Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Today I found myself once again looking for a reliable and powerful water pump for my stone cutting factory. My search took me to a vineyard on the outskirts of Martuni where a neighbor of mine is growing grapes and was said to have a pump that may be what I’m looking for.

I sat down with my neighbor and a fellow grower in their shack to get out of the afternoon sun.

I asked him about his pump and he said that he is on guard duty tonight and would come by in the morning at 9 AM and we would drive to his house to get the pump to try and see if it will work. He said he would not sell the pump, but will let me use the pump until I can find a replacement for it.

I asked him and his friend how the grape harvest was this year? They told me it was great and everyone that used pesticides can expect a good yield.

I asked if they were going to be selling their grapes to the local wine factory and they said no. They said that the wine factory is a farce and only will pay 100 dram a kilo, where in Armenia, they are getting 200 to 250 dram a kilo. They added that the Artsakh government is not allowing any grapes to be exported to Armenia, thus those that must sell their grapes, are selling for half of what they should get. They said that they will keep their grapes and make wine and vodka from them, as 100 dram a kilo is just too low.

We talked politics and they said that things will only really be solved if Artsakh is recognized as a nation. I mentioned the CIA declassified 1978 report about how the US effectively recognizes Artsakh as a religious and cultural center for Armenians. I went on to mention the notation of the removal of the Armenian leaders in the 1960’s. One of them recalled what happened back then.

He said it was August of 1967 and 362 Armenian representatives of all the regions of Artsakh were to sign a petition that was to request to Azerbaijan to have Artsakh reunited to Armenia. They knew that Azerbaijan would reject this and then it would be sent to Moscow, where there would be a very good chance that it would be accepted.

Of the 362 people, 2 persons did not sign. One of those that didn’t sign was effectively what would be the President of Artsakh, a man named Melkoumyan and the other was the Armenian Moscow representative who was named Souren Adamyan. Instead of signing, they went and sold out the other 360 people to the Azerbaijani government.

The night before the 360 were to be arrested, those 360 people were warned by someone who had to arrest them to flee to Armenia, as they were not going to be arrested for political reasons, as they would expect, but since most were leaders in various services and so on, they were going to be arrested for theft and other crimes that witnesses would fabricate stories that would put the suspect in jail for years.

So it seems that the Artsakh liberation movement was started 20 years prior to the movement that finally liberated our country and was delayed and 360 of our leaders were lost as a result of a couple of traders.

And what ever happened to Melkoumuan and Adamyan?

Well I don't know anything about Melkoumyan yet, but Adamyan was the President of the collective in Jardar and during his life he was credited in bringing in industry and economic stimulation to Jardar.

Adamyan also was responsible in stabbing many Armenians in the back in ways such as by refusing the request of Armenian Shepard’s who wanted to keep a few of their own sheep with the collectives sheep. Instead what he did was invited Azeri Turks from Merzulu and Kurds from Lachin to become Shepard’s for the collective and allowed them to keep hundreds of their own sheep (half of those extra sheep were said to belong to Adamyan) in return for bribes paid in gold as appose to Rubles which were traceable. As a result of this, a Turkish village was established or the population increased very close to Jardar (two of Rosa Myrig's sons were killed from Turks from that village).

It is said that Adamyan was determined to dominate industry in the region and when another clan moved in to try to also tap into the regions resources, Adamyan did everything to prevent them from prospering. As a result, in 1984, one of the other clan members hired some Armenian from Madakert to murder Adamyan.

After his death, Adamyan’s son, Vachig, demanded to replace his father as President of the collective and locked himself in his father’s office until he secured that post.

Vachig later came to power as regional minister and in the Adamyan tradition, he did everything he could to milk the region of it resources for him and his friends until I went to the Prime Minister a couple of years back to insist that he be removed as he was doing more harm that good to the region.

Vachig at that time when he was publicly dismissed by the PM, was promised that he would be called to work in a new government post a month after he had time to rest. Of course to this day they have not called him back, but instead have given Vachig the most land to plant wheat and grapes in the region and may I add, parts of his land have been categorized in a way that he pays less taxes than he should.

It should also be noted that a couple of year back, the present day Prime Minister and President celebrated Souren Adamyan’s being an Artsakh national hero (this took place at an event and also on TV), as appose to accepting the reality of history and calling Adamyan what he really is, a tyrant and trader.

So you see, the Artsakh movement started 20 years sooner than many of you thought and since Armenian history is so famous in repeating itself, from the above story, why would we expect it to be anything different than what it is today.

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