Seven years after the mystic disappearance of one of Armenia’s most powerful and starving-activists-turned-to-multimillionaire-oligarchs, Interpol’s webpage still has him listed as “Wanted.” The missing oligarch – Vano Siradeghyan – is rightly accused of orchestrating many political assassinations.

Wanted
SIRADEGHYAN, Vano

Legal Status
Present family name: SIRADEGHYAN Forename: VANO Sex: MALE Date of birth: 13 November 1946 (60 years old) Place of birth: VILLAGE KOTI, NOYEMBERYAN REGION, Armenia Language spoken: Armenian Nationality: Armenia

Physical description
Height: 1.77 meter <-> 69 inches Colour of eyes: DARK Distinguishing marks and characteristics: BALD, STRAIGHT NOSE, LOOKS LIKE 45-50 YEARS OLD, MEDIUM BUILD

Offences
Categories of Offences: CRIMES AGAINST LIFE AND HEALTH Arrest Warrant Issued by: MALATIA – SEBASTIA / YEREVAN / Armenia

And as rumors persist that this former interior minister and mayor might be still living in his native region of Armenia’s north sponsored by supposed enemies like current president Robert Kocharyan, the return of former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan – a close friend of Vano – to the political stage makes one wonder whether the wanted oligarch may be pardoned if Ter-Petrosyan returns to power.

Whatever the case, Vano has relatives living in Armenia. And I have often hypothesized that Vano’s relatives might still be enjoying some protection and sponsorship – whether or not the sinister oligarch is in Armenia or not.

But a recent encounter by my sister with a relative of Vano in September of 2007 shows that I might have been wrong, at least in the case of one relative. Here is the unpublished account by Arpi Maghakyan.

“Oh, when is that day going to come, aunt Sveta?! We don’t know, but hope it will come soon,” interrupts a short woman entering the store. She is the third floor neighbor, Narine, with two children who go to school.

Like Narine, many from Dilijan – in Armenia’s north – have no idea when the day will come for them to have income again to pay off shopowner Sveta for goods that she loans to neigbors. Artyom, an unemployed 60-year-old, says all his family can do now is to wait. “This summer we moved out from our house to rent it out to tourists in order to make some money; we stayed in the streets and now wait for the next summer.”

Renting out during the peak season has become a tool of survival for many in Dilijan. Past summer a day’s rent was between 4,000 and 8,000 drams, roughly $12 and $27 in U.S. currency. Sveta’s neighbor Narine, her husband and their two kids had left Dilijan for the nearby Vanadzor city to stay with some relatives. “We managed to rent the house out three times this summer. With the income we made we paid off most of our debts to aunt Sveta; we bought clothers for the children with the rest of the money.”

Narine prides that her son sings very well and that whenever there are outside guests to their school he is asked to sing for them. “I want him to have normal clothes when he sings. I may be wrong, but it is important to me.” As she speaks, Narine’s eyes catch her son running in the street. “Artavazd!” she suddenly screams, “you have just come from school – go change your clothes!”

She then remembers that they won’t have much to eat in the winter. Although Dilijan’s forests provide their residents with lots of free goods – pear, apple, raspberry, and rosehip – she cannot make jam or other sweets with these because her family doesn’t have sugar. “I won’t beg for money, but I am begging for work. I want to be able to have hope tomorrow.” An older neighbor resonates with her and tries to appease the young mother, “We all want the same, dear Narine.”

In the Soviet times, there were many in Dilijan of different kinds. Locals say in those days you would not see a poor person in the town. But now unemployment is omnipresent.

You will find few apartments in lights at nights: many are out of town, others out of the country. Even the central street in downtown is not full of people in the evenings. “People leave for Russia or other places with their families. Many husbands or sons are abroad to send money for their families to survive here. And now, since the U.S. dollar has depreciated in Armenia, the oppressed are becoming even more oppressed and it is the people again who loose,” complains an old man.

