Projections
of massive egos, expressions of utter ignorance, exhibitions of gore,
predictions of doom, feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and
despair... I was finally able to experience firsthand one of our
community's newest circuses in which Armenia was presented as a
house-of-horror, and the only thing missing was the scary costumes.
But, of course, after about two hours of lies, half-truths,
exaggerations, sky is falling rhetoric and fear mongering, we were all
kindly asked to consider moving to Armenia, if only to civilize the
local savages there. Did
the organizers of this evening-of-horrors even realize the utter
irrationality and counterproductive destructiveness of what they were
doing? From the looks on their faces, I don't know the answer to that
question, but the event sure felt like a nightmare. After all that psychological torture, move to Armenia? There
were in fact moments during the night when I found myself actually
cursing destiny for having made me an Armenian. I'd be much happier as a
yodeling Bavarian. Why God, why did you make me an Armenian?
Move to Armenia? I think I will need to purge my body and soul of the
massive dose of poison I was administered by the wonderful panel of
"experts" if I am ever again to even think about repatriating.
On the evening of January 27, and in an Armenian church of all places, a gathering of so-called experts on Armenia participated in a so-called panel discussion. Every single piece of dirty laundry that could be found in Armenia was brought to these shores and washed one-by-one in front of the shocked audience. For about two hours all we heard about was - murder in the military, corruption, murder in the household, corruption, murder in the police department, corruption, murder in Paplavok, corruption, assaults in hotels, corruption, massive police brutality, corruption, tanks being driven upon protesters, corruption, domestic violence, corruption, human trafficking, corruption, ecological disaster... Beatings, maimings, blackmail, suicides, robbery, shootings, bribery, oppression, poverty, rape, unemployment, depopulation, did I mention corruption (?), the total absence of rule-of-law, severe human rights abuses, entrenched government corruption... [catching my breath] And government hit squads mercilessly shooting down diasporans as they step off airplanes in Zvartnots!
I was kidding about Zvartnots. They are not shooting down akhpars at the airport. But after the lecture/torture session I was subjected to, I'm no longer very confident that our luck there will last much longer. Having said that, and as bad/ugly as it was, having seen what was done in a similar panel discussion not too long ago, believe it or not, I was actually expecting worst. No, unlike what Washingtonian agent Richard Giragosian did recently (please see second half of this commentary), panelists this time did not get into calling for revolution, upheaval or chaos in Armenia as a way of "fighting corruption".
However, with their terribly narrow political perspectives, Western biases, apocalyptic visions of doom and multiple doses of concentrated poison, with one notable exception, the only thing the experts on Armenia did manage to do, besides gleefully dragging Armenia's name in the shitty gutter for a couple of hours, was to maim and kill, spiritually/psychologically speaking, many Armenians that were present at the event that night. Of the more than two hundred people present, God only knows how many of them went home in anger, despair, hopelessness, disgust and depression... forever lost to the Armenian republic. After watching this senseless act of self-mutilation, I no longer wonder why our sheeple prefer spending their vacations in Turkey, Lebanon, France and Mexico, instead of that shitty, stinky, crime filled, little, nasty dictatorship in the backward Caucasus called called Armenia.
The following is the Armenian Radio Hour's whitewashed reporting of the nightmarish event in question - http://www.snkcreative.com/arnj/upload2/newsl020512.pdf
Simply put, what occurred in Saint Leon on the evening of January 27 was an emotionally scarring public relations fiasco and a merciless propaganda assault on the Armenian homeland. If the intent of the event was to help Armenia's development as a nation-state, it failed miserably. If the intent of the event was to fight corruption and human rights abuses, it failed miserably. If the intent was to spread lies, poisonous rumors and half-truths about the sociopolitical situation in Armenia, it was a brilliant success. If the intent was to spread anti-Armenia/anti-Hayastantsi sentiments in the diaspora, it was a brilliant success. If the intent was to turn-off and/or scare off the diaspora from Armenia, it was a brilliant success. If the intent was to prepare the political field for chaos before the next presidential elections in Armenia, it was a brilliant success!
What our politically-illiterate community leaders and activists continue to fail to realize is that our diasporan communities are terribly incapable of absorbing or assessing these types of information in a healthy and/or constructive manner. The average Armenian today is still incapable of understanding politics or appreciating his/her newly created statehood. Most Armenians today are still hopelessly stuck in a "community mentality" and are incapable of comprehending the serious implications of having an independent state. To the detriment of the Armenian republic, the Armenian peasantry continues to treat sociopolitical matters in Armenia as if they are family disputes or a street fight.
As an Armenian nationalist and a long-time political observer, I cannot keep my mouth shut about what has been occurring in our diasporan communities in recent years. I will not wait for Syriafication or Libyafication of Armenia before I open my mouth. Terminal aliments are most successfully fought when we react to them as soon as their first symptoms appear. Symptoms of a serious cancer in our communities have already been manifesting themselves in recent years. This situation is potentially very serious for the health and well-being of our embattled homeland in the Caucasus. Therefore, we must act now. And if by opening my mouth I will make enemies of friends, then so be it. These types of situations have gone way beyond personal matters, in my opinion. Our statehood is at stake. My political convictions and my ideological commitment to my homeland far outweigh my feelings towards family or friends.
Discussions on Armenia are seriously flawed
The entire premise upon which discussions about "democracy" or "human rights" in Armenia are taking place are fundamentally flawed. Washing Armenia's dirty laundry in public by political activists and individuals connected to Washington-based organizations, and in the United States of all places, is seriously counterproductive... if the intent of the washing is meant to be in Armenia's interest. I am all for civil society and human rights, but what has been going on here has gone well beyond simply promoting democratic values in Armenia. What we have here on our hands is a persistent and powerful information war against Armenia. This is ultimately Washington's psychological warfare campaign against Armenia. Since they cannot bombard Armenia with bombs, they are bombarding Armenians with poisonous rhetoric. Their intentions are to break the Armenian national spirit and to break the emotional bond Armenians have with their homeland; after which they can break the Armenian state. And since many Armenians cannot see past their noses, many fall victim to the machinations of the American empire time-after-time.
Seeing our activists in action on the night of January 27, I have little doubt now that the diaspora may be the final resting place of all Diasporan Armenians. If these kinds of reckless psychological warfare operations continue to be carried out by our shortsighted, overly-emotional, narrow-minded, self-righteous and ego-driven community members, I'm pretty sure that the diaspora will be dying sooner-than-later. Nevertheless, this newest circus in town somehow did managed to refrained from openly calling for revolution or chaos in Armenia. Knowing just how destructive Armenians can get when it comes to matters pertaining to their homeland, I guess this could be considered an improvement. Although the scope of this blog and the intent of this commentary is not to describe in detail what occurred on the night of January 27, I do, nevertheless, would like to say a few words about the featured panelists.
The so-called panel of "experts"
Arda Haratunian: Commenced the event by arrogantly making references to how badly this or that Western institution thinks of Armenia. This veteran of the Armenian Assembly of America (i.e. Washington's mouthpiece in the American-Armenian community), in her usual - we wonderful Americans need to teach you third worlders a thing or two about civilization - condescending tone, more-or-less managed the circus as its ringmaster. It was a fitting decision to have her play this role given her background in service of the American empire.
Simon Payaslian: The simple fact that this historian become a historian with the blessings of a pseudo-historian, Richard Hovanissian, should say a few things about his intellectual caliber and his integrity as an Armenian. Despite his aforementioned handicap, however, Simon did give the audience a fairly decent if generic lecture on the historical development of political thought in Armenia. Although he did not directly point it out, perhaps for fear of sounding too Armenian, too objective or too honest, his lecture did reveal clear progress taking place in Armenia's political environment in recent years. Again, perhaps not wanting to sound too Armenian, too objective or too honest, or simply concerned about preserving his comfortable salary at Boston College, Simon also made some very ridiculous comments about Armenia. After more-or-less lamenting that political due process does not exists in a backward Armenia, he stated that during the political protests of early 2008, the government sent "tanks" against demonstrators. He also stated that Armenian police regularly disperse protesters with brute force. The "historian" was telling us lies and half-truths. First, "tanks" were not driven against protesters during Levon Petrosian's revolution attempt in 2008. Second, demonstrators in Armenia sometimes get dispersed with force when the protest gatherings are unlawful or disruptive. Regardless of how our dear historian wants to portray it, what happened back in early 2008 was clearly an attempted revolution (most probably a color revolution). Faced with a revolution, any government anywhere on earth (especially Washington) would have reacted with deadly force; as a matter of fact, with a LOT of deadly force. Given that fact Armenia's self-destructive peasantry at the time was violently trying to put back into power a treasonous criminal that had already once raped and pillaged the country throughout the 1990s, I personally think the authorities in Yerevan acted quite restrained. Simon needs to be intellectually honest with himself if he wants to be taken seriously. Maybe Simon was so damn busy trying to dig up dirt on Armenia that he did not even notice peaceful demonstrators in his dear and democratic homeland of America being brutally crushed by a military style police force - from Wall Street to Oakland! At one point Simon mentioned political evolution. Although he did not use the term in a positive context, I nevertheless agree with him that Armenia today needs political evolution - not a Western funded revolution. Had Simon been a real historian, or a man of moral integrity for that matter, he would have realized that there are, unfortunately, more political freedoms in Armenia than in America. But people like Simon are more concerned about preserving their salaries and professional contacts than worrying about academic integrity or political reality. I hate to think of all the young minds this so-called "historian" is poisoning in Boston College.
Karen Hakobian: What should have been expected from someone who is a Levon Petrosian supporter, an activist for Raffi Hovanisian and from someone who makes his living via "rights" NGOs? An ugly individual in all senses of the word, disdainfully telling the audience "let me show you the real Armenia", Karen began showering the audience with virtually every single bad story that has taken place in Armenia during the past ten years. Murders, violence, human trafficking, beatings, suicides, robberies, shootings, bribery, oppression, poverty, rape, depopulation, corruption... According to Karen, this was the nightmarish reality of Armenia today. Every single nasty story that could have been dug-up about the country was meticulously presented to the shocked audience. Drenched in jaded negativity, pessimism and horror, Karen scornfully assaulted the audience's senses both visually and emotionally. Karen did not say a single encouraging, positive or even a neutral word about Armenia. The filth even took at shot at the Hay Dat, insinuating that its pursuit is a distraction that is blinding the diaspora to the nightmarish realities of Armenia. Due to his assault on people's emotions, Karen's house-of-horrors presentation may have made the most lasting impression on the audience.
Garo Yegnukian: Assuming the title of Senior Fellow at Policy Forum Armenia (a Washington-based subversive political group), a well-respected New York businessman who recently repatriated to Armenia with his family, Mr. Yegnukian read a ten minute lofty speech in which he basically maintained that the entire system of government in Armenia is corrupt "from top to bottom" and that there is absolutely no political due process in the country. He later went on to mention that the only way to help the situation in the country is to send some "twenty thousand" diasporan businessmen to start businesses in Armenia. Mr. Yegnukian failed to realize that scary circuses such as the one he enthusiastically participated in have the exact opposite effect on the people's psyche. Mr. Yegnukian may have thought he was shocking the community into action in Armenia. He may have convinced himself that he had a positive impact on his audience. If so, he is terribly mistaken. After having witnessed the horribly distorted way in which his homeland was being presented, no sane person would even remotely think about ever stepping foot in that corrupt and miserable dictatorship in the south Caucasus (no, I'm not talking about Azerbaijan). But of course Mr. Yegnukian wants us to think about starting businesses in Armenia. Besides which, Mr. Yegnukian is thinking way too highly of the diaspora's true capabilities. Did our dear Senior Fellow really think through his skit? Although clearly well-meaning and not vicious or condescending as some of the other panelists, Mr. Yegnukian utterly failed to see the senselessness of his speech in that negative and pessimistic venue, and he failed to realize the senselessness of having called on thousands of Armenian businessmen to move to Armenia. In his speech, he did, however, allude to one lucid realization that I have been pointing out for many years: Armenia is too small for the Armenian. Our people's many cutthroat business sharks (the ones we are so proud of when they do their throat-cutting elsewhere) are currently swimming in a little, understocked pond known as Armenia. Our nation's voracious sharks (the ones we are normally so proud of) need a well-stocked ocean to operate in. Until we find them that ocean, we simply have to figure out a way to deal with them. In the meanwhile, men like Mr. Yegnukian have to stop looking at Armenia through a politically naive utopian prism and realize that Armenia is going through natural growing pains. Mr. Yegnukian exemplifies what I mean about well-meaning Armenians being blinded by their utopian expectations and pursuing matters pertaining to Armenia in counterproductive manners.
