The Bushes finally got their revenge.

BBC reports that Saddam Hussein has been executed. Although I have little sympathy for men like him who cause countless deaths, I find the whole process of putting him to death, which was more like a lynching, distasteful. First of all, he should have been tried by a truly Iraqi judicial system. Since that is impossible because Iraq is occupied by the US, he should have been tried in Hague. Second, he had little opportunity to defend himself. His lawyers were regularly taken out and in those conditions, it was difficult to find someone to represent him. The third and most important aspect of the trial was that he was a dead man before it even started. The trial was a joke to pretend that he was put to death as a result of a justice system.

But the most amazing part of this was the rush to execute him. We have heard all the stories about his brutality - the gassing of the Kurds, the crushing of the Shia uprising after the first Gulf War, the elimination of political rivals, the plans to assassinate Bush Senior. I wanted him to be put on trial for these crimes as well. But the way he was hung, it seemed that some people did not want this to happen.

Are these stories just rumors, or were other parties involved in them, too? We may never know now.

The Cypriot High Court has ruled in favor of AGBU regarding the melkonian School closure.

Radio Liberty reports that the appellate court in Nicosia, Cyprus, has ruled in favor of AGBU in the Melkonian School closure case. I want to remind my readers that AGBU is the trustee of Melkonian School in Nicosia. A few years ago AGBU closed it citing financial difficulties. For years there were suspicions among the Armenian community in Cyprus that the Melkonian brothers' trust fund had been mismanaged. After the school closure several committees were created by the alumni and some documents came to light that showed that AGBU does not own the school but is a trustee and the Armenian Apostolic Church has a say in the fate of the school. AGBU still insists that it owns the school and can act unilaterally. You may read more abut the case and the background on the Save Melkonian site.

Here is the text of the RFE/RL article. Pay particular attention to the words of Masis Der-Partogh where he makes a reference about some people being able to line up their pockets both in Diaspora and in Armenia. Who these people are, one can only guess. People who have stake in the sale are AGBU, the church in Ejmiatzin and, by extension, some officials in Armenia.

Կիպրոսի վճռաբեկ դատարանը որոշում կայացրեց Հայ բարեգործական ընդհանուր միության օգտին

Կիպրոսի վճռաբեկ դատարանը չեղյալ է հայտարարել կառավարության որոշումը "Մելքոնյան" վարժարանին պատկանող տարածքը ազգային ժառանգություն ճանաչելու մասին, ինչը թույլ կտա Հայ բարեգործական ընդհանուր միությանը վաճառել վարժարանին պատկանող սեփականությունը: Այդ մասին հայտնել է կիպրոսյան մամուլը:

Ըստ թերթերի` դատարանը գտել է, որ "բավարար հիմքեր չկան" վարժարանը ազգային ժառանգություն հռչակելու համար:

"Այժմ միությունը կարող է իրականացնել իր ծրագիրը եւ վաճառել հողերը, իսկ ստացված փողերի մի մասը կհանգրվանի որոշ ընչաքաղց մարդկանց գրպաններում, որոնք օգնել են միությանը",­ - ասել է հանուն վարժարանի պահպանման ծավալված շարժման ակտիվիստ Մասիս Տեր-­Բարթողը:

Նրա կարծիքով` "Նիկոզիայում եւ Երեւանում մարդիկ կան, որոնք հավատում են միության ստերին եւ թույլատրում են նրանց անօրինական գործողությունները":

Հայ բարեգործական ընդհանուր միությունը ամիսներ առաջ որոշել էր փակել "Մելքոնյան" վարժարանը` պատճառաբանելով, թե այն ֆինանսական կորուստներ է բերում:

Hurriet complaining about the 'racist' Cypriots.

Nicosia_divided_city, originally uploaded by nazarian.

The Turkish propaganda machine never seizes to amaze me. Their motto is this:




They want to have their cake, and eat it, too.



A perfect example of this is their dealings with Armenia - they initiated the hostile act of blocking the borders with Armenia (and air space for a few years), and constantly accuse Armenia of being unfriendly to them despite Armenian offers to normalize relations. The Turkish activities surrounding the Armenian Genocide are handled in a similarly illogical way.



The latest example of such attitude is in the "Hurriyet" newspaper. They report that there are slogans on buildings in the Cypriot capital Nicosia that are visible from the Turkish occupied portions of the capital that are racist in nature. An example is "Death to Turks".



Here is where the sad reality is: it is the Turks who have killed Greek Cypriots on the Green Line that separated the Turkish occupied North from the government controlled areas of Cyprus. There were two instances in mid 90-s when two young Greek Cypriot men were killed by the Turks on live TV during protests. One man was stoned to death when he got trapped in barbed wire. A relative of his was shot to death the next day when he tried to climb on a flag pole to pull down the Turkish flag in the Green Zone in protest.



The photo above is a Greek Cypriot observation post in Nicosia. The tourists are looking at the Turkish army positions on the other side of the Green Zone.

Bribery is universal.

