ARMENIAN PUNK ROCK IN BUENOS AIRES

It was last May 21th. There was a contest between 120 rock bands in the argentinean mayrakaghak. I dont know if you remember Carlos Bilardo, twice times director of the argentinean soccer team at Mexico 86 and Italy 90. He organized a festival to choose four bands from those one hundred tweenty demos. A band called POLCA got selected. POLCA´s members are Levon Hassassian, drums and choruses; Ernesto Vaneskeheian, bass and choruses and well, me, Juan Abadjian, guitar and vocals. Soooo, yes!!! We got the second place between those 120 bands! We played our punk pop style, but we mixed with some kocharies and some lyrics in armenian ashkharapar and krapar so the argentinean people got crazy about our original way of playing punk pop songs. That´s why i was not logging these weeks (SORRY RAFFI!!!!, i read your maiL!) We are recording a Cd of fourteen songs. We send a demo Cd of three songs, called: IABARÁ, ABDULLAH and My Hashish. Then they called us and we were in. The festival took place in LA TRASTIENDA, a very well known CAFE BAR in the touristic zone of SAN TELMO, three hundred persons were there. Someone of the tv asked for my telephone number...we´ll see...
We did not win the contest but we won other thing...a mix of Gomidas and Green Day is going to conquer the back alleys of Buenos Aires!!! hehehe
Bachikner.

Okay, I am finally logging. At least, I hope I'm doing it right. So a little background, since this is my first log, I'm in Armenia for an extended period, but sadly going back to America in August. I've been referred to as a Vagabond, but I prefer to consider it "exploring my options in life." But I will say that living in Armenia is tempting.

Raffi, I did attend the Diaspora Conference and I have to say though some good did come out of it, I was pretty disappointed. Perhaps I was looking for something that it wasn't aiming to do, perhaps I misunderstood the purpose, but I was hoping for something else. Where I thought many issues of social development and attention to serious poverty issues could have been raised, I only found more discussions on how to speed up the business world to catch up with the global economy. While that has its place and need, other issues seemed to be brushed off in fear of not being able to accompish anything in 2 days with 3000 people. But in all, I think the good that has come of it is that it exposed quite a few people to Armenia and hopefully good things will come out of it in someway.

The finally event, Ara Gevorkian's concert at Sartarabad was also a treat. Not just the performance, since quite frankly I couldn't see anything over the masses of people that arrived, but we managed to see everyone loosen their ties a bit and show their true colors. It was good to see so much laughter, so much fraternal enthusiasm among the group of people that seemed so cold, bitter and tense throughout the conference. The fireworks were mighty nice, too. The skydivers with the Armenian flags were just cool.

It sounds like the Diaspora Conference got some mixed review. Better have one than not is my opinion on that. Anyway, here in Boston things have been interesting. I hung out with a friend of mine that just got back from the Peace Corp in Armenia last month and it was great to see him. Aaron Stayman spend a few years in Ijevan, Armenia serving the Peace Corp. Along the way he made a few recordings while in Hayastan. Most notably Gor's albums (Yeraz being one and the unreleased Godfather Tom the other) plus a six track demo of his own tunes. Over the weekend he brought his guitar over and I pulled out the oud and we starting jamming a bit over a couple of Coors Light's. It's been a while since I have practiced. We pretty much played some of his songs along with some of Gor's from Yeraz and it sounded half way decent. We gave Gor a ring in Armenia from Boston and chatted for an hour or so. It looks like Gor's big concert in Yerevan will be above the Rock Club on Pushkin Street on June 8th. I'll have more details as things are confirmed. There should be about 200 or so people at the concert.

There are a lot of Armenian functions going on here in the Boston area and in New York as well. There is this HyeList that is great as it keeps you up to date on Armenian things happening in the area. Also, the Armenian Network sends out emails periodically letting people know of functions in the area. A new church has started here in Framingham, MA USA to serve the Metro West Boston community.

That's all for now...