A group of people who have been following the conversation are ignited with anger being reminded of the dollar’s depreciation. Their discussion is mainly to find the guilty: some accuse Armenia’s president Kocharian, others America’s Bush. Another one suggests that the head of Armenia’s central bank is in guilt for artificially depreciating the dollar.

Getting tired from politics, Narine and I leave the crowd in front of Mrs. Sveta’s shop and walk to the Memorial of the Unknown Soldier. It’s a daily path in Dilijan for locals to walk to the Memorial, and they do so with white buckets. Need for clean water rather than patriotism drives the locals to the memorial – there is a natural spring next to it that people take from to cook and drink. The water that comes through their sink is brown several days a week making it even impossible to take a shower. “The water from our sink is sometimes all black – you need to let it run for a while for it to become more brownish. But as the water runs so does the meter, right? And then comes the big bill.”

Unlike many others, Narine’s family doesn’t have a relative abroad and, hence, no help from outside. Instead, her husband Samvel Siradeghyan, a veteran disabled in the Artsakh war, receives 40,000 drams ($115) a month. “The hardest thing is that sometimes we don’t have money for a piece of bread. I mean not for meat, milk or honey – the things that kids like – but for an actual piece of bread. Samvel’s pension is not enough. I used to cook cakes in a café but it closed.”

Samvel is from nearby Noyemberyan region’s Koti village. In 1988 he got involved in the Artsakh liberation war and manufactured home-made weapons with his friends. “They are four brothers and all of them have fought in the war. Samvel was almost killed during testing his own brothers’ made bombs,” says Narine. She talks of her husband with love and pride, but warns that he doesn’t talk much and is not fond of questions about the war. He also refuses to register as a “Yerkrapah,” a political organization of former volunteers that provides some benefits for its members and could eventually help Samvel’s children with tuition. “That’s not what I fought for,” says the veteran whose face is covered with scars from the burns.

Samvel and his family moved to Dilijan after the war of the early 1990s. He married there Narine and had a decent job and helped many others. Narine reveals that Samvel’s uncle is the infamous Vano Siradeghyan, a former Armenian oligarch now sought by the Interpol.

“When Vano was removed from power my husband was fired. They didn’t take into account that my husband was disabled and had two children. They could have at least given him another job with less salary,” complains Narine. Her husband wants to do construction, but his health doesn’t permit him. She then asks why her husband should be fired for his last name, “wasn’t it with the same last name that he was fighting for the homeland?”

Depressed and appeased, she apologizes to me for complaining too much. One can see the two personalities fighting in her. One is hopeless and oppressed; the other is powerful, proud, happy and full of hope. She never reveals the first one to her kids.

Their apartment has one bedroom and a living room. It is clean and all white. The kids show off the computer in their living room. “This is a gift from our aunt. It has two games but we haven’t figured out the rest. It is Pentium II.” As they turn it on, the old monitor displays a menu with two games and no programs. It is impossible to look at the gloomy screen, but the kids are used to it. “I keep telling them to stop killing their eyes in front of the computer, but they don’t listen to me,” says Narine brining traditional Armenian coffee from the kitchen.

But the kids turn off the computer after their mother directs so. Artavazd gets ready to sing, and little Zepiur runs to bring her certificates of appreciations from school. They are both straight A students and also attend dance classes outside their primary school. Artavazd even finds time to go to a separate chess school. His sister Zepiur dreams of taking painting classes that are not otherwise offered at their primary school. Yet she also knows that her family cannot afford another expense.

Narine recalls the days when her husband helped everyone and didn’t let a child in their town go hungry. “I tell my husband that he helped others so much that today his own kids need help but there is no one giving a hand,” quietly murmurs Narine so that her children don’t hear her.

Artavazad leans to a chair and starts singing a traditional song about the mountains. He has clear voice and bright eyes that he now closes from being shy. Narine is full of tears of happiness. Her singer son, as many Armenian children, wants to become president when he grows up, but before that he dreams of having an electronic piano. “When I have an electronic piano,” he says, “I will compose my own songs and play the traditional songs I know.”