Aram Hamparian: Of the announced group of speakers, one individual that initially struck me as odd for being there was Aram Hamparian of the ANC. I asked myself, what is the ANC doing participating in such an event? What does foolishly airing Armenia's dirty laundry in public, in America of all places, have to do with our Hay Dat? I thought to myself, Mr. Hamparian would serve our community much better by staying in the viper's nest known as Washington and finally figuring out a way of convincing his empire's severely corrupt leaders to stop working against Armenia. I also thought to myself, Mr. Hamparian's organization should stop lying to us every four years about genocide recognition being just around the corner so that they could stay in business - knowing full well that the empire they work under could careless about a tiny, remote, poor and landlocked nation in the Caucasus. I also thought to myself, a man who represents an organization that has been among the most corrupt in the Armenian world (i.e. ARF) was going to complain about "corruption" in Armenia, and from inside the most corrupt of empires of all places? Ridiculous, I thought. Well, although the ANC had no businesses being at the event, I now have to say that I'm actually very grateful that Mr. Hamparian did indeed show up. In fact, Mr. Hamparian was the only light in the utter darkness that had descended upon us. Mr. Hamparian did his best to refrain from senselessly attacking his homeland. He was objective, positive, constructive, rational and comforting. He was the exception I referred to above. I was also very impressed that Mr. Hamparian had the clarity of vision and the courage to emphatically state that Washington is not really concerned about democracy in Armenia and that it is only interested in breaking Armenia away from Russia and Iran. This may have been the first time such a thing has been publicly admitted by a prominent community representative in America. Therefore, thank you Mr. Hamparian for being there that night. The ANC/ARF is lucky to have a man of your moral character and intellectual caliber among their ranks.
The Hartounian family
Although he was not on the panel group, at the end of the event, Saro Hartounian spoke briefly about his family's plight in Armenia. It then became apparent that the event was at least in part organized by those in close communion with the Hartounian family. Many already know about the Hartounian family's problems in Armenia. A couple of years ago the Hartounian family was brutally betrayed by a close friend of the family who, incidentally, happens to be a Diasporan/Dashnaktsakan type. As a result of this betrayal by Sevag Artsruni, the Hartounian family got seriously tangled in the country's murky business/political world. Sadly, the situation has snowballed out of control in recent months. While I fully and wholeheartedly sympathize with the Hartounian family, and I did my share in trying to help Narek Hartounian when he was temporarily arrested on trumped-up charges in Yerevan several weeks ago, the Hartounian family needs to realize that their business related problems in Armenia are being hijacked and exploited by activists and organizations with dangerous political motivations and agendas, and their story is becoming a convenient venue for disseminating hate and hopelessness within Diasporan circles.
The absence of hope is the single most dangerous thing Armenians face today. We all know that Armenia is far from being perfect when it comes to the rule of law, but let's bare in mind that there are countless Hartounian stories in America as well. The Hartounian family is not helping their case by bringing the fight here to the shores of the American empire, under the very nose of the emperor; they are not helping their case by spreading ugly disinformation about Armenia; and they are certainly not helping their case by employing activists connected to Washington to do their bidding. Moreover, instead of featuring disgusting activists like Karen Hakobian, organizers of this event should have made sure that a representative of the republic was present at the gathering. Using their powerful community connections, the Hartounian family needed to have somehow convinced the Armenian ambassador to be present at the event. According to my sources, the Armenian ambassador was not formally invited. For the event to have been considered legitimate or effective, it needed the presence of a ranking official from Armenia. The official in question needed to hear the community's complaints, he needed to address the gathering, he may even needed to have been scolded by the community... but all this should have occurred without the presence of pseudo-historians like Simon, Washington's mini-apparatchiks like Arda and doom&gloom smut-peddlers like Karen.
The Hartounian family also needed to have realized that diasporan communities are utterly incapable of absorbing or processing the kind of information they were bombarded with on the evening of January 27 in a constructive or healthy manner. If the Hartounian family wanted community help, they should have invited community representatives for a closed-door meeting to discuss their problems. Keeping the event politically clean and hosting the Armenian ambassador or his representative would have been a display of healthy and/or constructive political activism. Instead, what took place in Saint Leon church was a psychological warfare against the Armenian state on behalf of imperial interests in Washington.
Regardless of the realities of their case, the way in which the Hartounian family's plight has fermented in the Armenian community of America is this: A philanthropic family went to Armenia to help Armenia - and Armenia screwed them!!! End of story. The moral of the story: Stay way from Armenia. Exploiters of the story: Washington-based NGOs. Victims of the story: Narek and Armenia.
As one who wholeheartedly supports the Hartounian family in their fight for justice, it is my opinion that the event that took place on the night of January 27 did absolutely NOTHING to help the Hartounian family. The event only managed to hurt the Armenian republic and in the process it most probably killed the Armenian in quite a few of the people present.
If the Hartounian family seeks constructive community help, they first need to make public all the details of their case. Instead of all the vicious gossip and hearsay we are currently exposed to, the Hartounian family needs to show concerned members of the community exactly who did what and when. Armed with this information, concerned members of the community can thereafter appeal to influential individuals, celebrities, legal experts, legitimate activists and legitimate Armenian organizations to figure out an effective way of advocating for the Hartounian family.
For instance, I keep hearing that the brother of the Armenian president is somehow involved in this mess. Thus far, however, no one is willing to explain exactly how he is involved. If the man is indeed involved, the Hartounian family should be revealing the details of his involvement. If the brother of the Armenian president is indeed involved, the Hartounian family needs to figure out a way of taking the fight directly to him. I'm sure he's got a house, a place of business, an office... Gather celebrities, lawyers, activists, politicians and journalists and pay him a visit. In other words, keep the fight against individuals - not the state.
Do whatever it takes to teach our Armenia's wealthy chobans a lesson - but leave the Armenian republic out of this fight! Fight the thugs in Yerevan - without fighting for the bigger thugs in Washington. Keep the fight in Armenia, keep the fight against individuals and keep the fight free of Washington. I feel embarrassed that I have to mention things that should already be obvious to adults.
Our diasporan communities are terribly incapable of processing Armenia's dirty laundry in a healthy and/or constructive manner. The average Armenian today is still incapable of understanding politics or appreciating his/her statehood. Armenians today are still stuck in "community mentality" and seem incapable of comprehending the implications of having an independent homeland. Although Armenia gained its independence some twenty years ago, many Armenians today are still suffering from Ottoman or Bolshevik ailments.
Again, I am ashamed to even be mentioning things as obvious as this but anytime we attack the Armenian government as a whole, we are attacking the Armenian statehood. Anytime we attack the statehood, we are attacking the nation. Anytime we attack the nation, we are attacking ourselves. Being that our homeland is located in the Caucasus and not in a happy-go-lucky place like Scandinavia, we Armenians simply do not have the luxury of mindlessly tampering with our statehood today, despite its flaws. Being that the West has turned the entire Caucasus region into a volatile powder-keg on the verge of explosion, this is no time to mindlessly throw stones at our state, despite its perceived flaws. Being that the government in power in Armenia today is incomparably better than previous ones, we need to figure out ways of working with it. This is no time for a regime change. Regime change in Yerevan is exactly what Western powers are seeking. In fact, Western led and funded activists are currently exploiting Armenia's growing pains to cause sociopolitical unrest.
Western imperial interests are currently trying very hard to prepare an explosive political environment in Armenia before the next presidential elections.
Therefore, when there are grievances in Armenia our political activists need to stop acting like a bunch of pathetic cowards by enthusiastically running their noses up the emperor's ass in Washington with hopes that the master-of-global-corruption will help them. When there are serious grievances in Armenia, our nation's well-meaning political activists need to somehow figure out a way to make officials in Yerevan listen to them. Saying that such a thing cannot be done is a lame excuse simply because such a thing has never been seriously tried before. The political "opposition" in Armenia is either being led by criminals/traitors from the 1990s or by Western operatives. Armenia does not currently have a real grassroots political opposition. Again, I reiterate that the current government in Armenia is by-far the most professional Armenia has yet experienced. Our well-meaning political activists need to figure out a way of working with the system or within the system. More importantly, our well-meaning political activists need to consciously work free of individuals and/or organization connected to the political West. This is key to successful and constructive political activism in Armenia.
Despite Mr. Hamparian's presence in the panel group (it was essentially one against four), and regardless of the event's ultimate purpose, the gathering in an Armenian church on January 27 was yet another example of just how disconnected Armenians are from the realities of the political world they live in. Typically, as the world around Armenia crumbles under the sheer weight of various regional powers, and as nations get ready for a major global confrontation in the region, our overly-emotional, politically-illiterate and self-destructive sheeple is busy throwing stones at our state for their self-righteous, ego-based and often times petty reasons. Are we Armenians damned to forever repeat the mistakes of our forefathers?
Propaganda assault against Armenia
Some Armenians who ostensibly share the concerns I'm conveying in this commentary think that I am exaggerating the dangers Armenia faces from the West. Some ideological partners of mine are also of the idea that subversive individuals and organizations in service of the West are in the small minority within Armenian society. I strongly disagree. This type of a false sense-of-security has turned many nations into war zones in recent years. Moreover, even if dangerous elements in Armenian society are indeed in the minority currently, then what we are currently facing is the - seeding - of chaos. If left unchecked, these elements, who may be in the minority today, may grow out-of-control in the future. Armenians continue to grossly underestimate the power of Western social engineering and propaganda. Armenians continue to grossly underestimate the dangers of the political West.
Through the exploitation of various powerful global networks and institutions, the political West currently controls the world's financial, economic, political and cultural life. We must realize that all the levers of global control are effectively in their hands today. Therefore, cancerous elements in service of Western political interests need to be effectively reacted to as soon as they are discovered. Shutting one's eyes to this serious danger will not make it go away, it will only make it worst. Armenians cannot risk being complacent or politically blind.
In 1969, British historian and aesthetician Sir Kenneth Clark stated:"It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilization. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs."
A Dutch paper in 2004 called "The Effects of Strategic News on Political Cynicism, Issue Evaluations, and Policy Support" stated the following: A Two-Wave Experiment found that the way the news media presents the news can cause political cynicism.
Washington's propaganda assaults against the Armenian republic has been increasing in both frequency and scope. Washington has also begun employing many organizations and individuals to do their bidding within Armenian society. One subversive character that readily comes to mind is Ara Manoogian. This particular diasporan weirdo, also a PFA and ANC member, recently went as far as calling on Armenians to refrain from donating to Armenia Fund, one of the very few Armenian organizations with integrity. After he was criticized by members of the American-Armenian community, he somewhat toned-down his rhetoric. Nevertheless, this weirdo engages in relentless and vicious propaganda assaults against Armenia using various public venues in the United States. Similar to what other Western activists do, he simply complies all the bad events that takes place in Armenia and presents them to the audience for shock effect. And at the end of his doom and gloom monologues, he almost always calls on people to repatriate to Armenia. If you have the stomach, or the patience, please take a look for yourselves -
Exploiting Harry Bronozian's political illiteracy and severe naiveté,
this garbage collector/smut peddler spends 99% of his time describing
Armenia as nothing less than hell on earth... he then calls on people
to move to Armenia. Is this a nasty joke?
I wish it was merely a joke. This is in fact their modus operandi. This approach has clearly become a discernible pattern, and it is being repeated again-and-again by various interconnected individuals and organizations - all of them in one way or another connected to Washington. They put together a collage of bad news from Armenia and they exploit them using emotional rhetoric to spread hopelessness, frustration, anger and desperation within the community. And then they call on the community to repatriate. Their approach serves to destroy hope and enthusiasm. This approach also serves to gradually break down the Armenian spirit thereby weakening the emotional bond Armenians have with their homeland. With the distraught look on the faces of the people present on the evening of January 27, I'm afraid their approach is working. For more information on Washington's information war against Armenia and the world, please read the following two blog entries -
I
don't want to come across as if I'm justifying the actions of Armenia's
thugs or whitewashing the bad things that occur there. I am appalled by
some of the things I see happening in Armenia - as much as I am
appalled by some of the things I see happening in the United States of
America. Yes folks, we all know there are severe problems in Armenia, as
in much of the world. We also know that Armenia is far from being perfect, as is most of the world. We also know, however, that Armenia is slowly yet surely progressing in the right direction.
