This log won't beat Raffi's adventures of Western Armenia, Cilicia and the encounter with the loser Turkish police, but ...

While other expats take vacations to Egypt, California, Croatia and so on, last week I took a short three-day trip to the beautiful country of Arstakh. It was four of us on the trip, I drove all the way to Goris, and then a friend continued the rest of the way.

The All-Armenia Fund funded highways are a blessing! But swirling around the mountains of western Arstakh can be sickening after a while.

A few hours after we arrived, a big group of kids from Boston came into Shoushi. It was great observing the local kids staring and amazed at the American kids on the first day. The unusual behaviour, the baggy clothing with bright white sneakers, combined with the loud music they would blast one in the morning for all of Shoushi to hear was sort of like a circus in the city. The next day, the local kids with their formal black suits joined the Americans and seemed to have a lot of fun. The Boston kids had a great itinerary to visit the local school and more.

Shoushi sadly hasn't changed since over 10 years ago. Spending an evening in Stepanakert, then coming into Shoushi late at night to see only two or three apartment lights on in an entire residential building was quite depressing. Yet the city, or town (or whatever you want to call it at this point) has so much potential, even with all the hopelessness you can feel in the air.

Well for once I finally felt like a true Yerevantsi. Artsakhtsis (I'm sorry guys, I know that sounds weird, but I refuse to use the much overused Turkish name) kept asking me if I was a Yerevantsi.

Of course I headed out to one of Artsakh's many highlights, Gandzasar Monastery, and before that trip we took the horrible, yet scenic, ride to Dadivank. The 2-hour long ride was dreadful, driving on really rugged roads, and repeatedly banging my head on the back window of the Niva all 5 of us were sitting in. There were actual Hayastantsis living by the church that moved there from a town close to Sevan to rebuild Dadivank.

For anyone who hasn't seen Artsakh, definitely try to make it out that way if you are visiting Armenia. I've seen many parts of Armenia, but Artsakh is definitely something else. I kept telling the people I was with that with world recognized independence and some major investments, Arstakh would definitely deserve to join the European Union. It's landscape, the cleanliness, the people, the architecture, is quite a contrast to the artificialness I feel when I am in Yerevan.

Is it obvious that I don't want to be in Yerevan right now?

Lena sitting next to me. Oops she left. I was going to say wishing she were logging. The Turkish keyboard is giving me even more trouble than the Croatian. I cannot find a comma. and the letter i is in a different place... Anyway we are in Adana with Jack. and her parents plane is takıng off any second now to take them back to Yerevan. This is not an elderly friendly part of the world. so we have split up now that they have seen Marash and Sis.

So. Last I wrote I was in Marash at an internet cafe by myself. After I finished the guys there who were about my age offered me some tea - and spoke some English. so even though I was pooped. I accepted. (I still can not fınd the comma or apostrophe!) We eventually went out for beers and talked quite a bit about all sorts of things. including the genocide. The guy who spoke the best English at first called it the events. but then was more specifıc and agreed it was illegal and wrong. This was so refreshing and inspiring. One of his friends was Kurdish but typing is hard so I will spare you the details...

So the next day I was looking forward to finding Lenas dads house with the few clues we had. We found the neighborhood and went there. Marash is now a city of over 300000 (Adana by the way is bigger than Yerevan!) but it was relatively close to the hotel. We have a rented car in any case. so getting around has been very convenient. When we got to the neighborhood we started askıng (her parents speak Turkish which was key since virtually nobody speaks English and of course all the Armenians seem to have disappeared...). So one guy was telling us there were never any churches and when we asked others he kept following. We found an old man the exact same age as Lenas dad and he said there had been 4 or 5 and this other schuck kept butting in to say there werent any. To make a long story short we spent much of the day doing this and this guy would always pop up and get in the way. So at night we went to the bazaar and got some souvenirs then went back to the hotel pooped and disappointed.

