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.

Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliyev held meeting in St Petersburg yesterday, amidst an informal gathering of leaders from the region. Needles to say, both sides refused to comment on the progress of the talks, and left that up to their foreign ministers. Armenia’s foreign minister Vardan Oskanian reported no concrete progress in the talks. He did, however, state that the meeting was in depth and longer than previous meetings.

I always wonder, what happens during these meetings. Neither Kocharyan or Aliyev will budge from their positions. Is it as simple as :

Kocharyan “Hello.”
Aliyev “Hello. Give back Karabagh”

Kocharyan “Never.”

Aliyev “Fine. Would you like a glass of this water?”

All in jest…but seriously, I feel that without at least some international intervention on this issue, especially since President Bush’s Albanian revelation during which he stated his support for Kosovan independence, that we are not going to see any progress in these talks.

I apologise first of all if this post comes out of the blue. It is just a reflection on a chat I was having with someone about identity and the importance “being Armenian” plays, or shouldn’t play, in ones life.

“may I gain the serenity to accept the things u cant change, change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference”

Some may argue that the fundemental “glue” in holding together dispersed Armenian communities around the world is the notion of pain, the feeling that we all suffered, our ancestors suffered, and this is what keeps us together. The old tattered song books, parents forcing you to Armenian school, telling you it’s “good for you”, and the feeling of nostalgia that is constantly brought forward into our minds by all these factors.

I was wondering, after a friend considered I “lose the chip on my shoulder” with regard to the Genocide, as part of my identity. On careful consideration, it seems quite a lot of this energy towards loving a homeland may well be lost. The old English quote above mentions accepting things you can’t change, and knowing whether to move on.

What if we did move on?

Our parents, as a generation, are still raw from the wounds of the genocide. We are still angry, I still feel a pain. Will my children feel this pain? Will they keep it in their minds in 30 years time? It is quite a remarkable thought to consider that a future generation of Armenians may not consider the Genocide an issue, or that when asked where they are from they may well reply “American..” or “English”. This is acceptable, as it does happen, when you live in a country, its culture will dominate, and form a part of you. I do , however, worry that if we don’t figure out another common cause to keep Armenians together, then in 50 years time, there may well be no one to post on this website.

Please share your thoughts

A good day for Armenian football. The national team today beat Poland in the Euro 2008 qualifier match, making them now 3rd from bottom (Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan follow respectively). The win was surprising due to Poland’s strong side, currently first in the group.

The stadium was pretty much full, and I really do think this makes a huge difference to the morale of the players. Ian Porterfield, the Armenian national coach , kept stressing the importance of supporters to the performance of players, something I have never really heard before in Armenia. I remember numerous international matches with a half empty stadium, it seems this may be changing.

I think a win like this may well prompt a lot of young people to get into the habit of supporting our national team and following them to their matches. I hope this will happen, and that we can expect a further bout of good results.

Interestingly, Armenia and Azerbaijan’s match is due to take place soon. So far the final location hasn’t been confirmed, but it is not expected matches will take place in Yerevan or Baku due to safety concerned, despite both sides stating they would host the event.

It’s been a long time coming but Armenia now has an official authorised Apple Macintosh store, selling Ipods, Ibooks, Imacs, and pretty much everything else they make. I checked out the price of a 30GB Ipod, and it hits $405, which is pretty much exactly the same as here in the U.K.

Obviously the average Armenian citizen is probably not going to spend this on what is ultimately a glorified walkman, but still, I guess it’s at least a supplier of Macs and mac products in Yerevan for the design/media industry… and I guess another one of those proud “we have a ‘…..’ store in Armenia now…!” sort of statements..

As far as I am aware very few Armenian media outlets use mac, which is the standard for most here in the West. Only reporters from Armenia Tv I have noticed carry branded Ibooks around with them, but even the core processes there are done using pc’s. We’ll see what happens I suppose…

Not wishing to consistently bring up deaths and bad news, I felt I needed to report on this one. I read today that a 16 year old girl named Shushan tragically commited suicide in Armenia today. I will bring you more information when I have it. Police have launched an enquiry when the girl was found hanging inside a tonratoon ( bread shop ) in Kapan.