ArmeniaBribeTips has posted an Economist article describing bribery and corruption around the world. Armenia is not specifically mentioned in the article. There is only a reference to the large increase in corruption in the Eastern European and post-Soviet countries.

Photo for December 27, 2006.

kids_playing, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Here are a couple of kids playing near an abandoned Soviet era manufacturing facility of some sorts in Aparan, Armenia. Obviously, this kind of a play would be considered very dangerous in the Western Europe or the US. But such a style of childhood activity is what makes me remember my own childhood fondly.

Picture for December 22, 2006.

fun_product_heart_attack, originally uploaded by nazarian.

This is a screen shot of a 'citizens fighting back'.com website. The site sells self defense products. This particular product is a knife that is to be held in your fist while you stab an attacker. It's heart shaped hence the name is 'heart attack'.

It was listed under 'fun products' category. I don't understand how a device meant to kill or badly injure someone can be called a fun product .

Armenia-hater "Professor" Stanford Shaw has apparently passed away.

Turkish Torque has posted a blog that says that Prof. Stanford Shaw, known for his anti-Armenian rhetoric and fake history research, has died. So we have one less denier to worry about. These intellectual types are the more dangerous ones; it's easy to deal with the outright ignorant deniers.

Photo for December 19, 2006.

atar, originally uploaded by nazarian.

The stacked blocks on the left hand side are atar (dried cow dung).



This is not far from Aparan, Armenia, where there are not many forests, and firewood is even more scarce than in the rest of Armenia. Atar has traditionally been used as a heating material in this region. The dung is spread under the sun, and is dried up while the sun rays kill any potential parasites. Once the atar is dry, it's collected and stacked for the winter.



In the winter atar is burnt in stoves. It doesn't smell bad.

Kocharian visits the border. (older blog that was deleted)

Kocharian_visits_the_border, originally uploaded by nazarian.

So I came across an article about the Armenian President's visit to the army barracks of the border forces.

In the picture he has the same facial expression and mannerism that I remember seeing some 15 years ago. In 1990, when we were still part of the Soviet Union, the conflict in Karabagh was heating up. The Azeris were a much more powerful force than us and had firearms at their disposal. The Soviet army was on their side as well. Well, you don't want to face the barbaric Azeris and the Russians with sticks and stones that we had at the time. Right until 1993 the Azeris were a couple of steps ahead of the Armenians in terms of armaments. When we stated getting our hands on some automatic weapons, they were already using heavy arms and armored transport. By 1994, most of the arms the Armenian forces used were captured from the Azeris.

So the solution in 1990 was to manufacture our own weaponry, and a few people in our town started making some rifles. These were bolt-action rifles but were better than anything used before. Plus, they used the 7.62 mm cartridge from AK-47.

When a couple of prototypes were made, Kocharian came over to have a look and see whether they could be used by the self-defense groups in Karabagh. At the time he was the coordinator of the yerkrapah (self-defense) forces in Karabagh.

He looked exactly as he looks in this picture while he was inspecting the rifle. My guess is that he likes guns (probably a little more than the majority of men in the world).

BTW, the use of these rifles were extremely limited as they became obsolete very quickly and AK rifles were inherited from the Soviet Army.

UPDATE: The Armenia Blog has an update on the rifle in question. It's a Serbian made Zastava M93.

Entrepreneurial mentality taking hold in the art scene in Armenia.

There was a small item today in the 'Haykakan Zhamanak'. It was describing the working conditions in the Paronian Comedy Theater in Yerevan. The theater is losing audience because their productions are not any better than the rest of the theaters, yet the theater building is hot during summers, and cold during the winters. The audience prefer to go to the theaters that have air conditioning or central heating instead as it is not worth sacrificing their comforts.



Well, entrepreneurship has triumphed. In another small article it tells the story of Paronian Theater being on a tour in Gyumri and Vanadzor where they have been successful. It is nice to see the art scene having managers who will take ownership of the problems and start looking for solutions instead of giving up and expecting to get subsidies from the government.

Photo for December 13, 2006.

ThePathToTheBridge, originally uploaded by nazarian.

The path to the bridge.

An interesting tidbit about the Azeri soldier apprehended by the Karabagh border guards.

While browsing zerkalo.az, a (usually anti-Armenian hate filled) newspaper based in Azerbaijan, I came across an interesting tidbit about the Azeri soldier apprehended by the Karabagh border guards. A wekk or so ago the Armenian news sources reported that an Azeri soldier was captured after he crossed the border and entered Karabagh.



Well, it turns out the soldier, Vusal Garajayev, is from a poor family. His mom tells Zerkalo that her son suffers from bronchial asthma. She says that their family did not have enough money to treat his illness. As far as I know, kids who have health problems like that are not sent to combat duty. My guess is that when she says 'treat his illness' she really means 'pay bribe to get him free' of army duty or a cushy position like a cook.