That is when the police showed up at me and Jacks door and asked if they could search the room and our car! We said sure so 4 guys came in and went through everything... it was like the movies and I told him so. I was asking why however and he could not tell me yet. I was reading Hewsons Historical Atlas of Armenia when they walked in. So they looked at all my digital pictures and were asking about the church pictures from Gessaria. We asked if we were being searched for asking questions about Armenian churches and if it was because we were Armenian. He was adamant that it was nothing like that. So down at the car there were even more police (all of them plainclothes). They found the Jezzve and lanterns we got at the bazaar and asked about them. We told them we bought them 3 hours ago at the bazaar and this is when they told us they had recieved a call that we had been overheard discussing taking artifacts out of Turkey the previous night. This made absolutely no sense. but I am assuming he was telling the truth and it was a language barrier. So they wrote a report in Turkish and asked us to sign it. I refused to sign a Turkish document so I wrote what he told me it said in English and signed that instead. Now while the others wrote the Turkish report I talked to him in English...

He was a quarter Armenian it turns out and from Van. I asked what happened to all the Armenians and said I would understand if he could not answer. He answered there had been a war and many Turks were killed too. I smiled. He said Armenians abroad made problems and lies and lobbied. I continued to smile. He asked why? What did I think? I asked if he really wanted the answer or if I should be diplomatic... he said the real answer. So I told him what the Armenians abroad said was true and that the whole world agreed and that he could not know since it is a taboo subject in Turkey and he could not access anything his government did not censor. That it was wrong of the government but not the fault of ordinary Turks. To this he did not really have a chance to respond. But he told us where to ask old people for help in finding where the old churches used to be.

So this morning we decided to give the house hunt one more try. We found one old guy who took us to another and found where a church used to be. Nobody knew the name and it had burned down and a house had been built but we sat with the Turkish family and talked and ate and drank tea. They were very nice and I left wıth a mint root I will grow in Yerevan. This was as close as we would come in our hunt so we drove to Sis next. Sis is now called Kozun and has 60000 people. Like every other town we visited so far it was being built up quickly and very ugly and very lıttle old remained... certainly no churches. So we headed back to Adana where we dropped off Lenas parents and are spending the night...

Happy Armenian Independence Day, live from Marash - the Original!! It has been a crazy couple of days, flying to Istanbul, then to Adana, then driving to Gessaria (Kayseri now) and spending the night there. We went to a beautiful Armenian church there that was restored and reopened in 1996, thought it really isn't used. It has an Armenian bahag who is from the Black Sea Coast, moved to Istanbul, and now is doing this. His name is Garo, and I am not sure who in his family converted to Islam, but he is Muslim if I undersood correctly. His child is going to Armenian school in Istanbul now. So a very interesting story. So much to take in. Gessaria is a large city of half a million now. Most people do not seem to know about Armenians, or care. We took a cab, and the driver told us his grandmother was Armenian. When we asked what happened to all the Armenians, he didn't seem to know, and then said that the Armenians and Turks must have loved each other a lot, and become one. No kidding. My grandmother was from the area, an orphan who did not even know her family name. Marash (which has a new, longer name too now which I forget) is where my grandfather is from. So it is insteresting to be in both towns in one day. So many thoughts and emotions go through your mind... too many to record in general, let alone here. One big problem though is the incredible difficulty there is finding English speakers.

Tomorrow we will try to find Lena's dad's home. He was born here, and is with us. It will be quite something if we find it. I was joking that we could collect a whole lot of rent! Another funny one was this rug salesman in Gessaria. The best English speaker we found the whole time! He was surprised we knew anything about rugs, and had some idea that Armenia was a very rich country.

