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 Some pleasant news today about controversional charges being officially dropped against youth activist Mariam Sukhudyan on Thursday.
Sukhudyan is a respected activist for issues related to environment protection and civil awareness. She is a leader of the SOS Teghut environmental protection initiative and has also worked with the socially vulnerable, notably children who are disabled.
After exposing a teacher who was allegedly involved in sexually molesting children at a school in Nubarashen where she was volunteering, she was formally charged with slander and was even facing jail time. The teacher had been under investigation based on her accusations but the charges were subsequently dropped. Ironically enough, the case against him has just been reopened.
It is obvious that the Armenian law enforcement authorities could not afford to look hypocritical and foolish any longer in this case. There’s no reason why it was opened in the first place, other than to teach her some sort of inexplicable lesson. In a normally functioning society you don’t charge someone of wrongdoing for exposing another who is strongly suspected of being involved in dirty deeds.
Sukhudyan was cleared only a day after she had been awarded by US Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch for her activism efforts. The ambassador praised her for demonstrating “exceptional courage, innovation, and leadership in the pursuit of equality, opportunity, and justice.”
During the subsequent interview Sukhudyan said, “I’m a little ashamed of receiving this prize because in other countries [civic activism] is a normal thing. People do it instinctively, not out of patriotism or because they have some supernatural abilities. I’m also a little ashamed that I will receive it not from my country but a foreign government.”
That statement alone shows just how valiant and selfless this woman is.
Hetq has been following her case for several months now. You can read detailed information about her plight here and also here.
Photo courtesy of RFE/RL.
 UPDATED–Well, history is repeating itself–the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee once again voted to condemn the Armenian Genocide on Thursday, and the Turks are unsurprisingly furious. The last time this happened was 2007, but the measure never reached the House floor for obvious reasons.
The New York Times quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying “We condemn this bill that denounces the Turkish nation of a crime that it has not committed.” And he recalled the Ambassador to the US, Namik Tan.
The question now is whether the resolution will reach the House floor anytime soon. That’s not clear as of yet, but it might very well happen. And the bill could very well pass this time around. Legislators are getting fed up with Turkey’s repeated denials, and it’s becoming more difficult for them to speak out against Armenian Genocide recognition, especially with all the publicity–60 Minutes just did a piece on the Genocide. Congressmen can’t afford to look like hypocrites in front of their constituents on this issue. People know more and more about history these days, and they’re going to expect their congressman to understand and accept historical facts.
People are probably wondering whether President Barack Obama will actually say the “G-word” this year. It could happen. Some believe that Washington may be trying to pressure Turkey to move forward with the protocols by properly recognizing the Armenian Genocide. After that happens, Turkey is likely to fess up and go through with opening the border, despite its reservations.
I doubt that Turkish officials want to look like absolute hypocrites by walking away from the protocols at this point. The protocols are already up for discussion in the Armenian parliament. They already look bad by demanding that a resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict be resolved first before the shared border with Armenia is opened. Naturally the international community (with the exception of Azerbaijan, of course) thinks that doesn’t make much sense. Then again, Ankara is too proud to let anyone boss them around, including Washington. Nevertheless, in the end Ankara can’t do much about Genocide resolutions and condemnations. The Genocide has been recognized by national legislative bodies around the world, and that’s not about to stop. Sweden is also about to bring up the topic for discussion in parliament soon.
Even if the House ends up passing a resolution accepting the Genocide, Turkey won’t be able to do anything about it because it needs America too much militarily and financially. In 2009, Turkey spent $7 billion on military equipment that it bought from the US aerospace and defense industry. It has already invested heavily in the $300 billion F-35 fighter program and intends to buy several planes. Turkey also needs the US for bailouts as has been the case time and time again whenever its currency is heavily devalued because of financial blunders. At the start of the decade 1 million Turkish lira equaled one dollar at one point, and the US was there to pick up the pieces of a shattered economy.
