The head of the notoriously corrupt Passport and Visa agency (OVIR) was sacked today in the latest bout of corruption swilling attempts by Tigran Sarksians newly formed cabinet.

Having had dealings with this ridiculous agency myself, to say I’m happy is an understatement. Let’s see what happens, though. I personally have had to pay bribes, be ridiculed, and harassed by this one guy at OVIR, who I Hope next time I visit, will have left, and taken his huge gigantic gut with him….Let’s hope!

Things in Lebanon are not back to normal yet and seems with possible failure in Doha talks, Tensions will increase. But what has it to do with Armenians?

An adviser to prime minister Siniora has told to Voice of Lebanon Radio Program: “The Armenians want “rights” in Lebanon.. while they have only crumbs in Armenia”
Obviously elements in the Government which is backed by United states are angry with the way, Armenian have sided in the political scene of Lebanon.
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I found the above titled article on the Hetq website. This touched a nerve with me as someone who looks to perhaps begin a future in Armenia. It really is a testimony to how the goodwill of people can be abused anywhere in the world, but how Armenia’s “system” can leave us all disillusioned. I am not one to focus on negatives, but I just hope this can make us all think a little. The hunger for money, greed, excess and status seems to have reached epic proportions in Armenia these days, especially since many can now “just” afford to show off, it seems that more people are inclined to do it. I speak as someone who has sometimes felt compelled to do this myself. Why is it in Armenia, suddenly the make and model of my mobile phone becomes important? Why is it always necessary to assert authority wherever I go? Maybe it’s a weakness in me, or Armenians in general, or maybe we just all get pulled into the way things are these days in Armenia. Either way, it is ridiculous, and it has to stop. I quote the article from here forward:

“Today I am sad. Thirteen years ago I decided to leave France, my third homeland, and relocate to Armenia, with the intention to invest in the fatherland, which I did by creating the Le Cafe de Paris. I invested my time, energy, health and resources, so that our little Parisian cafe could illuminate Abovyan Street.
printable version

email to friend

Over time the Cafe has become a favorite place to do business, meet friends and just relax. However my little dream has turned into an unending nightmare. Not wishing to delve into my personal problems, I’d just like to simple note that due to my faith, perhaps misplaced, in my fellow man I gave a loan to a person. This person claimed that he couldn’t repay the loan while actually he just refused to do so. When I took this person into my business, out of a sense of charity, I realized that he was periodically stealing from me along with other employees he had won the loyalty of. These employees, like their patron, had become corrupted, one more than the other. I could say that this is a fairly commonplace occurrence that can happen anywhere. But everywhere else there is a system of justice that serves as strong defender of one’s rights and interests. The justice system is there to grab the hand of the thief…This is the reality everywhere except in my beloved Armenia where the practice of justice is corrupt to the very core, where compromises are made with the guilty party, where the weak are preyed upon for all they have, the spoils to be split with the powerful, and where money is valued more than the truth. This is the reason for my grief. I am sad that our beloved Armenia, so dear to our hearts, has ceased to function normally. I am sad because in the event that things continue in this way I will be forced to close the Cafe and return to France.

Valerie Gortzounian”

Two pro-opposition Armenian lawmakers have been arrested for allegedly attempting a coup d’etat following violent clashes in the ex-Soviet country that left eight dead, police said Monday. Deputy Miasnik Malkhasian was arrested for “attempting to seize
power,” the press service of the Armenian police told AFP. A source in the security services said that deputy Hakob Hokopian was arrested on the same charge. The two were arrested overnight Sunday, police said.
The opposition immediately denounced the arrests. “This is a new step in the violence the authorities are using against the opposition to deprive it of its leadership,” said Arman Musinian, a spokesman for opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian.

Earlier Today I posted about Human rights watch statement on the recent incidents in Armenia,here is the full statement.

The United Nations human rights chief today voiced deep concern at reports that at least eight people have been killed and many others injured during demonstrations in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where the results of recent presidential elections have been disputed.

Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement in which she said she was particularly concerned that force was used against peaceful demonstrators yesterday and that opposition protesters have been detained.

Wow,Finally Their patience ended. I think they were waiting for Arthur’s return to the government. Armenia liberty also says Levon is under house arrest which if true isn’t surprising.
Artmika in his weblog follows the news. Armenian observer also has a post about it,there are always interesting comments.

Update 1: Seems A1+ building is being surrounded by police forces.

Update 2: ItarTass: The opposition will use all legal means to continue the struggle against Armenia’s authorities, first Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosyan said. He said opposition had warned ambassadors of EU countries and the U.S. ambassador about the events in Yerevan.