Now onto another subject that is annoying me a great deal. HETQ. This news "organization" has been incredibly meanspirited. When they wanted to talk to me about the protests and the beatings which I was very open about online, I explained I could not, because I did not want it to be associated with my job. That is fair enough since it has nothing to do with my job, and they did not know and had no business being involved with my personal opinions. HETQ went and lifted a great deal of material from my website and published it, both noting where I work, and then going on to explain that I said was sensitive about it!! When I got mad at them, they were dumbfounded and still insist that my job title must be printed to prove its veracity. How ridiculous. Then they added to that by saying we are not even "sources", since they merely took the information themselves from my website! Because it can be read for free and linked to, they feel that no copyright can possibly apply and we are somehow not their sources. Hmmm, I think they need to consult a lawyer about copyright laws. They are clearly quite ignorant. To make a long story short, they took a situation where things could have been quite coordial and friendly, and made a really ugly and meanspirited mess out of it. Don't be surprised to read this stolen from my website onto theirs with another ridiculous commentary following it...

well it is quite a busy day for me... and it just hit me... it's independence day. although i have been planning this celebration for months... the actual day and what it means burst in my brain somewhere between stapling cloth onto the stage frame and making sure the dressing room is clean and ready for the performers.

today we celebrate the short lived but very important first independence day of 1918-1921 Armenia. the people of Armenia also celebrate their current state... we cannot always point out the negative. wonderful things happen here every day and i am proud to see this place grow... as much as i get saddened to see it walk backwards... perhaps they are right two steps back, one step forward... we are getting there people... believe me.

i may not write or be conscious for the next few days... but i am with you in spirit and promise reports on the event.

whatever your day may hold... remember in Armenia we are celebrating... and there is much to celebrate.

More celebrations
of the Independence Day of the first Republic of Armenia
in Victory Park, on May 28th, from seven to nine PM
Organized by ARF

It was another interesting day.
Went to Ararat valley to a village named Sis close to the town Masis. Used to be an Azeri village.
On the way to the village we saw many fields or should I say wasteland? Past Spring Hraztan river flooded and covered the fields, taking away wheat seeds, covered and ruined the asphalted road and God knows what it did to the flooded houses. The fields have turned into swamps and are full of useless cane.

Sis village has 1200 inhabitants, most are refugees from Baku, Sumgait and Girovabad.
Lands suffer from a condition common to low lands. Mainly, having excess non-soluble sodium salts. ATG with a local NGO called SIS is trying to overcome these problems. In a pilot program new methods are being experimented: as in digging ditches and installing pipes; building artificial land slopes for removing surface water; Plowing the clayish land, treating it with gypsum to turn insoluble salts into soluble, a slow but hopefully effective process.

If this pilot project is effective Armenians will be able to reclaim more salty lands and put them for good agricultural use.

The Cafesjian Museum Foundaiton is pleased to announce the following events.

If you have any questions please call the PR & Events office of the Cafesjian Museum Foundation at 56-72-62 or 56-72-61.


MAY 28
Armenian Jazz Band
Artistic Director: Armen Martirosyan
Live, outdoors, at the Cascade
8:00 pm
Open to the General Public
Fireworks to follow in celebration of
Armenia’s 1st Independence Day

MAY 30, 2004
National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia
Artistic Director and Conductor: Aram Gharabekyan
Live, outdoors, at the Cascade
10:00 pm
Open to the General Public

JUNE 1
International Children’s Day
Live, outdoors, at the Cascade
6:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Performances by the National Circus and Puppet Theatre. Many children’s games and activities.
Concert with Armenian Pop-Stars including Nune Yesayan, Shushan Petrosyan, Arthur Ispirian and more.
Fireworks show to celebrate International Children’s Day
Open to the General Public
Organized by: Cafesjian Museum Foundation, Junior Achievements of Armenia, Orran and Armenia TV

We did something different than going to see a monastery.
Went to a veterinary office/lab.
Interesting to see the work done. Learnt some new terminology related to animal diseases and changed my mind about thinking animals in Armenia being very healthy. We have our share of animal illnesses.
Also, learn that 'sibirakhd' is anthrax and not mad cow disease.
The lab has the best experts in town but lacks in technology: among other things needs more microscopes, thermostats, and stain (dye) for slides.
The only equipment purchased in the last decade is a fridge.
On the bright side, the building was renovated.