The Armenia of today is better than the Armenia of five, ten, fifteen
and twenty years ago. At this pace, the Armenia of five years later will
be better than the Armenia of today. We also know that the
current president in Armenia has been a great improvement over the
previous two. We also know that despite the many odds stacked up against
it, Armenia is the most stable nation in the region today. Although
small, impoverished, remote, landlocked and embattled, Armenia is also
the only nation in the southern Caucasus that has not only held onto its
territory but it has also expanded. It's the responsibility of each and every one of us to protect Armenia's evolutionary process.
The approach of our "rights" activists isn't simply that there are problems in the republic that need addressing, their approach is - everything in Armenia is terrible and there is no hope. Therefore, according to them - Armenia needs regime change. Similar to what the West has accomplished in other former Soviet nations, the tactical (short-term) intent of their psychological warfare against Armenia is to sow hopelessness and discontent, and their strategic (long-term) intent is to replace Armenia's pro-Russian government with one that meekly serves the Anglo-American-Zionist alliance. Again, as I have pointed out in numerous previous occasions, it all boils down to Armenia's alliance with Russia. Had Armenia's leadership been comfortably in bed with Washington they would be considered the darlings of the Caucasus and our nation's garbage collectors and smut peddlers would be unemployed today.
In my opinion, Western operatives are more dangerous to Armenia than Turkey's Gray Wolves - for they are terminal cancers within our national body. Whereas the Turk can only threaten to harm Armenia physically, Western operatives can destroy Armenians spiritually. Spiritual destruction is much more dangerous than physical destruction because it is irreversible. Nations die only when their spirit is compromised. Officials of the empire fully understand this basic concept, and that is why their operatives are given the tasks of actively working on eroding the Armenian spirit. In a strong sense, the unsavory characters and subversive organizations I noted above are the Armenian version of Libya's NTC and Syria's SNC. These are some of the filthy low-lives we will see on television excusing and explaining why NATO forces, for instance, will have to bomb Stepanakert to save freedom loving Armenians in Yerevan from Nagorno Karabakh's brutal dictators.
Armenians are fleeing negative propaganda
By relentlessly obsessing over every single social problem they can get their hands on in the country, what Armenia's Western led/inspired activists and "opozitsia" types have been doing in recent years is creating mass hysteria. This mass hysteria is what many Armenians today are running away from. It astonishes me that more people don't see this. Our people's tunnel-vision isn't allowing them to realize that practically the whole world today is plunging into severe economic and political hardships. Due to Armenia's societal culture (shortcuts to the law is deeply ingrained within Armenians), its size, its geography and its lack of natural wealth, there will continue to be socioeconomic hardships in Armenia despite our best efforts to curb "corruption". Even if every single one of Armenia's nasty "oligarchs" suddenly turned into pretty-little-angels-with-white-wings, Armenia will continue to suffer from severe economic hardships simply due to its size, lack of natural wealth, geography and societal mentality. Thus, the never ending Washington-led fight against corruption, even in the best of circumstances, is merely a distraction.
Having said that, with positive propaganda and constructive political activism, any people will be encouraged to tolerate any kind of hardship. With a healthy and positive approach to sociopolitical matters, any people will stay put and partake in nation building. Therefore, Armenians don't need to disseminate to the world every piece of bad story they come across. Indulging in apocalyptic news stories has become a sadomasochistic sport for many Armenians these days. The nastier the news, the more excited the Armenian gets today. The constant negativity and relentless anti-state hostility is causing serious despair, hopelessness and hysteria. At the end of the day, the people are running away from this hysteria.
Therefore, it's not Dodi Gago, it's not Nemets Rubo, it's not Lfik Samo, it's not Chorny Gago... its the damn "opozitsia" with its Western activists that are the main reasons why the nation is emptying today. What Armenia's political opposition has been engaging in for many years has been destructive, corrosive and poisonous anti-state propaganda. This climate has only managed to destroy the spirit of the people. Therefore, next time anyone of you get that powerful urge to badmouth the Armenian state by disseminating negative/poisonous news stories to your friends, try coupling it with at least one or two positive ones. If you don't do this, you are in a way participating in the demoralization/depopulation of the Armenia. And if you are only able to find the bad in Armenia, then please seek psychiatric help for the problem lies within you. The sooner our people's sincere political activists understand these very basic concepts, the sooner will Armenia become a normal nation.
The dangers of Western meddling
Again, for the hard of hearing, Armenia is a work in progress. A tiny, poor, remote, embattled and landlocked nation in the volatile Caucasus coming out of one thousand years of Asiatic/Turkic/Islamic/Bolshevik subjugation is going to have severe sociopolitical matters. Armenia's ailments will most probably require several generations to remedy. Having said that, every bad thing that occurs in Armenia can also be observed occurring even in the finest nations of the West, including the United States of America. The last thing we need,however, is Washington's whores making matters worst.
Beware of the wolves in sheep's clothing. Beware of their lofty rhetoric. Beware of their seemingly humanitarian agendas. And beware of their impressive resumes. These people are the tools that the rabid empire is using to undermine targeted societies. Armenia has been one of the West's targets. The troubling irony is that practically every single one of Armenia's "rights" activists and NGOs are in one way or another under the payroll of an empire that will never recognize the Armenian Genocide and will never see Armenia as a true or worthy ally. Simply put: Armenia is too small, too poor, too remote, too weak, too landlocked, too pro-Russian and too Iran-friendly for the West to take it seriously. Moreover, having serious problems with their regional allies such as Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan does not help Yerevan's standing in Washington either.
The one and only geostrategic agenda of the West in the Caucasus is to oust Russia from the region. In numerous previous blog posts, I have covered the many reason why the West wants Russia out of the Caucasus. To put it in as few words as possible: The West is seeking unhindered energy exploitation in the region as well as the political isolation of the Russian Federation. Without a Russian presence in the Caucasus, the region in question has the propensity to turn into a Turkic/Islamic cesspool. Therefore, the formula is simple: No Russia in the Caucasus means no Armenia in the Caucasus. Thus, any individual within Armenian society that publicly criticizes Armenia's close alliance with Moscow or tries to undermine it, is ultimately a traitor to Armenia.Armenians also need to be aware that starting with Levon Petrosian's attempted color revolution in 2008, foreign interests have also began exploiting anti-Artsakh and anti-Artsakhtsi sentiments throughout Armenian society. Thus, make no mistake about it, they have already sown the seeds of an internal tribal conflict within Armenian society as well. And if allowed to cultivate, this destructive seed will bear fruit for them sometime in the future. Therefore, the disturbing scenario in which Hayastantsi Armenians and Artsakhtsi Armenians picking up arms against each other sometime in the future as a disinterested diaspora watches from abroad is a very real possibility.
A panel group that called for chaos
The ugly event at Saint Leon church on the evening of January 27 reminded me of yet another, more "high-level" panel discussion that only recently called for revolution, chaos and upheaval as a means of uprooting "entrenched corruption" in Armenia. To view this panel discussion, please access video link below this commentary. This particular gathering of much bigger "experts" was sponsored by none-other-than the impressive sounding "Carnegie Endowment For International Peace", and it was proctored by none-other-than John Evans, the former "pro-Armenian" American ambassador to Armenia. The topic of discussion was of course Armenia and the panelists were Richard Giragosian, Emil Danielyan, Levon Parseghyan and Alexander Iskandaryan.
Of the four Armenians featured, the only respectable individual present at the event was gent Richard Giragosian said- "if it's chaos [in Armenia], then I like chaos, because it may threaten entrenched power".
Well, there you have it folks! Major upheaval! Revolution! Chaos! All this simply to set Armenia on the wonderful path to "democracy" - as envisioned by Washington of course.
Like I have been saying, these self-destructive peasants and mercenaries presenting themselves as representative of Armenia are the Armenian version of Libya's NTC and Syria's SNC, minus the Al-Qaeda connection. Nevertheless, these filth would be the ones on CNN and BBC enthusiastically explaining and excusing the NATO bombing of Armenia if, God forbid, that day ever arrives. And believe me, that day would arrive the very next day after Armenia is deprived of its Russian military presence. We all know that the West does not care about women's rights or even gay rights; all they care about is their rights to exploit cheap central Asian oil and gas free of Russian and Iranian meddling. Without a Russian military presence in the region, the West is fully capable of placing Armenia under Turkish, Azeri and/or Georgian oversight... or just simply shatter it into pieces like they have done to Serbia, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
In a certain sense, Western agent Giragosian's fear-mongering rhetoric and Western mercenaries Emil Danielyan's and Levon Barseghyan's utter pessimism were amusing to observe from my vantage point. These shameless servants of the Western alliance obviously felt very confidant and empowered that they were speaking on behalf of the empire and within the empire of all places. In essence, these shameless servants of the empire happily arrived at the imperial court to publicly kiss the emperor's ass. As the jubilant public (including many Azeris) watched attentively, the kissing was carried out flawlessly. And I'm sure the servants were wined and dined and their pockets lined afterwards.
But let's please not talk about "bribes" because in the exceptionalism of the empire, giving bribes is called providing "aid" or giving "donations" - similar to how Western mercenaries are called "military contractors", terrorists working for Western intelligence agencies are called "rebels", torture in Western prisons is called "enhanced interrogation techniques", invasions of sovereign nations by the West are called "military interventions to protect civilian populations"...
How the empire exploits its assets
Nevertheless, besides the enthusiastic public display of ass kissing, the only thing the panel group accomplished was to simply air Armenia's dirty laundry for the emperor to smell. After all, Washington is the holy anointed one that decides who is clean, who is dirty, who is good and who is bad in this world. And more recently, the all-mighty one in question has been busy deciding who lives and who dies.
These types of gatherings are one of the manners with which the empire exploits it well placed assets against targeted nations. By taking Armenia's natural growing pains and laying it at the feet of the emperor, what these self-destructive peasants and mercenaries accomplished was participating in Washington's decades long information war against Armenia. By taking Armenia's internal matters and displaying it in the imperial court, what these self-destructive peasants and mercenaries accomplished was the further demoralization of an already demoralized Armenia.
Gatherings such as this is how Western powers organize, inspire, fund and sometimes arm "opposition" groups similar to what they have done in Serbia, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Iran. Having said that, the only ones I blame here are the Armenian participants. Armenians need to wake up and realize that Armenia's natural growing pains are being exploited by imperial powers to undermine the fledgling republic due to Armenia's strategic partnership with Russia - and they are using Armenians to get it done.
Most of the traitors and mercenaries posing as professors, historians, journalists, political experts or humanitarian activists on television these days get their primary training within various prestigious US universities. Many of them are imported into the United States on grants. After graduating, they enter various prestigious Washingtonian institutions where they are trained further by experienced "experts" in their respective field.
This is how these low-lives become the well-dressed and well-spoken mercenaries we see on CNN and BBC. It's basically a large network of well paid whores from around the world. But that's not all. There are also many Washingtonian grants that encourage the establishment of politically motivated None-Governmental Organizations (NGO). Even the name NGO is disinformation. Generally speaking, American NGOs are as non-governmental as the Federal Reserve is federal. Many NGOs, if not most, are in fact connected to or exploited by the vast political establishment centered in Washington. There are well-funded NGOs today for virtually anything and everything under the sun. Then there are so-called political "think tanks" that play the role of adviser and/or analyst in targeted nations. Simply put, what we have is a very well organized, well funded and highly interconnected network of individuals and organizations engaged in projecting the political agendas of the Western alliance within targeted nations.
These organizations often look very innocent or even quite benevolent on the outside but the reality is that many of them play subversive roles in targeted nations around the world. We have seen enough of these types of organizations in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, South America, Central Asia and the Far East to know how they operate and in fact how dangerous they are. We are currently seeing them at their bloody worst in places like Libya, Syria and Iran.
As mentioned, Armenia is a work in progress. Armenia is a nation that has suffered a thousand years of damage. This damage - cultural, psychical as well as genetic - won't be fixed overnight. Tiny, poor, landlocked, remote and surrounded by historic enemies and dubious friends in one of the nastiest of political environments, our embattled homeland will naturally have many sociopolitical problems. But it's our duty as its loving children to be understanding, objective, rational, constructive, positive and patient. The following statements need to be imprinted within hearts-and-minds of all Armenians and used as a ideological template when it comes to sociological and political matters pertaining to Armenia -
The Cold War is long over. It is time to wake-up from our deep sleep and see that Washington has become a source of evil around the world. Due to Western military interventions, the world today stands on the brink of a major global catastrophe. Those who do not see this are blind. Fearing that emerging powers may effectively compete against them, the Anglo-American-Zionist alliance is on a global rampage. They are after strategic reserves of energy and control of major transit routes. They want to isolate Russia and Iran, and they want to keep China dependent on the West. For the foreseeable future, nations such as Armenia will remain an obstacle for them. Therefore, any Armenian that maintains ties with the political West is ultimately a traitor to the Armenian homeland - regardless of their intentions. Therefore, such men need to be under constant surveillance by Armenian and Russian counter-terrorism units alike. Moreover, Yerevan needs to either shutdown or closely monitor any organization inside Armenia that is being funded by Western countries, regardless of the nature of their activities.
