US EMBASSY OPENS SECOND AMERICAN CORNER IN ARMENIA

Armenpress

GYUMRI, JUNE 28, ARMENPRESS; US embassy public affairs officer, Kimberly Hargan officially opened today the second "American Corner" in Armenia's second largest town of Gyumri at the local branch of the Armenian Scientific-Technological Center.

American Corners are small, American-style libraries created to help increase mutual understanding between Armenia and the United States by making a wealth of information about America available in different formats.

This American Corner features a diverse collection of English language books, reference materials about the United States, computers with Internet and access to online databases, cd-roms, videos, and much more.

The Embassy provided a grant to refurbish a room for the American Corner, installed three computers, and supplied the library with over 300 books, journals and current periodicals. American Corner librarians, trained and supported by the U.S. Embassy, are always on hand to assist visitors. The Embassy is committed to growing the American Corner's collection and keeping it up to date.

The American Corner in Gyumri is open to the general public, free of charge. In addition to a being full multi-media reference resource, the American Corner will also host regular programming, including lectures and workshops, video series, and other activities focused on telling the story of the United States. In the coming years the Embassy plans to create a network of American Corners throughout Armenia.

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I hear that they will be hosting a program that is titled “Your life is crap, dream about moving to America before it’s too late,” which at that time they will be taking applications for the green-card lottery.

I’m thinking we should start a program call “American ghetto.” This we could put in the other corner of the libraries (or at least have a permanent link to the “American Corner” website, right next to the United States sponsored Project Harmony pornography links, to take us to our virtual corner). We would present the reality of life in America telling stories of not just life there, but life around the world thanks to America. We should also have information on tips of how to survive as a refugee in a hostel host country.

Last Saturday, my fiancé and I met up with a friend of mine who is visiting from Switzerland at the Vernisash.

After walking around, we sat down at the Vernisash outdoor café for a cup of natural juice and reminisced about the past, today’s condition and what waits us in the future.

My friend has “non-native” written all over him and I would even go so far as saying that he could pass for a non-Armenian, thus the beggars were frequenting our table and my friend feeling sorry for their condition was handing them out money. Not the small change, but what you could use for a meal or a bottle of booze.

I’m guessing that there is a begging ring at the Vernisash, as we had so many of them walking up to him. Following the one legged man and him giving him a handful of money, I asked him what he was going to give when the headless man comes by?

Being that my friend comes from one of those well known Diaspora families that always gets shaken down by the government to give to big projects, he is well know among the Diaspora, thus many Diaspora tourist were coming up to him to say hello.

One Diaspora-Armenian tourist after saying hello, told of a problem her family was having at the OVIR.

According to this women, her son or nephew (I really didn’t quite get the detail on this and my friend didn’t really know) was getting married to a native girl and they were having problems getting her exit documents, which are required by the United States INS.

Initially she told him that they would not even take their request for the exit document, but later her daughter told me that they went and they did take the request, but told them that it would take 2 months to complete.

She was asking my friend if he had any connections at the OVIR to speed up the process. My friend introduced me to her and said that I live here and maybe I could be of help to them.

I explained to her that there is a good reason for the delay of up to 2 months for the exit papers. This is a process to see if the bride to be has any outstanding debts, warrants and the likes. It’s a standard process in every country.

She asked me if I knew someone there that they could maybe pay a rush fee, as they wanted the newlyweds to travel back to the US together at the beginning of July.

I said no, the only fee one could pay for such a service is a bribe.

She said yes, they are ready to do this if need be.

Fortunately for this fat slob of a women and her sister, I didn’t smack her over the head with my plastic chair (which for some reason, ran through my head), but told her in a not so nice tone of voice, that paying a bribe is not good and causes harm to those of us that live here and we would not want to see the Diaspora who always talks about law and order to feed into the problem of corruption we now have thanks to just such things.

The groom commented that this was not the problem, but it was the traffic police that was the problem with bribes.

No I said, it starts from the top and goes all the way to the bottom of the chain.

Well she didn’t like that answer and quickly finished the conversation, excusing herself.

I’ll find out from my friend in the next couple of weeks of the newlyweds made their way back to the states in July, or if they are waiting until the end of August to celebrate her arrival to the US.

If they did get back in July, I’ll be publishing my findings, including their names, addresses and blood types in the papers here and in the Diaspora, in an article about the effects of bribery and who feeds into it.

Yesterday my fiancé and I went to visit my fiancé’s aunt and uncle at their farm, as the apricots trees they have were ready to be picked.

This year is a very good year for apricots, apples and pears.

After picking and eating our fill, the sun came down and we all went to bed.

In the morning, her uncle was telling me about their chicken Marfa.