So will Turkey sever relations with the US and go gun shopping elsewhere? No way. Europe is not about to sell them weapons and is weary about accepting Turkey into the European Union. Israel could accommodate Turkey with arms purchases but their relations have been rocky lately. Not everyone in the world community is happy with Erdogan, he doesn’t have a good reputation at the moment for being a blatant hothead.
Anyway, things are becoming more and more interesting. Incidentally, on March 2 the Washington Post published a scathing commentary about the resolution written by Henri J. Barkey, in which he sharply criticizes both Armenians and Turks for their “cynicism,” as he perceives. He lambastes Armenia for fostering its good relations with Iran, a view that is unreasonable not to mention unpractical, especially for a professor of international relations at Lehigh University who should know better to understand that Armenia has no alternative.
Incidentally, there’s another interesting take on the Armenian Genocide resolution by New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof. As much as I respect him as a journalist, and I am an admitted fan of his column, I can’t say I agree with him on his stance, although he does make some valid points.
This resolution indeed needed to be passed, now more than ever. There’s absolutely no question in my mind. Turkey simply has to acknowledge and publicly repent the inflicted terror of its past so it can indeed move on to reconciliation efforts with Armenia. Logic and human morality dictate this.
Just a few minutes ago I was able to watch Ani-Matilda Serebrakian cross the finish line at the end of her run in the Slalom competition at the Winter Olympic Games. She came in at 68th place, beating Serbia, Iran, Lebanon, and China. The American favorite Lindsey Vonn did not finish.
I watched the competition on Eurovisionsports.tv on the Internet, but just barely because I couldn’t watch more than 10 seconds of video at a time before the transmission froze for an additional 10 seconds. Public Television, conforming true to its lackadaisical coverage of the Olympics, did not bother to televise the Women’s’ Slalom Race live, even thought it would have been the last opportunity for Armenian nationals to root for an athlete representing their country at the games. Instead, they showed highlights of the Men’s Curling competition.
Anyway, this post is about Ani. I was bummed out to hear that she did not finish the Grand Slalom race on Thursday but was hoping hard for the Slalom. It was sheer chance that I was able to catch her run at the very moment when the video was loading, and when I thought she had been disqualified at a moment where she actually stopped going downhill, but was indeed still standing, I was disappointed for her. Just the same, she completed her run anyway. Then seconds later the standings showed that she did in fact finish. Amazing.
Fantastic job, Ani. We’re all very proud of you!
UPDATE: As of 12:15 am (Yerevan time) the event judges ruled that Ani was disqualified. We’re still proud of you!
 Last night I was watching highlights of the Oympic Games on public television. All but three Giant Slalom skiers finished except for a Turk, a guy from South Africa who seemed to have stepped out of the gate at the wrong time, and the Armenian, Arsen Nersisyan (today’s standings show that several skiers were determined to have not finished after the fact).
Nersisyan ended up falling near the end of his run. The whole time he looked wobbly on his skis, as if he was on the verge of wiping out, and sure enough he did. He simply didn’t have the form that other skiers displayed. Even participants from small island countries like San Marino near Italy finished. For a country that is mostly covered by mountains, you would think we would have a stronger men’s alpine skier to participate in the Winter Olympics.
The president of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia is Gagik Tsarukyan, who is one of the richest and powerful men in the country. I don’t think anyone knows how much he’s actually worth–supposedly his wealth amounts several hundreds of millions of dollars. Some people think he is actually a billionaire. So you would think he would be spending some serious cash on churning out top athletes to compete. But judging from Nersesyan’s pitiful performance, that’s obviously not the case. And I don’t know if he really cares.
I’d like to know why Armenia didn’t send a stronger team this year. If anything, we should be excelling at skiing, but we don’t. Nevertheless, we should be somewhere within the 50th percentile of alpine skiing finalists, in my opinion.
I should add that I watched live on TV Gyumri native Kristine Khachatryan, who participated in the 10 km Cross-Country freestyle race last week, finish in 76th place. Third from last, but she finished, and I was very proud to see her cross the finish line.