“Today I saw a teacher from the painting school and she said that, according to their rules, the first four years are free for our daughter,” Narine breaks the silence. Little Zepiur, who hasn’t known the good news until that point, startes jumping up and down on the sofa from happiness. It only takes the future painter’s Mom a look to stop her jump on the sofa.

Armenia ranks 71 in the newest Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum.

The report examines the following:

1. Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment
2. Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education
3. Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures
4. Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio

Although Armenia gave women the right to vote in 1918, 2 years before the United States, and 99% of Armenia’s women are literate (as opposed to 100% of men), the percentage of women in the parliament is 5 today.

Female adult unemployment rate is 5% higher from men’s in Armenia.  The most interesting fact is the decrease of women educators as the level of educational institution increases:

Percentage of female teachers, primary education…………………………76Percentage of female teachers, secondary education……………………..56Percentage of female teachers, tertiary education…………………………41

The Report on Armenia is available through a .pdf document at http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/albania_to_dominican_republic.pdf. Apparently women in authoritarian Azerbaijan are better off – with a rank of 59, but not so much in (until yesterday) democratic Georgia – 67.

The United States ranked 31 in the Report, Turkey ranked 121 while Iran ranked 118. Russia ranked 45. For the ranking list, see http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/rankings2007.xls.

Sweden (1), Norway (2), Finland (3) and Iceland (4) once again top the rankings in the latest Global Gender Gap Report. All countries in the top 20 made progress relative to their scores last year – some more so than others. Latvia (13) and Lithuania (14) made the biggest advances among the top 20, gaining six and seven places respectively. The Report covers a total of 128 countries, representing over 90% of the world’s population.

This will demonstrate my poor knowledge of Armenia’s constitution, but I will still ask the question (which is not rhetoric).

Can Levon Ter-Petrosian run for presidency if he has already been elected twice? 

The Armenian Constitution  – which limits presidency to two terms with four five years each – was adopted after Ter-Petrosian got elected the first time.  He resigned after getting elected the second time.  Does this mean he can run again? Did the recent constitutional reforms address/change the question? 

UPDATE: Please see the comment section for discussion.

An Armenian village on the Turkish border, writes a Hetq article, is surrounded with a hill on the Turkish territory reading ‘Happy is he who is born a Turk.’ 

A vandalism, perhaps, in the eyes of environmentalists, blasphemy in the eyes of earth worshipers and irony in the eyes of history, the writing in Turkish doesn’t bother the villagers of the remote Armenian village. 

The residents of the Shirak village of Jrapi wake up every morning and look at the hills before them, where there are unintelligible words written in a foreign language.  Jrapi is a border village and the hills are located beyond the border, in Turkey. “What is written on that hill?” I asked deputy village head Pargev Balasanyan.

“It says, ‘Happy is he who is born a Turk,'” he said.

“Isn’t it difficult psychologically to see that writing every day?”

“What’s difficult is living here, what do we care about that writing?”

[…]

Read more at http://hetq.am/eng/society/7249/

via Yesoudo, an ad for a rap party in Armenia’s capital Yerevan says “gays and animals are not allowed.” 

What caught my attention most, though, is not the American-flagized blond nor the homophobic message but the name of the party (rap group?) – Hin Jugha (Old Djulfa).  This is the historic Armenian place where Azerbaijan destroyed thousands of stone-crosses in December of 2005.  What do homophobia, rap and Old Djulfa have to do with each other?

In a recent interview to the Los Angeles Times, visiting Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan said he doesnt think “Turks will invade Armenia” if the United States House of Representatives passes a symbolic resolution calling the Armenian Genocide as such.

At least one imported lighter in Armenia, an American ally in the war of terror, has an extra button that projects number one terrorist Bin Laden’s image while pushed, reports A1+. 

Lighters allegedly made by “Samsung” company are sold in Yerevan stalls. The mysterious picture of Usama Ben Laden is hidden under the lighter. When you turn on the lighter you see Ben Laden’s picture.

While Armenia’s officials are not able to verify where the lighter is from, many goods in Christian Armenia are imported from Muslim countries such as Turkey, Iran and Syria.

