This is the third day in a row that the temperature hit a high of 40c (104f). I guess summer is really here. Thank goodness my air conditioner is working and able to keep the indoor temperature at a livable 27c (80f).

Yesterday I forgot to mention an encounter that Lena shared with me. It seems that Mrs. Lena was at the Ani Plaza Hotel and ran into none other than Nune. She said that she immediately thought of me and if memory serves me correctly, she added that Nune is not all that beautiful. I guess it�s a matter of taste. She said she had her camera with her but didn�t take a picture.

What Lena didn�t know when she told me this was that my last trip to Yerevan included a date with Nune. Yes, you heard it right. I finally got a date with Nune and it was great!!! I�ve been planning this date for months and was just waiting for Nune to get back in town. She is such a simple woman. Nothing complicated about her. We just hung out together and talked over tuna-melt sandwiches and chips. Though it was a short date, it was wonderful and one of those memories I�ll probably cherish for the rest of my life. One thing that seemed to get in the way of her and I really opening up was her bodyguard Hagop. This is one bad looking guy with a really nice smile, but you can tell by looking at him that he could turn you into dolma filling with his bare hands.

Well now that I�ve got the two dates out of the way, I�ll have to work on a comparative report which I think is going to conclude that I�m right and Nune and Lena are not all that different.

Tonight I went to dinner at Rosa Myrig�s house. She called me this afternoon, telling me about her sister that lives in Russia who has fallen on hard times. She asked if she could barrow $50 so she could send it to her. I agreed.

Rosa Myrig and her husband Hurant are known in Artsakh to be the only family that fled Baku with their 3 sons and during the war, all 3 sons were killed. I won�t get into details as to how it happened, but will say that from what my neighbors tell me, when they came, Rosa Myrig was a very young, educated, dignified and modern woman. After her sons were killed, she became old and gray in a very short period of time.

I met Rosa Myrig and Hurant in 1998, when I purchased their son Arthur�s house from them. As a result, we have become close and though I�m usually busy, I try to make it a point to visit them at least once a month to see how they are doing.

I noticed on this visit that they were not all that well. I have learned from what they serve at dinner how they are doing. Tonight we had soup, bread, tomatoes, eggplant and yogurt. Everything but the bread was given to them from various neighbors and relatives.

On February 23rd of this year, the President presented Rosa Myrig and other families that lost more than one member of their family in the war with a metal. At that time, Rosa Myrig told the President how difficult life has been and how there are times that there is little or no food in the house. The President said that he would help her out and thing would be okay. I asked Rosa Myrig tonight what the President has sent her and she said until now he sent her nothing. She added that last year she wrote to the government to help them out with firewood and their request was denied. Hurant said that maybe if the President gets reelected, he will fulfill his promises. I certainly hope so.

I feel like I�ve been neglecting all of you and want to start out by apologizing to everyone that have been waiting for me to log something for the last couple of weeks. For those of you that were not waiting for me to apologize, I apologize for unnecessarily apologizing to you and you can disregard the above. Okay, now that I�ve got that out of the way, let�s move on.

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy. I don�t even know where to start, so I�ll just post a few of my quick notes that I write down as things happen so you can get an idea as to what I�ve been up to.

July 4th: Take mini-van to Yerevan. Meet Raffi and friends and Arsineh�s and her interns at Chinese restaurant for dinner and a celebration of our independence from America.

July 5th: Met up with Raffi to go look at a house my cousin is selling. With Raffi went to visit Aram Hajian and had lunch at his office.

July 7th (Vartavar): Brunch with Raffi, Zabel, Lena and Jack at Artbridge. Had to avoid Pagan demon children and their buckets of water. Kept dry by waiting for them to attack an innocent passerby and after doing so, quickly passed as they were refilling. Listened to Zabel�s horror story of how she was attacked by said demons on her way to brunch. Went to Lena�s house to watch and make copy of video of our big Artsakh adventure that Jack shot. Very entertaining and reminded me of the old Bob Hope road-trip movies, including the music. Raffi, Zabel and I excused ourselves and went to their house to watch tennis separate from Lena and Jack in fear of violent out lashes against us from the fanatical Aussies. During the game we were in phone contact. Lena let me in on a secret that when Hewitt puts his fist up in the air and says �COME ON!!!� then he really starts to play. When he did this, Lena called us to tell us that it had happened but the strange thing was that he started to loose. So next call we got, Raffi asked her if he does that �COME ON!!!� thing more than once, because it didn�t seem to be working. After the game, watched a couple of American sit-coms. I realized that I was not missing much of anything. Went home in the dark and didn�t encounter any water on the way.

