Sumgait Anniversary.

It seems that the Armenian history is full of tragic events - massacres of Armenian by either the Turks or Azeris. One of the biggest in recent memory is the massacre of the Armenian residents in the industrial city of Sumgait in Azerbaijan not far from Baku.

mv83 has posted an eyewitness report of a survivor. This kind of stories do not appear in the press very often (even in the Armenian language papers) so I thought it would be helpful to translate it.

They Killed a Lot of Armenians That Day

Jenya, an 80 year old grandmother, lives in Stepanakert. She is a witness to the massacres of the Armenian population in Sumgait. Her family is one of the few who managed to escape it without harm.

"The best years of my life were the ones in Sumgait. I lived in a five story building. Until now I remember our apartment [mentions the address]. I was a nurse in a hospital and had very good friends. When the Karabakh movement started [a couple of weeks ago] they started surveying the Armenians. On their way home, they were often detained and taken away.
On the day of the massacre I was at home and my daughter Naira was at work. I wanted to go and get her but my neighbors did not let me. Instead, they went themselves and got her. One of the neighbors, Mahmed, God bless him, came in and took a bottle full of gasoline out of his pocket. "If they come after you", he said, "I will light this up and throw at them so do not be afraid". They came after us that evening - we had noticed that they were asking the neighbors about the Armenian family that lived in the building. Our neighbors told them that there were no Armenians there and that the Armenians had moved.", remembers Mrs. Jenya.

"I was a 10-12 year old kid. I was alone in my room and was watching soccer on TV. There was a small exit door leading to the balcony. I looked out, there was a fire in our yard. There was a car tire burning and a large crowd of people around it. Then I saw them drag a 20-25 year old Armenian woman. They had already dragged her around the town and she had no clothes. They put her on the fire and burned her. I was terrified and stood in shock without understanding what was going on.", tells Jenya's grandson.

"The kid was hidden rolled up in a rug.", interrupts Jenya, "They killed a lot of Armenians that day. Soon after my brother and sister's son came from Karabakh and took us away from Sumgait. I still wonder how they managed to get to Sumgait. The cars belongign to Armenians were being pelted with stones in Aghdam and passengers taken hostage. It was far more dangerous in Sumgait. A lot of Armenians ere killed that day."

Khojalu Events.

In 1992 there was a tragedy in NKR. While the peaceful population was evacuating from Khojalu to Aghdam, the National Front of Azerbaijan fighters directed them towards Aghdam where they executed them. The political motive was to overthrow the then president of Azerbaijan Mutalibov by blaming it on the Armenian side (who, incidentally, did not control the territory the Khojalu civilians were killed).

Pigh has created a new blog which documents the events based on the reports in mainly Azerbaijani media. Justice for Khojaly can be accessed here.

Turks Advertising on Google.

Lately I have noticed that the Turkish Americans have been advertising on Google. Their ads even show up on this blog on the right hand band.

I encourage the readers to click on their ads and get a sense of what they are doing nowadays. They seem to be quite active.

The Generals of March 1.

The snapshot on the left is from a video captured on March 1, 2008, around 3pm near the Government Building in Yerevan. At the same time the Armenian Army was being deployed in downtown Yerevan. As soon as the man in gray hair saw that he was being filmed, he sat in the white SUV. It is clear that he does not want to be filmed and as a result is on the video for the total of three seconds. But that is enough time to recognize that he is the head of the Armenian Army department of arms, General Major Mels Chilingarian, in civilian clothes. Before that he was in the Government Building and after coming out, he had shouted orders to some Army personnel.

And the fact that he is in civilian clothes is no coincidence. The high ranking military officers had recognized that all that they had already done on March 1, and whatever they had planned to do that evening, were unconstitutional and illegal.

The presence of these high ranking military people in their uniforms would prematurely indicate that these people were getting ready to implement a military coup d'etat by executing the civilians: which they did a few hours later.

Them Monies Keep Pilin'.

As the readers might know, the Bjni mineral water spring, manufacturing facilities and trademark rights have been up for sale in Armenia. Bjni was at some point owned by Khachadour Sukiasian, an MP that supported LTP during the last presidential elections. As a 'thank you', Serj Sargsian promptly decided to arrest him and take away his assets. Bjni was taken away from Mr. Sukiasian on some flimsy charges regarding short term debt.

Bjni has been on the auction block for a couple of times without any buyers. This time, an MP called Ruben Hayrapetian, aka Nemets Rubo, aka the head of the Armenian Soccer Federation, has bought Bjni. Obviously, he did not do it to make money. He just wants to save the jobs at Bjni and help the people.

