INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS OF ARMENIA / HETQ ONLINE

18-25 August 2004

Humanitarian medicine was intentionally left to expire - 5: Bisharyan resigns

Hetq has reported that out of the entire supply of medicine that entered Armenia as humanitarian assistance in 2001-2002, one billion drams worth expired before it could be used.

In a recent development, the head of the Department of Medical and Technological Supply of the Ministry of Health, Artashes Bisharyan, who was in charge of the distribution of medicine sent to Armenia through humanitarian channels, handed in his resignation. Minister of Health Norair Davidyan accepted it, and Bisharyan was dismissed from office. Over the last year, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia, the Ministry of Finance and the President's Supervision Service have carried out inspections and investigations of the Department of Medical and Technological Supply, attempting to find out what led to the waste of such a large quantity of medicine.

We have been informed by the Office of the Prosecutor General that the criminal investigation into this case is not yet closed. As we wrote before, Artashes Bisharyan has not been questioned by investigators so far. He was called into the Prosecutor's Office once, but failed to appear.

Edik Baghdasaryan


See also:

Humanitarian medicine was intentionally left to expire
http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/h-0304-medicine-1.html

Humanitarian medicine was intentionally left to expire - 2
http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/h-0304-medicine-2.html

Humanitarian medicine was intentionally left to expire - 3
http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/h-0304-medicine-3.html

Humanitarian medicine was intentionally left to expire - 4
http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/h-0404-medicine.html

Expired humanitarian medicine: Even the president got involved
http://www.hetq.am/eng/society/0407-medicine.html

I recently reposted an article that spoke of salaries to doctors and school teachers being an average of 29,000 dram a month.

I was visiting with a school teacher and asking what she receives each month, to which she said she was to receive this school year 29,000 dram a month, but added that once upon a time, a full work week signified 18 hours of work. As of January 2004 that was upped to 20 hours a week and starting September, it will be made 22 hours. She added that there is word that after January 2005, a full work week will be 24 hours.

Here is the real problem with this 20, 22 or 24 hour work week. It is now difficult to find that much work at school for a 20 hour week, but once the hours go over 20 hours, very few school teachers will be able to work a full week. Also in the “good days”, when a full work week was 18 hours and there were more students then there are now, there were quite a few teachers that that were working 27 hours a week and getting paid accordingly.

Another complaint the teacher had was that this year, every teacher has to have a medical checkup and obtain a report from their doctor that they are healthy and able to teach. The reason for the complaint was that the doctors visit cost 7,000 dram and the it is not the school that is paying for it, but the teacher itself. For those that refuse to see a doctor, they will be fined 30,000 dram.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS OF ARMENIA / HETQ ONLINE

18-25 August 2004

Business and Government: What is the state of economic rights in Armenia?

Human rights are no abstract notion. They are always concrete and specific in content. But when we speak about human rights, we tend to mean, for some reason, political and civil rights. We forget that human rights have a specific economic content as well, and that the violation of individual economic rights is one of the main factors hindering the development of civil society.

The implementation of a person's economic rights is connected to the right of the person to freely choose the forms and spheres of his or her economic activity. That is, the main elements of a person's economic rights are:

1) the right to chose the form of economic activity (individual, group, cooperative, etc.), 2) the right to chose the sphere and location of the economic activity.

If there are no particular problems in the Republic of Armenia with the first element, there are very serious problems with the second. There are, for example, spheres in Armenia where in order to do business it is necessary to get the OK either from the government or from the people or clans who have a monopoly in these spheres. Furthermore, the people with the monopoly are either relatives and friends of government officials or the government officials themselves. Thus, the OK to do business in these areas must inevitably come from the government. These "elite" and highly profitable areas of trade include oil, sugar, liquefied gas, etc.

On the whole, the situation in Armenia 's business sector is as follows: a businessman's economic "achievement", or his "success", does not depend at all on his professional abilities. The principal condition for a businessman's success is his degree of proximity to the government. The closer he is to the government, the more successful he is. The farther he is from the government, the less successful he is. If we take a look at the list of the most successful businessmen in Armenia, we see that those closest to the government are at the top of the list. There are no strangers on the list. How have these businessmen achieved their success?

First, in contrast to businessmen who are not close to the government, they have direct and easy access to financial resources, raw materials, etc.

Second, they receive state contracts.

Third, they are able to obtain "fat pieces" of state property without tenders or auctions.

