Ministry of Diaspora

[Tigranakert]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

That is really disgusting... I personally know some Armenians who fled Armenia because they did not want to fight or their children to fight and now go back to Armenia every sumer, enjoy their stay and when I asked if they would fight for Armenia if a new war broke out, they simply said no. Shame on them.

I wonder if they studied the consequences of a new war or crisis, how many Armenians would leave Armenia during/after the war? Three million is a minimum for a country to survive, any number below this is doomed to fail.

I still can not understand why this government just provides 0.6% of the state budget to Armenian scientists, after all we want to develop a knowledged based economy. Also, they invest little in (heavy) industry, there is enough copper, iron, silver, gold in Armenia to produce certain goods.

I once read an interesting article from Parice Herouni where he wrote about the potential of Armenian scientists, where he said that with enough financial support, they could make a few million dollars out of a few hundred thousand. But the goverment wasn't interested.

[Tigranakert]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

The Noyan Tapan Highlights weekly, Yerevan,
no. 46, 8 December 2008.

Among Top Six in the World. About an Achievement of Armenian Scientists



By Haroutiun Khachatrian


It was an ordinary laboratory in the basement of the Physics
Department of Yerevan State University. The university has dozens of
such laboratories whose shelves are filled with unnoticeable devices
that seem to have remained unchanged since the Soviet time. When I was
in the lab, there were only three people there, Samvel Gevorgian, the
head of the lab, a modest man with an almost shy smile, and two young
scientific workers of his small group ... Two items on the table, the
prizes the group had recently won, were the only unusual thing. The
silver cup with an inscription "2008 Global Security Challenge
Finalist" immediately caught the eye.

Global Security Challenge was a competition in science and technology
organized by famous London Business School and NUC Enterprise Company
(U.S.) in July-November of this year. Its goal was described as
follows:

"Global Security Challenge (GSC) runs the leading international
business plan competition to find and select the most promising
security technology start-ups in the world. The mission of the GSC is
to stimulate technological innovations that make airports, cities and
enterprises safer without encroaching on civil liberties."

The winner was to receive half a million dollars. About two thousand
companies, research groups and individuals took part in the
competition. In order to reach the final stage, each participant was
to win a regional competition at first. Armenia was included in the
so-called Asian Group, in which some 800 works participated - from
countries ranging from Japan and Australia to those of the former
USSR. On September 26 the work of Samvel Gevorgian's group was
recognized as one of the five that won in the indicated group and it
reached the Grand final, to be held in London on November 13 (besides
the Asian Group, there were also European an American groups). So, on
that day, six works were recognized as Global Security Challenge
Finalists, actually, winners of the competition. The above mentioned
half a million dollars was given to only one work which, in the
opinion of many, was not the best one. In particular, an unofficial
vote of the experts present at the competition evaluated the Armenian
work among the top three, better than the American work that received
the monetary prize.

What was done

The brief and dry words of the description of the scientific work say
that the Armenian scientists developed an ultra-high sensitivity
Seismic Detection Subsystem that can also be used in many other fields
where very small and very slow movements must be detected, for
example, products for high precision instruments and tools, or so
called absolute position sensor products. The key to achieving all
this is an instrument small enough to be held in the palm. It is hard
to imagine by casting an unaccustomed glance that several coils of a
black wire wound on a square metal represent the indicated
revolutionary innovation officially called a "single-layer flat or
domed pick-up coil with high Q-factors". Samvel Gevorgian showed me
two graphs - seismograms made in this basement room on two different
days. On one day the oscillations were much higher than on the other
day. However, it does not mean that an earthquake occurred that day.
The Day of Strong Oscillations was a usual working day, whereas the
Day of Weak Oscillations was a holiday. The seismograph just recorded
the concussions caused by passing cars and even human footsteps. This
device with a fantastic sensitivity can record position changes as
small as one nanometre, that is, million times smaller than a
millimetre. Even more important is that, different from devices no in
use, the Gevorgian's coil can recognize also very slow movement, It is
difficult to believe, but the device is sensitive to movement of the
Moon, it reacts to (and registers) the rise of the Moon like the ocean
water during tide!