July 9th: Met Shooshig�s fellow students in front of the university dorms to take them on a tour of Artsakh. Very nice group and their leader Digin M, I knew from the states. First stop was Noravank, followed by a number of sites on the way to Shushi. Stayed at the Shushi hotel.

July 10th: After breakfast, walked to the church and there ran into one of my favorite Der Hyer�s who lead us in a prayer for Shooshig. Digin M told me that she was very happy that we started the day with a prayer. Drove to Ganzasar and enjoyed a smooth ride on part of the new North/South road. I can�t wait for Martuni to one day have a nice road like that. Back to Stepanagert for a pizza lunch. Ran into Arsineh and the interns and invited them to join us at the disco tonight. Back to the hotel for dinner. Those that were interested joined us at the disco. A few of Arsineh�s interns came by the disco and invited us to the house they were renting. We dove up and hung out a bit and planned the following day we would spend together as one big group. Back to the hotel.

July 11th: Drive to Martuni via Ningi. Very beautiful and still very green. Arrived at my house and while we were waiting for Arsineh and her interns to show up, our bus was taken to a local mechanic for repairs on the front leaf-springs which had broken on our bad road. Fortunately, my neighbor had replacement springs, so it only cost 4,000 dram (about $8) for the repairs. Arsineh and interns showed up and we sent their van off to get a Ram, which we sacrificed. While dinner was being prepared, we went touring. Avo (Monte Melkonian) spring for a light lunch of bread and cheese. Amaras Vank, the place that the first Armenian school was formed and Gregory the Illuminator�s grandson�s grave is. Visit to Avo�s statue in the center of Martuni. Back to my place for a feast at my neighbor�s house (the contactor). Not that money should be important, but for those of you looking for a deal, it cost a total of $150 for our feast that fed 40+ people. Ate, drank, danced, listened to one of Arsineh�s interns sing Gomidas, one of Digin M�s students (Areni) recite, another of Arsineh�s male interns help clear the table and wash dishes to the disapproval of the local women, who later told us that if only their men were that helpful, life would be much better. They added that Adam could get married if he wanted and I think they were considering their daughter Anoush as a possible candidate. Arsineh�s group headed back to Stepanagert and Shooshig�s group occupied every single sleeping space in my house with the overflow sleeping at my neighbor�s house.

July 12th: Sent off Shooshig�s group to Yerevan at 7:30 AM. Light house cleaning (will finish later with the real dirt). Slept for a couple of hours. Checked e-mail. Wrote this log.

Blue, Black or maybe Purple

Though summer is here, I�m in the middle of spring cleaning. Today I not only washed the floors with hot water a Barf, but I also did a couple loads of laundry with Barf and finished off with doing the dishes with Barf. If your wondering why Ara is so into using Barf to clean with, it�s because Barf is the name of an Iranian made soap. It means something like white snow.

As for the title of this log, the blue came from doing a load of laundry where I did the whites and towels (I always do my towels with the whites), but this time I put in a towel that Jack (one of the people who was on the visit with Raffi) left behind and I guess it was brand new and the blue from it turned all my whites a shade of blue, that could pass for maybe purple. I immediately put the whites in again with a dose of bleach that could take the tan right off of someone, but it did no good. Oh Zabel, I just want to let you know that I found the blue pair of socks you left behind. What do you mean they were white?

So when I finished my cleaning, I went in my yard to eat some really juicy black mulberries off my tree and I guess they were so juicy that I got a few drops on my shirt and pants. I rushed into the house and filled up the sink with some hot water and Barf and as I type they are soaking with the hopes that the Barf with save my clothes from being permanently stained with black marks.

When Raffi and friends were visiting earlier this month, we went to visit an American working in the village of Ningi (in the Martuni region) on a project to revitalize the pottery industry. When we were leaving, he gave each of us a piece of Bazooka Bubble Gum. Since I�m not a chewer of bubble gum, I gave my piece to Zabel. While doing some cleaning today, I came across the comic-strip and fortune that was with that piece of gum and the fortune reads: �THIS ISN�T YOUR FORTUNE, YOU GOT SOMEONE ELSE�S GUM.� Zabel had pointed this out to me at the time and we all thought it was really spooky to know that there could be some accuracy to Bazooka Bubble Gum fortunes.

