The Millennium Challenge funds, allocated by the US government to developing countries to establish democratic institutions through providing development funds, remain frozen for Armenia. This certainly is something that the US government feels compelled to do - you cannot give US taxpayer money to a country that has around 70 political prisoners from the opposition even if the leader of the opposition has called to them not to cut off the funds.
My philosophy remains that in order to restore justice and the rule of the law in Armenia it is necessary to hit the pockets of the ruling bandits. It's not secret that most of these development projects are implemented by banditocracy minions and the moneys go to finance their expensive lifestyles (most of the money eventually flows back to the US in the form purchases of luxury cars or real estate in the coastal areas).
The problem is that if the bandits don't get their money from the US taxpayers, they will try to squeeze a few more pennies from the local population who survive on the remittances from relatives working abroad.
My philosophy remains that in order to restore justice and the rule of the law in Armenia it is necessary to hit the pockets of the ruling bandits. It's not secret that most of these development projects are implemented by banditocracy minions and the moneys go to finance their expensive lifestyles (most of the money eventually flows back to the US in the form purchases of luxury cars or real estate in the coastal areas).
The problem is that if the bandits don't get their money from the US taxpayers, they will try to squeeze a few more pennies from the local population who survive on the remittances from relatives working abroad.
Nazarian,
ReplyDeleteI know how much you want the funds to be frozen, but it is a bit naive to think that the reason are the so-called "political prisoners". Fact is, most of those are criminals , in the eyes of most |Armenians including myself.
That said, it's no secret that the Obama Administration will be MUCH more friendlier to Armenia , after all anyone is better than George W., let alone someone someone like Obama who genuinely admires Armenians. Don't hold your breath. the funds will not remain frozen for too long. Yet another disappointment for you ...sorry.
If you look at Armenia it is bankrupt. It has no assets to resist the world economic recession. Everything has been sold out and stolen. After January the country will go bust. I will not surprised if RA adopts Russian Rubles soon. Russia gave financial assistance to other CIS republics but not to Armenia although the so called PM was bagging for 200 million for months.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about the Millennium Challenge grants is that they're "carrots" given out for objective criteria. So if Armenia wants that money, the government should meet these criteria!
ReplyDelete--"The cornerstone of the Bush administration's foreign aid strategy, the Millennium Challenge grants are made to low-income nations that commit to good governance, market reforms and action against corruption."
It's pitiful of you, "anonymous" (although I strongly think we've met before), to put the onus on Nazarian instead of firmly placing the blame on those in the government who daily steal money and dignity from the people of Armenia.
Here's one example--perhaps this Arm Wrestler could actually pay some taxes?
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Gagik_Tsarukyan
Dodi Gago's Armenian Versailles video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UrE6e8J_Rw
Bonus featurette, with the jaw-droppingly ghastly "watch them Darkies dance" floor show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ6GoIVhASg
Somehow I doubt that Obama admires these particular Armenians.
Ani and Emma,
ReplyDeleteBoring, very boring. You look at little insignificant details, and wedding videos. SO WHAT? look at the big picture.
Ani there is a difference between the U.S. as a country and the Bush-Cheney administration, and the carrots you mention are by the latter and thanks God they will go away forever in one month. The Obama administration will be much much much more sympathetic to the Republic of Armenia. And once again, your levonakan calculation of harming Armenia for the sake of the propagation of your agenda will not succeed. If you think the new U.S. administration or Europeans give a damn about a bunch of criminals rightfully sitting in jails and consider them political prisoners, you have made the wrong bet, and you will be very disappointed. I say this to you as a fellow Armenian and fellow human being. But if one of those prisoners is a family member then I'm truly sad for you and your personal situation, but bad decisions in life (such as being in a brainwashed drunk mob attacking policemen) mean moral and financial ruin for any family in any country.