An earlier version of the article had a mention of earlier incidents like this when the Azeri soldiers were captured and then returned to Azerbaijan. It turns out that these soldiers were convicted of treason and sentenced to 12-13 years in prison. There was a 'military analyst' who claimed that the border is mined both on the Azeri and the Armenian sides, and crossing it is a dangerous endeavor. So the explanation given that this Garajayev fella crossed because of heavy fog seemed unlikely to this analyst. What he implied was that this was either a premeditated act of 'treason', or some botched reconnaissance mission. The truth may be that he simply escaped the bullies.

The Economist ranks Armenia at 110 in its '2006 Economist Intelligence Unit democracy index'

In an article titled 'A pause in democracy’s march', The Economist has ranked Armenia at 110 in its democracy index for 2006.



When I was looking for the Armenian rating, I scrolled to the bottom and came across Azerbaijan. I hesitated for a moment - should I scroll further down or go up? Azerbaijan was rated at 129. Then I scrolled up and found Armenia among the 'hybrid' regimes flanked by Haiti and Kyrgyzstan. Armenia is below Gambia and Haiti but is ahead of Kyrgyzstan and Iraq. See the pdf file here.



There is not much to say about this ranking except to be happy that Armenia is not among the authoritarian regimes. It would be if it ranked 113.



Maybe next year...

Lookalikes.

Russian Nuclear Chief Sergei Kiriyenko










US Secretary of State Condy Rice

The exam time is upon us.

We are about to enter the crappiest time period for students - the two week period filled with projects due and the final exams. I've been busting my chops on a managerial economics project and preparing for a cost accounting exam next Wednesday. Then I have to prepare for the exam for the managerial economics class. I used to think that I liked economics but have changed my mind after this semester. Regressions and decision trees make sense but I still find that there is too much math involved. Yes, the production capacity for a plant is non-linear but I do not want to sit down and calculate where the marginal benefit is equal marginal cost.



Hopefully I'll be able to retain some of this knowledge.

The noose is tightening around Armenia.

Well, it's final!



The Kars - Tbilisi - Baku railroad is going to be built. The construction starts in spring 2007. This is despite the pretending by the Armenian government to stop any progress of the negotiations, and the promises gained by the US government not to participate in the funding of the project. The estimated cost of the new railroad is $480 million which is a small amount - even Armenia would be able to raise enough funds. The excitement of the Foreign Minister Oskanian over the US promises was ill founded.



Well, while the Armenian nation is busy spending its resources on the recognition of the 1915 Genocide, the Azeris and the Turks have been busy achieving practical results in isolating Armenia further. The isolation of Armenia is a stated strategic goal of Azerbaijan. Once this railroad is built, all that remains to make Armenia a geopolitical ghetto is to build a pipeline and a railroad from Iran to Georgia via Turkey or Azerbaijan.

Photo for December 5, 2006.

LonelyBench, originally uploaded by nazarian.

I tried sitting on this bench and I felt like a little child. It's just too high. My feet could not reach the ground.

The ex-KGB spy Litvinenko's story still intrigues the news audience.

CNN has a report that a friend of Litvinenko's, another Russian ex spy in exile, says that he knows who killed him. Yuri Shvets, who lives in the US, says that he has told the police the identities of the people responsible for Litvinenko's death.



I have a hard time believing this latest revelation. It all seems to be too obvious. The allegations are that the killers are the Russian secret services. The key word in here is 'secret'. But when every Tom, Dick and Harry ex spy knows all the details then there is not much secret, is there? True, the public eventually learns the dirty tricks of the secret services of different countries but usually these deeds are revealed late. And usually, the names of the agents involved are never revealed.



I have to give a little bit of consideration to the Russian government's explanation of all this. It does seem that there is a conspiracy to discredit the Russians. I mean, they are not angels by any means, but I don't think they are as stupid as to kill someone with such a highly visible method in order to silence him. If Litvinenko had slipped in the London underground and fallen under a train, he would have been silenced and his death would have been deemed as an accident.

The Armenian Soldier Wounded in Iraq Is Recovering.

The Armenian lieutenant Georgi Nalbandian, who was injured in Iraq on November 10, 2006, is now able to move around in a wheelchair. He had been a victim of a roadside bomb and lost his leg. His doctor tells us that he has gone through 2 surgeries since the injury and is still being treated in Germany. The treatment may last additional 2-4 weeks before he is able to be discharged.

Haypost Trust Management - who are they?

Azg has a news item about the Armenian Postal Service management being handed over to a private entity from Holland. According to Azg, 'Haypost Trust Management' is a subsidiary of a company called 'PostFinance'. The deal is for a period of 5 years during which the Europeans promise to make capital investments and improve the services while not cutting down the number of the branches around Armenia. There are 900 postal branches in Armenia.



It would make little sense for a foreign company to make such promises - after all, Armenia only has some 2.5 million people, and serving these peoples' postal needs is not a very lucrative business. Another surprising detail was that the chief of the Central Bank of Armenia, Tigran Sargsian, was among the people signing the deal.



Well, it turns out that there is a plan to open a 'HayPostBank' as well. There is not much mentioned in the article about this but here is what I think the deal is all about.