It is obvious that such a high-sensitivity device can be used not only
in seismology. It was acknowledged at the Global Security Challenge
Competition that the device can be applied in various spheres, from
medicine to the fields where an unexpected danger not perceptible to
the human eye and ear may emerge.

"We were told in London: "It does not matter that you did not receive
this half a million dollars. Instead you have won recognition and
attracted interest. This can bring much more money," Samvel Gevorgian
said. According to him, negotiations on the sale of the technology are
now underway with representatives of four countries, and negotiations
with one of them - a Singaporean firm, have come quite close to
bringing results.

Science and economy

Now I should mention Samvel Gevorgian's words which may seem unusual
to many. In his words, the fact that the invention of his group will
bring money soon is first of all satisfying because he will be able to
allocate resources for new studies and inventions. "We have a great
wealth - our qualified specialists. Very often they are more skilful
than their colleagues in other countries but they demand less payment.
The very restricted funds provided by the state are never sufficient
for science".

We can add that, in particular, funds provided by the Armenian state
are quite insufficient. The question of why this government, which has
proclaimed creation of a knowledge-based economy as a priority,
allocates 0.6% of GDP to science while at least 2% is considered
normal (according to Samvel Gevorgian, 2% would not be enough either)
is a subject of a separate conversation. Let's see how this group
managed to achieve such a result with limited resources. Two persons:
Harutyun Karapetyan and Levon Torose should be mentioned in this
connection.

Harutyun Karapetyan heads the National Foundation of Science and
Advanced Technologies (NFSAT), a non-state organization engaged in the
introduction of modern methods of science financing in Armenia for ten
years. These methods envisage an independent peer review of the
projects; it was not applied in the USSR and is not used effectively
in Armenia so far. Karapetyan noted with pride that their Foundation
has provided grants to the group of Samvel Gevorgian several times,
thanks to which the group managed to complete the development of its
single-layer flat coil.

The NFSAT's grant called Commercialization of Products/Results Support
Program deserves special mention. In this case the grant was provided
not for implementation of purely scientific work but for
commercialization of the work done. It was also an unprecedented case
in the history of Armenian science.

How this concrete scientific work became a commercial product is a
long story. Suffice it to say that in the above mentioned Global
Security Challenge Competition, the bid was submitted not by the
laboratory of Dr Samvel Gevorgian but by a commercial enterprise,
Precision Sensors/Instrumentation Development & Production Co. (PSI).
Samvel Gevorgian, though one of the founders of that enterprise, is an
advisor at it, and the manager is the third man who plays an important
role in this work - Levon Torose. U.S-based Levon Torose is known as a
benefactor in Armenia and Artsakh. He worked at a big U.S. company for
many years and knows well what is needed in order to pass from science
to production and commerce.

At this point our story ends. It can be called a success story in
Armenia, even though it is quite far from a real success story by
Western standards. Its participants believe that the cause of
transforming scientific results of Armenian thought into money, and
thus ensuring the country's progress and preventing the brain drain is
quite real and promising.

[hipeter924]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

That is really disgusting... I personally know some Armenians who fled Armenia because they did not want to fight or their children to fight and now go back to Armenia every sumer, enjoy their stay and when I asked if they would fight for Armenia if a new war broke out, they simply said no. Shame on them.

I wonder if they studied the consequences of a new war or crisis, how many Armenians would leave Armenia during/after the war? Three million is a minimum for a country to survive, any number below this is doomed to fail.

I still can not understand why this government just provides 0.6% of the state budget to Armenian scientists, after all we want to develop a knowledged based economy. Also, they invest little in (heavy) industry, there is enough copper, iron, silver, gold in Armenia to produce certain goods.

I once read an interesting article from Parice Herouni where he wrote about the potential of Armenian scientists, where he said that with enough financial support, they could make a few million dollars out of a few hundred thousand. But the goverment wasn't interested.