Fourth, making use of legal loopholes and illegal schemes, they avoid taxes. They either pay no taxes at all, or they pay paltry amounts. It is no wonder that almost all successful businessmen describe unprofitable businesses on their annual balance sheets. This is a typical Armenian phenomenon, that a businessman can be successful without making a profit.

Moving on, even the location of a business depends on a governmental OK. For example, to do business in the center of Yerevan or other regional centers, one has to have close ties with the government. The nightclubs and cafes that surround the Opera House are a glaring example of this. There is no one who just happens to own one of these establishments; all of the owners are people who are close to the government.

Thus, there are serious problems with t he implementation of economic rights and the conditions for conducting business in Armenia, and unless they are solved, it will be impossible to establish civil society and the rule of law.

Eduard Agadjanov

POLICEMEN TRIED TO DRIVE ADVISOR OF ARMENIA'S PRESIDENT OUT OF
TERRITORY OF ELITE COTTAGES IN TSAKHKADZOR

YEREVAN, AUGUST 28. ARMINFO. Representatives of mass media of Armenia today held an action of protest in the resort town of Tsakhkadzor, which was aimed against the building of elite cottages in the forests near the town.

ARMINFO's correspondent informs from Tsakhkadzor, Advisor of the president of Armenia for fight against corruption Bagrat Yesayan joined the journalists on the way. Yesayan said that he had come to get acquainted with the situation in the place. Talking to journalists he did not exclude that the trees are cut down for carrying out construction works there. But he mentioned that this process must be regulated by a relevant legislation. Yesayan expressed hope that similar actions will promote increase of awareness of the society about the processes taking place in the republic. The advisor of the president condemned the recent incident when the guard of one of the elite cottages beat journalists who had tried to take a photograph of the territory guarded.

During the journalistic "round" a group of policemen headed by the Head of the Police of Hrazdan district Hunanian, tried to drive the "uninvited" guests out of the territory. After a talk of Bagrat Yesayan with the policemen tete-a-tete the employees of the police desponded to clear the territory from the journalists, and the shoot was resumed.

It should be noted that these villas belong to high-ranking officials of the country (Deputy Head of the Service of Police Armen Yeritsian, Head of the Administration of Kotayk region Kovalenko Shahgaldian, Head of Customs Committee Armen Avetisian) and deputies of the National Assembly of Armenia Levon Sargsian and Gagik Tsarukian.

I was reading an August 21st, 2004 ArmInfo article on Groong titled “Armenian opposition leader unhappy about foreign policy”.

The thing that I took notice of was when it was reported that the chairman of the new Liberal Progressive Party (LPP), Ovanes Ovanesyan, believes that the construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is also in question as constructing a gas pipeline, which will be 77mm in diameter, will not do Armenia and Iran any good.

The pipe is only to be 77mm in diameter? Why will it be so small? Could Ovanesyan have been wrong or did the reporter not understand him and he said 770mm?

A 77mm in diameter pipe is more than 3 times smaller than the pipe that supplies gas to the Martuni region. It’s the size that a gas specialist told me would be an appropriate size to supply one military base that houses 2,000 people.

I hope that this is not an accurate statement as to the size, and if it is, Ovanes Ovanesyan would be right to say that it would not do Armenia and Iran any good.

Celitra? What is celitra?

In the last few year I have heard people talk about a white powdery substance called celitra, which is used to increase the yield of crops. I’m guessing this is some kind of fertilizer.

I know it comes in sacks that indicate that it is explosive and also clearly states that it is a product of Georgia.

The reason I ask the question of what is celitra is that the other day after eating watermelon, a few of the people who were eating with us got very sick and I was later told that it was celitra that caused the poisoning.

Today when I was talking with some friends about how fast our facial hair grows, one of them jokingly asked another if he uses celitra and for that reason his hair grows so fast.

That got me to wonder if his joke was all that far off, as my hair and nails have started to grow unusually fast these last couple of month and it makes me wonder if ingesting celitra could be the cause.

I remember a 60 minutes story many years ago about hormones in Mexico’s dairy products that was causing children to start puberty at a very young age.

Talking about hormones. Our chicken farm here in Martuni has to be using hormones, as they grow a 1 to 3 kilo chicken in 54 days. I can’t imagine this growth rate is due to lighting, music and a diet of organic grain.

Once upon a time, right after independence, there were practically no pesticides or chemical fertilizers available in Armenia and Artsakh, thus we always had organic fruits and vegetables. Our livestock was for the most part fed only natural feed.