According to various statistics Armenia has one of the highest male suicide rates in Europe. ( Although there are conflicting reports on this , you can read more in the comments section)

Armenian opera singer Gohar Gasparyan passed away yesterday, at the age of 83. She was born in Egypt and moved to Armenia in the forties. Her songs were heard throughout the former USSR as well as in Europe. Condolences go to her family.

Nareg at Cilicia.com has posted a blog about his experience as an election observer. He said that everything went “so smoothly..”

“Well, it was awfully tiring, but I have to say I was terribly impressed, and felt proud, because, before going in as an observer, I was expecting to see the most khaydarag, utterly ridiculous things as usual, ”

I guess I am proud too, it is nice to see from someone on the ground that they were so impressed with the conduct of the elections. I hope this will set a standard for future elections, and the Presidential election imparticular.

We did it again! After spending a long time at the very respectable 5th place, we were pushed down by last minute votes for close competitors. Once again, we had the 12 points from Turkey. Speculation begins now! I wonder, are these votes genuine? Can we assume from this that the population of Turkey would choose Armenia to win Eurovision over any of the other participating countries? Strange, if you ask me.

The winners, Serbia, were entering as an independent nation for the first time. Their song was in their own language, and very touching.Congratulations to Serbia, and well done to Hayko for a virtually perfect rendition of the song.

This means Armenia is qualified to enter straight into the final once again.

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….?

Alongside the parliamentary elections tonight, another rather important vote is taking place. Armenia is taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest final, lets all vote for Hayko tonight in our respective countries. Armenia is 23rd, after Turkey, and second from the last song. We have a chance, lets try and take it !

Good Luck Armenia

I am keeping tabs on international news, and the first tv channel to report from outside was the “Al Jazeera” English network. The elections have been running on most news channels’ “tickers” all day, but Al Jazeera ran pictures and commentary first.

I am paraphrasing quotes from the report:

“Armenians are going to the polls today…” , “Pro Government parties are expected to sweep the elections”.. “There are fears of vote rigging…none of the elections so far have been deemed fair”

Not much in the way of information, but the word “sweep” is a strong one. Reuters are covering the events, so I assume this is where the footage is coming from.

Of course Armenian Public television is reporting the elections as having “no violations” yet. Everything is rosy in the land of H1.

OK, So on the eve of the Armenian Parliamentary elections, I am sat here, in my relative comfort of the “western world”, in a nation with strong traditions of Democracy, free elections are taken for granted here in the UK, and I must admit, in our recent local elections, I didn’t vote. Mainly because I didn’t have my ballot paper at my University address, my fault entirely…

Anyway, many would say it’s very very wrong of me to be more concerned about Armenia’s election, but I am, I can’t help it, every Armenian knows this could change Armenia over the next few years, and who knows, if I did ever live in Armenia, these results could determine who my own government will be…

So here are my (subjective, and personal) predictions, please feel free to challenge and debate them, everyone has their own feelings on this!

Serge Sargsyan, and the Republican Party, will take an overall victory. I think the vast number of civil servants, and easily scared citizens may well end up giving their votes to this party, as well as a significant number of people who believe in their policy, and their supporters of course.

Next in line I think will be the Prosperous Armenia party, their strong financial backing and support of the President would not have been invested had they not been in line for a victorious finale.

In terms of opposition, as my colleague noted, the strength of feeling towards the opposition is heightened, and I think many of these anger votes will go to Artur Baghdasaryan’s “Country of Law” party. His credibility has recently increased following a government attempt to accuse him of treason by taping a conversation he had with a British Diplomat, asking if they could condemn the elections before election day. What the authorities failed to realise is that when President Kocharyan accuses someone of being a traitor, the public don’t believe him.

The votes will be followed next in line by Raffi Hovhanissian and “Heritage” party .

