Life in Armenia

[davidoga]

Re: Life in Armenia

Can you shed some light on what you have in mind regarding him and Armenia?

Iharke. Sa karog e linel skal teg.

I know that the Azerbaijanis like him because of his experience with oil in the South Caucasus. But an interesting exchange took place during the committeehearing for his appointment:

Sen. Robert Menendez: "I don’t expect you to answer any differently than I have had previous nominees before this committee do, but I have to ask you whether or not you contest any of the facts what transpired in 1915 as it relates to 1.5 million Armenians who were brutally massacred and marched to their deaths in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire?”
Morningstar - “No, I do not.”

Later on, he promised that he would look into khachkar destruction in Jugha.

Ideally, the US wouldn't have an ambassador to Azerbaijan because that would limit their relationship. But Morningstar does sound that bad. Is US Armenian lobby trying as hard to block this guy as they did with Bryza?

[Mos]

Re: Life in Armenia

A nice clip from the movie "Here" upon entering Yerevan - and great song in background!

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

Iran, Armenia to make TV series

http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/21234.html

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

Does anyone have any information on the One Armenia charity project. Its a new organization that started last year and aims to fund a project in Armenia every month. Its stated purpose is to supposedly provide an alternative to existing Armenian fundraisers by being extremely transparent. I am the head of a organization that has to a charity that a larger organization (All-ASA) will sponsor, and I have been asked to consider One Armenia.

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

Hi everyone, for those in Southern California, here is a great cause that doesn't cost you anything and can help someone in armenia by making the winter a little easier for them.

https://www.facebook.com/events/366865416741192/?notif_t=plan_user_invited

[Mher]

Re: Life in Armenia

in the newly released study, Armenia has improved 24 places in the global corruption perception index

We have moved from 129 in the world to 105

http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/results

[Haykakan]

Re: Life in Armenia

Anyone know anything about this case?

HUSBAND MURDERS WIFE OUT OF LOVE: "IF HE LOVED HER, WOULD HE KILL HER? "- ASKS VICTIM'S DAUGHTER

http://hetq.am/eng/articles/21674/husband-murders-wife-out-of-love-if-he-loved-her-would-he-kill-her?---asks-victims-daughter.html

12:04, December 19, 2012

In the scope of the Rapid Response Unit created by Society without
Violence NGO, we present another case of domestic violence with a
tragic end. The mission of Rapid Response Unit is to uncover cases
of domestic violence in our society, give them public coverage and
to pursue transparent and fair investigation.

With tears in her dark-black eyes Anahit, a 17 year-old girl who's
matured in the span of a mere few days from pain and suffering,
is trying to recall how she lost her mother two weeks ago.

"I was asleep, but I woke up at 4am because my mother was screaming.

My sister Arpine was still asleep. I hurried to the dinning-room to
find the door locked and Valodya hitting my mom. Mom was shouting
for me to open the door. I ran to the kitchen, picked-up a spoon
and opened the door easily. I entered the room and saw him hitting
my mom with a vase," Anahit recounts. "I tried to take mom away, but
he again started hitting her. Then he brought mom to the kitchen by
dragging her on the floor. That's when he began to stab her with the
knife. We were calling for help and pleading for him to stop. But he
wouldn't listen to us. He was killing our mom in front of our eyes."

The step-father, 51 year-old Valodya Muradyan, killed his wife,
35 year-old Dianna Nahapetyan, in the presence of her daughters on
December 4.

One of the sisters, 14 years-old Arpine, hasn't spoken at all after the
incident. Dianna's mother 58 year-old Valya Nahapetyan says the girls
are stressed-out, having witnessed the violence against their mother.

Unsuccessfully trying to save their mother, the sisters run out of
the house and try to find help by knocking the neighbors' doors. But
no one answers. Barefoot, the children go to the police station. When
the girls were trying to get out of the house, the step-father manages
to cut Anahit's leg with the knife.

"Luckily, the girls managed to get out, or else he would have killed
them as well. What could I"- told Dianna's mother.

The murderer managed to lock the house door and escape before the
police came. The next day he showed up at the Shengavit police station
and confessed he had killed his wife. The Criminal Investigation
Department of the Ararat Provincial Police launched a murder criminal
case.

Dianna's family house is in the Armash village of Ararat. The girls
moved there to live.

Dianna's mother Valya said she had three girls, the youngest of which
died at the age of 14 from stroke. The other sister is married and
lives in the US. Dianna married for the first time at the age of 17.

The first husband was also from Armash. During ten years of married
life she had two daughters. Later she got divorced.