That has now all seemed to change and you really have to wonder what chemicals are being used so someone can make a quick buck, but at what price to the consumer?

I have very little faith that our government body that monitors the quality of foods is properly monitoring this issue. I’ve seen firsthand how they work and if I think about it too much, I would give up eating.

Maybe it would be worth it to once again keep a garden, or find someone to grow for me organically grown fruits and vegetables, until this issue is resolved.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

24 August 2004

Armenian Journalist Beaten For Filming Luxury Villas

By Ruzanna Khachatrian

An Armenian photojournalist was beaten up Tuesday for taking pictures of plush mansions apparently belonging to a high-level police official and other government-connected individuals, the latest in a series of violent attacks on representatives of the country's media.

Mkhitar Khachatrian of the Photolur agency was attacked in Tsaghkadzor, a resort town in central Armenia where he was on assignment together with Anna Israelian, a correspondent for the independent daily "Aravot." Israelian was preparing an article about the damage to local mountainous forests caused by housing construction in recent years.

The two reporters told RFE/RL that they were surveying an expensive residential area when a man guarding one of its houses, reputedly owned by Armen Yeritsian, deputy chief of the national police, told Khachatrian to stop taking pictures.

"It was a very beautiful building and I wanted to photograph it," Khachatrian said. "He told me that I can't do that, saying 'Do you know whose neighborhood you have entered?'. But I did take a shot and left the neighborhood."

The reporters said they were later confronted by the same person at an indoor cafe as they were about to leave Tsaghkadzor. "The man who warned me against taking pictures recognized me and then called a group of other men. Suddenly one of them attacked me," said Khachatrian, who had traces of violence on his neck and arms.

The photographer added that the man kicked, punched, cursed and threatened to kill him. He said he prevented his expensive digital camera from being smashed by surrendering its picture storage card to the attackers. "They would have broken the camera had I not told them to take the card. I had no choice," he said.

Khachatrian described the attackers as burly men with "shaven heads and thick necks." The description matches the appearance of two dozen thugs that indiscriminately destroyed video and still cameras which filmed their attempts to stir up trouble at an opposition rally in Yerevan on April 5. Riot police stood by and refused to intervene, giving weight to reports that the violence was provoked by the Armenian authorities.

Israelian said he believes that the man who beat Khachatrian was the chief bodyguard of Levon Sargsian, a wealthy pro-government parliamentarian notorious for punching an opposition colleague two years ago. Also having a house in the same Tsaghkadzor area is Gagik Tsarukian, one of Armenia's richest men who also holds a parliament seat.

According to some media reports, Tsarukian's and Sargsian's men were among the participants of the April 5 rampage. Only two of them have faced a largely symbolic punishment for their role in the violence. A Yerevan court fined them 100,000 drams ($195) each on June 10 following a brief trial dismissed as a "farce" by Armenia's leading media associations.

Two of those groups, the Armenian Journalists Union and the Yerevan Press Club were quick to condemn the Tsaghkadzor attack. "The violence against the journalist and the obstruction of his work are the consequence of the failure to punish those guilty of the previous incidents," they said in a joint statement. "We demand a meaningful intervention from the law-enforcement bodies to identify and punish the guilty."

But Israelian, who lost her camera on April 5 and was a key witness at the subsequent trial, said it would be "ridiculous" for her to turn to the police again. Khachatrian, who is the author of the most famous photograph of victims of the catastrophic 1988 earthquake in Armenia, likewise said he will not lodge a formal complaint with the law-enforcement authorities.

Violence against Armenian journalists, uncommon in the past, increased dramatically this year with the start of the Armenian opposition's unsuccessful spring campaign to oust President Robert Kocharian. In the most serious of such incidents, four reporters were beaten up by security forces during the brutal of break-up of another opposition demonstration in Yerevan in the early hours of April 13. Two of them were severely injured.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

23 August 2004

Opposition Candidate Elected Mayor Of Stepanakert

By Hrant Aleksanian in Stepanakert

An opposition candidate pulled off a surprise upset against the leadership of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) on Sunday when he was elected as mayor of its capital Stepanakert.

Eduard Aghabekian, who has so far headed the social affairs committee of the Karabakh parliament, cruised to a comfortable victory over his government-backed rival Pavel Najarian in the second, decisive round of the election. He won 58.6 percent of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission.

The outcome of the run-of vote could herald a serious change in local politics dominated until now by the NKR President Arkady Ghukasian. Stepanakert is home to a large part of the Armenian-populated region's population.

