European Court Faults Yerevan In Landmark Ruling

By Ruzanna Stepanian

RFE/RL Armenia Report - 01/11/2007

In a first-ever ruling relating to Armenia, the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday declared illegal the arrest of an Armenian opposition activist who helped to organize an anti-government demonstration more than four years ago.

The landmark judgment will raise fresh questions about the legality of hundreds of similar arrests that have accompanied the Armenian government's controversial crackdowns on the opposition in recent years.

The plaintiff, Armen Mkrtchian, was detained by the police along with several other members of the radical opposition Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party after actively participating in an unsanctioned rally in Yerevan on May 14, 2002. He was released after being fined a largely symbolic 500 drams ($1.5) under Armenia's Soviet-era Administrative Code.

Mkrtchian took his case to the Strasbourg-based court in November 2002, arguing that the Armenian authorities can not sanction anyone for attending street protests in the absence of a law regulating the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of assembly.

Armenia enacted such a law only in 2004. Until then, the Armenian government invoked Soviet-era regulations that required government permission for the holding of rallies and other public gatherings. Mkrtchian and his lawyer insist that those can not have a legal force in modern-day Armenia.

A panel of seven European Court judges, among them Armenian Alvina Gyulumian, unanimously accepted the 35-year-old oppositionist's arguments, ruling that his brief detention violated a key article of the European Convention on Human Rights which takes precedence over all Armenian laws and government directives. Yerevan signed up to the convention when it joined the Council of Europe in January 2001.

The Strasbourg court cited a lack of `domestic provision which clearly stated whether the former USSR laws remained or did not remain in force on the territory of Armenia.' Its did not impose any penalties on the Armenian state, saying that the `finding of a violation constituted in itself sufficient just satisfaction for any non-pecuniary damage sustained by the applicant.'

Mkrtchian, who did not seek any material compensation, said he is fully satisfied with the ruling. `The main purpose of my application was to show our judges and rulers that they must honor their obligations to the Council of Europe,' he told RFE/RL. `They will now be more vigilant. I have kind of cleared the way for similar legal challenges against illegalities committed in our country.'

The Armenian Justice Ministry, which fought the government's corner in Strasbourg, declined comment. A spokeswoman said Justice Minister David Harutiunian is too `busy' to immediately react to the development.

The Armenian authorities used the Administrative Code to arrest hundreds of opposition supporters and activists during the presidential elections of February-March 2003 and the April-May 2004 opposition campaign of street protests against President Robert Kocharian. Many of them were sentenced to between five and fifteen days' imprisonment in closed overnight trials condemned by local and Western human rights groups.

The Council of Europe has repeatedly criticized the practice of so-called `administrative detentions,' leading the authorities in Yerevan to abolish it last year.

Back Behind Bars

The December 18, 2006 article titled When They Get Out of Jail, the Pimps Go Back to Work has an interesting twist.

Amalya Mnatsakanyan and Marieta Musayelyan who thought by paying off the Armenian authorities were free to return to Dubai and work. WRONG!!!

The two of them were picked up by the Dubai police and though I'm not sure what waits them, I am hoping they will stand trial there in Dubai and get a life sentence, since if they return, they will be set free.

Hetq.am has an article about this in Armenian and as soon as it is translated into English, I will post it.

Hand-To-Hand had success beyond my wildest dreams!!!

Tonight at 8:15 on Artsakh television aired a new show called Hayrenik-Spurk (Motherland-Diaspora) and had their segment featuring Hand-To-Hand!!!

Bravo Artsakh television for showing the reality of what is going on in Haygazyan and Hale villages!!!

So not only are 16 people we took with us from Martuni in tune with what is going in Lachin, but thanks Artsakh television all those who had their televisions on tonight know the deplorable conditions their fellow Armenians to the South are living and that the Diaspora also know and are ready to work with the populous with addressing the problems we are facing.

I’ll be posting on the internet the program as soon as I can get a decent internet connection so you can see for yourself how the issue was presented in Artsakh. I was also told by the people at Artsakh television that the show will also most probably air on Armenian television in America in the near future. I was not expecting such coverage.

