Ara at Martuni or Bust writes about human trafficking that is becoming more serious in Armenia and in the rural areas in particular where people are poorer. In my previous post discussing the industriousness of the Armenian woman, you can understand how people praying on these young women can use their drive to improve the situation for themselves and their family against them. A lot of information about the problem can be found on HETQ.am which of course is a tremendously important organization which has brought light to the issue of human trafficking.

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Guests of Yerevan, Spyurkahay brothers, tourists - I have great news! Bilingual (Armenian-English) signs, pointing to important places in Yerevan were seen downtown. I am the witness. more…

The backbone of Armenia is her women. The Armenian woman must be one of the most industrious creatures on Earth. As I go from meeting to meeting, I am very happy when I find a member of the meeting group to be female. The reason for this is that with a woman present, things will get done.

Now, before all the Armenian men swear me off, I am not saying there are no capable men in Armenia. There are many capable men but what I have found is that the true key to the future is the Armenian woman. Armenian Women are very capable and they work from sun up to well after sun down. They help their family, friends and even strangers when ever asked. They are tireless and educated.

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On October 18, the “Haykakan Zhamanak” newspaper published a report by Hayk Gevorgyan, entitled: “They are deceiving us again”. In this article, we read: “The regular session of the inter-parliamentary commission of the Armenian parliament and the Russian Federation Council was held in Yerevan in recent days and a delegation led by the chairman of the commission, Nikolay Ryzhkov, arrived in Yerevan to take part in the session. They brought a document called “Trade and economic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia”. The fifth page of the document says: “ArmRosgazprom will buy from the Armenian government a 40km sector of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline which is under construction and the incomplete 5th unit of the Razdan power plant… The deal should be implemented by 1 January 2007.”
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Well known Armenian pop singer, Varduhi Vardanyan was killed yesterday at approx. 2pm whilst returning from a concert in Martuni. Her BMW vehicle that she was driving, slipped off the road between Martuni and Getap and fell. Varduhi died on the scene, 2 passengers are in hospital. Varduhi was well known for her patriotic songs, as well as being one of the most powerful voices in Armenia. She also left a family, including a 7 year old son. We send our sympathies.

On October 12, 2006 – French Parliament passed a bill criminalizing the denial of the fact, that the Ottoman Turkish Empire committed Genocide against Armenians in 1915. On the same date the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

It is indisputable, that Turkey should acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and bear the full consequences as stated by the International Law after a subsequent action at the International Criminal Court.

Censorship and lynching are not appropriate anymore, not in Europe! And this is something the ‘European’ Turkey should remember before making all the fuss about the Genocide Bill in France. As OKTAY EKSI has duly noted in HURRIYET, “We stress that France is a disgrace to the civilised world. However, it is a precondition for Turkey, which tells others that ‘what you are doing is shameful in terms of freedom of expression’ first of all to get rid of its own sources of shame.”
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Armenia is in a very interesting part of the world. As most of you know it is in the Southern Caucuses but this is a new designation. As I travel around the country and see the 1000 year old monuments of the silk trail with Armenian and Arabic languages, it brings up a time when Mother Russia was an unknown neighbor and Armenia was very much part of what is today called the Middle East.

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The interview of Mr. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the scandalously infamous leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia, aired on October 8th, during the evening newscast of the Armenian Shant TV, was designed to scare. And it was definitely designed in Kremlin, like we have seen in so many cases in the past. The problem is - it didn’t scare, but rather aroused mixed feelings of disgust, and a vague understanding of - “So that’s what role Russia has prepared for all of us, the ‘little brother nations’! (He mentioned Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States among the lucky ones to go worship the Big Brother)
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If you want to see the real beauty of Armenia, come here in October – that’s my advice to all my friends. That’s my advice to you. The nature around is beautiful (that is to say – if you have the heart to try hard and find some nature) and you might want to give a try to a car-ride around the Lori region: drive the road from Vanadzor to Alaverdi, and to crown it all - go see the Hakhpat Monastery.
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As I travel through out rural Armenia, I am realizing that there is too much educational capacity. In the typical town, there are over 15 schools. Each school has a large half used building, a director, two vice directors, a director of grounds and a full compliment of teachers. In Europe or the US, similar areas would have at most two primary schools and two secondary schools. It is estimated by various international organizations that Armenia has a 63% public employment and for a country of 2.5 million people, that is a huge public sector. It is easy to see much of that capacity exists in the education sphere.

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Assuming the role of information is to help people make correct decisions which will make their life better, the only correct decision the citizens of Armenia can make, after looking at this charts and the comments to them by the Head of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Tigran Sargsyan, is to ask their relatives not to send any USD Money Transfers to Armenia, and investors: not to invest USD in Armenia, and the Millennium Challenges Corporation: not to grant $235 Million USD to Armenia.
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…that probably wasn’t the first point in Sahakashvili’s agenda. Still, that’s what Georgia is clearly getting out of the scandal: according to data from the Regional Electoral Committee of Akhalkalaki (the predominantly Armenian populated town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region in Georgia), Akhalkalaki with 7052 voters will have 1 delegate to the regional sakrebulo (the local representative self-government body), which is as many as the Georgian village Ptena with 204 voters. The elections in Georgia certainly look promising… and will probably go by unnoticed, lost in the overall spy-scandal fuss!!!
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It is good to see that the national budget is increasing the salaries of public employees but there seems to be no initiative to improve responsiveness of the public sector and reduce corruption. There are the various aid organizations that have programs but none of them seem to be making a dent in the environment of corruption and payoffs.

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It’s good we have those rare power cuts in Armenia (mostly caused by rains) - I seem to forget sometimes just how bad it used to be in mid-90s. more…