Finals are FINALLY over!!! I am freeeeeeeeeee until late August. Even though I was supposed to graduate this month, I decided to prolonge my graduation so that I may have an Armenian minor. Sooooo... I won't be "walking" until next May... till then.. I'm not quite sure what i'll be doing :) :)
Well, I have some bad news for everyone! It seems as though I had to cancel all my summer trips. So, Shooshig's not going to NY, nor is she going to Hayasdan.... I know.... major sad faces all around! So now everyone is thinking.. whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?? I've been waiting all year to spend 3 months in Hayasdan, only to leave and look forward to the next time I'm there... but now I won't be going AT ALL. Well, I debated whether I wanted to write about this in here, but I decided that it would be okay to tell people...even if I don't know them. It turns out that all the health problems I've been having for the past 2 yrs had a very substantial base...after several doctors and blood tests, a doctor that I recently went to at UCLA ordered a biopsy of my thyroid. It turns out I have a condition called Papillary Carcinoma, which is a type of thyroid cancer. I know I know.. when I first heard about it, my heart almost stopped....but it turns out that this is a very low grade type of cancer and so far hasn't done any harm except obviously to my thyroids. This brings us to my non-traveling summer. I'll be having my lovely-good-for-nothin' thyroids removed in a couple of weeks which has forced me to be in town for the follow ups and treatment that follows.

I decided to write about this, because in all the research that I did online and in several medical books... I found out that this is not a rare thing after all! (Of course it is rare for me, since I am not a woman in menopause), but I found out that a lot of women have this thyroid problem...it's just that I am of the few who have it at the age of 22. I can't describe to you the RELIEF I feel, now that I know exactly what is wrong with me, and that I don't have to be on a trillion different meds... and especially that it is entirely curable and treatable!

Ok, enough about that.... So I've been thinking about this very special summer... my first summer in L.A. since I was 18 years old. I know summer can't be very different than the rest of the year, since all people do in L.A. is run around either trying to make money, or flaunting what their money bought ;) hehehe Now I can rest and read all the books I've been meaning to read for a while now.. and I can write.. (I love writing).... if you have any suggestions.. let me know!

Anyways, so now you know why i've been kinda distant lately... just trying to figure things out, and now that it is all quite clear... I AM BACK!!!! :)~ (expect me here a lot more!)

TSUH! (.......for now......)

Last weekend a theatre group from Toronto came to Montreal. I had the chance to meet up (although very quickly) with some people I had met in a Hamazkayin seminar. I missed the play. It was apparently ok. Anyhow all this leads me to tell you about the success of Canadian-Armenians and how they are being useful to Armenia. One of the Toronto participants to this play was talked about in her university website. I invite you to read about it here: http://www.yorku.ca/fes/index.asp She is “…Working with researchers at Oxford’s Centre for Water Resources, Ani has proposed to study water quality and management issues in the area of Lake Sevan, Armenia – a former Soviet republic. Lake Sevan, otherwise known as Armenia's Pearl and the largest lake in Armenia, is one of the largest high-altitude freshwater lakes in the Caucasus. A landlocked country, Armenia depends on this lake as its main reservoir and irrigation system.”

As for this weekend, I will be attending a conference about “Genocide and their survivors” which deals with the Armenian issue as well as the Rwanda and Jewish & Palestinian situation and the Guatemala problems. It is organised by the AGBU and looks like a promising event. Will let you know.

For those who will attend the Diaspora-Armenia conference, please bring up the 20% tax law on humanitarian aid to Armenia. You can read about this on Armeniaweek.com