Director of All Armenia Fund not happy with recent post on MOB

Yesterday morning I got a call at 10:46:05 from a very upset Minister of Territorial Administration, Armo Tsaturyan. According to him, he got a call from the director of the Armenia Fund regarding our Haygazyan update (see MOB’s January 8, 2007 log).

Armo seemed to be in a panic over what he was told I wrote about the problems with the Armenia Fund and the misrepresentation of donations from Kirk Krikorian, Cafesjian and Vahe Garabedian, totaling $4.5 million. Of the many things Armo told me during our January 7, 2007 meeting that lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes, he admitted to know about the $1 million from Vahe Garabedian not being part of the fund, saying that Garabedian has his own fund and went on to say he was surprised as to how much the Armenia Fund had raised, as the government for the most part believed that the Diaspora during the November 2006 Thanksgiving day telethon would not make many contributions. Of course from what we now know, at very least, $4.5 million of the reported contributions were not made to the Armenia Fund and this was just a scam perpetrated by the President of Artsakh to motivate the Diaspora to give. There is a good chance that they didn’t raise the whole $9.1 million balance as there were other large donation that may not exist. In addition to this, my research following the telethon indicates that most of the donations from Artsakh and Armenia were not from willing donors (as in the past), but forced out of common people who work for the Armenian and Artsakh governments and money was automatically deducted from their salaries.

So no one accuses me of being rude, I would like to take a moment to welcome the director of the All Armenia Fund to Martuni or Bust. I would like to take the liberty to speak for the majority of our readers and say that we are honored that you take what is posted on MOB seriously (this implied by your need to call Armo to complain to him about what was posted on MOB) and also hope you take the information posted here into consideration when formulating your future plans, as what you have done during the last telethon is a really embarrassment to all of us. Also it is not becoming of the director to terrorize Armo for speaking the truth about your dishonest actions.

Though I would guess that Armo’s days as a minister are numbered, since his comments of executing all the corrupt officials and business persons who have high jacked our economy, need to audit past work in Lachin and Antranik Markaryan being the reason for our inability of removing the present day regional minister of Lachin, I want to say that those person in power like Armo really do gave me hope that there are people in government that have had enough with all the corruption and are ready do what needs to be done to make things right, even if that means lining up those that are causing hardship for the greater population and shoot them down (though I think this is a bit extreme).

In the 1 hour and 20 minute meeting, Armo spoke to my heart, echoing many of the things I have posted in the past on MOB. I really liked his interpretation of how people in government skim funds and how there really needs to be a limit to how much they skim.

If Armo is dismissed from his post (which I hope he is not), he will be another example of what happens to someone who wants to really serve the people, speak his mind as an Armenian and in the end for speaking the truth is destroyed by those that are at the very top.

Haygazyan Update

I had a meeting yesterday with the Minister of Territorial Administration Armo Tsaturyan regarding the electrification of Haygazyan, Hale and 2 other neighboring villages.

The Mayor of Haygazyan was to join us, but due to circumstances beyond his control he was unable to attend.

The meeting went well I would say and though Armo may seem to present himself as a concerned civil servant, the fact that he has to answer to those who are not concerned makes him quite ineffective.

Armo wants the electricity run to the villages and said that the budget for Lachin has not yet been finalized. He will work so that the villages will get electricity.

I told Armo that we were going to go forward with raising funds for electrification and if within a reasonable amount of time the government has not accomplished this task, we would do it ourselves. Of course if the government does bring power to the villages, then we would use the money raised for projects that will create self-sustainability for the people living there.

Armo and I discussed many things including the Armenia Fund telethon. I told Armo about misrepresentation of donations and he said that he knew of $1 million, but didn’t know that $4.5 million fell under this category. He said he and others in government were waiting this year for the Diaspora not to give due to all the problems with the Armenia Fund, and were surprised that it was a record year.

Our meeting lasted about an hour and one of the many topics we touched on was the money allocated for building houses for Lachin and Kelbajar. Armo said that he had requested an accounting of how the money was spent and was told that he was crazy and there was no need. I told him of my monitoring for building projects and said that the $3,500 houses in fact cost less than $800 each to build. He said that this was a problem and skimming will happen, but there needs to be a limit.