The Brazil vs. Turkey soccer match was interesting to watch at my neighbor�s house. Not only were the guys watching, but also a few wives, widows and daughters joined us. When Ronaldo scored the winning goal, the guys had the usual reaction that guys have when the team your rooting for scores, but the female viewers had a different type of joy when Brazil scored. I guess their bitter feeling towards Turks in general still remain strong and in many ways are fully justified.

I was noticing when the Turkish players would knock over a Brazilian player, how the Turks would check to see if the Brazilian was okay, rub their head, pat them on the back (even one time on the butt) and help them up as if they were sorry for what they had done. I pointed this out and one of the widows said that Turks are like that. They will lick your feet, smile at you, but if given the chance, they will cut off your head. The others agreed.

Anyway, the Brazil vs. Germany game should be really good.

Yesterday my one-sided game of phone-tag with the President�s advisor who promised me to have my citizenship issue resolved by May, came to an end.

I called for the 9th time and spoke with his secretary Lucine. She told me that the advisor was busy with Presidential election work and in short would not have time to deal with my issue until the elections were over. I told Lucine to tell the advisor that this was not acceptable and I expect that he fulfill the promise before that time.

I mentioned the situation to some of the locals and they seemed quite bothered by the situation and behavior of the government.

One pointed out the following reasons why they should not question or delay granting me citizenship:

1. The NKR government is claiming that they want people to move here.
2. Though they claim to give a home and material aid to people that resettle here, I have not asked nor received anything from them and have built with my own money my home and life here.
3. I have left a more desirable and economically stable country for this country that has a questionable future.
4. I�m an Armenian and not a Turk.
5. I have created a number of stable jobs for people that live here, which has relived the government of the burden of finding those families a source of income.
6. Every month, I bring in fresh money to this country which I spend here and by doing so stimulate the economy.

Well it looks like I�m now going to have to write a second letter to the President, stating the above and asking him for his immediate attention, with an expectation of this process to be completed within 10 days, or to provide me with a letter rejecting of my citizenship request explaining the reasons.

Though I have a really good idea as to what the letter to the President will say, please feel free to make suggestions as what you think should be stated to the President.

If this does not work, I think an open letter to the people here will be in order. If that happens, I�ll be sure to post the English version of it.

Tonight I was looking for a floppy-disk that I could put some files on and came across a disk with pictures I took of the baby my cousin and his wife adopted last year. I was not really going to tell this story, as it boarders on the very personal side of my life, which could violate my policy of sharing such things on the internet to strangers. None the less, I did mention it in a recent log and got quite a few private messages about it from people interested in adopting a child from here. With that said, here is the story of one of the memorable �adventures� I have had here that I know for sure I would have never experienced in America and would not trade it for anything in the world:

When I was 7 years old, a mother brought in her infant son to my elementary school and gave us a lesson on how to care for a baby. Though I was really not interested, I participated in changing, feeding and bathing this baby.

In all my years I have never babysat nor cared for any small children, all until last year.

As I mentioned, last year, my cousin decided to adopt a child from the Artsakh. They did all the papers in the US and all that was left was to find a child for them.

A friend of mine located an unwed mother, who had just given birth to a baby girl and had no intentions of keeping her.

I made arrangements for a nurse to care for the child until my cousin could come 3 weeks later and was all set to receive this new born bundle of joy.

Culturally, my having the nurse come stay at my house, being that I am a single male, did not go over too well with the Nurse�s husband and at the last minute she bailed out on me.

I did all I could to find someone else and the best I could do was to get my neighbor (my contractor�s wife) to take care of the baby during the day. Night duty would be my job.

Everyone thought I was crazy to take responsibility of caring for a newborn baby, but I knew that I really didn�t have any choice. So at 3 days old, I to custody of this baby.

Not to say that it is easy to care for a newborn, but I guess the 7 year old Ara was paying more attention then he remembers, because once we got use to the every 2 or so hour feedings (I let her decide when she wanted to be fed), it was not that hard and everything came naturally.