PostFinance is a Swiss money transfer company. It is not a big secret that the reason that the Armenian economy stays afloat is the relatively large amount of money being wired to Armenia by the Armenian citizens working abroad. The estimated amount ranges from 4 to 6 billion USD annually. Right now there a a few ways of transferring this money - banks using SWIFT, small Armenian businesses accepting deposits abroad and delivering the money to the recipient in Armenia, and individuals visiting Armenia.



It seems like a lucrative business that PostFinance should be in. It would be difficult for it to enter this market without a local representation. So they have decided to take over HayPost. HayPost's finances are not made public but since it's a state operated business, it is bound to have quite a lot of inefficiences. Throughout the world, state owned enterprises are full of incompetent people. Armenia is not an exception - the whole governance structure is based on nepotism, not skill.



My guess is that PostFinance will trim a lot of the fat if they have received a 'license to kill' from the Armenian government. They will probably break even, or even make a little profit. But the real goal is to get a piece of the money transfer market which they will and that's where they'll make their return on investment.

Justify your existence.

CNN reports that the US government is working on a 'luxury' items embargo on North Korea with the UN. The said 'luxury' items are things that the Dear Leader, North Korean 'president' Kim Jong Il, loves and cherishes such as French cognac, Segway scooters, iPods or plasma television sets.



These items may not seem to be luxury items in the West but believe me, in communist countries these things are unheard of. I've grown up in the USSR and a Wrigley's chewing gum was a luxurious item.



All is fine and dandy until you realize that such a ban is practically unenforceable. The Soviet Union was a closed system, and yet the Western items somehow managed to get through. And that was for the ordinary citizens against the wishes of the tight control by the authorities. Kim Jong Il is the authority in this case. He is going to buy these things from the private markets - there is not much of a difficulty to buy these things in China and then transport them in a boat across the river to North Korea.



So why now?



It all boils down to not having anything else to do. We are stuck in the corner because of our policies during the last few years, and any major initiative is doomed to failure as we lack credibility on the international scene. So we are reduced to coming up with silly things like this.

Human trafficking operation busted in Denver, Colorado.

Blogian reports that a prostitution ring specializing in trafficking women from South Korea has been busted in Denver, Colorado. Unfortunately, the authorities are far more concerned about the prostitution aspect of it rather than the trafficking of these women.



The sole purpose of trafficking people is to exploit them - the males are put to work in near slavery conditions in sweatshops or farms, and women are usually put to work as prostitutes. Usually, the victims are lured by promises of high paying jobs abroad working in bars as waiters/waitresses, nannies, baby sitters, etc. They may pay a small sum to the trafficker for the 'visa, passport and other document' expenses. That way they will be less inclined to back off the deal.



Once the victim is taken out of their country, his/her passport is taken away. Women are sold into prostitution, and men are sold to do hard labor. The flow of people is from the poorer countries to the richer ones. You can come across the victims in Europe, the oil rich Arab states, and the US (see the State Department report). There was a '60 Minutes' report a year or so ago that researched the issue. It was disturbing to see the market in a Northern Mexican town where women were traded.



There was a US policy to fight trafficking internationally when Colin Powell was the State Secretary. I don't know how effective it was at the time because all we seemed to do was to accuse other countries. Our own misdeeds were not brought to light. I don't know whether it's a standard approach by the US to accuse other nations while doing the same things ourselves. It certainly seems like that.



The only solution I see is to not rely on governments to do anything about it and raise the people's awareness about it. It may seem strange, but the majority of the trafficked women do not know about the end result of the promised employment abroad.

Photo for November 27, 2006.

Reflections, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Reflections on the surface of a flooded river during a tranquil afternoon.

Police are trained to kill, not protect.

A year ago I was sitting outside a McDonald's and having a quick lunch. There are a lot of office buildings nearby and only one fast food restaurant (this McDonald's) in the nearby area. There is a lot of traffic - the restaurant does a brisk business. And in order to make things more manageable, they hire off-duty police officers to direct the traffic.



So while I was trying to enjoy my burger, I was also watching how the police officer was directing the cars. I have to admit, he was doing a better job than the Armenian cops in Yerevan who sit in their car and yell orders at the drivers making things worse.



Those who haven't been in the US may not know that the American drivers are not used to having cops direct traffic. I don't think learning standard gestures is part of the driver's education. So I think the cops improvise.



At one point there was a driver in a Civic that did not understand the directions and continued to drive after the cop gestured for the cars to stop. Immediately, the cop drew his gun. I was in shock - drawing a gun while directing traffic is not supposed to be your instinctive reaction.



Well, last night there was a shooting in New York where the police fired 50 rounds into a car full of unarmed people killing a guy and injuring 2 passengers outside a strip club after the dead guy's bachelor's party. The police were dressed as civilians. One of the cops emptied two magazines firing 31 times. Obviously, he was having fun.



A few days ago there was another shooting when three policemen dressed in civilian clothing burst into a 92 year old woman's house looking for drugs. The old lady greeted them with gun fire and the three shot her dead.