Armenians must finally learn that the last thing on the minds of Western officials is human rights, democracy or freedom. Armenians must learn that the political West is simply interested in pushing Russia out of the region, defeating Iran and exploiting Central Asian energy. Armenians must finally understand that the political West will always side with Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan due to their strategic location, size and natural wealth. Armenians must understand that in the grand geopolitical scheme of the current world we all live in, Armenia is nothing but a nuisance for the Western alliance. Armenians, diasporan Armenians in particular, urgently need to stop participating in Washington's destructive games regardless of how well intentioned they seem.
Moreover, the panel discussions sponsored by the "Carnegie Endowment For International Peace" should also finally put to rest the silly idea that John Evans is one of the "good" officials from Washington. What happened with John Evans several years ago may very well have been staged so that he could become the overseer/manager of the empire's Armenian community. Soft spoken and "well intentioned" characters like John Even is how the empire manipulates/controls its subjects. Governments regularly play good guy/bad guy routines; ambassador John Evans and Congressman Frank Pallone are supposedly the good guys.
The following link is to the notorious panel discussion in which chaos was called for in Armenia by a well respected American intelligence agent working in Armenia. This Carnegie Endowment sponsored event was called "Lessons Learned From 20 Years of Independence and State building". I would just like to add that the only real lesson that should have been learned during the past twenty years was to stay as far away from Washington as possible. Sadly, that is a lesson that has not yet been learned by our diverse peasantry.
Panel discussion in Saint Leon Church in New Jersey
On the evening of January 27, and in an Armenian church of all places, a gathering of so-called experts on Armenia participated in a so-called panel discussion. Every single piece of dirty laundry that could be found in Armenia was brought to these shores and washed one-by-one in front of the shocked audience. For about two hours all we heard about was - murder in the military, corruption, murder in the household, corruption, murder in the police department, corruption, murder in Paplavok, corruption, assaults in hotels, corruption, massive police brutality, corruption, tanks being driven upon protesters, corruption, domestic violence, corruption, human trafficking, corruption, ecological disaster... Beatings, maimings, blackmail, suicides, robbery, shootings, bribery, oppression, poverty, rape, unemployment, depopulation, did I mention corruption (?), the total absence of rule-of-law, severe human rights abuses, entrenched government corruption... [catching my breath] And government hit squads mercilessly shooting down diasporans as they step off airplanes in Zvartnots!
I was kidding about Zvartnots. They are not shooting down akhpars at the airport. But after the lecture/torture session I was subjected to, I'm no longer very confident that our luck there will last much longer. Having said that, and as bad/ugly as it was, having seen what was done in a similar panel discussion not too long ago, believe it or not, I was actually expecting worst. No, unlike what Washingtonian agent Richard Giragosian did recently (please see second half of this commentary), panelists this time did not get into calling for revolution, upheaval or chaos in Armenia as a way of "fighting corruption".
However, with their terribly narrow political perspectives, Western biases, apocalyptic visions of doom and multiple doses of concentrated poison, with one notable exception, the only thing the experts on Armenia did manage to do, besides gleefully dragging Armenia's name in the shitty gutter for a couple of hours, was to maim and kill, spiritually/psychologically speaking, many Armenians that were present at the event that night. Of the more than two hundred people present, God only knows how many of them went home in anger, despair, hopelessness, disgust and depression... forever lost to the Armenian republic. After watching this senseless act of self-mutilation, I no longer wonder why our sheeple prefer spending their vacations in Turkey, Lebanon, France and Mexico, instead of that shitty, stinky, crime filled, little, nasty dictatorship in the backward Caucasus called called Armenia.
The following is the Armenian Radio Hour's whitewashed reporting of the nightmarish event in question - http://www.snkcreative.com/arnj/upload2/newsl020512.pdf
Simply put, what occurred in Saint Leon on the evening of January 27 was an emotionally scarring public relations fiasco and a merciless propaganda assault on the Armenian homeland. If the intent of the event was to help Armenia's development as a nation-state, it failed miserably. If the intent of the event was to fight corruption and human rights abuses, it failed miserably. If the intent was to spread lies, poisonous rumors and half-truths about the sociopolitical situation in Armenia, it was a brilliant success. If the intent was to spread anti-Armenia/anti-Hayastantsi sentiments in the diaspora, it was a brilliant success. If the intent was to turn-off and/or scare off the diaspora from Armenia, it was a brilliant success. If the intent was to prepare the political field for chaos before the next presidential elections in Armenia, it was a brilliant success!
What our politically-illiterate community leaders and activists continue to fail to realize is that our diasporan communities are terribly incapable of absorbing or assessing these types of information in a healthy and/or constructive manner. The average Armenian today is still incapable of understanding politics or appreciating his/her newly created statehood. Most Armenians today are still hopelessly stuck in a "community mentality" and are incapable of comprehending the serious implications of having an independent state. To the detriment of the Armenian republic, the Armenian peasantry continues to treat sociopolitical matters in Armenia as if they are family disputes or a street fight.
As an Armenian nationalist and a long-time political observer, I cannot keep my mouth shut about what has been occurring in our diasporan communities in recent years. I will not wait for Syriafication or Libyafication of Armenia before I open my mouth. Terminal aliments are most successfully fought when we react to them as soon as their first symptoms appear. Symptoms of a serious cancer in our communities have already been manifesting themselves in recent years. This situation is potentially very serious for the health and well-being of our embattled homeland in the Caucasus. Therefore, we must act now. And if by opening my mouth I will make enemies of friends, then so be it. These types of situations have gone way beyond personal matters, in my opinion. Our statehood is at stake. My political convictions and my ideological commitment to my homeland far outweigh my feelings towards family or friends.
Discussions on Armenia are seriously flawed
The entire premise upon which discussions about "democracy" or "human rights" in Armenia are taking place are fundamentally flawed. Washing Armenia's dirty laundry in public by political activists and individuals connected to Washington-based organizations, and in the United States of all places, is seriously counterproductive... if the intent of the washing is meant to be in Armenia's interest. I am all for civil society and human rights, but what has been going on here has gone well beyond simply promoting democratic values in Armenia. What we have here on our hands is a persistent and powerful information war against Armenia. This is ultimately Washington's psychological warfare campaign against Armenia. Since they cannot bombard Armenia with bombs, they are bombarding Armenians with poisonous rhetoric. Their intentions are to break the Armenian national spirit and to break the emotional bond Armenians have with their homeland; after which they can break the Armenian state. And since many Armenians cannot see past their noses, many fall victim to the machinations of the American empire time-after-time.
Seeing our activists in action on the night of January 27, I have little doubt now that the diaspora may be the final resting place of all Diasporan Armenians. If these kinds of reckless psychological warfare operations continue to be carried out by our shortsighted, overly-emotional, narrow-minded, self-righteous and ego-driven community members, I'm pretty sure that the diaspora will be dying sooner-than-later. Nevertheless, this newest circus in town somehow did managed to refrained from openly calling for revolution or chaos in Armenia. Knowing just how destructive Armenians can get when it comes to matters pertaining to their homeland, I guess this could be considered an improvement. Although the scope of this blog and the intent of this commentary is not to describe in detail what occurred on the night of January 27, I do, nevertheless, would like to say a few words about the featured panelists.
The so-called panel of "experts"
Arda Haratunian: Commenced the event by arrogantly making references to how badly this or that Western institution thinks of Armenia. This veteran of the Armenian Assembly of America (i.e. Washington's mouthpiece in the American-Armenian community), in her usual - we wonderful Americans need to teach you third worlders a thing or two about civilization - condescending tone, more-or-less managed the circus as its ringmaster. It was a fitting decision to have her play this role given her background in service of the American empire.
Simon Payaslian: The simple fact that this historian become a historian with the blessings of a pseudo-historian, Richard Hovanissian, should say a few things about his intellectual caliber and his integrity as an Armenian. Despite his aforementioned handicap, however, Simon did give the audience a fairly decent if generic lecture on the historical development of political thought in Armenia. Although he did not directly point it out, perhaps for fear of sounding too Armenian, too objective or too honest, his lecture did reveal clear progress taking place in Armenia's political environment in recent years. Again, perhaps not wanting to sound too Armenian, too objective or too honest, or simply concerned about preserving his comfortable salary at Boston College, Simon also made some very ridiculous comments about Armenia. After more-or-less lamenting that political due process does not exists in a backward Armenia, he stated that during the political protests of early 2008, the government sent "tanks" against demonstrators. He also stated that Armenian police regularly disperse protesters with brute force. The "historian" was telling us lies and half-truths. First, "tanks" were not driven against protesters during Levon Petrosian's revolution attempt in 2008. Second, demonstrators in Armenia sometimes get dispersed with force when the protest gatherings are unlawful or disruptive. Regardless of how our dear historian wants to portray it, what happened back in early 2008 was clearly an attempted revolution (most probably a color revolution). Faced with a revolution, any government anywhere on earth (especially Washington) would have reacted with deadly force; as a matter of fact, with a LOT of deadly force. Given that fact Armenia's self-destructive peasantry at the time was violently trying to put back into power a treasonous criminal that had already once raped and pillaged the country throughout the 1990s, I personally think the authorities in Yerevan acted quite restrained. Simon needs to be intellectually honest with himself if he wants to be taken seriously. Maybe Simon was so damn busy trying to dig up dirt on Armenia that he did not even notice peaceful demonstrators in his dear and democratic homeland of America being brutally crushed by a military style police force - from Wall Street to Oakland! At one point Simon mentioned political evolution. Although he did not use the term in a positive context, I nevertheless agree with him that Armenia today needs political evolution - not a Western funded revolution. Had Simon been a real historian, or a man of moral integrity for that matter, he would have realized that there are, unfortunately, more political freedoms in Armenia than in America. But people like Simon are more concerned about preserving their salaries and professional contacts than worrying about academic integrity or political reality. I hate to think of all the young minds this so-called "historian" is poisoning in Boston College.
Karen Hakobian: What should have been expected from someone who is a Levon Petrosian supporter, an activist for Raffi Hovanisian and from someone who makes his living via "rights" NGOs? An ugly individual in all senses of the word, disdainfully telling the audience "let me show you the real Armenia", Karen began showering the audience with virtually every single bad story that has taken place in Armenia during the past ten years. Murders, violence, human trafficking, beatings, suicides, robberies, shootings, bribery, oppression, poverty, rape, depopulation, corruption... According to Karen, this was the nightmarish reality of Armenia today. Every single nasty story that could have been dug-up about the country was meticulously presented to the shocked audience. Drenched in jaded negativity, pessimism and horror, Karen scornfully assaulted the audience's senses both visually and emotionally. Karen did not say a single encouraging, positive or even a neutral word about Armenia. The filth even took at shot at the Hay Dat, insinuating that its pursuit is a distraction that is blinding the diaspora to the nightmarish realities of Armenia. Due to his assault on people's emotions, Karen's house-of-horrors presentation may have made the most lasting impression on the audience.
Garo Yegnukian: Assuming the title of Senior Fellow at Policy Forum Armenia (a Washington-based subversive political group), a well-respected New York businessman who recently repatriated to Armenia with his family, Mr. Yegnukian read a ten minute lofty speech in which he basically maintained that the entire system of government in Armenia is corrupt "from top to bottom" and that there is absolutely no political due process in the country. He later went on to mention that the only way to help the situation in the country is to send some "twenty thousand" diasporan businessmen to start businesses in Armenia. Mr. Yegnukian failed to realize that scary circuses such as the one he enthusiastically participated in have the exact opposite effect on the people's psyche. Mr. Yegnukian may have thought he was shocking the community into action in Armenia. He may have convinced himself that he had a positive impact on his audience. If so, he is terribly mistaken. After having witnessed the horribly distorted way in which his homeland was being presented, no sane person would even remotely think about ever stepping foot in that corrupt and miserable dictatorship in the south Caucasus (no, I'm not talking about Azerbaijan). But of course Mr. Yegnukian wants us to think about starting businesses in Armenia. Besides which, Mr. Yegnukian is thinking way too highly of the diaspora's true capabilities. Did our dear Senior Fellow really think through his skit? Although clearly well-meaning and not vicious or condescending as some of the other panelists, Mr. Yegnukian utterly failed to see the senselessness of his speech in that negative and pessimistic venue, and he failed to realize the senselessness of having called on thousands of Armenian businessmen to move to Armenia. In his speech, he did, however, allude to one lucid realization that I have been pointing out for many years: Armenia is too small for the Armenian. Our people's many cutthroat business sharks (the ones we are so proud of when they do their throat-cutting elsewhere) are currently swimming in a little, understocked pond known as Armenia. Our nation's voracious sharks (the ones we are normally so proud of) need a well-stocked ocean to operate in. Until we find them that ocean, we simply have to figure out a way to deal with them. In the meanwhile, men like Mr. Yegnukian have to stop looking at Armenia through a politically naive utopian prism and realize that Armenia is going through natural growing pains. Mr. Yegnukian exemplifies what I mean about well-meaning Armenians being blinded by their utopian expectations and pursuing matters pertaining to Armenia in counterproductive manners.
