Armenia’s ex-file

This is perhaps my most pessimistic post to date. Brief and hopeless. Hopeless at least re near future prospects for Armenia.

In Minsk, Armenia’s ruling regime effectively conceded what remained of country’s independence to Russia, by formally signing the agreement of accession to the Eurasian Union, and turning Armenia into Russian province.

In the meantime, on the same day, there was this relatively big opposition rally in capital Yerevan, Liberty square. Ironically, some foreign twitter observers and media wrongly labelled it as anti-Eurasian Union accession protest. This assumption could not be more wrong. In fact, leaders of 2 out of 3 parties that called the rally, did everything possible to silence and discourage within their ranks any sizeable movement against Putin sponsored union, with ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan repeatedly using ‘realistic’, fatalistic language, such as “irreversible” and so on for that very purpose.

Instead, ex-president Ter-Petrosyan effectively joined forces with another ex-president Robert Kocharyan, who is behind oligarch Tsarukyan-led Bargavach Hayastan (“Prosperous Armenia”) party, calling for… regime change. To remind, Kocharyan’s years in power remembered for arguably the worst human rights violations in Armenia’s modern history, culminated in 1st March 2008 bloodshed. Not to mention Ter-Petrosyan’s own dubious human rights credentials towards the end of his reign.

What happened on Friday in Yerevan and Minsk was pretty disheartening on different levels, with no light at the end of the tunnel, as long as Putin is in power in Russia, and as long as Armenia’s political scene is occupied by faces from the past. For now, it’s all about the ex-file: backwards to the ex-country and ex-leaders.


[read also: How Armenia ruling regime and Putin’s Russia fooled the EU over Association Agreement and #PUTinOUT - protesters in Armenia say “Putin, you are not welcome”, denounce ruling regime]

Picture of the Day: marching priests (Armenia Independence Day)

This is by far THE Picture of the Day for me. This is unlike anything you may ever seen. Hilarious is an understatement here. This picture shows so many things on so many levels... If only we had Armenian Almodovar, this would become a masterpiece...

*source of picture: PanARMENIAN Photo / Tigran Mehrabyan

Armenians in London mark Independence Day

One of my favourite dates in Armenian calendar – Independence Day on 21st. We’ve already celebrated it in London on 20th September. There was Independence Day concert organised at St Eghiche Armenian church, attended by members of community and Armenian ambassador. I particularly loved pianist and organist A. Bobikian. But the most hilarious was British consort/choir (conductor Crispin Lewis) singing Armenian songs in Armenian, including Hayi Achqer and Yerevan-Erebuni. They did great job.

Programme was divided into several interconnected parts: Early Christian Era; Medieval Era; Oriental Period; Diaspora; and Independent and Peaceful Future. Each part was accompanied by relevant photo slides. This worked nice, although not without technical glitches.

Funnily enough, ambassador Vahe Gabrielyan delivered his speech before Medieval Era part, as assigned by the programme. One would have hoped that Independent and Peaceful future would be a more appropriate time slot for the ambassador.

Happy Independence Day!!!

A. Bobikian, pianist and organist, and British consort/choir (conductor Crispin Lewis)

Participants on stage

Karabakh elects Ombudsman

I think this is one of the most important news of the day which did not get enough attention in Armenian media.

Developing democracy and creating necessary institutions within the state structures to protect human rights is very positive step forward, indeed. KarabakhOpen describes newly elected Ombudsman Yuri Hairapetyan as “an experienced lawyer who has been the chair of the Committee of State and Legal Affairs [in the Karabakh parliament] for two terms.”

By electing Ombudsman – human rights defender, Karabakh made yet another important step in terms of institutional changes towards establishing democracy. It is for utmost importance for Karabakh citizens. This will also provide additional strength for Karabakh’s case for independence internationally.

Recent examples from Armenia prove that despite being nominated by the head of state - and my initial lack of trust (with remaining reservations) – Armenian Ombudsman, apart from opposition Heritage party MPs, remained the only state figure to be able to provide at least some kind of basic human rights interventions during the state of emergency.

KarabakhOpen reports:

Today’s meeting of the parliament of Karabakh will probably be remembered as the parliament which elected the human rights defender. Through secret ballot the only candidate was elected – the chair of the NKR National Assembly Committee for State and Legal Affairs Yuri Hairapetyan. Speaker Ashot Ghulyan said this candidature was agreed to by all the factions.

In his speech Yuri Hairapetyan thanked his colleagues for confidence and informed that he has over 30 years of experience as a lawyer.

The law on the human rights defender was passed several years ago, and in May 2005 the office of the human rights defender should have been set up. However, the issue was put off, either for the lack of a suitable candidate or for other reasons, until the provision on the human rights defender was set down in the Constitution in December 2006. Afterwards a presidential election was held, and only now the parliament decided to elect an ombudsman.

*photo - via KarabakhOpen

“Union with Russia”? What’s the F* is going on?

I could hardly resist myself for not using the ‘F’ word in full. Was pretty pissed off (vulgar slang, I know, but pretty routine in Britain) this morning after read the news on a ‘proposal’ by Russian Duma’s Vice Speaker that “Russia and Armenia should form a union state”.

And when Ani made her comment under the different post, and then 2 more comments followed (including mine), I thought this warrant a special post.

Below I copy our relevant discussion so far. If anyone wants to contribute, please use the comments section below.

Re commenting on Unzipped: Dear readers, as a reminder, all comments are currently under moderation, which means they will appear here only after the approval by the administrator of this blog (and it may take time). As there is no possibility on a Blogger platform to edit comments during the moderation (either ‘publish’ or ‘reject’ options) please follow the norms of civilised discussions, as comments containing hateful remarks and inappropriate wordings will not be accepted even if otherwise have valuable input. I know, sometimes it is difficult to contain our outrage and disagreement (see above) within the civilised limits, but that’s the only way forward. Thank you for your understanding. I value your input very much!

Back to the topic:

Ani said...
As to Nazarian's comment (go where, Armenia?), this article on PanArmenian.net today gives pause as to just what Sargsyan promised when he was in Moscow:"RF Duma Vice Speaker: Russia, Armenia should form union state""Russia and Armenia should form a union state, said Vice Speaker of the Russian State Duma. If formation of a union with Belarus has slowed down, Russia should take up another direction. We should unite with Armenia, for example, or with any other friendly state,” said Lyubov Sliska, Duma Vice Speaker and member of United Russia faction, Regions.ru reports."
03 April 2008 19:46

artmika said...
Ani, although it's off-topic but very important - the only fact that the idea of a "union state" with Russia has been voiced on such a high level is very worrying, indeed. I felt disgusted when read about it this morning. First - economy, then - everything else... I really worry that if current direction continues Armenia's existence as independent state will be at stake (if not already)...
03 April 2008 21:15

Anonymous said...
artmika, with Russia controlling all of the strategic sectors of our economy (railways, construction, telecommunications, the Iran-Armenia pipeline, a great number of our natural resources factories and the list sadly goes on), we are effectively nothing more than a Russian province, and a backwards one at that. We are NOT an independent country; all our policy decisions are based on what Russia says we should do. I shudder to think what would happen if Armenia dared to contradict Russia...For everyone making baseless accusations about LTP selling off national assets to foreigners when he was president or planning to do so if he comes back, this is what selling off looks like. sorry to get off topic...
04 April 2008 00:07

Happy Independence Day!

21 September 1991,

national referendum

I knew that it was basically 'given' in a sense that Soviet Union was in its last breath, but I proudly went to my local polling station and voted Yes to Independence!

...after more than 70 years of sovietization, Independence was restored to the Republic of Armenia

*source of picture - armtv.com