Alvard Gevorgyan strokes her 10-year-old daughter Mariam’s head and says agitatedly: “It was very hard to get my baby back, I thought I would never see her again. When she returned, she was sick and ridden with ticks and lice. The skin on her head was covered in sores.”

Mariam is one of 30 children who were sent to India to be educated at the Calcutta Charitable Seminary under an assistance program agreed with the Armenian Apostolic Church. She was just seven when she left Armenia in 2001.

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The law on “Alternative Military Service” came into force on July 1.

Those who refuse to carry guns from religious conviction can now apply to military enlistment offices for exemption from service before the next draft call-up on September 1. Instead of 24 months in the military, however, they will be required to complete an alternative conscription of 36 or 42 months.

Until now, military service has been obligatory for all young males in Armenia without exception. The alternative service will take two forms: conscripts serving 36 months will undergo training in the army but carry out non-combatant tasks, while those who refuse to enter the military must spend 42 months on a form of civilian service in hospitals, elderly homes and other social provision.

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The art of opera in Armenia suffered a sad loss this week with the death of director and singer Tigran Levonyan.

Levonyan, People’s Artist of the Republic of Armenia and a state prize laureate, died on June 25 aged 68. Thousands of admirers attended his funeral service on June 29 at Yerevan’s Opera House to bid a last farewell to the artist as the magnificent sounds of the Anush opera rang out.

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A survey of 1,950 citizens of Armenia has found that 67.7 per cent say they are ready to “participate to their utmost in the defense of Mountainous Karabakh in the event of a fresh outbreak of hostilities”.

The survey, which also includes the opinions of 50 policy analysts revealed, too, that 40.7 per cent of the general public would agree to peace agreement compromises “only in case of Azerbaijani recognition of Karabakh’s independence”.

The Armenian Center for National and International Studies conducted the survey during late May until mid-June.

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A controversial former Karabakh reporter has launched a new newspaper in Armenia, claiming that it will become a tribune for all political forces which possess sensible ideas and sane policy and will serve the interests of society.

“Yerrord Uzh” newspaper appeared this week in Yerevan thus joining the ten major newspapers which claimed to be independent print media in Armenia.

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President Robert Kocharyan’s speech in Strasbourg to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has caused wide public and political resonance in Armenia .

The President used his address last week to underline two key factors characterizing the Karabakh conflict: that Nagorno Karabakh had never been part of independent Azerbaijan and that therefore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has nothing to do with the independent Republic of Nagorno Karabakh.

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