Let’s hope that Ani-Matilda Serebrakian, who is an Armenian-American, fairs much better in the Ladies’ Slalom and Grand Slalom competitions. I’ll keep you posted.
In the photo: Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway) – Alpine Skiing (Men’s Giant Slalom)
Photo credit: The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
I just read an interesting report on RFE/RL about what is being pawned off as the end of an “economic crisis” in Armenia. I guess that depends on who you ask and where in Armenia you live.
Below are excerpts from the article:
Armenia’s worst recession since the early 1990s has come to an end, a senior government official claimed on Monday, citing official statistics that show the Armenian economy growing last month for the first time in over a year.
According to preliminary data released by the National Statistical Service (NSS), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 2.4 percent year on year in January after shrinking by 14.4 percent in 2009.
 The reported growth was twice faster than the one forecast by the Armenian government for 2010. A senior official from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said last week that the full-year growth rate may well reach 2 percent.
The NSS data show that a 6.5 percent rise in industrial output was the main driving force behind the unfolding recovery. That seems to have primarily resulted from rallying international prices of copper and other non-ferrous metals, Armenia’s main export item. Armenian exports jumped by 57.5 percent to almost $54 million in January.
Armenia’s macroeconomic performance was also positively affected by a 3 percent growth in agriculture reported by the NSS. By contrast, the construction sector, which has born the brunt of the recession, contracted by about 11 percent during the same period.
Trade and Economic Development Minister Nerses Yeritsian portrayed the latest macroeconomic data as a clear indication that the economic crisis in the country is over. “And I want to assure you that we have come of out that crisis well,” he told journalists.
In Yeritsian words, the recovery is facilitated by what he described as substantial capital investments that have been made in public infrastructures in the last two years. “They could not have failed to have an impact on the diversification of the economy and this growth figure,” he said.
Yeritsian also insisted that financial assistance provided by the government to the crisis-hit construction industry has not been a waste of money. “The government measures against the construction decline have been limited,” he said. “The government has never even tried to fully make up for the construction decline.”
Finance Minister Tigran Davtian likewise asserted in late December that Armenia is emerging from the recession with minimal losses. Davtian downplayed the sharp GDP drop which has increased unemployment and poverty in the country.
According to World Bank estimates, the number of Armenians living below the official poverty line rose by 90,000 to make up 28.4 percent of the population in the first half of 2009.
If you ask me, Armenia did not go through a temporary crisis that lasted for about a year and only recently rebounded. Maybe Yerevan perhaps (I don’t believe this) but not the entire country. On the contrary, the economic situation of Armenia has been in crisis mode since it declared independence in 1991.
And it’s really surreal to keep reading that construction was in a decline in 2009 while high-rise apartment buildings are being erected across Arabkir and in central Yerevan. Sure, the construction of certain buildings is slow-going. Some of them have been going up for as long as five years, with construction ceasing for several months then starting again until the developer’s cash runs out. What has that to do with the “crisis?”
Do I need to mention all the new shiny supermarkets, exclusive boutiques and expensive restaurants that have been popping up everywhere in central Yerevan?
Let’s see how Laura Tadevosyan is coping with things in Aragatsotn at the end of the “economic crisis,” as reported by Hetq:
When [w]e visited the abandoned hut, Laura came out to greet us. The elderly woman was covered in soot and her cheeks were swollen from the cold. The clothes she wore were old and tattered. She spoke in a straightforward and lucid manner with us and said that the family had always encountered hardships and that they had now adjusted to their new situation.
The family owned a one room apartment in the town of Kapan, Syunik Marz. They used the money to rent and lived in different places until they wound up here, at the garbage dump.
“My son-in-law is from Masis and he wanted us close by. We sold the apartment and came to Yerevan with the hope of buying a place here to live. He got arrested for a robbery. We moved around for a while and then found ourselves here. We first lived in Ashtarak, but an acquaintance brought us here,” said Mrs.Tadevosyan. “When money falls into your hands, you get flustered and don’t know how to spend it all. It was my daughter and her husband that managed the house money. We spent it all and wound up on the street.”