Anyway, Armo and I will be communicating in the near future to get an idea of what timeline they will have for electricity for the 4 villages and if it is reasonable, we will let them do it. If it is not or if they don’t meet their commitment, then we will do it with our own hands and at the same time have another gage to measure the real costs of this kind of work.

Oh, Armo showed me a letter with many signatures from Armenians all over the world. He did comment that there was an inaccuracy in the letter and that was that we have never had more than 12,500 people at any time living in Lachin. The petition states that 20,000 was the peek according the various sources. Other than this inaccuracy, he didn’t refute what was written. He did say that there are complication in removing the regional minister. I later on found out from other sources that in May of 2006, it looked as the regional minister was going to finally be removed and on the eve of this grand event, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Antranik Markaryan came and made an announcement that as long as he is around, the regional minister will stay.

Anyway, this much for now to report. As you can see from what we know so far, we have lots of work to do.

These pictures are worth 1000s of words – Our visit to Haygazyan

Infant mortality rate up in Artsakh

In the medical sector in Artsakh, we are facing a shortage of Gynecologists. Outside of Stepanagert, we only have 3 Gynecologists. One is in Hadrut, one in Martuni and the other in Madakert.

As of right now, the Martuni Gynecologist is sick and is found in Yerevan. There is no one covering her post, thus if you were to give birth today, you would have to drive 60 kilometers down a bumpy road to Stepanagert, or worse, a 40 kilometer bumpier shorter road to Stepanagert via Nungi.

It seems that the birthrate is up in Artsakh, but the proper amount of medical services does not meet the need.

I would think that this issue should be a priority as our future growth will come birthing the next generation and the preventable mortality rate should be addressed.

I’ve also learned while looking into this issue that the city of Martuni lacks many basic diagnostic equipments and due to this, people who have fallen ill who if they knew what illness they had would not have been moved and transported down that bumpy road to Stepangert, some are said to have major complication due to this.

I’m not sure if we have readers out there who is qualified to address this issue, but if you are or know anyone that is, please pass this information on to them so they can contact me.

I will also go out on a limb here and say that if this is the condition in Artsakh, then things are worse in the regions of Armenia proper and in our liberated territories we recently saw with our own eyes and documented that they are in the worst condition in terms of medical services.

Armenian energy monopolists defraud Armenian populous of $36 MILLION per year in natural gas sales

Those who monopolize natural gas in Armenia are cashing in on the artificial devaluation of the U.S. Dollar in Armenia.

First let’s establish that natural was being purchased in US Dollars for $56 per 1,000 cubic meters. Of course there are distribution and operation cost and for argument sake we will estimate that the total cost to the Armenian supplier at $58 per 1,000 cubic meters. Armenia purchases 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually and using the total cost estimate given, paid $58 million.

A couple of years ago when the dollar was worth 550 Drams, the price to the consumer for natural gas was set at 51 Drams per cubic meter. This equated to $0.0927 per cubic meter. This meant that natural gas was being sold to the consumer at a 60% markup, with annual sales at $92.7 million, leaving hefty profit of $34.7 million.

Following the start of the sudden devaluation of the Dollar, the price of gas to the Armenian suppler almost doubled to $110 per 1,000 cubic meters. Again for argument sake we will estimate that the total cost including distribution and operational costs increased to $112 per 1,000 cubic meters, costing the Armenian supplier $112 million annually.

With the present day value of the Dram at 362 to the Dollar, the price per cubic meter of natural gas was set to 65 Drams, this equating to $0.18 per cubic meter to the consumer. This means that the supplier of natural gas is still selling at a 60% markup, and now, selling to the end user for $180 million annually, profiting $68 million, an increase in profits of $33.3 million from when the Dollar was worth 550 Drams.

According to various estimates, based on Armenia’s economic state and world markets, one US Dollar should be worth 450 Drams. This means that natural gas at the price in Drams presently set should cost the consumer $0.144 per cubic meter, bringing the annual sales to $144 million, and bringing the profits close to what they were before the artificial devaluation of the US Dollar at $32 million.

If what is being stated above is accurate, then the Armenian public is being overcharged annually $36 million. This may not sound like much to some for a country of 3 million, but if you consider that the same scenario holds true for propane, gasoline and diesel fuels, then we are talking about HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF U.S. DOLLARS being “legally” overcharged to the Armenian public.