Videos like this and this , are the most disturbing ones i have seen recently. Armenia, for sure has a very very long way toward democracy and I do not know who is going to lead us to that path. I don’t see any of the current major political forces capable of doing so. They are actually the same,just in the opposite direction.
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Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian won Armenia’s presidential election in a first round Tuesday with 57.1 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll commissioned by Armenian Public Television.
The leading opposition candidate, former president Levon Ter-Petrosian, came in second place with 17.4 percent while Artur Baghdasarian came in third with 14.6 percent, according to the poll.
Even before polls closed, Ter-Petrosian’s campaign team decried the vote as a fraud and called for a mass rally in Yerevan on Wednesday.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Hrand Dink’s killing in front of Agos weekly. News agencies and different media outlets have reports from Turkey. Thousands of people have once again gathered in Istanbul, carrying signs “we are all Armenians”.
BBC’s Sarah Rainsford has a piece on Hrand Dink and why he is considered a controversial figure in Turkey, still a year after his death. There is a dark tone in the article by karin, Hrand’s friend saying:

“It was one of the darkest years, but what can we do? We have to go on. But I have no reason to be hopeful.”

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I’ve been following news on coming presidential election in Armenia. I have no vote and do not have a favorite also. From one point, I think presence of former president is good, because it has shaken things, people.
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The most Interesting Issue in the past weeks, regarding the Armenian genocide issue, has been how the American media behaved.
Washington post to my idea completely was against the resolution. it published an editorial which was mentioned during the committee hearing and it clearly asked the congress committee to vote against resolution. Washington post even a few days ago published another story called Armenians Who Need Help Today from Editor of Editorial page and criticized the Armenian diaspora for their effort on genocide issue.
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Armenia 1 (H1), the national television station, has been put to use by Serzh and his brother. The target, the meat selling area across from Tashir commonly called “Gyum Market”. As we know, there is no free press in Armenia. The closest thing that comes to it is Hetq.am and they are constantly under threat by those with power and money.

The goal of the brothers Sarkisyan is to drive down sales volumes by reporting about the sanitary conditions of the meat selling area. The fact is the area has not changed much in many years. There is no more a risk than there was ten years ago. By focusing the weapon of Armenia 1 against the meat sellers and driving off potential customers, the property becomes cheaper. There has been great resistance by the residents of the area to the forced sale of their land. The Sarkisyans want the land to do what has been done for North Avenue. You steal the land from the local and sell it to the rich foreigners for a tremendous profit.

This is a dirty trick and shows you how the powers-that-be can use the news as a weapon. Of course, this is not new in any society but it is commonly believed that as Sarkisyan and friends gain more power this will become even more common. Kochariyan’s time in office will be known as age of “secret fire sales of land”. People think that Serzh’s time will be the use of the state powers to enrich a select few to a far greater extent then is currently happening.

Stand your ground people! If you wish to help, go ask the meat sellers how you can help protect the last bastion of community in the center of Yerevan.
If you care about Armenia, now is the time to think about supporting freedom, encouraging property rights and removing political control of the nation’s airwaves. For many, optimism about a free Armenia where everyone has equal opportunity to compete and win is quickly waning.

Unexpectedly, the Armenian parliament failed to push a change to the law on state tv radio which would have placed limits on foreign broadcasters using the state media Airtime. This could ( and was suspected to) have meant that Radio Free Europe, which currently broadcasts it’s programs on Armenian State Radio, would have been effectively denied airtime. Radio liberty as its known, is financed by the US Government and is seen as one of the most balanced in Armenia, for internal affairs at least.

It was worrying many that the country’s last remaining relatively balanced mass media would have been closed down effectively in a very clever attempt by the Armenian government. What happened was a surprise, many pro government parties boycotted the vote today, and as a result it wasnt passed. Victor Dallakian , a leading opposition figure, is claiming this as his initative.

It is not clear if the package will be pushed through again, but for now, at least, Radio Free Europe still has it’s liberty.

Armenialiberty reports on a high profile bank robbers escape - from a courtroom.

The suspect Aharon Hakobian, was suspected along with 4 others of stealing $600,000 worth of money and gems from a Yerevan bank recently. He managed to escape from the caged enclosure (used to house suspects in Armenian courtrooms) and is now nowhere to be seen.

