Lookalikes: American cartoon hero Yosemite Sam.

Seyran_Saroyan, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Lookalikes: Armenian General Seyran Saroyan.

Yosemite-sam, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Libertarian-Socialist blog.

I just came across a blog that represents 'anarchists in exile are analyzing Armenian and global politics'. The purpose is to introduce Libertarian-Socialist ideology to the Armenian audiences.



I am not a big fan of Socialism because we have seen what such policies can lead to in real life. When property belongs to everyone, it does not belong to anyone. The human beings are a little less sophisticated than what the Socialists credit them with. I know only of one example where means of production belong to the community and it actually works. It's the kibbutzism in Israel. Even then, kibbutz communities are a small minority in the Israeli society.



But I am a big fan of Libertarianism. Libertarianism does not exclude the formation of a socialist or communist society. I am against anarchy - one should keep an eye on the government but constantly opposing it is not a realistic goal.



Anyway. What does Libertarianism have to do with Armenia? If anyone has lived there, s/he has probably come across the state structure in daily life. It seems, at least to me it did, that half of the urban population is somehow employed by the government. The government acts like a big welfare system by hiring all these people and paying them salaries.



These people, of course, have to justify their existence. So you have a situation where most of what you want to do it regulated. The state creates issues for the citizens to resolve, and when one attempts to resolve them, s/he has to run around from one department to another, from one room to the other, and so on. 'Notes from hayrenik' blog has a number of such Kafkaesque stories.



The newly formed 'Aylntrank' ('The Alternative') movement in Armenia (disclaimer, some of my friends are members of it), also mentions the problems created by the bloated government system. The Armenian population has to be weened off of the tit of the government (I was going to say 'weened off of the tit of the taxpayer' but that sounds a little disturbing). The taxpayers' money should be utilized more efficiently - good education system that is available and affordable to every single citizen, strong defense force pretty much like the American Marines, modern communications infrastructure such as a railroad to Zangezur or fast internet pipelines through fiber optics and satellite systems, etc. People have to have a sense that they are responsible for their livelihoods - a major portion of the population has this sense but a lot of people expect government handouts, and a lot of them are employed by the state to basically create problems for the ones who don't.

Another effort to prevent the closure of Melkonian.

Cyprus Mail has another article about the Melkonian School closure in Cyprus. I had posted an earlier update about the AGBU being granted the right to sell the property of the school.



The Armenian community has not seized its fight to keep the school open. I believe that there is a case for the European Court. Let us see how the events proceed.



I have sent emails to the government representatives bringing the issue to their attention. I urge my fellow Armenians to contact these officials as well to put pressure on them. Here is the text of the email for Cypriot Armenians:



Dear Mr. [name] ,



I am writing this letter to urge you to take action towards the preservation of the Melkonian School in Lefkosia. You may know that Melkonian School was founded to accommodate the scholarly needs of the children orphaned by the Genocide of the Armenian nation in 1915. Since then the school has grown into a renowned institution worldwide. It has had thousands of graduates from Cyprus, and all over the world.



The Cypriot graduates of Melkonian have had a tremendous input in developing Cyprus into a strong and vibrant country. I am sure you know some of them.



The international students of Melkonian have returned to their countries with utmost respect for the Cypriot society and have, and continue to spread the word about Cyprus. This is an important avenue to foster and maintain the Cypriot goodwill around the world. These graduates have become influential in their respective societies and continue to advocate for the just resolution of the problems facing Cyprus such as the illegal occupation of the North.



Unfortunately, Cyprus is facing the prospect of losing this important pipeline of influence abroad. The current trustees of Melkonian have shut down the school. To me, and fellow Cypriots that I have communicated my fears to, this is not acceptable.



We have to seize this opportunity and show to the worldwide Armenian community that we, the Cypriots, value our heritage, and understand the long-term consequences of losing Melkonian.



As a Cypriot I urge you to take a firm stand and fight to keep Melkonian in Cyprus. It is far too important of an institution to lose.