Dear Hayk, I assume you're Hayk from "Payqar" fame. throughout the last months I've read your postings here and there, and witnessed your development from a roaring lion to a babbling chicken. And now the gloom and doom version of your take on Armenia... You remind me of American TV evangelists who have made a career out of predicting the end of the world for the last 25 or more years. But at least they don't give a time frame. You say after January the country will go bust. But I also remember you in the summer saying in two weeks LTP will come to power. The same in September. The same last April. I suggest you get out of your delirious state and do something useful with your life.
And I'll look forward to Armenia prospering after January.
Emma,
Al Qaeda terrorists jailed in Guantanamo were also "demanding a proper life for their compatriots" in Muslim countries to free them from U.S. occupation. But that doesn't make them less criminals.
The individuals who organized and completed the burning of Yerevan on March 1st are the lowest of the low and thugs in their own right, and it's only logical that they get long jail terms. Or else we are condoning violence as solving our problems. Independent Armenia was established on September 21, 1991 with great dreams.But thanks to one man called Levon Ter Petrosyan, it was turned into a banditocracy in the years to come functioning on criminal law, corruption, beatings jailings and killings. When you establish a banditocracy and rule the country with those laws for eight years, this lifestyle will be so deeply rooted in the country , that it would take at least 25 years to correct it , (if you need specific examples of other countries in history, we can discuss it). Either that, or you need a Pinochet style dictator to correct it.
That said: Levon Ter Petrosyan has absolutely no moral authority to try to correct ANYTHING in Armenia. The only person in Armenia I see today who can lead the opposition is Raffi Hovhannisian. But levonakans are too arrogant and too hungry for money and power, to support him. And that's exactly why Serge will be reelected in 2013.
Ah yes, those insignificant details like where all the money actually goes in Armenia. And habitually keeping company with Zimbabwe in every sentence is also not going to help.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/5cfs8r
And kissing up in Washington, which is apparently what you're up to these days there, "Anonymous", is not going to fool anybody. Serzh, Hovik Abrahamyan, Nalbandian, and Dodi Gago etc. are not geniuses who can pull the wool over everyone's eyes like you apparently hope. It's frankly insulting when they tell bald-faced lies and expect anyone to believe them.
As for "burning Yerevan," well, now you're being silly. There were 10 days of peaceful protests until the police showed up with the Special Forces and their weapons to beat up sleeping people before dawn. Contrast that with Greece, for instance.
So by all means, put the guilty in jail--Robert Kocharian first.
Keeping company with Zimbabwe, fresh example:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.a1plus.am/en/?page=issue&id=67381
The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) ended in Athens a few days ago. The forum featured 480 participants from 18 countries. The forum aims at assessing media landscape and freedom of expression in developing countries, find ways of protecting the right of speech and journalists from violence. The forum was attended by President of A1+ Company Mesrop Movsesyan. The participants discussed different issues and exchanged viewpoints.
“Alongside with Zimbabwe and Azerbaijan Armenia ranked the first on the list. It is a great shame for us. But we couldn’t share a lot as our means of struggle are not productive,” noted Mr. Movsesyan.
[...]
Article on Armenia Liberty about the MCC:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/5eds6t
[...]
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch, who also attended the anti-graft forum, noted that the fight against corruption is one of the criteria used in the selection of countries eligible for U.S. economic assistance under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) program.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which administers the scheme, suspended some of its promised $236 million assistance to Armenia following last February’s disputed presidential election and the ensuing bloody suppression of opposition protests in Yerevan. The frozen assistance was meant to finance reconstruction of hundreds of kilometers of rural roads across the country.
Meeting in Washington late last week, the MCC’s governing board again expressed concern at “the status of democratic governance” in Armenia and said it expects Yerevan to “fulfill commitments to implement substantive reforms.”
“The Board hopes that Armenia will improve its performance with regard to the indicators, particularly the ‘ruling justly’ indicators, and the Board will take up the issue again at its next meeting in March,” Yovanovitch told RFE/RL.
