Published since 07.2002
Published on April 18, 2008
EASY OPPORTUNITY: PACE RESOLUTION IS A PRESIDENTIAL PLAYBOOK FOR INSTANT REDEMPTION
- Oh, what a mess I wonder who's watching me now Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me Faced as he is with the unenviable necessity to mend a gutted nation, President Serzh Sargsyan nonetheless has opportunity a true statesman should welcome as destiny reserved only for those of office with enough moral muscle to embrace challenge too imposing for any but the legitimately powerful. History may remember Robert Kocharyan for the “double digit” growth that the past president wore like a medal that, flipped over, would hold the names of plenty more than the one making the claim – and most of whom personally benefited from their part in making the economy strong. Foreign and local oligarchs helped rebuild the Armenia that Kocharyan takes credit for, and they did so for reasons that are more self-serving than self-sacrifice. The past president benefited too, from the altruistic. Kirk Krikorian built the roads that now haul the money to and from Russia. Some – Tufenkian, Cafesjian, Hovnanian and others – through investing in businesses that also serve the greater good, have created a culture of something that might be called “social profitmaking”. Their examples have led to the newly institutionalized concept of corporate responsibility now being demonstrated by HSBC, VivaCell and a few but growing number of others. All honorable, including whatever role the last president played to assist their goodwill. But praise for Robert Kocharyan’s leadership should also recognize that his is a reflected glory. Serzh Sargsyan has an opportunity for singular greatness, delivered on the blood of 10 and the bruises of hundreds of his ward. Lead Armenia out of its present sorry mess and he surely would lighten the yoke of shame for his part in creating the present instability. Even if he bought the election, as evidence suggest, he also has the chance to pay for it in honorable service. Thursday’s resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) provides President Sargsyan with a guidebook for immediate recreation of an inglorious public perception. The PACE resolution has 14 paragraphs and 14 sub paragraphs, but the essence of concern can be distilled into three major actions that would spring Armenia and President Sargsyan from their tragically-earned suspicions of a nation and a leader incapable of democratic prudence. 1.Release those arrested on charges that can’t demonstrably and constitutionally be proven as crimes committed on or around March 1. 2.Revoke the new law prohibiting public gatherings. 3.Review the circumstances leading to and including the March 1 violence through an independent investigation. Missing from the PACE wish list, is the critical truth that the esteemed body itself bears partial responsibility for all that has happened since February 19 because neither the Council of Europe nor OSCE exercised its opportunity to disavow Armenia’s presidential election, allowing instead a report that mixed faint praise with faint rebuke, concluding little that matched the reality faced by the electorate here. Failure by international organizations to share the responsibility should not stop President Sargsyan from fulfilling his. Release. Revoke. Review. Do those things Mr. President, and it will prove your trustworthiness, and serve you far better than what you’re getting from the pr firm you pay $65,000 a month for image-making. (The same company, it may be worth noting, represented Benazir Bhutto.) Listen to what former Minister of Justice and head of Armenia’s delegation to PACE David Harutyunyan said in Strasbourg. “This should be done not to let the Armenian delegation retain its voting rights at the PACE or get somebody here to report progress in Armenia. We should realize that we are doing this for ourselves.” President Sargsyan has an immediate and well-defined opportunity that doesn’t need the traditional “100 days” to prove whether “Forward Armenia!”, his slogan, is anything more than expensive and meaningless public relations. If this is about international face-saving, it is more about mending the heart of a people in need of a signal that love of nation can overcome personal ambition. What a great chance to be a hero.