In 2006, Dianna met Valodya Muradyan, who had left his family in the
US and returned to Armenia. He was a relative of Dianna's sister's
husband. Dianna's mother says they didn't approve of her relationship
with Valodya but they couldn't force her out of it.

Valya Nahapetyan with the portrait of Diana "I struggled a lot to split
them up. I even sent her to Sochi to live with my brother, but Valodya
found her there as well. Before that, they lived in Hrazdan. He was
always in some kind of strange deals. He borrowed money from some
people and they took and kept him in Vardenis. Dianna found money
and brought him back,",- recounts Valya Nahapetyan, Dianna's mother.

Valya says that her daughter's relationship with Valodya proved to
be fatal for Dianna as she paid with her life.

Dianna, with her husband, daughters and mother lived in Abkhazia
for awhile. Valodya bought and sold cars there. He was under the
"protection" of one of local authorities. When that protection dried
up, some unknown people took the cars from him.

"He took $60,000 from different people promising to bring back cars
for them. They hardly managed to escape from Abkhazia to Russia, or
else he would be killed. Then he left for Mexico to cross over the
border into the US, but he was sent back on the same plane because
he lacked an entrance visa,"- says Valya. "It took his mother some
time to get his papers in order and take him to the US."

Even from halfway around the world, Valodya kept pestering Dianna
with telephone calls and promises of love.

"He called and told her that he was coming. Dianna told him to at
least buy a house for them to live in when he arrived. He sent the
money and Dianna bought an old house in Ararat. I have to give him
that much. She suffered a lot renovating the place. He came and they
started to live together. He had brought cars with him and was busy
selling them,"- the mother recalls.

But the fights between the spouses continued; they were quarreling
every day.

"He wouldn't let my mother live peacefully as he was jealous. Even
if somebody looked at her in the street he'd start quarreling. My mom
was young and very beautiful. He would check her cell phone, calling
her bad names. Two days before the incident my mom threw him out of
the house. He returned one day,"- says Anahit. "That day, they again
quarreled but he got down on his knees and apologized to y mother.

My mom was the understanding type.... I have made a video with my
i-pad showing how he pushed and insulted her. I always told her to be
careful, since he might hurt her. I don't think he loved her. Would
he kill her, if he loved her?

Neighbors describe Dianna as a proud person would didn't socialize
that much. They say she always dressed fashionably modern and drove
a foreign car.

"She was a beautiful woman but they generally kept to themselves.

They were always quarreling,"- the neighbors say.

Valya Nahapetyan learnt about her daughter's death in the US. She
says she had talked to her two days before the tragic incident

"I kept telling him to leave her, to get a divorce if it was impossible
to live together. It's 21st century after all. I told him that I'd
take care of my grandchildren. The he goes on Shant TV and brazenly
states that he loved Dianna. I told the investigator that, in a fit
of anger, it's possible to slap your beloved wife. But he stabbed
her 25 times with a knife. Then he stabbed her in the throat to make
sure she was dead. He knowingly tortured her to death. My children
seem to have gone crazy,"- says a teary-eyed Valya.

Mother is suffocating from the anguish of her daughter's cruel death.

Anahit says, "They applied make-up to mother's face, but it was
still black. She was so beautiful, but at that time she looked 15
years older.

Valya Nahapetyan, Dianna's mother, will act as her legal successor.

She is going to hire a lawyer. The Rapid Response Unit will support
Valya in the case. Valya says she will sue Shant TV for covering the
murder in such a one-sided fashion.

"They had no moral right to broadcast such material. Fine Dianna
has died and gone. She won't see any of this, but what about these
children? They are interviewing the murderer, the neighbors, but what
about me? Why won't they ask me?", - tells Valya Nahapetyan.

P.S. If you have witnessed a case of domestic violence please alert
the Rapid Response Unit at http://rru.swv.am/.

Gayane Mkrtchyan

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Life in Armenia

What sort of medieval world do these people live in?

Aleta says she has no complaints ...her husband respects her, listens to her opinions, and she can even leave the house on her own and buy the clothes she wants.

19 year-old Astghik ...could only leave the house with her father's permission. "I've had six abortions. Once I drank some medicine and had complications".

VERIN GETASHEN: VILLAGE WOMEN NOW VOICE THEIR CONCERNS RE: MALE/FEMALE DIVIDE
Mariam Mughdusyan

http://hetq.am/eng/articles/21614/verin-getashen-village-women-now-voice-their-concerns-re-male/female-divide.html

14:37, December 17, 2012

A crowd had gathered in the mayor's office of the Gegharkouniq village
of Verin Getashen.

