You will see the new comments feature on the Repatriate log at the bottom of this post. It should be quite fun since it lets us decide with each post whether we want to allow comments or not! I am leaving it open to anyone to comment at this time.
It is great to be back in Armenia, even though it was really nice in Croatia, too. My garden is overgrown from all the rain, my remodeling is coming along quite nicely, and the "revolution seems" to be on hold. I have been trying to figure out exactly what is going on, but it seems there are some discussions between opposition and government, mixed reports are out there, but I think the dialogue is very healthy. I just hope it leads to some change and justice for those who were beaten. Hey, if Bush can grudgingly apologize for the abuses of Iraqi prisoners thanks to strong condemnation, so can Kocharian. The problem in this case is that the condemnation was just way too weak or muted.
In other regional interesting developments, Kocharian will not go to Istanbul due to his disappointment with Turkeys lack of progress in relations with Armenia, but there are apparently still some talks going on, including on Karabakh once again. Georgia has sent troops to a largely ethnic Armenian area after some minor ethnic conflict - I am not sure if there is more to it than that or not.
Anyway - I do feel overwhelmed with all the stuff I have going on, but a lot of it is fun, so no problemo.
It is great to be back in Armenia, even though it was really nice in Croatia, too. My garden is overgrown from all the rain, my remodeling is coming along quite nicely, and the "revolution seems" to be on hold. I have been trying to figure out exactly what is going on, but it seems there are some discussions between opposition and government, mixed reports are out there, but I think the dialogue is very healthy. I just hope it leads to some change and justice for those who were beaten. Hey, if Bush can grudgingly apologize for the abuses of Iraqi prisoners thanks to strong condemnation, so can Kocharian. The problem in this case is that the condemnation was just way too weak or muted.
In other regional interesting developments, Kocharian will not go to Istanbul due to his disappointment with Turkeys lack of progress in relations with Armenia, but there are apparently still some talks going on, including on Karabakh once again. Georgia has sent troops to a largely ethnic Armenian area after some minor ethnic conflict - I am not sure if there is more to it than that or not.
Anyway - I do feel overwhelmed with all the stuff I have going on, but a lot of it is fun, so no problemo.
posted by Raffi K. at 5:58 PM
9 Comments:
Dear Raffi,
I congratulate you on your decision to put up a "comments" feature on your repatriate logs. I congratulate you also for the correct information you gave about the new ambassador of U.S. in Armenia NOT being the present one in Georgia. Surely you are much better informed on this than serious newspapers such as "Azg" and "Hayots Ashkharh".
I have and I will remain strongly pro-Kocharian in my comments. I just hope that on your part you will not delete my comments which will only encourage objectivity and freedom of expression about important issues facing Armenia. Or else the comment feature will defeat its purpose by only and purely serving opposition, anti-Kocharian rhetoric. I think readers deserve to be informed from multiple sources and viewpoints about what's happening.
in regards to the current situation of government-opposition relations, talks have broken down because the opposition pulled out and at their last rally they declared that on May 21 the decisive march and "taking" of Baghramian will happen (words of Victor Dallakian). And also something in the equivalent of "the more people present there, the merrier"...Now the question is, an opposition speaking only in ultimatum tones and having only one thing to talk about (ousting Kocharian), do they deserve apologies from the Government-Kocharian side? The answer is no.Because that will only encourage chaos. So, sadly, I predict that if they try the same on May 21st they will get a beating...again, but this one will be the beating to end all beatings. And in this case only the Armenian people will lose, because of a "boghotsayin endtimootioon".
All the best to you.
Ghazar Babajanian
ghazarosbaba@hotmail.com
Wow, these comments seem to be much better than the others. Who knows, I just may add them to my log too.
Raffi, I think all that heard the news of the killing of the US citizen want to know if it is true that Joshua Heglantz worked out of the same building you do? Very sad.
Ghazar - I am glad you like the new comments. As in the past, I will monitor them closely. I do value freedom of expression if it advocates government brutality, twists my words, goes off topic, or does a whole range of other things. For most people this will not present any problem.
So again I do not appreciate your assertion that the government need not apologize for beating people up. A government has a responsibility to its citizens, and what the Armenian government did violated these peoples human rights. I WILL NOT tolerate any debate on whether people "deserve" to have their rights abused by government. That is what the Turkish government did during the genocide, if you recall, and I am sure many Turks thought Armenians "deserved" it and still do. That is the end of this conversation. I am only leaving your post up as an example.
Ara - Joshua did not work here, though he came around fairly often. He was at Brusov and very little information has come out so far on his murder. It has disturbed me greatly, and my sense of security.
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Hello Raffi,
No one deserves that their rights be abused, let alone by their own government. Also, no one deserves to be lied to, brainwashed , and simply be used for their own interests of taking over government positions and nothing else.
A government which apologizes to people BREAKING the law,sends the wrong signal to the rest of the population that it cannot control the internal situation of the country. The next step is anarchy.And please don't desecrate the memory of the 1.5 million martyrs by comparing what happened in 1915 to what happened on April 13 2004.
And if you really value the worth of free speech and healthy debate you won't delete comments which DON'T contain profanity nor twist your words nor go off topic. They simply state a valid opinion different than yours. By deleting, you would simply be defeating the purpose of your website and the forum.
Sincerely,
Ghazar Babajanian
I think I know the purpose of my logs and site much better than you Ghazar, and that alone means your comment deserves deleting. The other comments were deleted because they discussed rumors about a death, which are completely off topic, since I did not log about the death to begin with. So once again you are wrong. And finally, a government that apologizes is like a person that apologizes. It is doing the right thing. This does not lead to anarchy. Where do you get this stuff?
This is the last example of comments I will leave up as "what NOT to post". Next time I will delete without comment.
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