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.