My anger over the growing problems of Armenia’s most important natural resource, Lake Sevan, is hitting a boiling point. I am always overjoyed when I finish my climb from either the Dillijan Valley or the Ararat Valley and I am met with the beauty of Lake Sevan. However, her beauty is only skin deep.

more…

Via AKI - After visiting the parent of murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink Armenia’s deputy foreign minister Arman Kirakosian announced, that Armenia is ready to establish diplomatic relations with Turkey without preconditions. Although I did not find any reports in the Armenian media regarding the announcement of high rank Armenian official made in Istambul till the moment I’m writing this lines, I have no basis to doubt that. Moreover, earlier on the day the website of the Armenian Foreign Ministry had released the text of the Message of Sorrow by Minister Oskanian to Hrant Dink’s Family in which we read:

“…Armenians and Turks together can ensure Hrant’s desire for peace across borders, dialogue among peoples and understanding between individuals…” more…

A video grab released by Turkish police shows an image of a man suspected of killing journalist Hrant Dink, one of Turkey’s most prominent ethnic Armenians, as the government came under fire for failing to protect him despite nationalist threats.(AFP/HO)

According to a recent AP news release, Turkish Police detained a suspect early today in the slaying of Hrant Dink, acting on a tip from the boy’s father after his pictures were broadcasted on Turkish television. According to press information provided by the Turkish Police, the suspect’s name is Ogun Samast, a 17 years old caught on a bus in the Black Sea city of Samsun. Samast was apparently on his way from Istanbul back to his hometown of Trabzon.

Reporter Benjamin Harvey of the Associated Press also notes that Dink’s secretary had also identified the young man in the photograph as the same person who had requested a meeting with Dink the day he was killed. The man said he was a student at Ankara University. The request was refused, and the secretary said she saw him waiting in front of a bank about an hour before Dink was killed.

It would be interesting to find out if this teen acted alone or had ties to a group. I doubt we will ever know the authentic truth.

It’s been a very difficult news event for me to follow and reflect upon. From what I can gather, this man was very much loved and respected by not only community ethnic Armenians but by the activist/progressive Turkish community.

The most significant memory I have of Dink was in last years American-PBS documentary film on Genocide where I think Dink describes Turks as being a kind (pari) people. I may be wrong with my recollection of what he specifically stated, but his intentions gave me impression that he was a unifier and not a divider. It is important to remember what Hrant Dink stood for, what he fought for and what he achieved for both Turkey and her minority Armenian community.

I have been following the developments on the assassination of Hrant Dink over the past hours. I am both surprised and proud that so many people came out and showed their support for this man. I must confess that I only really familiarised myself with his work just a couple of days ago, as part of research for a University project I’m doing on Armenian Genocide - however, his dedication and inspiration did impress me.

Just a couple of reflections on the reports we are hearing. According to BBC sources, Robert Kocharyan, Armenian President, is quoted as stating that this murder “raises serious questions” in Turkey. This much is true, but what exact questions these are, is left unmentioned.

I also read reports of Tigran Torosyan - the Speaker of Parliament, who was quoted as stating “Following this, Turkey should not even dream about joining the European Union..”

Whilst this is a tragedy, and a great, great loss. I wonder if there are some people who may seek to use this event as both publicity for the Armenian Genocide ( lets face it, it has been on major news screens today) , and also a chance to insult Turkey. I worry that statements like that of Tigran Torosyan do nothing but agitate an already tense situation. It is naieve to consider that the assassination of Hrant Dink should make Turkey not “even dream” of European Union entry. It is also a bad reflection on the Armenian official position - and I am waiting to hear a comment that suggests this is some kind of Armenian perpertration. It is really time for our Armenian politicians to think carefully about the way they react to this murder.

I hope I got my point accross, I’d be interested to know what our readers think about the possible aftershocks of this assassination.

Shocking news of the murder of Hrant Dink, journalist, editor of Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos:

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Journalist Hrant Dink, one of the most prominent voices of Turkey’s shrinking Armenian community, was killed by a gunman Friday at the entrance to his newspaper’s offices, police said.

Hrant Dink, a 53-year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, had gone on trial numerous times for speaking out about the mass killings of Armenians by Turks at the beginning of the 20th century. He had also received threats from nationalists, who viewed him as a traitor.

Other sources: BBC: Turkish-Armenian writer shot dead | ArmeniaNow: Hrant Dink Murdered: Turkish-Armenian journalist shot dead in Istanbul | A1plus: “DISGUSTING CRIME” ; OSCE APPALLED BY MURDER OF HRANT DINK | iArarat: Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink Murdered in Turkey | Oneworld Multimedia: Hrant Dink Shot Dead in Istanbul

2006 Global Integrity Report proved rather intersting. The report which places Armenia among the very week rating countries comes just a day after Armenia occupied a surprizingly high 32nd Place in World Rating of Economic Freedoms. Not to go into details about why I find the letter result so surprizingly high I’ll just link to Onnik Krikoryan’s post, where the matter is discussed at length.