Aram Hamparian: Of the announced group of speakers, one individual that initially struck me as odd for being there was Aram Hamparian of the ANC. I asked myself, what is the ANC doing participating in such an event? What does foolishly airing Armenia's dirty laundry in public, in America of all places, have to do with our Hay Dat? I thought to myself, Mr. Hamparian would serve our community much better by staying in the viper's nest known as Washington and finally figuring out a way of convincing his empire's severely corrupt leaders to stop working against Armenia. I also thought to myself, Mr. Hamparian's organization should stop lying to us every four years about genocide recognition being just around the corner so that they could stay in business - knowing full well that the empire they work under could careless about a tiny, remote, poor and landlocked nation in the Caucasus. I also thought to myself, a man who represents an organization that has been among the most corrupt in the Armenian world (i.e. ARF) was going to complain about "corruption" in Armenia, and from inside the most corrupt of empires of all places? Ridiculous, I thought. Well, although the ANC had no businesses being at the event, I now have to say that I'm actually very grateful that Mr. Hamparian did indeed show up. In fact, Mr. Hamparian was the only light in the utter darkness that had descended upon us. Mr. Hamparian did his best to refrain from senselessly attacking his homeland. He was objective, positive, constructive, rational and comforting. He was the exception I referred to above. I was also very impressed that Mr. Hamparian had the clarity of vision and the courage to emphatically state that Washington is not really concerned about democracy in Armenia and that it is only interested in breaking Armenia away from Russia and Iran. This may have been the first time such a thing has been publicly admitted by a prominent community representative in America. Therefore, thank you Mr. Hamparian for being there that night. The ANC/ARF is lucky to have a man of your moral character and intellectual caliber among their ranks.
The Hartounian family
Although he was not on the panel group, at the end of the event, Saro Hartounian spoke briefly about his family's plight in Armenia. It then became apparent that the event was at least in part organized by those in close communion with the Hartounian family. Many already know about the Hartounian family's problems in Armenia. A couple of years ago the Hartounian family was brutally betrayed by a close friend of the family who, incidentally, happens to be a Diasporan/Dashnaktsakan type. As a result of this betrayal by Sevag Artsruni, the Hartounian family got seriously tangled in the country's murky business/political world. Sadly, the situation has snowballed out of control in recent months. While I fully and wholeheartedly sympathize with the Hartounian family, and I did my share in trying to help Narek Hartounian when he was temporarily arrested on trumped-up charges in Yerevan several weeks ago, the Hartounian family needs to realize that their business related problems in Armenia are being hijacked and exploited by activists and organizations with dangerous political motivations and agendas, and their story is becoming a convenient venue for disseminating hate and hopelessness within Diasporan circles.
The absence of hope is the single most dangerous thing Armenians face today. We all know that Armenia is far from being perfect when it comes to the rule of law, but let's bare in mind that there are countless Hartounian stories in America as well. The Hartounian family is not helping their case by bringing the fight here to the shores of the American empire, under the very nose of the emperor; they are not helping their case by spreading ugly disinformation about Armenia; and they are certainly not helping their case by employing activists connected to Washington to do their bidding. Moreover, instead of featuring disgusting activists like Karen Hakobian, organizers of this event should have made sure that a representative of the republic was present at the gathering. Using their powerful community connections, the Hartounian family needed to have somehow convinced the Armenian ambassador to be present at the event. According to my sources, the Armenian ambassador was not formally invited. For the event to have been considered legitimate or effective, it needed the presence of a ranking official from Armenia. The official in question needed to hear the community's complaints, he needed to address the gathering, he may even needed to have been scolded by the community... but all this should have occurred without the presence of pseudo-historians like Simon, Washington's mini-apparatchiks like Arda and doom&gloom smut-peddlers like Karen.
The Hartounian family also needed to have realized that diasporan communities are utterly incapable of absorbing or processing the kind of information they were bombarded with on the evening of January 27 in a constructive or healthy manner. If the Hartounian family wanted community help, they should have invited community representatives for a closed-door meeting to discuss their problems. Keeping the event politically clean and hosting the Armenian ambassador or his representative would have been a display of healthy and/or constructive political activism. Instead, what took place in Saint Leon church was a psychological warfare against the Armenian state on behalf of imperial interests in Washington.
Regardless of the realities of their case, the way in which the Hartounian family's plight has fermented in the Armenian community of America is this: A philanthropic family went to Armenia to help Armenia - and Armenia screwed them!!! End of story. The moral of the story: Stay way from Armenia. Exploiters of the story: Washington-based NGOs. Victims of the story: Narek and Armenia.
As one who wholeheartedly supports the Hartounian family in their fight for justice, it is my opinion that the event that took place on the night of January 27 did absolutely NOTHING to help the Hartounian family. The event only managed to hurt the Armenian republic and in the process it most probably killed the Armenian in quite a few of the people present.
If the Hartounian family seeks constructive community help, they first need to make public all the details of their case. Instead of all the vicious gossip and hearsay we are currently exposed to, the Hartounian family needs to show concerned members of the community exactly who did what and when. Armed with this information, concerned members of the community can thereafter appeal to influential individuals, celebrities, legal experts, legitimate activists and legitimate Armenian organizations to figure out an effective way of advocating for the Hartounian family.
For instance, I keep hearing that the brother of the Armenian president is somehow involved in this mess. Thus far, however, no one is willing to explain exactly how he is involved. If the man is indeed involved, the Hartounian family should be revealing the details of his involvement. If the brother of the Armenian president is indeed involved, the Hartounian family needs to figure out a way of taking the fight directly to him. I'm sure he's got a house, a place of business, an office... Gather celebrities, lawyers, activists, politicians and journalists and pay him a visit. In other words, keep the fight against individuals - not the state.
Do whatever it takes to teach our Armenia's wealthy chobans a lesson - but leave the Armenian republic out of this fight! Fight the thugs in Yerevan - without fighting for the bigger thugs in Washington. Keep the fight in Armenia, keep the fight against individuals and keep the fight free of Washington. I feel embarrassed that I have to mention things that should already be obvious to adults.
Our diasporan communities are terribly incapable of processing Armenia's dirty laundry in a healthy and/or constructive manner. The average Armenian today is still incapable of understanding politics or appreciating his/her statehood. Armenians today are still stuck in "community mentality" and seem incapable of comprehending the implications of having an independent homeland. Although Armenia gained its independence some twenty years ago, many Armenians today are still suffering from Ottoman or Bolshevik ailments.
Again, I am ashamed to even be mentioning things as obvious as this but anytime we attack the Armenian government as a whole, we are attacking the Armenian statehood. Anytime we attack the statehood, we are attacking the nation. Anytime we attack the nation, we are attacking ourselves. Being that our homeland is located in the Caucasus and not in a happy-go-lucky place like Scandinavia, we Armenians simply do not have the luxury of mindlessly tampering with our statehood today, despite its flaws. Being that the West has turned the entire Caucasus region into a volatile powder-keg on the verge of explosion, this is no time to mindlessly throw stones at our state, despite its perceived flaws. Being that the government in power in Armenia today is incomparably better than previous ones, we need to figure out ways of working with it. This is no time for a regime change. Regime change in Yerevan is exactly what Western powers are seeking. In fact, Western led and funded activists are currently exploiting Armenia's growing pains to cause sociopolitical unrest.
Western imperial interests are currently trying very hard to prepare an explosive political environment in Armenia before the next presidential elections.
Therefore, when there are grievances in Armenia our political activists need to stop acting like a bunch of pathetic cowards by enthusiastically running their noses up the emperor's ass in Washington with hopes that the master-of-global-corruption will help them. When there are serious grievances in Armenia, our nation's well-meaning political activists need to somehow figure out a way to make officials in Yerevan listen to them. Saying that such a thing cannot be done is a lame excuse simply because such a thing has never been seriously tried before. The political "opposition" in Armenia is either being led by criminals/traitors from the 1990s or by Western operatives. Armenia does not currently have a real grassroots political opposition. Again, I reiterate that the current government in Armenia is by-far the most professional Armenia has yet experienced. Our well-meaning political activists need to figure out a way of working with the system or within the system. More importantly, our well-meaning political activists need to consciously work free of individuals and/or organization connected to the political West. This is key to successful and constructive political activism in Armenia.
Despite Mr. Hamparian's presence in the panel group (it was essentially one against four), and regardless of the event's ultimate purpose, the gathering in an Armenian church on January 27 was yet another example of just how disconnected Armenians are from the realities of the political world they live in. Typically, as the world around Armenia crumbles under the sheer weight of various regional powers, and as nations get ready for a major global confrontation in the region, our overly-emotional, politically-illiterate and self-destructive sheeple is busy throwing stones at our state for their self-righteous, ego-based and often times petty reasons. Are we Armenians damned to forever repeat the mistakes of our forefathers?
Propaganda assault against Armenia
Some Armenians who ostensibly share the concerns I'm conveying in this commentary think that I am exaggerating the dangers Armenia faces from the West. Some ideological partners of mine are also of the idea that subversive individuals and organizations in service of the West are in the small minority within Armenian society. I strongly disagree. This type of a false sense-of-security has turned many nations into war zones in recent years. Moreover, even if dangerous elements in Armenian society are indeed in the minority currently, then what we are currently facing is the - seeding - of chaos. If left unchecked, these elements, who may be in the minority today, may grow out-of-control in the future. Armenians continue to grossly underestimate the power of Western social engineering and propaganda. Armenians continue to grossly underestimate the dangers of the political West.
Through the exploitation of various powerful global networks and institutions, the political West currently controls the world's financial, economic, political and cultural life. We must realize that all the levers of global control are effectively in their hands today. Therefore, cancerous elements in service of Western political interests need to be effectively reacted to as soon as they are discovered. Shutting one's eyes to this serious danger will not make it go away, it will only make it worst. Armenians cannot risk being complacent or politically blind.
In 1969, British historian and aesthetician Sir Kenneth Clark stated:"It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilization. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs."
A Dutch paper in 2004 called "The Effects of Strategic News on Political Cynicism, Issue Evaluations, and Policy Support" stated the following: A Two-Wave Experiment found that the way the news media presents the news can cause political cynicism.
