The Armenian Public Broadcaster, H1 today launched it’s long overdue version of the popular “Haylur” news program, aimed specifically at the Diaspora.

The newscast will air everyday at midnight on the Satellite schedule of the broadcaster, and is completely in the Western Armenian language. This should help address the problem of difficulty in understanding the current broadcasts, which are very speedy and use new/soviet emergences of Eastern Armenian, often resulting in difficulty with understanding. It will also feature news from Armenian communities around the world.

I ( and I’m sure many other Armenians in the diaspora) have been wondering why there was no such broadcast for many years, and this should hopefully help to bridge the information gap. The program is sponsored by the All Armenian Fund

There is little that needs to be said about this day . It is something that we all, as Armenians, feel passionately about.

What remains to be seen is whether our passion will eventually be translated into action. I am speaking from a personal perspective, as I know there are many Armenians (and non Armenians) who dedicate themselves to protests, and perserverance on this issue.

Without sounding too prophetic, I think we should all ask ourselves the question “What concrete steps have I taken to help the cause for recognition of the Armenian Genocide?”. I ask myself this now, and I can shamefully answer - not many at all.

Ok, I attended a march in London on the weekend, but is that enough? I don’t think so . Walking once a year then forgetting is not effective.

Have I even written to my local MP, asking him to back the lobby in the UK Government? No.

Have I told anyone about the screamers movie? No.

So today I am going to do both of those things, perhaps to quash my own guilt, but at least It’s something, and next year I can answer yes to both of those questions. I think if we all ask ourselves this question, and try to yes the questions we said no to, we may get further. Everyone’s action makes a difference.

“We will develop 90 percent of our relations with Russia and 10
percent with Europe and others,”

Taken from Gagik Tsarukyan’s Recent interview on a Russian television station, discussing what his party, “Prosperous Armenia” intends to do with Armenia’s foreign policy agenda. I am seriously becoming worried about what the future holds for the nation if this is the extremity with which the party intends to sever relations with Europe.

This comes after US Assistant Secretary of State has hinted that Armenia is lagging behind its neighbours, despite having more advantages:
Armenia should have been “way ahead of Georgia” in terms of democratic reforms given the strength of its worldwide Diaspora and its links with Europe and the United States. “Armenia should be doing better,” he said. “It should be a leader. It should be a prospering country. It has all the ingredients.”

Many speculate that there will soon be a “crunch point” when Armenia will have to decide which direction it wants to sway, US/Europe, or Russia. We all know the merits/disadvantages of each, but with other nations voicing serious concerns about Human Rights and Democracy in Russia, we can hope for little change in Armenia’s situation. Are we on the verge of becoming another Belarus? ( extreme example, but worth a thought….)

Gagik Tsarukyan’s “Prosperous Armenia” party clearly used his economic might to create a shining advert, infact one of the most inspiring political ads I have ever seen. With people going up in planes, flying over Armenia and sprinkling “prosperous dust” , watching as kind Mr Tsarukyan hugs kids. Clips from scientific institutions, and clips of the people turning over a new page in a giant history book. As well as a picture of skyscrapers appearing in Yerevan’s skyline ( probably as he is building most of them)

Really, what is Armenia when Gagik Tsarukyan is being overlayed with a picture of the bible. Set to a romantic song sang by popstars, this was really inspiring, but what was saddest is that it is created off the back of very shady means.

So the campaign season has kicked off, and as planned, the state television “H1″ has been providing 1 hours worth of advertisements daily. Each party gets 2 minutes free, but some are paying for more.

While I am not commenting on the content of the party manifestos, or endorsing anyone, I am simply going to make some notes on what I’ve seen and thought since watching them today.

Hopefully I’ll be able to post the adverts on youtube soon for our readers to see.

As per usual, the parties seem to be focusing far more on their leaders, pictures of them smiling, doing nice things in villages - and with little mention of actual party politics, this is common even in the UK though. My favourite so far has been the “Orinats Erkir” party, which recorded a remake of the Forsh song “Henc Ayspes El Aprum Enq”, and included clips of “workers” , “Teachers” and “businessmen” who all wanted to live in a country of law.

Raffi Hovhanissyan’s Heritage Party showed clips from it’s rally in a hotel, where Arto Tunjboyadjyan arrived with his band to sing for the crowd. I was surprised to see him mixing up in politics. Raffi’s team was pretty good, and included Larisa Alaverdyan, the first Armenian Human Rights Defender, who strongly criticised the authorities for the human rights record.

By far the sickliest was Tigran Karapetyan’s , “People’s Party” , it basically consisted with glorifying pictures of himself in church, then a blatant advertisement for his “ALM” tv company, showing clips of him taking a quality award in London. Quality for what, I wonder, as ALM tv is possibly one of the most harrowing things you may ever see.

I also found Aram Karapetyan’s “New Time’s” speech quite interesting, he has decided to use his free 2 minutes exposing the “irregularities” within various figures of the government. Very brave, if anything. Today he spoke about General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan and his bribes recieved from various oligarchs.

The “Impeachment” alliance directly attacks Kocharyan, Serj Sargsyan, and Gagik Tsarukyan, with pictures of them, and then a big red line through their faces, with a caption “Impeachment”.

Anyway, I appreciate these are hard to imagine without seeing the footage, but I will try to get some up soon. Still the problem remains that even the opposition parties are not convincing enough to make me feel that they could achieve much. Perhaps based on adverts, Orinats Yerkir showed the most promise, but we all know that means nothing until we see results.

Our Armenian Citizens certainly have a difficult decision to make.

It is no wonder Armenia’s reputation runs risk of turning into some kind of rogue state where people get shot for working in politics. Armenialiberty reports on an assasination attempt on the mayor of Gyumri Vartan Ghukasian, a controversial figure with some corruption accusations hanging over his head. He is also a high ranking member of the republican party. He survived the drive by shooting but 3 of his bodyguards were killed.

In the international press, they are quick to describe Armenia as a “turbulent, impoverished ex Soviet nation”…and they quickly refer to the attack on parliament in 1999. A tourist sitting in Amsterdam will search Armenia and see this. I always like to talk about Armenia being safe and secure, and whilst I know this kind of thing “happens everywhere”, when we talk of Armenians being a close and warm nation - it seems politics is a game only for those who are as violent and unruly as each other.

My solution? We all move to Glendale, re build somewhere that looks roughly like Armenia..(it’s already almost there!) .wait a few years, let all the oligarchs, mafiosos, party members, and mayors, run over each other, shoot each other, stab each other, poison each other , or kill via any other desirable method…. Then once the last one has died, we can all move back and be safe, and hopefully a little richer.

This is , of course, wishful thinking.