Funny how sometimes we are oblivious of the obvious. For instance, I am referring to friends and other Armenians who ask about how to get themselves to Armenia. They don’t want to be just tourists (many of them have already done that). I had mentioned in previous logs of the different opportunities, AIM magazine had an article about it a few issues ago. But are there any other possibilities?
Last week, I received an electronic invitation of an Armenian cultural evening at the Museum of Civilization from the Laval University in the city of Quebec (practically no Armenians live there). I was curious. So I drove about 2.5 hours to see who and what the event was about… crazy huh?
I was so surprised to learn that 20 non-armenian university students in the field of museology had initiated and planned an exchange program with the Yerevan State University. Their objective was to assist indigenous people who’s culture was threatened. Apparently a Quebecois professor Mr. Henri Dorion (Geographer) was an adept of the Caucasus and has traveled to Armenia on many occasions. He was the inspiration of the program. The evening started with an art exhibition of Montreal Armenian artists then was followed by a brief presentation of Armenia. One of the students presented the project and talked about the poor situation of the Armenian museums. He said that some will stay for 2 weeks and others will remain up to 2 months. They had also treated the visitors with a nice Armenian buffet which was followed by music and poetry. The evening concluded with a presentation of the film “Mayrig” by Henri Verneuil (Ashot Malakian).
Needless to say I was stunned and well… aboushtsadz would be the best description. What an amazing project! This is proof that Armenia and Armenians should not limit themselves to the Armenian Diaspora or Armenian organisations. We should start making our culture global. We always think that people (non-Armenians) will not be interested in what we have to offer. That’s so wrong! It’s time we held our dance performances, book readings, music recitals in public arenas and send out the invitation to the general public. In Montreal, some organisations have just started to do this and they are finding that the halls are filling up more then when only Armenians were invited.
As for those who are looking for alternative projects to take to Armenia, how difficult would it be for them to search the internet for their areas of interest. Locate a club or a group that works in that field, propose a project and take it from there. There are many financial sources that could subsidize these types of projects. Anyone interested could write to me directly.
Best of luck to my 20 Quebecois friends in Armenia… hope their experience takes them back again and again.

Sunday I attended a recital of classical songs in the Bolsahay community. My friend Sarkis Barsoumian performed a 2 hour program with pieces from Italian, German, Spanish and Armenian composers. He is very good. Raffi M., you should maybe think of recording him… lots of potential!

Things are pretty hectic here in Boston for me as of late. Finals for school, the record release of "Yeraz", a new job, and trying to make plans to move to Armenia in the near future all have kept me nicely busy. I guess all of these things are interconnected. The good news on this end is that "Yeraz" is now available at record stores across the country as they have been popping up in the Armenia section of the World Music departments all over. For now, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York are the test markets. We will also be carried in Canada by a distributor there. The music business is pretty competitive and just getting a title in one of these major stores is a struggle. Since the record industry is controlled by about 6 major companies such as Sony, Epic, BMG, etc. it becomes a slugfest to find quality titles of an independent or world music nature. I personally love www.narek.com and www.cdbaby.com because of their focus on Armenian and independent music respectively.

I've gotten a lot of requests asking me when Gor Mkhitarian is performing in Armenia or in Europe and North America. Here are some answers. In Armenia, Gor should be performing throughout the summer at venues to be announced shortly. I'll make sure to post them. But for now, all of you going to Armenia this summer should drop him a line at mcgor2000@yahoo.com and get a personal update on his Armenia tour schedule. Plans for a North American and European tour are in the works, but it may take until early next year to finalize those plans. If you haven't seen him perform, try to catch him in Armenia. He's a very laid back perfomer who is as real as can be. No purple suits, bouffant hair styles, or wearing of sun glasses when it's well-lit indoors.

I've got about 6 more Armenian music projects in the works for my label, www.pomegranatemusic.com. It's been a great experience this past year connecting with Armenian musicians while in Armenia or through Gor when here in the States, then deciding which artists to push and promote. I really like the feeling of connectivity to Armenia even though I am taking care of school and work here in the Boston area. I do envision running this business from Armenia at some point, but, until then, it's been a fun ride learning about the ins and outs of Armenia's music scene based on my own observation and the observation and knowledge of my friends in Armenia. The label is all about bridging the gap between Armenia and the diaspora by bringing music from Armenia by real Armenian musicians to the homes of listeners everywhere. I think we all can have some type of passion that we can apply toward Armenia whether it's business related or not. If you can't be there, there are plenty of ways to be connected to Armenia. Just hook up with a network of people and they'll show you the way. Or for the experienced, just pick a project and do it.

Since I have no problem or shame in plugging products, I must suggest that if you are going to Armenia soon, pick up a great Armenian guidebook by a friend of mine. It's the most thorough and comprehensive book out there about Armenia, especially if you need a detailed guide of where to go and how to get around Armenia. It's called Rediscovering Armenia and just click on this link to get it. It's like $15 bucks and there is nothing like it on the market. I found it invaluable on my second trip there in May of 2001.