I think the Armenian government seems to forget that in the USSR, Armenia got ahead through scientific and cultural achievement, it was never an industrial powerhouse, the rest of the USSR was for that.

[Tigranakert]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

Maybe the Ministry of Diaspora can create a new ''Diasporan Investors'' agency, for interested Diasporan investors who can invest at special rates and with goverment insurence, in such scientific research and development projects, and like shareholders can earn some of the profits.

[Armanen]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

Maybe the Ministry of Diaspora can create a new ''Diasporan Investors'' agency, for interested Diasporan investors who can invest at special rates and with goverment insurence, in such scientific research and development projects, and like shareholders can earn some of the profits.

That would be a great program and could be incorporated into the planned Pan-Armenian Bank. The lack of attention paid by the government to resettling the liberated regions of Artsakh, the border towns and limited funding to our scientists are among my top 3 dissatisfactions with the Armenian government.

[Federate]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

Tips online: Website aims to serve as a guideline for repatriates



Armenians who live abroad and wish to be back to Armenia now have the opportunity to be more informed about the legislation of their motherland by visiting www.backtoarmenia.am website.

Created by the initiative of the migration agency of the RA ministry of territorial administration the website (launched half a year ago) is to favor the repatriation of the Armenians that live in other countries. During six months more than 200 visitors to the site have used it to get answers to questions. The project is financed by British Council and “International Center for Human Development”.

On the website could be found information about issues such as health, education, citizenship, military service and others.

Irina Davtyan, the director of migration department of the migration agency says that most of the people that turned to them were Armenians who live in European countries. Most of the 200 or so queries were interested in dual citizenship, military service and questions connected to the RA Passports.

For the purpose of informing about the website to the Armenians abroad, the Migration Agency turned to the embassies in RA and to the different Armenian companies, and also put the announcement about the website in the Armenian media.

Davtyan says: “This way, the Armenians that live here can inform their relatives that live abroad (by telling about the site”.

According to official data since 1992 about 1 million people left Armenia. Statistics also say the amount of people leaving Armenia surpasses the amount of people that came to the republic (1.2 people came to Armenia during the period from January to November while at the same time 1.3 million left). So the amount of people that turned to the website, testifies that repatriation is not one of the nearest plans of the emigrants yet.

In this website the readers may get information on four levels. First is the RA legislation; that is through the legal acts that systematizes different spheres of public life, people can get answers to the questions they are interested in.

In the second level visitors of the website can get information about the following spheres of public life in Armenia in the way of questions and answers: health, education, citizenship, military service, pension and allowances.

In the third level the RA citizens who live abroad, can send the questions they are interested in right to the website and in the fourth level the visitor to the website can communicate online to the corresponding official.

“We have contact persons in all the ministries, with the help of who we will connect to the corresponding official”, says Davtyan, adding however till now no visitor of the website had a wish to talk to any official, but in case if there is a desire, it can be arranged.

http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=3501&CID=3367&IID=1218&lng=eng

[TomServo]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

That would be a great program and could be incorporated into the planned Pan-Armenian Bank. The lack of attention paid by the government to resettling the liberated regions of Artsakh, the border towns and limited funding to our scientists are among my top 3 dissatisfactions with the Armenian government.

I remember reading last year that Dilijan was to become the center of Armenian finance. Let's see what happens.

[Federate]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

That is really disgusting... I personally know some Armenians who fled Armenia because they did not want to fight or their children to fight and now go back to Armenia every sumer, enjoy their stay and when I asked if they would fight for Armenia if a new war broke out, they simply said no. Shame on them.

I wonder if they studied the consequences of a new war or crisis, how many Armenians would leave Armenia during/after the war? Three million is a minimum for a country to survive, any number below this is doomed to fail.

Even Susianna Kentikian's family:

Susianna Kentikian was born in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, the daughter of veterinary doctor Levon Kentikian and his wife Makruki. At the age of five, she left Armenia with her parents and her four-years older brother, Mikael, because her father was called up to serve in the military during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

I still can not understand why this government just provides 0.6% of the state budget to Armenian scientists, after all we want to develop a knowledged based economy. Also, they invest little in (heavy) industry, there is enough copper, iron, silver, gold in Armenia to produce certain goods.

