New juicy details about the Baghdasarian and Hyde conversation.

For the last few days the Armenian media is abuzz with the details of the secret taping of the conversation between OEK chairman and the deputy ambassador of the UK. The deputy ambassador advises Baghdasarian to sing on the ALM TV to gain popularity and then he clarifies that he joked the same way with Dodi Gago. But since Dodi Gago is somewhat of a dod, he didn't get the humor, the deputy ambassador says that he thought he was finished. Then he expresses his fears that when Dodi Gago becomes the president, he will definitely be kicked out of Armenia.



So much for the juicy details. What bothers me are the murky circumstances that the tape was made and then given to the government mouthpiece Golos Armenii newspaper. As far as I know, it is illegal in Armenia to tape someone's conversation without a court order or an explicit agreement by the conversing parties. It is illegal to publish such conversations as well if they are taped illegally. So I would think that the UK government and Arthur Baghdasarian have solid grounds to sue Golos Armenii. They will also have a legal ground to pursue the entity that taped this conversation.



Another implication of this is that no one is safe from snooping eyes and ears in that country. It's generally a given that if you are on a phone with someone in Armenia (and anywhere else for that matter) you better be careful what you say. It may not be quite as bad as during the Soviet times but at least then there was the incompetence of the KGB operatives. i remember once a lady asked my mom to 'wait a second' so that she could start the tape recorder
. Quite funny, actually. But nowadays the communications are digital so there are no tape recorders that need to be turned on manually.