, according to a study by the Hrant Dink Foundation.
The report found 4,839 editorials and news reports targeting national, ethnic and religious groups, with 6,517 hate speech content against 98 different groups.
Jews and Armenians were followed by Syrians, Greeks and Christians, according to the report.
There was a correlation between an increase in the use of hate speech and social controversial events like the opening of a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, commemoration of the Armenian genocide on Apr. 24, as well as the diplomatic row between Turkey and the United States over the imprisonment of Pastor Andrew Brunson.
Jewish society was depicted as hostile and "secret power" in conspiracy theories targeting Turkey and Jewish identity, in general, was held responsible for the actions of the Israeli state, Israel or the Israeli army, the study said.
Moreover, Jewishness was used as an _expression_ of insult and Armenians in the country were targeted through relating them to an Armenian armed group ASALA (Armée Secrète Arménienne de la Libération de l’Arménie) which killed 42 Turkish diplomats in various capitals between 1975 and 1987.
Pro-government and nationalist publications, such as Yeni Akit, Milli Gazete, Yeni Mesaj, Yeni Çağ and Diriliş Postası, used the most intense hate speech, the report found.
The report also shed light on Turkish media’s reports on 3.6 million registered Syrians living in Turkey.
Syrian refugees were regularly blamed in the media for many of Turkey's long list of current problems. The report said that Syrian refugees were systematically related to criminal acts such as murder, theft and harassment while they were also blamed for security problems, terrorism, the economic crisis and unemployment.
Besides, Turkish media overall painted Syrian refugees as a threat to the country's demography and some reports specifically attacked Syrian women, labelling them as a threat to the unity of the family.
ARKA, Armenia
Sept 13 2019
Armenia to open embassy in Israel
Armenia to open embassy in Israel
YEREVAN, September 13. /ARKA/. Armenia will open an embassy in Israel, Anna Naghdalyan, press secretary for the Armenian Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Friday.
"We see good foundations for developing dialogue and relations with Israel. There is a bilateral willingness to take steps to use the existing potential," she said.
She said over the past year there has been a fairly active dialogue between Armenian and Israeli foreign ministries.
"By opening a diplomatic mission in Israel, we are once again affirming ourselves in the region where we have our priorities. Steps are being taken and there are dialogue and bilateral obligations," Naghdalyan said.
Unseen Armenia: A New Home for Cilicia, the Armenian Ship
Armenia
BY HOVSEP DAGHDIGIAN
Karen Balayan, born and raised in landlocked Armenia, is a sea captain. He looks the part, and speaks clearly with a calm, assuring voice; all I presume an asset for one who commands a ship and its crew. But besides this, he is a historian and a naval architect. He also may be considered an experimental archaeologist.
Experimental archaeologists study the past, striving to replicate the past by living, working, and building as they believe people did long ago. Doing this allows them to verify theories about the past and gain insight about how people lived and thought, and the difficulties they encountered.
Karen (pronounced “Garen” in Western Armenian) was trained as an engineer, but had an interest in the sea — initially building model boats and exhibiting them at shows and competitions. His main interest was less in winning awards than introducing Armenian boats to the rest of the world.
On Armenia’s Lake Sevan he learned to sail small sailboats, later building larger 29-foot sprit-rigged sailboats and promoting sailing among enthusiastic young Armenians. All the while he researched Armenian nautical history and architecture. Balayan studied ancient boats uncovered at Lchashen on Lake Sevan as well as boats of other nations, but his main focus was on merchant ships of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (12th c to 14th c) in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. This area is currently in Turkey and Syria. In 1985 Karen Balayan and friends founded the Ayas Nautical Research Club (www.ayas.am), with an office in Yerevan currently filled with nautical memorabilia.
This was followed by six years of extensive research on Armenian nautical history, shipbuilding, and navigation techniques at Armenia’s Madenataran — an ancient manuscript repository — as well as at archives and museums in Amsterdam, Venice, Genoa, Marseille, Portugal and other ports that documented their medieval trade with Armenian merchants. Many of the traded goods were from Armenia, including Artsakh, while other goods arrived at Armenian Cilician ports from Asia via caravans over the Silk Road. Cargos were then delivered over sea routes by Armenian merchants. In the 13th century, shipbuilding skills were passed down from father to son or to apprentices. Now these skills had to be rediscovered. While there was information on the shape and size of Armenian merchant ships, there was little information about their interiors. But as Balayan pointed out, the ships were designed to hold cargo, not for crew comfort. Sailors probably slept on top of the cargo. Balayan and his colleagues had to not only reinvent 13th century shipbuilding craft, but had to determine what tools and materials were used, and what instruments were used by 13th century Armenian mariners, as well.