The energy monopolist are for the most part fellow Armenians, many who claim to be patriotic and thinking of the peoples well being. If they are so patriotic, then they should mark up natural gas by 20% and be happy with a $10 million annual profit, since the same people also control propane, gasoline and diesel fuels and make much more from their sale.

One of the energy monopolists at a press conference a while back when asked about the sudden drop of the value of the US Dollar in Armenia was quoted as saying that “in the future it will drop slower,” indicating that he and his cronies have control over what direction the value of Armenian currency will take.

And who are the monopolists of energy in Armenia? Well for starters the President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian and Minister of Defense, Serj Sarkissyan, hold a very large share of the energy sector. The others are for the most part Armenian mafia figures and members of Parliament. These are also the same people who were behind the ripping up of the electrical transportation system we had in Yerevan to make us more dependent on the imported fuel they control.

A friend of mine told me that this artificial devaluation of the dollar has put Armenia out of the race for claiming their share of product exports, since the dollar can’t buy what it can in China for instance. Armenian exports are down in 2006 by 30% due to the artificial devaluation of the dollar.

In short, so a few people in power can make a few million dollars, they have artificially devaluated the dollar and destroyed many of Armenia’s export markets. I know a few people who were exporting from Armenia and dealing in U.S. Dollars, who are now closing up their factories that were employing many people in Artsakh. A can and bottling factory was offered to me in Stepanagert the other day due to the owners death and the bank foreclosing on in the days to come due to their inability to being able to pay the $600k loan which is at 18% interest annually. One of their markets was the United States and with the devaluation of the U.S. Dollar, they could no longer profit what they were from those sales, thus were unable to cover their loan. I have one friend who instead of making a 30% profit, is now having to supplement his operation by about 8% to cover his operating costs in order to honor a contract he has signed into with a company in the United States. Because his market buys and sells in U.S. Dollars, once the contact he is loosing money is completed and after loosing thousands of dollars, he will be closing down his operation and Artsakh and we will loose more much needed jobs here.

Bravo Robert and Serj. You once again have shown your true patriotic colors and how incompetent and/or crooked you both are. Shame on you!!!

In all fairness, for the first 3 months of this year, the price of natural gas to the consumer has been reduced to 59 Dram per cubic meter, this bring it closer to the 52 Dram price it presently should be based on what it use to be. If the price remains at this level, then the Armenian public will only be getting ripped off for $19.3 million annually in sales of natural gas.

GREAT SUCCESS!!!

Our project Hand-To-Hand was a great success!!!

Yesterday at Noon, Father Christmas and his helpers rolled into the village of Haygazyan and spread joy to 26 very deserving children. What an incredible moment, all caught on video and pictures. If we only accomplished this much, Hand-to-Hand could have been considered a success.

Our whole crew made their way down to Pasha’s house with Father Christmas, as the family of 11 children could not all make their way up to the school where the gifts were delivered, so of course Father Christmas went to them to spread the joy he is so famous for spreading.

After Pasha’s house, we made our way to the neighboring village of Hale, where we visited a few houses to deliver monetary aid. It was quite a moment and a real eye-opener for Santa’s helpers, who consisted of 13 people from Martuni, 2 from Shushi and one from Stepanagert.

I have to tell you that I’ve never seen such extremes. Those that have people living abroad and are receiving a little bit of help actually have semi-comfortable living conditions. Those that don’t, really do live in extreme poverty. For those of you who don’t believe that extreme poverty exists in Armenia, I invite you to see for yourself that it really does and I hope that as soon as I have a decent internet connection, I can download some video.

One family we visited live is what I would call a room that you would not keep animals in. They have a mentally challenged son who is I’m guessing 13 years old. The family of 4 live in this maybe 10 foot by 12 foot room with a door and a window that is covered in plastic. The walls and ceiling are covered in soot and the floor is dirt. Really deplorable. And on top of this, like all of Hale and Haygazyan has no electricity.

Oh and one thing I would like to add is that our plan for bring in electrical generators failed. We looked high and low for them in Yerevan, but found that such a quantity of generators does not exist and we would have to order them. So we went back to our original plan of giving each family $130, which with the advice of the President of Parliament, we exchanged the money to Dram (Armenian currency) as exchanging dollars where the people we are helping are found is a very challenging task.