I gave her, her first bath (and almost every bath or shower for the following 2 months). I was the one that mixed up all her formula. I determined what diapers worked for her. From day one, I knew from her cry when she was wet or when she was hungry. I knew how to burp her better than the lady that helped in the day and she had 3 kids of her own. When someone unfamiliar would pick her up and she would cry, it only took the sound of my voice to comfort her. As my cousin said after getting here 2 months later (due to bureaucratic red-tape), for that little girl, the sun rose and set on me. I was mom and dad for 2 months. Many people commented that I took better care of that baby, than some people take care of their own biological children.

Though I have not seen that baby since they took her to the states last August, I get regular installments of pictures and reports of what a well balanced, well tempered and confident child she is turning into. My cousin's wife attributes this to the care she received in the first couple months of her life (maybe she just says this to make me feel proud).

The other day I paid my cellular phone bill which was a whopping $23.40. Though that may not seem like much, for someone with an average government salary, that�s a little more than half of their monthly income.

I was expecting it to me more as I made a number of international phone calls, but when closely examining the bill only 3 of the approximately 10 calls appeared. So yesterday while in Stepanagert to pay the bill for my internet phone line, I enquired about my bill and its lack of billing. The conversation went something like this:

Ara: I�m sorry to bother you, but there seems an error on my cellular phone bill. It seems that I was not charged for some international calls I made.

Worker at Karabagh Telecom: (With a big smile on her face) Is that a problem for you?

Ara: Well I made quite a few calls and maybe they didn�t last more than a minute, but they do add up.

Worker at Karabagh Telecom: Well I wouldn�t worry about it.

Ara: Well I just don�t want them to later surprise me with a bill for them and I really don�t have a problem paying for them now.

Worker at Karabagh Telecom: (With an even bigger smile on her face) I�ll talk to my supervisor about it and we will take care of it.

Ara: Do you need my phone number?

Worker at Karabagh Telecom: No, that�s okay.

It was obvious that she didn�t care and I guess though it was probably cute that someone would come and want to pay for something that the company she works for overlooked. Obviously she wont be talking to her supervisor to resolve this issue, so maybe I should.

Since I�m on the subject of telecommunications, I have to tell you about these regular phones that don�t seem to be working well. I mean I can call America quicker on my cell phone than I can call my neighbor on my regular phone. In many cases, I end up calling my neighbor on my cell phone when I get frustrated trying to call on the regular phone.

The other night I needed to call the village of Jardar and to do so, you have to call 107 and the operator connects you. I tried for 45 minutes to all 107 with no luck at all. I finally got so frustrated that I got in my car and drove down to the phone center to make my call.

While waiting for them to put my call through (which they had to do twice, as the first time they dialed the wrong number), I talked with an old man who also got frustrated after trying for 15 minutes to call 107 and at midnight, walked 1 kilometer to the phone center to put in his call to his daughter who lives in Russia. He told me that ever since the Arab�s took over the phone system, it has been impossible to make a phone call. He said that he had to walk down not only to make the call, but to calm his nerves.

Well, I hope that the Arab�s that now control our phone system will spend the next $12 million on updating the regular phone system so the greater population will benefit from their acquisition of our system, as appose to the first $12 million they claim to have spent on our cellular phone system that the people that don�t have the money to subscribe to don�t benefit from.

I came across this article on Groong and it reminded me of a by chance encounter I had with Jirair Libaridian three years ago, all the stories I heard from the people here of Libaridian and the advice he would give to the President.

I�ll let you read the article and then my comments.


ADVISOR OF EX PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA DISCUSSES KARABAKH PROBLEM IN BAKU

Arminfo
13 June 2002

YEREVAN

Pres.Ter-Petrossyan's Foreign Policy Advisor Zhirayr Liparityan has been to Baku for nearly a week. A U.S. citizen and professor of Harvard, Liparityan is reported to have been collecting materials for his book on the Karabakh conflict. According to the Baku media, Liparityan has met with Azeri experts, political figures and diplomats. He discussed with them if it is possible to resume peace talks on the Karabakh conflict. One of the participants in the meeting said later that Liparityan's visit gave occasion to many to think that Armenia was interested in the early settlement of the conflict. He also said that many political forces in Armenia may have been looking for ways to hasten the negotiating process. To recap, Liparityan has already visited Baku once. It was three years ago and he was received by Pres.Aliev then.

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Here is what seems to represent Yerevan's view on who Libaridian is on an official level.


