I can’t say I like “Hayk” newspaper, but this article is definately intersting!!!

Anyway, interesting to ponder and as you say, the first reaction of people is amazement that some officials have less than others. Everybody knows they’re loaded, of course.

I didn’t realise it was this bad. Tsarukyan has 500 million ?!! It just goes to show, really, the whole country is stinking of money driven politics.

Regarding the “official rating” - I didn’t notice anyone at least on this blog, calling it anywhere near being official. Moreover, I’m reading the lines in Forbes (Page 9, Forbes Armenian Version, December 2006 issue)explaining, that this list can in no way be regarded as something serious. They have a lengthy discussion about the methodology, and I think it is only honest, that I don’t disclose it here, and suggest you to go buy the journal of your own and read it.

The other issue your brought up is: When will be posting about Jirayr Sifilyan? I have the following comments:
a) Onnik Krikoryan has covered the issue in his blog so well, that I didn’t find it necessary to create a false and needless sense of competition by doing one myself, especially as I’m very busy these days.
b) I also didn’t have anything more to say, or anything to say differently then Onnik has done, so why would I do it??? If you do have important points -
write an e-mail to blogrel@katypearce.org or myself at angry.root@gmail.com and you can almost be sure, that it will be posted on this blog.

Interestingly, Serzh Sarkisyan has come out and said the same thing in response to claims that he’s worth so much. In particular, he says that the owner of the magazine is actually someone linked to Tsarukian so should therefore be careful what he says.

Incidentally, the new Armenian magazine is run by a talk show host working for a television station controlled by Tsarukian. Sarkisian pounced on this fact, indicating that he believes Tsarukian himself drew up and publicized the list. He also implied that he shares the widely held belief that the ambitious tycoon grossly underreports his earnings to evade taxes.

“The list also includes some businessmen,” Sarkisian said. “Do you know that those businessmen had to disclose their income? Did they really disclose it? Please ask them, the publishers. It looks like one of the publishers himself included his name [on the list].”

“Ask him how much he declared. If his [income] declaration is credible, then so is the sum attributed to me,” he added.

Still, we know these guys are loaded and avoiding paying their taxes and so on. In the case of Serzh, for example, we know that even his brother is loaded, but small fry compared to what is alleged about his bro.

Regarding Sefilyan, however, I’d just like to say that I wish Armenian blogs would link to each other more. For example, not every reader of this blog reads my blog and vice-versa so not necessarily does someone find out about a particular story. Besides, even if you have nothing to add it would still be interesting to hear your opinion, whether you disagree or agree, or whether you even care at all.

As an example, I could have left out mention of this Top Ten on my site, but rather than assume people had seen it on Blogrel I linked to it and added my own brief 2 cents. That’s how I think blogs should be — creating a network of original material, but also links to each other.

After all, that’s what trackbacks are really set up to show even if none of us seem to be using them. Unfortunately, the trackbacks option for my site doesn’t work unless you enter the full trackback URL and it’s only wordpress.com that seems to have them automatic by default.

Hopefully we can set a precedent in the Armenian blogosphere for working together rather than in competition.

This got me thinking… maybe I misunderstood somethings, but that’s not the issue. I understood we need some sort of rules and models of cooperation, or “Terms and Conditions” type of something. The stakes are too high, and blogs have too great a potential to risk it and loose it to chaos. Moreover, I’ve been trying to develop some sort of a blogging/commenting nettiquette, especially geared towards commenting/posting in a multicountry / crossboarder environment (meaning: Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Turks, Georgians, Russians posting in the same blog), and thought your ideas and experience in this area would be very helpful. But you are even more busy then I am, so I’ve sort of given up my attempts to try and meet in person:D

At any rate this issue is worth paying some attention to, so if you do find time, let’s discuss it - at least electronically, if face to face meeting is impossible.