I’m not going to drag this log out since there really is so much to write, but will say that the feast we had during and after our work was to die for. It was our crew and most of the village in one large room. We all sat together and shared a meal to celebrate the birth of Christ. The toasts were right on the money and everyone was having a grand time. After the singing and dancing, we made our way to our cars and headed back towards Martuni.

Today I’m in Stepanagert where my Monday meeting with the government has been changed to today. It seems that with the holiday and everyone being off for so many days from work, this Sunday is a work day.

Armen the Mayor of Haygazyan will be joining me in the meeting we will have with the government to discuss the electrical situation and let the government present their plan and see where we will have to pick up the slack.

The people of Haygazyan and Hale on video send their many many many thanks to all those that participated in this noble work. I hope in the next couple of weeks I can put together a video presentation with subtitles to send to all the donors so they can see with their own eyes and proudly share with their friends what they have done to help some very deserving people in our liberated territories.

Shnorhavor Sourp Tzenoont to all.

And for those of you who still want to help out, this project will continue for the whole year, so please read about our project and make your donation.

Tomorrow we will be paying a visit to Haygazyan village in the most Southern part of Lachin.

I was in Stepangert yesterday as I had a meeting with the President of Parliament, Ashot. For years he has been my contact person in government only because he understands what I am saying and can get me a meeting with right people in just matter of minutes. Ashot is what I would call one of a few people at the top who really think about the people.

Ashot and I discussed a number of issues, the most important being the condition of Lachin and the need for major change. I told Ashot of our upcoming visit to Haygazyan and Hale villages to help the 16 families who remain there.

I told Ashot that once we assess the situation on the ground and can formulate a clear picture of what needs to be done to complete the task of electrification in the shortest period of time, we are going to work very hard to raise the funds in the Diaspora and carry out the work ourselves.

Ashot called the Prime Minister and briefed him as to what we were doing and our plan to help the people finally obtain electricity in their villages. The PM instructed Ashot to put me in touch with the people who are responsible for electrification so I can meet with them to see what they have planned so we don’t duplicate their work. Ashot gave me the name and number, which I called and was told that they are always in and whenever I want to meet to call. We will meet on Monday and I will invite the Mayor of Haygazyan to be present at the meeting, so he can not only interject where needed, but can report back to the people in the village.

I have to tell you that I know the assistant to the person in charge of who I am to meet with and will tell you that he is a distant relative of mine. My great-great-grandfather on my father’s side left his village in 1850 at the age of 11 after having a fight with his oldest brother. He headed for Tbilisi and ended up settling in Dilijan. Arnold’s mother as well as Arnold is a distant cousin. Arnold is also one of the PM’s yes-men (that’s how he has kept his job this whole time) and for the most part what I will hear in the meeting on Monday will be empty promises, thus whatever we do will have to be everything needed figuring the government will not provide anything for the electrification of Haygazyan and the 4 neighboring villages.

I’m now off to do some shopping for tomorrow. I’ve spoken to the Mayor of Haygazyan who said that for our celebration of the birth of Christ, the villagers will be fishing and they will also slaughter a couple of pigs. We will bring with us the bread, wine, salt, rice, vodka, beer, soft-drinks, Jermuk and all the other fixing for our meal together.

All the gifts for the 26 children have been wrapped in Christmas paper, with each one of their names written on them. Of course this is going to be the highlight of the visit, seeing the paper flying everywhere when the kids open up their gifts.

While I was in Stepanagert, I went to the internet café that is behind the President’s building and downloaded all the hetq.am stories in Armenian regarding Lachin and printed out 20 copies to give to all our “employees.” I’ve already given 3 of our 16 employees’ copies and I can tell you that not one of the have heard of what is going on in Lachin.

While in Stepanagert I had a by-chance meeting with a longtime activist who if he can, will also be joining us on the 6th to see with his own eyes what is going on. He had heard about many of the problems, but was not sure what could be done. I told him about our project that deals with law issues and he agreed like many that if the law worked for the benefit of the people, many things here and in Armenia would change for the better.

Well I better get going. I’ve got lots to do until tomorrow.