It seems Marfa is a very intelligent hen, who three days ago decided that she no longer was going to walk and since that day, was unable to eat.

What makes Marfa so special? First I want to say that none of the other chickens have names.

It seems that Marfa is very attached to my fiancé’s uncle and when he calls her, she comes running and jumps into his hands.

So what brought on this sudden condition?

Well, it seems that Marfa was listening to the radio with my fiancé’s uncle and being such an intelligent hen, didn’t like what she was hearing about the world we live in.

I’m not sure if this was a protest on her part (a sit in), or if it was spell of depression? I guess it could have been a combination of both.

This morning before leaving, I visited Marfa, who was sitting in the garage alone on the woodpile and had a talk with her to see what had happened.

After about a minute of talking with her, she stood to her feet. A little weak at first, she shook off whatever it was that was keeping her down and made her way out to the yard.

My fiancé’s uncle was quite happy and thanked me for talking Marfa out of her state.

Though Marfa’s feathers were a bit ruffled, I think she is going to fully recover.

My fiancé’s uncle said that she is a special chicken and he is going to take good care of her. She will be allowed to lay eggs for as long as she can and even when she if finished laying eggs, he will allow her to live out her life and die a natural death and have a proper stewing.

I have big plans for Marfa. I really think that in time she may just turn into something big. Who knows, maybe in a few years, she will get into politics? I know she will have very little competition in terms of being less educated that what we have now. Only problem is that all the corruption may be too much for her to deal with since so far we have seen how she deals with bad news.

Marfa for Armenian President in 2008!!!

Three days of creating English subtitles for our documentary “Desert Nights.” Yup, sleep deprived, but I’m finally done!!! Boy did it work well and there are things that you can barely understand because we changed the voices that thanks to the subtitles, makes the documentary very powerful. I had to use the original audio to understand what was being said so I could create the text.

Tomorrow, I am taking a copy of the documentary to a fellow Diaspora Armenian to proof.

NKR POLITICAL FORCES PURSUE DISMISSAL OF OFFICIALS HAVING BEATEN PAVEL MANUKIAN

STEPANAKERT, JUNE 23, NOYAN TAPAN. "The health condition of NKR MP candidate Pavel Manukian who was cruelly beaten in the cabinet of NKR Defence Minister Seyran Ohanian remains stable," the June 23 press release of ARF Artsakh Central Committee read. According to doctors, Manukian got a "close skull-cerebral trauma." On June 22, the victim's wife, Marine Manukian, applied to NKR Prosecutor General's Office with a demand to immediately institute a criminal case. In addition to the names of already known generals, in her application Marine Manukian also mentioned the names of A.Haroutiunian, V.Balayan, M.Hakobian.

Pavel Manukian in his interview to the Yerkir Media Yerevan TV company on the phone declared that Defence Minister Seyran Ohanian, Deputy Defence Minister Samvel Karapetian and other generals being in the Minister's cabinet were among those who beat him. In the evening of June 22 the ARF Artsakh Central Committee sent a letter to NKR President Arkadi Ghukasian demanding that the leadership of NKR Defence Ministry be dismissed. "Realizing the important problem of preservation of home political stability in the country, the ARF Artsakh Central Committee condemns the created situation and expects fair solution," the letter, in particular, read. It was mentioned that such action carried out by the commander of Defence Army permits to suppose that an atmosphere of fear and horror will be created in the country. On June 23, on the initiative of the ARF Artsakh Central Committee and Movement-88 party a number of NKR political parties made a statement condemning the act of violence. "The only and most correct way is taking of immediate measures by the President of the republic, guarantor of preservation of legality, for the purpose of maintaining calmness inside the country, preventing possible political excess, as
well as not endangering the international image of our non-recognized republic," the parties's statement, in particular, read.

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I'm not sure if I fully believe this story. There are a couple of generals I know who are mentioned that I don't really think would raise a hand on anyone, though I could be wrong.

Last night I didn’t sleep until late, figuring that this morning I could sleep in since my first meeting of the day is not until 1 p.m.

Well that plan went out the window thanks to Armenia TV, which this morning had about 4 minutes coverage of our press conference. It aired all the way to Artsakh.

So at 8:50, while I was having this great dream about sunbathing on some beach, my cell phone goes off. It was Harout of ABBA, asking if I was watching Armenia TV?

Then not a minute later, another call, followed by a few more.

It seems that we got more coverage than we were expecting. Most of the stations are covering this issue.

And to think, we were told that no one would air even one second of this in fear of the government and especially the Prosecutor’s office, as I said before, the most powerful government body is Armenia. This should be an indication that people are sick of this kind of stuff and even the people running the pro-government stations were not going to ignore their loyalty to their people.

Anyway, to say the least, I’m very pleased so far with how things are going.