Sincerely;



Here is the text if you are not a Cypriot citizen. Your opinion is important as well. It is probably more important than a Cypriot's letter.



Dear Mr. [name],



I am writing this letter to urge you to take action towards the preservation of the Melkonian School in Lefkosia. You may know that Melkonian School was founded to accommodate the scholarly needs of the children orphaned by the Genocide of the Armenian nation in 1915. Since then the school has grown into a renowned institution worldwide. It has had thousands of graduates from Cyprus, and all over the world.



The Cypriot graduates of Melkonian have had a tremendous input in developing Cyprus into a strong and vibrant country. I am sure you know some of them.



The international students of Melkonian have returned to their countries with utmost respect for the Cypriot society and have, and continue to spread the word about Cyprus. This is an important avenue to foster and maintain the Cypriot goodwill around the world. These graduates have become influential in their respective societies and continue to advocate for the just resolution of the problems facing Cyprus such as the illegal occupation of the North.



Unfortunately, Cyprus is facing the prospect of losing this important pipeline of influence abroad. The current trustees of Melkonian have shut down the school. To me, and others concerned about Cyprus that I have communicated my fears to, this is not acceptable.



We have to seize this opportunity and show to the world community that the Cypriots value their heritage, and understand the long-term consequences of losing Melkonian.



As an Armenian friend of Cyprus, I urge you to take a firm stand and fight to keep Melkonian in Cyprus. It is far too important of an institution to lose.



Sincerely;



Here are the addresses that the letters can be sent:



The President of Cyprus: president@presidency.gov.cy


The Foreign Minister Lillikas: minforeign1@mfa.gov.cy


The Minister of Education Georgiades: pgeorgiades@moec.gov.cy


The Attorney General of Cyprus: roc-law@cytanet.com.cy

Wolfowitz with holes in his socks.

Wolfowitz_socks, originally uploaded by nazarian.

Here is one of the masterminds of the Iraq war: the neo-conservative Paul Wolfowitz sporting holes in his socks. This man who makes US$ 400k a year has the blood of the thousands of innocent people on his hands. How do people like this become so powerful is beyond me.

The evil number 13 has done its deed.

The next parliamentary elections in Armenia are scheduled on Saturday, May 12, 2007.This is the first time the elections are not scheduled on a Sunday which is the 13-th of the month this year.



Better be safe than sorry.

Plans/rumors about building an oil refinery in Armenia.

During the past few days there have been reports in the Armenian press that there are plans to build an oil refinery in Southern Armenian city of Meghri. It is to be built by the Russian 'GasPromNeft' corporation.



This certainly is a good news. There have been talks about building a refinery since 1992. At that time the prime minister suggested that such a plant be built but there was even no bread to eat for the population so it was kind of a fantasy. But times have changed and the socioeconomic situation is far better now than then.



Economically, this is a very smart move by the Armenian authorities. The raw oil will be imported from across the border with Iran. Some of the refined oil will be exported back to Iran and some of it will be used in Armenia. Right now Iran has a shortage of gasoline and other refined oil products. This shortage is expected to grow in the future as the Iranians grow more affluent and buy more cars (the car production is reportedly booming in that country).



The second benefit is the lowering of the transportation costs to import oil products into Armenia. Gasoline is imported from Bulgaria. It has to cross the Black Sea, get unloaded in Poti port in Georgia, and transported to Armenia on trucks. This is a logistically complicated and costly process. With a refinery in Meghri, we will have our own supply in our backyard.



What concerns me is the environmental aspect of this. The Armenian authorities are not known for a passion for the environment. An economically depressed society values the job creation over the environmental destruction. Look at the copper mill in Alaverdi or the cement factories in Ararat. The Russians definitely are not interested in an environmentally friendly plant either. As business owners, they could care less if they destroyed Meghri. It's not their country, and they will be more interested in the bottom line.