Back to finals.

Yes.... I know.... I haven't written in absolutely FOREVER!!!! and yes, I do have very valid reasons (aka excuses). So, the first being that this is the last couple of weeks of school (actually I have just 2 days left of finals). The second, being that I had some booboo-s with my health (don't ask). The third, I'm EXTREMELY busy with planning Cal State University, Northridge's (CSUN) trip to Armenia. I'm finally done with their daily itinerary and I just gave them their "do's" and "dont's" tonight..so wish us luck! I cannot believe that in 2 weeks, I will be in an airplane starting my journey towards Armenia... yayyyyyy!!!

Have you ever felt like you had so much to say yet when you wanted to say it, nothing actually came out? Well, call me weird, but that's exactly how I feel right now. People have been emailing me asking me where I am and how come I haven't written in so long....but really.... I'm just blanking out.

Tonight I was speaking to a room full of Armenian students who are going to go to Armenia for the first time this June. I presented our itinerary and told them what to bring and what not..... but most of all I enjoyed telling them about all the connections they will make, and how they will most definitely return with a different perspective of their Armenian identities. As young Diasporan Armenians, this trip is going to influence each of them differently....and what's exciting is that I'm going to be there to see it. I feel like all the hours I've put into typing, and calling, and writing, and explaining, ... it'll all be worth it if in the end I was able to influence ONE person.

Other than that... everything is pretty much normal here. The Armenian community is still doing the same old stuff.. Same old Harout P. barahanteses, etc.

One thing.... Message to the Repats: If you have special requests...let me know, I'd be more than happy to bring you (for example) Lucky Charms! ;) hehehehehe

TSUH!!! :)~

May 9 this year celebrated the 10th anniversary of the liberation of Shoushi. As most of you know, Shoushi played an important role in winning Karabagh. It stands on high cliffs overlooking Stepanagerd (capital of Karabagh). I lived in Shoushi for about three weeks last summer. I fell in love with this crumbled and abandoned old Armenian city. It was really difficult to walk the streets without wondering what happened to the 70 000 people who lived there. Most were Azeris. These people are now refugees across the border waiting to some day return to their homes. What homes though? The impoverished Armenians who live in and around the city were obliged to take bits and pieces from here and there to fix their own homes. This left the city looking more like a skeleton then anything else. The government you ask? Well, it’s busy trying to find international funding to pay the wages of its employees (see some of Ara’s logs about the situation of wages in Karabagh).

Anyhow, I was really happy to hear that last Sunday, the ARFYOC (equivalent of AYF in Canada) had organised an evening in honour of this day. I was expecting that they were going to talk about the value of Shoushi and what it means for Armenians. Maybe talk about its cultural and historic benefits. Perhaps tell us about how diaporans can assist the people who we supported to fight the war to actually survive and make a life for themselves there…. NO! I was disappointed when all I heard was the 1980’s type of rhetoric “we are the best ‘cause we are Armenian.” There was a lot of old Tashnak propaganda. Unfortunately, the audience seemed to think what they were being presented with was pleasant.

I am sorry, but I expect more than “myanin zenkov ga hayots pergutiun” discourse from this younger “more open” generation. I didn’t see any innovation. NO attempt to find a new formula to educate and keep the younger youth interested was made. I know most of the organisers and I know that they are capable of much more…. Much, much more!

On the other hand, I know that Shoushi is being looked after by some. Visit the http://www.shoushihotel.com/?ArmeniaDiaspora.com to see one of the new developments there. Bravo to the courageous people who have taken on this project! I hope more will come. As for Montrealers, well I will keep pushing until someone listens.

Oh yeah, Ara Gevorgian is coming to Montreal on June 9. He will perform in one of the most prestigious concert halls. The Laval (a smaller city to the north of Montreal) Armenian community is sponsoring and the dance group will dance… without me this time!

Besides that, weather sucks… we hit a record low of 5C yesterday. And squash season is over… until September!