In the words of Tom Mittnacht, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, “At its meeting on December 11 the MCC board did not address the hold on funding for the Armenia road program that was put in place last spring.”
------------------------
Also wanted to say, "Anonymous," that your attitude toward these grants is quite telling. In your opinion, Armenia should get money with no strings attached, just because it wants some? Banditry defined, in a nutshell. And in case you haven't heard, there's not so much money to dish out these days.
I think you will be disappointed then by Obama. His base is the Diaspora anyway, not the government of Armenia. In any case, if he came to Armenia, would Dodi Gago ask him to dance because he heard he had "natural rhythm"??
Ani khanum,
ReplyDeleteYou are blinded by the sincere wish of harming Armenia so that you can somehow make Levon President. The tactic is simple: just like the HHSh press, including the failed news agency called A1plus, dwell only on the negative in Armenia. Let 90% of the news about Armenia be negative, because the positive will encourage the people towards their government. The tactic FAILED miserably during LTP's shortlived chicken revolution and the only result from it is 80 other chicken being held in jail. That's all. You have absolutely no support in Armenia or elsewhere in the world. Where are your numbers now? In the hundreds maximum. Sad very sad.
I believe in a brilliant future for Armenia. Simply because negativity does not affect me. You can't clean up the garbage left around by the HHSh mafia rule of eight years (1990-1998), in only ten years.
Oh and Zimbabwe and Mozambique are typical countries obsessively mentioned by the HHSh press. You're an excellent disciple , bravo! But it's not working. Think about another tactic to fool Armenians.
About the Armenia-Obama relationship , you are right, it is based on Obama-ANCA-AA relationship. And it couldn't be differently. The Armenian lobby in the U.S. has protected the interests of Armenia in the U.S. All the aid that has come to Armenia in the last 18 years has come in BECAUSE of the Diaspora+Armenian lobby factor.(even during the presidency of Levon who hated the Diaspora and alienated most Armenians in the Diaspora by banning Dashnaktsutyun). Don't worry. The Obama-Armenia relationship will be a very good one whether the President is Serge, Marxist David, or yourself. The mutual trust is solely based on his relationship with the above-mentioned Armenian lobby groups.
Mary Yovanovich still has to express the viewpoints of the Bush Administration until the day Obama takes over. So all your quotes of hers which make you ecstatic , you can throw in the garbage until then.
Again, this whole thing is simple, the so-called first banditocrat president of Armenia , Levon took a huge gamble by trusting the Europeans, the Americans AND the Russians to save him and give him the power in Armenia.TOTAL FAILURE. For one reason: Because the Armenians have NOT forgotten his genocidal policies of the 90's.And if you don't have the support of the people IN the country, when you lie so much, no superpower in the world and not even God will help you to achieve a revolution.
And thanks God for that!
One last advice to you. Negativity and hatred are sicknesses , surely you're a young Armenian woman with good aspirations. Don't let your love for a sick persn like Levon, ruin your future. Because , history proves that the only person he cares about is himself and his family's security and prosperity.
Anonymous, even with all that BS you wrote, even you can't think of anything good to say about Dodi Gago...
ReplyDeleteSaddest thing is he's got another wedding coming up to pay for (to daughter of Hovik Abrahamyan--keep it in the thieving class) so it's time for the Armenian people to cough up some more cash for the next extravaganza.
Ani,
ReplyDeleteAn Armenian lady like yourself should refrain from using foul language don't you think? You should respect yourself a bit more.
That's my first comment.
Second comment: You represent yourself as the flagbearer for a democratic Armenia, yet you can't stand a word which is in anyway critical of the one eyed monster. That doesn't speak very much for your understanding of democracy, does it?
Third comment:You don't judge Armenia by Dodi Gago as much as you don't judge America by Hulk Hogan, OJ Simpson or many other idiots, or you don't judge all Muslims by Osama Bin Laden or whole of Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini.
