Things continue to fall apart.

Murders of soldiers in the Armenian Army are a common occurrence. Usually, it is the officer in charge that kills a soldier under his command. Sometimes it is the 'good fellas' that kill a soldier that doesn't have a protector.

Almost all cases are classified as 'suicides' by the Ministry of Defense and are swept under the rug.

This week we saw two incidents like this. Artak Nazarian, an officer who said that he wanted to be a good commander for the troops (i.e. non-violent and not corrupt) and was in a hostile environment created by his fellow officers, was killed. It was classified as a suicide by the MoD. In another incident, 7 soldiers were killed under murky circumstances.

The windbags in the government keep saying that the Armenian Army is the best one in the region. With a psychological environment that we sometimes get glimpse of, I highly doubt that it will continue to be like that.

Unzipped has a comprehensive coverage of the issue.

http://unzipped.blogspot.com/2010/07/suicide-or-evidence-of-abuse-and-ill.html

Priceless Observation

I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.
  - E. V. Lucas

Nice Gesture

HHSh normally has 25 members at its governing body. This year, however, it will have 31 members. During the last party congress, the four HHSh members who have been harassed for political views (political prisoners Ashot Manukian, Harutyun Urutian and Aram Bareghian and novelist/former big-shot in the executive branch Vano Siradeghian).


Unfortunately, this did not happen without unpleasantness. Karapet Rubinyan quit HHSh because the voters were given a list of "recommended candidates"; the list did not contain his name and unfortunately was not distributed publicly. Another part of his reason was that the party congress reminded him a Brezhnev era gathering of the CPSS.

Plastic Plates and Plastic Forks.

With the heat wave it has been difficult to be outdoors for any long periods of time. As far as I can remember, this was the first year I missed out on the fireworks celebrating the Independence Day.

Today I was watching Newshour and Gregory Djanikian read one of his poems. It was about the July 4 celebrations and he had a line about plastic plates and plastic forks. Until today I had thought of these plastic implements as tacky examples of the disposable consumerism plaguing this country. In my day-to-day life I avoid these items as I try to keep a low environmental footprint. But I realized today that plastic plates and plastic forks are part of the Americana. It is our culture just like Las Vegas, Popsicles or hot dogs.