So what does this have to do with what I saw in McDonald's? To me, the morale of the story is that try not to cross paths with the police especially if you are black (both the dead groom and the 92 year old lady were black). Things become tricky when you encounter cops in civilian clothing because usually they are not much different than common redneck or ghetto thugs except that they are always armed and can kill you and the state, and the majority of people, will justify the kiling.

Is Azerbaijan becoming as authoritarian as Armenia?

It looks like Mr. Ilham Aliev, the president of Azerbaijan, is emulating what Mr. Robert Kocharian, the president of Armenia, has been doing for years.




BBC reports that the Azeri authorities have closed an independent TV station because it didn't renew its license, and have evicted a political party and a newspaper because they haven't paid their rent. Apparently, they do not have laws protecting the rights of the tenants :)




Well, the surprise for me in this report was that there actually are independent TV stations, newspapers and political parties in Azerbaijan. All the news we get out of that country is that the elections get falsified, and people opposing the current regime get beaten up and thrown in jail. Apparently, things are not as bad as that - well, maybe things were not as bad until this weekend.




Armenia, on the other hand, pretends to be a democratic country. And yet, there hasn't been an independent TV station there since Mr. Kocharian closed the A1+ TV a few years ago. Opposition political parties have been harassed a number of times in the past. Take the Jarangutyun party which got evicted for, I think, not paying rent a year or so ago. The Hanrapetutyun party's offices were raided and ransacked without warrant right after the police beat the opposition protesters after the crooked presidential elections in 2003.




Looks like Armenia is not any better than Azerbaijan.

Online shopping rant.

More than a week ago I purchased a USB TV tuner from newegg.com. I chose the 3 day delivery expecting since I was not in a hurry.



Well, they shipped it with UPS (I am sure most of us know that UPS sucks). They have the lousiest delivery service in the US. My package is still sitting in Ohio since November 21. That's 4 days already.



I'm also waiting for an MP3 player I got from Buy.com a week ago. They shipped it from Illinois. Well, the geniuses at UPS took it to Ohio - the destination of the package is Indiana. To take the package from Illinois to Ohio, they had to drive through Indiana. That one is still sitting in Ohio - it's been 3 days already. Buy.com packages shipped through FedEx arrive the next day - apparently, FedEx delivery routes are not designed by idiots like UPS.



Hopefully I'll get them by the end of next week.

And I thought this was a joke.

I came across this ridiculous "Why Mommy is a Democrat" page and thought it was a joke. It promotes a children's book about a squirrel family that's nicely illustrated and has pro-Democratic slogans such as "Democrats make sure we all share our toys, just like Mommy does".



My first reaction was to see if it was a satirical page like "The Onion". The endorsements cracked me up but I think they are serious.



Judge yourselves.

Ex-KGB spy Litvinenko has died.

BBC reports that Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB spy in exile in the UK, has passed away. It is alleged that his death is a result of a poisoning by the FSB (Russian Federal Security Bureau).




Although there is no proof yet, I can understand why is the Russian government being accused. The FSB has a long history of assassinating political figures in exile. And there certainly is a motivation to do so - Litvinenko is rumored to have been investigating the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist critical of the Russian government's actions in the Caucasus and its abuses in general.




I first heard of him when he accused the Russian secret services of the terrorist act in the Armenian Parliament in 1999. A group of armed dashnaks (a pro-Russian socialist party in Armenia and diaspora) stormed the parliament in session and killed the prime minister, the speaker of the parliament and a few other ministers and parliamentarians. No ties to these services have been brought to life during the trial of the terrorists and their subsequent imprisonment. Suspiciously, one of them, an electrician by trade, was electrocuted in his cell while trying to make a cup of coffee on an electric stove.

The Republic Square big screen may be removed.

One chilly day in November during the early 90-s I was sitting in the Republic Square and looking at the empty platform where a year or so ago Lenin's statue was. The space was empty. So I thought it would be a great spot to have a large banner that would scroll advertisements.

A decade later, a large screen TV was installed at that spot that ran advertisements. (The image courtesy of Blogrel.com)

There has been some controversy about it as people felt it was inappropriate. I never felt like it. If that spot could generate money and did no harm, why not? It was not an eye sore, and if the volume could be turned off after dark not to disturb the peace, I would not have a problem with it.

Well, the good times are over. The ads have stopped generating enough revenue to justify the costs of upkeep (or so they say). There is a contest to install another statue in that location.

I disagree with that. We have already had a statue of an idol there. We do not need to do that again. Just leave the space empty. Have a green law, or another fountain with benches around it so that the people can sit and relax.

We all know that there are not many places left in Yerevan where one can sit and relax.

Signed up for Google AdSense.

I have read stories about the funny links that AdSense displays based the keywords in logs. I am curious to see what kind of links are going to be on this blog. My guess is that they will be generic since there is very little text and instead, the majority of the posts are just pictures. There may be a few Armenia related links, but I am sure there will be some that are for Turkey, Russia or Iran.

It's gonna be an interesting research project.

Photo for November 21, 2006.

TheAngrySky, originally uploaded by nazarian.