Dodi Gago earned his money in the atmosphere of the system established by Levon Ter Petrossyan. And that's fair game: If Brother Telman did it, Grzo did it, Dodi Gago perfected it, perhaps the latter was the most clever one. All the power to him. Regrettably. Is the majority of Armenia's population ready to establish a new Armenia different than the banditocracy established by LTP in 1991? I sure hope so. But I also know Levon TP has no moral right to try to correct any evil he established. He will simply make it worse.
So I congratulate Dodi Gago on the new wedding. I congratulate him for Bargavach Hayastan and the Olympic team too.I also congratulate Serge for the delivery of heavy guns to Karabagh in the nineties through his personal friendship to Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachov. I also congratulate him for the Armenian Chess Team (the members of the team are also thankful for his support throughout the years). I congratulate Kocharian for Northern Avenue, finally making Tamanian's dream come true and getting rid of the embarassing shack village in the middle of downtown Yerevan, I congratulate him for making Lake Sevan rise,etc etc.
And what should I congratulate Levon for?
No gas, no electricity, no water, no food, people cutting down trees?For rigging the very first elections of independent Armenia and thus establishing a marvellous tradition?
Bravo Levon!
Let me think of a difference between OJ Simpson and Dodi Gago-- Oh, right, one's going to jail and the other is head of a major political party.
ReplyDeleteIt figures that you're a sexist, Anonymous, but as far as I know B & S are perfectly fine letters of the English alphabet. Anyway, don't worry about me, I have never had any problems whatsoever with self-esteem, and I envy absolutely nothing that any of the bandits have, because I own my soul and they don't own theirs. But I do think that the Diaspora should know where their money is going, because they would rather see it going to those who need it, and it's not getting there right now.
Ani,
ReplyDeleteOnce again you don't have command of history. OJ, even though he had committed double murder, was a hero for most African Americans who were ready to riot for him. And the race factor was huge in acquitting the murderer. Now the reason for actually jailing him was not the murders he committed 13 years ago. It was because of something totally different, harmless to what he really had done. That's what I call karma. So your comparison of "OJ Simpson and Dodi Gago-- Oh, right, one's going to jail and the other is head of a major political party" is totally misinformed. I repeat, a murderer called OJ was a hero for most African-Americans . That means much more than being the head of a political party. That's mach more sick and happening in the most democratic country in the world.
If you could pinpoint why I was sexist in what I said I'd be grateful. And if you'd explain what BS means (other than being two ltters of the latin alphabet) I would be even more grateful :))))))) I wish you some classiness and at least a hint of democratic thought.
And the diaspora knows exactly where the money is going. If you care to know the Armenia Fund (BTW established by the king of kings, Levon TP himself) collected a record 35 million dollars for Karabagh this year. Let's compare that to the $40,000 levon's supporters in LA collected for their "supposed" "political prisoners"...Laughable. It shows what support does levon have in the diaspora.
And now, please go ahead and call the diaspora IDIOTIC.
And another thing, I have news for you. You don't own your soul. God owns it. And if you think you're so eternal and powerful that you own it... what can I say... I pity you.
Nazarian
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't you chacking out the comments posted by anonymous? We had enough this jack ass style entertainment.
Haik, any opinion in the comments is welcome no matter how false I, or anyone else, thinks they are... as long as they do not contain threats or foul language. Anonymous has been a longtime reader and knows these two rules so his posts are not in violation.
ReplyDeleteConsoder one thing - why am I against the current regime in Armenia? Because they eliminate anyone and anything they do not like. If I start eliminating comments I don't like or agree with, I am not much different than Serzhik or Rob.
Heck, I have even kept a lot of the comments by pigh even though he has called me a some really bad things. But it's his right to do so and his comments remain as long as they do not contain threats or foul language (some that did contain threats and foul language were deleted).
Haik, free exchange of thought is the key to democracy--which I do know quite a bit about, actually :)
ReplyDeleteImagine if people could actually have that in Armenia! Anyway, I like to hear what Anonymous et al. have to say because then you know what you're working against. As you see, he only fulminates while I get to show videos. And dancing alone is no fun--it takes two to tango.
