Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Last year I met with the Minister of Defense Seryan Ohanyan in regards to an issue of a large diameter pipe that I was salvaging from the Martuni region to be sent to a village in Lachin that has over 100 families so we could provide water to their village for their gardens.

The problem I had encountered was that the pipe I was removing and was promised by our regional minister the year before, was a pipe that had after my securing said pipe, been decided by the army to be used for supplying gas to the 2nd military base in Martuni.

I spoke with the gas specialist in our region and was told that the pipe we were removing was 4 times larger than the pipe needed for the base. I met with the General Ohanyan and explained to him this information and told him that we would supply him with the appropriate pipe for the base and the strategic need for the water to this village in Lachin.

He explained to me that it was decided a year before my meeting with him that no pipes would be allowed to be removed from Artsakh for any reason and that pipe would stay where it is. They were all under the protection of the army. When I again told him the importance of this project and how we were only thinking of the well being of the people, he looked me in the eyes and told me that he thinks more of the welfare of the people than I do.

At that point I knew our conversation was over and the General who didn't know me from any other person in the Armenian community, not knowing how many hours in the day or night I think about what we can do for our people to make life better, not taking into consideration that I don't have an army to run, nor do I cheat on my wife and keep a lover with a large newly remodeled apartment in Stepanagert, or have interests in factories and other investments to have to think about. No, I don't have all those responsibilities, but I guess the good general didn't know that when telling me that he thinks more about the well-being of our people.

The General said that I can't have that pipe, but if I would like, I can meet with the Hadrout division head General Levon Yeranosyan, who could point me in the direction of pipes to salvage in his region for our project. I did this with no luck, as the pipes we need didn't exist according to General Yeranosyan and like the Defense Minister, told me pipes have strategic value and none are allowed to be removed from our territory.

So I left my meetings defeated and the project to supply water to 100 families in Lachin was not realized as a result.

A couple of months ago, the pipe that was to supply gas to the 2nd military base was dug up and trucked off to Armenia and from there, who knows, maybe Iran. I was not happy and you can only imagine what I have been wishing for the people involved that allowed the pipes to be removed.

Today HETQ ONLINE ran the following story that tells it all like it really is:

No one can stop the general
The Max Group-Armenian businessmen from the United States and Lebanon-does business in the territories liberated by Nagorno Karabakh. In Soviet times, an excellent irrigation network was built in the area, supplying every village with water for their crops. The pipelines' routes, diameters, and other details were accurately marked on Soviet military maps. Today, General Levon Yeranosyan, the commander of one of our military units, is using these maps to dig up the pipes and send them off various directions. We have discovered that some of the pipes turn up on the Armenian market, and the rest goes to Iran. At the moment, they're working on pipes with a diameter of 800 millimeters. Naturally, Army equipment and military personnel are being used for the job. We've been informed that the Max Group asked President Arkady Ghukasyan and Prime Minister Anushavan Danielyan of Nagorno Karabakh to stop the general. But their response was, more or less, that there was nothing they could do to stop the general. Within the Karabakh government, Serge Amirkhanyan is the man responsible for the territories in question, taking care of resettlement issues as well. But he hasn't been able to do anything about the pipes, either. It's ridiculous that on the one hand, the Karabakh government invests huge amounts of money to settle the villages in those territories, and on the other hand, one of the most important preconditions for doing so- the irrigation system - is being destroyed.
Edik Baghdasaryan

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