I think we will be greeted by a pre written, highly predictable speech from Mr Serge Sargsyan, probably commenting on his party’s strong traditions of running Government, and the people choosing the right leaders. Similar speeches can be expected from Bargavach Hayastan. Will they be fraudulent? It’s not for me to say, but with the authorities getting worried, we may see more than expected, but I still don’t think it’ll be enough for the international community to condemn them, and I think the Millennium Challenge money will remain safe.

As for Opposition Protests? A lot may depend on the leaders of the opposition and how they feel about the conduct of the election, but by the look of things, people are ready to take to the streets.

All this said, I dearly hope for clean elections tommorow, so that people in Armenia can at least have some faith restored. I Hope tommorow is something we can be proud of, and feel confident in the figures chosen to lead the country.

We’ll see tommorow.

I guess everybody knew there will be a fight after yesterday’s rally. It was going to serve as the last test to see just how serious both the government and opposition are about the revolutionary way of changing the government after the elections. We can see now, that the government, or Serge Sargsyan and the Republican party to be more correct, are determined to oppress any expression of revolutionism with the most cruel means. The article from Panarmenian below doesn’t talk about the brutality, with which special police forces beat protesters. Let me remind once again, that the organizers of the march had a permission from Yerevan Municipality to organize it. It was clear from the start, that the opposition are determined to pick up a fight, it was also obvious, that government had carefully planned this display of power - from what I read and hear - it was the police forces who provoked the fight in the first place. However, if Serge Sargsyan had planned to scare people, it doesn’t seem to have worked - people have just gotten more frustrated and determined to fight again.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An opposition rally was dispersed in Yerevan May 9. Supporters of Impeachment bloc marched to National Security Service building to protest the arrest of former Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan.

New Times party leader Aram Karapetyan said police met the people with batons and tear-gas. “On half-way ‘red berets’ started pushing the people aside. As result, several men including New Times political council member Rafael Khostikyan and Impeachment bloc member David Matevosyan were injured when approaching the NSS building.

Karapetyan also said 4 rally participants were detained but released later on. “If they want to frighten us this way, they did not succeed. We rate it as political provocation. None of the leaders of Impeachment bloc, New Times party and Republic party left the rally,” he said.

The rally initiators claim that some 20 thousand people took part in it. Police, however, says the number did not exceed 5 thousand, IA Regnum reports.

Armenian parliamentary election in due on May 12.

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)”

So this story did indeed make the headlines after all - but then, what did the government of Armenia expect detaining someone as high profile as Alexander Azrumanian?

Wednesday May 9, 2007 2:01 AM

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - Armenia’s former foreign minister has been detained on suspicion of money laundering, security officials said Tuesday, in a probe that prompted criticism from opposition lawmakers. more…

In response to this article in Aravot daily I received a request from a friend to publish this letter, which is exactly what I’ll do without any modifications or further comments.

The article in ‘Aravot’ Armenian daily on April 23rd once more made me think over Armenian press. Like any journalist on the way to journalistic career Ms. Babayan comes across the subject seemingly most scandalous and fruitful for Armenian audience: homosexuality. I have to confess, that the article did concern me in terms of poor and absolutely incredible press we have as well as misery of archaic information sources it uses. And at the end of the day I was amazed with the ambition to march to EU with the ragged bag with all its prehistoric content. more…

Wow! Now that’s becoming scarry:

BAKU, AZERPRESS - (May 1, 2007) The head of national NGO Forum, MP Azay Guliyev, has initiated development of a law that bans local NGOs to contact Armenian NGOs.

“A group of local NGOs plans to visit Armenia for cooperation. We have no mechanisms available to bar them from traveling to Armenia. Therefore, I suggest tabling the matter in parliament who could debate a law banning our NGOs to contact the Armenian side,” Guliyev stated at today’s plenary session in parliament.

It is interesting to see the explanation of the MP as to why such visits should be banned:

“It is our land: nothing is bad, that representatives of our NGOs visit Upland Karabag and converse with Azerbaijan nationals of Armenian origin, they are separatists though. But Armenia, taking the first opportunity, will tell the world community that Azerbaijan NGOs enter Upland Karabag without restriction.”

Hmm, is this total paranoia or what?!

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.