Back to Garni and Geghart today.
Took a family for a visit, Ozanians. They’ve somehow related to General Antranig. Though the exact relationship is an unsolved puzzle.
On the way to Geghart we encounter herds of sheep. Stop the minibus and take pictures of sheep, donkeys, and shepherd.
Next picture at Geghart, I am photographing them with the khatchkar wall as the background; a local teenage boy approaches, gives his camera to me and asks for a group picture with Ozanians. ‘Why would he want a picture with us?’ they ask and conclude that the young guy’s fascination is similar to what they have shown to the shepherd.
We go back to the area where ‘madagh’ is slaughtered. I am relieved to see the floor clean, no fresh blood spelt. We see a group of local young teenagers. Carol is a people’s person and starts a conversation. Uses the few Armenian words she remembers from her childhood.
Click, click, everyone is taking pictures. Carol asks for an Armenian song; the girls sing. More pictures, hugs and kisses to Carol. It is a graduating class of Toumanian School, from Akhalkalak, Javakhk.
I get an invitation to Javakhk, a phone number and a name.
I thought they were locals, but why should they look different. They are Armenians.
No Armenian language skills but a pilgrimage from US to Armenia, to the fatherland of their parents; Young Armenians from Javakhk and an excursion to Geghart and me.
AREN’t we amazing?

What a peculiar and exciting weekend!
Friday evening started out heavy with lots of work still left on my desk. I was invited to attend a social at the BAA (British Alumni Association). This is an association of locals who have either studied or held some kind of training in the UK. They are young professionals who hold senior positions in banks, government and international agencies. This week, they had invited special guests, their counterparts from TURKEY. That’s right! We (3 diasporans and 25 locals) listened to what these two Turks had to say. One of them was a journalist who writes for the Turkish Daily news and the other works for the British Council. They were in Yerevan for the first time and were going to work out some collaborative cultural project. I think one of the projects deals with publishing a book about all Armenians who played an influential role in Republican Turkey. Interesting no?
The evening went on with conversations about border, Karabagh, Iraq, Kurds, Cyprus and yes, Genocide. As a diasporan Armenian, I must admit, it was truly refreshing being able to carry on a conversation with an intelligent Turk who was open to discussion and was willing to debate the matter. Living in Armenia has made me look at almost all the complexes I have as an Armenia much differently. At 2 a.m., I was having khorovadz, aragh and laughs with a Turk...
Saturday was spontaneous. Got up late (since the kids are away in Montreal), decided to have a bite on Hrabarag with Sylvie. Went to vernissage and spent the money I didn’t have (it was well worth it)! We bumped into the 2 Turks. Helped them out to pick CDs. They liked Roupen Haghvertian and Datevig Jazz. We were invited to Garo’s new restaurant. He makes a killer “mante”. The place was really cool! it had a section that was set for an art gallery, another section for tea with low tables and lots of candles (very lounge atmosphere). The restaurant part was very nice. There was free food, drinks and lots and lots of people. Most of the loggers were there too.
We then walked to Gevorkyan to get in some of Vahan Arzruni’s live music. Walked to Vienna cafe on Republic square (some people wanted good desert). I was then able to convince the group to go dancing... Monte had 9 people, Cheers had 5 (including the DJ), Astral (Greek night) had another fight happening... we gave up. On the way home we decided to check out an old hang out, Relax dance club. It was surprisingly happening. The music was good and we ended up enjoying ourselves UNTIL... until they played a Turkish pop song. We were upset that in Armenia, we were being forced to dance and laugh and have a good time on Turkish music. We gave the manager a peace of our minds and decided to leave.
I guess we are still bound by our complexes with the Genocide and even innocent sound of Turkish music throws us back almost a century... when will this chapter find closure?
Today was relaxing – had lunch with Sam and Peouz, did some Russian homework, watched a video at home, called Lara in Montreal and wrote this log.

It is good to be back, even with all of the real life errands and headaches it comes with... My remond is going very well, although the water problem still has not had a final solution. The roof will be replaced though soon, which is a huge step and after that it will finish relatively quickly. I like the work of my Molokans so far.

Now I am finalizing plans also for a trip to Cilicia and Western Armenia! This has been on my agenda forever, and the day has finally come. I don't know how internet will be in these places, but I would like to try to log from different towns like Marash, Van, etc.