In ancient times pine, oak, and cedar were used. This time oak was procured for major structural elements such as the ship’s skeleton, while pine planks were used for decks and for cladding the hull. Cedar is no longer available due to its scarcity and high cost. To construct the keel of the 65-foot long ship, an oak tree with a trunk and root of the same shape as the keel was cut to fabricate a strong, single-piece keel. Navigation was by maps using astrolabes, a medieval instrument predating sextants. According to Balayan, this allowed determination of both latitude and longitude though it required about a half hour of calculation to determine the ship’s position. But, since astrolabes from around the 13th century are extremely rare, he borrowed five of them from museums and collectors. After carefully disassembling them and copying their parts, accurate replicas were constructed.
To learn seamanship, Balayan traveled to Georgia where he enrolled in school, receiving his ship captain’s license. Just as there were no experienced 13th century ship builders to learn from, there were also no old salts left to teach sailing a 13th century ship. So, the Cilicia’s crew spent two years learning to sail the ship on Lake Sevan. Finally, they gingerly towed the ship on a specially built trailer through the mountains of Armenia and Georgia to the Black Sea, setting sail under an Armenian flag.
Initial financing for this project was from friends. Later, when success appeared on the horizon, other donors came forth to help. The ship had little modern equipment except those items required by maritime law — a small engine and a radio.
In 2004, flying an Armenian flag and starting from the Black Sea with a crew of 12, the Cilicia ship visited the ports that a 13th century Armenian merchant ship would have visited, including the Armenian Cilician ports of Ayas, Korikos, and Alexendretta (in current day Turkey), then Syria and Lebanon, as well as other ports on the Mediterranean. Later, it was on to Europe and Russia. They did not sail during the winter months. Turkey offered no impediment to visiting ports. Off the coast of Syria, a coast guard ship quietly approached during the nighttime darkness then lit its searchlights. The Syrians were cautioned to take care that this was a fragile wooden ship and to avoid potentially damaging contact with their metal ship. Two Syrian officers boarded the ship. Only the Syrian captain spoke English (the international maritime language). They toured the ship and were quite impressed. In Greece, the Cilicia ship was put into port after surviving a severe storm resulting in damage to the ship’s rudders. Greek officials were impressed that the ship survived the storm and was able to make it to port — a testimony to the seamanship of the Armenian crew and the seaworthiness of the ship.
During three years the Cilicia traveled 15,000 nautical miles. After visiting European ports and Russia, it sailed down Russian rivers entering the Black Sea. The ship was then transported back to Armenia’s Lake Sevan, having visited 25 countries and 63 ports.
The ship is currently out of the water, at home in Armenia’s Port Ayas, near the Artinash peninsula on the coast of Lake Sevan. It needs some repairs due to exposure to the hot sun. As Balayan stated, if the ship stayed in the water, it would not last more than 10 to 20 years. Current plans include the construction of a new home for the ship — a maritime museum in Yerevan near Yerevan Lake where the ship together with Armenian maritime history will be on display. Classes in sailing as well as other activities will be offered. The museum is planned to have a controlled environment, which will help preserve the ship and minimize maintenance. The ship will be visible from outside the museum, hopefully attracting visitors. The establishment of a new museum featuring the Cilicia, as well as other aspects of Armenian nautical history, will be a major addition to Armenia’s cultural and historical attractions. It will encourage further interest in the largely unknown field of Armenian nautical history.
A number of non-Armenians who visited the Cilicia during its journey have offered support, as has the city of Yerevan. Land has been designated for the museum’s construction though this process has not yet been finalized. Positive discussions have been held with relevant Armenian ministries and with Yerevan authorities. There is a sponsor for funding this project, though it is unclear if this will cover the complete cost of the museum.
There is a great deal of information about the Cilicia ship online, including videos. Simply search for “Cilicia Armenian Ship.”
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