- John Hughes
Headlines for April 18, 2008
NOW THERE ARE 10: TWO, INCLUDING TEENAGE CONSCRIPT, SUCCUMB TO MARCH 1 WOUNDS
Gayane Mkrtchyan
The death toll of the bloody March 1 events in the Armenian capital rose to 10 Monday. Over the weekend a young military conscript assigned to Armenian police died in hospital of wounds he sustained ...WOMAN POWER: JAILED OPPOSITIONISTS’ RELATIVES RAISE CONCERNS BEFORE EUROPE
Gayane MkrtchyanA group of Armenian women claiming that their jailed relatives are political prisoners are set to turn areas near major European embassies and representations in Yerevan into scenes of their daily protests ...NEW PRESIDENT APPOINTS TWO KEY MINISTERS
President Serzh Sargsyan on Monday evening signed a decree appointing General-Colonel Seyran Ohanyan Armenia’s Minister of Defense, the president’s press service reported. Since 2007, 46-year-old Ohanyan ...COST-CUTTING START: GOVERNMENT SET TO ABOLISH SUBSIDY ON RUSSIAN GAS, PRICES TO INCREASE FOR CONSUMERS
Gayane Mkrtchyan
Beginning next month the government will stop the state subsidy on fees for natural gas supplies for households and enterprises, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan announced during his first press briefing ...IN REVIEW: COUNCIL OF EUROPE BODY DELIBERATES OVER ARMENIA’S STATUS
Gayane MkrtchyanThe Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is in discussion and set to approve its Monitoring Committee’s draft report on the Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Armenia. According ...EASY OPPORTUNITY: PACE RESOLUTION IS A PRESIDENTIAL PLAYBOOK FOR INSTANT REDEMPTION
John HughesOh, what a mess I wonder who's watching me now Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me Faced as he is with the unenviable necessity to mend a gutted nation, President Serzh Sargsyan ...SPORT: ARMENIA GETS ITS FIRST EUROPEAN CHAMPION IN TAE KWAN DO
Suren Musayelyan
Tae Kwan do An Armenian fighter for the first time achieved a European title as Arman Yeremyan became the continent’s champion in the 78-kilogram section in the European Tae Kwan do Championships in ...SCRUM FOR SURVIVAL: RUGBY STRUGGLES TO CAPTURE ATTENTION OF SUPPORTERS
Sara Khojoyan
Four years ago, when Alexander Chilingaryan got a left leg injury during a baseball training session, doctors recommended that he forget sports. “But I did not believe them and I believed myself and ...REALIZED DREAM: DIASPORA ARMENIAN FOUND HIS TRUE HOME IN GORIS
Armine Avagyan 1
While many Armenians dream of leaving to settle in other countries, Shahen Zeytuntsyan, from Germany, found Armenia attractive enough. More over he preferred Syunic province to Yerevan and now 68 year ...COALITION-MANIA?: POWER-SHARING BECOMES ‘A POPULAR TREND’ EVEN IF YOUR WIN IS ‘UNDISPUTABLE’
Negotiations over the roles in the emerging government of the four political parties that formed a new political coalition in Armenia last month as well as actual appointments have dominated discussions ...NEW CONSTRUCTION, NEW PROTEST: CONTROVERSY RISES AS BUILDING SITE IS REVEALED IN VANADZOR
Naira Bulghadaryan
Large scale construction works have started in the center of Vanadzor, Lori province, when a 6 meter deep pit was dug in the center of town, where green area stood just a week ago Human rights activist ...KASHATAGH: KARABAKH’S REGION FEELS SHORTAGE OF ELECTRICITY, JOBS AND RESIDENTS
Naira Hayrumyan
The first pan-Armenian conference on the development of the Kashatagh region of Nagorno-Karabakh took place in that region last month. The conference was organized by the Tufenkian Foundation under the ...CLAIMS AND COUNTERCLAIMS: LAWSUITS SPLIT POLICE AGAINST JOURNALIST IN GYUMRI
Ani Hakobyan
The Gyumri police is asking a court to impose a 50,000 drams (about $170) fine on the chairman of the Gyumri Journalists Club for refusal to obey the demands of the police during a March 2 political protest ...NEW MFA ON THE JOB: PRESIDENT CALLS ON ALL MINISTERS TO BE “SOLDIERS”
Aris Ghazinyan
On April 14, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree appointing 52-year-old Eduard Nalbandyan Minister of Foreign Affairs. Earlier, Nalbandyan was relieved of his position as Armenia’s Ambassador ...WALK TALK: ASSEMBLY DISCUSSES LAW ON ASSEMBLY AS POLICE RESTRICT AFTERNOON “WALKS”
Marianna Grigoryan
On April 15, while National Assembly Chairman Tigran Torosyan was discussing with international experts the necessity of the controversial amendments to Armenia’s law on assemblies, several dozen policemen ...
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© AUA
Today in Armenian history- 1862 Birth of H.F.B. Lynch in London of Irish parentage. Besides his study of law, he became noted as a writer, a geographer, a politician, and a traveller, with a keen interest in Armenia. His two-volume book on his Armenia travels is a classic and describes life in Armenia at the end of the 19th century. In 1906, he was elected to serve as a member of the British Parliament. (He died in London on 1913 11 24).
- 1877 The Yerevan detachment of the Russian forces, headed by General Ter-Ghukasov, occupies Bayazet for 12 days with the help of Armenian home guards.
- 1933 Death of Avetik Sahakian (Father Abraham), the Parliamentary President of the First Armenian Republic.
- 1953 The administrative districts of Yerevan, Kirovakan, and Leninakan are dissolved.
- 1958 Inauguration of the Armenian SSR's Art Institute.
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