Turkey's Preconditions to Border Opening: Laughable!

It seems that Turkey comes up with stranger and stranger requests weekly. Maybe not entirely so, but I found this particular attempt laughable.

"We do not want the border with Armenia to be opened," announced head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Igdir Kemal Arslan. According to him, the businessmen of Igdir are against the opening of the border as, "Armenia has occupied 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan."

According to the Turkish official, as a precondition for the opening of the border, "Armenia must give back the occupied territories to Azerbaijan, recognize the borders of Turkey and refrain from the recognition of the Armenian Genocide."

First, this is not Turkey's official stance, it seems, but rather that of Igdir, a city in Eastern Turkey. Second, do you realize that if we refrain from the recognition of the Armenian Genocide - and that is what Kemal Arslan suggests - then that means a Genocide actually took place, which is the opposite of the official Turkish stance. Ah, they'll come to terms with their past.

Anyway, this whole thing is laughable to me. I've covered the border issue in previous entries, if you're interested in finding out more.

Source: A1+

First Chinese Child Born in Akhaltskha

In case you were wondering, Akhaltskha is an area in Georgia with a large Armenian population. But now they have a new arrival!

On January 26 the first Chinese child was born in Akhaltskha.

In fall of 2006 several Chinese families came to Akhaltskha. They are engaged in their own business. One of those families had a son...

In related news, Akhaltskha has now become a manufacturing superpower, churning out toys, cars, phones, and more, and each item that is exported carries a golden oval which states, "Made in Akhalatskha by China."

That deserves a haha. At least a ha!

Source: A1+

Armenian Girls Wear Revealing Clothes, Get Sick

A certain girl, whom I will not name, is also such a victim. Instead of dressing warmly, she gives in to fashion and gets sick often.

Because of short jackets and low-cut jeans the young organism cannot stand the cold. The modern "fashion" results in many illnesses including those of the kidneys.

Gynecologists often speak about this problem too. "Catching cold is dangerous for all the organs including the ovaries. The latters are very sensitive and cold can cause serious damage to their functions resulting even in sterility," says gynecologist Nelli Abgaryan.

She mentions that nowadays more and more young girls visit the doctors.

Armenian girls: take note! We'll still love you, even if we can't see the top of your butt or if it means you covering up your arms for the sake of your health. What will it be: sickness or sense?

Source: A1+

Armenia's Taxis to Get New Yellow Numbers

The Taxi world appears unshaken by recent developments.

The taxi services are not going to make their service more expensive, although the Government decision on taxis will cost them dear. “Of course yellow numbers will reduce the quantity of the services, but they will not become more expensive. The people using taxi services mainly belong to the middle walk of life. If the service becomes more expensive, we will lose the majority of the clients”, said one of the drives.

On January 12 the RA Government decision on the "Demands on the numbers of the means of public transportation" come into force. According to the decision, the cars used as taxis should have yellow numbers, like route taxis.

Just another way to exercise control over taxi drivers and companies, or a drive to regule them in the name of consumer demands? You be the judge.

Source: A1+

Archeology in Armenia Yields Discoveries!

This is superb! While people are worrying about the elections, the neighbors, the censorship, etc., archaeologists in Armenia are making history-changing discoveries!

As a result of excavations in Aratashen, evidence was discovered of a neolithic settlement dating to 5-4 century BC.

Found materials make it possible to make certain adjustments to the historical data on the trends of development, not only of Armenia but other nearby regions, as well.

According to the budget of RA 2007, the Institute allocated 190 million drams, which is about $521,000.

I would love to dig in Armenia. Who knows what you'd find? It would be tremendously great for the public to be made more aware of such findings and other discoveries within Armenia. What better way to inspire the young and further our culture?

Source: Yerevan.ru (translated)

Gazprom to Build Oil Plant in Armenia

I should note that it seems plans are not yet finalized, even though some sources make it seems as if they are. Let the pollution begin!

Gazprom Neft Russian company announced the intention to build an oil processing plant in Armenia. The capacity of the plant is supposed to make 7 million tons per year.

The plant will be located at the border of Armenia and Iran, the supplier of the stock. A new pipeline from Tebriz will be laid for the purpose. The processed stock will be delivered to Tehran via a railway that doesn’t exist yet, reports Kommersant daily.

Can't join in the railroad project with the Kars-Gyumri line? Team up with Russia and Iran and build a whole new line and make barrels of money! Smart thinking.

Source: Yerkir

Armenian Taxes in 2006 in the Billions...of AMD!

Every country has to have a hated agency. Of course, in the United States it's the Internal Revenue Service, charged with making your life a living hell full of numbers, exceptions, and lots of paper! But don't worry: Armenians aren't exactly green with envy, because they've got the same at home!