There have been questions about the legality of his purchase since an MP cannot buy businesses according to the Constitution. Also, there have been questions about where he got the money since his official income is $12,000 a year. He doesn't seem to pay any taxes which helps 'them monies to pile'.

But, since this is Armenia we are talking about, such questions about legality and stuff bring a weak smile to my face since the auction itself was illegal.

And now the spectacle. Here is Mr. Hayrapetian 'splainin' why he did it.

The Best Rock 'n' Roll.

Beethoven is perhaps number one. A close number two is Black Sabbath.

Taleban.

Interesting. Looks like the Armenian Parliament is going ahead with Armen Ashotian's law to ban any religions but the Armenian Apostolic Church from preaching their faith. The main aim is to effectively ban churches like the Mormons, Evangelicals or the Mormons. As an unintended consequence, it's possible that they end up with banning the Molokans, Catholics or even the Holye See of Cilicia.

There will be excuses that the law will not ban anything and is there to regulate religion but it should be obvious that in Armenia laws are there to have an excuse to ban things that the governing bandits do not like: Ashotian is a representative of the ruling banditocracy (and probably the most foul mouthed one in the parliament).

On top of that, such a law is most probably unconstitutional but that does not matter either since the Constituion is not something that is followed nowadays.

How is Sargis Hatspanian?

If you remember, some time ago Sargis Hatspanian, a hero of the Artsakh War, was imprisoned for his interview to press. The reason for the imprisonment was his claim that Serj Sargsian's life was in danger and some dark forces were planning his assassination. It is quite a bizarre reason to imprison someone but this is Armenia we are talking about. (with the same logic, one would imprison the mouthpiece of the ruling HHK party Galust Sahakian for treason when he suggested Armenia to join the islamic league of nations).

Last I heard, Mr. Hatspanian was on hunger strike and was still in prison. Have there been any news reports about his health lately?

Gomidas Vardabed.

Yesterday when I was driving home after a long day, Obama's press conference was on NPR. After it was over, they switched to classical music as usual.

It was the 'Taller than a poplar tree' by Gomidas performed by the Armenian Philharmonic. What a pure music it was! (whole album)

We may have a banditocracy on our hands and breakdown of law and order in Armenia but we are still a great nation. For such a small nation we have remarkable input for the humanity.

Law Enforcement in Armenia.

Here is a video of the head of the guards at the Khosrov National Preserve killing a boar. His job is to stop people who kill animals at Khosrov. Killing animals is strictly forbidden although there are stories about the former president Robert Kocharian killing deer from a helicopter there (with a machine gun).

Հետաձգվեց

Երեկ ՀՀ Վերաքննիչ քրեական դատարանում պետք է սկսվեր ՀՀՇ Վանաձորի տարածքային կառույցի ղեկավար, Մարտի 1-ի քրեական գործով քաղբանտարկյալ Աշոտ Մանուկյանի դատը: Սակայն դատական նիստը ընդմիջվեց` բացված հայտարարվելուց հետո, քանի որ Մանուկյանի պաշտպան Արթուր Աթարբեկյանը չէր կարողացել դատական նիստին ներկայանալ եւ խնդրել էր հետաձգել այն: Ուստի, դատը հետաձգվեց մինչեւ փետրվարի 11-ը` ժամը 15.30-ը: Հիշեցնենք, որ Երեւանի քրեական դատարանի դատավոր Վազգեն Ռշտունին մասնագիտությամբ նկարիչ Մանուկյանին դատապարտեց 5 տարվա ազատազրկման` ոստիկանների ակնհայտ սուտ ցուցմունքների հիման վրա:

hz.am

A Really Optimistic News Today.

I've worked in retail and as a result, I have been exposed to the revenue and taxation sides of it. Basically, there are two common taes in retail. One is the Value Added Tax - VAT and the other one is income tax.

The VAT, also known as Sales tax in the US and ԱՎԵԼԱՑՎԱԾ ԱՐԺԵՔԻ ՀԱՐԿ in Armenia, is a percentage of the value of the good added to the price. So, something that retails at $1.00 will sell for $1.05 if the VAT is 5%. This is a consumption tax and the government gets its cut from the retail sales. This is not a good policy shaping tool because usually there are two tiers to this. The bare necessities are not taxed and everything else is taxed at the same rate. As such, it's a revenue generating tool for the government.

The other tax is the income tax. The $1.00 from the example above is the revenues of the retailer. There are quite a few expenses that get allocated to that $1.00 such as the cost of the good sold and overhead. The profit margin from that $1.00 can be maybe $0.10. The government then takes its cut from that $0.10 of maybe 30% so the retailer ends up with $0.07 out of the dollar. The government ends up with $0.08 in this example.