Major points of the NKR Prime-Minsiter’s speech – Mr. Anushavan Danielyan
(Third Armenian Business Forum of Europe - Geneva 26-28th April 2002)

He started with the comparison of Karabakh’s economic situation before the war and current.
Industrial output - 180 mln USD (1988), 10 mln USD (2001)
Tones of meat produced - 100000 (1998), 2800 (2001)
14 thou. hectars of grapes out of 16 thou. been damaged during the war.
In 1995, after the end of war – 80% of economy and infrastructure has been ruined. Since that year – GDP growth per year is estimated at 5-8%.

Demography and standards of living.
Population growth in 2001- 18.7% higher, than in 2000.
2453 people returned to Karabakh for the last year.
Number of families with more than 3 children increased by 2-3 times.
The Government’s programme supporting those families is very efficient – providing with extra money for each new child, plus a free house after the 7th child.
Average wage is 26000 AMD (approx 47 USD)
Minimum wage level is 5000 AMD (approx 8 USD)

Business environment.
Increase on 15-30% on almost every position on the economy for the last year.
Export increased 2.6 times, Investments increased by 30% to the previous year.
Taxation and investment climate has changed dramatically.
Profit tax – 5% (25% in 1999) - Tax revenues are higher than in the previous years, despite tax rate reduction
Income tax – 5% (32% in 1999) – revenues increased.
Land tax – 6% (15% in 1999)
Property tax – 6% (12% in 1999)
Payroll taxes – 13%, planned to be 10% in 2003 (28% in 1999)
VAT the same as in Armenia – 20%.
In general, less shadow economy, more tax revenues.

Investments.
35-40 mln USD has been invested in 2000-2001.
The major investments were in:
Karabakh Telecom company (15 mln USD to be invested in 2002-2005) – Lebanese investors (non-armenians). There are problems with Armentel.
Golden watches (1.5 mln USD, 150 people employed, 100% of production is exported – semi-fabrics)
Sirkap Armenia Hotel (2mln USD, USA/Switzerland)
Nairi Hotel (0,65 mln USD Australia)
Spagetti production (0,5 mln USD, USA)
Milk production (0,4 mln USD, USA)
Tuti vodka production and construction works (1.5 mln USD, USA)
Two broiler plants, branches of Lusakert company (Armenia), built last year - 1000 tones of meat produced, 20% of production exported.
Armtekhnomashexport (0.3 mln USD – special grasses, tea for medical purposes)
Carpets production (ecologically 100% clean (paints based on natural grasses)

Hydro-energy. Currently 40% of all energy is received from Sarsang Hydro-station. Creation of 19 new hydro-energy plants is planned with investments from 5000 USD up to 70 mln USD.
Deposits of gold and silver in Drmbon are to be developed. (15-20 tones of gold, 100-150 thou tones of silver)

Any comments?

My personal opinion is that definitely things are changing in Karabakh quicker than in Armenia. Ordinary people there cry less than in Armenia, have more will, struggle harder, are able to understand much better what corporate interests are (wider vision of their own interests, than in Armenia). Problems are the same. Certain changes in Karabakh are very positive, but still the Government has no modern understanding of what is called social-economic policy. The problems of poverty, inequality, access to the basic services - healthcare, education and their quality were not mentioned at all, but they have a direct influence on the economic development results and its sustainability. Nevertheless things are changing, hope that norms of economic and social behaviour in Karabakh are also changing. As a 25% Karabakhci I really hope so:)

I haven't logged for absolutely ages either due to not doing much apart from work to warrant a log and the weather is awful, again! I am frantically working on my dissertation for hand-in very soon, and although this is really interesting, I don't think readers would appreciate a discussion on it....

I've just been hearing from the fellow AVC volunteers for this coming year, lucky for them they start in a few weeks time - I still have to graduate - they all sound really interesting people - all US and Canadian citizens, albeit Le Pen supporters wouldn't appreciate them (or me) too much!! Two sets of couples and then six others from different professional spheres and ages...and three half-halfs like me which will be really interesting to find out about as I don't really know many half halfs.