The RA Taxation Service collected a total of AMD 220.683bln (about $605 million) taxes instead of the planned AMD 220.417bln...

He said that tax revenues actually increased by AMD 47bln ($128 million) compared to 2005. Tsolakyan stressed that a steady increase in tax revenues have been recorded in Armenia over the last few years.

Tsolakyan stressed that the RA taxation Service focused its attention on construction, mining industry, gas and public catering.

So if you run a prostitution ring, you get off without a hitch.

Source: Arka

Hrant Dink's Agos Newspaper Receives Death Threats

Even though many took to the streets in support of condemning Hrant Dink's murder, there are some who want more.

Employees of the bilingual “Agos” weekly said they received a letter late Wednesday that described Dink as an “enemy dog” and warned that anyone calling World War One-era massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide will meet his fate.

“If you fail to exercise caution, many of your other dogs will also die,” read the letter signed by the obscure Turkish Revenge Brigade (TIT). “We have enough explosives to send the ‘Agos’ building skywards.”

“If you claim to have endured a genocide in 1915, then you don’t know what a genocide is. A real genocide will begin now,” it said.

The newspaper will not be swayed, even if a small group of ultranationalist pigs believe otherwise. I'm convinced that Turkey is on the verge of enormous change, but I fear that more killings of the sort will take place in the meantime.

Source: ArmeniaLiberty

Vanes Martirosyan Victorious!

What do you see in the top picture? I see a victorious Vanes standing in front of a fighter - Taronze Washington - who can no longer stand, and in the process upping his record to 12 wins, 0 losses, with 8 knockouts.

Martirosyan put Washington (9-6) on the canvas with a right uppercut-left hook combination to the head. Washington was up at about eight, but referee David Mendoza did not allow him to continue, as he stood on wobbly legs.

"Me and Freddie have been working on that right uppercut," Martirosyan said, in reference to trainer Freddie Roach.

Congrats to Vanes from Armenia Blog! It's great to see Armenia represented in the ring, and especially great that the fighter is thus far undefeated!

Source: PressTelegram

Armenia Blog Now Has Categories!

Right! Look to your right: do you see the section labeled BROWSE? Of course you do! Browse allows you to look through recent as well as old stories of a specific category, so if you're only interested in recent sports news, you won't have to sift through a discussion on foreign policy to get there. Nifty, eh?

I'm still working on the categories: I am changing, merging, etc.

If you have any specific ideas to make the blog better, I'm all ears!

Armenia Blog Maintenance

In case you are wondering why there aren't a ton of new entries: Armenia Blog is being made better and faster as we speak...erm, type! I'm working on making previous entries much more accessible, as well as making the entire blog load much quicker than now.

You should see new stuff in about 24 hours.

See you soon!

Armenian Ferraris - One Man's Garage

(Click to enlarge)

Many Armenians have done well in this country and abroad, no question about that; and no question about the fact that we must always have the best of everything, as if we were in a perpetual competition with the Armenian Joneses! These Ferraris belong to an Armenian named Armen, but that's as much information as I'm going to give out.

The reason I posted this is to show that anything is possible. When I see young Armenians using words like "gangsta" and "thug" as they look up to unsavory characters, I wonder if they realize that there is a world beyond "Deagles," "hoes," and "chronic." Seriously though, Armen is just one guy out of many who has steered clear of everything that's holding back many among the youth of today within the firm grasp of clever marketing and smoke and mirrors.

Of course, the other reason I posted this picture is because I love homes and I love cars!

The Dog & The Cat - Shunn u Katun

If you grew up in Armenia, then you know this story well. Here's a video of the cartoon, in Russian. Enjoy!

Vanes "The Nightmare" Martirosyan Fights This Saturday!

Vanes hails from Glendale, California, and is going to fight Taronze Washington of Dallas, Texas, this Saturday, January 27th, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. I think Vanes will win hands down. Have a look:

Vanes: 11 Wins, 0 Losses, 7 KOs
Taronze: 9 Wins, 5 Losses, 5 KOs

Of course, there's more to boxing than past performance, but go out there and support Vanes, regardless!

Links of interest:
Vanes Martirosyan's Official Website
Honda Center

Mel Gibson: Friend to Armenians?

(Click for bigger version)

I am still jumpy after seeing Apocalypto, but it seems Armenians need not fear the wrath of Gibson. The picture above - when clicked and enlarged - claims that Mel Gibson had an outburst of sorts in Malibu in the summer of 2006. The contents of this outburst involve Gibson saying that he respects and admires our ethnicity and hates the "bastard Turkish brutes."