As Armenia heads into the elections of May 2007, and in the context where absence of any ethical standards in government, inefficiency of the laws and practices designed to combat corruption and prevent abuses of power in the country prevail, the report by the Global Integrity undoubtedly provides information of wide public interest to Armenia.

The country uniformly ranks among countries with week and very week indicators as can be seen in the following indexes. And this time it’s not the discredited Armenian opposition speaking, but rather the results of a major investigative report released by Global Integrity, an international nonprofit organization that tracks governance and corruption trends around the world. more…

My reflection of 2006 is only 17 days late. I figured I had to get through all of the visiting and during my visiting to various cities I would ask my friends and business associates to reflect back on 2006. It was a New Year celebration of interesting conversations.

From my conversations, I would characterize 2006 as the year of the cell phone. Previous to 2006, it was quicker for me in many cases to send a driver with a message to some areas in Lori, Tavush or Gegharkunik than to try to call. Many of the businessmen in those areas we inaccessible which led to tremendous inefficiencies in our work. This past year with Viva Cell increasing its network and reaching some harder to reach areas, we have seen an explosions of cell phones.

more…

“Some things never change in this world” - the advanced internet user of today might think looking at the website of some major Armenian media outlets, like that of AZG daily Armenpress, Arminfo, and a number of others. Many of these guys have been going with the same interface for AGES (3 or more years). I mean - come on! In this world of rapidly changing internet technologies you don’t do that! more…

Just read an article about the Amazing Armenian Charles Aznavour in the International Herald Tribune (Herald Asahi). Dear Charles - oh how I admire you!!!

We all know it, it’s the first thing tourists talk about when they come to Armenia…why do the traffic police take bribes? From personal experience, I can say that it used to upset and anger me so much! Now when I think about this I laugh to myself, because I have given so many of these bribes that they seem perfectly normal to me. Am I bad person for doing this ? Judge for yourselves, to me it is just like paying any other expense for a road trip, like water, or petrol.. but it shouldn’t be. This is where things are supposed to be changing….
Armenia now reports:
From now on the State Auto Inspection ( Pet Avto Deschutiun ) has been renamed the Road Police ( Janapara Parekain Tsarayutiun ) . This is apparently the first part of a $40 million project to eradicate corruption in the service. ( I can see you all laughing and shaking your heads!) . From now on in Yerevan at least, police will not be able to stand famously at corners and flag down cars, no longer will drivers have that feeling in their stomach “is it going to be me….is it going to be me…?” as they approach crossroads. The police will be mobile, driving around locating offending drivers, and there is now a facility for paying fines on the spot.

This is just the first part of a phase by phase project which by the end of this year will see speed cameras, and video cameras recording violations in Yerevan, and automatically sending out reports to violators. This is said to avoid the problem of police being scared to stop drivers of luxury cars. Eventually this will happen throughout the regions.

The aim is to stop the basic bribe taking practice by offering drivers more chance to pay fines legitimately, and the police officers will get a cut of this fine. Much like here in the UK. This does sound great, but It remains to be seen if it will be implemented. There is $40million of World Bank money at stake, so I guess it is a serious project - I do worry however, that the corruption is being shifted elsewhere, from the street, to the offices of the police..a much harder corruption to detect.

The world is made of 200 different situations, and if you do something here, doesn’t necessarily apply to everywhere else. This is what The Rt Hon Lord Hurd of Westwell CH CBE PC told us today in his speech on “Britain and the World”. This comment was while answering to the questions: why the invasion in Iraq wasn’t followed by an invasion in North Korea, and on what will the Kosovo precedent mean for the Nagorno-Karabakh, Sth. Ossetian, Abkhazian, etc. conflicts (the second question asked by me naturally ). more…

I remember reading that one and only issue of Forbes Armenian version and thinking: just how could this happen? How could a company like “Forbes” allow such unprofessional publication: bad layout, low quality print - but worst of all: extreemly biased reporting. It wasn’t even close to journalism - although Petros Ghazarian, then the Editor In-Chief was one of the well-known Armenian journlists. So when I read this report in the Yerevan Press Club’s weekly newsletter, I felt that finally things are straigthening up! So - let’s wait and see what happens… more…

Had to do a round of introductions today on issues in Democracy for an international group of people representing various countries with similar or worse democratic problems than those of ARmenia. As we had 12 presenters, the speaches had to be done in 5 minutes max, and had to include our vision of Democracy in the UK and Democracy Problems in our countries. Really really tight - isn’t it? I had to choose carefully what to say and how to convey a more or less general picture. As we didn’t really have time to prepare the little impromptu speech I made was rather one sided, still, I guess I ought to publish it here - for public shame and comments… more…

Two keys, access code for the main entrance, access code for the residential wing, access code for the kitchen and access code for the main reception room… that makes it a total of 6 security measures for me to claim full control of my living space in the Birminghem University, UK. Man - this is the country of scared people… why else would you lock so many doors in one building??? more…