The AGBU in London presented an evening for 'Philanthropy in Armenia' last Tuesday evening which was a really interesting event. Four main speakers, one from the AGBU London, one from the All-Armenian Fund, one from a small charity called Friends of Armenia and then one from Oxfam and I gave a small talk on the AVC. The difference I gave was that I was the one going out there for a year, and the rest were really involved in getting money and then deciding on how to give it out. Most of them (apart from the All-Armenian fund) are very much involved in micro-projects and hence explained that this lessens the corruption element significantly, and most of them would say corruption doesn't affect their projects, as they all go there which is obviously really great. The questions were interesting, although I always feel disappointed when they bring up political subjects when the evening is based upon philanthropy, and then the hot air gets generated although the chairing is always good and normally these questions get diverted (which is always the sign of a great chair - particularly amongst a group of Armenians!!!).......I was the youngest there by quite a long way, although whenever I go to the AGBU lecture series I'm the youngest so it doesn't really bother me, but it does seem a shame particularly as these lectures are some of the few non-political/judgementally chaired lectures, which is quite rare. Although, I suspect that one of the other younger members of the audience who normally turns up met up with Lena yesterday on her holidays in Hayastan - Lena, did you meet SK - the girl you met from the UK?!!

I visited my brother and sister last weekend, who are both studying in Scotland, and for once, the weather was just perfect with bright blue skies and clouds which make a picture-perfect photo - I couldn't believe it!! St Andrews is famous for its golfing, university and not much else - it's just tiny, hence the reason why my brother seems to be saying hi to every other person! Then in the opposite sense, my sister lives in Edinburgh which is a very lively city, it doesn't have the absolutely stunning long beach extending in front of the town and abundance of little old ladies, but it does have more than one cinema with more than two films showing at once and she lives in a flat rather than a little tiny room! The train ride took six hours, but it was worth it for the views - it goes along the east coast.

Hope everyone else is well.

PS Madeline, I just met up with a few Armenians here in Cambridge, one of them knows you from NY last summer and got in contact with me via cilicia!

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.

"Yeraz" in major record stores tomorrow!!!!!

ROBERT KOCHARIAN IN ARGENTINA

Mr. Robert visited South America. He went to Urugay and Brasil. Last Friday he visited Argentina. He stayed only three days. I just wonder WHY that little??? ($$$) Coff, Coff, sorry, well on Saturday the whole community joined in the CERVANTEZ THEATRE of Buenos Aires to meet the president. The three armenian choruses (Shnorhalí, Arax and Gomidás) and two of the armenian dance troupes (Masis and Nairí) participated giving a nice show. All the choruses sang together as well as the dance groupes. Then Mr. Eduardo Eurnekian, who is the owner of the Argentinean Airports and now of the Armenian Zvartnots too; did a ceremonial speech abuot armenio-argentinio relationships. I wrote that the whole community was there in the theatre, but i forgot to tell the Armenian Communist Party of Argentina decided not to be there, you can imagine why...
What can i tell??? I did not like Kocharian that much. I thing there is a murder of 8 persons in the parliament that is still covered of mysterious mafioz theories. So i thing that this short visit (he left Sunday at night) was useful just for the community to join once more. Its very funny to look how those persons who are always talking bad about the president were there with formal clothes, smiling at him. Sunday morning Roby "the garapaghtsi" went to church. The church was surprised to see itself so filled up. No faith just gossiping...
No more words about this, just like to say that something will occur in this community, but we have to wait a bit more...
BYE BYE ROBBER KOCHARIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s me again!
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Edele Hovnanian, President of LCO. She had come to Montreal to hold an awareness and a recruitment presentation. In the past years there have been very little Canadian-Armenians who have taken part in this organization’s activities. Since I had been to Armenia and Karabagh twice with LCO and got so much out of it, I feel that I need to encourage other young Canadian-Armenians (as well as American, European, Australian, Latin American… ) to experience the one month LCO campaign.
Anyhow, Edele was so vibrant and dynamic that she got everyone motivated. There were some non-Armenians who attended the presentation as well. I think this is very good, because we have focused on only those with Armenian origins for too long. Armenia should be made known to everyone, not just those who have Armenian parents and/or grandparents.
So, if you or someone you know thinks that they might be interested in knowing more about life in Armenia (Yerevan and the villages) I highly encourage you to give LCO a try. It’s more than just tourism!
www.lcousa.org

