On Sunday I took my mother to Yerevan, leaving her there to visit with friends and relatives and will see her at the conference. I retuned to Martuni yesterday. I�ll only say that my mom and I had a blast. Wont get into details right now since I�ve got an interesting story to tell you about.
This story should remind you of Raffi�s Officer Hakob Mkhitaryan story from last May.
I rented a taxi to drive us to Yerevan since my car has been acting up (time to think about getting another car). I also brought with me the Mayor�s sister and niece, as one of the Mayor�s other niece�s were coming for a visit from Belgium (I wrote about her last year) which we picked her up at the airport to take to Martuni with us.
As we were driving around Yerevan doing some shopping, we were pulled over by the police. The taxi driver got out of the car and walked up to the police. I watched and noticed that they were arguing, so I got out and walked over. That morning I had a meeting so I was all dressed up, looking very important, so when I walked up to asked what the reason was that they pulled us over, the cop got even more upset and I think felt a little intimidated.
It seems that the street that we had come down, had recently been changed from a 2-way street to a one-way street. I told him that I didn�t notice any signage to indicate this and suggested that they put up some barrier of some kind so cars don�t come down it. The cop told me something like that would be impossible. By this time he had decided that he would write a ticket and pulled out a paper and began to write.
I pointed out that the markings were intentionally not there, as we do have the international signage for wrong way (big red circle with a white line in the middle) and what they were doing was nothing less than a racket. The cop didn�t like that comment and before he could respond, I pointed out that the car which was stopped right after us, the guy gave the other cop a 1,000 dram bribe right in front of my eyes and drove off without getting a ticket written up.
The cop went nuts and started to slam his fist on the police cap hood cursing the mother of any cop that would take a bribe! He then asked me if I saw him take a bribe and I said no, I saw your partner take a bribe. He stated to slam his fist on the hood again cursing his partner�s mother. He wanted to prove to me that he does not take bribes and showed me that he had written a couple of tickets.
His partner then walked over and asked me where I was from and I told him America, but now live in Karabagh. He asked me what I do there and I told him I�m one of those people you hear about that investigates people like you and have them dismissed from their post if I can prove they do things like what I saw him do. He told me that was very good and to keep up the good work.
As the cop was writing up the ticket, I was pointing out all the people that were committing the same violation as we had and asked why they were not stopping all of them? The next car that made the �illegal� turn, I pointed to with my hand up to stop the car and the cop went running to stop with his cane in the air, without noticing that it had embassy plates. He quickly pulled his cane down and started to yell at me about how they can�t stop those kinds of cars and what do I think I�m doing. I was laughing inside and thinking that this cop was doing everything to no piss off the �investigator� from America and show that he is defending the �law� and here I am making him run around like a chicken with its head cut off.
He then asked me to go sit in our car to wait and I refused. I made him stop a couple more cars, one of which was one of those expensive imports, with what I believe had plates issued to the Prime Minister�s office (ending in LL 01). The guy had no choice but make the drive get out of his car, walk over to have a ticket written up. They finished with our ticket and as we walked back to our car, I winked to the cops and I told them when my work in Karabagh finishes, I�ll be coming to Armenia and I�m sure we will have a chance to sit down one day and have a nice long talk. We waited a bit to make sure at least they stated to write the tickets and then left.
I guess this is the Officer Hakob Mkhitaryan story revisited and an indication that the police problem continues. Raffi mentioned a year ago that this is the kind of thing that motivates people to pack up and leave and you can�t blame people for doing just that. Wonder why there is a drop in population? Here is one of the reasons. For those of you that found humor in this story, more power to you (I make this comment as locals found it to be funny, which is an indication of indifference). For me, a person who lives here, it is not funny at all. This is a very sad and very common story which I see the harming long-term effects it has on our people and nation.
I know this is a hot topic, but let's talk about what needs to be done to eradicate this problem once and for all or at least get started to do something about it.
This story should remind you of Raffi�s Officer Hakob Mkhitaryan story from last May.
I rented a taxi to drive us to Yerevan since my car has been acting up (time to think about getting another car). I also brought with me the Mayor�s sister and niece, as one of the Mayor�s other niece�s were coming for a visit from Belgium (I wrote about her last year) which we picked her up at the airport to take to Martuni with us.
As we were driving around Yerevan doing some shopping, we were pulled over by the police. The taxi driver got out of the car and walked up to the police. I watched and noticed that they were arguing, so I got out and walked over. That morning I had a meeting so I was all dressed up, looking very important, so when I walked up to asked what the reason was that they pulled us over, the cop got even more upset and I think felt a little intimidated.
It seems that the street that we had come down, had recently been changed from a 2-way street to a one-way street. I told him that I didn�t notice any signage to indicate this and suggested that they put up some barrier of some kind so cars don�t come down it. The cop told me something like that would be impossible. By this time he had decided that he would write a ticket and pulled out a paper and began to write.
I pointed out that the markings were intentionally not there, as we do have the international signage for wrong way (big red circle with a white line in the middle) and what they were doing was nothing less than a racket. The cop didn�t like that comment and before he could respond, I pointed out that the car which was stopped right after us, the guy gave the other cop a 1,000 dram bribe right in front of my eyes and drove off without getting a ticket written up.
The cop went nuts and started to slam his fist on the police cap hood cursing the mother of any cop that would take a bribe! He then asked me if I saw him take a bribe and I said no, I saw your partner take a bribe. He stated to slam his fist on the hood again cursing his partner�s mother. He wanted to prove to me that he does not take bribes and showed me that he had written a couple of tickets.
His partner then walked over and asked me where I was from and I told him America, but now live in Karabagh. He asked me what I do there and I told him I�m one of those people you hear about that investigates people like you and have them dismissed from their post if I can prove they do things like what I saw him do. He told me that was very good and to keep up the good work.
As the cop was writing up the ticket, I was pointing out all the people that were committing the same violation as we had and asked why they were not stopping all of them? The next car that made the �illegal� turn, I pointed to with my hand up to stop the car and the cop went running to stop with his cane in the air, without noticing that it had embassy plates. He quickly pulled his cane down and started to yell at me about how they can�t stop those kinds of cars and what do I think I�m doing. I was laughing inside and thinking that this cop was doing everything to no piss off the �investigator� from America and show that he is defending the �law� and here I am making him run around like a chicken with its head cut off.
He then asked me to go sit in our car to wait and I refused. I made him stop a couple more cars, one of which was one of those expensive imports, with what I believe had plates issued to the Prime Minister�s office (ending in LL 01). The guy had no choice but make the drive get out of his car, walk over to have a ticket written up. They finished with our ticket and as we walked back to our car, I winked to the cops and I told them when my work in Karabagh finishes, I�ll be coming to Armenia and I�m sure we will have a chance to sit down one day and have a nice long talk. We waited a bit to make sure at least they stated to write the tickets and then left.
I guess this is the Officer Hakob Mkhitaryan story revisited and an indication that the police problem continues. Raffi mentioned a year ago that this is the kind of thing that motivates people to pack up and leave and you can�t blame people for doing just that. Wonder why there is a drop in population? Here is one of the reasons. For those of you that found humor in this story, more power to you (I make this comment as locals found it to be funny, which is an indication of indifference). For me, a person who lives here, it is not funny at all. This is a very sad and very common story which I see the harming long-term effects it has on our people and nation.
I know this is a hot topic, but let's talk about what needs to be done to eradicate this problem once and for all or at least get started to do something about it.
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