Washington's propaganda assaults against the Armenian republic has been increasing in both frequency and scope. Washington has also begun employing many organizations and individuals to do their bidding within Armenian society. One subversive character that readily comes to mind is Ara Manoogian. This particular diasporan weirdo, also a PFA and ANC member, recently went as far as calling on Armenians to refrain from donating to Armenia Fund, one of the very few Armenian organizations with integrity. After he was criticized by members of the American-Armenian community, he somewhat toned-down his rhetoric. Nevertheless, this weirdo engages in relentless and vicious propaganda assaults against Armenia using various public venues in the United States. Similar to what other Western activists do, he simply complies all the bad events that takes place in Armenia and presents them to the audience for shock effect. And at the end of his doom and gloom monologues, he almost always calls on people to repatriate to Armenia. If you have the stomach, or the patience, please take a look for yourselves -
Return to Armenia, Interview with Ara Manoogian, October 19, 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5msv3sc03ZY
Return to Armenia - Interview with Ara Manoogian - May 25, 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMpLgqylX_k
I wish it was merely a joke. This is in fact their modus operandi. This approach has clearly become a discernible pattern, and it is being repeated again-and-again by various interconnected individuals and organizations - all of them in one way or another connected to Washington. They put together a collage of bad news from Armenia and they exploit them using emotional rhetoric to spread hopelessness, frustration, anger and desperation within the community. And then they call on the community to repatriate. Their approach serves to destroy hope and enthusiasm. This approach also serves to gradually break down the Armenian spirit thereby weakening the emotional bond Armenians have with their homeland. With the distraught look on the faces of the people present on the evening of January 27, I'm afraid their approach is working. For more information on Washington's information war against Armenia and the world, please read the following two blog entries -
Garbage collectors and smut peddlers like Karen Hakobian and Ara Manoogian are not the only ones engaged in psychological warfare against Armenia today. In varying degrees, there are many organizations and individuals currently engaged in this information war. Some that readily come to mind are: Policy Forum Armenia, Armenian Assembly of America, Radio Liberty, Sardarapat, A1 Plus, Aravot, ArmeniaNow, Hetq, Lragir, Asbarez, Asbarez Journalists Club, Armenian Weekly, Tony Halpin, John Hughes, Rick Ney, Richard Giragosian, Raffi Hovanissian, Boris Navasardyan, Garin Hovanissian, Onnik Krikorian, Levon Parseghyan, Nanore Barsoumian, Edik Baghdasaryan and Liana Aghajanian and Arthur Sakunts. When observing some of their work, some similarities become quite apparent, as if they have been cut out of the same mold. The observable similarities are most probably a result of "workshops" and "seminars" they get to attend during their NGO "meetings" or "conventions". For instance, consider the following are two articles by Nanore Barsumian that recently appeared in the Armenian Weekly. Certain parts of the work in question, as well as its overall spirit and scope, is almost identical to what Karen Hakobian was doing during his house-of-horror show on January 27 -Washington's Media Blitz Against Armenia: http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/2011/02/american-media-blitz-against-armenia.html
US Launches Cyber Spy Operation Against The World: http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/2011/04/us-launches-cyber-spy-operation-april.html
To Maim and Kill with Impunity: http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/01/27/to-maim-and-kill-with-impunity/
Barsoumian: ‘The Army in Reality’: http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/02/06/barsoumian-the-army-in-reality/comment-page-1/
The approach of our "rights" activists isn't simply that there are problems in the republic that need addressing, their approach is - everything in Armenia is terrible and there is no hope. Therefore, according to them - Armenia needs regime change. Similar to what the West has accomplished in other former Soviet nations, the tactical (short-term) intent of their psychological warfare against Armenia is to sow hopelessness and discontent, and their strategic (long-term) intent is to replace Armenia's pro-Russian government with one that meekly serves the Anglo-American-Zionist alliance. Again, as I have pointed out in numerous previous occasions, it all boils down to Armenia's alliance with Russia. Had Armenia's leadership been comfortably in bed with Washington they would be considered the darlings of the Caucasus and our nation's garbage collectors and smut peddlers would be unemployed today.
In my opinion, Western operatives are more dangerous to Armenia than Turkey's Gray Wolves - for they are terminal cancers within our national body. Whereas the Turk can only threaten to harm Armenia physically, Western operatives can destroy Armenians spiritually. Spiritual destruction is much more dangerous than physical destruction because it is irreversible. Nations die only when their spirit is compromised. Officials of the empire fully understand this basic concept, and that is why their operatives are given the tasks of actively working on eroding the Armenian spirit. In a strong sense, the unsavory characters and subversive organizations I noted above are the Armenian version of Libya's NTC and Syria's SNC. These are some of the filthy low-lives we will see on television excusing and explaining why NATO forces, for instance, will have to bomb Stepanakert to save freedom loving Armenians in Yerevan from Nagorno Karabakh's brutal dictators.
Armenians are fleeing negative propaganda
By relentlessly obsessing over every single social problem they can get their hands on in the country, what Armenia's Western led/inspired activists and "opozitsia" types have been doing in recent years is creating mass hysteria. This mass hysteria is what many Armenians today are running away from. It astonishes me that more people don't see this. Our people's tunnel-vision isn't allowing them to realize that practically the whole world today is plunging into severe economic and political hardships. Due to Armenia's societal culture (shortcuts to the law is deeply ingrained within Armenians), its size, its geography and its lack of natural wealth, there will continue to be socioeconomic hardships in Armenia despite our best efforts to curb "corruption". Even if every single one of Armenia's nasty "oligarchs" suddenly turned into pretty-little-angels-with-white-wings, Armenia will continue to suffer from severe economic hardships simply due to its size, lack of natural wealth, geography and societal mentality. Thus, the never ending Washington-led fight against corruption, even in the best of circumstances, is merely a distraction.
Having said that, with positive propaganda and constructive political activism, any people will be encouraged to tolerate any kind of hardship. With a healthy and positive approach to sociopolitical matters, any people will stay put and partake in nation building. Therefore, Armenians don't need to disseminate to the world every piece of bad story they come across. Indulging in apocalyptic news stories has become a sadomasochistic sport for many Armenians these days. The nastier the news, the more excited the Armenian gets today. The constant negativity and relentless anti-state hostility is causing serious despair, hopelessness and hysteria. At the end of the day, the people are running away from this hysteria.
Therefore, it's not Dodi Gago, it's not Nemets Rubo, it's not Lfik Samo, it's not Chorny Gago... its the damn "opozitsia" with its Western activists that are the main reasons why the nation is emptying today. What Armenia's political opposition has been engaging in for many years has been destructive, corrosive and poisonous anti-state propaganda. This climate has only managed to destroy the spirit of the people. Therefore, next time anyone of you get that powerful urge to badmouth the Armenian state by disseminating negative/poisonous news stories to your friends, try coupling it with at least one or two positive ones. If you don't do this, you are in a way participating in the demoralization/depopulation of the Armenia. And if you are only able to find the bad in Armenia, then please seek psychiatric help for the problem lies within you. The sooner our people's sincere political activists understand these very basic concepts, the sooner will Armenia become a normal nation.
The dangers of Western meddling
Again, for the hard of hearing, Armenia is a work in progress. A tiny, poor, remote, embattled and landlocked nation in the volatile Caucasus coming out of one thousand years of Asiatic/Turkic/Islamic/Bolshevik subjugation is going to have severe sociopolitical matters. Armenia's ailments will most probably require several generations to remedy. Having said that, every bad thing that occurs in Armenia can also be observed occurring even in the finest nations of the West, including the United States of America. The last thing we need,however, is Washington's whores making matters worst.
Beware of the wolves in sheep's clothing. Beware of their lofty rhetoric. Beware of their seemingly humanitarian agendas. And beware of their impressive resumes. These people are the tools that the rabid empire is using to undermine targeted societies. Armenia has been one of the West's targets. The troubling irony is that practically every single one of Armenia's "rights" activists and NGOs are in one way or another under the payroll of an empire that will never recognize the Armenian Genocide and will never see Armenia as a true or worthy ally. Simply put: Armenia is too small, too poor, too remote, too weak, too landlocked, too pro-Russian and too Iran-friendly for the West to take it seriously. Moreover, having serious problems with their regional allies such as Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan does not help Yerevan's standing in Washington either.
The one and only geostrategic agenda of the West in the Caucasus is to oust Russia from the region. In numerous previous blog posts, I have covered the many reason why the West wants Russia out of the Caucasus. To put it in as few words as possible: The West is seeking unhindered energy exploitation in the region as well as the political isolation of the Russian Federation. Without a Russian presence in the Caucasus, the region in question has the propensity to turn into a Turkic/Islamic cesspool. Therefore, the formula is simple: No Russia in the Caucasus means no Armenia in the Caucasus. Thus, any individual within Armenian society that publicly criticizes Armenia's close alliance with Moscow or tries to undermine it, is ultimately a traitor to Armenia.Armenians also need to be aware that starting with Levon Petrosian's attempted color revolution in 2008, foreign interests have also began exploiting anti-Artsakh and anti-Artsakhtsi sentiments throughout Armenian society. Thus, make no mistake about it, they have already sown the seeds of an internal tribal conflict within Armenian society as well. And if allowed to cultivate, this destructive seed will bear fruit for them sometime in the future. Therefore, the disturbing scenario in which Hayastantsi Armenians and Artsakhtsi Armenians picking up arms against each other sometime in the future as a disinterested diaspora watches from abroad is a very real possibility.
A panel group that called for chaos
The ugly event at Saint Leon church on the evening of January 27 reminded me of yet another, more "high-level" panel discussion that only recently called for revolution, chaos and upheaval as a means of uprooting "entrenched corruption" in Armenia. To view this panel discussion, please access video link below this commentary. This particular gathering of much bigger "experts" was sponsored by none-other-than the impressive sounding "Carnegie Endowment For International Peace", and it was proctored by none-other-than John Evans, the former "pro-Armenian" American ambassador to Armenia. The topic of discussion was of course Armenia and the panelists were Richard Giragosian, Emil Danielyan, Levon Parseghyan and Alexander Iskandaryan.
Of the four Armenians featured, the only respectable individual present at the event was gent Richard Giragosian said- "if it's chaos [in Armenia], then I like chaos, because it may threaten entrenched power".
Well, there you have it folks! Major upheaval! Revolution! Chaos! All this simply to set Armenia on the wonderful path to "democracy" - as envisioned by Washington of course.
Like I have been saying, these self-destructive peasants and mercenaries presenting themselves as representative of Armenia are the Armenian version of Libya's NTC and Syria's SNC, minus the Al-Qaeda connection. Nevertheless, these filth would be the ones on CNN and BBC enthusiastically explaining and excusing the NATO bombing of Armenia if, God forbid, that day ever arrives. And believe me, that day would arrive the very next day after Armenia is deprived of its Russian military presence. We all know that the West does not care about women's rights or even gay rights; all they care about is their rights to exploit cheap central Asian oil and gas free of Russian and Iranian meddling. Without a Russian military presence in the region, the West is fully capable of placing Armenia under Turkish, Azeri and/or Georgian oversight... or just simply shatter it into pieces like they have done to Serbia, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
In a certain sense, Western agent Giragosian's fear-mongering rhetoric and Western mercenaries Emil Danielyan's and Levon Barseghyan's utter pessimism were amusing to observe from my vantage point. These shameless servants of the Western alliance obviously felt very confidant and empowered that they were speaking on behalf of the empire and within the empire of all places. In essence, these shameless servants of the empire happily arrived at the imperial court to publicly kiss the emperor's ass. As the jubilant public (including many Azeris) watched attentively, the kissing was carried out flawlessly. And I'm sure the servants were wined and dined and their pockets lined afterwards.
But let's please not talk about "bribes" because in the exceptionalism of the empire, giving bribes is called providing "aid" or giving "donations" - similar to how Western mercenaries are called "military contractors", terrorists working for Western intelligence agencies are called "rebels", torture in Western prisons is called "enhanced interrogation techniques", invasions of sovereign nations by the West are called "military interventions to protect civilian populations"...
How the empire exploits its assets
Nevertheless, besides the enthusiastic public display of ass kissing, the only thing the panel group accomplished was to simply air Armenia's dirty laundry for the emperor to smell. After all, Washington is the holy anointed one that decides who is clean, who is dirty, who is good and who is bad in this world. And more recently, the all-mighty one in question has been busy deciding who lives and who dies.
These types of gatherings are one of the manners with which the empire exploits it well placed assets against targeted nations. By taking Armenia's natural growing pains and laying it at the feet of the emperor, what these self-destructive peasants and mercenaries accomplished was participating in Washington's decades long information war against Armenia. By taking Armenia's internal matters and displaying it in the imperial court, what these self-destructive peasants and mercenaries accomplished was the further demoralization of an already demoralized Armenia.
Gatherings such as this is how Western powers organize, inspire, fund and sometimes arm "opposition" groups similar to what they have done in Serbia, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Iran. Having said that, the only ones I blame here are the Armenian participants. Armenians need to wake up and realize that Armenia's natural growing pains are being exploited by imperial powers to undermine the fledgling republic due to Armenia's strategic partnership with Russia - and they are using Armenians to get it done.
Most of the traitors and mercenaries posing as professors, historians, journalists, political experts or humanitarian activists on television these days get their primary training within various prestigious US universities. Many of them are imported into the United States on grants. After graduating, they enter various prestigious Washingtonian institutions where they are trained further by experienced "experts" in their respective field.
This is how these low-lives become the well-dressed and well-spoken mercenaries we see on CNN and BBC. It's basically a large network of well paid whores from around the world. But that's not all. There are also many Washingtonian grants that encourage the establishment of politically motivated None-Governmental Organizations (NGO). Even the name NGO is disinformation. Generally speaking, American NGOs are as non-governmental as the Federal Reserve is federal. Many NGOs, if not most, are in fact connected to or exploited by the vast political establishment centered in Washington. There are well-funded NGOs today for virtually anything and everything under the sun. Then there are so-called political "think tanks" that play the role of adviser and/or analyst in targeted nations. Simply put, what we have is a very well organized, well funded and highly interconnected network of individuals and organizations engaged in projecting the political agendas of the Western alliance within targeted nations.