BTW, that’s where I met Raffi K. and Madlene. They now live in Armenia…

Here are interesting interesting project websites I recomend if you are thinking of taking a short journey to Armenia. These are not only opportunities for tourism, you actually get involved :

reconstruction of Hospital in Shushi Karabagh & the school in the Datev - July and/or August
http://www.hamazkayin.com

The 8th Forum, now in Armenia for the first time! From July 13 to July 27
http://www.lcousa.org

Think about it, you can actually get a chance to meet Raffi K., Ara, Lena, Madlene and all the other "cool" repatriots... (you see guys, you are now part of the tourist attractions... hehehe)

Seriously, if you are even somewhat considering a visit, visit these sites and I garantee you will be very motivated!

There’s so much to say about the past weeks.

I’ll be honest, the April 24 hype was not happening in Montreal. There seems to be a lack of motivation on the part of the organisers. I must admit that I have been out of the loop for the past months and haven’t been going to the “SRAH” as often as I used too. But there are thousands of people like me or even worst, they have never been to any Armenian community centre. So what do we do with these peoeple (me included for this year)? How does the community reach them?

Most of the commemoration in Montreal happens internally. The only public event we hold is the annual march that takes place on capital hill in Ottawa ( the capital of Canada) which is about 2 hrs away. Bus loads of Armenians arrive from Toronto, Ste-Catherines and Montreal. I decided not to go this year as I don’t think the march is effective! It has become part of a routine, and as most of us know, routine is BOOOORING!

However, there is one person who has dared defy this ritual. Her name is Lusnak. She is a multi-talented artist who has emmigrated from Lebanon about 20 years ago. She has a world-beat band and sings popular Armenian songs for a non-Armenian crowd. The show was held on the evening of April 24 in one of the hip cabaret type concert halls and was dedicated to the Genocide. She invited non-Armenian performers to sing, read poems and play musical pieces. It was a 2 hour show that attracted about 200. About 150 of them were non-Armenians and loved the show! So did I!

What about the Youth you say? Well, they are as unmotivated as their parents! There are great people with great ideas who seem to be limited or discouraged from actually putting their ideas into motion.

One of the ASA’s is more concerned to hold a “barahantess” then to actually get its members mobilised or involved in activisme activities… never mind that they don’t organise any, they don’t even advertise through their e-mail distibution other events held in the community in fear of sending too much information and turning off the members… REALLY!

What else, oh yes… I went to Charles Aznavour’s concert on April 10th. Let me tell you ladies and gents, at 77, this guy can still give a kick ass show! Althoug I was a little dissapointed that he didn’t even mention a thing about his Armenianness, I enjoyed the show so very very much! If you weren’t aware, he will be one of the main characters in Atom Egoyan’s soon to be released ARARAD.

By the way, I met Vincent Lima, editor of the Armenian Forum… what a great guy. So young and so full of inpiration! The Armenian Forum is a quarterly journal that publishes mostly academic articles of current issues pertaining to Armenia and the Diaspora. There are great controversial articles dealing from HIV in Armenia to domestic violence with a range of other topics such as genocide recognition and retribution and get this… dual nationality in the Armenian context!

During our discussion, Vincent told me that there are about one thousand subscribers… In my opinion, this is a shame. If there are about 7 million Armenians around the world of which, lets be conservative, 4 million read English of which 2 million are well off of which 1 million are used to reading scientific-type articles… let’s devide that into a nice family figure of 4 = 250 000. According to my rough calculations, the Armenian Forum should at least have 10 000 subscribers with a greater potential. So why aren’t they there yet? Is it a question of marketing? Or is it a lack of interest on the part of the population?

AIM magazine is also facing this dilema… where are the middle class Armenians and why are they not encouraging these publications? WOW… I had a lot to say. I’ll try and write more often so my thoughts are shared with you by through shorter logs.