She and the kids live in a metal “tnak” (hut) that is falling apart and the roof is missing in spots. When we stepped inside, the place was engulfed in smoke. Soot and grime was everywhere. Even the bed sheets were blackened by the soot. They had been burning garbage from the dump, plastic bottles, pieces of wood and shoes, to stay warm.
The hut consists of two small rooms with two metal beds and a few chairs.
“We live in a pretty awful state. I’m ashamed to even show you how we live,” Laura said. For the past two years the family has used candle to light the house.
Mrs. Tadevosyan said they have no relatives in Armenia. They’ve all moved to Russia. Her son also lives in Russia and she says he sends money when he can.
Washing glass bottles is their only source of income. Laura said that there’s a soda plant in Ashtarak. They get the bottles from the plant and wash them for 2 drams a bottle. Workers from the plant then come and collect the bottles.
“I don’t wind up washing many bottles when it’s cold like this. At best, I can wash 1,500 a day. When the kids are home they help me out and I can wash more. The girl is just a child but she’s in water the whole day washing bottles for money. What else can I do?” Laura asks.
Exactly.
Yesterday Hetq Online printed a disturbing, even perplexing report of trees being cut in Tsitsernakaberd Park, not far from the Genocide Memorial. Several lamps that light the walkways there were smashed as well.
Here’s the full report:
 “I saw the smashed street lamps. When I looked hard, I realized that next to each smashed street lamp there are stumps of newly cut down trees.” This alert was raised by Tigran Mangasaryan, the publisher of National Geographic Traveler in Armenia.
He spends each morning in Tsitsernakaberd with his friends. For the past few days he paid attention to the smashed lamps along the street leading to the Genocide Memorial. “I saw dozens of stumps along the road and a small fire trampled under feet, nothing else, neither branches, nor chips, nor sawdust, nothing. I got the impression that somebody cut down the trees, took them away under cloud of night without leaving any traces. That’s why all the lamps are smashed,” Tigran Mangasaryan said.
The photos taken by Tigran Mangasaryan distinctly display all the traces of this crime. This material is simultaneously an alert for the RoA Ministry of Nature Protection . We think that the Ministry of Nature Protection represented by the State Environmental Inspectorate must examine this case and take proper measures.
Why are such things still happening? During the “dark and cold years” of the early 1990s while war was being raged in Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenians were contending with an energy blockade, people were burning whatever they could find to keep warm during record-breaking frigid winters. That included trash, plastic bags, books, rubber soles, and of course, freshly cut wood from parks and the forest on the Nork-Marash hill, which no longer exists.
It was regrettable that the trees were cut, and Yerevan citizens are still paying for their deeds today by living in a dusty city void of any decent parks containing no cafes and illegal structures. Yet gas lines supply residential buildings all over the city now. It took a while but now there is no part of Yerevan–unless I am mistaken–where such lines have not been installed so that residents can install relatively affordable, natural gas-burning heaters imported from Iran.
Let’s say for instance that drifters or homeless people were responsible. If they were, they would also have some kind of semi-permanent shelter in the park, where there’s plenty of areas to take refuge. That means there would probably be someone hiding in the brush there who was responsible. But the article doesn’t mention that there were signs of such a scenario.
Second of all, that area is well-lit during the evenings, since they installed bright, modern street lamps nearby the Kievyan Bridge and Halabyan Street, so it would be difficult to notice someone who wasn’t dragging away trees, even during the evening with taxis and other vehicles racing around. Even if those responsible descended the other way down the hill near the Hrazdan Stadium they would have most certainly been seen. So whoever did this was either very lucky to have not been caught red handed or probably just lit a bonfire in the park. But if that was the case, why weren’t the smoke and flames detected, and how did they manage to control the fire so that the forest didn’t burn?
I don’t know if anyone in city hall or the police department is actually bothering to ask these questions or if this incident will ever be resolved. But I have a hard time believing that the culprits are very elusive.
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