These organizations often look very innocent or even quite benevolent on the outside but the reality is that many of them play subversive roles in targeted nations around the world. We have seen enough of these types of organizations in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, South America, Central Asia and the Far East to know how they operate and in fact how dangerous they are. We are currently seeing them at their bloody worst in places like Libya, Syria and Iran.
As mentioned, Armenia is a work in progress. Armenia is a nation that has suffered a thousand years of damage. This damage - cultural, psychical as well as genetic - won't be fixed overnight. Tiny, poor, landlocked, remote and surrounded by historic enemies and dubious friends in one of the nastiest of political environments, our embattled homeland will naturally have many sociopolitical problems. But it's our duty as its loving children to be understanding, objective, rational, constructive, positive and patient. The following statements need to be imprinted within hearts-and-minds of all Armenians and used as a ideological template when it comes to sociological and political matters pertaining to Armenia -
- Armenia's natural growing pains are being exploited by imperial powers to undermine the fledgling republic due to Armenia's strategic partnership with Russia and friendly ties with Iran.
- Had Armenia's "corrupt" leadership been comfortably in bed with the leadership in Washington and Brussels, none of our nation's doom and gloom activists today would have been given the opportunity to spew their poison against our fledgling homeland. Since some farsighted leaders in Yerevan have courageously made the decision to remain firmly within Russia's political orbit, Washington has its lackeys running around Armenian society acting hysterical over sociopolitical matters in Armenia.
- Our "rights activists" and "opozitsia" types need to shed their Western connections if they want to be taken seriously; they need to keep their fight strictly in Armenia; they need to provide rational solutions and alternatives to the problems at hand; instead of calling for the whole government or the president to step down they need to begin targeting select individuals known to be engaging in crime or corruption; they need to figure out a way to work with the government or within the government; they need to be clearer in their demands; and they need to understand that if the current "corrupt" regime falls, it wont be Armenian patriots that will be taking over.
- As bad as it may seem at times, what Armenia has been going through is natural growing pains. Historically speaking, twenty years is merely a blink of an eye. Due to Armenia's particular circumstances, its growing pains may at times be severe. We must not lose sight of that. We must also not lose sight of the fact that most nations on earth today (nation in much better circumstances than Armenia) are in fact much worst-off than Armenia. Armenia has in fact made notable progress despite all the odds against it.
- Who gave the political West the right to criticize and attack nations that are not as developed? What right does the West have to impose its system upon others? Why do tyrannical nation that are allied to the West get a free pass, while those who are not politically aligned to it cannot do anything right? What right does the West have to rate, label or categorize any nation? And how foolish are the rest of us to actually listen to what they say? Who gave Washington the right to judge nations? Who says the Western world is the standard all the rest have to follow? Why do we care what politically motivated Western organizations have to say about Armenia's ranking in anything? Was the Western world born this developed, this progressive or this wealthy, or did it have to travel a very long and painful path to get to where it is today?
- The Western world, including the United States, took hundreds years to reach where it is today. The Western world is where it is today due to wars of plunder, grand theft, genocide and human exploitation. A little over century ago, America's robber barons (e.g. Carnegies, Rockefellers, Morgans, Goulds, Vanderbilts, etc.) used their immense fortunes to buy into the American political system, forever blurring the line between politics and business. These American oligarchs used their powerful influences to impact the making of political legislation. The political system in the United States was manipulated by America's oligarchs to serve their businesses and to preserve their immense wealth. Although it has been in a decline in recent years, America's much touted middle class essentially grew as a result of feeding on the crumbs that were falling off the lavish banquet tables of the nation's super wealthy.
- The
Western world has severe forms of corruption. It can be
argued that Western corruption is by-far the most egregious in the world, albeit more
sophisticated. The main difference between corruption in the West and
corruption in a place like Armenia is that corruption in the West is
reserved for the political/financial elite, whereas in a place like
Armenia all layers of society engage in it. Moreover, Armenia is
a tiny country where any kind of wrong doing can be immediately seen or felt. Through
legislation, the practice of corruption has evolved to become fully
institutionalized in the Western world. In other words, in the West,
corruption is not for the common folk. While Armenia has a number of mafia type clans engaging in corruption,
corruption in the United States, is primarily reserved for the
empire's elite entities (e.g. military industrial complex, political
lobbying groups, pentagon, oil industry, Wall Street, pharmaceuticals
industry, etc).
- Similar to what imperial powers did in the past with religion, the very notion of democracy today have been weaponized by Washington. As a matter of fact, everything today is becoming more-and-more weaponized by the imperial West. Money is weaponized. Religious cults are weaponized. Energy is weaponized. Food is weaponized. Atheism is weaponized. Human rights is weaponized. Scientific research is weaponized. Gay rights is weaponized. Feminism is weaponized. News is weaponized. Information is weaponized. Education is weaponized. Entertainment is weaponized. Humanitarian aid is weaponized. The English language is weaponized. Globalism is weaponized. Fighting corruption is weaponized. Anything and everything that can be used against a targeted nation for a political and/or economic purpose is systematically becoming weaponized by Washington and its allies.
- The thing called democracy for an immature/problematic nation like Armenia can prove fatal. As the events of early 2008 clearly showed, Armenians are not yet politically mature enough to actually be given the full responsibility of electing their leadership. We have seen the destruction "democracy" has visited upon undeveloped or underdeveloped nations throughout the world. Which may be why some of the more vulnerable nations on Washington's black list are being prescribed a heavy dose of democracy. A nation like Armenia, just coming out of under a thousand years or Asiatic, Islamic and authoritarian rule, simply cannot have the proper national institutions or the societal mindset with which to flirt with a democratic process. For the foreseeable future, a Russian style - top heavy - democracy is what Armenia needs.
- Similar to situations in nations such as Greece and Italy, corruption in Armenia is firmly rooted in the nation's culture. Therefore, toppling the Armenian government will not solve the problem of corruption in Armenia. Governments are an accurate reflection of their constituency. When we look at the Armenian leadership, what we see is an accurate reflection of the population's character/nature. Besides which, corruption in society, any society, cannot be eliminated, it can only be managed.
- Diasporan Armenians need to stop treating Armenia as their laboratory experiment or their playground. Diasporan Armenians need to realize that those among them that have gotten into trouble in the country are the ones ones that have arrogantly or foolishly bitten more than they could chew. Due to Armenia's small size and poverty, its normal growing pains (domestic problems that are normal in much of the world) seem magnified. Severity of problems in Armenia are often times simply matter of perception. Unfortunate, for the masses, perception is reality. In the irrational/utopian pursuits of building the Armenia of their fantasies, a significant portion of Armenians today are actually hurting the Armenia of our reality. Armenia's many natural growing pains need to be addressed rationally, responsibly, objectively, constructively, with patience and, more importantly - free of Western manipulation! What Armenians need to realize is that Armenia needs political and social evolution, not a Western sponsored revolution, chaos or upheaval!
The Cold War is long over. It is time to wake-up from our deep sleep and see that Washington has become a source of evil around the world. Due to Western military interventions, the world today stands on the brink of a major global catastrophe. Those who do not see this are blind. Fearing that emerging powers may effectively compete against them, the Anglo-American-Zionist alliance is on a global rampage. They are after strategic reserves of energy and control of major transit routes. They want to isolate Russia and Iran, and they want to keep China dependent on the West. For the foreseeable future, nations such as Armenia will remain an obstacle for them. Therefore, any Armenian that maintains ties with the political West is ultimately a traitor to the Armenian homeland - regardless of their intentions. Therefore, such men need to be under constant surveillance by Armenian and Russian counter-terrorism units alike. Moreover, Yerevan needs to either shutdown or closely monitor any organization inside Armenia that is being funded by Western countries, regardless of the nature of their activities.
Armenians must finally learn that the last thing on the minds of Western officials is human rights, democracy or freedom. Armenians must learn that the political West is simply interested in pushing Russia out of the region, defeating Iran and exploiting Central Asian energy. Armenians must finally understand that the political West will always side with Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan due to their strategic location, size and natural wealth. Armenians must understand that in the grand geopolitical scheme of the current world we all live in, Armenia is nothing but a nuisance for the Western alliance. Armenians, diasporan Armenians in particular, urgently need to stop participating in Washington's destructive games regardless of how well intentioned they seem.
Moreover, the panel discussions sponsored by the "Carnegie Endowment For International Peace" should also finally put to rest the silly idea that John Evans is one of the "good" officials from Washington. What happened with John Evans several years ago may very well have been staged so that he could become the overseer/manager of the empire's Armenian community. Soft spoken and "well intentioned" characters like John Even is how the empire manipulates/controls its subjects. Governments regularly play good guy/bad guy routines; ambassador John Evans and Congressman Frank Pallone are supposedly the good guys.
The following link is to the notorious panel discussion in which chaos was called for in Armenia by a well respected American intelligence agent working in Armenia. This Carnegie Endowment sponsored event was called "Lessons Learned From 20 Years of Independence and State building". I would just like to add that the only real lesson that should have been learned during the past twenty years was to stay as far away from Washington as possible. Sadly, that is a lesson that has not yet been learned by our diverse peasantry.
Lessons Learned From 20 Years of Independence and Statebuilding: Armenia: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/2011/11/28/lessons-learned-from-20-years-of-independence-and-statebuilding-armenia/7w0z
In
closing, I would like to introduce the following two articles, one
written by a highly respected American-Armenian community leader, Harout
Sassounian, and one written by former Under-Secretary-General of UN,
Benon Sevan. Their articles are directly related to this very urgent
subject matter plaguing Armenian society today. When I first read Mr.
Sevan's work in particular, I thought to myself - finally, objectivity, rationale and wisdom being spoken by an Armenian about Armenia. Please read Mr. Sevan's lucid commentary. For many years I have been talking about what he describes as "excessive negativism and constant attacks jeopardize Armenia's development". A
positive, constructive, objective and a well-informed approach to
Armenia's problems is something that has been sorely missing within
Armenian circles in recent years. We are being bombarded with poisonous
rhetoric regarding our fledgling homeland and the resulting
demoralization is being exploited by certain intelligence agencies
against the Armenian state. I am glad that public personalities have finally spoken up about this very dangerous situation that Armenia faces.
Arevordi
February, 2012
Arevordi
February, 2012
***
EXCESSIVE NEGATIVISM AND CONSTANT ATTACKS JEOPARDIZE ARMENIA'S DEVELOPMENT
By Benon Sevan (former Under-Secretary-General of UN)
It
is truly disheartening to read the ongoing negative reports and
columns in some news outlets in the Diaspora and Armenia regarding the
current political, economic and social conditions in the Republic of
Armenia, as well as the constant efforts by certain personalities and
political parties to denigrate the Government of Armenia and its
record.
Of
all the hundreds of negative reports, is not there at least a single
positive development to report on? Contrary to the ongoing politically
motivated negativism, there are indeed many successes and improvements
achieved in Armenia which deserve to be congratulated and encouraged.
One gets tired of reading what is being said by all these so-called
pundits, rabble-rousers, including self-serving former government
officials pursuing their own personal agenda to bring about a regime
change not through the ballot box but through encouraging a mob culture.
Unfortunately, what we have been witnessing is indeed tragic with the
potential of dire consequences to the stability of the young Republic
that recently celebrated its 20th Anniversary.
No
country has become democratic right away. It is categorically wrong
and naïve to measure democracy in Armenia, which gained its
independence only twenty years ago, with the same measuring stick used
for democracies in other countries, such as France, the United Kingdom
and the United States, which took centuries to reach their current
stage of democracy. I ask all those who have adopted a negative
attitude to read history. It was not the Armenians who invented the
guillotine; it was not the Armenians who hanged their opponents from
the Tower of London;
and it was not the Armenians who practiced slavery and/or segregation
based on color or race. How long did it take for some of Europe’s
democracies to give their women the right to vote?
In
as much as one can understand the impatience and frustration expressed
with regard to the current situation in Armenia, we have no
alternative but to be patient. One cannot simply bring about democracy
through legislation alone; nor can it be imported or imposed through
the barrel of the gun or by rousing the mob. We must fully bear in mind
our history: over 70 years of communist rule, preceded by about two
years of a most fragile independence, and by over five centuries of
Ottoman rule.
We
simply cannot divorce ourselves from the burden and dire consequences
of having lived under occupation for so many centuries. Regardless of
our impatience and desire to witness a truly democratic state of
Armenia, we have no alternative to being patient, because it takes time
to develop democracy, economic and social development, and civil
society, as well as true democratic reforms. We need to develop, among
other things, political maturity, change of mentality and outlook,
which take time and cannot be achieved through legislation alone. Nor
can they be achieved through the mob.
