Photo for January 3, 2007.

TiffanyWazHere, originally uploaded by nazarian.

In a hundred years this note will be of interest to anthropologists.

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.