In the stall, were the lighter was bought, no one was able to tell as were they bought it for the purposes of resale. They ensured that they saw it for the first time, and that might be the only lighter with the picture of Ben Laden in the whole pack. Abgar Eghoyan, Chairman of the Consumer Rights Protection Union said that it was difficult to find out the country where the lighter was imported from, since it was a commercial secret. He also said that it might be imported illegally. “It is very difficult to find it out in our country. Unfortunately, there are goods in the country that are not certified and the sellers will hardly have the invoice of the goods”.

Samsung’s official website has no information on the lighters allegedly made by the techno giant.

Click here to watch the video that demonstrates the confiscated lighter’s projection of Bin Laden.

The wipe out of medieval Armenia’s largest cemetery in 2005 by the Azeri authorities has finally brought international attention, at least in media, to the protection of both Armenian and Azeri monuments in the region.

Three articles from this week’s Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR)  issue deal with cultural protection in the South Caucasus – from another Armenian cemetery being erased by the Azeri authorities in Baku (that I wrote about in early June of this year); two mosques in Shushi being restored by Armenians to show off they are far from Azerbaijan’s official policy of cultural genocide, and a more realistic situation of Azeri graves neglected in Armenia.

One needs to applaud Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict expert Tom de Waal –  an IWPR editor – for his equal concern for Armenian and Azeri monuments.

Although rarely mentioned in these days, the unbelievable destruction of Djulfa has, perhaps, shook off people that cultural heritage protection is not a pr issue but a real concern.

The academic community seems to share the view. The world’s premier, and probably the oldest, history magazine, is interested in documenting cultural destruction. In its upcoming November issue, History Today will feature an article on the Djulfa destruction by this author.

In a country where some oligarchs spend an average of $5,000 a week on clothing, $4,800 is the annual government allocation for studying an archaeological site what is now turning out to be the city that Strabo and Plutarch called “Armenian Carthage,” the beautiful capital Artashat (Artaxarta) founded in 190 B.C. by Artashes I.

ArmeniaNow reports,

Armenian archeologists have discovered the second pagan temple in Armenia after Garni.
The temple found 5.5 meters under ground not far from the modern town of Artashat about 30 kilometers to the south-east of Yerevan was devoted to Mihr – the God of the Sun in Armenian mythology. The temple – the symbol of sun-worship was built near Artashat which maintained its status the longest among the capitals of Armenia – from the 2nd century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.

[…]

The expedition comprised of 15 workers of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia had begun the excavations of the territory of capital Artashat in the 1970s. Before that large-scale excavations in the territories bordering Turkey were prohibited by Soviet authorities.

[…]

The archeological team has also managed to find the public bath-house of Artshat with its 7 rooms 75 square meters each.

“There is a mosaic floor and a tiny brook, bases and pools with beautiful ornaments have been found. Also a toilet with sewage system with more than 2,000 years of history, something you can’t find even in modern-day villages, was found,” laughs the archeologist.

The archeological works and others like it, were interrupted by the Karabakh movement in 1988 and the crisis in the later years. The archeological life in the newly independent Armenia gained new momentum in the early 2000s.

An expedition team was formed again in 2003. However, it had only 5 members instead of the former 15 because of insufficient [financial] means to have a larger group.

“We knew from the very beginning there was a temple that was destroyed during the reign of King Tiridates in the 4th century, in times Christianity was spread. But we didn’t know where exactly it was and what was its size,” says Khachatryan.

It’s already five years the archeological team with small financial means excavates the old Artashat. The latest studies concluded: the temple devoted to god Mihr was built on a hill on the left bank of Arax River. The hill was surrounded by walls where the limestone holy place was erected. The excavations disclosed also the 23 staircases leading to the temple.

1,625,000 drams (about $4,800) were allotted by the state budget for this year studies. Khachatryan says the money will hardly suffice to excavate a mausoleum, when they must excavate a whole city.