The sky got angrier and angrier.

Photo for November 20, 2006.

TreesAndRiver, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Almost clear skies. The air was cold and might have affected the sensors in the camera.

Armenia has dispatched another group of peace keepers to Kosovo.

I have finally resolved the issues I have been having with posting non-flickr blogs so I will start posting individual blogs as well as photo blogs here.



Yesterday I came across an article that discussing the Armenian peace keeping force dispatched in Iraq to help out the Americans. On November 11, they suffered their first casualty. And Armenian officer was injured in a road-side bomb attack on their convoy. His leg was severed by the bomb, and he is now in Germany for treatment. Fortunately, he is alive and is expected to recover, albeit he will need prosthetics now.



And today I read that another group of Armenian peace keepers has been sent to Kosovo to replace the ones who have completed their tour of duty there. So far they have not suffered any casualties there which is good. Link to RFERL article.



I am still unsure about our soldiers putting their lives in danger for other peoples' wars. We still remember when some American petro-businessmen hired some 1,200 Afghanis to fight against us in the early 90-s. And now we have sent our boys to protect the business interests of these same Texan oilmen in Iraq.



But then I look at the bright side - the American empire is here to stay, and Armenia is too small to isolate itself. It's better to be with the US rather than against it. It cannot stay neutral - we are surrounded by wolves and the moment Turkey or Azerbaijan think they can get away with eliminating Armenia, they'll do what they did in 1915 in a much grander scale. So we have to be friends with the big boys while being self sufficient as well.



The other positive that I see with the Armenian involvement in these peace keeping initiatives is the opportunity to learn from the modern armies in the world. While a lot depends on more effective technologies of war for a victory, the structure of the Western armies has proven to be superior to others.



The more the Armenian army learns from them, the better.

Photo for November 9, 2006.

HalfAssSign, originally uploaded by nazarian.

It's a sign next to a trail in a park. It's got a set of rules (the bureaucrats love to post rules in public places) but fortunately nobody can understand what they are. Obviously, even the authorities don't care.

Photo for November 8, 2006.

TheSunPeekingThru, originally uploaded by nazarian.

As I was walking in the woods, the sun was about to set.

Photo for November 6, 2006.

impractical_pencils, originally uploaded by nazarian.

I came across these pencils at the mail room at work. At first I thought it was a manufacturing mishap before realizing that these were supposed to be cross shaped pencils.

It's a bizarre idea but I guess it makes sense to religious folk. or maybe not since they have ended up in the mail room.

Photo for October 31, 2006.

JackOLanterns, originally uploaded by nazarian.

I came across these pumpkins while walking in the park this weekend.

Picture for October 22, 2006.

Picture for October 22, 2006., originally uploaded by nazarian.

Here's a screenshot of an 'article' from www.theonion.com. For those who don't know, The Onion is a satirical magazine published in the US.




This article makes fun of two truly American phenomena. First, the Americans are obsessed with heroes. The heroes are everywhere in America. Somebody picked up a piece of trash on the street - a hero. A soldier signed up for service - a hero. Somebody has 20 cats - a hero. A dog barks and alerts the owner of a danger - a hero. The national and local TV news are filled with unsung heroes.




The second phenomenon is the large amount of paperwork that one has to fill out during a hospital or doctor's visit. The funny thing is that all this information is in your medical history and can be viewed easily by whoever needs that information. But no, you still have to fill out the paperwork. Fortunately, the American efficiency has made these forms quite easy to fill - obviously, they have done their market research to satisfy the lowest common denominator IQ level.




Here's the text of the article. Enjoy.




Hero Dog Fills Out Hospital Paperwork


October 20, 2006 Issue 42•43




BRACKNEY, PA—Ginger, a four-year-old golden retriever, saved the life of her owner Megan Walsh, 37, Monday by quickly and efficiently filling out Walsh’s copious emergency-room paperwork. “Without Ginger’s knowledge of my sister’s medical history, which includes multiple food allergies and penicillin intolerance, who knows what could have happened in there,” said Walsh’s brother Derek, who arrived late at the hospital but was relieved to learn that Ginger had “taken care of everything.” “She filled out the forms, and apparently was the only one who could locate Megan’s insurance card.” Ginger could not be reached for comment, as she was reportedly on hold with a Blue Cross-Blue Shield phone representative for 50 minutes.




Hero Dog Fills Out Hospital Paperwork

Photo for October 18, 2006.

Photo for October 18, 2006., originally uploaded by nazarian.

The sad looking cat is Yuri (you can see his other pics in my photo stream). My wife likes when Yuri is clean - he likes it, too. He prefers to sit in a sink full of warm water but he dislikes getting soap on his fur.

He tolerates the shower for some time but when the soap starts getting in his eyes, he gets a sad look on his face and tries to escape.

Photo for October 16, 2006.

apple, originally uploaded by nazarian.

This apple had been sitting in our fruit basket for more than a month. I have no idea why it survived so well for so long: it's not a good sign when a food item lasts for a very long time. For example, the Twinkies are rumored to last for decades and taste as good (or as bad) as the fresh ones.