Aghabekian hailed his victory as a triumph of democracy and pledged to live up to his voters' expectations. `Time for speaking on behalf of the people is gone. It is now time to work for the people,' he told RFE/RL.

Aghabekian trailed Najarian by more than 8 percentage points after the first of voting held on August 9 as part of local elections across the region. He has been endorsed by the Karabakh branch of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and Stepanakert's outgoing mayor, Hamik Avanesian.

Aghabekian said the vote should also send a strong message to the international community. `We have shown the international community that elections in our unrecognized republics can be a success,' he said. `The country has remained peaceful and calm after the first round of voting. This means that a process of democratization is underway.'

The Karabakh elections have been angrily denounced as illegitimate by Azerbaijan. The outgoing secretary general of the Council of Europe, Walter Schwimmer, has similarly criticized them, saying that such `one-sided actions are counter-productive' before a resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

The NKR leadership, backed by Armenia proper, has rejected the criticism, repeating its argument that only elected representatives can govern the Karabakh Armenians.

armenianow.com
August 20, 2004

Outside Eye: A non-Armenian's view of life in his adopted home

By John Hughes
ArmeniaNow Editor

Edgar Arakelyan isn't attending this week's "One Nation, One Culture" festival.

While 1,500 artists from 15 countries will celebrate Armenian spirit and unity with dance and song and theater, Arakelyan sits in prison for his role in rallying for (his idea of ) a unified Armenia. Arakelyan has become an accidental cause celebre of human rights' activists. I don't know enough to judge his character. But little insight is needed to see that he is a victim.

You may know the story. If not, here's a brief synopsis: During an Opposition-led political rally in April, police disbursed alate-night crowd by using water canons, percussion grenades and riot batons. During the melee, Arakelyan, 24, hurled a plastic water bottle that landed on a policeman.

For his action, he is now serving 18 months in jail. Just days ago, his final appeal was denied.

Now here's why we're repeating his story . . .

A month before Arakelyan's crime, another 24-year old, Hayk Aramyan, used anillegally-obtained gun to shoot and wound three men at a Yerevan nightspot. (The shooting, coincidentally, was heard by President Robert Kocharyan who was entertaining Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili at a nearby restaurant.)

This week, Aramyan pled guilty to what amounts to attempted murder. If one man gets 18 months for throwing an empty plastic water bottle into a crowd, what do you guess is the sentence for shooting three men in a nightclub? For Hayk Aramyan? Nothing. Today he can do as he pleases because a court set him free. He might even enjoy the festival, and no doubt could make aninteresting contribution to the "One Culture" theme. Aramyan profited from the one culture in Armenia that splits asunder any notions - no matter how earnestly celebrated - of this being "One Nation".

Aramyan was given a suspended sentence with no jail time because, at the time of his crime (to which, remind you, he pled guilty) his father was amember of the Government, the Minister of Urban Development. To argue otherwise about the merits of his defense is banal rhetoric.

And speaking of his defense: He didn't have one. He didn't even hire a lawyer. That's how confident Aramyan was that being part of the power elite would produce a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

One Nation, One Culture? Not for Edgar Arakelyan. And not, either, for Hayk Aramyan. Divisive lines are drawn between the powerful and the unprotected of Armenia and are enforced by whorish opportunists who'd rather profit from their positions than serve a people who deserve better treatment.

God bless those who come here and use their summer holidays to encourage better relations, understanding, cooperation, etc. But until Armenians of all nations pay more attention to issues that are at the heart of Armenia's double-standard justice and general disregard for human rights, feel-good festivals are little more than myopic perpetuations of a fantasy that has little in common with those here whose "One Nation" most often betrays them.

While visiting with a friend from Stepanagert yesterday, I learned some details from the fatal car accident I wrote about a couple of days ago.

It seems that not only was the pedestrian drunk, but Masis, the 22 year old driver for the Minister of Social Security was drunk.

According to the police, the car skidded for 30 meters before it came to a stop, which is an indication that it was traveling at 130 kilometers an hour, this in a 50 kilometer an hour pedestrian zone.

The victim, a man in his 30’s or 40’s, lost his wife to cancer 3 years ago and had two daughters, ages 15 and 16.

Though fatal car accidents of this kind don’t happen often here, drinking and driving is a very serious problem and being that one can pay a bribe if stopped while doing so, only adds to the problem and explains why it’s so common.

May the victim rest in peace, his orphaned daughters recover from loosing their father and may the law this time work as it should to punish the driver appropriately.