So an Armenian government official got mad publicly that the US condemned Armenia's problems in elections and human rights. He lashed out about President Bush's election and the Iraq abuses, saying the US has no right to critisize. I wonder if he has the guts to also say that things are fine in Armenia because they are better than in Turkey?? Sorry, but you have to compare yourself to what is right, not to those who haven't achieved that yet. For many years now a lot of Armenians console themselves by pointing out Armenia is doing much better than Georgia and Azerbaijan, when they should have been comparing themselves to the Baltics, Scandinavia or to what is right. Georgia may be taking a huge leap ahead of us if their new president actually follows through on his promises - which remains to be seen.

I did an hour of gardening this morning, and made virtually no progress. The jungle has exploded from all the rain in my absence, and I can hardly make a dent in it. Luckily, once it is tamed, my work will be much easier. I should of course just pay someone to do the one-time taming, but haven't... yet.

It's been some week. Very full, hectic and fun. A couple of days ago I attended one of Vahan Arzrouni's performances at the Gevorkyan Gallery on Tumanian near Mashtots. Then, I was able to finally see Anoush Opera on Saturday... what a performance! Tuesday, we went to Paregamutyun dance performance. They are an professional group with a unique style. I had met them during my first trip in 1990. Tomorrow, I will go to the Mr. X concert. I sortof enjoy his music... let's see how he does live. I hope it will not be lip singing
As for tonight, I will sleep alone since Lara and the kids left for Montreal to visit the grandparents and family. They will be gone for 7 weeks. I already miss them.

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.

Before I get an eviction notice from the webmaster I thought I would write a couple of lines.

One of the really popular cafes in Yerevan, which I visit quite often, has a new menu this year. Along with the many drinks, they also now have a full food menu. The sad part is that the English translations are the worst I've ever seen in Armenia. Sure you see "mashrooms" instead of "mushrooms" on most menus in Armenia, but how about "paper" instead of "pepper" on your pizza? How about some extra "chaise", along with a "With Woman Smell Coffee"? Oh, I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. Luckily my relatives know the owners and demanded the original file so that I can edit it for them.

I've mentioned before how many Armenians here love to copy each other instead of being just a little more creative. This time it's regarding a film that is being produced. Recently, an announcement was made by some Russian-Armenians saying, "If America can produce a film about a Greek marrying an American (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), why can't we produce a film about an Armenian marrying a Russian?"

The weather has been insane in Yerevan. Super hot at times, and fierce winds blowing dust all over the place.

So I want to know what happened to the other loggers?

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate the liberation of Shushi, which means Karabagh. I have organized a small scale art exhibition-sale of works by the children of Shushi at Artbridge. It is a fund raiser to assist a newly founded indeginous NGO that aims to create a new educated and strong generation in Shushi. The founders are old friends like the director of the Museum in Shushi (yes there is one) and the artist who runs the Art Gallery in Shushi (yes there is that too). Most people only visit the Ghazanchetsots church when they go through Shushi... they all rush to Stepanagerd disregarding the beautiful small historic streets and the treasures hidden behind every corner.
Today the weather is great. HOT. I went with the kids to brouse for some goodies at Vernissage, but couldn't last longer than an hour and a half. The sun was too strong. Now, we are all at home taking a nice long nap.

I am in Zagreb, a beautiful town, at an internet terminal. Staying in the historical center with lots of great architecture, pedestrian areas, etc. Lots of lessons here for Armenia. Of course, most of the lessons require a lot of $ to implement! Yesterday I went to Slovenia with some friends to visit it on its first day in the EU. There was still some festivity carried over, but the party had been on Friday. Interesting to compare countries with similiar population sizes to Armenia, and with communist pasts, albeit a completely different experience (shorter, milder, and with much stronger western influence).

I did not get a chance to mention in my hectic days before flying out that the government and opposition finally began a seemingly constructive dialogue last week. Hopefully this will mean that those responsible for the beatings will be punished, and things will calm down. There is still a protest scheduled for Tuesday though to the best of my knowlege... but I have not been following things since Thursday...