The basic tool for the government to control this are the receipts. In the US it is illegal to not give out receipts and it is part of the social contract for the companies to give receipts to their customers. The businesses will always demand receipts because then they will show that as part of expenses. The consumers do not have an incentive to demand receipts. So the government uses a stick to prevent businesses from under-reporting their revenues, and the consumers can return items if they have the receipt. So with this two prong strategy, receipts are ubiquitous in this country. The businesses then find creative ways to avoid income tax. The VAT flow to the government is fairly representative to the retail sales.

Now the optimistic news part. In Armenia there is no social contract of providing receipts. Tax evasion has been, and remains, a popular way of accumulating wealth for the business elite in the country. One way has been to under-report revenues. You basically have two sets of books: one is the real one used for decision making, and the other one is for the government where your revenues are the same, or less than, your expenses so you don't pay income tax. On top of that, you collect the VAT from your customers but you pocket it since the government doesn't know what you have sold. It's a quite lucrative way of creating wealth for yourself.

After years of efforts, the Armenian government has come up with a way to get a clear picture of the retail sales. At first they tried to threaten the businesses to record their sales. Then they demanded the businesses give receipts. Then they asked the consumers to demand receipts. But since none of the parties involved had any stake in the receipts being recorded, all these efforts were futile.

The new approach is to incentivise the consumers by giving them money. Getting a percentage of the sales would not make much sense (who cares about a few cents per purchase?) so the government pools this percentage into a lottery with a few prizes depending on the amount on the receipt as big as $16,000. Obviously, there is a lot of interest among the consumers. By basing the prize on the amount of the purchase, they make sure that the consumers demand that the sales be recorded correctly. Through a televised lottery they make sure that the retailers do not keep two sets of receipts, i.e. give out a fake receipt.

The upside for the retailers is that they get a way to promote their brand for free. Another upside for the retailers will probably be that the amount of the average sale will increase since the prize depends on the amount.

Skyscraper Post.

About a decade ago one of my buddies from Armenia was visiting the US and was in Chicago. Of course, one of the things to do in Chicago is to climb up the Sears Tower. Which we did. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and the top of the building was covered in clouds and we couldn't see anything but the roof of the next tallest portion of the building. In an effort to look at the bright side, I thought that at least we are in the clouds without being in an airplane.

Since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with tall buildings. I don't like heights - anything beyond 30 feet makes me uncomfortable. So in order to overcome this, I always try to go as high as possible. As a kid, it was walking on the roofs of Khruschev or 9 story buildings in Armenia. In the US, roofs are not easily accessible so it's climbing on the top floor of skyscrapers. The best, perhaps, was using the stairs on the (half emty) GM building in Detroit which in a tubular stairwell covered with glass. When you climb down, it feels as if you are going to fall. The second best is standing at the edge of the glass floor on top of the CN Tower in Toronto.

BBC has a short slideshow about the initial stages of the skyscrapers in the US. It's not very comprehensive but it's OK.

Who Killed Mherian?

Still trying to figure out who whacked Gevorg Mherian. He doesn't seem to be notorious. Maybe that was his mistake. In modern Armenia, you gotta be a bandit if you want to be a successful cop.

He seems to have been involved with the visa and passport regulations. He is also an author of the law that practically banned the right to assembly.

No Pessimism Today.

So, today I am going to be posting about optimistic stories. I will not be posting about the things that happened today and might be considered as pessimistic news:
- former boxing world champion Israel Hakobkokhian gets beaten up by the bodyguards of Dodi Gago Tsarukian, the chief of the Prosperous Armenia Party and the chief of the Olympic Committee of Armenia, as he attempts to ask a question at a conference;
- during the past 1 month, there have been 21 suicides and attempted suicies in Armenia, with the latest two deaths occuring during the past 2 days;
- the murder of the deputy police chief of Armenia, colonel Gevorg Mherian, at his doorstep;
- the drop in Armenian exports;
- the closure of some copper manufacturing facilities;
- etc.

Instead, I will be posting about an optimistic news such as:
- Serj Sargsian leaves for Moscow.

I hope he stays there.

Long Winter Predicted.

Phil has predicted another 6 weeks of winter. He failed to see his shadow so we are in for a long winter this year.

I wonder what the groundhog that lives under our barn thinks. Yesterday I went to check and his burrow was full of frozen water. I couldn't tell if he has relocated to a drier place but if he is not back this summer, I'll be happy. He has a knack for selecting the best vegetables in the garden before me. But then, again, he patrols the area constantly while we go there to pick veggies if we need it.

Picture: Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.