First, I would like to thank Matt for the opportunity to post my thoughts here on Blogrel. As you can tell from my name, I am not Armenian; however, I have lived for many years in rural Armenia.

First and foremost, I have come to love Armenia very much. I have been to many places but the people of rural Armenia are strong people who view the world much differently than I have ever viewed it.

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Armenia occupies the 82nd place by economic competition indices among 125 countries of the world, one position down as compared to 2005. (Source: Prime Business News)
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As the latest developments in the UN are showing, Azerbaijan is shifting its attention towards forming bigger alliances and burying the essence of the Karabakh problem under the global contradictions around energy security, anti-Russian moods and ducking behind the scandalous image of Mikhail Saakashvili, the president of Georgia.
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Having docked in the Shahumyan square, Yerevan for 5 days, Cilicia will sail to the harbor near the Opera house, most probably the wharf of the Freedom square in Yerevan, where it will spend 5 days – to the joy of the children and some romantic airheads, wide open for anybody to get on-board, take photos, talk to the sailors and wonder: where will it go from here?
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After the long absence of new posts, we now have three new contributors, and so there should be a reglar amount of new posts.

Blogrel gets a lot of comment spam, so don’t be suprised if you don’t see your comment immediately, as ALL comments including those of the contributors must be approved. Sorry about this but it’s the only way to beat the comment spam!

99% of the Armenian voters stated their determination to have an Independent State – Republic of Armenia when they came together on September 21, 1991 to participate in the all-Armenian referendum.

15 years after - as 3.5 thousand troops march through the biggest and most beautiful square of Armenia, many Armenians view the celebrations and official speeches with mixed feelings. And while the First and Second Armenian TV channels burst into tearful pride under the last sounds of the national Anthem (soon to be changed into one of these: Anthems), many don’t even bother remembering the Anniversary in the tight family circle – where all the true feelings come afloat.

My personal views on the Armenian government and politics can be described as strictly oppositional. Still, I find it hard to observe peoples’ bitterness towards the Independence.

Independence is an absolute value, in spite of all problems it has brought to us. Let us celebrate this one day with pride – after all – it is only once a year! Hail to the Independent Armenia!

This is yet another shooting story for you guys.

A guy my age ( 20 ) was shot today in Gyumri, after he had an argument over driving too fast.

I don’t know, but I can’t imagine the solution to any argument being shooting each other… but I guess this is Armenia today. Shame on us.

We only just about survived the earthquake in Gyumri, now we go shooting each other as well?

http://www.blogrel.com/wp-content/CiliciaHacked.jpg

It makes me sad to see how angry, gullible and misguided tech savvy Azeri youth spend their time hacking at one of the only few “positive” Armenian web portals.

The dead body of a football fan was found in the boiler room at Republican Stadium A1 plus reports. There are no more details, except that the boy went to the watch the Armenia - Belgium match but reportedly never returned home.

Although on a different footing - the recent murder of the head of the tax investgation service Shahen Hovsepyan, and this death are the latest in what can only be described as a string of deaths / murders in Armenia. For a country of this size, surely these regular deaths are worrying? I for one do not feel even half as safe in Yerevan as I used to, maybe this is psychological, but there is certainly an air of “Let’s just kill each other - we wont get punished” going on in the Republic. This is shameful and the Armenian “authorities” should be doing far far more to address this instead of organising conferences and firework displays that please over excited Diasporans into buying a property. I know thats a controversial statement to make, but surely we should primarily be concerned with the safety of the average citizen in Armenia - people need to feel that the law enforcement bodies are out to help - not hinder them

As you can see from Matt’s post below, there have been no blogs for a long while. I am unable to explain the absence of the other bloggers, but my role of showbusiness blogging turned into a more general one. I can explain my absence - I’ve been in Armenia ,for a long while …and I will try to briefly sum up what I got from my 2 month trip this time around.

I was working this year, at a very big Armenian TV station - I won’t name it, - the people I worked with were great, the experience was great - but all in all I was left with a true taste of exactly how difficult living in Armenia is, and how completely inverted the mass media is in Armenia.

I am worried to explain what exactly I learned about this tv company, mainly because I know there are very powerful people who would not be happy to read it - but all I can say is the well wishing and generosity of some people can be grossly taken advantage of, and used to produce what we would call “Commercial” programming. This channel - which claims to take the interests of the diaspora to heart. - is merely putting on a facade, they charge for the subscription, thats if you can find anyone to offer you one.. the canteen closes at 2pm because the boss doenst want anyone eating after that - but the ladies will let you in through the back door if you knock - and the receptionist spends more time talking to her boyfriend than actually answering anyones questions…oh, and if you want a glass of water, you can go drink from the hose pipe out back, then return to your desk full of $25,000 worth of editing equipment - all of these seem pretty trivial, but when you are in a huge media complex, it becomes baffling!

You might try to contact someone to discuss the matter - but the fact is, no one cares.

I hope I have summed up why recently, Armenia has left nothing but a bitter taste in my mouth.

I hope to be more positive in the near future

As you can see from Matt’s post below, there have been no blogs for a long while. I am unable to explain the absence of the other bloggers, but my role of showbusiness blogging turned into a more general one. I can explain my absence - I’ve been in Armenia ,for a long while …and I will try to briefly sum up what I got from my 2 month trip this time around.

I was working this year, at a very big Armenian TV station - I won’t name it, - the people I worked with were great, the experience was great - but all in all I was left with a true taste of exactly how difficult living in Armenia is, and how completely inverted the mass media is in Armenia.

I am worried to explain what exactly I learned about this tv company, mainly because I know there are very powerful people who would not be happy to read it - but all I can say is the well wishing and generosity of some people can be grossly taken advantage of, and used to produce what we would call “Commercial” programming. This channel - which claims to take the interests of the diaspora to heart. - is merely putting on a facade, they charge for the subscription, thats if you can find anyone to offer you one.. The news readers spend more time playing around in corridors and putting lipstick on than they do taking their role seriously. The canteen closes at 2pm because the boss doenst want anyone eating after that - but the ladies will let you in through the back door if you knock - and the receptionist spends more time talking to her boyfriend than actually answering anyones questions…oh, and if you want a glass of water, you can go drink from the hose pipe out back, then return to your desk full of $25,000 worth of editing equipment .

You might try to contact someone to discuss the matter - but the fact is, no one cares.

I hope I have summed up why recently, Armenia has left nothing but a bitter taste in my mouth.

I hope to be more positive in the near future

As you may have noticed, there have been no posts for the past few months. Blogrel is now looking for a new contributor or contributors to post articles and moderate comments.

If you think you might be able to write for Blogrel, then please send an email to kjcjmzx02@sneakemail.com.

You should be able to post at least once or twice per week and all posts should follow Blogrel’s guidelines, i.e. be related to Armenia or Armenians.