Undoubtedly,
the Republic of Armenia, similar to many other countries, has its own
share of serious difficulties, compounded by the current political and
economic crisis and uncertainties worldwide, and its geographical
location in a rather dangerous neighborhood, blockaded by Turkey and Azerbaijan, and with an ambiguous relationship with Georgia.
Undoubtedly, there is much to be desired with regard to the prevalent
political, economic and social conditions in Armenia. There are, among
others, corrupt practices, inconsistencies in the application of the
justice system, as well as poverty and unemployment that forces many
Armenians to emigrate. Are these conditions unique only to Armenia? How
about the current high unemployment figures and the deteriorating
social conditions in some of the strongest democratic states as well as
their financial difficulties requiring massive bailouts, and facing
possible defaults?
It
is long overdue for Mr. Levon Ter-Petrossian, the first President of
the Republic of Armenia, to stop his corrosive activities pursuing his
personal agenda through endless rallies to bring about a regime change.
He should look into the mirror and remember what went on during his
own administration and should review his own record and legacy before
throwing stones at others. Some of the current practices, which he has
been so critical of, started during his own administration. Mr.
Ter-Petrossian, if you want to become the next President of the
Republic of Armenia, organize yourself peacefully and put your
candidacy during the next election. Let the people decide who should be
the President through their ballots. Stop your divisive and
destructive actions, calling constantly for demonstrations which might
get out of hand with very serious consequences.
Irrespective
of the negativism prevailing among certain circles, both within
Armenia and the Diaspora, Armenia has indeed a considerable number of
talented and fully committed professionals, both within the Government,
the Ministries and the private sector, as well as in different
segments of the society. We should recognize and give credit where it
is due for all the progress being made. We should all unite and spare
no effort in supporting and encouraging them to speed up the
development of democratic institutions, as well as strengthening the
economy and raising the living standards.
In
conclusion, I appeal to all political leaders, political pundits, and
the media, both in Armenia and the Diaspora, to refrain from any action
that may incite violence. I should also like to appeal to all my
compatriots to concentrate their efforts and energies towards the
strengthening of the young Republic. All Armenians should unite because
we complement each other; our survival as Armenians is truly
inter-dependent. The strengthening and the security as well as good
governance, economic and social development of the Republic of Armenia
should be the primary objective of all of us, above all other interests.
Benon Sevan
Save Us from Our Amateur Experts
There
is a tiny, remote, ancient, impoverished and landlocked country which
is blockaded by two of its long-time foes. One of these enemies has the
second-largest army in NATO, while the other is spending billions of
petrodollars to buy weapons like there is no tomorrow. For
exports/imports, the stamp-sized country is largely at the mercy of a
capricious and untrustworthy neighbour which persecutes fellow
nationals of the pocket-sized country. The only reliable neighbour of
this hapless, diminutive country has become, in recent months,
increasingly friendly with one of the embattled country’s major
antagonists.
This constricted, mountainous country, where winters can be bone-chilling cold, has little arable land but is home to some 3 million souls.
In the past quarter century the country has gone through tumultuous times: it has experienced a massive earthquake (25,000 killed and many more injured and left homeless); it has witnessed the collapse of the 15-member union it was a part of; has been dragged into war; has provided sanctuary to fellow nationals who had fled persecution and worse by a war-mongering neighbour. Another shock this venerable country has undergone is the forced 180-degree turn in its political-economic-cultural orientation as it has switched from communism to capitalism.
The above tribulations have so far failed to shake the country’s determination to move forward. Luckily, it’s not all doom and gloom in this land where God, according to religious tradition, decided to give humanity a second chance by navigating Noah’s Ark to land on a nearby majestic mountain.
Among the blessings of the country are its bright, educated, sophisticated, and hard-working citizens who are immensely patriotic. Another boon is its Diaspora of nearly 6 million people. And more importantly, the overwhelming majority of Diasporans retain an abiding love for their motherland and help her financially, politically, morally, and in the knowledge industries.
However, in recent years there has materialized in Diaspora a tendency to throw indiscriminate darts at the motherland. The motivations of the Diasporan “Let’s Bash Armenia” crowd are not difficult to fathom. They are mostly well-intentioned people who want to see an affluent, accountable, corruption-free, democratic Armenia ASAP. Others rightly believe a lagging Armenia is detrimental to the well-being of its citizenry and impels many to emigrate. A third group identifies with Armenia so strongly that seeing a less-than-a-perfect homeland is a personal affront to them—resulting in uncalled for bruised egos. Seemingly minimizing the impact of the hits Armenia has absorbed even before its independence in 1991, these critics claim that two decades are more than sufficient for Armenia to have shaken off the cobwebs and miasma of the “bad, old, desultory” Soviet days.
Predictably, the “Let’s Bash Armenia” group suffers from the “sky is falling” Chicken Little paranoia. In their wisdom, these chattering classes also accuse Diasporans supporting Armenia of blind patriotism.
To borrow the title of immortal Khachadoor Apovian’s masterpiece—“Verk Hayasdani” (Wounds of Armenia), the “verks” of our motherland are many. We all know what they are. But rather than incessantly slamming their Lilliputian homeland, these armchair diplomats, politicians, economists, generals, human rights promoters… should consider some facts.
It’s easier to find the proverbial needle in the haystack than to find an instance when Diasporan critique had a crucial impact on the government of Armenia. To criticize Serzh Sargsyan and Co. is pointless, if not self-defeating. Since Yerevan is obdurate about conceding to Diaspora criticism, it’s a waste of breath to dispatch unsolicited advice to Armenia from 8,000 miles away.
Unlike brickbats, positive Diaspora contributions do have an impact on Armenia. So why not invest our energies in these beneficial efforts?
When the last Armenian kingdom expired in 1375 (by then shrunken to a city-state called Sis and ruled by a monarch who had more French than Armenian blood in his veins), our nation had to wait 600 years to have a state again. Let’s support our precious and imperiled Armenia.
Let’s support it because it’s our homeland.
Let’s support it because it needs our support.
Let’ support it because our support does make a difference.
When we incessantly criticize the Yerevan government, we also hurt the morale of the citizens of Armenia and Artsakh. When we criticize Armenia, our words bounce back and demoralize Diasporan youth—our children who, like us, do daily battle to remain Armenian in these “odar aperoun” (foreign coasts). What kind of example, encouragement, message, and inspiration do we provide to our young when we viciously, virulently attack the Armenian government and even Armenia’s citizens for their shortcomings?
The bête noire of the “Let’s Bash Armenia” subscribers is the corruption of the RoA government. They are correct in perceiving corruption as an obstacle to the well-being and advancement of Armenia. But to lend some perspective to the corruption issue, critics should consider these numbers. According to NationMaster.com Corruption Index, Armenia is number 88 among 159 countries. Nation.Master.com’s index is based on data from the CIA World Factbook, the United Nations, and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development. Apart from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (all in Western Europe), Armenia has the lowest corruption standing among the former Soviet republics.
Among the former Soviet republics, Kazakhstan is the closest to Armenia, holding position number 107. The Russian Federation is a distant 127; Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, 131; Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, 138; Tajikistan, 145. At 156, Turkmenistan is near the bottom.
Meanwhile, the influential American "Foreign Policy" magazine recently ranked Armenia 101 out of 177 in its Failed States Index 2010. The study, done in cooperation with The Fund for Peace public organization, placed Norway, Finland and Sweden 177, 176, 175 respectively as the most stable countries. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran ranked 55th, 37th and 32nd, respectively among countries in danger. Uzbekistan (36th) and Tajikistan (38th) were the most vulnerable countries among the former Soviet republics. The Fund for Peace uses its Conflict Assessment System Tool to compile and measure its data.
During the Vietnam War, some Americans used to wear “America—Love It Or Leave It” pins. Sometimes we are tempted to snatch that extreme slogan, turn it around, and tell our amateur consultants, “If you care so much about Armenia, why don’t you pack up and move to Armenia?” But most of the time we restrain that temptation.
Although Armenians have been around for at least 4,250 years, RoA is a young country. It is not strong, affluent and secure like America, Australia, Canada or France, where so many Diaspora Armenians live. It can’t afford the luxury of 24/7 criticism, which for most developed nations, is a fact of life. As well, nation building--while ones existence is threatened--is no job for boys or for intellectual dilettantes, or people who use the Internet as free therapy.
If you can’t help Armenia in these difficult times, keep your counsel. Please don’t pick the scabs of Verk Hayastani.
Source: http://www.keghart.com/Editorial_AmateurExperts
Harut Sassounian, the publisher of The California Courier newspaper, is the President of the United Armenian Fund
President Serge Sarkisian made an important appearance at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg last week. In a whirlwind 30-minute speech, he covered Armenia’s internal and foreign affairs, presenting his country in the best possible light before a distinguished foreign audience. On the domestic front, Sarkisian spoke about fighting corruption, holding “fair and transparent elections,” and overcoming “the consequences of the tragic events of March 2008.”
The president then reminded the European Parliamentarians about Armenia’s “shared historical and cultural legacy” with Europe and discussed the ongoing negotiations to resolve the Artsakh (Karabagh) conflict. He condemned “the extreme level of Armenophobia and racism” in Azerbaijan and spoke of the difficulty of making “a concession to the side that is looking for a convenient excuse to shoot at us.”
Sarkisian went on to accuse the Turkish government of undermining the “normalization” of Armenia-Turkey relations “by setting preconditions and failing to honor its commitments, which rendered the ratification of the signed protocols impossible.” He called on Turkey and Azerbaijan to end the “unlawful blockade imposed on Armenia” and accused Turkey of “not only failing to recognize, but also engaging in a policy of blatant denial of the genocide of Armenians committed in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.” He pledged that Armenians and all those concerned with crimes against humanity “will henceforth remain focused on the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.”
After his speech, Sarkisian spent another 30 minutes answering questions from PACE delegates representing Lithuania, France, Switzerland, Russia, Moldova, Holland, Armenia, and Ireland. Five Azerbaijanis had placed their names on the list of parliamentarians to ask questions, but none of them did so. The delegates from Turkey had also made a unanimous decision not to question the Armenian president, as reported by Hurriyet Turkish newspaper.
The question that attracted the most attention was the one asked by Parliamentarian Zaruhi Postanjyan from Armenia, a member of the opposition Heritage Party. She told Sarkisian: “Since an authoritarian regime has been established in Armenia and all elections from 1995 on have been rigged,” wouldn’t it be preferable if he organized special and fair elections and then “resigned”?
As the Turkish president of PACE, Mevlut Cavusoglu snickered at the question, while Sarkisian calmly responded that he was well aware of Postanjyan’s views, which she had freely expressed in the Armenian Parliament, on the street, and in the media. He added that he was not prepared to hold special elections because it is neither necessary nor constitutionally feasible to organize such elections. He urged Postanjyan to participate in the next regularly scheduled parliamentary elections.
Not surprisingly Sarkisian’s PACE speech was welcomed by his supporters and criticized by his opponents at home. The most important issue for all concerned should have been whether the president’s impressive words would translate into action in the near future. However, the immediate controversy revolved around the appropriateness of Postanjyan’s criticism of the president while on foreign soil.
Some Armenian politicians were of the opinion that it was improper for Postanjyan “to attack” Sarkisian in the chambers of the European Council. Others felt that her “harsh words” inadvertently made the president look good, because in a truly “authoritarian regime,” she would have been excluded from Armenia’s delegation, stripped of her parliamentary immunity, and prosecuted. In fact, some European Parliamentarians wondered whether Turkish or Azeri delegates would dare to criticize their president at PACE.
American politicians use the expression “politics stops at the water’s edge” to indicate their willingness to set aside internal disputes for the sake of presenting a united front to outsiders. Applying that adage to Armenia, one could question the wisdom of making such disparaging comments before the Council of Europe, regardless of whether one agrees with the president or his policies. Since Armenia is routinely attacked by Turkish and Azerbaijani delegates in international forums, it is unwise to add one’s voice to those tarnishing Armenia’s reputation.
This issue also comes up when some Armenians try to pressure their authorities by taking their internal disputes to foreign governments and international courts. While their frustration is understandable, dragging a foreign entity into an internal dispute detracts from Armenia’s image overseas. In such cases, however, the blame must be shared by the Armenian government for failing to ensure the integrity of domestic courts, thereby forcing citizens to turn elsewhere for justice.
Before making critical comments about Armenia’s leadership outside the country, especially by parliament members who have ample opportunity to express their views at home, one must weigh the benefits of pressuring the authorities to respect the people’s rights with the damage caused to the country’s international reputation.