I am unsure about this - firstly, how can someone get out of that cage, secondly, did no one spot the lad running through the corridors and outside? Is there no security in the courtroom? This kind of thing is so strange it’s laughable. The cynic in me wonders if this is some preorchestrated deal with the relevant bodies to get out of this crime - but surely, surely , this is ridiculous, if it is the case, however, it seems the authorities are getting better and better at fooling people….

I think im just being negative.

Armenialiberty.org reports on the first conclusions from Western observers were released today, by the Council for Europe and the OSCE monitoring commission. They stated that the Armenian elections were “largely democratic” and a “step forward”. They did, however, state that they did fall short of the authorities’ promise that they would be fully democratic, citing the fact that the counting process had problems in about 20% of polling stations. They also witnessed bussing of voters to the polling stations, and some ballot stuffing.

Largely however, I think we could say this is a significant improvement. Serge Sargsyan and his Republican Party won a landslide victory, I guess given the opposition on offer, we couldn’t expect much else.

They are also saying that the faults that were recorded will not affect the outcome of the election. So all in all, I guess we have another five years of the same….?

The atmosphere is heating up in Armenia:
“May 10, 2007 — Thousands of opposition supporters have rallied in Yerevan demanding the impeachment of President Robert Kocharian and warning of fraud in parliamentary elections on May 12.
Organizers said more than 15,000 took part in the May 9 rally, though police put the number at around 5,000.
Demonstrators also marched to the headquarters of Armenia’s National Security Service to protest against the arrest this week of opposition leader and former Foreign Minister Aleksandr Arzumanian on money-laundering charges. (AFP)”

“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….)

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.

Firstly, please accept my apologies for not posting in a while. Things have been very busy.

While one of the hottest topics at the moment seems to be the new Armenian Eurovision Song Contest entry, there is a rather more important event due to take place in May - that is the parliamentary elections. I have made a few observations, and whilst I don’t consider myself a political analyst in any sense of the word, I’d be interested to hear our readers’ opinions also.

The Justice alliance of the key opposition parties has broken down. Armenialiberty reported on March 2nd about the key parties headed by Stepan Demirchyan and Aram Sarkisian. It seems each party is interested in seeing their own candidate fronted for the presidential elections, scheduled for 2008. It is dissappointing that the members of the alliance cannot see past their own individual aspirations - however, it is also true to speculate whether an alliance that could barely keep itself together, could ever work collectively as a governmental force. Either way, it seems clear to me that there we can expect little change in Armenia’s political climate , based on a couple of strikingly obvious factors:

The Bargavach Hayastan party, headed by Gagik Tsarukyan, has ( in political terms) become an overnight success story. I remember just months after it’s launch last year , Yerevan and the regions were littered with the friendly Bargavach Hayastan logo, representing a huge array of party presence, much more than any other party. There is also the factor of the so called “vote buying” allegations - the party has been distributing seeds and other donations to the poorest villagers through Tsarukyan’s “charitable fund”. They claim this is fine, it technically is, what Tsarukyan does with his wealth is up to him - but what is unavoidable is that people will associate his name with the party, and subsequently engage in votes for him. He is widely regarded as a popular person.

It is all very, very well thought out.

So the Europeans are saying “Hey, don’t fix the elections this year please!” , and the USA is saying “Hey, we wont give you money if you fix the elections…”

So it seems the best option is to create a force that cannot be reckoned with. It’s widely known that President Kocharyan is a strong supporter of Bargavach Hayastan, and its huge popularity may well cause an upsurge of votes from the regions and Yerevan alike - the result being a landslide victory, that didn’t even need to be fixed. That way everyone is happy - and Kocharyan is likely to retain some form of power within the government.

The opposition alliance disbansion has quashed any hope for a victory of the traditional opposition parties. The only contender I could see would be the Heritage party headed by Raffi Hovhanessian. Interestingly, I saw him for the first time ever on Armenian public television this month. Obviously, he wasn’t given a voice, he was just paraphrased by the voice over. He was prevented from running in the presidential election due to problems with his citizenship. Despite his popularity, this western educated guy still hasn’t been running around the villages giving out grain to desperate citizens , and what I think this boils down to is people in desperate need of a way to keep their families together. It is absurd to speak of a true election when the population are still relying so heavily on potato seeds given by a well wisher.

It is an extreme example, but I think the only chance of huge jolt in power may be the advent of a reason for people to come together and unite against the current regime. Times of natural disaster,(God Forbid ) times of extreme need, and suchlike. The fact is, Armenia is quite happily cruising along. Perhaps when Bargavach Hayastan are in power, they can improve the situation of those people who accepted the handouts, and make them comfortable enough to vote based on policy, not charity.