The archeologist is proud of the work of his team, but picks on the work of community heads as a result of which lands of Artashat that bear one of the most important pages of Armenia’s history are sold today.

“They say exactly 6 hectares are sold, but what we see is a different size – about 60 hectares. Sooner or later they will build castles wrecking our past to the ground,” Khachatryan says with indignation hoping to save at least the remaining territories.

The archeologists think they may find at the end of the excavations that the temple may be reconstructed; however, they are unable to find whether it is possible to find financing for it.

source: http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=2486&lng=eng&IID=1151

Over a year and a half after Azerbaijan smashed to dust the largest medieval Armenian cemetery in the world (see “Djulfa” at the top of this blog), the Azeri authorities are preventing again European observers from visiting the site where the cemetery existed.

Whereas in April of 2006 Azerbaijan banned European observers from entering Djulfa with the pretext that accepting any possibilty of the “Armenian claim” that Djulfa is gone and, therefore, giving any credibility to anything that any Armenian says is the biggest crime any human being could make, now Azerbaijan has figured out the stupidest of all methods to prevent the delegation from monitoring cultural properties. It is saying that Europeans must enter Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan otherwise they will not agree to the visit:

ARMENIAN DISAGREES PACE RAPPORTEUR EDWARD O’HARA’S VISITING NAGORNO KARABAKH VIA AZERBAIJAN, THE VISIT WAS PUT OFF AGAIN

Azeri Press Agency
Aug 31 2007
Azerbaijan

The PACE Rapporteur for Cultural Heritage in the South Caucasus,
British MP, Edward O’Hara’s fact-finding travel to Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Armenia from August 28 through September 6 has been
postponed again, Milli Majlis press service told APA.

The statement reads that Azerbaijan has always supported this
initiative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
and PACE Rapporteur Edward O’Hara’s fact-finding visit to the region,
including Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, Nagorno
Karabakh and the other territories occupied by Armenia.

Azerbaijan objected to Armenian side’s demand at PACE during
preparation for the visit that the fact-finding mission should travel
to Nagorno Karabakh through Armenia (by car from Yerevan).

Related to this issue, Samad Seyidov, head of Azerbaijani parliament
delegation to the PACE, informed the Secretary General Mateo Sorinas
of Azerbaijan’s official stance, underscoring recognition of the
country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty by the international
community and international organizations like UN, OSCE, NATO, CE etc.

Azerbaijan clearly announced its position that both domestic and
international missions and delegations have to seek permission of
official Baku to travel to its territory of Nagorno Karabakh and
other adjacent regions under occupation, and Azerbaijan will not
change its firm position in any condition.

As a result, PACE didn’t support Armenia’s unconstructive and baseless
stance and postponed the visit.

Now, how technically possible it is for European observers to visit Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan is only for the pious Azerbaijani officials to figure out. What is Azerbaijan’s response to the fact that its own Ambassador to Russia visit Nagorno Karabakh, and logically through Armenia, in June of this year?

Of course the one and only logic behind any of the illogical Azerbaijani attempts to stop the monitoring of cultural rights in both Armenia and Azerbaijan is because they know they have smashed Djulfa to dust and can’t cover it up. For one reason they know there are satellite images, that are as objective as anything else can get in the world, that show the cemetery before the destruction. For another reason, they can’t admit that they committed an act of cultural vandalism, or cultural genocide, against a people they consider the creators of all evil on Earth. And most badly, they have lied so many times on the destruction of Djulfa that accepting they lied would undermine their very authority.

Anyhow, although I have been in touch with Mr. O’Hara (the head of the delegation who was supposed to visit and of course never will) and although he doesn’t sound interested in the faith (well, I guest in the past a lot) of Djulfa, I still believe it is to much extent the fault of Armenians that the world doesn’t know about the silenced story of Djulfa.

Well, I should go back to my homework. That’s the best I can do for Djulfa at this minute. But of course there is a reason I have not been really active on the blog recently. So yeah, Azerbaijan, I don’t know about the rest of my kin, but I have not forgotten Djulfa and never will.