And to Anonymous, if God wants my soul he can have it, I didn't sell it to the devil like the Armenian mafiosos.
Nazarian,
ReplyDeleteBravo! Finally I meet a levonakan who can actually listen and not censor and be furious at anything which goes against their propaganda. You're the very first.
Ani,
I am glad you corrected yourself. But please don't put words in my mouth, I never told you to sell your soul to the devil or the oligarchs.
But about your videos. I had seen them ages and ages ago on youtube. I think they are boring and unimpressive. Why? Because you can see much more than that in a Hayastanci wedding in LA. Much more showing off, much more trying your best to impress. In one word, disgusting. And I wonder how did most of those Hayastancis earn that money. As law-abiding, tax-paying citizens of the US? I highly highly doubt it. So nothing is different and you don't need to pick on poor Dodi Gago.
Today there is as much free speech in Armenia as we need. When an over-60 year old former president uses 50% lies and 50% hate for his campaign, and civic society is not nearly as mature as in Western countries, you don't get democracy. You get chaos , you get mobs attacking and burning their capital city, while the one-eyed monster stays at home, drinks tea and has a very "good night's sleep" (his words). Democracy enforced by the most undemocratic politician in the modern history of Armenia, Levon TP leads to ruin and destruction and thanks God that he has been stopped and relegated to irrelevance, once and for all.
And then, you have someone like Raffi Hovhannisian, whose past is clean, who's a patriot in the true sense of the word, who doesn't use hate and lies to push the people into rioting and killing.
Even though I don't agree with his political direction but I highly respect him as the only opposition politician who actually deserves to be called an opposition politician.
Levon and his cronies deserve jail time for what they did to Armenia 1990-1998 and 2007 September21 to 2008 March 1. And most of them have already ended up in jail, like common criminals, which they are. Seven of them will follow soon. Those are the worst in the HHSh criminal pyramid.And I repeat,if they get anything less than 10 years, would be a shame for democratic Armenia and the court system in Armenia.
Raffi would have been a good candidate for president, but he wasn't running--and yes, I understand why.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans of Armenia and their associates have such a stranglehold on the country that it's in grave danger of dying. Without any opposition the oligarchs will pillage until there's nothing left. If you ever get over your blind anger at Levon, Anonymous, maybe you could see the harm that's being done to the country right now.
Now, I think we've milked this particular cow dry...
Fare enough.
ReplyDeleteIt is just like Haylur translated into English, no essence or quality in it. very biased. Like he calls you and other people Levonakan. What does that mean i still dont know.
Ani
ReplyDeletewhy do you "pick on poor Dodi Gago" ?
Why !!!
Shame on you all.
Haik, you really read those comments, don't you? I did not notice being called 'Levonakan'. :)
ReplyDeleteMy guess is 'Levonakan' means someone who doesn't like the current banditocracy in Armenia (i.e. the opposite of bandit and thief). If that's the case then I don't mind being called that. I would rather be called that then Serzhakan or gogh or dod.
"Boring, very boring. You look at little insignificant details, and wedding videos. SO WHAT? look at the big picture."
ReplyDeleteAs the majority of the country teeters below the poverty line...as thousands in Gyumri still live in domiks no human being should be forced to live in... Dod, on a more meager salary than the majority of college students in the US, lives in a multi-billion dollar mansion and throws multi-million dollar parties. And this insignificant in your book? Actually, this is the ROOT of the problems in the country.
no i actually don't read them. Have no time for it. Just found a minute while on the phone to quickly scan through. I wish i had the anonymouse's time.
ReplyDeleteI dont think anybody reads the full thing that was the reason i suggested to chack them out it is a waste of blogspots webserver hard drive.
anyway... as far as blogspot doesnt put usage quotas it doesn't bother anybody.
"poor Dodi Gago" was the best so far...
ReplyDelete