One of the interviews I gave, the question was asked as to if I was concerned with my personal safety, since we have only released 10% of what we have, with the balance (including the most incriminating for the Armenian authorities) to be released in the future? I answered no, as that information has been distributed all over the world for safe keeping, so if something happens to us, will not stop the inevitable. Our intention is not necessarily to release that information, but give a chance to those that caused this mess to straighten it out so broadcasting that information will not be necessary.

All I know is that the payoff to this work is just around the corner and in the next couple of weeks, things are going to move very fast and the whole country is going to be talking about this issue, which will leave not room for any stonewalling.

The film was shown tonight on Yergir Media TV, followed by a live discussion.

As I mentioned before and as it was stated during the live broadcast, the MFA and Prosecutor’s office were busy and could not make the show.

Present were Edik and the UN’s project coordinator of the Smuggling and Trafficking Issues department, Rafayel Gyulnazaryan. The person conducting the interview when asking a question stated that Rafayel use to work for the Prosecutor’s office in their trafficking department [with those persons who are involved directly in the trafficking ring].

Anyway, I thought it was a very good interview, though it really would have been nice if government bodies were present to answer the allegations that were made instead of stonewalling this issue as they usually do.

In the next few days I’m going to try to set up some interviews with the popular stations that are viewed in the regions, as the people there are the ones who most often fall victim to trafficking and need to know what is really going on in our world so they can protect themselves.

I just got home from the premier and press conference for the documentary “Desert Nights”, which is the first of a series that documents the phenomenon of trafficking of women and children (not just Armenian) to the UAE.

The event was well attended by the press, NGOs that deal with trafficking, but sadly, no one from the government as far as I could see attended (as always).

After the film, Edik spoke and did a great job of answering the audience’s questions, including that of what various government and social organizations are not doing to address this problem.

Edik and I gave quite a few interviews. One of my interviews was given to Teletime, which from what I remember is aired in the US, so for those of you who are out in that part of the world, watch for it.

Tonight at 9 p.m. Yergir Media will be airing the documentary and then a live discussion will follow it which was suppose to be Edik, someone from the UN, MFA and Prosecutors office. Sadly, the MFA and Prosecutors office has declined the invitation, most probably because they don’t have answers for the question that will be asked of them.

The documentary clearly states that the Prosecutor’s office has gone to the UAE to look into this matter over a period of time and have taken bribes from the traffickers, doing almost nothing to combat this problem.

Someone stated that the Prosecutor’s office is the most powerful government body and there is no one higher then them, thus in this case, the fox is really guarding the henhouse.

It will be interesting the reaction from the general public and also what fallout we may get from the authorities? I’m not expecting really anything negative or any criticism from anyone other than maybe the Prosecutor’s office.

One June 22nd, 2005 at 2 p.m., we will be having a press conference where we will present our documentary “Desert Nights”.

We are expecting representation from government and all the NGOs that deal with trafficking issues.

That evening our documentary will be aired the television station Yergir Media at 9 p.m.

For those interested in attending the press conference, please e-mail me and I’ll send you an invitation.

Today was Lucine Hagopyan’s trial.

The trial started at 1:45 and went on for 4 hours.

During the trial, three witnesses gave testimony, as well as an unexpected witness, who was without a doubt victimized by Lucine.

For the most part, Lucine denied everything that the witnesses claimed and presented herself as having done her victims a favor, but never brought them over to participate in the sex business.

Lucine and her attorney accused one of the witnesses as being the girls pimp and not her. This was clearly a lie and I would hope that witness pursues slander charges against her.

In the end, the prosecutor read a statement that Lucine herself had giving when she was first questioned by the prosecutor’s office which for the most part contradicted most everything she had stated under oath. Lucine admitted hat this was her initial statement which was in her handwriting and signed by her.

From everything presented, Lucine has to be charged under 132, which is the anti-trafficking law.

The court adjourned and will reconvene on July 8th at 14:00, at which time I expect that Lucine will be charged with trafficking and sentenced to 8 years.

The one thing I didn’t understand was that Lucine was not in custody and came to court with her mother Hasmik, who was also mentioned by one of the witnesses as being the one that recruited her and took her to the airport to send to Lucine.

If you ask me, the mother Hasmik needs to be arrested and charged with trafficking also. I mentioned this to the prosecutor, with Lucine’s defense attorney asking what I suggested? The prosecutor basically brushed the defense attorney off, saying that I was asking him an unrelated question.

We left the courthouse and walked in the same direction as Lucine and her mother Hasmik, who made their way down Prospect.

I asked a legal expert why Lucine was free and should she not be in custody? They answered that yes she should be in custody, but probably gave a nice big bribe to the authorities and for that reason she is walking the streets free.