I once read an interesting article from Parice Herouni where he wrote about the potential of Armenian scientists, where he said that with enough financial support, they could make a few million dollars out of a few hundred thousand. But the goverment wasn't interested.

Like it or not, we have a corrupt government and the alternative is an even more corrupt government with Zionist strings attached. Add that to the fact that our GDP is just too small and we have to spend a big portion of it on the military (not that i'm against that, on the contrary). And let's not forget the massive brain drain Armenia suffered during the 90s, early 00s where unemployed intellectuals were forced to leave the country to seek employment.

If only we received the amount of aid Israel receives. After all, we are living in almost parallel political situations (large diaspora, surrounded by enemies, major land problems, two out of four borders closed, no major natural resources etc). The only difference between us and them is that they have been independent longer and they get trillions in military and economic aid from many Western nations and their diaspora. So they divert that aid mostly into their high-tech industry which creates weapons for them and the cycle goes on.

Speaking of creating weapons, I recently contacted the inventor of the VAHAN (if you don't remember what that is, click here) and asked him a bunch of questions about mass-production of his gun and generally Armenian self-sufficiency in weapons. His answers were disappointing and even though it was by email, I could feel the disappointment in his words as well.

For example, asking him about the possibility that the Armenian government will invest in his gun and mass-produce it, he said "So far the Ministry of Defense has not expressed a clear desire to do so. They were interested on an abstract level, but have given me full freedom to do whatever I wish in terms of managing the future of the gun. This indicates that the officials do not plan to use it in any possible way, that is what I derive from the immediate events." As a side note, here is what his answer was when I asked him how would he compare and contrast the VAHAN to the M16 and the AK-47: VAHAN is simpler, it's barrel can be dismantled and NATO compatible. The gases that are being lost in AK-47, do not occur here and that is why the bullet speed and power are stronger in Vahan. Plus, VAHAN's targeting capacity is higher, it is more precise and easy to manipulate given that it does not have the inertia as one sees it in AK-47 and M-16.

[Haykakan]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

I wonder how he can manage to make the gun more accurate while making it more powerfull? Less gasses escaping means more power but it also means more kickback and therefor poorer targetting.
In regards to the earlier comments conserning the military service part i have gained much insight into this area resently through people i know in Armenia.People have little respect or confidence in public institutions in Armenia (including the military).They do not trust the government or the army with the lives of their childeren becaus all of those institutions are corrupt.On many occasions new service members have been beaten or shot to death by their fellow soldiers or superiors becaus they didnt fit in or some other stupid reason.I knew a guy who was a immoral disgusting human being who escaped from the USA caus he was gona go to jail for rape but in Armenia they made this guy into a general (i am guessing becaus he paid them or some other connections because he had no military background).I don't know howmany of you have childeren but imagine that you did and that your child was sent to serve under this man who beat him to death for some unknown reason.What would you have to say then about military service?Most of the people who can afford it will pay a heavty sum ($10,000 in a recent case) so that their son will serve in or around Yerevan.Most people dont have this kind of money and their sons go to wherever and many return having lifelong injuries and pschological problems not becaus of war but becaus of what they were subjected to by their superiors.These systemic problems will make even the most patriotic citizens try to save their childeren from the service.We also have to remember that war in Armenia isn't the kind of war we are used to seeing in the usa where u drop a bomb on a hutt from 2 miles up in the sky.This is real war and the winner isn't necesseraly the braver or smarter side its more dependent on who this or that superpower wants to win the said war.
The issue of military service is not as black and white as many portray it tobeThe only way to restore trust in the military or in any other institution is to uproot corruption.The current president has made this his top priority and the changes are starting to show results but i am not sure if this applies to the military yet.

[Armanen]

Re: Ministry of Diaspora

Please ignore the above user. Not only is it stuck in the 90s but it has its facts wrong too.