The area is also vulnerable to Azeri attacks from Nakhijevan or Azerbaijan proper. The plant should be built next to the Arax river so that if the Azeris attack it, the oil spill will flow to Azerbaijan. This is to leverage the safety of the refinery with the Azeri water supply. Of course, there have to be precautions taken so that there are no accidental spills into the river. You do not want to harm the Azeri population and environment in peace time.



I don't know if there have been any studies about the economic viability of this project. There will be a need for infrastructure development. Right now there is only a narrow highway linking both these countries. There will be a need to build a railway link and probably an oil pipeline as well. Bot of these are costly but for the economic development of Armenia and Zangezur region these are important.

And you thought you were having a tough day.

Perky_the_duck (From BBC), originally uploaded by nazarian.

A few days ago there was a report of a duck in Florida that had been shot by a hunter, brought home and placed in a refrigerator for two days. And when the hunter's wife opened the fridge in order to cook the poor duck, it quacked. Apparently, she was alive.



Well, the story does not end there. BBC has another story about her. She died twice during the surgery on her wing but she made it through.



Ducks are one of the coolest birds out there. I love the way the mothers tend to their kids, and the decisions they make when faced with a problem where she has to sacrifice some kids in order to save the rest. It's a tough choice and I don't know how they feel about it.



Anyway, I am glad the duck made it through. Hopefully she will die of natural causes and won't end up on someone's dinner plate.

Some thoughts on the Kars-Akhalkalak-Baku railway.

So far the three countries initiating the Kars-Akhalkalak-Baku railway, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, have ignored the objections of Armenia, and the US. They keep pushing the project through. So far their main publicly announced hurdle has been raising the funds for the construction. The amount is small, only US$ 800 million, so the reason for these delays is political. But since it is going ahead, it means that the pressure on them has been inadequate.



A week or so ago the German ambassador in Azerbaijan did not rule out European participation in the project. And then an Armenian Foreign Ministry staffer offered Georgia to let Armenia to become a participant. I don't see a reason for such an undignified stance - clearly, the purpose of this railway is to circumvent Armenia.



The Armenian government has to start employing a stick instead of asking third parties to exert pressure. Armenia has to insist that such communication routes achieve only one thing: they will increase the tension in the region and eventually result in another war. Armenia definitely does not want to start a war with Azerbaijan or Georgia over a railway. But these two countries have to understand that they will not gain anything positive as a result of this project. The movers and shakers of this world should not want another escalation. There are already problems in Southern Caucasus as it is. Georgia certainly would not want to have Akhalkalak become another Abkhasia. Azerbaijan should not be flamboyant either - God forbid something happens to their oil pipeline.



I do not know if the Armenian government has communicated this message to the appropriate parties but maybe a war games in Lori is in order.

Armenian Multimedia On The Internet.

I am sitting at my desk at work and listening to the Armenian Public Radio's channel 1 broadcast live from Yerevan. I've always been a fan of Armenian Public Radio but it seems that the orientation of the music broadcast has changed. Right now I think it's NSINC or some other 'boy-band'. I usually don't listen to things like that but my hope is that they'll switch to something else shortly. After all, it's 1 am in Armenia (the DJ's voice insisted on updating me with the current time in a number of cities around the world :): you can't expect quality programming at this hour although the Macy Gray song earlier was quite nice.



And because today was the 15-th anniversary of the Armenian Army, there were a lot of small stories about the heroism of the volunteers who sacrificed their lives defending Armenia against the Azeri and Russian aggression. There was a story about a history teacher in Getashen, Shahumian region, NKR, that confronted the Russian and Azeri soldiers when they invaded the village with tanks and helicopters while they were only armed with a few rifles. He grabbed the commanding Russian colonel while holding a hand grenade in an attempt to force him to order their withdrawal, but was killed by Azeri snipers. His two friends were killed in a hail of fire when they opened fire on the Russian soldiers in response to the sniper fire.



I am glad that the memory of these fighters is still preserved. If you want to hear or watch live Armenian radio or TV, check the links on the sidebar.