Does it matter if Mad Max is pro-Armenian? Realize that half of Hollywood - and you know which half - hates this guy to the core, so any association with Gibson is a liability these days. It's sort of like, "Oh, Mel Gibson said he likes Armenians? Well, I guess we know what that says about Armenians!" Maybe not really, but guilt by association is a nasty thing.

Keep in mind that this clip is from the National Enquirer, which among other things, asserts that Clint Eastwood is an alien from some still-unknown planet. No joke.

Why I Didn't See "The Priestess"

I was really looking forward to seeing Vigen Chaldranian's "The Priestess" - but I didn't. I was very excited about the notion of a Hollywood-style film, in terms of the picture quality, sound quality, and that polished look that Armenian films always miss, for better or worse.

Long story short, I didn't see it - and this is the main reason: "Premiere pricing" meant that I had to pay anywhere from $50-60 a ticket to see a couple of hours of film. What a joke!

Sure it's a premiere, sure it's a Chaldranian film, but does this mean getting raped financially for the pleasure of enjoying an Armenian film? At first, I planned on taking my family and my other half, but that would mean my spending $250. I don't think so. I was further dissuaded by the fact that when I called the special number to get the tickets - and this is before I knew of the steep price - a woman said the following in Armenian: "Yes?"

Did I get the wrong number? Were the phone lines crossed? Surely this couldn't have been Grauman's Chinese Theater! I don't know where I called - most likely some suite in a building somewhere in Glendale - but I was confused. I said, "Hello?" and she replied, "Ayo?" (Ayo is "Yes" in Armenian.) A few seconds after that exchange, it seemed clear that the only people taking orders were Armenian and they didn't speak English.

Why does this bug me? It bugs me because I want Armenian movies to succeed! I don't care what the theme is: don't limit the movie to Armenians! Get operators who can actually speak the language in which it is premiering! For crying out loud, are you trying every last possible option to make sure that this film does not succeed with the rest of the world?

Regardless, if you have a review, submit it and I will publish it if it is good.

Armenian Terrorists: Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia

As I've said before, this blog serves to discuss anything and everything to do with Armenia. Unfortunately, there are some things that most people don't talk about or maybe even don't know about, such as terrorism.

Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia - better known as ASALA, also known as The Orly Group or 3 October Organization - is the most infamous of all Armenian terrorist groups. The organization was founded in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon by Hagop Tarakchian and Hagop Hagopian. ASALA's was founded to force the Turkish government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, pay reparations, and return Armenian lands. They planned to accomplish these objectives by assassinating Turkish diplomats and politicians, though they have killed many civilians, as well.

Some of their acts include: assassination of Turkish ambassador to Austria Danis Tunaligil in Vienna in 1975 , assassination of the First Secretary of Turkish Embassy Oktay Cerit in Beirut in 1976, killing 9 people in the bombing of Ankara airport in 1982, and killing 8 people in the bombing at Orly Airport in Paris in 1983. It is believed that ASALA has killed a total of 31 people, including women and children, and wounded many others.

As of today, ASALA is not believed to be active.

Sources:
NPS
WorldStatesmen

Armenians Participate in Game of Intellect

If you speak Russian, chances are you know about this game. If not, here you go:

The “What, Where, When” Russian-language intellectual game that originated in the 1970s and Brain Ring established later are currently widely spread in CIS countries.

During the game six intellectual players get a question sent by TV viewers and discuss it for one minute, and then the captain of the team decides who gives the answer, which, if correct, brings a point.

With stormy discussions and great enthusiasm Armenian intellectual players try to find answers to interesting questions. Every correct answer is followed by gleeful celebration.

The unique aspect is not the game, but that it was sponsored - that is, paid for - by Armenia's Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs. However, since fewer Armenians speak Russian, some of the teams are not as strong, as they must first translate and then solve the questions.

Source: ArmeniaNow

Several Theaters in Armenia to be Reconstructed

I have fond memories of theaters in Armenia, especially the State Puppet Theater, which I've always known as, "tiknikayin tatron" or with Tumanyan's name in front of it.

The buildings of the Yerevan state theater of Music Comedy after Paronyan and the State Puppet Theater, as well as that of the "Pan-national" will be reconstructed this year. They will be equipped with new equipment.

"Today it is a must, as the theaters are still using the equipment from 1960-70s which is completely out of order", said representative of RA Ministry of Culture Razmik Abrahamyan.

In 2003-2004 five state theaters were reconstructed thanks to the investment of the Lincy Foundation. Nevertheless, the administrative building of the state academic theater after Sundukyan has not been fully reconstructed. It is included into the Ministry 2007-09 plans.

Let us remind you that there are 22 theaters in Armenia today.

There goes yet another portion of my childhood. Goodbye conservative architecture, hello gaudy monstrosities.

Source: A1+

Turkish Daily News Writes in Armenian

Can someone