When they found out that I was a reporter, one resident exclaimed,
"Write about the potatoes. We grow them but can't sell them. We're
living on potatoes and animal raising her. Today, they banned meat,
tomorrow potatoes..."

It's true. The village lives on the growing of potatoes and farming
in general. Residents say that in recent years, say residents,
potato farming has become less and less profitable. They point to
big business as the culprit.

Residents told me that in the past they would grow their crops and
sell the produce here and there. Now, with the advent of large-scale
farming, with MPs and other officials owning thousands of acres of
land, the little guys are being squeezed out of the market.

Village financial advisor Mourad Mouradyan argues that there is no
local planning. It's everyone for themselves. Villagers grow potatoes
and then sell them to resellers at 50-60 AMD per kilo. The resellers
turn around and sell the crop to end-line consumers for 150.

Mouradyan says the lot of villagers is getting increasingly hard and
that hunger stalks Armenia's rural communities.

"My poor daughter-in-law had to grow potatoes while she was pregnant,
just to have a bit of money. Today, the crop isn't being sold. The
common people are to be pitied."

Village residents complain that the Ministry of Agriculture implements
projects to improve the crop but has nothing to offer in terms of
selling it.

When I tell Mourad that I came across some nice houses in the village,
the financial advisor argues that it's because so many young people
have left for seasonal work in Russia. When they return to Verin
Getashen they use the money to renovate.

Mourad's sons also travel every year to Russia for work, mainly
in construction.

Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told me that he liked
President Sargsyan's foreign policy because it fostered good ties
with Russia. Sargsyan's domestic policy, according to the villager,
was non-existent.

"If it wasn't for the Russians, we'd starve. We are big backers
of Putin and Medvedev. Those who feed and keep us, they are our
presidents," he said.

The official population of the village is 5,026 but Municipal Chief of
Staff Martin Mkhitaryan says the real figure is more like 4,000. Local
residents confess that less than that actually live in the village.

Mouradyan told me that 1,400 left for seasonal work in 2011 and the
figure rose to 1,800 this year. He said that some find work abroad
and then come back to take their families as well.

You won't see many men in the village during the summer - it's mostly
women, children and the elderly.

"Young men get married and bring their wives home for their parents
to take care of. The new husbands leave a month or so after getting
married. They'll come home once a year for the holidays and then
they'll go back," explained Mouradyan.

One woman I met, I'll call her Aleta, said her husband had been away
for years working abroad. She cannot leave and visit him since she
has the responsibility of taking care of his parents.

Aleta says she has no complaints - her husband respects her, listens
to her opinions, and she can even leave the house on her own and buy
the clothes she wants. That's a big luxury for some village women.

Astghik is the 19 year-old daughter of Seda. Like most of the young
girls in the village she doesn't work and didn't continue her education
after finishing high school. She spends her time watching TV serials
in the village cultural center.

The day I visited the village, there was a wedding. Astghik could
only leave the house with her father's permission.

I was told that artificial abortions are common place in the village,
frequently performed at home.

"I've had six abortions. Once I drank some medicine and had
complications. My life was barely saved. I had to have the abortion.

They raised a ruckus because I wasn't giving birth to a son,"
says Ankin.

Seda complains that women work like men but that they get no respect.

It's not right. We work just like them. When they return, we get all
the blame because certain things in the home aren't to their liking."

Village women told me that in years past, they couldn't even think
about such issues, let alone express them as they do today.

"This morning my husband and I went to the cattle shed to look after
the animals. When we returned home, he told e to fix him breakfast. It
only took me ten minutes to change and cook him something. He got
angry and left without eating. But we both work. He has feet and
hands. Why can't he fix a meal once and awhile?" recounts Asya.

As we were conversing, her husband Viken enters the house. He hears
what Asya is saying and hits the roof. We quickly change the topic of
conversation to the weather. (I dare not tell him that I am a reporter,
just a friend of so and so)

Viken sits by the stove and all at once remembers the incident of the
late breakfast. He picks up a file by the stove and throws it at his
wife, hitting her in the eye.

P.S. For a long time after witnessing this, I couldn't write a thing.

But as I left the village Asya told me, "Write what you saw. Let them
understand that one day women will say enough is enough. I might not
see that day, but it will surely come."

(The names of local residents have been changed for obvious reasons)

[Mos]

Re: Life in Armenia

19 year-old Astghik ...could only leave the house with her father's permission. "I've had six abortions. Once I drank some medicine and had complications".[/I]

and you have murdered six times. Shame on you.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Life in Armenia

and you have murdered six times. Shame on you.

They live in the same medieval world that you live in.