I haven't logged in for a while here, so will try to cover the most important events in one posting. I have several business tripsin April and May - to the UK, Switzerland and to St. Petersburg (Russia). In the UK. visited Armenian church on April 07 and met a couple of very interesting people there and lateron on at Cambridge met Rhoda Manook. The service was quite interesting, besides all armenians behave themselves very similarily when they are at the church serice - they are very curious looking around, always looking in all the directions and staring at strangers both wth curiosity and slight danger, but they CAN'T concentrate on the service itself! It's very typical. It's quite interesting how diasporan armenians approach to me. (I was born in Hayastan, grew up in Russia. My predecessors are from 4 armenian historical regions - Marash, Erzrum, Artvin and finally Arcakh (Karabakh)). So the appoarch is quite irritative, I understand where it comes from, it has real grounds, but I'm sick and tired spending a lot of time "proving" the diasporans that I need nothing from them and their "countries". Another phenomena, when I say that I'm from Russia, not Armenia, they are trust me more and what really iritates me a lot is that these are the same armenians who like living with their pessimistic myths. ALMOST nobody asked me of what's going on in Armenia, what is changing there? or my opinion on anything ??? Also we've grown in different countries, completely different environments, but the deseases of Armenians are the same all over the world and here I see little difference between hayastanci and diasporan armenians. OK enough of that.

The second visit was to Geneva, Switzerland, where I've arrived on 24th April. I found with the help of my friends the address of the Armenian church and went to the liturgy at the Armenian church which has started at 7:30. There were approximately 250 Armenians from Geneva, Bern, Zurich and some provinces of France. The church is very smart, it's located very close to the French border. Actually, it's the only Armenian church in Geneva. After the service was finished, we took the candles and went out of the church to the yard, where Armenian khachkar was and listened to the speeches of several people (Armenia's representative to the UN, Ter-Ter, representatives of the Armenian community) In general, all was OK, despite it was too gloomy and "peaceful", no actions infront of turkish embassy or consulate was even planned.
Another suprprise was that I got an Email where I was invited to participate in the Armenian Business Forum, which was held in Geneva! It was a big surprise for me and I've attended it. European Armenian Businessmen + a couple of them from the US were there (Switzerland, Belgium, France, Germany, Romania ...) Overall approximately 30 people. plus Prime minsiter of Arcakh - Mr. Anushavan Danielyan, two deputy-ministers (Minsitry of Economy and Finance, Trade and Economic Development, Central Bank of Armenia). I've attended only the first day, because I had to leave for Russia next day. Mr. Danielyan's speech was quite interesting, informative with many figures, showing that there are quite dramatic changes in terms of economic and social, demographic development in Arcakh. (ARA IS THAT RIGHT?) I'll try to write a short note on his speech. There were quite a lot of critisizm from the Diasporan businessmen on corruption in Armenia, besides many of them admited that things are moving on the right direction and it's becoming more easy to work in Armenia. In general, the conference was organized on a good level, Armenains were listening to the speakers quite carefully (it's very difficult to achieve), besides there were a number of outfashioned naive and populistic slogans on how we can change Armenia. I wish these people could speak with the repatriates or attract them to the next Business Forum, which will be next year.

I've also been to Armenian Church in Moscow on 5th May (Easter). We celebrate easter here the same day with the Russian church. There were approximately 600 people at the service. Quite a lot for us, besides our "community" in Moscow consists of more than 600.000 Armenians and together with Moscow region it might reach 1 mln people.

And a positive thing. I found the new CD of Armenian Navy Band (Arto Tuncboyaciyan) here in Moscow (the album is called - New Apricot)! I failed to find it in London and Geneva. It's quite nice, despite it's very difficult to call this music Armenian :) its a big mixure of different directions, but quite a useful search. I was luckly to be on their concert in Yerevan with my friends in Armenia - Raffi, Zabel, Lena, Hakob, Haik and many others. Very bright memories of those days in March which I've spent with them at Homeland. Hope to come to Armenia soon!

Amenain barin em cankanoum bolorin.