The year started up bad for journalists in Armenia - even worse than the previous year, here’s a troubling list of some of the recent events:

1. “…The three-and-a-half year jail sentence handed to the editor of “Zhamanak Yerevan” - Arman Babajanian…” RFE/RL.
2. “…The Toyota Prado belonging to Suren Baghdasarian of the “Football Plus” weekly and parked in a garage outside his central Yerevan apartment was completely destroyed by fire…” RFE/RL.
3. “…Arson attack on an expensive SUV belonging to Ara Saghatelian, the owner and editor of the “Im Iravunke” weekly…” (The photo and the quotes above all taken from the web site of RFE/RL).

Without going into much discussion as to who, why and how caused all these problems for the Armenian journalists (which was my initial intention when starting this post), I want to call on everyone in the Armenian public, to protect the journalists, even the very bad ones, and especially the good ones, as the authorities are clearly not doing their job of protecting journalists - those people so much necessary to scrutinize power in a democratic system. I could suggest, that on the contrary, the state is incouraging violence against the journalists if I only had facts, but as I don’t - I’m not going to say that. I am only going to limit myself to appeal to the public and say: protect the journalists - from everyone, and especially from the state, for who will ask the questions when they’re gone?

PS: I visited the newsroom of the Daily Telegraph yesterday and my reaction was WOW! No wonder these journalists are so dedicated to their work - they are a power in UK - real economic, political, social power… whearas fire and jail are the best reward for the best journalists in Armenia. Guess who will be more inclined to provide quality journalism to their readers?

ArmeniaLiberty reports on the apparently violent infighting in one of Armenia’s oldest conservative opposition parties : “The Union for Constitutional Rights” . It seems that Hrant Khachatrian, the party’s former leader, who was ousted during a recent congress by Hayk Babukhanian, attempted to enter the party headquarters. The result was a violent clash, and Khatchatrian admitted “slapping” Babukhanian in the face.

It was only after a “special police” unit was called to the scene, that the brawl was calmed.

I am interested - we are often used to the mass media “opposition bashing” usually because of their own loyalty to the administration, but really, are we given anything more to think when such events are taking place? I understand that this party , despite it’s age , is not a very large or influential one - but nevertheless it is part of the opposition alliance, which was created in an attempt to dismiss claims that the opposition is disorganised and incapable of running the country.

If these guys can’t even act in a civil manner towards their own colleagues, how on earth are they going to discuss issues of war and peace with Aliyev and Gul, Genocide Recognition around the world , control the various criminal elements in the country..amongst Armenia’s other obstacles.

It is also worthy of note that this “special police” unit seems to be increasingly influential in solving problems which many might feel the police should be solving. Is there really need for a special police unit to be called to a minor fight? Or was this some sort of deeper PR stunt aimed at taking advantage of the situation for bad press. Maybe I am over analysing this. Special police is a very ominous term, because it gives the impression that being “special” it is therefore secret, and accountable to no one, bar the administration. It also begs the question, if the police units cant handle a minor fight, then we have a serious problem.

I recall an incident when I was sat in a Cafe in Yerevan - a drunken Armenian was racially abusing an Indian student. The Armenian then started violently kicking and punching him. Passersby attempted to help, but the guy was crazy. Instead of calling the police, within minutes, the “Red Beret” police ( who hang around the Opera, quite often ) arrived, in a troop. They floored the Armenian guy ( an impressive display of physical force, some kind of martial art move, it seemed!) and threw him into a black van. Like something out of a movie ? Yes. Impressive? Perhaps yes. Reassuring ? Yes. But in a “civilised” situation - a normal police brigade would be called, escort the man away, arrest him formally then take him to the station for questioning. Is it so odd to expect such behaviour in Armenia?

Sorry if this is a long write up, I hope we have some interesting views here!

I’ve grown to admire Elif Shafak’s opinions, especially nowadays as they give us a solid preview of what life can be like for a progressive Turkish contemporary writer/intellectual living and working in a post Hrant Dink world.

Listen to this recent interview on NPR’s Fresh Air radio program and please share your thoughts:

In this particular interview, it was interesting to listen to Shafak’s continued solid stance that the radical Turkish Nationalist movement is really a minority voice that is on the fringes of contemporary Turkish society, a compete opposite of what I originally conceived. There is a lot about Turkish society I have yet to discover, but it seems to be clear that there is this silent majority within the literate groups of Turkey who seem to be intellectually frustrated and actively questioning the official government “feed” about many current issues and past dark historical events. This is a good thing, as it may directly or indirectly propel a richer level of communicative openness and idea-exchange within Turks about various “Armenian” taboo topics in Turkish society such as the Ottoman era Armenian Genocide and the moral legitimacy of Turkey’s current day Armenian economic/border blockade.

Author Elif Shafak was acquitted after being taking to trial for “insulting Turkishness” when a fictional character described the Armenian genocide in her latest book. AFP/Getty Images

Armenianow.com had an interesting article “Present and Future Power Debate: Who will be the choices in 2008?” which examines the possible scenarios of political developments, probable candidates and the effects of these decisions on the political life in the country. However, all the arguments brought to and for this or that candidate in the article are most irrelevent to see the overall picture in the country. The one and only thing that got me interested was rather this one single point made by Washington D.C./Yerevan political analyst Richard Giragosian: more…

So, Nigel Charnock, a British based dance artist has been condemned by the Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosian, by dancing on the Armenian flag, as well as wrapping it around his naked body. Some ministers have gone as far to brand the dancer ” a criminal” under a law which claims any defacement of the Armenian tricolour constitues prosecution.

Charnock has apologised for his performance, brought over by the British Council, and he stated that he only wanted it to represent the love felt when he was in Armenia.

I couldn’t help but wonder - whilst I appreciate, seeing an Armenian flag danced upon and wrapped around a male body, is probably not a pleasant sight…we may consider the deeper meanings of this, Charnock has said why he did it. What made me sneer inside was the numerous other, far more obvious “insults” to Armenian dignity that one may come accross every day in Armenia :

The piles of rotting rubbish on the streets, people eating seeds and throwing them all over the floor outside an Opera house home to a stage named after one of this Century’s most prominent composers, or watching Armenian Grandmothers beg for money so desperately, whilst the dust from a hummer owned by a well connected “guarantor of Armenian dignity” covers the citizens on the street… Tell me, where is the ranting and raving about these everyday insults to Armenian dignity? Who is going to brand these people criminals?

Wow! I spoke of my dream of having Armenia covered by a technology such as wimax which is a long range computer networking technology. In short, it is like taking your current home wireless router and giving it 10,000 times more power. Today, Cornet seems to be announcing plans to move head with wimax installation.
more…

RFE/RL reports phenomenal figures in Armenia’s tourism industry.

…The increased influx of tourists, most of them foreign nationals of Armenian descent, was particularly visible last year. Virtually all hotels in central Yerevan and flights to and from the Armenian were fully booked from August through October, the traditional peak period for travel to Armenia… more…

Wednesday night we ended up watching American Idol’s L.A. auditions on the Fox network. Last night’s program finally televised an Armenian American from Southern California. I really don’t have the nerve to describe what I saw as this performance was beyond anything I have ever seen on national television. Check out Martik Manoukian’s unusual American Idol audition now posted on YouTube. Let us know what you think. Hey, good performance or bad, Martik was fresh and entertaining.