Yerevan Denies Involvement In Former Karabakh Envoy's Visit To Azerbaijan

RFE/RL Armenian Service

Thursday 11 March 1999

The Armenian authorities on Thursday distanced themselves from a planned visit to Baku by Jirair Libaridian, Armenia's former chief negotiator on Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that he will be traveling on his own.

The Azerbaijani news agency Turan said on Wednesday that Libaridian will arrive in Baku from Paris on Friday as a "private guest" of President Heydar Aliev's chief foreign policy aide. It quoted Vafa Guluzade as saying that Libaridian will be visiting Azerbaijan "on his own initiative" to "see Baku" and discuss the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"Libaridian is not authorized to speak on behalf of Armenia," a spokesman for the Armenian foreign ministry told RFE/RL. A US citizen of Armenian origin, Libaridian in 1993-97 was former president Levon Ter-Petrossian's top envoy in internationally mediated talks on Karabakh. He and Guluzade also met several times to discuss the long-running Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict face to face.

Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ara Papian said the former diplomat flew to Paris on Thursday from Yerevan where he had arrived last week to take part in a conference organized by the US East-West Institute. "Libaridian didn't hold meetings with any of Armenian officials while in Yerevan. As a US citizen, he is free to travel to any country," Papian said. But he warned that "psychological difficulties" may arise if Libaridian "tries, in his present status, to discuss issues [in Baku] he is not in a position to deal with."

Libaridian was a key supporter of Ter-Petrossian's foreign policy that would offer more concessions to Azerbaijan to end the Karabakh conflict.

(Hrach Melkumian)

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For those of you who don�t know who Libaridian is, I�ll tell you in short who the Libaridian is that I met three years ago. In fact, I met or saw Libaridian a couple times before that encounter.

The first time I met Libaridian was at his house in the presidential compound with some friends that know him. The only impression I had of him at that time was that he drinks too much, talks too much and was only interested in what he had to say.

The second time I saw him was on an airplane from Armenia to Paris and he was in the back of the plane smoking and standing while the plane landed, ignoring the �fasten your seatbelt� and �no smoking� signs.

The encounter three years ago in a Yerevan restaurant was the most I interacted with him and though he was doing most of the talking, I did get to ask him a couple of questions.

One of my questions was if we were going to see a peace settlement in Artsakh and he said that he had come up with a favorable deal that the Azeri�s agreed to (the one that LTP entered into and then later had to resign for entering into) and the chances of them entering in to the same deal today was slim, but for us would be a good idea to enter into it if given the chance.

The second question was when are people from the Diaspora going to move here? He told me not to wait for people from the Diaspora to move here as everyone is where they want to be and no one is going to move here. Obviously he was wrong, as not only am I here, but there are many more that have moved here and are planning to move here.

There are many Libaridian stories to tell, but one that tells me who Libaritian is in regards to Artsakh would have to be the story of Lachin and Libaridian�s desire to give it to the Azeri�s.

On a visit to the Armenian 5th century monastery of Tsitsernavank, I noticed that bridges that connected Lachin with Goris had all been blown up. I asked the government official that was with me if they had been destroyed during the war? He said no, when we liberated this land the bridges were fine. He went on to tell of how in May of 1993, Libaridian had decided that in order to make peace with the Azeri�s, we would give back Lachin and before offering it to them, all the bridges between Armenia and Lachin were blown up. When the offer was made to the Azeri�s, they were suspicious of our motives and in the end, the powers to be did not allow the deal that would have again cut Artsakh off from Armenia and probably an end to the conflict and the Armenian people that live here.

Maybe from this, one can understand how Libaridian is a welcomed guest to Azerbaijan and it makes me wonder whose interests he is working for? I should add that Libaridian at the time of my encounter mentioned that he was to soon be working as the advisor on Caspian issues for IREX (this is a US government sponsored organization which I understand he later worked for).

As for the comment in the above article of ��Liparityan's visit gave occasion to many to think that Armenia was interested in the early settlement�� can only be a reflection of Libaridian�s distorted views.

Yes we do want a peaceful settlement, but only one that provides safety, security and a promising future for us. From the deal that Libaridian came up with that LTP had to resign for signing into, from what I understand, the basic conditions that I have stated above were not guaranteed.

As far as I�m concerned, the �ADVISOR OF EX PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA� is certainly not the one that can represent us, or find the best settlement that we can agree on if his former and present view of reality is being applied.