When taking this picture, I had to remember the old ways of taking a picture where I would set the focus manually based on the distance. My first camera was a cheap camera that you had to calculate the distance between me and the object and set the focus that way; the viewfinder was just a hole with a transparent plastic cover. The aperture and shutter speed were set intuitively as well.

The lesson learned was that even with the latest auto-focus technologies, it is sometimes the best to use manual means - the camera was having a hard time focusing on the glossy apple skin.

BTW, a week or so later I ate that apple and it was still good.

Picture for October 6, 2006.

specoperacia_gruzin, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Here is a snapshot of a www.Gazeta.ru Russian language news site article titled "Special operation 'Gruzin'". Gruzin is Russian for an ethnic Georgian. It is about the deportation of hundreds of ethnicly Georgians from Moscow to Tbilisi. It also mentions that some of the deportees were in Russia legally, meaning that their visas and residency registration papers were in order, menaing that there was no legal basis for their eviction.

I can't help but consider this ethnic cleansing. They have not yet started sending the Georgians to concentration camps (yet) but there are reports that certain right-wing groups and private citizens have started beating and sometimes murdering Georgians. This type of violence used to happen in Russia even before the recent escalation of the Russo-Georgian relations. The neo-nazi groups in Moscow and other cities of Russia would beat and sometimes kill people with dark complexion (basically, non-blondes) - dozens of people from Africa, the Caucasus (including Armenians) and Central Asia have been murdered during the recent years with near almost absolute impunity. At most, the Russian authorities have gently slapped the wrists of the perpetrators in the past.

It is a little sad that a nation, which lost millions of people in the hands of the German nazis, is doing the same.

Photo for September 21, 2006.

Photo for September 21, 2006., originally uploaded by nazarian.

Today is the 15-th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia. 15 years ago the Armenian nation decided to no longer be part of the Soviet Union.

Happy Birthday!

Photo for September 20, 2006.

Photo for September 20, 2006., originally uploaded by nazarian.

This actually is the backyard of a school in Vanadzor, Armenia. Hopefully, the children in the school will have more sense than to play here. But remembering my childhood, I highly doubt it.

This is one more example of the general attitude of not giving a rat's ass in Armenia.

Photo for September 18, 2006.

Cabbage fields, originally uploaded by loretsi.

Cabbage, in addition to potato, is about the only thing that grows in the Molokan village of Lermontovo in the Lori Region, Armenia. You can even see these fields if you look closely with Google Earth.

The Molokans make excellent pickled cabbage. It's crispier than your regular sauerkraut and has shredded carrots in it sometimes. I could eat half a kilo right now.

Photo for September 14, 2006.

Before_the_show, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Here is a sheep wearing a coat before the show. They look like the medieval horses of the knights when standing or walking around.

I asked one of the owners the reason for the outfit. She explained that the sheep are well groomed and therefore may catch cold because the fur has been trimmed. The second reason is that they want to be presentable before the jury. And the covers keep them clean.

Photo for September 11, 2006.

Photo for September 11, 2006., originally uploaded by nazarian.

The world's largest boar and her kids - all 13 of them. They were all asleep and did not mind children touching them. The little piglets didn't react to all the hugs that they received.

Photo for September 9, 2006.

Photo for September 9, 2006., originally uploaded by nazarian.

A sign advertizing the world's largest boar which was a really giant pig that had 13 piglets. Quite cute.

Photo for September 1, 2006.

sevan_monastery_from_the_beach, originally uploaded by nazarian.

A view of the Sevan Monastery churches from the beach.

Photo for August 28, 2006.

arbat_portrait_copyright_themoscowtimes, originally uploaded by nazarian.

I came across this photograph on www.TheMoscowTimes.com. They have a 'photo of the week' section that hosts weekly photos from life in Russia, mostly from Moscow.

This photo really cracks me up. I wonder where the tourist is from. Probably Volgograd.

For the people who haven't been in Moscow: Arbat is a pedestrian only street in central Moscow where artists sell their wares. It's probably the most pleasant place to be in Moscow. When I was there the last time, there were quite a few Armenian artists making a living doing portraits. This was during the pre-independence era. I'm sure there are a lot more Armenians making a living there since a lot of people have emigrated to Moscow.

Photo for August 22, 2006.

Photo for August 22, 2006., originally uploaded by nazarian.

The elephant shop in Nicosia, Cyprus. Notice the X-mas decorations. The poto was taken in mid August :)

Photo for August 21, 2006.

kahuyki_arhestanots, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Yura at his furniture workshop in Vanadzor.

This workshop was originally created to hire disabled people with the help of Gtoutyoun. There was one worker who couldn't do his job properly but I don't think it was due to disability but because of dumbness.

Photo for July 31, 2006.

Tacky building number 2, originally uploaded by nazarian.

This is building in downtown Indianapolis. It's the headcourters of Indianapolis Power and Light company.

The lights change with the season - during X-mas it's a Chrismass tree, and on Haloween it's a pumpkin.

Photo for July 25, 2006.

guy_checking_out_a_chick, originally uploaded by nazarian.

I was going through my photo collection and noticed something.

When I was taking this picture in Yerevan, Armenia, my intent was to shoot the Andranik Zoravar statue with the Grigor Lusavorich temple in the background. I took it from distance so that the little tree would distract the viewer from the non-manicured lawn around the church, as well as to minimize the visual impact of the ugly landscape. By contrast, the area around the private tiny amusement park is nicely landsacped (on the left hand side).

As you look at the flowers and the mowed grass, notice the guy who has his head turned back. And notice the angle of his glance.

Yes, he is checking out the ass of the chick in a red T-shirt :). Normally, it would be an OK thing to do (all the guys do it), and I think women are flattered since they put so much effort into being noticed. But the guy is with another woman. That's blatantly amateurish. In these cases, you use your peripheral vision (as recommended in the '40 year old virgin' movie).

Photo for July 21, 2006.

mosque_renovation, Larnaca, Cyprus, originally uploaded by nazarian.

This is the Hala Sultan Tekke mosque in Larnaca, Cyprus. It's located at the shore of the Salt Lake which is dry during most of the year. it's a peaceful and tranquil place.

The mosque is currently undergoing a renovation. In its usual Turkophile fashion, the government of the USA is the funding entity of this project. I hope the money stays in the free areas of Cyprus. The laborers are probably Turks imported from the occupied Northern Cyprus. I guess this is one way the US can funnel non-illegal money to their dear Turks.

Photo for July 19, 2006.

kettle_toaster_laptop, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Surge protected: kettle, toaster & laptop.

Photo for July 17, 2006.

no_smoking, originally uploaded by nazarian.

This is a 'no smiking' sign on a revolving door at the building used for bureaucracy in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Photo for July 13, 2006.

silhouettes, Indianapolis Canal Walkway, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Human and duck silhouettes, Indianapolis Canal Walkway.

Photo for July 11, 2006.

sevuk_demanding_food, originally uploaded by nazarian.

This is my mom's cat demanding food.

You can't see it but this skinny mutt is covered with scratches and scabs: he is a warrior. His left ear is torn into two as well. He purrs when you hug him but then he hisses at you and bites your hand.

From the Muttnik Series.

Photo for June 27, 2006.

mediterranean_sunset, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Mediterranean sunset.

Photo for June 21, 2006.

church and surveilance camera, originally uploaded by nazarian.

The flag, the surveilance camera and the church.

Picture for June 19, 2006.

GoogleEarth_Yerevan_Hraparak, originally uploaded by nazarian.

This is a snapshot of the Republic Square (Hanrapetutyan Hraparak) in Yerevan with Google Earth.

It's true. Google Earth has updated Yerevan satellite photos and they are now high resolution pics. And the photos are no more than 2 years old (the design of the square was updated during the summer of 2003, so this photo was probably taken during or after May 2004).

So download Google Earth and enjoy exploting Yerevan and the surroundings. The rest of the country is still low resolution but I'm sure with time it will change.

Photo for June 15, 2006.

overheated_minibus, originally uploaded by nazarian.

This is an overheated minibus near the Haghtanak (Victory) Park in Yerevan, Armenia.

Minibuses are a popular form of transportation in Armenia. The popular name for them is 'marshrutni' or 'marshrutka'. They are mostly Soviet mad RAF-s but you can see also Russian made Gazels. This one, if I am not mistaken, is an Armenian made Yeraz.

The cause of overheating, besides carrying more people than the vehicle designers intended, is a combination of hot weather, and the steep climb on the hill.

The Haghtanak Park is located on top of a hill. There ae two ways to get to it from the downtown area. One is the Kaskad for pedestrians, and the other one is a narrow road for cars (there is no sidewalk for pedestrians so one should avoid walking there, or walk on the retaining wall).

As you notice, the driver has a handy plastic bucket. He filled it with water from a pulpulak (drinking fountain) in the park where, despite the presence of a few vendors selling drinks and the fact that the water belons to a foreign company, the water fountains still function.

Photo for June 12, 2006.

school_number_6_vanadzor_back, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Thie is the back of School No. 6 in Vanadzor. The land used to be the area that my class took care of in the mid 80-s. We cleaned it up, and actually planted a few poplar trees some of which are still there.

What's shocking is the state of disrepair. This photo was taken shortly after September 1. Notice the broken glass on the windows. And the weeds and general garbage in the yard. During the Soviets there would have been a Shabatoryak (the more widely known Subotnik) where the kids and staff would have cleaned up the mess.

The classroom on the second floor, at the corner of the building, was where I was during the 1988 December 7 earthquake. It was a regular sunny day and were were in the middle of a physics exam. Fortunately, the building held up well unlike quite a few buildings a couple of miles away in the Khimzavod district. The immediate aftermath was a surreal experience. The jammed streets, shocked people, and the blanket of dust from the collapsed buildings. And then everything went quiet until the details of the total destruction started trickling in.